A day in the life...

The day here starts early. Earlier for our neighbours than for us but still early. Well ok, its mostly just early for me. When was the last time I was in the office by 7:30?
We walk to the office in under 10 mins. The roads are mostly narrow red dirt lanes lined with colourful houses. Most of the homes in this area have painted cement walls around the yards and we are usually greeted at the gates by people who want to see and usually practice some english. It would be strange in Canada if someone came out their door and yelled "Hi! Where are you going" or "Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, how old are you?" Today, 6 kids crammed into a trishaw pulled up and stopped to yell hi and shake our hands. (trishaws are three wheeled open sided golf-cart looking things that people travel in, and actually haul anything in. I've seen them packed full of bananas and I've seen one with a queen sized mattress on top.)
So. the walk to work is always entertaining and hot. I can't believe how hot it is here in the morning, by the time I arrive at the office I'm sweating because its also pretty humid. Rainy season arrived the other night with a huge electrical storm and its rained every night since. Today it started raining during the day too, so the umbrella I've been carrying for shade has become a little more essential.
We start our office day with devotions at 7:30 (one person shares something they're learning in their spiritual life) and then split up into our departments. Scott and his livelihood gang head up the outdoor stairs to their office and I stay down stairs with the other 7 members of the Children's project team. We have a quick meeting to debrief the day before and set goals and plan for the day. After the meeting, we do english lessons. I'm trying to help out my team with their english skills which is difficult because English is such a stupid language and I don't know how to teach it but fun because my team is so keen to learn and they have great skills already. (they understand just about everything which is good because my Tamil is limited to pretty basic phrases right now..)
Then they head off to prepare lessons for the afternoon programs or do some home visits. I spend time managing the budget, preparing training workshops for the team, planning future projects with the team supervisor Mathi and learning how to teach english. These are all things I've tried to work on this week, I'm sure there will be much more in the future. The Children's Project is very cool, its a leadership training program for teens (right up my alley) and its great to see how committed our staff team is to these kids. We work in Tsunami affected areas only so lots of these kids have lost a lot recently. The other day we had low attendance at a program because some of the kids were walking 2 kms to get drinking water (and then back of course). I've been able to visit all the sites now and its pretty different from taking kids skiing in K-country! The programs run from 3-4:30 just about every afternoon so the team puts in some long hours sometimes.
Scott's team spends most of their time in the field, supervising projects and investigating new possibilities. Their projects are created and effective. They've been working on small scale poultry operations, agriculture projects (water pumps, wells, crops), fencing projects (to keep the 'free range' cows out of the fields), and small business loans. The other day we attended the opening ceremony of a women's vocational training centre. These women are mostly widows, daughters of widows, orphans or abandoned women. Women such as this have no status here and it is very difficult for them to earn a living. The vocational sewing centres will give them the skills needed to sew complex items like shalwars (the long tunics and loose pants that most women here wear) and hopefully they will be able to support themselves and their children.


Our day always includes lunch somewhere. If we are in Kalmunai (which I usually am, then its a big lunch cooked by a really sweet lady named Esther who also happens to be a widow. She makes us rice, meat in curry or some other spicy sauce, veggies (tomatoe and onion salad or lady fingers), manioc, fresh coconut, fresh mango or papaya and hot sweet tea. After a meal like that its hard not to just want a nap and you can probably guess that we don't eat a lot in the evenings. When Scott's out on the field they stop somewhere for 'short eats'.
At 4.30 (ish) we head home, change and go for a walk. The beach is a good place to walk depending on which was you go, one way is cleaner than the other and sometime we go through the neighbourhoods, again saying hello and how are you every few seconds along the way. We could never manage an interesting discussion while walking through town. Then we come back about 5 ish, try to get some exercise (Scott's favourite is yoga for dummies), have cold showers (which is ok because the bathroom is smokin hot by that time of day), spend some quiet time, eat a small dinner and then email, read or watch season 1 of Lost! Our fellow ex-pats have a pretty good stock of dvds here.
Anyway, that's what our normal day is like. I need to sign off and get to the market before a meeting at work, so I'll say Kale Vanakum (good morning) to you and be off.
A note on the rats...we haven't seen any evidence since Scott's epic battle so we're calling it for Team Thompson. Our only problem now is that some of the rat glue we laid out spilled onto the floor and has fermented or something, so, its pretty stinky in our kitchen.
Take good care of yourselves and keep in touch. You can email us at thompson.alanna@gmail.com or thompsonsds@gmail.com
Cheers!