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Wherever Maria goes she is pestered for help by people she meets. Some people follow her for ages and won’t leave her alone. Lourduthamy helps her a lot with FACS but he doesn’t enjoy confrontation. Having said this, he deals with the villagers well and is respected by them. He and Maria are delighted we have stopped annual reports for FACS people.
In the afternoon I treated myself to a massage by Santa, one of the ayahs. (Her son plays drums in a local band and is earns a good living playing at weddings, engagements, Hindu festivals, puberty celebrations and all the other things Indians love to celebrate.) I lay on a towel on the floor while Santa eased my tense shoulders. It was bliss.
The rain yesterday (Sunday) was amazing – solid sheets of water. It was just the kind of monsoon rain that the countryside here needs. There is a wide expanse of shrub land near the school. It’s called a lake and until now I have never understood how it got its name because I have never seen any water in it. Today it is full of water and the locals are talking about it with awe. I commented to Maria that there were a lot of butterflies around, and she says it’s a sign of more rain to come. Memo – must get the washing in!
Because of the weather, many roads are now impassable and so the school is closed again. I’m feeling a bit frustrated because I can’t get on with any teaching. I seem to remember that Helen had a visit like this. However, Catrine and I have time to talk about the English in the school and we’re hoping things will be back to normal tomorrow.
Sunday was meant to be food distribution day. Despite the rain, about 100 people gathered outside the school gates demanding their parcels. About half the people were from Karapattu, a nearby Dalit village which has received a lot of aid from Maria in the past. However, Maria has become fed up with their reluctance to give anything back in return, so didn’t issue them with tickets. No tickets – no food parcel. They were very angry and refused to go away and stood looking through the gates for about two hours.
During this wet afternoon, Maria let five people in through the gates. Two had come from Tiruvannamalai by bus, the other three were from Kanji. The two Kanji women are on our FACS list. They sat on the mat in Maria’s room and poured out their tales of woe. One of the elderly FACS women almost fainted. She was diabetic and hadn’t eaten that day. Maria gave her rice and a lollipop. Eventually, after a gift of 100 rupees each, they went on their way with lots of hugging, bowing and foot kissing. 100 rupees is about £1.30 – the cost of a cup of coffee in the UK. 100 rupees is the equivalent of a quarter of the monthly pension one of the women receives. Of the 400 rupees she is entitled to, she is forced to hand over 100 rupees to the man who gives her the money. It makes me so angry.
Today the weather cleared up so at three in the afternoon we started giving out the food parcels. Inside the school the process was very orderly and gentle. Lots of staff and some of the older Shanthi Lumine children came to help.  250 people, mainly elderly women, filed quietly past the tables collecting their sacks of rice, lentils and spices. Outside the gates it was horrible. Those who had not been given tickets, mainly people from Karapattu, yelled and gesticulated for several hours. The Karapattu village leader, a tall woman with a smile she could switch on and off like a light, did her best to inflame the situation. Matters weren’t helped by the aggressive stance of the former school gate-keeper who was a bit the worse for alcohol. He would have taken on the entire rabble had he been allowed out of the gates! Eventually the people at the gate went home. Those with the food parcels will benefit greatly from the vitamin and mineral rich food in their packs.
FACS is tricky. However much we give, the people want more. Those who aren’t on the receiving end get angry. There is very little long-term gratitude. And yet, the situation of the poorest of the poor is awful. Last night, as the rain thundered down I kept thinking of the people we had seen the day before. Six people sleeping on the floor in a minute hut with leaking roofs and bulging mud walls. If I was cold, they must have been freezing.
Catrine and Maria and I have talked a lot about the best kind of FACS aid for the future and we are going to recommend to the trustees that we focus on house repairs. Houses with mud walls and tiled roofs are collapsing – the combination of heavy tiles and mud walls is not good. We would like to be able to give people the cost of bricks and cement so that they can replace the mud walls with bricks. They would have to find the door and window frames themselves. The actual building would be done by a combination of masons and locals. Maria suggests that we start with one village (the one where the water bore will go). About 15 houses there are falling down. Maria would like to direct most of the FACS money to this project but would rely on others to raise the rest of the money. It would probably take three or four years to work through the village. I can’t give you costs yet, but it could be about £1000 pounds per house. Maybe half could come from FACS and the rest be found through fund-raising. So that’s something to think about.
It’s time to see what’s happening outside the office and to try to work out my timetable for tomorrow – if the children turn up! I’ll be in touch again soon. V
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