olice as the hours ticked by. Once back on the bus we thought that was the last of it but no....at the next village we stopped again..all ordered off the bus to wait for another hour. The Indian women were starting to get a touch pissed off by then and beckoned us to come with them to the police station. After a lot of shouting a sheepish bus driver emerged after enjoying a spot of tea - nice for him! We arrived in the city of Kollam by 7.30pm. We were lost but thankfully came across a very kind soul who rang to check our train was running and sent us flying across town on a rickshaw. We caught our train with one minute to spare - accidently got on the first class compartment and got shooed out! The doors are left open on the trains to let some air in but it's scarey if it lurches to one side someone could easily fall out. We arrived at our final stop after 10hours on the road!! Completely knackered but it was worth it. My first beer in 2 weeks was heaven!
Wednesday 26 September 2007
trains, buses and autorickshaws!
Weekends...a time to relax...well maybe at home but certainly not here! On friday I set off for Kerala with some of the other volunteers. We were heading to Varkala, a small beach on the West coast. On the map it looks so close and perhaps the distances aren't that staggering, but my god it was a journey of epic proportions! The 11.30 bus didn't appear so we got on the one an hour later. There were perhaps 5 women on it including us. It looked quite empty when it pulled up but the men made a dash for all the seats..the little buggers didn't even sit together so there were empty seats that we couldn't sit in as it's totally taboo for men and women to sit together. Our second bus took us over the Western Ghats Mountains...eventually! We kept getting stuck in potholes the size of our bus. There were so many people standing that the bus was unbalanced and swayed alarmingly on every hairpin bend. We passed two trucks in the ditches....I thought it could very well have been us. Then there was a crash and a rock flew through the door window. We all got off and had to wait for the p
olice as the hours ticked by. Once back on the bus we thought that was the last of it but no....at the next village we stopped again..all ordered off the bus to wait for another hour. The Indian women were starting to get a touch pissed off by then and beckoned us to come with them to the police station. After a lot of shouting a sheepish bus driver emerged after enjoying a spot of tea - nice for him! We arrived in the city of Kollam by 7.30pm. We were lost but thankfully came across a very kind soul who rang to check our train was running and sent us flying across town on a rickshaw. We caught our train with one minute to spare - accidently got on the first class compartment and got shooed out! The doors are left open on the trains to let some air in but it's scarey if it lurches to one side someone could easily fall out. We arrived at our final stop after 10hours on the road!! Completely knackered but it was worth it. My first beer in 2 weeks was heaven!
olice as the hours ticked by. Once back on the bus we thought that was the last of it but no....at the next village we stopped again..all ordered off the bus to wait for another hour. The Indian women were starting to get a touch pissed off by then and beckoned us to come with them to the police station. After a lot of shouting a sheepish bus driver emerged after enjoying a spot of tea - nice for him! We arrived in the city of Kollam by 7.30pm. We were lost but thankfully came across a very kind soul who rang to check our train was running and sent us flying across town on a rickshaw. We caught our train with one minute to spare - accidently got on the first class compartment and got shooed out! The doors are left open on the trains to let some air in but it's scarey if it lurches to one side someone could easily fall out. We arrived at our final stop after 10hours on the road!! Completely knackered but it was worth it. My first beer in 2 weeks was heaven!
Monday 17 September 2007
grub and toilets
Meals here are so different from what you imagine. There are no plates in most houses so food is dished out on banana leaves. What a fantastic idea - no more washing up! After a week I am slowly adjusting to eating with my right hand (no knives/forks). To start with I got more down my front and smeared around my face than in my mouth, much to the family's amusement. Most of the meals are rice (plain or in the form or pancakes or little steamed cakes) with spicy sauces, ghee, or coconut chutney. We also have hibiscus juice and sweet tea (which tastes nothing like tea!). Although it's lovely it takes a lot of adjusting to and I am getting very familiar with the Indian style (hole!) toilet! There's even entertainment in the loo - small lizards regularly run past and at night there are minature armies of ant busy carting things too and fro. On my way to work I pass what used to be a river but now is sadly a rubbish dump. In Puliangudi the sewers are open and they drain into it. I always see people going to the toilet there (it would be a very appropriate place to play poosticks!). Some men/children also squat on the road side so you really have to watch where you step! Very noisy spitting is also the norm as it coughing your lungs up whilst not covering your face - the Dr's are the worst - I can hardly believe my eyes!
Thursday 13 September 2007
Arrived at last
Well it's a few days into my 11 month "break" and I'm sat listening to the happy chaos on the road outside, horns blaring, cows wandering and crazy rickshaws weaving around. My fights here went smoothly - small panic attack at Doha (Qatar) - delay meant only 20mins to change flights but made it by the skin of my teeth - it was midnight and 33 degrees - not great for a 500m sprint. On my next leg, a few miles up the date suddenly occurred to me...Sept 11th, not the best date for flying and especially not when the man sat next to you is merrily tapping the emergency exit handle in time to the music. The air stewardess thought I'd lost the plot when she came around giving everyone white cards before the early 1am curry breakfast. When she got to me I told here that "I wouldn't be needing one, thankyou, as I am a vegetarian". She seemed puzzled that this would make me exempt from needing to fill out my immigration details...it wasn't a menu...I am officially a thick foreigner!
The heat hit me when I got off the plane...no more cold English summer, talk about one extreme to the other. Kerala (where I landed) is beautiful, green and exotic. It was a 7 hour drive to get to Tamil Nadu - it only appears to be a small hop away on the map! Here it is more dry and barren, but the mountain range which runs between the two states is suprisingly big and provides a beatiful back drop to Puliangudi, the small town where I'll live for the next 2 months.
My "family" are just lovely and go out of their way to be helpful. There are 8 people living in the house and I live off a nearby courtyard in a basic room which suits me down to the ground. The day I arrived in town I was introduced to the Dr at the hospital. It is tiny and chaotic. I was shown through to his wife who was stitching up a lady (in stirrups) who had just given birth. I am quickly learning that there is no such thing as privacy in hospitals! The same night I went to observe a lady having half her stomach removed (10pm-2am) and then slept at the hospital (at 2am the temple music started nextdoor - MUCH louder than a nightclub!). The operating theatre had a bug walking down the wall and fan kept on blowing things around. The most surreal moment was the 10min break mid-op when the surgeon was trying to get his digital camera to work to take a picture of his handy-work!
The heat hit me when I got off the plane...no more cold English summer, talk about one extreme to the other. Kerala (where I landed) is beautiful, green and exotic. It was a 7 hour drive to get to Tamil Nadu - it only appears to be a small hop away on the map! Here it is more dry and barren, but the mountain range which runs between the two states is suprisingly big and provides a beatiful back drop to Puliangudi, the small town where I'll live for the next 2 months.
My "family" are just lovely and go out of their way to be helpful. There are 8 people living in the house and I live off a nearby courtyard in a basic room which suits me down to the ground. The day I arrived in town I was introduced to the Dr at the hospital. It is tiny and chaotic. I was shown through to his wife who was stitching up a lady (in stirrups) who had just given birth. I am quickly learning that there is no such thing as privacy in hospitals! The same night I went to observe a lady having half her stomach removed (10pm-2am) and then slept at the hospital (at 2am the temple music started nextdoor - MUCH louder than a nightclub!). The operating theatre had a bug walking down the wall and fan kept on blowing things around. The most surreal moment was the 10min break mid-op when the surgeon was trying to get his digital camera to work to take a picture of his handy-work!
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