Gathering in the knowledge

End of a long and interesting week. Many developments

Sharing 1
Had tea and a chat with Catherine G, a well travelled friend here in Charlbury. I knew she had lived in India for some time a while ago but I didn't know very much about that phase of her life. I wanted her to give me some advice and recount some of her experiences. What I hadn't realised was that, while she was there with husband and two babies, she also worked in Urban Community Development and participated in a project in Hyderabad. She has lent me the book which she co-wrote about this project called CHANGING SLUM COMMUNITIES. I have started reading it and am already educating myself on so many levels. The book stresses self-help and self-reliance as essential concepts to get across to communities who want change for the better. Also how one gently gets the message of participatory community building across through hours of meeting and building rapport with individuals and small groups to find out WHAT THEY WANT. It is all quite time intensive and incremental but over time yields a great harvest.

Sharing 2
Had lunch and a long chat with Joan B who, since retirement, has travelled many times to a volunteering project in Nepal with her husband Hugh. She has had a great deal of experience in teaching situations and gave me not only useful advice but also some laminated materials she had prepared. We talked about what to bring (she had made me a typed up list) and what simple games worked well with children not only in the classroom (vocabulary building etc) but also in the playground. She mentioned in particular the elastic game, a game I remember playing myself when at primary school in Montreal. Do some of you remember this? The long piece of elastic tied in a loop, which two of us would stretch into a rectangular shape with our ankles while a third person jumped in and out of the space, landing on or avoiding the elastic lines. Was this also called Mississippi? Somebody please remind me!

News from TRV (Trivandrum)
Have had a series of newsy emails from Babu Menon answering the first avalanche of questions I unleashed.
He explained that volunteer accommodation is actually the second floor of his house where he and his wife live. This is convenient from lots of points of view. There is a cook who will prepare meals for us all and will be happy to teach me Keralan cuisine. I will also be allowed to cook my own food if I want to. So the best of both worlds.

The work placements are all quite nearby in that area of the capital city.He suggests that the best way to get around is not by bicycle (too dangerous) but rather by auto-rickshaw!

His concern right now is to find me the best posting to match my CV.... Cheru Resmi Centre won't need me till first week of January (holidays) but there are other places which are interested including the Sree Gokulam Medical College and Research Foundation.

http://www.sgmc.in/

I am particularly interested in this place as it offers Ayurvedic treatment. The traditional Indian art of healing - "Ayurveda" - is something I want to explore in greater depth, both by experiencing it and by taking some training in it. (Sounds like I am going to need longer than 10 weeks!)

Other preparations
I went to St Mary's Church Bazaar last Saturday and was given a box load of unsold children's educational games and DVDs to take with me.

Jobs round the house are getting a good degree of attention - the remaining 3 weeks have sharpened my priorities. The track lighting (for the extension) I have been trying to source for the last 14 months, has all finally arrived TODAY so this is good news! Electrician will be pleased to finish the job and close the loop!

Spent 4 hours today gardening over at Stable Cottage, my rental property. Also keeping an eye on Glen, my intrepid and fearless builder who was climbing over the roof to repoint the chimney. The day was balmy and sunny and warm for November and perfect for our various occupations! I filled the car with garden waste and made a trip to the tip (dump). I always love going to the tip. There is a great sense of satisfaction in clearing out vegetation, old packaging or accumulated worn out stuff from the garden, the shed or the loft and tossing it into those huge containers then driving home with an empty car!

Tomorrow is the Set Build for next week's production of Cinderella (the pantomime) up at the Memorial Hall. So it will be another day of manual labour for me, but a lot of fun too with other members of the company! Rehearsals are finally bringing the whole show together and three more crucial rehearsals in costume, on the stage, will seal our fate. We open to the public next Thursday - November 26th 7.30 pm! Come one come all! (Oh yes! I forgot to say - I get to play Prince Charming!)

Mental state
Excited and focussed on getting lots of jobs done. Thinking ahead a little to what will happen in Kerala but still feeling confident that things will unfold as they should without my having to do anything much. Enjoying a lot of attention and encouragement from friends and family for which I am most grateful. And I am finding lots of Kerala stories from unexpected sources. I feel blessed.

Health matters
Had another round of inoculations this week with no side effects at all. Cholera is now an oral dose (raspberry flavour!) to be taken in two episodes. Next and last episode will be in two weeks. Decided against having rabies and Japanese encephalitis, but covered all other angles. Renewed typhoid and DPT also Hep B. Malaria is not an issue thank goodness, as it's not a malaria zone and it's the wrong season. If I need anything further I'll get it in Kerala.

I think this is enough for one entry! What do you think?

Namaste !

Mad

Hair

The photo you see here is of a former self (2005) dressed in a sari at an Indian themed party.

Lots of comments about my hair being short again. But in fact it's shoulder length and I am growing it so that I can put it up when it gets too hot. My view is that longer hair will be more in keeping with the way ladies wear their hair in Kerala.

I may find long hair unmanageable but I'll decide what to do when I get there.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Namaste!

Mad

Basic facts

Well I am off to India for the winter - getting away from 10 weeks of the cold, wet and dark stuff.

Leaving 16 December 2009 and returning 3 March 2010 for the sun and the sea.

Most arrangements now made: flights, visa, insurance, jabs, purpose for visit.....

Yes you may well ask - What on earth will you be doing over there?

And the answer is ... Whatever I have been sent for...

I have joined Global Volunteer Projects - a UK Gap year organisation - and signed up for

the India Orphanage posting for two months. It will be in Trivandrum, Kerala, South India.

http://www.globalvolunteerprojects.org/orphanage/india.htm

There is a special place they think would be ideal for me and that is the Cheru Resmi Centre

http://www.cheruresmi.com/about-us.html

Judging from this very informative website there will be plenty of scope for using my multiple talents whether they be childcare, administration, teaching English, care of the elderly, women's empowerment, business startup mentoring.

There are other projects where I may help out as well.

I am really quite happy not to know EXACTLY what I will be doing and am prepared to surrender to whatever happens once I get there.

From what I can gather, I will be living in clean but simple volunteers' accommodation

with a few others. This will be separate from where we work. We will all go off to our various volunteering postings every day and have some time off - weekends I believe - when we can go sight seeing and take short trips "upcountry".

We are mentored locally by a legendary figure called Babu Menon, who has all the connections and knowledge to make our stay a productive one.

Apart from that, I am still at the question asking stage myself so will fill you in further once I know more.

One thing is certain though, and that is, there will be a two week R&R trip to Sri Lanka inserted somewhere during that period - another location I have been longing to visit and only a 30 minute flight away - irresistible!

My state of mind .......

right now is happy, confident and peaceful. My life seems to have fallen into some sort of manageable perspective - at last!

The last six months since resigning from the ABU-Oxford Canadian student programme have been bit of a roller coaster of opening myself up to ideas and opportunities and spiritual guidance.... I was in the realm of NOT KNOWING and WAITING ... that rather scary transition space which seems to have no boundaries and provides no comfort that the end is in sight. Advancing in the dark, following threads that peter out, blind alleys, getting very interested in something that eventually is not right for me...

At a spiritual level I was confident that God would guide me to the RIGHT THING - the true direction - the next step in my journey - which would be full of purpose and allow me to use my many talents.

But at a day to day level, I found this lack of long term "piloting" disconcerting and draining.

I did reassure myself with the conviction that when the right opportunity crossed my bows, I would recognise it. And this, of course, is exactly what has happened.

In a way, for the long term, I don't know where the Kerala opportunity is leading me but I have a strong sense that without it I cannot continue my journey. At 54 I am looking for something meaningful to occupy me for the next 10 years.

Here endeth the first entry of the first BLOG of my life. Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Namaste

Kerala Mad