Hiya all!

So my work is finally finished and so is my time in Tamil Nadu. It’s been a challenging month to say the least but well worth it! I spent my time with the Indian Social Service Institute (ISSI) in two areas; Pudukottai and Nagapattam.

In Pudukottai there are several rural villages where ISSI are running free day care centers and evening schools as well as vocational training for Dalit (untouchables) children and youth. I visited several day care centers and evening schools where the children all showed off how much English they knew (errr…. Ten out of ten for participation!) and performed little dances and songs. I helped them with their homework and tried to help them with their English. My main project here was the renovation of one day care center at Indira Nagar. In the space of two weeks the money was raised with the help of friends and family at home and work began. I helped construct a new roof, repair the walls and build a new kitchen as well as clearing all the building rubble, rubbish and plants from around the center. I would like to say thank you to my parents, Sophie, Kara, Chris G, Matt P, Matt B, Karen, Michaela and last but not least Kate, for giving so generously to help fund the work. Thanks guys love you muchly!!

In Nagapattam I conducted case studies of the widows and youth that are benefiting from some of the programmes ISSI are running in some of the villages there. I interviewed widows (with the help of a translator) who are receiving mirco-credit with which to build businesses to support their families. I also interviewed some young girls who have successfully completed one of the vocational training programmes that ISSI run every year to help both boys and girls for whom their family can no longer afford to educate. Although I only had three days there, I visited several evening schools and youth groups as well as attending a cultural show organised by ISSI so that the girls can show off their talents to the rest of the community. Moe than two years on from the tsunami and the villages that I visited are still absolutely devastated and living in temporary shelters, it was a real eye opener after seeing tsunami affected areas in Thailand that have completely recovered.

Life in Tamil Nadu was definitely different from home! I lived with a family that seemed to grow everyday. The noise started from 5am EVERY morning and continued long into the night, with loud Tamil music or awful Tamil movies on constantly throughout the day and the girls screaming at each other (not in an angry way, they just talk VERY loudly in Tamil Nadu). Food was served on banana leaves or sometimes on plates and eaten with the right hand. The left hand is used to wipe your bum so if you use it to eat everyone looks at you in disgust. I’d also like to make it clear that I still used toilet paper before anyone makes any comments! It’s actually quite hard to eat rice with your hand and very hard to eat chapattis with one hand, I’m quite good now though. I have also never been so dirty for such an extended period of time. There was no way of getting clean there and also not much point. I was also very restricted in what I could and couldn’t do as a woman in Tamil Nadu; I had to cover up at all times, even a bare ankle raised eyebrows in some of the villages and my t-shirts were barely acceptable; I couldn’t sit next to men I didn’t know on buses or talk to them; If I wanted to go out the family insisted someone accompany me (so annoying), generally no freedom, I would hate to be a woman living in India.

Anyway, enough of that! I’m free now and am off to Kerala for three weeks before I have to come back to smelly England and do things like actually go to work yuk! Hope you’re all ok, I’ve added loads of new photo’s so enjoy, they’re thrilling!

Love you long time!