India (Chennai): In the Airport

Well folks, it's time for Monkey Man to say goodbye to Mother India. It's been great, but it is time indeed to leave.

So it's off to Kuala Lumpur from here where I need to line up a ticket to get me back to Nippon for the wrap up before my grand and much anticipated return to the US. At some point, when I get some time to sit down with a decent connection to the net, I'll share some interesting stories with y'all of my (mis)adventures over these past few weeks.

Interestingly enough, I managed to get through most of my trip here without really getting seriously ripped off...that is until these past few days when I actually started shopping for souvenirs to bring back to the kiddies back home (don't get those expectations up too high, you little squirts). Pretty much every purchase I made, I got charged double to triple what I should have. Moto drivers all delighted in quoting me fares that were also double to triple what I had been told they would be. The kicker was getting ripped off even here in the airport. You've gotta know your prices and know how to bargain even in the frickin' international terminal of the Chennai Airport. A sweets shop owner took me for a nice little ride on a purchase for a friend...but hey, I'm outtie, the trip has been overall good, the sums I've been cheated of are nothing in US or Japanese currency, and it's Diwali Eve everyone!!! Happy Diwali to all (and I'm betting it's gonna be especially happy for all those wily merchants who duped this poor, tired, dopey traveler out of his Gandhi bills)!!!

One love, peeps. Happy Halloween.

India (Tamil Nadu) - Sink or Swim at LAFTI

(The following is the text I entered into the LAFTI site shortly after arriving at LAFTI)

Two nights ago, I arrived at the LAFTI headquarters here in Kuthur. After a night’s rest, I accompanied Amma (Krishnamal) and some of the staff out to a village where LAFTI had erected new homes for people and is helping with the acquisition and distribution of fertilizer.

We then traveled to another village in which many people had lost their homes to the tsunami. Amma is bringing the home building program there with the ambition of providing people with solid homes made of brick to replace the thatch and mud huts they lost in the disaster.

We then made a whirlwind tour of the area that I assume was for my benefit. I was shown homes that LAFTI has erected and many more that are still in mid construction; vast expanses of rich green fertile lands Appa (Jagannathan) freed up through a titanic struggle that he won only after a climactic fast that lasted for 13 days; the area where the terrible massacre of dalit women and children occurred that prompted Amma and Appa to move here; the hostel which LAFTI maintains for roughly 80 girls who would otherwise be unable to attend school because of the remote locations of their homes; the huge tracts of land that continue to be used illegally as prawn farms despite an order from the supreme court for their dismantlement; and the 5 kilometer long wall LAFTI mobilized people to build in order to protect farming land from the devastating floods caused by the presence of the prawn farms.

Before I continue any further, I should introduce myself. My name is Tatsu. I am originally from Japan, but from the age of four, I was raised in the United States (Seattle and Oakland/San Francisco). I returned to Japan immediately after graduating from college and worked for the past seven years as a teacher and administrator in the public school system. At the end of this past school year in March, I left my job to see some of the world. My travels have thus far taken me through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Singapore. I arrived in India for the first time in my life two weeks ago.

I was introduced to LAFTI through David (Willis) and it was his encouragement that prompted me to come here. David (Albert) and Aliyah have entrusted maintenance of the blog to me for the duration of my stay here. To my surprise though, it looks as if this will be my only entry.

Shortly before leaving the ashram for the tour, Amma told me that she had plans for me. The next morning (today), I was to be dropped off in a small village called Porkkalakudi. There, it would be my task to work with a LAFTI worker already posted there to set up (1) a nursery school program, (2) a baby chick(en) inoculation and distribution program and (3) a drumstick plant cultivation program.

This morning, I got up and hopped on the back of a motorcycle with Veerasami who took me out to Porkkulakudi. I was introduced to the woman who is to be my partner in this project, Kanakhi, who has been posted in Porkkulakudi since early September. Veerasami explained that I was to be her new partner. She explained that someone in the village had passed away the previous evening so she was postponing the launch of the nursery school program for a couple of days and thus my presence was not yet needed. Inside, I breathed a guilty sigh of relief.

Up until today, my entire vocabulary in the Tamil language has been only nunri (‘Thank you’), vanakam (basic word of greeting) and the names of several basic food items (idly, dosa, sambar). As I understand it, pretty much nobody in the village speaks either English or Japanese, the only two languages in which I have proficiency. As for plant cultivation, I am renowned far and wide only for my ability to inadvertently bring an early and painful death to any plant placed under my care.

I am hoping that my saving grace will be the extensive experience I’ve had with working with children of all ages in Japan. It’s hard, however, to not feel like I’m being asked to jump out of a fast moving vehicle on the highway; gotta hit the ground running or else fall flat on my face.

India: Perusing My Online Photos

For those of you who are interested in going through the pictures I have taken thus far on my journey, you may find the following two links useful:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67916188@N00/tags/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26952510@N00/tags/

These links lead to the tag directories of my two photo album accounts on flickr. Please do feel free to make comments on the pictures but please keep the language rated G; my students are also looking at the pictures.

India (Madurai): Off to LAFTI

At long last, the holding pattern I was in as I awaited clearance from LAFTI to head on out there has come to an end. Today, I will hop on the bus out to the small village of Kuthur, where LAFTI is based. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing when I get there, but my first goal is to try to stay out from underfoot of everybody else. My second goal is to make myself useful as quickly as is possible.

I have already proven to be ridiculously bad at maintaining this blog and especially the blog I set up in Japanese. But once I reach LAFTI, I'm supposed to be making entries to yet another blog - The LAFTI blog (see links in sidebar) - so please forgive me if this blog once again sees very little activity for the next month or so while I am out there. As the LAFTI blog is fairly serious, I guess this blog will have to serve as the repository of all of my stupid, inane, shallow, childish thoughts and observations... so uh, I guess not much will be changing. In any case, lots of love to you all. I gots me a bus to catch.

India (Madurai): Quake in Kashmir

As most of you doubtless already know, a terrible earthquake struck the Kashmir region of North India/Pakistan a couple of days ago. The casualty numbers coming out of there are truly horrific. Yesterday, the estimate was roughly 2000 dead. Today, the estimate has made the incredible leap to over 30,000 dead and the number is only expected to keep rising. The UN says 2.5 million are now without shelter.

It is apparently the worst natural disaster in the history of Pakistan and the worst earthquake to hit the region in the past century. The scale of destruction looks to be at least on par with the December earthquake in Iran two years ago.

As a note to those of you who may be worried about me, please rest assured that I am fine. The quake struck Pakistan and the northernmost regions of India. I am in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India and about as far away as one can get from the earthquake zone and still remain within India (roughly analogous to me being in Texas when a quake hits Maine). Please do not worry about me. Please do, however, worry about the people in the earthquake stricken region.

For those of you that pray, please pray for the millions who have been caught in this destruction. For those of you can afford to, please consider making an aid donation.