Sunday outing

Phew, finally got to the end of a long week.  Saturday is a normal working day for most NGOs here in India but today (Sunday) we went out to one of SPREAD's field centres in Jalaput, next to the Machkund reservoirs on the border with Andhra Pradesh.  We set out soon after 8:00am to travel the 80km journey and arrived 2½ hours later after weaving around potholes, travelling through paddy fields, over (and through) rivers, through tribal villages, weaving through the people, cows, goats and sheep wandering along the roads.  We were told that there are tigers, elephants and bears roaming around Orissa but sadly we didn't see any.  There are acres of eucalyptus plantations dominating parts of the landscape.  This is not a native tree but paper manufacturers encourage their growth to supply their industry; unfortunately they are on land previously cultivated for food for the tribal people and the water uptake inhibits all other growth around them.  There are also many cashew trees but they will not be producing fruit until next May and June. 

We went to meet a group of project co-ordinators who work on various SPREAD projects.  The main task for the day was to finalise a report discussing SPREADs work developing "childrens' panchayats".  These are groups of youths organised along lines similar to the gram panchayats (local governments) of India, supported and mentored by SPREAD activists to encourage children to fight for their rights, learn about local governance and maybe to become leaders of the future.  One of their actions resulted in a local school of 100 children with only 1 teacher achieving an extra 2 teachers within 2 months of the initial request being lodged.  It was a great day and we were made very welcome by everyone we met and were given an overview of SPREADs work in that location.  The field centre is located in a 'temporary building' erected when the dams were being built in 1948.  It's still there, of course, made of corrugated iron which gets very noisy in monsoon rain with thunder crashing outside.

  

We were taken to the tribal market in the village by Laxmi and Parbati, two of the women from the group.  They looked after us well, steering us through the busy market and helping us with our purchasesGreat arrays of vegetables, fabrics, fish and a load of other th.  ings.  All produced by hand without aid of fertilisers and weekdkillers (excluding the hand-weeding of course)

 I splashed out 300 rupees on a 100% wool blanket - not that I need it now but I'm sure I will in winter when the temperature drops to around 4 degrees and I have no glass in my windows or shutters all round the house.

We sat on the floor to eat our lunch which was a great mixed veg curry with rice and dahl, served on plates made of leaves.  No washing up needed - except for me, I got very messy eating with my fingers and ended up wtih dahl dribbling down my chin and arms, much to everyone else's amusement.  I don't know what they found so funny.  I had to be taught how to eat properly which consists of mashing the rice, dahl and curry into your hand, balancing it on the 3rd and 4th fingers then shoving them right into your mouth to deposit the contents.  At least I know how to feed myself now but I have yet to master the Indian art of drinking from a bottle without touching it with my lips.  They make it look so easy but I daredn't try it in public as I end up pouring the contents all down my front when I try.