A little bit of breathing space

For those of you with concern I’m still alive and things are going ok, but I’m so busy that I haven’t had time to send out any proper e-mails. So apologies for that, but I think you all understand!

We’re now 10 days away form what is to be the predicted hottest day of the year which is good seeing as the day time temperatures now hover above 40C! I think I’m lucky to have some Chinese blood, I don’t sweat as much as Terry who’s body is suffering from constant heat! I was told my Manu, my friend here and landlord that I’ve put on weight since he first met me. This was something that I didn’t expect to happen before coming, I actually thought that I would loose a lot, but the food here really isn’t too healthy, my soda, biscuit and ice cream intake and total lack of exercise probably don’t do much to help the fat situation!

So things here are work wise are ok. I’ve resigned to the fact that they will never be too good. It’s due largely to the crap, slow and inefficient Indian government, and the deep rooted discrimination that the Dalit’s face. We’re working closely with a NGO called Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation (HRFDL). Their hearts are in the right places, but their working practices are pretty messed up. At present we are trying to get funding to conduct a comprehensive survey in all marginalised villages that have been affected by the tsunami in the whole of Tamil Nadu. It’s incredible how little decent information has been collected, despite now being 5 months on from tsunami. We helped HRFDL conduct a survey in 52 villages. We started about a month ago, and still the information hasn’t come back. It isn’t helped by the fact that the 50 student volunteers we got to hold the family interviews didn’t fully understand the questionnaire sheet, this is partly my fault as I wrote the survey, using a format HRFDL suggested. But we held two training sessions, so I thought they would have understood what’s needed, but the volunteers still missed out important questions and didn’t fully collect all parts of multiple questions. It’s so frustrating as we need this information to decide what projects need to run in each village. Also when applying for funding for projects it isn’t enough just to say that the Dalit population have been discriminated against, we need data to prove this. This is something HRFDL aren’t used to doing, which may explain why they haven’t been so successful in the past in getting the money to implement the much needed projects. For example they wrote a proposal to get funding to open two new schools, but failed to mention how many students the school could cater for, or where the location would be! We met a guy from UNEDO (United Nations something or other about development work) and the guy from it said that it is likely that not all the money that has been raised for tsunami relief will be spent as the project proposals he’s seen have been so inadequately written, with not enough information and project ideas that aren’t suitable or sustainable. He also noted that people exaggerate funding costs to ridiculous levels! Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) a French organisation has only been able to spend 20% of their money collected for tsunami and have requested permission from their donors to be able to spend that money on other projects in other countries.

We are trying to add value to HRFDL as they are so unorganised. I think I may have mentioned before that they have collected 12,000 pages of survey information in the Dalit affected tsunami hamlets. It remains unorganised and in folders, with none of the information collated. So with one data set Terry created a database, it took a quite a few days of slog, and then loaded it onto HRFDL’s computer, when we went there yesterday he went to find it, and found it in the recycle bin!

There are days when I feel like walking away, like we are wasting our time, not getting anywhere and facing too much of an uphill struggle. Despite HRFDL having nice staff members, they’re totally stuck in their inefficient box. It can be so frustrating to work with people who don’t have a focused or realistic vision or learn from their mistakes. It doesn’t help that there are only two members of staff which speak English, John Paulos, the main guy we deal with is the field coordinator, he has a lot on his plate and trying to get his attention and then keep is often hard. But he too sometimes doesn’t get it. We redesigned the survey to be more user friendly, changing the format completely, he then added a section that didn’t fit in, in a format that was completely different, and was to obtain information already covered by previous sections! We gave him our funding proposal for the TN surveys, and we were in the car when he read it, only he didn’t read it, he turned the pages as though he was, but I could see his eyes were looking out the window! His comment on it was that it was too long! It’s 5 pages long with appendices, it’s not too long as it’s written with a lot of info, I mean you have to show and demonstrate the need for funding your project, not just say you want a few thousand rupees to do something.

Another thing I’ve been spending time on is trying to collect information on building vegetable plots, or kitchen gardens as they’re also known. It’s a project I’m managing myself and there’s a lot I need to learn. I’ve only grown cress from an egg shell, and killed a basil plant before, now I have to figure out the most cost effective and productive way to grow vegetables in limited space with salt water and crap soil. It goes on…

Today Bill Clinton, the UN ambassador for tsunami is visiting Nagapattinum, the worst affected district in Tamil Nadu. He arrives in the morning and takes a helicopter to Sri Lanka at 5pm. We were going to stage a peaceful demonstration to bring to his attention to the fact that the Dalit’s (mostly landless labourers) aren’t receiving the same amount of help and attention that the fishing community are, but then decided against it, as we learnt yesterday that Bill’s already clued up on this and has requested to visit some Dalit villages. Thing is, the whole area’s been spruced up. There’s a temporary shelter on the main road into Naga that when it rains gets flooded. Only a few days ago did they raise the land and clear it up of rubbish and make repairs to the huts. The Indian government is so keen to show that they’re managing everything. It’s such a joke though as they are so useless. We submitted a proposal to them for a food/cash-for-work programme, and it’s been sat on a desk under a pile of dusty papers for a month, despite them saying originally it’ll take two days for review. It’s now been a month, and because we refuse to bribe them (as is expected) to get them to fund the project we’re just going to have to wait! As if they don’t already have enough money. NGOs really shouldn’t give money to the government to run projects as they only do a few small ones, that haven’t been well thought through and don’t really serve the needs of the people. They pocket most of what they get and sit on the rest!

I don’t know what will come of the Bill Clinton thing, Terry’s gone there today on the advise of HRFDL to try and get into the 30 minute meeting he’s holding. But tickets are issued by the Naga Coordination and Resource Centre (NCRC). An organisation set up by the government (which we only found out last week) to coordinate the NGO relief and rehabilitation efforts in Nagapattinum. But we pissed them off. We went 2 months ago to find out what is being done by Dalit NGOs, and found out that that was nothing, and they had no info on Dalit’s and hadn’t even considered the fact that they too were affected and lost their livelihoods, so they asked us to become members of their team and be responsible for coordinating the Dalit relief efforts. But in meetings at the NCRC with other organisations we raised the point, perhaps in a not too diplomatic way, that not a great deal is being done in these villages. Because it looked bad on the part of the NCRC that they still after some time had failed to give any priority to the Dalit’s they eventually stopped responding to us, deciding that the Dalit issue was too complex for them to handle, and pushed us out of their circle. They’re the ones issuing the passes to the Clinton meeting and I just heard from Terry that he wasn’t able to get one, and has now wasted a day going 3 hours south and is getting hot and irritated burning in the mid day sun.

I don’t really have much interesting stuff to write about to tell you the truth, not much has been going on. I took a break to see a mate in Bangalore, but he pretty much blew me off, I knew already that he had to work, but thought I’d be able to spend a bit more time with him. I visited another place called Mysore, but found myself not really interested in seeing the touristy places there. It took me 15hours on 3 government buses to get back, in the process my ₤40 Birkenstock sandals got stolen. I believe by the man who sat behind me who kept trying to touch me by jamming his hand round the side of the seat. I told him to keep his hands to himself, and ended up loosing my sandals in the process. Pathetic. Many of the guys here try and act macho, it’s so pathetic, because I shamed him by telling him off, he had to get his revenge. It’s really annoying. I got really attached to those sandals. They were the only gift I bought myself before coming, they were also my most expensive pair of shoes ever! Now I just have my Teva’s, walking sandals, which are comfy, but Velcro which is more effort when you constantly have to remove your shoes to go into many building, such as internet cafes, shops, hospitals and houses.

We’ve decided to move to Mayladuduthrai. It’s where the HRFDL office is. It’s no fun to ride the bike for hours each day and try and handle the manic driving of local Indians. They are so dangerous on the road, driving with no concern for themselves or others. They overtake at high speeds on blind corners and are so aggressive to gain places. We get run off the road constantly and have countless people jumping out in front of us with out looking before they pull out or cross the road. We had our first inevitable accident. We were going to overtake a slow moving swerving cyclist, all bicycles here swerve as the design of the bike is such that at slow speeds you don’t have much control. Also most bicycles have 2 riders, who are also often carrying goods. In India you can overtake on either side, the motor bikes will go round a cyclist which ever way he feels, so we go to overtake the cyclist to the right of him, the way most do, and he starts to move over from being in the middle of the lane to the edge, but then as we go to pass him, he looks back and pulls right out in front of us, obviously changing his mind and thinking we’ll overtake on the left (either this or the guy had a death wish!) We hit his back tyre despite Terry trying to pull away, but we don’t make it and we both go down, bumping and scrapping along the floor. We were probably only going at about 40kmph, but it’s enough to sustain injuries. Fortunately for me that day I was wearing a T-shirt as we were on the way to have a meeting with UNICEF and I thought it would be more appropriate for me to cover more of my body than I usually do by wearing vest tops daily. So my belly wasn’t exposed, which was good as it scuffed along the floor. My palms took a battering, but healed quickly. My right elbow and forearm have some nice grazing, but it’s at least scabbed over. It’s now 6 days since we crashed and the hole that was scuffed into my foot still hasn’t crusted over and has a pussey layer on top. I found this to be the delight of a colony of ants when I woke up one morning when I didn’t have it covered to find myself the picnic of the day. Man it was gross. About 30 tiny red biting ants making a meal of my wound! Terry got injuries in more places than me, and had a yellow, purple and blue hip, and a scab on his elbow. He’s ok, bruises and scrapes. He also ripped his trousers and shirt, his trousers being the only pair he had and the shirt 1 of 2. He still hasn’t gone shopping for replacements! The bike had a bit of damage too, broken light and a snapped front break metal bit making it unworkable. It was fortunate that it still worked as we weren’t near a town. The cyclist was fine, and only his back wheel was bent out of shape. Despite being on a between town road after only a few minutes a crowd began to gather, we reached an audience of about 25 men at peak time. Fortunately other cyclists had seen the accident happen and they knew it was the fault of the cyclist. We otherwise could have been in a lot of trouble as stories could have been told to put us in it. They asked us for money for the guy’s bike, as they said he was a poor man and couldn’t afford to fix it. Terry and I were separated and had groups around both of us. My group asked me for Rs.200, I later learnt from Terry one of his group had asked him for Rs.5000 (the cost of a new bike being Rs.2000) but this guy then got a beating from other members of his group. I went to pay the man Rs.200, but only had Rs.135 on me, as it turns out they only wanted Rs.100 anyway, this being just over ₤1. We missed the UNICEF meeting.

We’re both so tired of riding, not only does it take so much time (max travel speeds being about 55kmph), it also puts our lives and body parts in much danger. I was going to get a small bike for myself, but am not so sure now. You really can’t predict the other road users. I’ve not seen driving as bad as I‘ve seen in India, or maybe that it’s because I’ve chosen to forget, or travelled mostly on busses rather than motorbikes.

I’m writing this at home on the laptop, I’m going to go cook up my lunch, fish and salad. The local food here has become pretty uninspiring. Even the tastey food is only tastey for a while until you become saturated with it. I’ve not cooked for a while so it should be good.

OK, back from lunch. It was yummy. I got interrupted during cooking the fish though so it fell apart quite a lot. My interruption came from a man from an Indian NGO MSSRF. The guy was looking for a different organisation, thinking we were them. MSSRF aren’t a very good organisation, they will take on any project someone is willing to fund, even if it means their projects conflict and work against each other. A totally money rather than humanitarian focused organisation.

We’re thinking to get a TV when we move. Cable is only Rs.100 a month and we’d get all the international channels. There’s nothing here for entertainment. At night I’ve only got my books and spider solitaire to keep me occupied! Pretty repetitive. Problem is we can’t find a second hand TV, and they’re not cheap new. I want BBC news, documentary channels and the movie channel. Both Terry and I are thinking to stay for another year, so it might be a worth while investment.

Lucky me - I’ve got a holiday booked. I have to leave the country when my visa expires. I was assured when getting my visa in London that I’d be able to extend it within the country. I was also told an e-mail would be fine from my organisation to say I’d be working for them would be ok for a one year business visa, but when I went to get it they told me that an e-mail wasn’t acceptable. It was them who told me I can volunteer on a tourist visa. When I phoned the visa office here for information they told me off for working on a tourist visa, even though I’m not being paid and was told this would be ok. All this confusion and differing stores is something I have since learnt is common to India! So I have a ticket to the UK (paid for by my parents – thank you very much Mum and Dad) and the cheapest option was to go by Sri Lanka airways, so I have a 9 day stop over in Sri Lanka, which I’m really looking forwards to. It’s supposed to be a beautiful country. I’m going to take the time to chill and check out the country as well as see how their tsunami rehabilitation projects are coming along. I’ve heard that the Sri Lankan government functions even worse than the Indian government, so it should be interesting as they got slammed much worse than India. I’ve heard things aren’t going too well there, that people 5 months on are still living in big communal halls.

I was going to make a short holiday to UK anyway as it’s one of my oldest friends, Tim, is getting married at the end of July and my Mum’s sisters from Macau and Canada, along with a cousin of mine are visiting England at the beginning of August for the first time. I get back to England on 27th July and fly back on the 10th August, the day after my friend Emily’s birthday. I’m really looking forwards to it. Last time when travelling I wasn’t so keen on coming home, but my experience in and of India has been so different this time I really want a break from work and India! I’ll be pretty busy when back but will try and see as many of you as possible.

I’m off to Chennai now, getting picked up in a bit. I’m going to attend a 3 day work shop on human rights. It’s intended for Dalit lawyers, but I’ve been invited. It should be pretty interesting. Then after the weekend a American born Indian girl will volunteer with HRFDL for a couple of weeks. It’ll be really nice to have someone fresh. She’s done a lot of NGO work and a degree in international relations. I’m sure she’ll have a lot to offer the organisation.

Just one thing before I go, if any one hasn’t seen two sets of photos, let me know. Sorry about my choice of service, I’ve since learnt of a much better one, so the next lot of photos should be coming your way in a better photo sharer. Also if anyone’s interested in the work we do and wants to see any reports we’ve generated or surveys etc, send me an e-mail and I’ll pass it on.

My in-box is looking rather empty still, apart from the 5 or so daily spam mails I get. I have no idea how most of you are, so tell me, OK!?

I hope that you are all fine, well and happy. You should be now that summer is finally coming your way!

Sorry for going on, yet again. Congratulations for getting through another of my long blurbs!!!

Love to you all
Ruth xxx

Terry’s just come back from Naga and the whole situation was a complete flop. He’d gone down with John from HRFDL, Peter from NESA who fund HRFDL (as well as do their own projects) and Mr Sekar from Murtham, one of the networks of HRFDL functioning in the Naga area. The tickets as stated before were to be issued by the NCRC and they had to go there first to pick them up. When they arrived they were asked which organisations they were from, they were then told that the meeting had been cancelled. But they knew that was crap. So they spoke to someone from the NCRC who they knew and said that they could only get two passes, so Peter and Sekar got them. But when they went to the hall to attend the meeting they discovered that their VVIP only allowed them access to the balcony, and no interaction. The whole thing is such a sham. The NCRC had screened who they allowed to get into the main section as they didn’t want Bill to have to receive questions or concerns from groups such as NESA or HRFDL. The NCRC are so two faced. They’re sweet and nice to you when you see them, but will stab you in the back without stopping to blink. Peter had even been told that he had been personally invited to attend and was told to bring people from other Dalit organisations. HRFDL had hired a car for the day to go down (an expense that they could have done without). Terry left the house at 4:30am today to go to the HRFDL office to write a letter in the attempt to some how try and pass it to Bill or one of his entourage. I thought this wouldn’t be possible as there would be too many people and he wouldn’t accept a mystery letter, but they thought it was worth a shot. It was a complete waste of a day for all people concerned.

The whole system here is so messed up. I’m reading a book called “India Untouched”, it’s by the guy who started the George Foundation, he’s a NRI (non resident Indian). He says for everything that happens in India the government sticks it’s nose into it, to extract money. For anything to happen someone has to be paid. So it seems our food/cash-for-work programme will never actually happen as we will not bribe the officials. They create hurdles for things they are not even involved with. Even if you totally fund something yourself, the government will still put up a barrier to prevent your work from happening, and it can’t be crossed until a payment is made. I really don’t know what’s going to happen, but it doesn’t look so good. Also the World Bank are teaming up with the Asian Development Bank and UN recommend the construction of prawn farms. If they are done in the legal way where waste waters are treated, they do not pose a threat to the environment. However from ones already constructed it can clearly be seen that this is a cost that the prawn farmers don’t want to incur, so will pay off the government so they don’t have to. This is potentially a really huge problem. Prawn farms are massive each pond being about 80 metres squared, they are built on agricultural land, employ only 2 people and kill the land, rivers and surrounding lands from the salt, chemicals, feed and prawn shit that sit and seeps out of them. The land is screwed for years and only the owner benefits. And he benefits in a big way as prawns have high international value, of which a share of the profits will go to the government. We’re working in one village that has 2km of prawn farms on all sides of it. These guys here have no work as they can’t even afford the bus fare to go further, and the people from the nearby villages are already working the cultivatable land within walking distance. We will work on a campaign against this, trying to get it to public and international attention is the only thing we can think of for now to try and get it stopped. It is well documented how damaging to the land prawn farms are, but the people here with power don’t seem to actually have any concern for their people or the environment. Some times I really wonder if there’s any point to even work in a country such as India when the systems working against the people are so huge and haven’t changed for years and it’s those with power that control them and don’t really want anything changed.