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.
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
Stuart, it's so good to hear from you! We've been praying for Arnan, and are so pleased he is settling in well. We'll be praying for rain. The land looks dreadfully dry.
ReplyDeletewith love, Beryl