We left late and arrived to candle light classrooms, where we were to sleep. On the bare floor. Managed to not eat insects the first night, well at least as best as I could with only a candle as source of light :) The first morning was, to say the least, over whelming. Discovered the joys and techniques of bathing in fields and keeping your privacy at the same time... built make shift bathrooms so more people could bathe at the same time... Got electricity supply wires from the house of a friend, our seniors had made when they had come here last year, God bless the guy and his family, if it hadn't been for him we wouldn't have survived. Got late for roll call in the morning, and blasted for it... didn't do much that day. Was bored to death.
The second day brought with it actually rising before the sun, so as to make it to roll call on time. And that seemed to set the pattern for the days to come. Up and ready with coffee, what we called hot dirty water, by six thirty. Breakfast done with and rooms, two classrooms for 35 of us girls, cleaned by nine thirty, we used to set out to clean up the church, the hospital, the school, etc there. We'd walk the roads of the village, singing much to the delight of the villagers. And of course there was doing a little balle balle in my honour and pulling my leg over the tamil I had picked up and was trying to use.
Christined right about everyone present at the camp and got half of them into trouble with their parents, by teasing them with their "boy friends" when they were on the phone with their parents :) There was a Pedigree, because his surname meant dog food in Tamil; then there was V.P.S, vetti porkki senior (Jobless road side senior, when loosely translated); M.P. , mottai patel (bald patel, when translated); Siren, because he had one very loose fuse wire; Baldy, for the obvious reason that he was bald; Rudy, for obvious reasons again and there was a Mrs. Rudy too ;); a Miss. Drooly for the very simple reason that she was on the phone for half the damn night... and many many more. I'm not mentioning their real names, for I'm in enough trouble already... having hit a guy with a broom yesterday. In my defence he'd been asking for it all week.. Okay, so I was just kidding and apologised. And apologised. And apologised... He took it okay, though he'd going to get ragged like hell in the hostel.
The seniors were glad to see our back sides yesterday when the camp finally ended. They'd had enough of my singing nursery rhymes to the tune of tamil songs and trying my tongue at new words and sentences. Though, I did succeed and managed to ask the villagers questions, which they understood and answered, before you ask, during the survey session. While I was surprised to find that there was proper current and water supply in the region and that most of the village was educated and was seeing to it that their kids were being educated too, I was shocked to learn that they were content with what they had. Whether it was because they had given up on the governments and had reconciled with their fates or whether it was because they really were happy with their lives, I'll never know. They did have complaints about lack of street lights, police and the absence of a government hospital. I hope we can help them out.
We did collect funds, out of our own willingness, to provide fees and school uniforms for a guy for his 11th and 12th studies, which he had been willing to do without for the lack of money to buy uniforms and pay the fees. We also rushed a sick person, for a week, to the nearest hospital. Nothing major.. but yeah, work all the same.
We were divided into 5 units at the camp, and each unit had specific duties, which they did by rotation every day. Catering and cleaning. The catering units helped fill water drums for use everyday. Twice a day. Help the cooks with the kitchen work.. and stuff like that. It was the toughest of the jobs, because we had to walk with cans of water over a kimi or so with cans of 30 litre capacity to fill huge drums, a million times. Or that's what it felt like.
Afternoons were off for all the cleaning units.. We'd all again go cleaning in the evenings again. Late evenings were utilised in playing and making calls.. And feedback reports by each unit. And entertainment by the catering unit, that had stayed indoors all day. So it was basically cat calling, booing and making fun time.
The seniors that accompanied us were a huge asset. They arranged everything, looked and worked on even the smallest detail, and took care of us. And of course ragged us. Me. They also showed us their cupcake side by bringing in cakes from the city for the birthday celebrators. And a gift a piece. They're not as bad as they led us to think when we first joined. Two people had to be rushed to the city hospital at 11:30 in the night, and they did it. They took care of it all. I had to be given a tetanus shot... and though they made me walk 3 kimis with a foot that had just been pierced with a rusted nail, they took care of it. While the teachers sat and basked in the sun.
They nutured, taught, tortured and played with us. I'm a whole new person. A black, thin and with- rash- all- over- her new person :) It was an amazing trip... in spite of the fact that we didn't have electricity for a lot of the time.. we ran out of gas, due to lack of funds from the Govt... inspite of mosquitoes.. inspite of everything... it was one helluva experience.
And you can't blame me for thanking God.. it's the once- in- a-lifetime type :)
thin...very thin..
looks like you had a naice time..it reminds me of the story of Greggory David the author of Shantaram during his stay in bombay...!!
good to see you back with your!
(Not all that good!!)
awesome.. told u it'd be fun.. :D.. u havent missed much here.. just a cupla showers now and then.. best weather of the summer i tell u.. anyhoo.. time to go start packing again.. off day after..
:) seems that it was real adventure, and good to read all ur experiences
Welcome Back
~preeti
Heh.. very nice.. looks like u enjoyed that 1... or did u? :P be more specific.. anyway i am currently enjoying my last couple of weeks of holidays in kerala... in a very very veyr remote village... i mean i am surprised that im geting even cell phone signals here... ill post decent comments after i get back... its raining here and it seems that reduces the net speed drastically.. errr wahtever.. lol till 15 ciao
Rythwin
Hi...I was your junior at school if you remember...:P Anyway, its loads of fun browsing thro' your blog, and I'm going to be a regular reader..
Looks like you had a great time during the camp.. Is this your first?
@sis: that is you. NOT ME. Not sthupit girl. Sthupit girl's sis. okie?
@vishal: May the force be with you :)
@the bhandari's: yep, was awesome. Glad to see you back here.
@Ry: I really really had to worry abt finding out who mr. annony was. Anyway, will be glad to hear more from you, when you do get back.
@Saranya: yes, I do rememeber you sweetheart... and thankus for the compliments.. I'm flattered. You made my day... Hope you enjoy every bisit here. And yes, the trip was a first... but I don't think A LAST, cuz I'm going to have to go and terrorise my juniors next year, if I make secy this year.
Thankus for bisiting guys, lotsaluv and hugs,
Yours forever sthupitly.
does spamming your comment box count towards getting enough comments???
coz maybe then i could try a hand at it
sorry!!
aaah...nice adventures...fit to be sold as a book titled "adventures of a sthupit girl"...hopefully without plagiarism.
so waiting for the 10 comment limit eh? hmm...all the best then
am i forgiven!!??
and yep!! that was the 10th comment!!
@sis: it's k.
@annony: jeez, aren't we helpful. who is this by the by?
@nav: you don't think i can get 10 comments?
@sis(again): hey!! what's to forgive?
Thankus for bisiting guys.. lotsaluv and hugs,
Yours forever sthupitly.
hey i never said that...i just wished you luck for what you wanted.
waise, how about adding some pics if you got any?
the trip ka? nope. got absolutely none. Couldn't afford to carry my new Cybershot, 6 megapixels to a place where it was guranteed that we'd loose at least one set of clothes at the very least.