off to Mass at St Anne's in Thope, beside the airport. I get a chance to take a few discreet photos of the congregation at prayer, at least my section of it.It is still in the Christmas mood and as I missed my proper Christmas frenetic I take the opportunity to approach the nativity crib and say a prayer.
I am touched by people who recognise me and come up to say hello. It is good to feel part of a community again.
The plan is to meet up with Sr. Mercy afterwards at St Roch's Convent. I am starting work with her tomorrow and I need her to brief me on what she needs and wants me to do. She is definitely willing.
We have a very long private conversation where she very frankly spills out her situation - there is a court case and she is the main defendant. She is being falsely accused by one of the members of the charity's governing body of embezzling funds and buying property in a third party's name. This man is devious and manipulative and is running his own commerical business out of one of the charity's centres and in many ways should be the object of prosecution for conflict of interest but she is not looking for trouble. It is not in her nature.
She is visibly tense and upset about this situation, which has been running since September. The bank account is as good as frozen and she cannot pay her teaching staff and other bills. She has a lawyer but suspects he is a spy for the other side etc etc. Not a nice picture. I promise to give her as much help as possible but I can see it's a tough call.
Just as we wind up our chat and I get ready to go, two chaps from the parish rush into the convent grounds and gesticulating wildly, grab Sr. Mercy. It transpires they need her quickly, to come and judge the Teenagers' Holiday Flower Show in the Marian shrine next to the Church.
Mercy grabs me and says we must do this together. I am game so off we go! It is hysterical and quite demanding! Most of the exhibitors are male and over 15. An interesting crowd.
Mercy and I do our job seriously and the parish priest announces the result. There is some heated discussion at the end which I am not party to, thankfully! Whatever it is the PP sort sit out. He's a big man and equal to the task.
Note the Che Guevara T shirt. One must never forget that the Communist party is in power in Kerala at the moment.
The lovely spin off of this public event is that many people get to meet me and I feel more part of the community now and safer walking around the area.
I wake up at about 4 pm and Babu suggests I accompany him on a trip to buy an Air conditioning unit. I am delighted to be asked especially as it will be for MY room! Babu does a fair bit of bargaining, gets the price reduced and then insists that the delivery happen the very next morrning. All this is accepted in good part.
While we are out in the car, I suggest we explore the pool availability. The main public swimming pool in Trivandrum is run by the Water Authority. Access is made tricky by a Municipal flower arranging festival which is attracting huge crowds to an adjoining venue but we somehow manage to park and make our way on foot.
We discover the pool times and the swim wear dress code. I am reassured that a one piece ladies costume is acceptable and I wont; need to swim in a sari!!
We work out that evenings will be the only time we can go. Babu has decided to take up swimming as he gets no exercise and is beginning to feel stressed and unfit. We are determined to start soon!
We rejoin our car through the throng of people and flower related stalls (a bit like a very down market Chelsea Flower show) and an exhausted Babu suggests a reviving Masala Dosa at the Sri Aiswarya Hotel (really a restaurant). What an excellent idea! Just what the doctor ordered - large rice pancake into which has been dolloped a savoury mash of sometimes potato or tomato mixture. Served with two ramekins of sauce. You eat it with your hands tearing off a bit of pancake, grabbing a bit of mash inside it and dipping the whole thing into the sauce. I wash mine down with a strong coffee and feel a lot better.
The rest of the evening is uneventful.
No comments:
Post a Comment