Although
the accommodation was pretty basic, there was a certain charm to staying in
Dindigul. Being the only white girl in the village meant that it didn’t take
long for people to recognize me, so by the second night I was already
receiving a cheery wave from the people in the “supermarket” and the guys in
the restaurant greeted me with a welcoming smile instead of trepidation and had
a cold bottle of water out of the fridge and on the table before I’d even sat
down!
Every
time I walked past the supermarket, I’d see a girl sitting on the ground
outside, making and selling flower garlands. Women here wear fresh jasmine in
their hair which looks and smells simply beautiful. After four days of the girl giving me a shy smile each time I walked past, I decided I should buy some
flowers from her, on my last night. A garland of fresh jasmine for my hair – where each bud was
individually laced to the next – set me back 10 rupees (12p).
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| Jasmine for my hair |
The
downside of being in Dindigul was the food situation. I never did find any
breakfast stuff at the supermarket and having 3 meals a day at the restaurant
would have been pushing it (I still hadn’t figured out what was on the menu,
beyond dosa and chappati!) so invariably I ended up skipping breakfast and/
or lunch. Also unfortunately despite having something of an iron stomach for my
first few weeks in India Gobi
is an acupuncturist in his spare time (?!) so he squeezed each of my
forefingers for a few minutes which was apparently meant to cure me. I think I
was probably already on the mend, but I did feel better by the afternoon (trying to be open-minded but can't help the natural cynicism!).
Nevertheless I was too nervous to go to the restaurant that night and just had
fruit, chocolate and crisps for dinner. I was certainly missing Muthupandi!
We
had to move our schedule around towards the end of the week and ended up completing
our Boys Town visits on Thursday night, so I was excited to be able to return
to Tirumangalam a little early on Friday, in time for one of Muthupandi's greatest lunches!
One
of the biggest highlights of this week was that I signed up to sponsor a child and
was allocated a sweet little 8-year-old girl called Suganya, who I will get to meet in the next couple of weeks. For the rest of the time that she is in education, I will be paying for everything that she needs, including a home, food, school, clothes, club activities, outings etc.... and all for less than the cost of one glass of wine per week. Crazy, isn't it?*
I
received a “child profile” document which told me more about her. Happily both of her parents
are alive, but they have no steady income. They are both agricultural coolies (=unskilled labourers), which means
that they can typically only find work during the harvest or monsoon seasons
and then only for a couple of days a week. Suganya is one of six (which is
increasingly less common in India
Her house consists of 2 rooms, which have
electricity but no running water, bathroom or toilet. Water must be collected
in buckets from a pump in the village. The bit which really got to me was that
her dream is to one day see a beach. I wish I’d actually sorted out this
sponsorship sooner as I may have been able to take her (nearest beach is 5
hours or so from here). Next time maybe! Other than that,
if she had pocket money she would buy stationery. At least this is something I
can help with a bit more easily!
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| Suganya |
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