Helping Elsewhere

On Saturday, for the first time, Colin made the journey to the villages in the Western Ghats where we have been providing solar lighting.  Vavurla is one of three villages that we have been helping and in terms of first impressions it is probably the most spectacular. It is a small tribal enclave of 31 families (or 250 people) living in very simple mud-built houses with cow-dung floors and it clings onto the edge of a ghat 370m (Colin measured it by GPS!) up from the coastal plain. Access is only possible because the villagers have made a dirt track road which is just passable in the dry season by a sturdy vehicle (in the monsoons you might just make it in a 4×4).

When we entered the village they were preparing for the Shigmo festival which is celebrated around March every year – the dates vary according to the Hindu calendar that is based on lunar cycles. It is a Goan festival that exactly coincides with Holi (you have probably seen Indians throwing coloured paint and water over each other?). In the villages it is celebrated in their own way with special dances and merry-making.

We arrived just as the sun was setting and the whole place had a very atmospheric feel – smoke from the rice fires hung in the air. The villagers were just arriving home from their work in the fields; this was after having made the trek down to the nearest proper village to vote in the State elections which were also happening that day. The ladies were preparing the feast dinner which would have been rice, dahl, and pumpkin served with coconut, also sanna, which is a steamed rice patty made for special occasions. Some of the ladies were elaborately decorating hats which would be later used by the men in the dances that they all join in later after much drinking of feni!

Father George introduced us to a blind lad from Vavurla who all his life has found his way around the village without a stick and with supreme confidence. He now goes to a specialist school where he learns Braille and is the proud owner of a talking watch. The other village kids treat him really well and love asking him the time – out it comes in an American accent which he then translates for them. His English is getting quite good and he made sure he told us the time rather than let us listen to the watch.

Colin, being Colin, entered into a technical discussion with Fr George and this lad on how blind people cast their votes in the era of EVMs (the current elections in Goa are using Electronic Voting Machines for the first time) – Fr George seemed to be interested in Colin’s proposal of Braille overlays or stickers for the EVMs but we soon learnt that they had been learning about voting at school and they apparently use paper Braille voting slips.  The old ways are usually the best!

I always feel a real connection to these people when I visit and it makes me realise why I do our work in Goa. I think that connection also happened today for Colin [indeed so! C], because it is not until you see and spend a little time up on the mountain that you understand the difficulties they face but also the quality of life that they share – and that I envy!

Never ones to sit still, my mad friend Barbara and I decided to embark on a road trip…

Nothing strange in that, I hear you say, except that it involved leaving at 3.30am to be on the road out of Goa before the rush hour. We were heading for Sirsi in Karnataka, a small town about four and a half hours drive south of Panjim in Goa, to visit a school where we were to run a workshop on grooming and empowerment  for the young ladies who were about to leave school.

‘Rush hour?’ I heard you say. Not the one around Panjim or any such town, but the one where the lorry drivers wake at around 5.30am and start to clog up the mountain road across the Western Ghats and down into Karnataka! But we had made good time to the Goan border at Karwar and, as the sun began to rise, the scenery was amazing. Dawn, as we crossed the bridge over the river, is a sight to behold! I had never been into Karnataka before – this western bit of the state is lush and green with many rivers flowing through it.

We arrived at the Don Bosco School in Sirsi at about 8.30 – the children were just arriving and taking their places for assembly. Sirsi is a small town with not much there but what was noticeable to me was that the school was way more under-resourced than any I had seen in Goa.  Father Evan, the principle that Barbara knows well, was so pleased that we had made the trip and, whilst the children were shy to start with, they began to relax as the workshop started.

We talked about body language, appropriate dress for interviews and how to handle life in the work place. This was a first for these young women as the emerging aspiration for them is to have a job and a life outside of the home – not just be married off to have children. They all had dreams to be professional people and many wished to go and study in Bangalore.

Whilst Barbara finished off the workshop, I wandered around the rest of the school. It has a lovely feel about it, and the kids are clearly happy, but it is woefully under-provided with things like books and computers. In fact Barbara and I had carried down a donation of books with us that Claudia and Andy at Elsewhere had brought out from the British NGO, Give a Book.  In this part of Karnataka there are no support organisations like Bookworm that can aid and support teachers.

Barbara and I left Sirsi at the end of the school day to make the long journey back across the Ghats. We were glad to do that part of the journey in daylight as the mountain roads are quite rough and full of road works! Eighteen hours after we had started out, I was home; but I am very glad to have visited Sirsi, driven through some spectacular jungle, seen the betel nut forests and given thanks at the temple at the top of each ghat that we had made it so far safely!

Two exciting things have happened at Our Lady of Rosary School in Mandrem this trip!

Firstly the money we raised back in the UK has enabled them to buy a photocopier that they have long set their heart on. This will enable them to vastly reduce their lesson plan running costs – no more trips to the copy bureau in the next village! Something our schools in the UK just take for granted isn’t it?

Secondly was meeting Claudia and Andy Burn from the UK at Elsewhere. They visited Mandrem School last year and spoke to Jacinta, the headmistress. They have a deep love of books themselves and so immediately noticed that their library could do with a few additions.

Now as Claudia told me “You don’t need many clothes out here and it’s easy to buy anything you need” so they filled their two suitcases with carefully chosen children’s books arranged through ‘Give a Book’ (which is a charitable project set up in the memory of Simon Gray, the author, playwright and screenwriter that helps people to arrange book donations to many needy causes) and flew back to Mandrem.

I had been asked to help in choosing the range of books and then was invited to join Claudia and Andy to go to the school to meet Jacinta and watch the kids unpack them. Jacinta found a class that were doing scouts and guides duty and the science teacher joined them all. What a scene! The kids fell upon the pictorial encyclopaedias (especially anything to do with animals or space) and both Jacinta and the science teacher were equally enthralled. Later this teacher told me how much these books would transform her teaching, especially at Standard 10 level (our GCSEs). I realised how few Indian textbooks have illustrations and so why these books were so important.

I took the chance to have a chat with Jacinta about the progress of the school. This is now the third year the school has been hosting its own Standard 10 exams and the pass rate is extraordinarily high. They now get some government aid (eg the teachers’ salaries) and the school is gaining a good reputation in the area.

I think this is a success story!!!

PS We’ve just discovered that Claudia and Andy reported back to Give a Book about their trip to the school and they wrote it up on their blog. Excellent!

For many years I have been hearing about the famous Bookworm Jumble. I was told that just about everybody in Goa helps and after Sunday I can indeed confirm that that is true!!!

For the last two weeks people have been dropping off jumble to sell at Elaine’s Miramar, Panjim home. Everything appeared… exercise bikes, clothes, electronics, shoes, any number of household items. All was sorted, priced and packed into boxes.

Early Sunday everything was transported to the large car park behind FabIndia and the line of open car ports was transformed into a Bookworm-style department store. Books, toys, clothes (men’s and ladies’) and even a whole area for handbags (a girl can never have enough handbags!). And, as in every great store, a dedicated cafe was set up – run by the wonderful mums of Sujata and Ferdie.

Ferdie drew the short straw and set up his stall of anything that had ‘wires’ on a flight of steps in full sun. Everybody else took up their stations selling their own speciality. The fun began! I had the nicest job of selling the new range of Bookworm’s published books and that meant I had a great chance to talk to friends both old and new.

Well after eight hours of hard work Bookworm made just over 2 lakh Rupees (that’s over 2,500 UK Pounds). Not too shabby at all!!! Well done everybody!

So I’ll put in my shameless plea now… If you’ve got any redundant laptops, cameras, anything smallish and ‘worth it’ under the bed then I’ll bring it out ready for next years Bookworm Jumble!

Well the time had finally arrived that Bookworm had expanded so much that it needed a new home! So a well executed transfer whilst we were here saw their move, helped by a generous benefactor, to a pretty red house in the Panjim suburb of Taleigao!

The new space is amazing with a big open area downstairs for the younger children to choose and read that perfect book, and upstairs a teenage ‘den’ has been created (with the necessary lounging bed!) with more demanding reading material. There is also a new creative arts space with an airy balcony over-looking the paddy fields.

So plans are being evolved for book discussions (both for kids and adults), craft classes, an adult needlecraft group and a whole raft of pre-school learning groups and literacy classes that Elaine and her team are keen to develop. There’s even enough capacity to let out space to tutors to create a small income stream.