Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

CAUTION: Anything I say about what the people here have or don't have--like televisions--applies ONLY to Kerala, which is the richest and most progressive state in India. There is poverty here, but it doesn't begin to compare with other parts of India, especially in the cities.
On the outskirts of the Mumbai airport, there is a shantytown, but it is just a small one. Whatever the people could cobble together for shelter.
In Kerala, there is a rice program for the poor. By the end of the year, everyone in Kerala will own property, including the 13,000 plus families who are being bailed out who signed their deeds over to someone else to pay their debts.
Kerala, if you remember, is run by the communists, but not in the same terms we think of where there are mass executions or people who disagree with you are thrown in jail. Still, I have a problem with the 13,000 plus--kind of like foreclosures and bankruptcy for credit cards.

In other parts of India, three men got life in prison for raping a Japanese tourist, and one guy got life in prison for sexually molesting and killing a three year old. Hopefully, he will also get the treatment from other inmates that our child molesters get. Trust me when I say you do not want to be in ANY foreign prison, much less here.

On to happier things.

Anil (Yoga Master), who is also helping me learn the language, absolutely could not believe that there are such people as stay-at-home dads. That was just more than he could grasp.

Speaking of Anil, my yoga experience this time has been much more positive. He's not asking me to do the impossible. In fact, he cautions against it. AND, they don't even have to come get me for yoga, which is saying something.

BTW: VNJ always comes to tell me when it's time for a meal; Vineesh brings my medicine to me; someone does my laundry; Mohanon fixes my meals; Gisha cleans my room. Kathy comes to get me for treatment and brings me back. What's NOT to like about this place?

Items of Interest:

Virtually every home has a well, which is outside, usually covered with netting to keep the birds out. It's six to eight feet across, and water is pulled up in containers on a rope. Several of the wells that I have checked have been dry. (Only now has the little pond beside the hammock got some water in it.) Learning that, of course, it's well water here, I wanted to see if it was the same kind of well others had, just hidden. Fortunately, that is not the case. The well here is inside. Babu (He's begun calling me Peggy so I think it's ok to call him Babu.) told us last year that the water is safe, but he didn't want us to drink it. We get bottled water. But I brush my teeth in this water. Haven't swallowed it. Haven't gotten sick.

Two days after my flight from Mumbai, there was a bomb scare on a Kingfisher plane. Mumbai wasn't my idea of where I wanted to spend a lot of time anyway. Speaking of which, Babu told me yesterday that I would definitely not have the freedom to move around walking the way I do here in other places. In a city, I wouldn't be able to walk 10 feet without ten beggars approaching me. People carry their money in pockets sewed inside their pockets. So, the stories you hear from others who have been to India are probably right on. Fortunately, that is not the case here. Actually, people seem to be friendly this year. Even the men. The children have always been friendly, and that has been encouraged by the parents. (With the exception of the three year old down the street, who was scared to death the first time he saw me.) Today he saw me coming from the end of the lane and started saying, 'hi'.

I have seen a rooster chase a cat. There are several roosters, and there is one which obviously rules the roost so to speak.

People here are convinced there is global warming.

I need to find out how to convert Centigrade to Fahrenheit while the internet is still up so I'll sign off for now.

Hope everyone is doing fine. I am truly having a great time.

Love,
Mom/Peggy/Granny/NiNi