January 18, 2006

January 18, 2006

An Emotional Return…


This morning, we set out with our driver, Kumar, and traveled south to Pannithittu Village, where we were to meet up with some members of the Rotaract Club from Cuddalore. ROTARACT is an officially sanctioned program of Rotary International that is comprised of young adults, many of whom are students at universities and colleges throughout the world, who are potential Rotarians. The concept of Rotaract in India is HUGE!!!! To be a member of Rotaract is an honor and is very prestigious and Rotaractors are looked up to by their colleagues and fellow students. The president of the Rotaract Club in Cuddalore is Shandmugan and his sister, Bouvana worked with our team in April of last year, when we were helping to construct the Community Hall at the orphanage in Cuddalore. They were faithful to the cause and joined us each day we worked at the site. With them yesterday was another member of the Rotaract Club, Anita. She is studying for her B.A. degree, as is her best friend, Bouvana, who is studying history. Shandmugan was recognized recently as the top Rotaractor in the entire Rotary District 2980, and will be traveling to Singapore for a conference in a few weeks, where he will meet with all of the other nominees from Asia.

When our van approached the construction site in Pannithittu Village, both Mark and I were filled with a range of emotions, knowing that thus far, we had helped to raise funds to pay for the construction of approximately fifty of the one hundred permanent homes for the fishermen and their families. On December 13, 2005, this village was dedicated with a puja ceremony, led by Swami Chidanand Saraswati, and joined by the Lieutenant Governor Lekhar of Pondicherry, and the District Collector Mr. Singh Bedi, among others. Unfortunately, neither Mark nor I was able to travel to India at that time for the ceremony, but were impressed with the amount of progress which has been made since ground was broken on September 15, 2005. Although some of the homes are incomplete, several of them are occupied because a number of the fishermen and their families no longer had living accommodations and therefore, were allowed to move into their homes before all of them have been completed. This said, however, Pannithittu Village is recognized as the first tsunami village of permanent homes to reach a dedication and occupancy stage in all of India. Mark had brought along some signs from England Rotary Clubs, indicating that they had donated the funds to pay for several of the homes, and these signs, although temporary, will be affixed to the entries of several homes tomorrow. The permanent signs will be in marble and set into the walls of each of the homes.

Once we were introduced to the work boss and his assistant, Amir, we moved to where we would be working for the day. For those in the team from last year, BRICK LINES has a very specific meaning. Within the week we worked in April, we moved BY HAND between 25,000 and 40,000 bricks at that construction site! Today, we were able to encourage some of the construction workers to join us in passing about 2,500 bricks to the areas where the masons were working to build walls. We worked for several hours, taking breaks about every half hour, replenishing our fluids with plain bottled water, or water to which we had added electrolytes powder – a practice we followed last year. Finally, it was time for lunch and we left in the van, having the Rotaractors accompany us to Cuddalore. Although we stopped at what could best be described as a sandwich shop, it had just re-opened following several days of the Pongal celebration, and was not able to serve us. At the suggestion of Rajan (our clerk of the works from last year), we decided to go to the most famous vegetarian restaurant in Cuddalore to have our lunch.

We started down the main street, and something snapped under the hood of the van and we coasted to a stop on the side of the road. After an inspection, Kumar produced the belt that had snapped and needed to be replaced. Shandmugan suggested that we walk to the restaurant, and although we were somewhat exhausted from our labors of the morning, we proceeded down the main street of Cuddalore. We determined almost immediately that WE were the attraction, rather than being the tourists – mothers would nudge their children and tell them to look at us, possibly seeing white westerners for the very first time. Anita had taught us how to say “hello” in Tamil, the language of Tamil Nadu, and so when we looked at some of these people and said, “Vanacum”, some of the children would turn and giggle to their parents, possibly wondering how these strange looking people were speaking their language. We arrived at the restaurant, Anandha Bhavan which serves only ONE entrée, whether at lunch or at dinner – thali – served on a stainless steel plate with a leaf inserted into the bottom, with tiny pots of dal, chutneys, curries and curd. Following lunch, we were brought a small plate with bananas and pan. Pan is a mixture of pungent herbs and spices, wrapped up in a leaf. We were instructed to eat the banana first and then to eat the pan – all in one bite! The three Rotaractors joined us and the meal was delicious.

Following lunch, we drove to the site where we had worked on helping construction at the orphanage this past April. As we reached the gate of the orphanage, I was amazed to see that on the location where we had been working in April a beautiful new community hall had been erected and was now complete. What a feeling to know that our manual labor had actually served as the foundation for this building and inside today was a group of two hundred women who had been displaced by or suffered from the tsunamis and were attending an all day conference for re-orientation and counseling. How gratifying to know that resulting in a small way from our efforts these women now could participate in such a conference on this site. Where we had worked on bending steel reinforcing rods and assembling them into “cages” with bent steel rods attached every eighteen inches, there was now the half-constructed a new building which will serve to house the orphans in only a few more months. Where we had sat in shade beneath the trees for a hydration break or to have our lunch, or simply to rest, there was now a second dormitory building under construction. Mark and I walked around the campus of this facility and watched as each other’s eyes filled with tears of joy and pride, and at the same time sadness since our fellow Rotarians were not with us at this time to see the amazing work which has been accomplished. The general contractor of the project arrived and greeted us warmly, recalling how our team would arrive in the mornings, disembark from our bus and break into a rendition of “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go!” When we were ready to leave this past April, the contractor approached me and asked if we could only stay longer. I told him each of us had left our families and businesses, and at our own expense had paid for the trip to come to India to work as manual laborers at this site and that we had to return home. He confided in me that in the one week of time we spent working at this orphanage, the amount of work, which had been accomplished, equaled at least four-and-a-half weeks worth of work!

We also toured the ladies’ dormitory and classroom building with the administrator, and were impressed to see the wonderfully equipped computer-teaching center. At least a dozen young women will be able to attend classes in computer training. Additionally, some of the young women who reside here will attend classes in beauty culture and others in stitchery. The hope is to have these young women become self-sufficient and to be employable within the coming several months.

Before boarding the van, Mark and I stood back for a moment and reflected upon what we had done some nine months ago and the impact that our small contribution had made at this place. Again, our eyes began to fill with tears and someone suggested it was time to go and so we boarded the van and departed.

From here we drove to the River Festival, where literally thousands of residents of Cuddalore and surrounding villages were attending the annual festival, which follows Pongal in January. Shandmugan told us we would be walking for about an hour, and the noise and the dust were literally intoxicating. There was a constant drumbeat in the distance, and as we grew closer to the river’s edge, we saw about eight or nine “shrines” to different gods, which were lined along the riverbank and where people were bringing offerings to those who were attending the booths. We were more or less moved along by the crush of people and once more, we became the curiosity, as we were white westerners, whom most of those in attendance had never seen before. The six of us (Rotaractors included) got closer to the sound of drums beating and saw a man dancing with wild gyrations to the syncopated rhythm of the drum. Just then, Mark and Melpo began to dance, much to the delight of the onlookers. Jitterbugging was not what I had expected the onlookers would have expected, but they certainly all enjoyed it, and one young man came and kissed Melpo’s hand.


After the “River Dance”, we walked back through the crowds toward town, stopping along the way to purchase a small item or two and eventually returned to our van. We drove from the two center to the home of Rajan, whom I mentioned before had been with us every day last year in Cuddalore, as we worked on the construction project. His father is a renowned Rotarian in this area, having been a longtime member of Rotary and having served as the founding member of the Rotary Club of Cuddalore Central. It was last year that we visited their home, being welcomed by four generations of their family, the grandfather and grandmother, son and wife, two grandsons and their wives and families. Rajan’s father served as principle translator for all of the ceremonies in conjunction with the Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry and Swami Chidanand Saraswati. He has an amazing gift of being able to switch from English to Tamil to Hindustani (Hindi) wish great ease. Likewise, his granddaughter, Ajita, was the hit with our group. Ajita, now eleven years old, has the same ability to assist in translating, and constantly displayed a smile on her beautiful face. Mark and I were eager to renew our friendship with this family, and particularly to see Ajita.

While we were there, we chatted with Rajan’s father, who had been singled out as one of the top ten Rotary Club presidents in the entire Rotary world, by Past Rotary International President, Rick King, at the international convention in Barcelona, Spain, for bringing in the greatest number of new members to his club during the year 2001-2002. Rajan’s brother currently serves as president of his Rotary Club, so it is easy to see how Rotary serves as a great part of their entire family. Ajita had returned home from school and seemed very happy to see us. She had grown a good deal, and was doing very well in her studies at school. She is already focused upon becoming a computer technical engineer and from what I could gather, is already writing some computer programs. We visited with the family for about an hour and then departed.

From Rajan's home, we left, accompanied by Rajan, his wife and their nephew, and drove to Thevinampattinam village, where nine months ago we had been invited by Swami Chidanand Saraswati to join in the blessing of the fishing boats. It had been nerly four months since any of the fishermen had returned to the sea, and so I was particularly privileged to be included in those who were in the boat with Swamiji, and our boat, along with five others ventured out into the sea, where Swamiji offered a prayer and blessings and without TOO much incident, we returned to shore to be welcomed by the villagers. Again, returning to some of these locations brings the emotions flooding back into my memory. From there, we then drove back to Cuddalore Beach, and were astounded to see the transformation in just a few months, since our last visit.

At that time, there were only a very few villagers wandering the beach, listlessly. They had blank stares of horror on their faces, and I remember when we approached some of the men that day, they simply drew closer to us, embarced us and several broke down emotionally and wept while we held them. Without words, they had conveyed how the tsunamis had turned their lives upside down and inside out and then took most of what they had from them. However, today was a different day... there were literally hundreds of people from the village and they were enjoying the new fountain at the entrance to the beach, as well as the jungle gym equipment and the swings. We walked down to the water's edge and Melpo and I, along with Rajan's nephew, waded into the Indian Ocean.

We turned around and walked back toward the van, and witnessed a peaceful and magnificent sunset, as it dropped behind the repair shelter each of us had seen several months previous. The resiliant Indians had ocne again shown me that although we may possess more materially, they are rich in spirit and it was heartening to see smiles had returned to their uplifted faces. Only a few reminders remained from the devastation of a year before, one of which was the ower half of a gazebo that had been literally picked up by the waves and slammed against the beach, splitting it in half and then driving the roof several feet into the sand. Now what remained was a wonderful seat and platform, where villagers could enjoy the sights and sounds of the sea.

We dropped off Rajan and his family at their home and proceeded back to our hotel in Pondicherry. At the hotel, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared especially for us by chef, Ragubabu. Since our arrival, Ragubabu has been so very pleased to have us staying here, that he has gone out of his way not only to prepare wonderful meals for each of us, but to include some of his specialties, and to join us occasionally at our table to talk about his future. London, you have a great treat in store for you in the coming year! Returning to our rooms, it did not take long for us to fall asleep, suffering a few aches and pains.