Thurs 17th October

Good day to you Hospice fans :)

So then, my last day in another world and my final post- albeit a bit earlier than I was expecting. 

Now last week I told you I had found a way to free up some money and now is the time to tell you how I did that. 

As you know I've spent my time here always with an eye open to find ways to help and a few weeks ago I came to the realisation that there were no other ways I could physically help around the Hospice or any more things I could buy for the children or for the Hospice. So after a lot of thought I came to the realisation that the only way left to help was that if I went home in November instead of January- to extend my visa by only one month instead of three. This would mean that I could leave them with a larger lump sum as I would not be spending any of it on my day to day needs. 

Now this was a very, very hard choice to make, it was actually quite a painful choice for me to make but it was the most logical one (also it made sense as it will be much easier to find work in November than in January) and after some time I decided that this was the best remaining way to help. 

What I wasn't expecting though was that my visa extension would fail and I would be coming home even earlier. This past week has been very hard for me. I really wasn't ready to come home yet & I was desperate to stay with the kids & the friends I've made for one more month (also avoiding the cold back home was an attractive reason to stay here that little bit longer).

Still though when it was confirmed that the visa extension had failed I was sad for a short while but then I had a peace about it. In the end the Hospice will get even more money, and trust me they are quite desperate for it, and due to my previous plan to leave in November & the line of thinking that brought me to that decision it has made it easier to except the way things have turned out. Although I am really not looking forward to experiencing what it's like to go from being acclimatised to 35c to the forecasted snow I have heard is on the way back home. 

Anyway enough of my whinging!

This trip to another world has been a fascinating experience and it does actually feel like I've been here 6 months, time seems to slow down out here. 

I have seen how people live in these parts of the world before on TV, but to experience it first hand really has given me perspective & understanding & a real appreciation of how much we have back home. Easy access to water, a permanent reliable power supply, comfortable beds to sleep in, no mosquitos constantly trying to eat you alive, a health care system that even the poorest can access, homes that aren't made out of bamboo & dried palm tree leaves, a rubbish collection system to keep our cities clean, care for the elderly, good (mostly) clean public toilets that aren't just holes in the ground & an underground sewage system. Trust me in this heat they could REALLY do with this.

I hope one day the standard of living here will be the same as ours back home but it does feel like I've traveled back in time more than a hundred years and it seems to me it could take that long for this part of the world to catch up. And to be honest with the way things are here & with the ways of the world I wonder if ever at all, but I hope they do.

Now to my children. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to them later today. Unlike leaving my friends & family back home to come here I know I will not be coming back & will likely not see them again. When they all found out I was leaving & that I was upset about it they all came running surrounding me and saying "No feeling Uncle! No feeling!" In other words don't feel bad. They were all clinging on to me and offering me their biscuits (usually they guard these like a dog protecting his dinner hehe) and they all took me to play games & draw pictures for me to make me feel better. Which ironically made me a bit emotional but is a memory of this place that will always stay with me. 

My little friend Diana has warmed back up to me again now she knows I will be leaving, not sure what took her so long but as a 35 year old man there is no possible way I could ever understand what is going on in the mind of a 12 year old South Indian girl but I am just glad she is being friendly to me again, if she hadn't that is something that would always have bothered me. 

My friends here & myself all want to thank you all who have supported this project through your gifts of money & your prayers. There is a heck of a lot that has been done here that would not have been possible if I had to fund this completely by myself so thank you again for these gifts. 

And thanks most of all to God who gave me the honour of choosing me to come out here to do these things & experience all that & I have. Without Him none of this would have been possible & I will always be grateful to Him for this experience & for giving me the honour to be the vessel He chose to do these good works through. Thank you. 

So, that's it then. Finale. I look forward to seeing everyone soon it really does feel like I've been gone much longer than I have been.

This is Stuart Wicks, Arulagam Hospice, Bangurapuram, BBC news, signing off. 

See you soon :) x x x

Weds 16th October

Hello friends. 

So then to get straight to the point my visa request has been rejected so I will be coming home this weekend. I did think that was going to happen so I've had a chance over the past week to come to terms with it and get most of my  work here done, I'm sorry I won't have time to get the school report done. 

My last post will be tomorrow I have to think about what I'm going to writeI wasn't   expecting to come home this early! Bye for now Hospice fans.

Stuart :) x x x

Tues 15th October

Hello there friends. :)

So the trip to the school in Melayakudi did go ahead although we ended up getting there a little late & it was dark by the time we got there so apologies for the pictures not being as good as they could have been. These are a couple of pics inside & out of the tiny little school;

My first impression of the school was how small it is! It really is tiny as well here's a video I've uploaded of it for you, you'll notice there's no tables or chairs for the children here;

http://youtu.be/ihI8jRcYGqY

On arrival though before seeing the school I was led into the small chapel where the children were sitting waiting to greet us with the boys sitting on the left and the girls on the right. Gender separation like this is a cultural norm here it's just the way they roll. 

Now to be honest with you there's not much I can write about my experience there as we were only there a short time but the videos I made will basically cover what happened during my visit there. 

Sorry I didn't start recording right from the beginning I didn't think it would be good manners to be video recording while I was being welcomed so it starts quite suddenly, and was filmed inside little church right next to the school;

http://youtu.be/ZKIyNqTxQSs

This ones especially for Ruth, Andy & Jane;

http://youtu.be/SmmfnEDtYWU

It was explained to me that most of the children were Hindu so Gnana suggested I tell them the story of how I cam to Christ so thats what I did- although it was not easy to cram a lifetimes experience into a few short sentences that would be translated into Tamil so they could understand! So basically after the greetings, the sing songs, a few things to eat we took a few photos and we were off! Short but sweet & I know this post is a bit rubbish & I'm sorry I've kind of lost my zing this week worrying about my visa it's been a struggle for me this past week. 

Anyways I hope this post is at least partially satisfying for you! Bye for now friends I shall return......

Stuart :) x x x

Outside the church with the school just to the left;

The church from the inside;

And just for fun an Ice cream Tuc-Tuc I came across the other day;

And also the snake that was waiting for me in my room a couple of weeks ago;

Sun 13th October

Good day Hospice fans!

[This post was meant to be up yesterday but we got back to the Hospice late & I didn't get time to post it]

So then tomorrow I will be travelling again to Madurai City to see Gnana & Kirubai & will be going to visit the school a Melayakudi. Well that's the plan anyway it should go ahead as I could be coming home next weekend but we shall have to wait & see if it actually happens or not. 

The plan is to stay overnight which will be nice & travel back to the Hospice on Tuesday.

I will do my best to get the Melayakudi report up on this blog as soon as possible as I really want to get that done before coming home. 

I'm not sure if I'm going to get time now to do the school report about an average school day for the kids at the Hospice but I will try my best next week will be all over the place if my extension is rejected. If I don't get time to do it I am sorry, I wouldn't have procrastinated on this if I had known this problem would arise. I thought I had plenty of time left. But you never know the extension might well come through. 

So then to continue with the stories of the children & today I will tell you about Carthick. 

Carthick is 8 years old and has been at the Hospice for 5 years now. Again he contracted HIV from his mother at birth but uniquely among the children his mother lives here at the Hospice as well. 

Things started to go bad for Carthick & his mother when his father left to marry another woman. 

Palleniamal (Carthicks mother) had no means now of supporting herself & her son. Her family had rejected her because of being HIV positive & she had nowhere to turn. With all these things & what she must have felt was the only option left she decided to commit a joint suicide with Carthick. 

Now fortunately before she went through with this she found out about Arulagam Hospice where she & her son would be accepted & cared for & now Palleniamal is one of the workers at the Hospice so this place has truly been a blessing to them. 

Now Carthick is a funny child & is always eager to please and show of his skills. For fun I've been showing the kids how to do handstands & Carthick is really quite good at it. He bounces around the place in a way that you can tell he would be very good at gymnastics, and infact in a couple of years when he is old enough they are going to get him some gymnastic schooling & I think he will be brilliant at it. Ok that's it for now I will let you know about the visa as soon as I know. Stuart :) x x x

Sat 12th October

Hello everybody just to let you know the hurricane is passing hundreds of miles north of here. It's 35c and a bright sunny day so no need to worry!

Stuart :) x x x

Friday 11th October

From good news about goats to bad news about my visa. I'm going to be succinct about this as I'm not happy and very tired. 

Things are not looking good for my visa extension, apparently the application has been made too late to be processes in time which is next Friday when my visa runs out. Now I did want to go get this sorted out 2 weeks ago but things don't happen here when I would like them to. 

Now to be fair my friends here have tried their hardest to see what they van do & we will get an answer by Tuesday to wether or not I will get my extension. 

So please pray for this!!!

I have a gut feeling that I won't get the extension so I will be doing all I can to complete my work here in the next week. 

Ok by for now guys I will keep you informed. Stuart x x x

Weds 9th October

Today has been a very good day!

As you know I've always got my eye open for new ways to help, two things were to get the children who don't have them shoes & mosquito repellant cream for all the children. When I suggested these ideas initially they thought they were good ideas but then they came back to me after thinking about it and told me shoes were not such a good idea as the kids will quickly loose them taking them off wherever they may be & forgetting where they left them. The  Mosquito cream is poisonous if ingested and some of the children will try to eat it rather than rubbing it into their skin (yes, some if them are that mental) so instead they suggested that I get them some goats!

Now I thought this was a brilliant idea especially as I have always wanted to buy some poor people from a third world country some goats! (Actually not kidding on this one) So that's one more thing to tick off my bucket list! :)

So this morning we went to the market and came home with some goats! Whoopee!!! Here is a short video of the goats we bought;

http://youtu.be/Nsw6DweI8kM

Now there are four females and one male, (lucky boy, makes me wish I was a goat) in time the herd will grow and they will be able to sell some of them and get a continuous income from them. Which is what makes this really something worth while investing in for them. And it means whatever happens we will have left them with some real long term assets.  

Now in total the goats cost 14000 rupees which is about £157. This is a lot of money but I have managed to free up some funds, and I'll be explaining to you how that has happened next week. 

But until then I bid you farewell and-

WE GOT SOME GOATS!!!! Oh yeah!!! Woohoo!!!!! :)

Stuart :) x x x

By the by, we are going to Madurai City tomorrow to extend my visa as it runs out next Friday. Please pray for it to be successful or I will have to leave much earlier than I intend to! :) 

Tues 8th October

Hello there my friends.....

So to continue with the stories of the children. Today it is my emotional little friend Diana. 

Diana is 12 years old and has been at the Hospice now 7 years. Diana I must admit is one of my favourites. She was the first child to befriend me and when I first arrived used to draw me lots of pictures. Diana is a very emotional girl and if she's upset about something she will completely blank anyone who talks to her, and I usually never do find out what was wrong, but, though, when she's in a good mood (which sadly is not as often as I'd like these days) she's a really fun friendly playful little friend. 

Now Diana never knew her parents who were both HIV positive they both died when she was a baby and again it was her mother she contracted the illness from. Diana has an older sister but when she got married she went with her husband to live with her father in law and had a child of her own and she was unable to care for Diana anymore which is the situation which led to her living here at the Hospice. She has grandparents but they are very old and unable to care for her. 

Diana never gets any visitors at all & it seems has been completely abandoned by her family- no doubt the answer to and including having HIV to why she's such an emotionally troubled girl. Actually I'm surprised the rest of the kids aren't affected the way Diana is by the events in their lives. Although that will likely change as they all grow older. 

If it were possible to adopt Diana and bring her back to England I would but I don't actually think she would want that. She's gradually distanced herself from me for reasons not known and is never happy to see me anymore like she used to be or draw pictures for me like when I first arrived, which is something I've found quite sad. 

Bonds & friendships formed & broken are some of those themes of life shared by all of us.

I really hope life eventually comes together for Diana although her prospects, to be honest seem bleak to me (finding a husband, and having a family of her own) but nonetheless are possible. Maybe she will find happiness & see an end to pains that trouble her little heart & mind. I hope so, I really do. 

Stuart :) x

p.s. Diana's not an easy one to get a pic of by herself so, here she is second from left :)

Weds 2nd October

Good day friends! :)

Today I will continue with my stories of the children & today it is the turn of Jennifer.

Jennifer is 9 years old & has been at the Hospice for 4 years now. Jenny is one of the HIV negative children which is great. Jenny came to be here 4 years ago through a family decision. She, like Suresh who I recently reported on, is also from a very poor village. Her father died from HIV a number of years ago but her mother who is also HIV positive is still alive & comes to visit Jenny every 2-3 weeks & they seem to have quite a close relationship which is very nice. 

Now Jenny's family seemed to need to make a decision between her & her brother. Being very poor they could only afford to care for one child & they decided to keep her brother with them because, again, the male inherits the property. When I was told this, again it seemed another case of a bit of a cold & even sexist choice but after hearing more of the story & understanding more about what happened it occurred to me how hard life is for these people & in the situation they were in they had to make a hard choice, which is easy for people like me to make snap judgements on but they had to make a very hard choice & in this case I guess it's quite a rational one. 

Her brother will inherit & she will get an education. In this case I think it was not a matter of 'getting rid' of a child as it has been in other cases as there is still a strong bond between mother & daughter. Although thinking about it I have never seen her grandparents or brother or other family visit her. :(

Anyway Jenny seems quite happy with her life here and has quite a strong personality. Now don't let her pretty smile fool you! If you cross her you better be sure she will take you to the cleaners! She has a scowl that would make a pack of starving Hyenas think twice. I would like to take a photo to show you what I mean, but I'm worried if I did & she caught me, I would have no face left afterwards. 

Actually then again I caught her on video giving one of the kids a piece of her mind over some issue over a toothbrush.

Here's the link;

http:/youtu.be/R63XbBpqWVU

See what I mean? I think she will grow up to be a very strong woman (and probably a bit of a hen-pecker to some poor man one day hehe)  :) But actually if you haven't made the mistake of upsetting her she's actually a very sweet girl.

Anyway that's all from me for now catch you later friends hope you are all well and having fun :) x x x 

Thurs 26th September

Hello there my friends.... :)

Well my friend Paraman is back from hospital but it turns out (as usual) there were misunderstandings & communication problems about why he was there. His visit was to have the hernia problem looked at but mainly it was to be with a friend as a visitor to keep him company as his friend is quite unwell. 

Now I asked Paraman why he didn't have the operation and he told me it was because it would cost 10000 rupees. Which is far beyond what he can afford & is a struggle even for me too so as to keep the budget on track. Nevertheless he has to have the operation so I have decided we will contribute 7000 rupees towards his operation. 

Now to the people here at the Hospice I appear rich. I wish it was so! There are so many ways I have seen to help but those things are, I guess, not what God has sent me here for. One thing is that 3 grown men that work here share a tiny little flat that should really be for one person only, also the women here share a single room. They all deserve their privacy & I'd love to have the money to build them all a home each the size of the flat that the 3 men are staying in but that's never going to happen. Anyway no point thinking about things I have no power to change. 

What is real though is the budget. There is 70000 rupees left which works out to about 5000 rupees a week which seems enough but I know there will be more things that come along like paying for my visa extension coming up soon, but mainly there will be those unexpected things I'm concerned about, and that I will be able to make the budget last & have some left over to gift to the Hospice. 

Basically I guess I'm writing this as a way to assuage & work through my worries & concerns I have in my head but I would be grateful if you would pray for me to have peace of mind in this matter, for wisdom in spending your money on the correct things & that although having a heart is a good thing, please pray for it to not make rash decisions & important choices for me. 

Thanks guys bye for now! :) x x x

Weds 26th September

Good day to you friends!

Today I will continue with my stories of the children & today I will tell you about Suresh; 

Suresh is a fine looking young man of 13 years. He is a very smart boy & is doing very well at school.  He is also very good on the drum that he plays at worship & prayer times, and has living here at the Hospice for 4 years now. 

Suresh is another one who has a bit of a sad story. Again he contracted HIV from his mother at birth. His mother is still alive but his father died 7 years ago.  

How Suresh came to be here at the Hospice began when his mother got remarried a few years ago. The mother of the man that suresh's mother married did not like that her son has not had any children of his own so in order for him to receive an inheritance his step father had to basically 'get rid' of Suresh. 

I kind of understand the reasoning behind this although I don't agree with it in any form whatsoever. I think the cold hard reasoning behind this is that the step grandmother wants to keep any properties within the family & not pass onto a non blood relative- namely Suresh. Also I can imagine quite reasonably she wants the family line to continue but I'm not sure how that would be facilitated by making Suresh 'go away'. Also as Suresh's mother is HIV positive, although possible, I'm not sure that a continuos family line is actually something that's all that realistic. But then some people have a very strange & illogical way (at least in my opinion) of seeing the world & how to go about doing things. 

Nevertheless I think these events have worked out in favour of Suresh. His family are from a very, very poor village & there are no schools there so this boy's very clever mind would have been wasted & completely uneducated. Life there for him would have been a complete dead end. 

Here he has a good education with things to challenge him & has the opportunity to make something of his life. He is hoping to become a Pastor one day, something that I think will be easily achievable for him if he chooses to stay on that path. And although he doesn't have his mother, which is sad, he has a much bigger adoptive family here at the Hospice who will always be there for him. 

Stuart :) x x x

Mon 23rd September

Hello again friends....

So my next post was to be about my trip to the school in Melayakudi but unfortunately it was cancelled as Gnana (the little Indian priest who invited me here when he visited our church last year) had an important meeting & was unable to take me there. I will be going to visit the school at some other time though I will let you know when that happens. But nevertheless some good things came from the trip into Madurai City. First was that I was able to get the song books for the children's worship time that I told you about a few weeks ago which is great- another thing to tick off the list. 

The second was that at lunch Kirubai (Gnana's wife) asked me if I had any ideas for any new programmes that could be helpful to the Hospice. Kirubai is the Honarary Secretary of Arulagam Hospice. Hospice is an offshoot of the Theological Seminary that Gnana presides over which was run from Madurai but now functions independently. 

Now I have had an idea in mind for a while but I hesitated before to broach the subject with the people here at the Hospice as I thought it was not really any of my business to push my ideals onto a different culture with a different way of living, & I didn't want to upset anyone but she thought I had a good idea as she dislikes rubbish everywhere as well. 

I told her about the work I've been doing with picking up the rubbish and that I had in mind to buy bins to put around the Hospice & set a plan in motion to collect any full bins each morning and take them to the pit & burn them, to save it from being dumped outside & being blown around the Hospice grounds (which is extremely demoralising for me). Another I idea I had was to get the children actively involved in picking up the rubbish so they can learn the responsibility of taking care of the home they have been given, and for the adults to lead by example. Another idea was that if I caught anyone dropping litter to beat them frantically with my beating stick (especially adults) until they had learned their lesson.

All these ideas (except the beating stick) went down surprisingly very well all round so this plan should be put into action this week, although I'm sure it's going to take a while to get all the adults & children fully together with this as they are so accustomed to just dropping things wherever they may be. 

Now I just want to make it clear I understand why these peoples do this. I don't look down on them at all it just really saddens me. Its a learned behaviour & the government provides no rubbish collection here or education on the subject so its just a normal way of life for them. But I really want to help them learn how to keep this land looking like a home, not, to be frank, a rubbish dump, which in turn should improve their standard of living and feeling of well being. That's the plan anyway. 

So enough of my banging on about that. My friend Paraman is still at the hospital, not sure when he's going to be back but I'm assured he is ok but I'm hoping he will be home soon as I quite miss him. 

I will be writing another of the children's stories within the next few days & hopefully if all goes to plan the budget should be permitting me to buy all the children who need them shoes & belts next week. Also I will get round to the report on the children's day at school I know it's a long time coming but I will get there in the end. 

Ok hospice fans that's all for now just a couple of pics for you- India has many strange signs that boggle my tiny mind. Usually I'm in a vehicle & can't take a photo of them but here are a couple I took while in Madurai- prepare to be confused my friends.........

Another one I saw while on the bus said "Please do not drink & drive while drinking & driving". I get what they're asking me not to do, but brain says sentence does not compute. 

Bye for now, Stuart :) x x x

Fri 20th September

Hello there friends..... :)

Well its been a good week with keeping busy & getting jobs done here & there. We were out of firewood for cooking rice so we went to a small palm tree plantation & got a big load of palm tree branches which took about 3 hours to collect all we needed it was very tiring! Also there were horrible big orange spiders hiding in them I was worried some might come out as I was carrying a load and try to eat my face but they didn't & I was ok. Here's a pic of the truckload and the plantation;

The total cost for the wood was 300 rupees & truck hire 450 which is a total of about £8 which is a bargain so I decided we would pay for it out of the budget. 

Some bad news- my friend Paraman the woodcutter has had a very unfortunate episode with some very heavy 50 kilo bags of rice that were delivered & has been taken to hospital with hernia- which makes me feel extra bad about beating him in an arm wrestle the other day. He will be ok but it's going to cost him so I've decided we will help with some of his hospital bills, 2000 rupees which is just over £20. The total costs of his treatment could be as much as 7000 rupees but we don't know yet. When considering he only earns 5000 a month that's a lot of money for him. I'd like to help more but the budget is not permitting at the moment. 

On that subject earlier in the week I decided that we would pay for all the seed that was planted the other week. Initially they asked to borrow it but I decided that we were in budget to help out there as well which is all great stuff. 

One other bad bit if news is that the medical visits out to the villages to give injections to the poor people has still not gone ahead as we have still not received the medicine from the distributors, so please could you pray for this to all come together. Even though its hotter now than we get to enjoy in our summer it is winter for them here & when the rains come the people get sick like we do in our winter time so we really need to get out there to help them. 

Tomorrow I will be travelling to Madurai City to visit the school in Melayakudi. I am very much looking forward to this as I've often heard it talked about in church with the charitable work that we do in helping them & now I'm getting to visit which is great. I'll be taking pictures & videos to share the experience with you. And on that subject I have made another video for you- a tour of the Hospice. I've already done this with photos when I first arrived here but I though you might appreciate a proper look round. Here's the link;

http://youtu.be/zC5IGjKzPj8

Again, if you don't know how to open the link if you scroll down to the post I made on Sunday 1st September it gives a very simple lesson on how to watch them. Bye for now everyone hope you are all well & missing me like crazy! ;) Stuart :) x x x 

Tues 17th September

Well hello there. 

Thorns. Nasty evil thorns. As I've told you I've been doing some work here and there helping out the woodcutter & this week we have been clearing the thorn bushes which let me tell you is no simple task. These thorns are huge, averaging an inch - 2 inches long,  literally sharp as a needle and seemingly have the density of titanium. They are so nasty they would make a Rhino whimper & run away crying for his mummy. Trust me. I've seen it.

Here are a few pics I took of the thorns as we cleared some of the land today; 

Nasty aren't they. Now bear in mind I'm doing this in t-shirt, shorts & flip flops. The flip flops are the worst sometimes you'll step on a really nasty one & it'll go straight through into the bottom of your foot. More often though you'll step on a thorn twig & it'll dig into you shoe and as you step forward you'll drag the barbed wire stick across the back of your heel or leg. Which always brings a smile to my face. Anyway after that we push up all the cuttings & uprooted bushes into gaps in the hedgerows to keep out those pesky Rhinos;

All being said its a bit painful and I do sometimes wonder if when God cursed the ground after the fall and thorns began to grow if He cursed the ground here three times over, but I enjoy it. It's part of what I came here for and its satisfying work, keeps me busy & its all good fun working with Paraman the woodcutter. 

Just thought I'd tell you that little story. Bye for now my friends, Stuart x x x

Sun 15th September

Happy Sunday everyone! :)

Today I am going to continue with the stories of the children & today I will be telling you about Vijay & Harris;

Vijay & Harris are brothers & their story is the same which is why today you get two for the price of one. 

Vijay is the boy on the left. He is 12 years old but does look a lot younger because the HIV affects him worse than some of the other children and it has stunted his growth. Fortunately he hasn't been unwell in the time I have been here. Harris is 11 years old but looks like the older brother. 

Both boys contracted HIV through their mother at birth. Unfortunately she died here at the hospice 4 years ago & their father died here as well one year later. The boys have been here ever since, about 3 years now. 

They do have family, 2 uncles & they do have a home outside of the hospice but unfortunately their Uncles took advantage  of the situation after their father died & took the home that was rightfully theirs from them which is why the boys are living here. 

Once a year the boys go to stay with their uncles but I have been told that they argue about who they stay with as they don't really want them there.  If I understand correctly they only have the children to stay to help them in the future when legal challenges are made to who has the legal right to the house. 

The challenge can't be made right now because of the boys ages- they will have to wait until they are 18 & the Hospice cannot make a challenge for them as they say it would be likely that a claim would be made that the Hospice wanted the property for themselves. 

Hopefully though, when the time comes the boys will get what is rightfully theirs but even if they don't they are guaranteed to be taken care of by real Human Beings here at the Hospice. Not a nice one to go out on this time but I guess that's just the reality of some of the lives here :'(   Stuart :) x x x

Weds 11th September

Good day to you Hospice fans! I trust you are all keeping well. 

So then, here we go with another fun filled fact fantastical bonanza from the depths of the deepest darkest farmlands of South India. 

Things this past week have continued as standard really, finding little ways to help which have been buying some clothing. The youngest of all the children is two his name is Santos here's a quick pic of him;

 

Bit of a cutie isn't he :) Anyway I noticed he had no chuppal, (that's shoes to you and me) after he got a thorn in his foot so I got him some snazzy little sandals. Actually a lot of the kids here go barefoot I think that may be a job for the future, but it will be a relatively expensive one so I'll wait a little while and see how the budget goes.

We also got some new Lungi for a couple of the men here as theirs were old & ripped. Now a Lungi is a sarong type thing (that's a skirt to you and me) which is very popular with the men here. Here is a pic of Marimutu sporting this sexy little number;

Another thing I noticed was that at prayer time the children were fighting over the songbooks as there aren't enough to go around, also the few they do have are seemingly about to turn to dust so we will be providing them with new ones in a few weeks when I go into Madurai city again to visit Gnana & his wife. When there I am being taken to visit the school we support at church (I forget the name, I think it's Malikudai or something like that) So that's something I'm really looking forward to reporting back to you about with pictures and videos for more of your viewing excitement. 

Ohhh the bell ringer thingy has just gone its coffee time so I'm off for my 4pm caffeine fix. Bye for now Hospice fans take care!!! Stuart :) x x x

Sunday 8th September

Hello out there! :)

Well the rains have started to come so thank you for your prayers, the monsoon hasn't fully kicked in yet but there has been enough rain to soften the ground enough to start sowing seed in the fields. This is good news all round although the power cuts have been continuing although not quite as bad as they were. The temperature has dropped enough so that it is comfortable to sleep without needing the fan which is great. 

This has been quite a productive week, with continuing on my mission to pick up all the rubbish, and finding little ways here and there to help, I'm really starting to settle in here and feel at home. 

Just a short one today as my brain seems to have stopped working and I can't think of anything else to write at the moment, also it's Sunday & I'm in lazy mode again ;)

But I do have a link to a video for you that I made of some of the work we did in the fields this week. Bye for now, Stuart :) x x 

http://youtu.be/yt97_DVY5Rk

Weds 4th September

Hello again friends! :)

Today I am going to start with first of the stories of the children and today I am going to start with Vinitra. 

Vinitra is 13 years old and has been living at the Hospice for one year. Her story of how she came to be here is both interesting & unusual but also sad. This is the story I was told about how she came to be here. 

Just over a year ago the Hospice received a call saying that a very sick man with HIV had been admitted to hospital and that he had a child with him. The hospice decided to take Vinitra's father into their care and care for his medical needs. Unfortunately he was very ill and he died within one week. 

Now he was an interesting but strange man. He was a very highly paid skilled engineer but he didn't have a home. He chose to move from hotel to hotel bringing Vinitra with him as he went and spent all his money every week not putting any aside for his daughter even though he must have known he was dying. When his illness became obvious and his employers found out he had HIV he was unceremoniously fired after which he soon became very unwell and was admitted to hospital. I would like to have met Vinitra's father and got to know him a bit. Although he seemed to be an incredibly irresponsible man he had a different way of living, a different approach to life I am curious to why he made the choices he did and chose that life for himself & his daughter. 

Now Vinitra's mother died when she was very young and her father never kept any record of any extended family, neither did he divulge any information in his last few days, he may have been too sick or there may not have been any extended family we will never know. The Hospice has searched for family but has found none. 

So, as the hospice does in situations like these they decided to take Vinitra in as their own, giving her a home here and making her a part of the family which was the first good thing about this story. The second is that Vinitra is one of the few HIV negative children here. 

Vinitra is a very intelligent girl and a quick learner, she is doing very well at school and is very quick to understand and pick up instruction in the guitar lessons I have been giving her. So far she is the only child with both the interest and aptitude to succeed in this. Her English is very good and is foremost of all the children. She always has a smile on her face and I have never seen her looking the slightest bit down. 

I have high hopes for Vinitra. In a part of the world where given the unusual upbringing, being left with nothing in a poverty stricken part of the world, she shouldn't really have a chance in life but with the chance at a better life given to her by the people here at the hospice, I have a feeling things are going to keep coming together for her here and that she will make a success of her life. Stuart :) x 

Sunday 1st September

Hello friends! How are you today? :)

Ok well it has been explained to me that some of you do not know how to watch the videos I have posted so today I am going to teach you how, don't be scared its actually very simple once you know how. There are two links at the bottom of this post for you to practice on. 

Step one;

Move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the link, the bit that starts http:// there are two buttons at the top of your mouse click and HOLD DOWN the LEFT button. Move the mouse pointer along the link while holding down the button until all the link is highlighted. 

Step 2;

Let go of the left mouse button, the whole link should now be highlighted (if not repeat step 1)

Now move the mouse pointer again over the link and click the RIGHT mouse button but do not hold down this time. A single click will do. 

Step 3;

A small box will open. At the top will read OPEN LINK. Click once on this and the video will play. Please feel free to go back over the previous posts and enjoy the other videos I have posted. Bye for now, Stuart :) x x x

http://youtu.be/nHjKFUQP-eA

http://youtu.be/XHAF56GiJ1w

Thurs 29th August

Hello friends!

Today's topic is the monsoon, or the lack of of it. Things are actually starting to get quite desperate for the people here & not just at the hospice but for the whole district. The lack of rain has its most obvious and immediate problems of drinking water and the watering of the lands so that food can be grown. But now things have got progressively worse. 

As the wells are dry for the past few weeks the hospice has been having water delivered at an ever increasing rate which is obviously a drain on their limited funds. 

But as I said before things have now got progressively worse. The power is now being shut off to the whole district for 5 hours a day so that it can be diverted to pumps to extract water for the whole district, from 6-9 am and 12-2 pm. The first is a minor irritant as this means no fans which makes it hard to sleep. The second means that businesses have no power for 2 hours which causes more problems to very poor people who need every customer they can get. I know of one business that missed out on selling me some cheeseburgers that I was very much looking forward too. Some of the shops have generators but others cannot afford them. I'm not sure what will happen if this continues for another month, but I'm hoping I won't find out. Please pray for the rains!!! :) To give you an idea of how the land looks here below are some pics :)

Our neighbours arid farmland.

Not that much for hungry Daisy :(

These were fruit trees.

I'm really not sure how these trees actually have any green on them as a few feet beneath the soil it's solid rock & the soil is bone dry.

This is the Hospice's farmland, dry and rock hard at the moment.

Some more of our neighbours land.

Ok then the second of today's topics is work. After whinging & moaning enough they are letting me do some work! Woo hoo! Today I have been helping the woodcutter cut down trees & trim the branches off the logs, which is great. Also we have been moving the delivery of hay into the barn for the cows (another problem of the lack of rain- no rain = no grass for hungry grazing cows).

As for the kids they are all doing well. Arnan (the new boy who I wrote about a short while back) is settling in well. He seems to be a very strong boy and is adapting well to life here. I've become quite friendly with him & enjoy chasing him around & if I can catch him slapping his face around a bit. Which is all good fun, especially as I enjoy slapping faces ;) Also, I finally got the chance to get the kids some cricket stumps although they are massive, about 3 feet high, not sure why they are that big but they will do and they are much better than the sticks they have been using. All they need now is a ball of which I found out had split when I got back & gave the kids the stumps hehe, of which I'll get tomorrow as I'm braving the bus into Dindigul all on my own tomorrow for the first time which should be a fun adventure & hopefully on the third attempt I might finally get my tasty cheeseburgers. Oh yeah. Bye for now, Stuart :) x x x