January 7th and 8th 2015
After a gap of too long, three years, since our last visit to our Indian home from home, Andy and I are back for three weeks in the village, followed by a week in Kerala. We have Jude with us for her first visit. Jude has been a regular follower of this blog when we have visited in the past and therefore has some idea of what to expect, although of course nothing can ever prepare you for the full- on reality of India!
We flew in to Chennai on 7th January and found ourselves first of all queuing to hand over our Ebola check-list and to have our temperatures taken. Then we encountered our first Indian-size mammoth, slow crawling queue, for immigration. An hour later we were through. We got a taxi then to the Central station, quite a hair-raising experience. Over the last ten years even locals say that Chennai has become very much more nightmarish.There has been so much construction and at the moment the centre seems to be dominated by huge flyover structures, designed to carry the new metro. As the taxi driver said, here there is too much of traffic. A bit of staggering around Chennai station under the weight of our rucksacks, being sent back and forth to ticket counters finally had us in a nice air-con railway compartment. I slept most of the way, lulled by the rattle and chug of the not-very-express and the constant cries of the vendors ' Cotlets, biryani, chappatis, coffee coffee coffee, chai, biscuits, icecream' as they walked up and down the train ceaselessly. Two kind Indian men, our neighbours in the compartment, made sure to find us Katpadi on their satnavs and to help us off with our baggage, too heavy too elderly English travelling gentle woman!
On arrival at the tranquility of RUHSA, even more greened under the care of Rita's Self Help Group women, we found no one in Mr Immanuel's ( now of course, Vinoth's) office. But no problem ( of course, wobbling of head side to side, there will NOT be any problem) Vinoth was summoned from a meeting and soon we were ushered to our new quarters. This is in the block opoposite to the one where we have always stayed and has only one bed room, but we have asked for an extra bed for Jude ( we didn't fancy the idea of her being in the hostel on her own!) and now we are very comfortable. The view is out to fields which feature some interesting bird life - bright green parrots already seen- and wandering goats, chickens and a few people.We retired weary to bed around 7 in the evening and promptly fell sound asleep. Naturally this then meant we all woke in the small hours, and listened to the trains passing ( though no where near as noisily as they do when one is in the opposite accommodation)
Our first full day was a slow one, as we were still recovering, of course. The phone in our room rang early and it was our old friend and guide Sekar. I was so delighted as I had wondered if by now he would have been retired. During the day he took us to the canteen for our lunch, where we discovered a very much nicer place than it had once been. A new SHG has taken over the cooking, which was delicious, and the whole place has been revamped, nicely decorated with clean new tables and chair. We think the grotty roadside Paul's Hotel will not be seeing much of us this time! We did go and see Paul and his brother Seganamy, both of whom gave us a warm welcome, and we bought bananas and coffees from them before leaving with vague replies as to when we would be eating there again...
Sekar introduced us to Dr Bishwaji, who is deputy to Dr Rita in her absence. We had a very interesting talk to him about the work that is going on now. He is from Orissa, a very poor state. He told us in particular about a study RUHSA are doing to see what impact the use of mobile phone technology can have on educating women in the villages about cervical cancer and smear testing. They have tried, in one village, to send out information via mobiles, and to offer to answer questions also. This is a means of getting directly to the women, circumventing their husbands, and helping them to learn that they can take an active role in their own health. They have matched this with another village in which they are giving information in the usual ways but not via mobiles and they are just in the process of analysing the data.
First day back, some old faces full of smiles ( Vartsala the secretary, Ambaragan (he and Annandan now senior Hostel boys!) and another early night for us all, to catch up with lost sleep and to help us digest all the new experiences. Twenty four years now since our first visit. No wonder we have to take things a bit more easily!
Our accommodation this visit. Top floor flat.
Cleared space where once was Mr Immanuel's quarters, the Post Office, and the shop/ telephone booth. They have recently begun to build a new Out Patients' department here for the hospital. More doctors have recently been attracted to work here, including student medics from abroad. Vinoth has shown me photographs of
all the site development which is happening e.g the hostel rooms, the canteen ( see above) which are all being upgraded. Not before time some of us would say!
After a gap of too long, three years, since our last visit to our Indian home from home, Andy and I are back for three weeks in the village, followed by a week in Kerala. We have Jude with us for her first visit. Jude has been a regular follower of this blog when we have visited in the past and therefore has some idea of what to expect, although of course nothing can ever prepare you for the full- on reality of India!
We flew in to Chennai on 7th January and found ourselves first of all queuing to hand over our Ebola check-list and to have our temperatures taken. Then we encountered our first Indian-size mammoth, slow crawling queue, for immigration. An hour later we were through. We got a taxi then to the Central station, quite a hair-raising experience. Over the last ten years even locals say that Chennai has become very much more nightmarish.There has been so much construction and at the moment the centre seems to be dominated by huge flyover structures, designed to carry the new metro. As the taxi driver said, here there is too much of traffic. A bit of staggering around Chennai station under the weight of our rucksacks, being sent back and forth to ticket counters finally had us in a nice air-con railway compartment. I slept most of the way, lulled by the rattle and chug of the not-very-express and the constant cries of the vendors ' Cotlets, biryani, chappatis, coffee coffee coffee, chai, biscuits, icecream' as they walked up and down the train ceaselessly. Two kind Indian men, our neighbours in the compartment, made sure to find us Katpadi on their satnavs and to help us off with our baggage, too heavy too elderly English travelling gentle woman!
On arrival at the tranquility of RUHSA, even more greened under the care of Rita's Self Help Group women, we found no one in Mr Immanuel's ( now of course, Vinoth's) office. But no problem ( of course, wobbling of head side to side, there will NOT be any problem) Vinoth was summoned from a meeting and soon we were ushered to our new quarters. This is in the block opoposite to the one where we have always stayed and has only one bed room, but we have asked for an extra bed for Jude ( we didn't fancy the idea of her being in the hostel on her own!) and now we are very comfortable. The view is out to fields which feature some interesting bird life - bright green parrots already seen- and wandering goats, chickens and a few people.We retired weary to bed around 7 in the evening and promptly fell sound asleep. Naturally this then meant we all woke in the small hours, and listened to the trains passing ( though no where near as noisily as they do when one is in the opposite accommodation)
Our first full day was a slow one, as we were still recovering, of course. The phone in our room rang early and it was our old friend and guide Sekar. I was so delighted as I had wondered if by now he would have been retired. During the day he took us to the canteen for our lunch, where we discovered a very much nicer place than it had once been. A new SHG has taken over the cooking, which was delicious, and the whole place has been revamped, nicely decorated with clean new tables and chair. We think the grotty roadside Paul's Hotel will not be seeing much of us this time! We did go and see Paul and his brother Seganamy, both of whom gave us a warm welcome, and we bought bananas and coffees from them before leaving with vague replies as to when we would be eating there again...
Sekar introduced us to Dr Bishwaji, who is deputy to Dr Rita in her absence. We had a very interesting talk to him about the work that is going on now. He is from Orissa, a very poor state. He told us in particular about a study RUHSA are doing to see what impact the use of mobile phone technology can have on educating women in the villages about cervical cancer and smear testing. They have tried, in one village, to send out information via mobiles, and to offer to answer questions also. This is a means of getting directly to the women, circumventing their husbands, and helping them to learn that they can take an active role in their own health. They have matched this with another village in which they are giving information in the usual ways but not via mobiles and they are just in the process of analysing the data.
First day back, some old faces full of smiles ( Vartsala the secretary, Ambaragan (he and Annandan now senior Hostel boys!) and another early night for us all, to catch up with lost sleep and to help us digest all the new experiences. Twenty four years now since our first visit. No wonder we have to take things a bit more easily!
A phone in your room and internet connection! So many changes.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting, Sally. Bring back all the low downs xx
ReplyDeleteReally interesting, Sally look forward to hearing the lowdown on all threes projects they're doing. Great stuff xx
ReplyDelete