Friday 12th November 2010 20.00
Outside the drums are beating and the people are shouting. It’s the Murugan festival at the Kanji temple and it’s all very exciting and primitive. There are blazing torches, crackers and fireworks, fairy lights, mosquitoes, shouting and throngs of people.
In the evening, Maria, Catrine and I went to see the land that has been purchased by Enfants de Kanji for the orphans. It’s in a lovely setting near the lake. All we need now are houses for the orphans to live in!
Then we moved on to the temple (it’s about ten minutes walk from the school). A rowdy procession was forming up in the temple grounds. After a lot of kerfuffle, the procession started walking round the temple grounds. First there was the god Murugan mounted on a platform. He was decorated with flowers and garlands and carried on two telegraph-length poles by some very excitable men - about 20 on each side. Little boys and priests shared his platform. 
Murugan was lit up with fairy lights powered by a generator towed behind the platform. There were two smaller floats, one with a life-sized statue of a bad god (can’t remember his name) and then a float which would later transport the head of the bad god. We didn’t stay long as it was getting a bit frisky. All along the road were people selling plastic toys, balloons, ice cream (very dodgy), pineapples, savoury snacks and so on.
An hour or so later I went back to the temple with Silvy (one of the kindergarten teachers) and some of the Shanthi Lumine boys who sleep at the school. (The office mouse has just scooted across the floor.) It was really frenzied. It’s a weird feeling being the only white face in such a huge crowd. Silvy tucked my arm through hers and wouldn’t let me move from her side. She was extremely protective. After we had seen the bad god’s (wooden) head chopped off with a silver sword, accompanied by much undulating from the crowd, we went to buy a pineapple for supper.
This morning I went with Catrine to the library to share one of her spoken English classes. It’s a delight to see the library being used. Catrine let me take a couple of the classes based on Tree or Three (one of the course books Pam, Alison and I took over two years ago). It’s clear that the spoken English has improved since Catrine has been here; some of the students speak quite fluently. One girl gave an impressive summary of the story Hansel and Gretel.
This afternoon, Maria treated me to a session on the financial management of the school. It was the highlight of my stay! Although it is obviously complicated having money coming in from three sources, Maria seems to know exactly what’s what. She showed me several ledgers all filled in with very long numbers! Money from Emmaus has been reduced and it’s clearly getting harder for Maria to balance the books each month. The buses take up a lot of the money. I’m not the best person to look at finances, but Catrine, as ex-treasurer of the trustees, knows what’s what and is confident that the money we send is very well spent.
I feel like an early night and a good read, so I’ll sign off now. Nights aren’t all that restful, but if the Indians can manage with about six hours sleep per night, I can manage with eight restless ones. I really miss my soft pillow and may have to have another massage by Santa (one of the ayahs, not the gentleman who visits each Christmas) to loosen my shoulders. So goodnight and God bless you all. V