Update from India and Final Catch-Up from Myanmar/Mumbai

Update from India and Final Catch-Up from Myanmar/Mumbai

Friday, Oct. 21, Kumbalam to Varkala

I took the 9:30 bus from Kumbalam (which didn’t leave until 9:45 and was totally full. Somehow more people managed to get on at each stop. I squeezed my way all the way up to the front and then had to squeeze my way out again when I got to Kundara.

When I chedked at the train station, the next train to Kollam wasn’t until 12:30 and it would allow me to switch to a 1:30 train from there to Varkala. So I went to the cyber café for 40 minutes. As a regular customer now, I was given a discount!

Next, I went to the barbershop and got a very nice haircut. The man took his time doing every task. I wish I could get someone to be that careful at home! He got it a little shorter than I would prefer on top, but it looks anf feels good, especially since it only cost 46 cents U.S.!
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Today is a reminder of the difficulty of travel in India. My train was late arriving in Kundara, so I missed my connecting train. Now I must wait another two hours. I left the school this morning at 9:30. I’m only about 18 km (10 miles) from there and it is 2 p.m. Varkala is another 35 km (21 miles) from here, but I won’t arrive there now until almost 5 p.m.—IF the next train is on time.

A man visited with me at the Kundara Station. His English wasn’t very good, but he was eager to talk. His love is music and dance. He has a 45-piece orchestra and he’s the singer. It’s a Christian band. But to make a living, he sells the battery-operated slimming belts like the ones advertised on late-night TV in the US and Europe. His income is only 1500 rupees per month (less than $40) and he supports about 5 people with that. He loves Clinton and hates Bush. I thought he was a bit strange in his behavior, and I was hoping for my train to arrive. Just as it did, he rushed out and returned with a bag containing 5 apples and a package of dates and gave them to me for my trip.
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The train was on the platform at least 20 minutes before the scheduled departure. I was able to get to it and get a seat before it became loaded.

A nice young man who spoke English with a British accent sat across the aisle from me and started a discussion. He lives near Kovalam Beach in Trivandrum, but he works for a fiber optics telecommunications firm in Kollam. He commutes daily—a train trip of one hour or more (depending on the train) each way. He spends weekends playing volleyball with friends on the beach. Once a year they all vacation somewhere that they have made contact with another team they can play (and probably stay with). They just returned from Simla, a hill station above Delhi. He suggested that I come to Kovalam some weekend and said he would take me on his bike to a hill station outside Trivandrum. I’m sure it was all just talk, but he seemed to be a nice, professional guy.

I checked into a nice hotel—very clean with a very nice bath. There’s no more than 1-2 other rooms occupied, so it’s quiet. The beach is a short walk waway, but I haven’t been there yet.

Since I hadn’t eaten lunch, I was hungry. I walked back to Temple Junction (about ¼ miles (1/2 km) away and went to the Graden Restaruant, an outdoor place overlooking the huge spring-fed public bathing pool here. I watched the sunset and the men bathing while I drank a cold bottle of water and waited on my food.

There’s a modesty ritual related to bathing. If the men are wearing briefs underwear, they tend to pull off their pants first. Then they wrap a towel around themselves and reach under to pull off their underwear. Sometimes, they wrap the towel first and then take off both their pants and their underwear from under the towel. They wim in the pool, then they step out onto the steps surrounding it. They soap up all over (either reaching under from below or loosening the waist of the towel to reach under from above to wash their private parts). They rince under a flow of water. They pull their underwear back on under the towel, then they pull their pants on and pull the towel out.

My dinner was fish biriyani. The plate had a huge mound of rice made with cashews, raisins, carrots, etc. Inside the mound were two fish with their heads removed. Each was about 4 inches (10 cm long). They had been wrapped in small leaves and tomatoes (and I’m not sure what else) and steamed, I guess. It was absolutely delicious. There were no small bones to worry about; all I had to do was remove the backbone with its attached bones. It was so much food that I shared it with the resident cat and still left some of the rice!

On the way back, I visited with a muslim shopkeeper. He’s from Kashmir. He had a shop in Goa (up the coast from here) for 5 years, and he moved here 3 months ago. He was very kind. He showed me his shop and never insisted that I buy anything or even look closely at anything. He looks obviously different from other people here with more of an Afgan appearance than an Indian look. He said he isn’t accepted here even by fellow muslims. He’ll go back to Kashmir in March or April when his lease is up here and the season is beginning there.

Saturday, Oct. 22, Varkala

The school had a hearing about dismissing a teacher yesterday afternoon. It will be interesting to see what happened when I get back. It’s the same old story: The teacher doesn’t do his job and is just there for the money. He’s frequently absent, does not teach what he should be teaching, doesn’t create lesson plans, doesn’t complete leave forms, etc. He’ll never change, and he is a drag on the morale of the other faculty, especially since he was hired at a higher salary than they were. I hope Joseph holds strong and gets rid of him. His one advantage is that he speaks English well, but that doesn’t help if he doesn’t teach!!

It rained most of the night. The morning is sort of a bright cloudy day. I think it’s going to be fine. I have no special plans. I will go to see the beach, I’ll rest, etc. I’ll have to be careful. I put my suntan lotion out to pack and never did put it in my backpack.

I’ve decided I have allergies instead of a cold. Everything has progressed slowly and has lingered. Most important, however, the mucous secretions are clear. There’s something in the air here in Kerala that makes my nose run. And here in Varkala it is worse. I awoke in the middle of the night last night with both of my nostrils swollen shut.
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I went to the beach at 8:30. There are a number of religious men posted there who wait for pilgrims to come for prayer and instruction. Two men were prostrated before one. I watched as he had them hold the corner hem of their wrap-around cloths. He placed a stick of incense in their fists holding the corner. Then he sprinkled the incense and the hem with some kind of liquid. After that, they had to step into the water and return to him. I also watched a volleyball game that was occuring then. A young man watching the game motioned for me to sit beside him to watch. The players, looking to be in their 30s, were all quite good. Often, four of them would tip the ball before one would send it over the net. I asked the guy sitting beside me if he played and if he played as well as they did, and he responded positively to both questions.

I returned to my restaurant from last night and had an unusual breakfast. I think it was called a puttu. It was a cynlindrical log about 6 inches (15 cm) long and 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter made of grated coconut, ground cashew nuts, and honey. It had been steamed. To the side was a small dish of hone. With my fingers, I would break loose some of the log and dip it in the honey. It was tasty but not too sweet. No sugar and not much honey had been added to the log itself. On the side was a banana. I ordered a banana lassi to drink—a thick shake made with banana and plain yogurt.

I’ve been lazy. I returned to the beach for a while, but I’ve spent 3 hours here in the room. I read some, but I napped for about 1 ½ hours. It’s so quiet and peaceful here! I’m not sure I’ve rested that well at the hostel with all its noices and the tension there (both the tension I felt at first of being trapped and the tension between individuals that seems to regularly lead to yelling.
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When I went out this afternoon, I walked to the main town to check the railway schedule. I need to catch a train at 10:32 tomorrow morning. That should get me to Kollam in time to catch a train that arrives in Kundara at 12:32. Then I will have an hour more of walking. I should be at the hostel by 1:30.

I ate a late lunch/early dinner across the street from the station. I had 3 chipatis (flat bread much like a whole wheat tortilla) and chicken curry. The curry sauce was delicious. It’s been so nice to get away from the standard meals at the hostel for a couple of days. It was especially nice to have a different kind of rice last night. The “Kerala” rice that everyone serves in their homes here is my least favorite kind of rice.

The man at the desk downstairs told me there would be a free dance performance at the temple at 8:30 tonight. He said the trishaw that would take me would wait on me, and I said I would probably just walk. At 8:00, I left for the local temple, an interesting complex built in the 1300s. There were musicians playing inside the inner sanctum, and a group of men were walking the perimeter beating drums and carrying fire lamps. That ended at 8:15, and everything seemed quiet. A young student had started visiting with me, so I wasked about the dance performance. He said what I had seen was the closing ceremony for the day. Apparently, it’s another temple somewhere else having a dance performance, and that’s why the man had thought I would take a trishaw.

Sunday, Oct. 23, Varkala to Kumbalam

I was up at 6:30 with the lightening sky. Even though I took my time, I was checking out of the hotel by 8:00. I went back to the Garden Restaurant overlooking the baths for a vegetarian dosa breakfast with a banana lassi to drink. Then I walked slowly to the train station where I am now waiting for my 10:30 train (an hour from now).

I finished reading A Black Englishman by Carolyn Slaughter (4 stars out of 4). It was totally engrossing. Although filled with tension, I was so glad that it had a happy ending unlike most novels I’ve read that are set in India. There had been a hint of the ending at the beginning, although the book is apparently based on a true story that was more sad.

As usual, some nice men iontroduced themselves and took care of me at the train station. They made sure I got on the right car and didn’t have to stand. They are carpenters from Cannanore (13-14 hours north of here by train) who had been in Varkala for a month working on a project. There were three of them. They were singing Malayalam film songs with one of them keeping the beat by drumming with his hands and making a “tsh” sound with his mouth. They shared a piece of peanut candy with me and kept me entertained all the way to Kollam.
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A funny incident happened at the station in Kollam. A retired army officer befriended me and encouraged me to sit with him on the train. While waiting for the departure time, we stood outside on the platform. He’s a rather unique individual—somewhat excentric (or even looney), I had concluded, but harmless. A man who doesn’t speak walked up to me and made motions that did not indicate he wanted money. In fact, I thought he was implying, “This man is crazy. You don’t have to listen to him. Just go ahead and get on the train.” The officer excused him telling me he was mentally deficient. A little later, the same guy did the same thing. Again, he moved away after “saying” his piece, so he didn’t want money. The officer went after him to give him 10 rupees and tell him to go have a tea. As I started to depart the train, I saw the same guy again. He smiled, waved, and made another motion I took to mean the same thing. The so-called crazt oersib was calling the weird officer crazy!

I was back at the hostel at 1:30. The kids were happy to see me. They were just starting to do their laundry. I unpacked and did my laundry, too. Then I started a new book—Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahire. It’s a collection of short stories. Now that I’ve read the first one, I’m pretty sure I’ve already read the book. I seemed to recall all of the first story. I’ll just re-read the book even if the next story also seems familiar. It’s well written, and I don’t have enough books to last me until I leave.

I’ve decided to skip dinner. The cook is gone, and the student in charge of warming up the food and serving it is the one who has lice. Just before going to the kitchen, she was scratching her head for a long period of time. When I told them last week to wash their hands before preparing the food, they ignored me. And again tonight, she went directly to the kitchen without washing. Although I’ve had only a snack since breakfast, I’ve lost my appetite.

Monday, Oct. 24, Kumbalam

There’s no school today. It’s related to racial tension, political maneuvering, and the love of any excuse to get out of working. Yesterday, someone damaged a statue at a Hindu temple in Kollam. The opposition political parties gathered and expressed dismay. They proclaimed a strike from dusk to dawn throughout the Kollam region today. No one is allowed on the roads, so no one can move. I haven’t been out, but my guess is that representatives of the parties are out on the roadways enforcing their ban. Joseph says they have broken windows of vehicles in the past when people tried to move. Of course, their actions will do nothing in terms of catching the vandals or preventing similar incidents in the future. In fact, I can imagine that some young people who don’t want to go to school might propose in the future to break into a temple and do damage so that a strike will be called. The fact that the supreme court of the country has declared the calling of such strikes to be illegal is just being ignored. Anyway, I’ve gone over to the office most of the morning to work on the computer and have left Joseph at the hostel to deal with the kids. I’ll do the same in the afternoon.

I’m upset. I tried to do a good deed, and it backfired on me. A donar (former volunteer who is paying the fees for a scholarship student at the school) has been asking Joseph for a photo of the boy he is sponsoring. I volunteered to take his photo. Then I connected my camera card to Joseph’s computer. Rather than downloading the photos as it should have done, it erased the files from the card. I lost half of the pictures (about 120 photos) I have taken on the trip including many of the photos from Myanmar. I think it included the family that invited me to their home in Myanmar which has been the best experience of the trip and one I wanted to remember via my photos. My guess is that it happened either because of a technical problem with Joseph’s computer or because all computers here are loaded with pirated software. It was the Home Edition of Windows XP and should have read the card automatically and shown all the images on the screen. Anyway, they are now gone and the card itself (worth about $30) may be unusable.

Tuesday, Oct. 25, Kumbalam

I worked all day today, and I'm tired. I spent the school day working on scope and sequence charts--continuing to do the English chart and typing up charts teachers had done in chemistry, physics, and geography. I also helped interview two candidates for teaching computer science. Then in the late afternoon and evening, I helped the principal trainee who was ill and vomiting by typing up examination questions for 8 grade levels in English and for computer science. Then I helped the children with their homework (mainly in math). I was working from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. except for mealtimes, so I'm very tired.

Note: Here is the last update to cover the days I was in Myanmar and in Mumbai. These postings should match up with when I started posting about India from here in India.

Sunday, Sept. 25, Yangon to Bangkok to Mumbai

I slept later than I expected. I intended to awaken with the sun around 6 a.m. But it was cloudy and was already 6:25 when I looked at my watch. It worked, though. I was dressed and packed and downstairs for breakfast and check-out at 7:00, and I was in a taxi at 7:15 and at the airport at 7:45.

I don’t know why they tell us to be here at 8 a.m. No one is here to help us. Even the front door to the airport was locked when I first arrived. It’s a poor facility, but there is a new terminal under construction next door. It should be much nicer.
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Well, I’m checked through immigration and customs and waiting for my flight. It was a bit of a mess at the check-in counters with people already in line and employees showing up at different times. No one knew if the counter where they were waiting would open or not. So…there was a lot of quick shuffling as each window opened.

It’s 8:45 now, and my flight has just arrived from Bangkok. We are supposed to depart in 70 minutes, so we will probably be on time. It’s not critical for me, since I’ll have over 6 hours between flights in Bangkok.

The main part of my cold ended long ago, but I continue to have tremendous drainage. It just flows! Then each morning there is a lot of phlegm to cough up. I hope I dry up soon.

As soon as I got up this morning, I turned on the TV to check on the damage from Hurricane Rita. It would have been Saturday night in Texas, so there should have been fresh reports on BBC. But BBC was not on the air. There was just atatic on its channel. Now I’m hoping that the airport in Bangkok will have news channels I can see. I knew from the reports when I went to bed that Galveston and Houston were not being hit as hard as had been expected due to a drop in wind speed and an altered direction that put Port Arthur and Beaumont in the line of fire. I’m hoping that every place was hit less hard than had been feared.
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In Bangkok I watched CNN. I visited with students from Cambodia who were traveling to New Delhi for 6 weeks of computer training. And I finished reading A Way in the World by V. S. Naipaul (two stars out of 4—more a series of research essays than a novel).

Well, India never fails to look bad. I thought it would fare okay in comparison to Myanmar, but I was wrong. Myanmar is clean and neat and relatively rich looking in comparison. Of course, I was seeing the slums of a big city, but it still is bad. Even my hotel is a disappointment (as hotels usually are in India). Websites always make hotels here look better than they are. The room is fine; it just looks far more like a hotel in India than the website indicated. I’m also sure that if I looked around nothing in the price range would be any nicer. I’m just hoping there aren’t mosquitoes so I can leve the window open at night.

Spending Update for Myanmar and Trip up to Now: I spent $297.44 over a total of 23 days in Myanmar for an average of $12.50 per day. For the entire trip, I have traveled 38 days and spent $916.05 for a daily average of $24.11 and a monthly average of $723.30.

Monday, Sept. 26, Mumbai

I had forgotten how hard Indian beds are. They usually are cotton-filled matresses about 3 inches (7.5 cm) thick on a solid wooden platform. Actually, they make nice beds once I adjust to them, but last night my bed felt a little too hard.

I dreamed again that Arne had come alive again and was with me. We discussed going to Denmark, but he pointed out that he no longer has an apartment or accounts there. He wasn’t feeling right, so I knew he was going to die again. He hadn’t seen Sue yet, so we were trying to get to her for them to visit together when I awoke.

I have two main goals today: 1) To get a reservation (probably train) to travel to Kollam in 3 days, and 2) to get to an internet café and let everyone know I’m okay. On the way, I must stop at an ATM, too, since I only have about $25 in Indian currency which was left over from my previous visit.
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It’s 2:30 p.m., and I just got back to my hotel. It was a good morning. I stopped at the tourist office and got some literature. Then I went next door to the Foreigner’s Ticket Office to get a train ticket. The lady there was nice, and there was no wait. I’m glad I did my research, however. Her first response was that there were no trains to Kollam/Quilon—that I would have to go to Madras or somewhere and catch another train. I asked about the Netravathi Express #6345 which was the fastest train I could locate on the website (2 days to get there rather than 3), and she pulled it right up. I completed my paperwork and bought a 3 AC (air conditioned 3-tier sleeper) ticket. I even got a discount for being 60. I leave from a suburban station (1 ½ hours away) at 11:40 Thursday and will get to Kollam at 21:23 (9:23 p.m.) Friday if the train runs on time (which is seldom the case in India—especially for such a long distance). The ticket cost 920 rupees ($21.17).

I walked a little further and found a small Internet place for 25 rupees (58 cents U.S.) per hour. I read my critical e-mail, then I typed posts to the blog for several of the days I was in Myanmar. It’s going to take all week to completely catch up.

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at HSBC Bank and got enough cash to last me for weeks (if not months, since my costs will greatly dimenish while I am in Kerala at the school).
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Breakfast here is less than what I have been having. It’s 4 small pieces of toast with jam and butter and coffee or tea. I didn’t get a lunch snack, because I was at the cuber café. By 4 p.m., I was starving. The restaurant I had chosen from the guidebooks was closed for the afternoon, so I found an Arabic-language place down the road from there. They recommended a chicken in a sweet, spicy sauce. The sauce was dark red with white dollops of something (yogurt?). It was delicious, but there were too many bones and too little chicken. I ate it with a good quality rice (basmati?), sliced onions, and tomato chutney. It was so tasty. And I washed it all down with my favorite Indian drink—fresh lime soda). Ummmm!

I’m tired from lack of good sleep the two previous nights, so I bought two liters of water and am back in the hotel room for the night.

Tuesday, Sept. 27, Mumbai

It’s 1:30 p.m. I’m sitting in the waiting area at the old Victoria Terminal (now known as CST). My train on Thursday leaves from a suburban station, but I can take a local train from here to there. I wanted to come here so I would know the station already on Thursday. It’s a wonderful old sturcture which is filled with activity(including beggars, unfortunately).

I spent two more hours at the computer this morning. Updating the blog is going slowly. I only got up to Sept. 9 this morning. I still have 18 days to post, and tomorrow is my last day here.

I had a vegetarian thali plate for lunch. A thali is a special offering. This one had rice, a garbanza bean curry, a lentil-onion curry, dal (lentil soup), yogurt, chutney, and 2 chipatis for 17 rupees (39 cents U.S.). It was a clean place and was overrun by people who knew its value.
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The day is sunny and hot. Therefore, I came back to the hotel from the train station for a rest. On the way, however, I took a different route. I am enjoying seeing the buildings in central Mumbai. This area of town is filled with buildings with character. Most have not had proper maintenance for years, but they are still impressive if one looks closely.
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It’s 6 p.m. I’m not very hungry, since I had lunch, but I will go to a nearby place and get something small, I guess, in a little while.

I began a new book today—Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. It’s a Booker Prize winner about a romance novelist who has been encouraged to go away to a 30s-style resort hotel for the last month of their season. She’s apparently putting a bad affair with a married man behind her. Anyway, I should have started a longer book; I’ve already read over 25% of this one. A longer one would have lasted me through the long train journey to Kerala. Instead, I’m sure I’ll finish this one and have to start another one.

Before starting the book, I did some laundry. I had 3 dirty shirts and two more I had already worn one day each. There’s a big water bucket in the bathroom (which locals fill with water and then use a scoop to pour water over their bodies as their way of bathing). So I got out my bar of laundry detergent from my last visit to India and washed the three dirty shirts. I’m hoping they will dry before I have to pack. Surely they will be dry within 36 hours. I’ve got the ceiling fan blowing the air around at a fast speed.
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I went out for a light dinner—pork vindaloo and rice. Now that I’m back, I can tell it won’t be a good evening. Loud music is coming from just behind the hotel. It’s an electronic keyboard and a set of drums and has a fast beat bringing to mind the idea of twirling dancers. It’s obvious that here in India, as it is in most poor areas of the world, no one can have fun without making sure that everyone else can hear him having fun. Wonder how late this will go? I’ll try to cut out some of it by closing my windows and curtains. And at bedtime, I’ll use ear plugs.

Wednesday, Sept. 28, Mumbai

I spent two more hours on the Internet this morning. I’ve still only made entries to the blog up to Sept. 16. It takes about an hour for every 3 days of entries, so I am still about 3-4 hours behind.

I bought some snacks near the hotel and ate them in my room for lunch—a savory samosa, a variety of battered and fried vegetables (sour leaf, onion, pepper, and squash), and a sweet samosa. Tonight I’ll try to find a good place for dinner.
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Spent the afternoon in the room napping, watching TV, and reading. Then I went back out about 6 p.m. I walked by two famous nearby places—the Taj Hotel and the Gateway of India. The former is part of the most prestigious chain in India. The latter is a large commemorative arch. I was surprised by it in a way. The arch in Delhi is the center of a huge traffic circle and park with roadways branching in various directions to connect it to the major buildings in the city. The arch here is on the waterfront—a significant place but not the size nor the center of activity that I expected. Of course, just going to see the hotel and the arch meant putting up with lots of beggars!

I decided to eat in a nice restaurant tonight. I went to the Delhi Durban, a place a little like Earl Abel’s in San Antonio—a/c, waiters in uniforms, multiple-page menu, special offerings for each day of the week, etc. I tried to order an appetizer that sounded good (smoked eggplant dip with naan bread), but it’s a seasonal thing that is not available now. For the main course, I ordered their specialty—mutton biriyani. The biriyani is made in a copper pot in a wood-fired oven and served directly from the pot onto the plate at the table. To drink, I had a fresh lime soda. They also served me a glass of filtered water.

Note: I believe that this brings me up-to-date on the postings that were missed while I was in Myanmar and while I was trying to catch up in Mumbai. Hope everyone enjoys reading them.

Further Update from Myanmar Portion of Trip

Tuesday, Sept. 20, Inle Lake

The sun is out again today, but my plans to go to Inle Lake have been thwarted. After breakfast, I walked to the main canal and planned to follow it south to the lake. When the pavement ended, it became a muddy, sloppy trail. I went on a dry path going eastward trying to find the main roadway going southward. Eventually, I was walking beside a lady who began speaking with me. When we came to the main roadway I was seeking, she turned southward, too. A few moments later she said, “This is my school. Would you like to come inside and visit?”

It was an older building with six classrooms—one for each level, K-5. The students stood and recited a greeting when we entered. Then she and I went to the office for a glass of tea together. She explained that there is an orphanage next door, and that most of the children in her school come from there. She also explained that parents must pay if students are to go to school beyond Grade 5. Therefore, most of her students, being without parents, will only finish the 5th standard and then be turned out into the world.

After saying good-bye, I headed down the road again. There would have been plenty of time for me to reach the lake, but I started noticing how loose my shorts were. As I pinched and felt with my flat hand to see how much weight I had lost, I suddenly realized I wasn’t wearing my money belt under my pants. I had missed putting it on for some reason this morning. It had to be on the extra bed in my room.

One of the things I’ve appreciated about Myanmar is that no one seems to enter your room as long as you are a guest unless you request it. You sleep on the same sheets, use the same towel, etc., unless you request that they clean the room. Therefore, I knew that the money belt would be safely laying on the bed when I returned. But I also knew I would be worried until I confirmed that and retrieved it. (It had almost $2000 in U.S. and other currencies and a credit card in it.) Therefore, I gave up on seeing Inle Lake and returned to the hotel. The belt, with everything in it, was underneath a shirt I had worn yesterday. Now that I am back in town, I guess I will relax and read. It’s too far to the lake to try to go there again at this hour.
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It’s 7 p.m., and I’m on the balcony of the Shanland Restaurant overlooking a canal with lots of water sounds coming from frogs and bugs. The restaurant is inside a courtyard. As soon as I entered from the street, the word went out. By the time I got to the balcony, the multi-colored Christmas lights along the roofline were on, the mosquito coil was under the table and lighted, and the last of the two tablecloths (blue over brown) was being placed on the table.

I had planned to invite Chit Htwe to have dinner with me tonight. I wanted to show my appreciation for the good experiences he provided me, and I figured a dinner that costs 2-3 times the average daily income would be a special treat for him. After waiting for 1 ½ hours where I usually find him, I gave up. He had suggested that we meet tonight, so something must have gone wrong. I had planned to get his address so I could send his family copies of the photos I took last night.
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Well, I shouldn’t have ordered the fish. It had little flavor and I had to hassle with the bones. It was served nicely, though—in a fish-shaped metal dish above a container filled with glowing coals. Also, they had cut it at an angle into the flesh so that it was easy to remove portions of the fish to eat. The best part of the meal was a delicious spicy soup that was served. UMMMM!

I found Chit Htwe afterwards. We went to a tea shop and visited. He wasn’t feeling well; he now has a cold like his brother and me. He said people get them often here because of the frequent weather variations. Later, he walked me home. I gave him the money I had intended to use to pay for his dinner, and we said good-bye. I know he was wishing he were free to travel like me.

Back at the hotel, I visited with two doctors, a Swedish lady and an American man, who are on assignment in Yangon with Doctors without Borders. They’ve taken off 5 days to travel to here.

Wednesday, Sept. 21, Inle Lake to Kalaw

The Myanmar trip is beginning to come to an end. I caught a truck and a bus this morning to come to Kalaw. It’s another hill station a little closer to Yangon. I’ll be here tonight, and I’ve bought a bus ticket to leave for Yangon tomorrow. Unfortunately, it will still be a 17-hour trip from here.

Kalaw has fresh, cool air. It’s surrounded by hills covered in pine trees. It’s a rather small town that serves as a center for trekking through the hills and the area Shan villages.

After arriving at noon, I explored the streets in town. I passed schools, temples, the market, a park, the railway station, etc. I stopped at a tea shop and ate a snack—a steamed bun stuffed with onions and boiled eggs and a cup of hot tea. A light shwer began, so I returned to the hotel.

This is the nicest place I’ve stayed in Myanmar. The room is bright and clean with fesh white sheets, a good bed, cable TV, etc. The view is over a Buddhist temple and the market with the green hills beyond.
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I had dinner with two women from Isreal. We sat and visited at the table for about 2 ½ hours. We talked about our experiences here, about their lives in Isreal, etc. For dinner, I had a garlic chipati (somewhat like a flour tortilla), mutton curry, steamed rice, and side dishes of pickled mango, cabbage curry, radish curry, and sour leaf and bamboo choots. I returned to the hotel at 8 and stayed inside the rest of the evening.

Thursday, Sept. 22, Kalaw to Yangon

Today is the day I’ve been dreading—the day of the long, overnight bus trip to Yangon. There’s nothing really to do until the bus arrives at 2:30 but wait. I’ve had the usual breakfast which had an added treat of juice (banana-pineapple). The day is mostly cloudy with the look of possible showers. So I hope I can just relax in the room watching a movie on TV and/or reading.
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I left the hotel at 11:30 and spent two hours wandering. I stopped by the tea shop and had a steamed bun and milk tea. Then I walked into the countryside. I took several photos of blossoms I found along the way.

Near the Catholic church and school, I met a young man who walked back tinto town with me. He’s 25 and a brother in the church. His duties include shopping, cooking, and assisting in teaching English. Buthe’s a betel nut chewer, so that spoils any chance for him to become any more than he is.
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The bus arrived around 2:40. That was the beginning of an 18-hour ride! And how slowly time passes when you are NOT having fun!

A nice young lady was sitting beside me at first, but it was only temporary. A young male engineer getting on later at another town had that seat reserved. In the meantime, however, we were having lots of rain fall on us as we went over the hills. It was so bad that the road (one paved lane) was sloppy muddy on the sides. It reminded me of the problems I’ve had traveling in Mountain Province in the Philippines. There could have easily been a landslide to close the road either by covering it with rock and mud or by by actually loosening the road allowing it to slide down the mountain. Fortunately, neither of those happened. The rain was so heavy, however, that water started dripping into the bus around the windows. The lady beside me gave me a tissue to stuff where the dripping was occurring. Since the rain stopped soon afterwards, that took care of the problem.

The engineer spoke to me some after he was seated, but he was either shy or had a speech impediment or both. He spoke in a VERY soft voice and it sounded as if he were mumbling. Like most men in Asia, he sat with his lets sprawled apart. (They are used to squating with their knees spread.)

Friday, Sept. 23, Yangon

We had another flat tire. Each time the bus stops, one of the employees takes a metal rod and hits each tire to test it. While we were stopped for 20 minutes for breakfast this morning, the rod hit a dull tire! So the breakfast stop to an extra 45 minutes as the inside tire was changed on the rear of the bus.

Bothe the dinner and the breakfast stops, I visited with a young Japanese man (a systems analyst) who was traveling on another bus on the same route making the same stops. He was traveling with a female friend. Although their bus got to the station in Yangon 45 minutes before mine, they still had not gotten a ride into town when I arrived. That worked to my advantage. The first taxi driver wanted 10,000 kyat to drive me alone. He came down to 4000, but I didn’t want to pay more than 3000. (I’m running low on kyat and don’t want to exchange more.) I just left that area of the huge station walking to the exit. Another taxi driver stopped me and reluctantly agreed to take me for 3000. Then I saw the Japanese couple standing nearby. We made a new agreement—2000 each (less than 3000 for me and double what the driver would have gotten)—and drove into town together.

I’m back at the Queen’s Park where I stayed when I arrived. I’ve had no news since I left here on Sept. 7 (17 days ago). I turned on BBC and immediately saw a long report about Hurricane Rita telling that Galveston and other areas had been evacuated. Seeing the radar, the outer edges (bands of the storm) are just beginning to reach shore, and it looks as if the eye has turned slightly in the last hour or so of the 6-hour loop they are showing. They are starting to say that they expect landfall near Sabine Pass. It will be about 8 hours before I go to bed tonight, so I’ll see what it looks like then. When I get up tomorrow morning, the storm should be hitting wherever it’s going to hit.

After napping a couple of hours this morning, I cleaned up. I thumbed through the English language papers downstairs and didn’t see any news of particular excitement from the past two weeks. Then I went out. After walking to explore for 45 minutes or so, I stopped at a tea café a block from here and ate a snack. (I’d skipped breakfast when the bus stopped this morning.) Just as I finished, it began to rain, so I quickly returned to the hotel.
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I walked to a place about 50 blocks away for dinner. It seemed even further, since the sidewalks were filled with market stalls almost the entire way there. I had charcoal-broiled pork with two sauces—a tangy garlic-vinegar sauce and a hot and sour sauce. It was delicious.

I splurged on a Diet Pepsi for tomorrow. They didn’t have cold ones or I would have drunk part of it this evening. Instead, I have it cooling in the mini-frig.

It’s only 8 p.m., but I’m still exhausted from lack of sleep on the bus trip last night. I’m off to bed early.

Saturday, Sept. 25, Yangon

It’s another hot, humid day. I went out about 8:45. I tried to go to the Thai Airways office first, but they don’t open until 9:30 on Saturdays. The attempt to go there got me surrounded by beggars and postcard-selling children. What a hassle. One boy on crutches kept up with me at my normal walking pace for over two blocks before giving up.

I went to the market and made one of my few purchases while traveling. I bought two longyis. They are tube-shaped wrap-around skirts that men wear both here and in southern India where I will be for the next 2 ½ months. The fact that I can at least use them as lounge wear is why I bought them. They are from Shan state and 100% cotton. Both are the traditional Myanmar plaid style—one red, green, and black and the other blue, green, black and gold. I probably paid a little too much, especially since they were handed to me in a very nice heavy paper shopping bag with black rope handles! But I got the two for $5.39.

From the market, I explored the waterfront. Yangon, however, has not modernized and opened the city to the waterfront like so many other places have done. It still is blocked by a wall topped with barbed wire and houses the military, warehouses, etc. There are a few openings for access to ferries, but even those openings are guarded. On the opposite side of the street, there are a couple of ornate Chinese-style buildings and a cluster of large colonial buildings near the Strand Hotel, the local colonial-eara hotel built by the same man who built the Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

Now that I have seen and read about Myanmar, I’m afraid I must declare it as one of the losers among Asian countries. Like The Philippines, it looks as if the problems they have are insurmountable. Their biggest problem is political. The people are varied and have difficulty getting along with each other without a powerful central government. The military provides that now, but to maintain the power, it has cut the country off from the rest of the world in many ways, has spent far too much money on itself, and has allowed corruption to develop to the point that nothing gets done without military officials being paid off. As long as the military stays in power, it will remain poor and backwards. And if the military were to give up power, the various ethnic groups would likely fight each other. There already exist more than one “liberation army” in the country.

Myanmar is an intersting country to visit, however. That’s mainly due to the friendliness of the people. The biggest problems they face related to tourism are:

1. Poor transportation infrastructure which inolves long, uncomfortable trips to get from place to place.
2. Greediness which has overtaken local transportation people causing tourists to feel trapped with unreasonably high costs compared to what locals pay.
3. Isolation caused by government communications restrictions which:
a. Cut off Internet access
b. Allow e-mail to be sent only via a local provide at a very high rates and ONLY if it passes a reading by the government censor
c. High international telephone calling rates ($5 for 1 minute to the U.S. or Europe)
4. The tendency to have high entrance charges for foreigners even for entering parks or being within viewing sight of a lake!
5. The fact that there is nothing to do after 9 or 10 p.m. Young backpackers spend as much time partying as they do seeing the sights in other countries, so I imagine they are bored to death here.

Latest Update from India

Tuesday, Oct. 18, Kumbalam

I roade one of the bus routes yesterday afternoon. It was one with most of the children being 9 or younger. I had to help them down off the bus, since the steps were too big for most of them. The main reason for going was to see the scenery, however. This route covers many backwater areas. I saw canals, lakes, fish farms, fishermen, women doing laundry at the edge of the water, etc. There were islets covered with coconut palm trees, dugout canoes along the waterfronts, rice fields to the sides of the waterways, etc. This is such a beautiful area.

I went to Kundara in the afternoon. I intended to get a haircut, but the barbershop was closed. I did find a supermarket, however, following Joseph’s directions. I bought toilet tissue, since my nose has become runny from my cold. I also got a cold bottle of water that was so refreshing after walking for over an hour in this heat!!

We had a religious incident here tonight. My spider was back. (He had probably just been behind the tank when I couldn’t see him this morning.) I showed it to Joseph and asked if we could catch it in a jar and release it. He said, “We use a broom and kill them, because they are dangerous.” So he told Bragosh (sp?) to get the broom and kill the spider which he did. Bragosh’s sister who is the cook and had seen the spider when I showed it to Joseph asked, “Why did you kill it?” Bragosh said, “Because he told me to.” When Joseph asked what the problem was, Bragosh said, “In my religion (Hindu), he was a god. You made me kill one of my gods!” Both Bragosh and his sister were upset with Joseph.

Two more things from today:

I saw two people I knew in Kundara. It seems to happen that I see people I know every time I go there now. I met the shop owner who invited me to see his shop last week walking down the streets. Then a man rode up to me on a motorcycle and asked if I remembered him. He was another of the men who had delivered the refrigerator last week.
A man called me to the roadside as I walked into town. I introduced myself and explained I am staying at St. Jospeph International Academy in Kumbalam. Later in the day as I walked back out of town, he motioned again and asked, “Kumbalam?” I said yes and walked on. A moment later, he pulled up in a motorized trishaw and asked me to get in. He brought me about 2/3 of the way back. At that point, he dropped me at an intersection where he turned and continued on his way.

Wednesday, Oct. 19, Kumbalam

I was awakened this morning by yelling. Sound echoes through this building with concrete floors, walls, and ceilings and with ventilation openings above each door. But this was LOUD yelling. I could hear well even with my earplugs on. The cook and Joseph were the main participants, but I think another man (maybe her brother) was involved. It was ain Malayalam, the local language, so I didn’t know for sure what it was about. I hope it wasn’t about the spider god we killed last night. I’d hate to be partially responsible.

I finished the math scope and sequence chart by 10:00. It still needs some formatting to adjust gaps and make it look better. I’ll do that tomorrow, then we will print it.

Joseph took me to the campus in Kollam today. I showed the scope and sequence chart to the principal, two math teachers, the science teacher, and the English teacher. I taught part of a math lesson, and I visited with the English teacher about planning his daily lessons.

Leaving there, we did several interesting things:

We stopped to see his lawyer, an interesting man who has been to Houston. Joseph says he’s the top lawyer in this area with a staff of 50.
We went to a hospital for Joseph to visit a friend who had a heart attack this morning. It’s the best and largest of the hospitals here—the place where Joseph has taken volunteers when they’ve gotten sick in the past. It’s a Catholic hospital run by nuns and priests. A nun didn’t want Joseph to go up, because it wasn’t visiting hours, but then the priest who is the head administrator of the whole hospital complex and a friend of Joseph’s and the man who had the heart attack came along and took him up.
We stopped to make some copies as school was out, and I was surrounded by children who wanted to touch my hands at first and then later my face. Fortunately, it started raining and they dispursed just as it was almost getting out of hand.

We were invited to a birthday party this afternoon at 5:00. We didn’t leave until 6:45. Apparently things run on Brazilian-like time schedules here. Even then, the party began slowly with the kids watching a children’s TV program for about 45 minutes. After that, it moved quickly. The bad news is that I realized then that I had not brought my camera to get photos. First, they brought out the birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Meera, the young girl celebrating her 12th birthday. The cake was cut, and she took a slice which she used to break off pieces and serve a bite directly to everyone there starting with her parents and then with Joseph and me. Then each of us was given a whole piece of cake to eat and a small glass of sweet wine to drink. The kids were holding their noses and making faces as they were swallowing the wine.

They began bringing out the food after we had finished the cake. (The procedure matched the one I had experienced two weeks ago when Joseph’s cousin’s wife had a birthday.) Instead of rice, we had sliced white bread. Apparently that’s a special treat. Two meats with sauces were served over the bread. One was made with chicken and shallots. The other was a green coconut sauce with beef and peppers. Both sauces were delicious, but the green coconut one was my favorite. Sliced tomatoes, onions, and peppers were served on the side. Afterwards, the had the locally traditional birthday dessert of rice-like pudding made with vermicelli. Meera’s father had cooked all the food.

The children performed some songs and plays after dinner. Then we excused ourselves about 8:45. I gave Meera a pen I had brought from America. And all of us gave her homemade cards we had signed.

Thursday, Oct. 20, Kumbalam

I’ve been invited to a wedding in two weeks. The one being married is the brother of one of the teachers. I think it will be an all-day event. It starts around 8 a.m. It will be a Hindu ceremony, and it’s an arranged marriage.

The power has gone off. For the past two weeks it has been off quite a bit due to a new “three-phase” connection being made to the school. It means that I can’t do my scope and sequence work. Sometimes it is for a short period. Monday, however, it was for most of the day. I hope it will be back on today so I can complete my work.

Joseph says my presence is making a difference. He’s excited to see the teachers thinking about what they are teaching. At teacher training colleges here, they are told to follow the book. Well, some areas such as Hindi and Malayalam (national and local languages) have limited materials and no real textbooks, so they have not been doing much. The whole first year of study in Hindi was being spent on studying the alphabet which is quite limited. Joseph now has them thinking about the scope and sequence of their subject—what they teach and which years they teach it in—and making decisions to move things and add things. All morning he and one of his principal trainees has been conferencing with the teachers. Joseph says it’s the first professional conversations he’s observed on this campus where teachers were thinking and talking about what they are teaching. One of them commented to him that she had never realized before now how the program was building from year to year. And that’s a teacher with a master’s degree who has been teaching for some time.

The power didn’t come back on until noon. Then I couldn’t get the computer started. Due to frequent power outages in India, backup batteries are used between the power souce and the computer. My guess was that the fuse in the backup system had blown. But when I took it out and looked at it, it looked fine. So I left the power on for a while and didn’t try turning on the computer. After about 30-45 minutes, I tried again and it worked. I guess the backup battery just needed some recharging before it would work. In the meantime while the power had been off, I spent most of my time creating a job description for a computer teacher and starting to do an English scope and sequence chart by hand.

I’ve been intending to write more about the children living at the hostel. I think I’ll describe one every few days. Shivani is the youngest. She’s only 6 years old and is in Standard I. She’s especially cute right now, because she is missing her two upper front teeth!! (One of her lower ones is also loose.) She is a small pixie-ish girl about 3 feet (1 meter) high and quite petite. She has a short hairstyle that frames her face, and she sometimes wears it in a funny looking style where a small tail is made off-centered sticking up in the air above of her head. Her eyes are big and rounded like those of children on a line of popular greeting cards in the U.S. She’s always sporting a mischievous grin and is quite lively. Often, she holds her arms out and twirls and dances around the room. She’s definitely what we call a “free spirit” in the U.S. Her constantly joyful approach to life keeps us all smiling and happy watching her. A couple of days ago, I realized she reminds me of someone I know. I can imagine that Drew Cassady was just like this little girl when she was that age!!!

We printed the math scope and sequence charts tonight. They look great. I think Joseph was a bit surprised. Although he had seen them on the computer screen, he hadn’t realized yet how much would be in them, how much one can learn by reading them, and how nice and professional they would look. He’ll make copies to give to the math teachers and to place on a table for other teachers to see.

Still Staying at the School

Saturday, Oct. 15, Kumbalam

I worked at the office until 12:15. Then I caught the bus to Kundara at 1:30. After dealing with e-mail and the blog, I wandered around to see if there was anything down roads I hadn’t explored. I was recognized by one of the guys who delivered the refrigerator this week. He wanted to show me his shop, and it was the one where I had bought soap, water, etc., last week. Later, someone else recognized me—a student (not from our school) who had apparently visited with me sometime before. I walked back, stopping at Joseph’s favorite banana place (one that grows their bananas onsite without the use of insecticides).

The kids wanted to go for their walk when I returned, so I went out again from 5:00-6:10 with them. Almost immediately there was a problem. Abin and Jerry went to the side of the road to break off switches. In doing so, Abin got into a poisin ivy-type plant and had hives break out along his forearm. We took him back to the hostel, then the rest of us continued our walk. The kids can’t leave plants, especially flowering plants, alone. They want to break off blossoms every where they see them—not to appreciate them, but just to shred them letting the blossoms drop to the roadway. And Jerry has started a bad habit of spitting to the side of the road every 30 seconds or so. He also likes to toss berries or small stones at the others. I guess they are typical kids, but their behavior bothers me.

I showed Joseph the TEKS, the scope and secquence charts for the various subjects in Texas. We saved them on his computer so he could look more closely at them later. They may help us in organizing the scope and sequence charts in other subjects here.

Sunday, Oct. 16, Kovalam

I finished reading Out of India: Selected Stories by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. I gave it 3 out of 4 stars. The first story was the best. All the stories are filled with people accepting their problems rather than doing something about them. Do Indians really feel they deserve the bad things that happen to them?

I feel lazy today. I would love to be completely on my own. I did laundry while Joseph and the kids were at mass and laid it out on the grass to dry. There were small brown spots on some of it when I turned the pieces over, but they will be clean enough, I guess. Then I read much of the morning. I started A Black Englishman by Carolyn Slaughter. It’s a book set in India in the 1920s and was a gift from Nurse Grethe. But I became tired even from reading. I closed my door and took a nap about 1:45.
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I took the kids for a walk around 4:30. Then I watched the sunset from the front porch between 6:10 and 6:20. Although the mosquitoes start coming out then and are a problem to keep away from me, the sunsets are so beautiful that I try to watch them every chance I get. The clouds turn yellow, then pink, then glowing orange behind the curtain of coconut palm trees and against the rich blue of the evening sky. Birds fly across the open space, and even occasionally a large bat can be seen swooping across.

That was the end of the peaceful part of the day, for then began the homework period I hate so much. Although I had asked Friday night and last night about homework, nothing was brought out until tonight. Then, however, it became evident the teacher had assigned too much without teaching it well enough. I became frustrated because the students wouldn’t THINK. They wanted me to tell them the answers so they could write them down. Here, that’s what they think doing homework is all about. I decided and announced that I would help until 8:00 and then go to bed. That’s what I’ve done.

I guess I need to leave. I think I will tell Joseph I will finish the math scope and sequence chart and then leave. That means I’ll depart here on Wednesday probably. I think it will be best for me. I’m miserable having to be here so many hours a day, and I don’t like having to help with the homework. Joseph wasn’t even around tonight, so I will have to talk to him tomorrow.

Monday, Oct. 17, Kumbalam

Joseph and I talked today. He wants me to stay and is willing to be flexible. He likes what I am doing and said I can set my hours. When I expressed concern about taking free housing and food for doing less than he had originally expected, he told me he was very happy with whatever I do. He suggested that I decide if I wanted to work 4 or 6 hours a day—whatever. I told him I want to be free nights and weekends in general, although I may appear and assist them occasionally. And I told him that it would be a trial to see if I feel better over time. My thinking is that I will go to Kollam maybe one night a week and eat dinner and go to a cyber café. I’m not sure if that is feasible timewise considering bus schedules, but I will see. I also told him I’ll probably leave on Friday afternoons and stay gone for the weekends. I’ll try to go to Varkala, a beach resort not far from here, this weekend to see if that helps.

I’m tired today. Because I took a nap yesterday and then went to bed early, I awoke at 3:30 this morning and didn’t get back to sleep until 5:00. I must try to stay awake all day today or I’ll have a similar pattern tonight.

The big news here today is that Wal-Mart is coming to town. India has opened up to 3-4 mega-retailers from outside, and Wal-Mart has already purchased sites here (Kollam) and in Trivandrum, the big city south of here. They have agents seeking appropriate sites in two other cities north of here. Small shop owners are organizing to protest, but it looks like a done deal with national approval and land already purchased.

I know that news because the hostel gets three newspapers each day—two in English and one in the local language (Malayalam). Reading the English papers is one of the things I enjoy here each day. They have mostly South India news. But there is at least a page of international news (although space on it is often wasted with stories such as the one yesterday about Denmark sending musical pillows to their soldiers in Iraq to help them relax). There’s occasionally good guest editorials from American or British newspaperws.

There was a BIG spider on the tank of the toilet I use today at noon. The body was about the size of a quarter with the outer leg circumference being about 4 inches (10 cm). It was still there tonight.

I had to get mean with the kids tonight. I hated doing it, but the nice thing about them is that they don’t hold a grudge. Joseph and the cook had gone to buy some fish. I said I would watch them. It was fine until they started finishing their homework. They became rowdy. I kept asking them to find something to do quietly. All of them were being a problem, so when one chased another and hit her, I made them all sit down and be quiet. When one made a move to bother another, I was on top of him fast and told all of them they were not to move, not to talk, not to touch another etc. I told them I expected complete silence until Joseph return. And I got it. As I heard his car approaching, I told them I expected the complete silence to continue until Joseph entered the room. And they did that, too. But the experience just reconfirmed the fact that I want to stay away from the kids in the evenings and let someone else deal with them except in special cases when I am needed like tonight.

New Update from Kerala, India

Thursday, Oct. 13, Kumbalam

It’s raining again this morning. Yesterday, except for an occasional sprinkle, it stopped after 9 a.m. Today’s rain, however, seems more heavy in a tropical way and may continue so that it spoils my plans to go to the cyber café.
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Fortunately, the skiles clearned by 8:30. I worked on the computer doing the 5th Standard scope and sequence chart and finished at 1:30. I walked at my normal fast pace to see how far it is to the cyber café. It took 40 minutes to get to the main highway and 10 more minutes to get to the cyber café. That was faster than I had expected.

I had already typed my journal and 3-mails and saved them onto a diskette before going there, so I only had to copy them to the blog and to the e-mail program to post and send them. It took about 40 minutes to do that and to read my e-mail (along with dealing with the frustration of websites not opening quickly and easily).

I explored Kundara, the town where the cyber café is located, for a while before heading back to Kumbalam. It would be so nice if there were a fruit juice shop, a nice restaurant, and/or a supermarket there. The only juice stand I saw was in the open air and did not look clean. The “restaurants” are dark and dirty looking. There are no supermarkets other than one that is closed. I was back at school less than three hours after I left.

I’m staying with the kids while Joseph goes to the dentist. When he gets back, I’m going to insert my earplugs and go to bed early, I think. I’m tired both from my walk and from my cold.

Friday, Oct. 14, Kumbalam

I slept about 10-10 ½ hours last night. My sore throat has improved. My nose is stuffy, but not runny. In general, I feel better.

We have a mostly vegetarian diet here at the hostel. There is rice every meal but breakfast. For breakfast, there is some type of flat bread—dosa or chipati usually—or a bread crumb type mixture which is served with a sauce of some time. Yesterday, the breakfast sauce was a yellow sauce with potatoes. Today, it was a dark brown sauce with a type of bean. The rice eaten here in Kerala is a round, plump variety that can be squeezed into balls to weat when sauce is mixed with it. There are two sauces that we have had at the hostel—a think yellow sauce made with coconut (but without a coconut flavor), and one with yogurt, onions, and tomatoes. Around the rice are placed 2-3 curries made from vegetables such as potato, carrot, cabbage, etc., and often also including coconut as a mixture. About once a week chicken is served. And about once a week an artificial meat made from soy beans is served. All the food is fine, although I find it tends to be slightly constipating.

While waiting for breakfast today, the kids performed and translated a play they will do before the whole student body this afternoon. On Fridays, Joseph tries to have a cultural activity for the end of the school day. There will be a couple of short plays this afternoon.

Joseph is trying to do so much here, and almost all the responsibility is on his shoulders. He has two principal trainees, but he is having to train them. He has a good faculty overall, but he often faces days when 1 or 2 are out, and he is regularly having to look for new faculty to replace ones either leaving or being asked to leave. Also, he is trying to work to change the behavior of faculty members from some of the things that are traditionally done in Indian schools. He oversees the bus operation which also suffers occasionally from absenteeism. He’s taken on the task of supervising and tutoring the children here at the hostel during early mornings (exercise) and late afternoons and evenings (homework, grammar lessons, journal writing). He’s in charge of the hostel and grounds staff (cooks, drivers, security, etc.). He is supervising continued construction of the school building (a third floor with an auditorium, labs, and more classrooms). He is recruiting students and teachers as the school adds a new standard each year (until it finally reaches Standard X from the present VII). He is working on odds and ends such as his present efforts to expand the computer lab and making computers available to the faculty. And he is in charge of public relations—going to meetings, visiting with concerned parents, representing the school at events, etc. It IS too much for him to do without being totally exhausted most of the time. And he has other plans for the future!

Joseph isn’t the only one overworked. Everyone seems to take on too many duties in efforts to make more money. The woman who cooks and cleans the hostel started teaching nursery school two weeks ago. I’ve noticed the last few days that she has become more irritable around the children, raising her voice and yelling at them. I imagine it is from stress caused by overworking.

At 4 p.m. when the school day ended, the hostel was locked. I sat on the porch for 30 minutes, but it was hot there. I left the compound and walked to the village center to buy a snack and check the bus schedule. When I returned 30 minutes later, I had to wait again. It was about 5:45 when the lady with the key came with the kids. It’s too bad I didn’t have a book to read. I just sat and rested all that time and let my thoughts wander.

The time I most dislike of the day is at night. Dinner isn’t until 8:30. The students are supposed to study until then. Those study hours seem to drag on forever. I can’t really read, because I will be interrupted. But there are long periods where they don’t need my help and I am just waiting while the time SLOWLY passes. Even helping the kids is frustrating, since they are not used to thinking. Here, they want you to tell them an answer that they will then memorize. That’s not my nature as a teacher. I want to GUIDE them to the answer through questioning and reasoning. Doing that is also affected by their limited English. So the little help I can give them is little indeed and makes those evening hours seem so long. How nice it would be to be able to go to bed early and just skip dinner each night.

Partial Update of Missing Entries from Myanmar

I've gone back and typed some of the missing entries from my time in Kerala. I will post them here. Later, I hope to post the remaining portion of them

Saturday, Sept. 17, Meiktila to Inle Lake (Full Moon Night)

The hotel served breakfast on the deck overlooking the lake. It was the usual fare for hotels here, but the setting was nice.

The owner of the hotel drove me to the bus station. I caught a bus leaving just as we arrived at 7:30. It was a long trip with mechanical trouble for 45 minutes and a flat tire again.

I had something happen that can occur anywhere, but it is always a disappointment when it occurs. I asked the bus to let me of at Schenyaung Junction. I didn’t know it at the time, but they let me off at a different intersection—one for a highway going to the other side of Inle Lake. There was a taxi driver who camup up to thebus to get me and my luggage. I’m sure it was pre-arranged. If they had let me off where I requested, there would have been trucks I could take (which means I wouldn’t need a taxi), but they thought, I imagine, that I would be forced to take the taxi from there—at a high rate and probably with a kick-back to the bus people. But it was me and not someone else. I refused to pay and started walking. (I knew it was supposed to be 11 km to town, but that was from where I was SUPPOSED to be. From where I actually was, it was probably 20 km (12 miles). Fortunately, a commercial truck picked me up and brought me to the intersection where I needed to turn off to get to Nyaungshwe. But I had to walk the last 5 km (3 miles) with my luggage over an unpaved back road. I’m glad I didn’t fall for their trick, however. I’m sure the talk of the town tonight had to be about the tourist who WALKED to town on the back road!

There is a nice French couple staying at my hotel. His name is Jan, and we visited on the balcony for a long time after I arrived. He’s a saxophonist who travels with a famous French singer (Mano Solo), also has his own band, and has recorded the muic for French film soundtracks. His wife is a medical student who ws having stomach problems and only visited for a short time. They recommended a restaurant which I tried—one whose owner learned to make pasta from a tourist who later sent him a pasta machine. I had pasta with an eggplant sauce. It was good. He also makes caipirinhas using the local sugar cane run. I tried one of those also. It was passable, but it wasn’t authentic.

On the way back to the hotel, I met Chit Htwe, a 20-year-old trishaw driver. He had no business, so he walked with me and visited. Of course, he’s wanting to make money off me in some way, but he was charming and nice to talk with. I’m sure I will see him every day, and he will have proposals for things to do. He has already told me that he leads 3 day/2 night treks between here and Kalaw, so that’s one thing he is hoping I might decide to do. I imagine he’s a go-getter who usually makes money off the people he pursues.

It was a tiring day, and my room is too dark for comfortable reading. I’m off to bed although it is only 9 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 18, Inle Lake

I didn’t sleep as well as I would have liked last night. Some religious nut was chanting over a loud speaker. He reduced his volume about 10:30, but I still heard him when I took out my earplugs at 1:30! Also, I was having lots of drainage from my cold causing me to swallow constantly. Therefore, I am rather tired and lazy today.

I got up at 7:00. The sun was shining brightly, and there was noise from the canal below my window. The small street along this canal is very busy with local traffic. Many boats are being loaded and unloaded along it, and it seems to be the starting point for boats that serve as buses to the villages along the lake shore.

This is rice harvesting season here. As I walked into town yesterday, rice was being cut. And the rice that had been cut earlier and had dried was being thrashed on the road to remove the seeds. It’s also tomato season. Many huge baskets of tomatoes were being removed from boats this morning for sale at the market, I guess.

I walked for about two hours this morning. I stayed within the village. Mainly, I watched people—a schoolyard with the students in their emerald green bottoms and white tops all lined up for assembly outside, two women bathing a naked boy of about 3 years of age on a platform at the side of a river, two young men bathing and swimming in a lake, two men in a conoe using sycles to clear underwater growth along the edge of the lake, people walking along the streets, a group of five women having an animated, loud, and happy discussions on the porch of a house, etc.

Althought it’s Sunday, life is normal here today. Like in some other parts of Asia, weekends are not recognized. Instead, there are two “off” days a month—full moon day and new moon day. In other words, people have to work and have school except for two days a month. Yesterday was full moon day, so the schools and the market were closed. It was a good day for me to be traveling, although many independent shops and almost all restaurants were open anyway.

While walking, I toured the Shan Museum—a local museum in the building that was the palace for the local royal family. It is a huge building with soaring ceilings and large open-sided rooms. It’s built entirely of wood (probably teak), and there are portraits of the former kings and queens, clothing they wore, throne beds the used, etc., as well as exhibits of local bamboo household items, fishing equipment, long boats, farming equipment, etc. The building itself was more interesting to me than the exhibits, however.

Being tired from last night, I returned to the hotel around 11:00. It’s good I did, because it began to rain about noon. By 1 p.m., there was heavy rain and thunder. I’m glad I’m here and not on a boat trip on the lake or bicycling (like the French couple). Instead, I have a cozy room or the balcony to enjoy my novel.
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I finished In America by Susan Sontag (3 ½ stars out of 4). I found the first chapter to be strange because of the character who tells it. After that, however, it was a direct story that was interesting and well written.

I said good-bye to the French couple and gave them the Sontag book. They are moving on to Mandalay. Then I went for massage.

Although the man says there are several generations in his family who have given massage, he was not very talented. In fact, he did something even I know should not be done: putting all his weight directly on my backbone. I’m sure my friend Mark who just finished massage training in London would be aghast at that and some of the other techniques he used. If he had done a good job, I might have gone back.

I followed that with the worst meal I’ve had in Myanmar. I didn’t know that chicken could be tough. But mine wasn’t chewable. And the soup had absolutely no flavor. What a disappointment to have my only meal of the day, other than breakfast at the hotel, be so bad!

Monday, Sept. 19, Inle Lake

It’s 6 a.m. and I’m up. I go to bed early here, because the lighting is too dim for me to read at night. I awoke just a moment ago to the sound of a drum. Today is market day here (every 5th day except for full moon and new moon days) when the indiginous people come from their villages around the lake and from the hills to sell their items. I expect that the boats bringing those from around the lake will be docking in the canal outside my hotel, so I will watch them arrive within the next hour or so.

Unfortunately, we are having tropical rains. After a gorgeous sunset last night, I thought it might be clear today, but unbelievably heavy rains returned furing the night. I could hear it even while wearing my earplugs. Right now it’s raining like a heavy rain in Texas or Denmark. Last night for much of the night the rain was falling 2-3 times faster.
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It’s 8 a.m., and the boats have been arriving for two hours. This place is alive with people. It’s going to be an exciting day. And for the last hour there has been no rain. That makes it even better.

I’m beginning a new book today: A Way in the World by V. S. Naipaul. He’s supposed to be an excellent writer, but I think this will be the first book I have read by him.
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Chit Htwe has had a busy day with his trishaw. He probably makes half or more of his income on market days. As I walked to the market, I looked for him at his usual place and he was gone. I tried wandering the market, but I felt I was in the way of the people trying to do business. People were in a hurry to do their shopping, and getting about was made even more difficult by the standing puddles in the narrow lanes and the open umbrellas many people were carrying. I got a good look at the fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc., however. Afterwards, I walked the exterior of the market. It was then I heard, “Randell,” (more with a “wr” beginning sound due to the difficulty Asians tend to have with r’s) and the ring of a bicycle bell. It was Chit Htwe returning from a trip. He parked at the corner and dashed across the street to the market losing his drying cloth (for the seat of the trishaw on this rainy day) off his shoulder. I picked up the cloth. By the time I was placing it on his trishaw, he was approaching it with two big baskets full of items and a woman. He was off again to take her home. A few minutes later as I walked in another part of town, there came Chit Htwe on his trishaw rushing back toward the market. I yelled that maybe we could visit later when he is no longer busy.

It’s 2:15 now, and the boats have been slowly departing since around noon. The rain has continued, so there isn’t much pleasure in people staying around after they have shopped or they have sold all that they brought to the market. Although there is a brightness to the sky, it doesn’t appear that the rain will stop. I’ve stayed at the hotel napping and reading rather than going back out. I would like the rain to end so I can either have one nice day here or have nice weather for leaving for Kalaw, my next stop.
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Well, tonight was very special. Chit Htwe told me that the women were singing to Buddha at his home and invited me to go there with him. We went across the street to a store where I bought tea and hard candies to take as a gift to his parents.

He lives on a muddy street near the edge of town in a woven bamboo home built on stilts. As we arrived, the singing was already going. I was warmly welcomed by his parents and family. About 23 people were there. The older women were sitting in a semi-circle around an alter at the center of one wall with candles and white flowers. There were also two smaller alters with candles and flowers in each corner. Everyone else was positioned on the floor behind the singers.

Chit Htwe’s family was so loving and beautiful. His father is an astrologist and is in his 50s with salt and pepper gray hair. His mother is slender and rather elegant in a simple way with her hair in a single long braid. His 23-year old brother is even more handsome than Chit Htwe. And the children! There were at least 8 children between 2 and 5 with the sweetest, cutest smiles. They are the children of Chit Htwe’s four brothers and three sisters. There were also aunts, uncles, and cousins present.

Chit Htwe and I were placed at a far wall. A small table was placed in front of us and covered with a tablecloth and a candle. His mother brought us a plate of rice curry and side dishes of faw garlic, raw peppers, and a chili pepper compound. We each had a spoon and fork and ate from the same plate. Then she brought another plate with stuffed dumplings. Everyone except the singers watched us as we ate. They were impressed when I immediately took some of the chili compound to eat with my food. We had hot tea in small glasses to drink. It was far better food than I have eaten in restaurants here. It was absolutely delicious.

I took a photo of the food. Then, after eating, I tried to get photos of almost everyone else. Chit Htwe will give me his addresss tomorrow so I can send copies of the photos to them after I return home.

The music lasted an hour. Then they all ate. The TV was turned on for them to watch a soap opera. I teased some of the children and talked with Chit Htwe and one of his brothers. Chit Htwe told me that he had gone to university for one year in a nearby city. But his father told him he had to drop out and drive a trishaw to help support the family. Chit Htwe is conflicted; he is happy to help take care of the family, but he has desires to travel and live a better life. A university degree probably wouldn’t have made a difference in his life, since he says he would have majored in history. What could he have done with at degree but teach? And teachers’ salaries here are only half the per capita income.

We left their home and ran into 5 of his friends at a street corner with a guitar. Chit Htwe grabbed the guitar and started playing and singing. Then they all started singing as he played various songs. Apparently he can naturally play any song he hears. We stayed there at least an hour with his friends laughing, joking, and singing. Then he walked me back to my hotel. We made plans to meet tomorrow night for me to get his address and to say good-bye. It was the best evening of this Asian trip!!!

School Update from India

Friday, Oct. 7, Kumbalam (Continued)

It’s evening now. Several things have happened:

I have my materials prepared for the workshop tomorrow, and I have prepared a plan to follow.
A parent came to complain about homework being given before a topic is taught, confirming what I had observed and discussed with Joseph earlier.
Two teachers gave Joseph information that indicates that the math teacher’s absence today may have been due to being tired from feeling like she was on the spot all week with my presence in the classroom. Another said that she had told her she would be at the training session tomorrow. Maybe that means she is not quitting; I hope so.
The English teacher DID think I might come to his village on Sunday. I asked if we could do it another weekend, since I understand from the kids that the Thomases are expecting us to come to their home this weekend. I HOPE I did it without hurting his feelings.

Saturday, Oct. 8, Kumbalam

I had misunderstood about the in-service session today. It wasn’t another school where we went. St. Joseph’s has a satellite campus in the old Portuguese section of Kollam. It is smaller and has a different atmosphere. We had the session there because most of the teachers come here by bus from Kollam; having the session there made it easier for Joseph to drive the 3 teachers who live here and to there and let the others who already live in the city make their way to that campus.

The session went fine, I think. At least everyone said it was. I know that Joseph and Rosalind, the principal, liked it. For the teachers, of course, it means that they will be expected to implement the planning. One who is a graduate of a teacher training problem told me it was the first time she had ever been taught how to plan a lesson.

Rosalind lives above the school annex where we were with her mother. Her mother prepared lunch for Joseph and me. It was delicious. There was a charcobroiled fish, rice, a yogurt-onion sauce, and various vegetables. Ummm!

That reminds me of breakfast. We had a special treat this morning—dosa (pancake) made with rice flour and filled with a sweet mixture of coconut, sugar, and cinnamon which is called “ada.” We also had a type of a black-eyed pea that had been cooked like beans.

There was a Parent-Teacher Association meeting back at the hostel at 2:30. Joseph introduced me to the parents there, then I left as they conducted their business in Malayalam (the local language). The driver took me to Kundara where I checked and wrote e-mail and updated my blog. It was so nice to be free for a while. I told them I would walk back to the hostel. After finishing at the cyber café, I walked slowly back toward the hostel saying hello to the people along the way who were surprised to see a westerner walking down their rural roads. Somewhere, I took a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of the lake. I took a bus back and soon figured out where I made the wrong turn. A little over half the way back, I saw the driver taking Rosalind to catch her bus. On his return, he picked me up and drove me the last quarter of the way.

We had thunderstorms tonight with large claps of thunder. The lights went off for about 5 minutes, and the kids were scared. The rain freshened the air, so we are all looking forward to a good night of sleep.

Sunday, Oct. 9, Kumbalam

I’ve just finished reading a manual for putting computers together. Joseph wants to buy kits that have all the unassembled parts and have me assemble them. That’s something I would enjoy doing. Buying the parts probably costs only about 2/3 what an assembled computer would cost, so he can get more computers for his money if we do this. He wants to make computers more available to the teachers for planning, but I doubt they willuse them unless they can have them at home. Then, it’s uncertain that they would use them for planning. Anyway, he will buy one kit for me. If it goes well, he will buy others and he and Jerry, our 14-year-old student will then learn from me how to put them together.

I’m forcing myself to drink more water. My urine is dark yellow and seems thick. I’m wondering if it could be because of the water. We use well water here. The cook boils it to make it safe to drink, and she puts cumin seeds in it (a local tradition). Anyway, the water is slightly cloudy. Unless there are minerals in it that are unsafe, there is no problem with it. Everyone drinks it here without getting sick. I think I’ll force myself to drink 1 ½ to 2 liters in one day and see what happens. If my urine is still dark then, I’ll know it is because of the water rather than because of not drinking enough water.

Josheph talked to me this morning. He had read my blog and was concerned. I usually do not share my blog address with people other than my closest family and friends, so I had not told him about it. I realized a week ago or so when I sent an e-mail to “Everyone” that he would now have the blog address. It’s fine for him to have it and read it. Just like everyone else, he will just have to accept that I don’t censor myself here.

We discussed my need for more freedom. He would like to set a schedule, but I can’t do that. A schedule still makes me feel trapped. I need to be able to just decide when I need freedom. Since I’m not a regular employee, that should not be a problem;, since no one should be depending on me as if I were one. As a volunteer, there should be some freedom. Of course, I want to help when there is a crisis and my presence can make it easier for everyone involved, I hope to be as flexible in my needs as I ask the school to be in terms of mine. Anyway, I told him I need to go to the cyber café about 3 times a week to communicate with others and that there may be times when I need to get away for longer times. At some point occasionally, I may feel the need to leave for 2-3 days to be on my own and then return. I’ve been independent too long to spend 2 ½ months staying here every night and never wandering on my own further than an hour or two walk away.

We discussed what I will do, too. He wants me to develop scope and sequence charts for the curriclua. That’s fine; it’s something I’m fiarly good at doing. I did point out, however, that I will have to have input from his teachers. I can’t make decisions about sequence for them. Furthermore, I don’t know the other subject areas as well as I know math, so I may even need help in determining what strands to use and where items belong in those strands. He said he would give me a schedule of the teachers’ “off” periods during the week and I will begin the process of developing the scope and sequence chart on Monday. I’m hoping he will go ahead and buy the parts for one computer and let me learn to put them together. Working on a scope and sequence chart is tedious. My eyes and my brain get tired after 2-3 hours. It would be nice to switch over to something completely different for a while. If not, however, I will just excuse myself and go walking for 30 minutes or so or go to my room and close my eyes and relax until I feel I can go back to the scope and sequence work.

Joseph and the kids have gone to visit the family of the son of a cousin of his who is visiting here from Washinton, DC. I was doing my laundry, so I told them to go without me. There is a concrete pallet in back and a hydrant for doing laundry. I used bar laundry soap that I already had from my last trip to India and a bucket borrowed from Joseph. Mainly, I needed to walk pants. I only have two pairs of pants. One pair was filthy, but I had worn them all week to save the other pair for the workshop yesterday. Now both pairs will be fairly clean for a while. I also washed socks and underwear and a t-shirt. Next week, all four of my knit shirts with collars will need to be washed, but I will wear them again this week before doing that.
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We were out all afternoon. First, we visited a cousin of Joseph’s who is recuperating from a broken hip. He was knocked over by a notorcyclists as he stepped out of an autorickshaw (tricycle cab). He had to have pins inserted into his broken hip. The surgery cost 60,000 rupees (about $1300) which doesn’t sound like much in a western country but is 13 times his montly teacher’s pension. A son in the U.S. wanted to come and see him, but the man pointed out that the money for the airfare would cover the cost of the surgery.

The relatives from Washington, D.C., came by while we were there, and we were all expected to eat. We had rice, chicken, and various vegetables and sauces. It was decicious, as usual.

Around 3:30, the visitors from D.C., the kids from the hostel, and Joseph and I went to his resort. It’s a family home he built several years ago for when they were visiting Kerala. It’s an impressive place on a point at an intersection of some of the back waterways here. In fact, my boat went right by it two years ago when I was here, and I think I have a photo of it at home in Texas. Now it is run as a resort. The website is:
http://www.kollamlakeviewresort.com
If someone wanted to come here and spend a week or a month relaxing, it would be a perfect place—somewhat like a place at Key Allegro in Rockport, TX, and only 3-4 minutes from downtown Kollam by public boats which run regularly. Being on a point, there are wonderful breezes. There’s cable TV, a basketball court, a veranda all the way around the house, fantastic views of the water and the coconut palm trees, etc. It can be arranged to have meals cooked there, too. But one could buy things and cook for themselves as well, I think.

On the way back to the compound, we passed festivals at both a Hindu temple and a Christian shrine. There were crowds and lights at both festivals. The Hindu festival had drummers in front to add to the excitement.

Everyone is tired tonight. While at the resort, we took a boat trip around the waterways. We stopped at a park for a while so the children could play. While at the park, Joseph got to see how easily I interact with people when I am on my own. A group of guys there were curious about me and crowded around. I took a photo, then I took two more at their request. They didn’t speak English, however, so Joseph, who had been wondering if I wanted rescuing, was able to see how easily I could handle the situation. Later, another two guys came to me. This time, they spoke English, so I was able to enjoy the visit without wanting to get away. The trip was a fun outing, but the kids were falling asleep as we returned. We all just waited for dinner before rushing to bed.

Monday, Oct. 10, Kumbalam (Mother’s Birthday)

Well, I had over half a liter of urine from the night and it was still dark yellow. I guess it’s just the water causing it rather than a lack of water.

I spent all morning mapping out the scope and sequence column for Standard (Grade) 4 today. It was so tedius and exhausting. By lunch (12:30), my mind was tired and my eyes were strained. I typed it in the afternoon, and it looks good.

The math teacher came to the office to show me the lesson plans she had done based on my workshop, and while she was there, I showed her what I was doing. I think both of us were pleased. I also heard that others had done plans and said that the plans had made their teaching easier today, but none of the others said anything to me. Joseph said they wanted me to hear indirectly because they didn’t feel their planning was up to my standards.

Joseph and I went to two computer stores today. We found that it is not worth trying to put the computers together ourselves. The labor costs only about $13 per machine here, and then it has a one-year warranty. We got a quote of about $300 per machine for a 40 GB with 128 MB of RAM and a 15 inch monitor. That includes on-site service for ayear. Two companies are sending representatives this week to see the situation on campus and make recommendations for us.

While we were out, Joseph and I had a couple of treats. First, we had a pineapple juice made fresh in the shop for 25 cents each. Then we had a scoopof mango ice cream for about 45 cents each. Both were delicious and refreshing.

Joseph likes bananas, so I asked if he had ever frozen bananas. I explained that you peel a ripe banana, wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the freezer. I told him they taste like banana ice cream after they freeze, so he wants to try them. We discovered, however, that plastic wrap is not available here. He said he had a couple of zip-lock baggies he brought from America, and I think they will work, too, if he squeezes most of the air out of them so that he avoids getting too many ice crystals forming. When the refrigerator is returned by the repairmen, we will try it. It was due to be delivered today, but it didn’t come. Now it will probably be after the holidays before it gets here.

Tuesday, Oct. 11, Kumbalam

I’m breaking rules today. First, I picked up a book and opened it. Now I am writing in a notebook. Today is a major Hindu holiday that is observed all over India. Everyone is expected to put away their “tools” and pray. Bricklayers put away their trowels, lawn cutters put away their sycles, students and teachers put away their books and pens, etc. Our cook who is Hindu is breaking the rules by not putting aside her pots and pans. Like most religious holidays everywhere, today most people do not pray; they use the holiday only as an excuse to get out of doing anything they don’t want to do. School is out today and tomorrow, but today is the big day which will be rather quiet. Tomorrow, things should be much more normal.

I’ve finished reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. I really enjoyed it (3 stars out of 4). It’s very original with its comedy build around the outbursts of a character with Tourette’s Syndrone without making fun of him. I don’t usually care much for murder mysteries, but I would recommend this one to others.

A star player from a futbol (soccer) team came to coach the kids today. He only had about 45 minutes fee, but I think he is returning tomorrow, too. I could see that it helps them to have formal instruction. But I also saw happening what I have always hated about sports—humiliation in front of others for being late and forced running as a punishment. He did do one thing, however, that I thought was an improvement over what most coaches do. He let captains choose team members only until it got down to the last players; then he let those players decide which team they wanted to join.

After the practice, Joseph required that the kids spend about two hours cleaning the field. It had some areas where the weeds were taking over. Cleaning was done with bare hands and sycles. As usual, it was a chore to keep the kids on task.

Sometimes I feel sorry for the kids. Their schedule is filled from wake up to going to bed. There is an hour of free time scheduled right after school, but they seldom get it; instead they are asked to go ahead and start watering plants. I see children who live at home having free play time. That’s seldom an option here at the hostel.

I went walking in the village for about 50 minutes this afternoon. I went far down one road and turned back, then I did the same on another road. Being a holiday, it was quiet out. Several people said hello, however, including one young man who apparently cannot speak. Three children who go to this school walked with me some of the way and joined me again when I returned. They wanted me to go to their home with them. I tried to get them to understand that I didn’t want to surprise their mother by showing up unexpectedly.
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I have been tired all day. I slept well last night, I think, but I keep feeling sleepy. I’m wondering if my blood pressure pills are working too well. I also felt light-headed a couple of times this morning when I bent down to do work on the play ground and stood up again.

Wednesday, Oct. 12, Kumbalam

I started getting a sore throat during the night, and the left side of my hose is stuffy today. Guess I’ll feel bad for about 4 days now. The cook felt bad over the weekend and was coughing Monday, so I probably got it from her.

It’s raining lightly today—the first day there has been rain since I got here. It has rained in the evenings, but has always stopped sometime during the night. The futbol star is here again to coach the kids, so they went onto the field in the rain.

I’ve gone back to reading Out of India: Selected Short Stories by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. I started it last week when I temporarily left my bag (with my other book) at the cyber café over night. It’s nice to read a whole story before stopping. Her writing reminds me somewhat of that of Rohinton Mistry, concentrating on the unique situations and problems in Indian society and culture.

I’ve decided to go to the office and work today. I am not comfortable being at the hostel on non-school days. I don’t want to be on duty there for 16 hours with the kids, yet I don’t feel like “free play” is an option even for me. When I stop to read a book or to rest a moment, I just don’t feel like it is considered acceptable. I would rather work independently all day at the office, since that will make the day pass faster. Besides, by tomorrow I will not have been to the cyber café for 5 days. I want to go there, and I will feel less guilty about leaving early (around 2 p.m. is what I plan) if I have worked all day today (a holiday). I can’t really go after school, because there are only two hours of light left before darkness and it is a 50 minute walk each way if I go at a fast pace. There are buses, but they only run every 45 minutes or so and I am not sure where to catch the return bus or how to read it the signs to know if a bus is coming here or going elsewhere since the signs are in the local language.
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It’s 4 p.m. and I’m exhausted. I finished Standard (Grade) 7 math on the scope and sequence chart. Tomorrow morning I'll start Grade 5. I also spent two hours with a computer salesman getting information about expanding the number of computers here at the school. Another salesman is expected at 5:00. Although I am tired and sick, I will have to wait for him and probably spend the same amount of time with him.

My cold is starting to make me feel worse. My throat is somewhat raw, and I’ve been sneezing today. Furthermore, there is starting to be continuous drainage into my throat. I noticed the cook was still coughing at lunch from her bout with it. I may go to bed and skip dinner after the next computer salesman leaves.
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My headche went away after about 2 hours. We met with the other computer guy and got that out of the way. Then I barely made it to the dinner time at 8:30 without falling asleep. Again, like last night, I only ate a very small amount of food. I just had no appetite.

The entertainment while waiting for dinner was provided by one of the girls. She has lice in her hair. While sitting at the dining table studying, she spent over an hour digging for lice with her nails. Then she opened her fist to show all of us three of them she had retrieved!