Not so much...really!

Hello

I thought I should just write a quick update to those of you who still bother to read this, as tomorrow I leave for Nepal, and won’t be back for more than a month! Apologies that it has been so long since I last wrote, but I found that I didn’t have so much to write about this time!!

Since the last time I wrote a new year has begun, and I spent it in Goa. I went across the country with a new friend of mine to be in Panolem beach for Christmas. We spent a quiet week on Goa’s southern most beach, before moving to Arambol, north Goa for my birthday. Arambol in my opinion is the best beach in Goa, more alternative people, more to do and better places to be. It was also really nice as there was a small music festival held at one of the restaurants in memory of the lady who gave her money to a young waiter to start his restaurant dream, before she died of cancer 10 years ago. Musicians came from so many different countries and played such a variety of styles. It was a great atmosphere every night, helped by the talent of musicians playing together who may not have performed, or even met each other before. My new year wasn’t as huge as expected, as I went to Anjuna to meet some Swedish friends, and found out that the party wasn’t really there. I should have stayed in Arambol and partied on the beach with thousands of others, instead we were at a beach bar, and partied with about 100, half of whom were Indian. I did meet a great group of people to hang with that night that included an Australian couple on their way back to Australia after spending 3 years away in England (Shepherd’s Bush, where I used to live!) and Ireland. We also hung out with 2 gay guys from England (although one was originally from Germany), and my 2 Swedish friends, and a couple of Swedish girls I met before. It certainly wasn’t the new year I expected, but as far as new year’s go, was certainly one of my best, as was Christmas and my birthday. Helped by the fact that I could treat the days as ordinary, not having to make a fuss, but just appreciating the enjoyment of being at a beautiful beach with great people.

However 2 weeks in Goa was plenty for me, and when I left in early January to take a 24 hour train back to Tamil Nadu it felt good to be leaving.

I haven’t done so much in the weeks since returning at the beginning of January, due mostly to the fact it’s hard to start something when I know I’ll be out the country for maybe 6 weeks, but I have made progress on things I hope to start on my return.

The first thing to tell you is that I put an application into Manchester University to start a masters with them this September in “Designing and implementing development projects”. I don’t feel too ready to be doing a masters this year, but if things don’t work out for me here there’s no way I’ll have enough money to stay until the 2007 term, so thought I’d apply anyway, with the hopes of being able to postpone if I need to.

I also am submitting an application to the UK Charity Commission to register my own NGO, it doesn’t have a name yet though. I hope to register a charity in the UK, and work in India (to begin with). It will pretty much be as it is now, I will work independently, as well as with local grass-roots organisations. I have my first project beginning in March. I hope that I manage to get registered, as I will be able to collect funding for projects and will therefore have more freedom and independence about what I do. This also means that I will have more authority, and when I push for something to happen, I can ensure that it will, as I will be coming in from a different position. As I will be funding projects, and will be writing up contracts that state that I expect any organisation I work with to have the highest work ethics, organisation and commitment. These are things that are usually lacking and have prevented projects I have tried to run in the past from being successful.

The project I am starting in March is a project in a town called Tiruchirappalli (Tiruchy for short) with female prisoners. Tamil Nadu only has 2 female prisons, one near Chennai, and this one, in the middle of the state. I became interested in working with female prisoners after hearing some stories about women who end up in jail. Of course there are regular criminals in there, but there are also a number of women locked up for crimes committed against a tyrant husband or in-law family. Every day I am in India I am grateful and thankful that I can leave, that I am not a local woman who has been forced to marry someone against her wish, in a matter of which she has no say. Domestic violence is more common than not in a household, and is seen as an acceptable practice, and the only way to control a wife who speaks out of turn or doesn’t satisfy or fulfil what her husband demands. India remains an extremely patriarchal society where women are subservient to the men in her family, including her sons. I find it hardly surprising that some women snap after years of obedience, abuse and repression, and stab their oppressor (usually the husband or mother in law) in their sleep, or poison their food. In India the legal system is such that you can also pay to make a criminal case into what you want. Money here buys anything you want, it can also buy convictions of innocent people. If you are poor you cannot pay for representation, so when a case is filed against you, you have no hopes of a fair trial, even if innocent. Police can be paid, as can witnesses and judges to swing a case. Many women in India’s jails are there awaiting trial. They stay in prison cells until their hearing, unable to afford bail, or without anyone willing to pay it for them. It is not unheard of for women to be locked up for 7 years waiting trial, to then be found innocent and free to go. This of course causes huge disruption to their own lives and to their family. If a convicted woman, or woman waiting trial is locked up, her children (up to the age of 5), if they have no one else to go to (and this if often the case of female “criminals” as they are shunned by their own communities and family) will be with the mother in the cells. There is often no separate place for the children to go, no childcare facilities or amenities for the needs of these young children and babies. Then after the child is 5 years old, if there is no one to take them, they go to a government run orphanage, most likely never to see their mother again.

In March I have a meeting with a Christian organisation who already has staff members visiting the women, and a feminist organisation. I will be in charge of the project, but we will be working as a complete team. I have a little money to start the project with, but I will be hoping to collect more once (if??) my NGO is registered. I have just heard that I will be allowed access myself into the prison and to meet the women inside. It was a fear of mine that I, as a foreigner, would be denied access, so I’m delighted to hear that I can go in. I don’t know how far I’ll be able to penetrate the prison, but I’ll be happy if it is only the inside of an interview room.

By chance I met another Brit last week, when attending a function in a remote village. HRFDL had put on a children’s day even where the kids got to take part in sports races, singing and dance competition. I was on the road, talking to a colleague when a white guy comes past on a scooter. We stop and talk, being as surprised to see each other, and I find out that Sam has been in India for a few weeks, after being requested to come and help set up BUILD International, an extension of BUILD, an organisation involved with housing from Mumbai. BUILD International’s designed to be a volunteer organisation based in Karikal (on the tsunami hit coast of Tamil Nadu). I thought that I had just found another friend in the area, but that night I got a phone call from the boss, Jackson, who requests a meeting with me the very next day. So I travel for 2 hours to meet him, as he didn’t really want to discuss anything on the phone. I visit their site where they are in the process of building some 60 new houses for tsunami hit fishermen and their families, and we sit an chat about the work they are hoping to do, and the aims for their organisation.

As a whole I object to these types of volunteer organisation, who get foreigners over for a charge, and put them to work as English teachers or manual labourers. I don’t consider these organisations to be doing real development work, as they exist only for the purpose of providing foreigners a 2 week holiday where they are made to feel they are making a real contribution. Of course it’s not all bad, the English teachers are good, as are the people that play with the kids, as enjoyment of life is also important, but in such a short time it is difficult for these volunteers to make a real difference (in my opinion anyway). The reason they wanted to meet me was to see how we could work together, so see if there were new projects that I could be responsible for running. I do have many ideas, and will work with them, part time, as they are only starting with 5 small projects. If things work out and I work with them (probably after May), projects I will initially try for is vegetable plot creation and maintenance, yoga, and making handicrafts for sale. It could be quite fun, and it will be nice for me to be meting other foreigners, but I will push BUILD to work in expected NGO ways. I feel they don’t consider the need to do things such as writing progress reports or conducting impact assessments. They also don’t seem so keen on doing initial surveying or working in such necessary participatory ways. However, if I do partner with them, I will write up a contract that ensures the projects I am working on get done in the best ways. It’s hard to come up with new project ideas that foreigners can do, that will benefit the local people too. If I team up with BUILD I expect them to pay me something for my time, which will be a first since coming to India in February 2005!

The only other thing I have in the pipeline is working for an NGO in Kodikannal (next to the Kerala, in the hills). I’ve been offered to have all my expenses paid if I work for an organisation aiding nomadic tribals who shift around collecting honey. I don’t know the exact nature or work I will be doing for them, if I go, but it certainly could be very interesting. It’d also be nice to escape the Tamil Nadu heat for some time. I know you all must be pretty sick of the cold, but this summer will be as hot as least year, it’s already around 30C daily now.

So that’s me so far. I leave to go to Nepal tomorrow, but it’s going to take me a while to get there. I first have a 6 hour bus to Chennai, then a 41 hour train to Bihar, on the Nepalese border, changing train at Calcutta. Then from Raxaul, on the border I’ll pick up a local bus to take me the 12 hours or so to Kathmandu, where I have no idea what the situation will be like. I’ve been getting a few warnings from concerned friends and family about going to Nepal at this very unstable time. It will be elections there on the 8th, 2 days after I arrive. The rebelling Maoists have been kicking up trouble, and tourists have been warned not to go. But I have to as my visa has expired. I have heard from some people that you can’t freely move about as the transport systems are so vigorously checked that you end up going nowhere. I have also heard that Kathmandu streets are deserted as people hide in their houses afraid of what might go on outside. I know that none of the problems going on in the country are aimed at harming tourists, and that the Nepalese treat tourists very well, as they know how much their economy depends on them. I will go, see how it is, rush, get my visa and leave early if need be. Otherwise I will stay for my intended month, maybe do a Thai massage course and hang around with the Tibetans, waiting for the celebrations of their new year at the end of the month.

I will hopefully hear by the time I get back from Nepal whether the application of my NGO has been successful, at which time I will be calling on my friends, family, blog readers, well wishers, and do-gooders to help in my efforts here. During my first year of operation it will be very difficult for me to obtain funds, as some devious NGOs have given us all a bad name, and as funding is short anyway, getting funds for a new establishment may prove to be impossible. Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but bear in mind I may put a request to you and any of your friends you feel may wish to support my efforts.

For now, I am concentrating on my day and a half before I set off. I have a Swedish friend here at my house right now, and he’s going to make a short film about my life here. I don’t know if it’ll prove to be interesting, but it’ll be something nice for me to keep anyway.

Again, I have gone on about me, and not asked about you. Maybe this is why I receive so few e-mails!!!?

But to whoever is reading this, and I discovered I don’t know all of you, so hello to you inquisitive blog searchers, mostly from the US! My e-mail address is ruthwsg@yahoo.co.uk please e-mail me if you want to see any photos. I wish I could up load an album to my blog, but I think this isn’t possible. If anyone knows how to do that I’d appreciate being told!

So I’ll write again after I come back from Nepal, that’s if I make it, ha ha ha!!
I hope that all of you are well and finding small happiness’s with life.

Big love to you all
Ruth xxx

p.s. apologies for being so crap about sending out personal e-mails, if you write to me I promise to write back though.