Research Period in Pondicherry
I had everything planned to go to Pondicherry on Friday, the 1st of June, in order to do my research period in the Green Post-Tsunami Action about SHG’s. However, in the beginning of that week, the Gujjars (Other Backward Castes) started protesting on the highway nr.8, which makes the connection between Delhi and Jaipur, creating insecurity and traffic problems. The reason for their behavior as to do with the fact that they want to be considered a Scheduled Tribe, in order to have access to job and school quotas.So, on Friday morning the situation was still problematic to the point that there were no buses going to Delhi. So, plan B was to go with the project’s car, but again it didn’t work out because meanwhile the police closed the highway. Frustrated, I started planning my day in the office, but suddenly everything changed again…the highway opened for traffic and I could go to Delhi!
The train to Chennai departed at 10 p.m. and it would take around 34 hours to arrive to the capital of Tamil Nadu. Luckily, I was not alone because Pashupati, the headmaster of DRH Delhi, was also going to visit the projects Humana has in Pondy. Despite the fact we were in the sleepers´ class, I can’t complain about the journey. In fact, I thought it would be much harder, especially because of the heat, than it actually was. The train has fans and there is always people coming to sell chai (with sugar…) and food like chicken biryani (needless to say that is was not my choice).
When we arrived to the train station it didn’t take us long to find Peter, my team mate and good friend, and Isabel, also a DI from Norway school. It was nice to see him after such a long time! So, the four of us caught a bus to Pondy, that took around 3 hours, but at last we arrived to our final destination.
What can I say about my first impressions? The scenario is green and blue as it is typical of a tropical area. In fact, for me it was very special to see and smell the sea after such a long time…I missed it very much. Regarding my relationship with the local people I understood quite soon that the fact that I don’t know a word of Tamil (except “Vanakam” that is like the Hindi word “Namaste”) would impose a distance. It is not that I know Hindi that well, but it is already enough to make a basic conversation or to bargain with the people. But in Pondy or you know Tamil or you speak English. Hindi is absolutely out of question!
Already in the DI´s house I had time to rest, eat and update the conversation with my colleagues. Next day I went to the office of Green Post-Tsunami Action, in order to meet the project leader, Kussum, and also to start my work with the SHG’s. At that time I already knew more or less what was needed to be done because I had spoken before with Peter about that. So, basically I started preparing a document, like the one we have in my project, to be filled in with all the information about each group, such as the names of the members, rules and regulations, bank pass book photocopy and quarterly financial status. I also created an Excel table, so that the basic information about all groups can be quickly and continuously updated. Besides that, I wrote some ideas for income generating activities based, mainly, in coconuts.
On Tuesday I was once again in the office finishing the work I had started the day before and also planning courses to be given to the SHG’s, most of them based on Humana’s manual. So, in this file I wrote the title of each course and when to be given, topics for discussion and Internet links with information about the topic. However, I could only finalize this work on Saturday evening.
After spending two days in the office, I went to Chindambaram office, in Cuddalore district, to attend a trainee for stakeholders. It was supposed to begin at 10 a.m., but the guest of honor was late, so everyone had to wait for him for more than one hour. When he finally arrived he didn’t have any problem in accepting a phone call while he was being introduced to the audience. After that, he spoke for 5 minutes, spent there maybe half an hour more and left because he had other things to do…I couldn’t believe in what my eyes were seeing, but at least I could share this look with someone…Peter. Well, what I can conclude about this trainee is that I didn’t understand almost anything because they were always speaking in Tamil, except when was Kussum’s turn. Of course I was already expecting that, but either way I preferred to grab this opportunity, in order to see a different place. In the end we had a very nice lunch in the office with rice, chapattis (however they are not as good as the ones in Rajasthan, for sure) and different vegetables. When we left it was around three, so it was still very early (or late, depends on the point of view) to visit a temple. It was a little bit pity because they have a very famous one called The Temple of the Dancing Shiva, and also because the temples in the South are very different from the ones in Rajasthan. In fact, they are much more colorful and with many sculptures decorating the temple front.
On Thursday morning it was time to go to Kancheepuram district to meet with Isabel and three more Indian DI’s, Batma, Indira and Sendil, in order to have meetings with SHG’s. So, in the afternoon the five of us, plus an animator, went to Periya Kaalani village to meet with a Government SHG.
The villages in the South contrast from the ones in the North. They are surrounded by palm trees and its leaves are used to cover the roof of the houses. In the middle of the road we met with the women that have formed their SHG almost one year and a half ago. However, the Government official is not coming regularly to the meetings, so they don’t know what they can do with the money they have saved, how to get a bank loan or how to start an income generating activity. So, I tried to clarify them about that and I also gave them some ideas about what kind of work could they do considering also their skills.
Next morning we went to Kaalingar Nagar to speak with the women from a Humana SHG that was created one month ago. They already started collecting money (they have saved Rp. 1000), but the group still doesn’t have a name or have even chosen a treasurer. The reason is simple: lack of information. The Community Health Organizer as well as the animators started creating the groups, but they don’t know the exact procedure because nobody told them! So, I gave them some guidelines even if I am not an expert in SHG’s, but I think it is already quite something when compared with what they knew before.
On Saturday it was time to do some sightseeing after being in Pondicherry for some days and not seeing anything except a supermarket (which is already quite a lot!). So, Isabel, Peter and I went to a private beach that can only be reached by boat. The place is really nice and it was not crowded at all. The problem was that I didn’t have any swimming suit, but I couldn’t resist the smell of the sea…So, Isabel and I just went to the water with trousers and shirt. I am not exactly used to that, but it was nice to dive and feel the water in my head! It was so relaxing…
Time passes fast, so on Sunday it was time to leave because the train was going to depart from Chennai at 10 p.m. After saying goodbye to everyone, Pashu and I caught a bus to the capital, but the journey became longer than we had expected…We were already inside the bus for two hours when suddenly we heard the noise of a flat tire …As the mechanic was taking some time to appear with the proper tools to change the tire, some passengers decided to motivate the truck drivers that were nearby to help us changing it. In the end they did it, but either way we went straight to the next bus stand in order to check if everything was ok. It was not, so again we had to change the tire…By that time it was really getting very late, so some people tried to help us saying that we could reach the train on time if we left in a certain town (I don’t remember its name) and then catch a taxi to the train station. Well, that was what we did, but when we asked the taxi driver if he could reach the station in 30 minutes he said no…in 2 hours! So, we had some kind of situation…The only option we had left was to take a local train and see if we could manage…By the time we reached the station it was already 10.30 p.m. …Basically the only option we had left was to cancel the ticket and spend the night in Chennai hopping that next day we could get two tickets from the foreign tourist quota…In the morning we went back to the station, I asked for the tickets…and we got them! At 10 p.m. we were inside the train and ready to come back home. I missed Rajasthan…
posted by Naty Bett @ 5:36 AM
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