Relaxing Time

Many of us were up early this morning and ready to hit the beach.  The beach here is OK, but what makes it so nice are the huge waves....reminded me a bit of Costa Rica and they even had a few people surfing.  About six of us decided to swim in the waves for about an hour...what a great time and so refreshing.

 We headed in for breakfast and then I decided to go back out to the beach  for a bit of sun.  Most of the beach area around our hotel is full of fishing boats.  Many of the fishermen were preparing their lines and some were already putting out their boats.  I decided to take a stroll down the beach passed all the boats...this area is much wider and almost empty.  Now we are in India, so there were not a lot of people out sunbathing on the beach, but being the good Canadian I am, I found a secluded spot and hung out for about an hour.  I would have stayed longer...there was an amazing breeze and I love the sound of the waves crashing into the shore...but the security guard at the resort I was next to decided to try and solicit some services from me that were not really available...totally unexpected!!!!

I decided to head back to the hotel and hang out at the pool with a couple of the other girls on my team.   Oh my God it was HOT....not a single breeze and sweat was just dripping off us as we sat by the pool.  The only thing you could do to cool off was stay in the pool the entire time.  At about noon I had enough sun and decided to shower and pack my things...we are only here for one night and leaving at 2pm.

I bought a few final things, hopped on the bus and we were on our way to Chennai.  This was about an hour and a half bus ride....not much to describe until we hit the actual city. There is so much traffic here...almost as bad as Delhi!!!  I really didn't miss the pandemonium of driving in the big cities.  We came across several markets, lots of tuk tuks, women in their saris sitting to the side on motorbikes...looks very interesting...lots of buses and yes don't forget the odd cow or two.

We arrived at our hotel the Thulashi Park around 4pm....I was exhausted from the sun and heat.  We checked in and at 6pm all got together for dinner in the hotel restaurant.  What a great scoff we had of Indian food.  Hard to believe this is the last meal all twelve of us will be having together....what a great couple of weeks.  By 8:30pm we said our goodbyes, exchanged business cards and headed off to our rooms.  Everyone except myself and three other people are leaving tonight, so many people wanted to finish packing and get a couple hours sleep.

Tomorrow is my last day in India, so I guess we'll see what we can find to do in Chennai.

Until then....

Mamallpuram

Today we are leaving Pondicherry and heading to Mamallpuram for the R&R portion of our time in India.  It is hard to believe that two weeks hve already passed and it's almost time to head home. Before doing so, we made sure we provided tips to all the staff who made our stay at the Atithi Hotel such a pleasurable one.  We said our goodbyes to the staff and boarded the bus for our 2 hour drive along the East Coast Road.

The drive was non eventful really...except for the interesting signs along the way...."Accident Prone Area, Drive Slow".  It was hot and humid as always..God what I'd do for A/C on the bus...and just outside of Mamallpuram we saw people working in the salt flats. We arrived at the Hotel Sea Breeze  at about 1pm, unloaded the bus and headed to our rooms.  I didn't think it could get any hotter in India, but it certainly felt like it here...not a breeze anywhere!!!

Mamallpuram is a touristy town, well know for it's stone carvers. After lunch we went on a 2 hour guided tour of the World Heritage Sites in the area.  During our tour we saw Krishna's Butterball...this is a HUGE boulder sitting on a hill that hasn't moved in thousands of years...

Varaha Cave...beautiful stone carvings...

Arjuna's Penance...this carving is 27m wide and 8m high...

The Five Rathas....carved out of one piece of granite stone and took 80 years to finish...

and the Shore Temple...one of six temples carved in the 7th Century...during the recent tsunami when the water receded from the shore line, one of the temples was uncovered on the ocean floor.

These were incredible pieces of art work and awesome to see in person...worth the visit even in the extreme heat of the day.

We arrived back at the hotel around 4pm and I headed out to do some shopping....not much time left in India and I still have many things I'd like to pick up.  By 7pm, I was back at the hotel and by 7:30pm, we headed out to dinner at the Bay Treasure Restaurant.  Well this was an experience in itself.  At our table we had three BBQ inserts where we cooked our own kebabs...some of us where better at this than others!  We thought at first this was our entire meal because there was so much food, but then realized we had an entire buffet to eat from as well....I haven't eaten so much food in two weeks in my life!

We had great food, lots of conversation...especially about the dessert...a few cold Kingfisher beer and then we found out about the Sheeshas.  I'm not sure the restaurant staff/owner knew what they were in for when they invited us to the lounge area to test these out!!!  Typically a sheesha is tobacco smoked through a small bowl of water and sucked through a tub...here we had different flavours to choose from....mint, Arabian Night and NRG.  Most of us had a turn trying this out and I have not laughed so hard in myl ife...we even had a few competitions about who could smoke it better.  I really do think Colette was a pro and won hands down for best technique!!

What another crazy night.  Headed back to the hotel around 10:00pm in our disco bus and eventually off the bed.  Heading to the beach tomorrow!!

Until then....

The Homes

Over the course of our two weeks with the Habitat for Humanity Global Village Program in India, we worked on five different homes....it takes about 3 months to build one home.  Here is a bit of information about each of them. 

HOUSE #1
Homeowner:  Kasiammal - widow

• Eganathan - son (electrician)
• Ezhilarasan - son (mason)

Kasiammal (35 years) is a widow and is residing with her two sons in Seyamkuppam village. Kasiammal’s husband Elumalai passed away three years ago.

Kasiammal works for 100 days in a year in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme implemented by the Government.  The family is residing in house where the roof is made of grass. The walls are thatched and the floor is cemented. Cooking is done outside the house. There is no toilet in the present house. There is corporation tap which 10 feet away from the house. The family uses this water for drinking, cooking, washing and for other chores.

We  met the mother during the first day of the build and after that she was not well....she had to have a cyst removed from her neck after the first week.  Both son's worked very hard on the home and at least one of them was there everyday.  We worked on this house almost everyday we were in the village and it was so exciting to see the progress throughout the two weeks....from nothing to partial walls!!!

 

Kasiammal says "I am feeling extremely blessed to know that there are volunteers who are coming to
help us in the construction of our house".

 

HOUSE #2

Homeowner:  Anushaya

• Murugan  - husband
• 3 children

Murugan (35 years) and his wife Anushaya (25 years) is residing with their three children in
Seyamkuppam village.  Manikandan (9 years) their elder son is studying in 4th standard in Tambaram which is close to Chennai. Nadhini (7 years) their second daughter is also studying in 4th standard in the Government school in Seyamkuppam village. The last son Bhoopathi is 3 years old and stays at home.

Anushaya’s mother-in-law Ammakannu
(55 years) also stays along with this family. Murugan is involved in digging bore wells. Digging bore well is a seasonal job and Murugan get jobs only in the non rainy seasons. Anushaya works for 100 days in a year in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme implemented by the Government.

This family has ½ acre of coconut grove and also has 3 cows and 2 goats. The family is residing in a thatched roof house. The roof is made of grass, flooring and wall is made of mud. Cooking is done inside the house. There is a bore well and the family uses water from this for cooking, washing and cleaning.

We worked on this house during the first two days and the last two days of the build.  We had a variety of people helping us from the grandmother, the wife and the wife's husband.  We had red ants in one of the holes we were digging and everyday the homeowner would work on getting rid of them...and she finally did.    The second day we worked at this site, the young son of the homeowner climbed a coconut tree to get us some coconut juice.  The heavy rain we had in India washed away many of the holes we dug in the first two days and we had to fix them the last week so we could pour in the concrete base.

Murugan says "I am sure the work of the volunteers is going to have a great impact on the cost of construction. I am going to save a lot on the labor cost and I want to thank the volunteers who are traveling so far to come and help me in saving the labor cost".

HOUSE #3
Homeowner:  Thatchaini

• Ramalingam - husband (electrician)
  
• 3 children

We started to work on this house on our third day in the village.  The husband of the homeowner was very specific about how he wanted sand to be sifted.  This home was already started before we arrived...it was identified by REAL beforehand.  There were many workers hired to do the masonry and painting.  The homeowner and grandmother also worked everyday on the home.  This home had the door and windows installed while we were there...the timing of this was based on astrology.  It was very hot working on this home as there was never any shade!!!

HOUSE #4  (duplex)

Homeowner:  Asodhai

• Rasappan - husband
• 4 children

We started to work on this house during our second week in the village.  It had been started when we arrived and we did a lot of brick moving here.  I only worked at this site on one day when we knocked down a mud wall from their previous house, but I saw the homeowner on many occasions.  This home was a duplex with the older daughter living in the second side of the house....she is just moving back to the village after separating from her husband.  In the final days of our work here they started to build the walls for the bathroom.

HOUSE #5
Homeowner:  Dhanalakshmi (we never met her)

• Dhanapal - husband
• 2 sons residing at home
• Palani - daughter-in-law

Dhanapal (80 years) and his wife Dhanalakshmi (65 years) are residing in Seyamkuppam village. This couple has 4 children. Out of which two of them are married and settled in the same village. Palani (31 years) and Mohan (27 years) are the sons who are residing with the parents. Jeyapriya (25 years) Palani’s wife also lives with her in-laws.

Both the brothers Palani and Mohan work as electricians. Dhanapal also owns a two acre agricultural land. Dhanalakshmi takes care of the agricultural activities with assistance of her son Palani. There are 4 buffalo and the milk is consumed by the family itself.

 The family is residing in a thatched roof house. The roof is made of grass, flooring and wall is made of mud. There is no kitchen and toilet. There is a corporation tap near the house. The family draws this water from the tap for drinking, cooking and washing. Some times the family uses water from their neighbor’s house as they have a bore well. 

We only worked on this house for one day...the day of the lightning and thunder storm.  We moved bricks from the road to the roof and then once it started to rain we moved bricks from the road to the side of the house.  This house was already started before we arrived and we never met the homeowner.  We did meet the husband and grandfather at the closing ceremony...this is when we heard he was over 80 years old and he was extremely proud to finally have a proper home during his lifetime.   How incredible!!!!

Palani says "we are waiting as a family to work with the volunteers".

Until tomorrow...

Day 8: Our Final Day

Today was our last day of our Habitat for Humanity build and what a day it turned out to be!!!

To start with, we moved bricks at the second house for most of the morning....I don't think you ever get used to the heat in India, especially the humidity.  With about 7 people, we moved approximately 1500+ bricks from the road to the build site.  By noon we were all drenched in sweat and ready for a break.

Today was a half day of work for us.  We had the opportunity to visit the village school and meet some of the children...maybe about 40 of the students.  In fact we purchased notebooks for all the students in the lower primary grades...something we were told they needed.  When we arrived at the school around 12:45pm, the students were expecting us and eating their lunch.  It was interesting to notice that the boys ate in one end of the room and the girls in the other.  They were all very excited to see us and many recognized us from the build sites over the past couple weeks.

After they finished their lunch and cleaned up, they sang us a couple songs...very cute.  Then each of them came up and we all had a chance to hand out three notebooks to each of them....none of them could afford to buy notebooks for school, so this was a very necessary gift for me.  They were so polite...they each shook our hand and thanked us in English for the books.  Once we were finished handing out the books, we went outside in the play area for a bit to chat with the students and take some pictures.  The kids love to shake your hands...you feel a bit like a celebrity, which is kind of strange really.  Jim actually had many of the students sign his Habitat t-shirt...I'm sure they loved that.

After we visited the school we headed back to our tent for lunch.  We were leaving the village around 1:45pm, as we had to go back into Pondicherry to shower and get ready for the ceremony happening at 4pm.  By the time we arrived back at the hotel, we had about an hour to get ready.  Now an hour may seem like a lot of time to get ready, but when you are trying to put on a sari for the first time, an hour is not all that much time.  Four of us decided to wear saris...I gave Kaitlyn one of mine to wear...and she looked beautiful...so we had lots of work to do.  Remember we have 6 meters of material to do something with and no idea what we were doing!!!

After about 15 minutes we decided we needed some additional help and asked one of the hotel staff to help us get dressed.  It was amazing to watch her fold, pin and tuck all the fabric to create these beautiful dresses.  The vibrant colours and beautiful silk material made you feel like a princess.  Within 30 minutes she had all four of us ready to go and we even had time to take some photos....felt a bit like prom all over again!!!

We headed down to the lobby expecting the guys to be dressed in their traditional sarongs....and they all bailed on us!!!!  Don't think that didn't go by without a few words by the rest of us.  Either way, we all looked great, took some amazing photos and boarded our bus for the village by 3:45pm.  I must say, wearing 6 meters of material in 35+ degree heat is certainly not something I would like to do on a daily basis....it was hot!!!!  I kept thinking about all the women we saw working in the fields, doing laundry and even helping at the build site in their saris....I have have no idea how they did it.

We arrived at the village around 4:30pm to a warm welcome.  Many of the villagers were waiting for us, along with the children...of course.  Just after we arrived, myself and Caitlin were wisked away into the shed where about 10-15 of the girls were waiting to help redress us.  I had no idea why we were there, but within a couple second, I had about 4 girls tucking and tugging on my sari and telling me how beautiful I looked...one girl told me I looked "handsome" and "super".  What we found out later was that we had too much of our cleavage area showing...even though we had a blouse on under our sari...and needed to be fixed up.  Quite funny really.

So after we had our saris repositioned we then visited each of the five houses we worked on over the past two weeks, presented the homeowners with fruit and food and then had pictures taken as a group with each of them.  One of the homeowners was an 80+ year old man who said that the one thing he was most excited about in his life was to finally have his own home....how amazing is that!!!

Each of the homeowners shook our hands...and I mean shook them...as they were very grateful for our support and help in making their dreams come true.  In fact most of the homeowners were in town earlier today, as their loans arrived for their homes, so they had to go to the bank and then order supplies.  What a great feeling it must have been for them to know soon they would have a decent home to live in.

After visiting each of the homes, we then headed back to the tent area where there were the customary speeches and we were each presented with leis.  Finally some of the children put on a cultural dance show for us....it was so beautiful.  Six girls came out dressed in their saris and danced for about 15 minutes...what a workout.  Then two other children did a final dance for us before we had about 5 minutes to say our final goodbyes.  A pretty emotional afternoon knowing you would probably never see these people again, but also knowing you have made such an impact on their lives...no doubt forever.  Lots of tears were seen, many smiling faces, hand shakes and endless waves as we drove off in our bus.   What an incredible way to finish such an amazing day and experience....it really can not be summed up in words.

We arrived back at the hotel around 7pm...hot and tired...took some additional photos in our room....Lisa and I had a hard time deciding if we really wanted to take our saris off...lord knows we will never get them back on correctly anytime soon!!  Around 8pm we headed down to the hotel bar for a drink with the group and ended our evening with our final dinner at the hotel in Pondicherry.

What an amazing group of people I have had the pleasure to spend the past two weeks with.  It's not always that easy to bring together 12 people who know nothing about each other and gel so nicely together.... couldn't have asked for a better team and am so glad I made the decision to be part of this Habitat for Humanity India Global Village build....I've made friends forever, both near and far.  I highly recommend taking part in any of the Habita for Humanity GV builds and will certainly be participating in another one in the near future....maybe Thailand or Vietnam in 2013!!!

Tomorrow we are off to the final portion of our Habitat experience...the R&R portion of our trip.  Time for a bit of rest and relaxation before heading back home.  So I guess we'll see what tomorrow bring.

Until then....