TGIF KERALA DAY 2

Friday night and I am curled up with my laptop catching up on emails, this blog and still dealing with bureaucracy from home. Thankfully there is wireless broadband here and an HP scanner-copier-printer. Also a very kind Babu driving me from one appointment to another saving me effort and time and hesitation.....

Up at 7 am in spite of the jet lag and downstairs for my first Indian breakfast - WHAT NO CURRY?

Instead it was PUTT - a chunk of coconut-rice cake mashed up on the plate with crushed poppadums on the top all bound together with hand-squished banana and eaten with the right

hand.

I had some to try but focussed mostly on two fried eggs (protein for the day) and a cup of weak tea. Luckily I did too as lunch wasn't possible till well after 2 pm.

We had an interesting morning meeting with Sister Mercy, ICM and visiting the Poonthura Fishermen's community playschool and tailoring workshop end-of-term Christmas celebration.

There were songs and dancing and recita-tions. Lots of proud mothers clapping, keen teachers urging, shy children singing their very best (fo-ur calling birds, three French hens.....) . It was quite delightful. Everyone was dressed in their gaudiest finery and it gave the small concrete schoolroom a carnival air.

Unwittingly, I fetched up being a guest of honour, sitting on a plastic chair in front of a sea of dark Indian faces - each one

more beautiful than the next - and was made a huge fuss of.

Thank goodness I rushed out to buy that Kurta last night. I looked a lot more presentable than yesterday! And yes there were plenty of photographs.

I was even asked to give a speech. With exactly 2 minutes to dream up something worth saying, I spoke about Christmas, which I have to admit is very hard to think about at the moment in the heat. I reminded them of Mary and Joseph traveling to a foreign place and not being welcomed warmly at all, nor having any friends when they arrived. I observed that I had come from very far away also but was being very well welcomed by them and that I was glad to have them as my new family and friends. This was translated and somewhat embroidered by Father Rex.

I was invited to participate in lighting one of the wicks of the traditional Indian light.

Not sure what it is called, but it was a great honour.

Here you see the youngest lighter, doing a very competent job of dealing with the recalcitrant wick, and the finished product

Then came the dances by the older girls, the tailoring trainees who were quite cheeky at the end and dragged me up to dance with them.

When I gamely joined in, this brought the whole house down.

Thank goodness I am no stranger to the dance floor and quite happy to ham up a situation. I think in fact they got more than they bargained for. CADS in Kerala do I hear you say? They would have loved the Prince Charming outfits!

Finally it was time for cake and cups of milk and our goodbyes.

Babu and I drove off - in the trusty Maruti - giving various people lifts along the way. Then we were on our own, discussing the projects and his vision of the progress that should be happening and some of his frustration with the staff and the lack of desire for change. This line of conversation was brought to an end when he pulled over to a coconut stand, a local gathering place at a busy roundabout on this two laned highway. We each watched our coconuts being shaved and beheaded and a straw stuffed into the top. After the refreshing drink, our respective vessels were cloven in two with an extra final hatchet strike creating a "spoon" out of a small section of the outer husk. This detached easily and was the perfect shaped implement to scrape out the coco meat. A delicious and sustaining snack.

Next stop - back to the Northern part of the city to the HSBC bank, to finally open the account. After 20 minutes of paperwork I still couldn't deposit any money, as an "account number" could not be issued. This might take 24-48 hours and they would ring me when this was OKed by some higher power! Good grief!

Very frustrating for Babu as he is accommodating me by driving me somewhere that would otherwise take me an hour to get to on public transport. And we still have not completed the pass after 2 visits! He cannot understand why it is worth all this hassle to open an account. I only managed to silence him by saying that I had a secret agenda.

Back home through the busy traffic, in the heat and dust of the day, to Deepam (the name of the house) where lunch was waiting. Various tasteful yet not scorching veg curries and the most

delightful poppadums. Interesting rice they have here, much larger and fluffier grains than basmati or any other rice I have ever tasted.

After this, I could hardly keep my eyes open and crashed out for nearly an hour before our next engagement. I blame jet lag and the heat.

Four o'clock seems to be the recognised beginning of the afternoon's

activities. And today's was yet another end of term variety show - this time by the Cheru Resmi Centre, at Valiathura - before an assembly of a dozen teachers, fifty primary school children and a few dozen teenagers.

Song and dance routines again. These were interrupted by a brown out when the CD accompaniment stopped dead in the middle of a number. The MC took this in stride by calling upon a number of children who stood up and spontaneously performed good natured solo acts of entertaining the crowd with jokes and stories and songs.

Quite touching and very natural. I was impressed. Thankfully the power (and the fans) came back on and the girls carried on with their performances. Finally cake and chai was circulated and it was time to say goodbye.

After having been cooped up in dusty classrooms all afternoon, I asked if I could walk to the sea from the Centre as I could see the sun going down and wanted to walk the beach and see what was happening down there. Three children were found to accompany me and eventually lead me to a pier where Babu would collect me in the car.

With the children holding both my hands and chattering away, (one of them - "Driza" - in very good English), we threaded our way rapidly through a maze of small huts interspersed with no less than eight Marian shrines and small chapels, brightly illuminated paper stars strung up in bushes and trees everywhere. When finally we debouched onto the beach we were met by loud chanting and a stage suitable for a rock band but where an unrecognisable form of religious ceremony was being celebrated. The children said: "Oh it's just a lot of old ladies praying."

As we walked, the sun was setting and children were popping out of

houses to wave or join our group and say "Hello" to me and "Happy Christmas". One of the boys was very proud to point out to me HIS boat lying on the sand, in a row of others, pulled way up the beach.

It was a magical time, and the chat and jolly companionship made me feel very safe and very much part of this place - in such a short time.

Babu did in fact meet me at the pier and I bade farewell to my escorts who rushed off home skipping and laughing. And then I was home - in no time. But not to rest - quite yet!

With still no news of my suitcase, I still needed some fresh clothes for tomorrow!

"No problem" Babu said. The laundry girl (whose name I cannot make out yet) would take me to a good shop. So we jumped into an auto-rickshaw and made our way into downtown TRV. Hellish Friday night traffic but quite buzzy all the same. Found a department store and after trying on about six outfits finally found one to fit that I liked the look of. Quite a pretty cotton churidar (a long shirt with slits up the side over very loose drawstring cotton trousers). Very Indian and very comfortable.

The next challenge was the more delicate issue of finding a cotton bra! This was less obvious than you would think as the whole department was manned by - well - men! You'll be glad to know I brazened it out! They were hopeless and had no clue what was what. In the end, I found an Indian brand and I took a gamble. As it only cost about £1.50 I figured I could give it away, if it really wasn't up to much.

Once home and after a richly deserved shower, I am delighted to report that the whole combo fits extremely well!

Day is done!

Talk of tomorrow will have to wait. Too tired to even think.

Thanks for reading. (Gosh these photos took ages to upload!)

Mad