India Update # 1

10/22/04

Hello all!

Greetings from Chennai! Because there are so many of you who’d like to know what I’m up to in India, I’ll be using a group email list to send my updates. Apologies for the non-personalized mass email, but if you email me, I’ll be sure to write back to you directly...even if it takes me a little while.

I arrived late on Thursday night (Oct. 14^th) after several LONG flights from SFO-Frankfurt-Madras (Chennai). 20 + hours on a plane is never fun, but Lufthansa does their best to keep you distracted by feeding you mass quantities of food.

Presently, I am staying with my friend Abha’s family in Chennai. (Connecticut College connections) they are extremely sweet and have welcomed me into their home as a second daughter of sorts.

Monsoon season has begun, and I wake up every morning to the sound of rain and sometimes thunder.

This being my third visit to India, crowded streets of auto rickshaws, cars, cows and motorbikes, warm dosas and coconut chutney and bucket showers, geckos peering at me from the ceiling and drinking water from stainless steel tumblers are all familiar and somewhat comforting aspects of daily life.

I met with the director and communications director of PAM (People’s Action Movement) the morning after I arrived. Ekambaram (director) and Nathan (comm. director) seem to be cheerful fellows who are genuinely dedicated to their social justice cause—uplifting oppressed and marginalized communities. “PAM strives to ensure the basic rights and sustainable development of the downtrodden—especially women, children and dalits” (members of the untouchable caste) says their mission statement.

I’m happy to be involved in PAM, as their vision aligns closely with my own beliefs and career aspirations.

Ekambaram is himself from the dalit community, and grew up in Periyapalam. He founded PAM in 1999 and works in a number of areas, including HIV/AIDS education, awareness of urban slum issues and rights, youth leadership development and community action.

Nathan (Meekashinathan) a young and energetic recent grad with an masters in NGO management is Ekambaram’s valued “right hand man.” He’s been very supportive in making sure that I have a good transition into the organization.

Here is some background on the school project:

The school is located in the small town of Periyapalayam—about an hour drive by motorbike (two hour bus ride) north of Chennai. The school was originally founded in 1990 by a local panchayat president (community leader). After his death, the school underwent financial crisis and mismanagement and enrollment decreased significantly. PAM accepted management of the school in April 2004 and renamed the school “Victoria Matriculation School.”

At present, there are 93 students enrolled, K-7^th standard. There are eight teachers—six female and two male. The school site consists of three buildings: one classroom for pre-KG, lower and upper KG and 1^st standard. A second classroom houses 2^nd- 7^th standard. There is a small school office, and a computer room/store room which is located in the same building as the landlady’s house.

The more I talk with Ekambaram, the more apparent it becomes how much work I have ahead of me. I appear to have quite a bit of influence over the day-to-day running as well as in the long term vision of the school. They have waited on a lot of things until "the principal" arrived (setting a school calendar/schedule, printing stationary/notebooks for the students, rewriting the curriculum and setting the focus of the syllabi.

I’ve had several meetings with the “school management team”, trying to pick their brains and come to a better understanding about their plans and vision for the school. It has been made very clear to me that they are quite busy running other PAM projects, and that they want to hand full responsibility of the school over to me. They will be on hand to offer support, directly or indirectly, but they want me to take full authority. This is no small task...keeping track of the school fees is a feat in itself.

Every family has to pay a small admissions fee each month, in addition to a very small fee for the van service to take the kids to and from school. Some families can afford this and some can't, depending on the month. So, I’ll have to keep track of who has paid, how much they were able to pay, etc. in addition, I have to keep track of the van service--when its being used for the school pick up/drop off service, but also during non-school hours, as it is used by the public for local transport for a small fee.

PAM is in the process of getting government recognition for the school--a lengthy and complicated process. Simultaneously, I need to locate a funding source(s) to purchase new land for a new school site. Currently, PAM is renting the present buildings from the wife of the man who originally founded the school.

The plan is to develop a new site--much larger than the present site--and build a new school building with more resources--science laboratory, playground, separate classrooms etc. not to mention basic facilities, like toilets and running water. So, I have to oversee this process.

Another priority is curriculum development. I’ll have to do research on the best way to include curriculum that highlights human rights and dalit rights. Ekambaram's vision is to have school children un-learn caste discrimination from a young age. Thereby going on in life to be active members of society advocating equality for all community members.

Phew...thinking about all the various responsibilities i have is extremely daunting! It makes my head spin. for a lot of this, I'm going to have to learn on the job and be quick on my feet!

Hemma auntie (Abha’s mom) has been extremely supportive, offering sage advice and guidance—as she is in the same field of work. She recently founded a small nonprofit (exclusively run by volunteers) that is working to bridge the gap between school and “the real world,” developing students educational experience to have greater relevance to their day to day life.

One evening last week, I went with Hemma auntie to a school in the neighborhood that she visits once a week. I became the center of the class discussion, as the students practiced their spoken English on me, and asked my name ("Kelly." more in this later) where I'm from, what my age is, and why I have such high eye-brows. Most of the students seemed quite fascinated by this, and took turns pulling at the corner of their eyes (I'm assuming to imitate my Asian eyes) and giggling. I'm not sure they understand when I try to explain my mixed ethnic heritage and reassure them that I am indeed from the US and not china. I have a strong feeling that this won't be the last time I have this kind of conversation... but that's the interesting part of looking different, and being “the other” isn't it?

“Kelly” is my new name. As many of you already know, “Elli” in Tamil means mouse. So it was wisely suggested to me by Ms. Mridula Swamy that I alter my name if I don’t want the students giggling every time they address me. Shelly, Nelly, Ella and Elizabeth were all suggestions…but in the end mom picked “Kelly” as the best fitting.

Yesterday was my first visit to the school. I woke up at 5am (still nice and dark at that time) to a ridiculous amount of pouring rain. I left the house by 6am with auntie, who walked me to the bus terminus. from there, I took a local bus all the way to the very end of the line. At that time of the morning, its exactly a 1 hour trip. From the bus station, I took a short rickshaw ride to the PAM office, where I met the director by 7:30am. The plan was to take his motorbike to Periyapalayam (PP), but because it was still raining by then, we ended up taking a taxi instead.

We arrived in PP around 10:45am or so. The village is surrounded by plenty of green fields, and some palm tree groves. The roads were quite muddy since it had been raining since the night before.

I had a brief tour of the school site—it’s all rather small and compact, with no real boundaries, or school compound area. The neighbor's houses are just next door to the school buildings. The students are all very sweet, and well behaved. Standing to say "good morning sir and madam" in unison when Ekambram and I arrived in the classroom.

The ayha took charge of the younger students, and class monitors were appointed for the older classes, while the teachers and Ekambaram and I had a "staff meeting" in the school office. Ekambaram introduced me to them (speaking in Tamil) saying that I was a "very experienced American woman, who came to the village on an honorary basis" etc etc. Basically, making it sound like I had all the answers as an educated foreigner. This made me feel a bit uncomfortable, because I want to develop more of an equitable team setting, where the teachers run the show rather than some foreigner coming in (with very little formal knowledge about how a school runs!). But I guess I'll work on shifting that dynamic in the weeks to come.

Language communication is going to be a bit of an issue. Ekambaram served as a translator yesterday, but when he's not there, we'll have to make due somehow with my next to nothing Tamil vocab and the teacher's timid English.

Ekambaram's brother-in-law (Ebenezer--nice name, huh?) was hired by Ekambaram to teach at the school, and has also been appointed as "my bodyguard." He is responsible for my safety and well being while in the village in Ekambaram's stead. Apparently, this means that he will also be living with me.

Speaking of housing accommodations...I was given two options: either live in the house of the landlady (who PAM is renting the school buildings from), or live in a separate apartment unit. I was fine with either of the options--both being extremely basic. Ebenezer apparently didn't have a choice in the matter--he has to live where I live. I don't really think this is fair for him, but that this what Ekambaram has decided, which is final.

The rented room in the landlady's house is directly attached to the school office. which then connects to a sitting room with cable TV and a fridge (both luxury items in that area). The house itself is super basic--cement walls, floors and ceilings and dark inside. Sitting room, landlady's room which she shares with her son, kitchen (no running water), some sort of washing room and a separate squat toilet towards the back of the house by the backyard.

In the end, it was decided that Ebenezer and I would live in a separate unit. Mainly because the landlady is often away from the house and is spotty in her food preparation--usually going to friend's or neighbor's houses for meals. (If I stayed with her she would be preparing my meals). Ekambaram thought it would be better for me to be self-sufficient in this regard, to come and go as I please whether a landlady is home or not.

So, we went to visit the rented unit--just a 2 min walk from the school. A family recently moved out. It is another cement building, two units (we have the downstairs unit). one bedroom (for me), one common room and a kitchen. Behind the unit is a squat toilet, and what appeared to be a washing room (i think! although it had another squat toilet inside....) the unit needs new lights and ceiling fans installed, and will be painted. Supposedly with running water supplied from a water tank nearby. The unit will be ready by Wednesday and I am supposed to move in on Thursday. PAM is going to supply me with a bed, and they have already purchased an armoire/dresser type item. I'm positive the bed and the dresser are the only things you'd be able to fit into that tiny room!

I will stay in the village during the week, and then come back to Chennai for the weekends (and stay with Abha's family). How sweet of them to offer me a place in their home--it wasn't even a question, they want me to stay here full time in fact, but going back and forth to PP everyday is definitely not feasible.

So that’s a lengthy update from me. I could go on, but I think I’ll stop for now and leave more for update # 2.

I’ve uploaded some pictures of the school for your viewing pleasure:

http://photos.yahoo.com/ellinagairothe

I hope you are all well. I’ll be in touch again soon.

Love, Elli