On the Tuesday before we left we managed with the help of Sekar and Matthew to organise to take all the elderly from our centre to visit the centre in Killalatur which is the most thriving one. We all went in the RUHSA big yellow school bus, that is the 8 elderly who were present at our centre that morning plus Matthew and the four of us. A regular old-folks outing then...since our ages are alarmingly similar to those of our elderly. I do have to say that much as folk scream with laughter at the sight of us on bikes bumping through the countryside out here and are inclined to call out ‘ Ta-ta, partee!’ ie ‘Grandpa Grandma!’ as we pass, nonetheless I do feel that we look much younger than our Indian counterparts. This will of course be a reflection of the hard life that they have lived with fairly poor nutrition and none of the welfare cushioning we post-war British baby boomers enjoyed.
Once at the Killalatur centre we found the elderly there to be most chipper and lively and welcoming. They showed the visitors their games and puzzles which they do at their centre with some enthusiasm. They got our folk playing with them too and they chatted to them about what goes on at their centre. Then they said they wanted to come next to visit us at Seetaramanpet! We told them about the way our elders mix with the children and how they enjoy doing that too. It was a great visit and we left feeling quite hopeful about how some of their liveliness of attitude might inspire the same in our group.
When we got back to our centre preparations were under way for the special meal in honour of Vinoth’s daughter. Vinoth is Mr Immanuel’s successor and he had offered to pay for the meal that our SHG prepared for the elders- and lunch that day specially for the children too. Some students from Bangalore undertook a brief study of how our elders interact with our children and had presented the results to us the previous week. Their findings were entirely positive. One thing an elder had said to them was that they would like sometimes to eat with the children. We decided to try this out for this special meal so the children sat in a circle with the elders, two between each elder. The meal had such a lovely family feeling to it and of course it means that the elderly help with the little ones rather than this being all the job of poor over-worked Sarida, our ayah.
While we were packing our faces with the lovely food we received a message to say Dr Rita would be hosting a party that night for all the doctors and we were invited. Since we knew we had to fit in a trip to see Balaji’s family before we went home, and to see Santi’s family too, and since as we know you cannot visit with people in this community without eating something with them, you may imagine how over-stretched we all were. Lucky not to fall off our bikes with over-eating!
At Santi’s house her younger daughter Veejaylakshmi was there to see us. She and her sister were the first two recipients of the One Candle fund bursary. Their sad story of hardship and how they would not be able to stay on in school because their father had died was the trigger for Pam Morris setting up the fund in the first place. The older sister is now qualified and working as a nurse and Veejaylackshmi has just gained a 1st class honours degree in computer studies from Chennai University. She was able to give us the wonderful news that she has just secured a job in Chennai which she will be starting very soon. She volunteered the idea that now that she would be working she would give some money to the fund to help another village child.
Our final day was spent in meetings with the accountant Sanjeevi and with Dr Rita. In the end these worked out well we think. Dr Rita has made clear her very strict way of doing things and we have understood how this will work in future. In her turn we think she has some understanding that not all of the ways we operate at our centre can be exactly the same as the other 4 centres for the elderly. She has okayed us developing the garden area which is a very exciting prospect which we hope will start soon. Our SHG use cheaper rice than the other centres do and have been working on a lower budget but also giving better vegetables too. We think that our staff and the SHG will be motivated to look after the garden well.
The rest of our last day was spent in farewells to our lovely staff and to the dear friends in Seetaramanpet. Before we left we were able to give the staff good news about the pay rise which Dr Rita has sanctioned. We plan also to employ one of the SHG women helpers to be a supervisor for the elderly, and Matthew and Sekar have promised to support her training so that hopefully the activities undertaken daily will be more like the liveliness we see at Killalalatur.
It does seem to get harder each time we say our goodbyes. We have become such very close friends with these people and sharing time with them is utterly unlike time spent anywhere else in our lives. For both sides, Indian and British, the rewards of our friendship are very special. Many tears then and blurry vision as we wobbled off with one last Tamil farewell to these dear people.
Once at the Killalatur centre we found the elderly there to be most chipper and lively and welcoming. They showed the visitors their games and puzzles which they do at their centre with some enthusiasm. They got our folk playing with them too and they chatted to them about what goes on at their centre. Then they said they wanted to come next to visit us at Seetaramanpet! We told them about the way our elders mix with the children and how they enjoy doing that too. It was a great visit and we left feeling quite hopeful about how some of their liveliness of attitude might inspire the same in our group.
When we got back to our centre preparations were under way for the special meal in honour of Vinoth’s daughter. Vinoth is Mr Immanuel’s successor and he had offered to pay for the meal that our SHG prepared for the elders- and lunch that day specially for the children too. Some students from Bangalore undertook a brief study of how our elders interact with our children and had presented the results to us the previous week. Their findings were entirely positive. One thing an elder had said to them was that they would like sometimes to eat with the children. We decided to try this out for this special meal so the children sat in a circle with the elders, two between each elder. The meal had such a lovely family feeling to it and of course it means that the elderly help with the little ones rather than this being all the job of poor over-worked Sarida, our ayah.
While we were packing our faces with the lovely food we received a message to say Dr Rita would be hosting a party that night for all the doctors and we were invited. Since we knew we had to fit in a trip to see Balaji’s family before we went home, and to see Santi’s family too, and since as we know you cannot visit with people in this community without eating something with them, you may imagine how over-stretched we all were. Lucky not to fall off our bikes with over-eating!
At Santi’s house her younger daughter Veejaylakshmi was there to see us. She and her sister were the first two recipients of the One Candle fund bursary. Their sad story of hardship and how they would not be able to stay on in school because their father had died was the trigger for Pam Morris setting up the fund in the first place. The older sister is now qualified and working as a nurse and Veejaylackshmi has just gained a 1st class honours degree in computer studies from Chennai University. She was able to give us the wonderful news that she has just secured a job in Chennai which she will be starting very soon. She volunteered the idea that now that she would be working she would give some money to the fund to help another village child.
Our final day was spent in meetings with the accountant Sanjeevi and with Dr Rita. In the end these worked out well we think. Dr Rita has made clear her very strict way of doing things and we have understood how this will work in future. In her turn we think she has some understanding that not all of the ways we operate at our centre can be exactly the same as the other 4 centres for the elderly. She has okayed us developing the garden area which is a very exciting prospect which we hope will start soon. Our SHG use cheaper rice than the other centres do and have been working on a lower budget but also giving better vegetables too. We think that our staff and the SHG will be motivated to look after the garden well.
The rest of our last day was spent in farewells to our lovely staff and to the dear friends in Seetaramanpet. Before we left we were able to give the staff good news about the pay rise which Dr Rita has sanctioned. We plan also to employ one of the SHG women helpers to be a supervisor for the elderly, and Matthew and Sekar have promised to support her training so that hopefully the activities undertaken daily will be more like the liveliness we see at Killalalatur.
It does seem to get harder each time we say our goodbyes. We have become such very close friends with these people and sharing time with them is utterly unlike time spent anywhere else in our lives. For both sides, Indian and British, the rewards of our friendship are very special. Many tears then and blurry vision as we wobbled off with one last Tamil farewell to these dear people.
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