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