Tribal Times

• Beverleywhite's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Kozhimale

Trip Start Mar 09, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Ongoing Next
Entry

  Kozhimale, India
Sunday, April 5, 2009

So, after a very relaxing few days in Fort Kochi we jumped into Nitins car and headed into the mountains. We are now staying in a village called Kozhimale with the Mannan Tribe and are throwing ourselves into tribal life.
We have all been given tribal names so have all been getting a bit confused when introducing ourselves to people around the village. Especially Bev who's English name also seems to have changed to Kimberley!! Not sure she's too pleased about that! Her Tribal name is Nachamani, Vicky's is Kunjamma, Hana's is Velachi and Gary's is Rangashami.

We are staying in a house built by one of the previous volunteers and its fantastic, very simple with no running water or electricity but its surrounded by palm trees and it ( and the whole village ) is beautiful. We are being very well looked after by two guys called Manoj and Anil as well as a lady called Laxmi-amma and another called Sindhu. In the mornings before work we collect water from the well at the bottom of the hill and carry it back up in metal pots balanced on our heads. Its really hard and we are the cause of much hilarity for the villagers! We are still carrying the smallest ones and always get pretty wet but hopefully with a bit of determination we will be able to carry the big ones by the end. We usually have a long lunch which invloves curry and a nap (much to Rangashami's disgust!) and work for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Not sure this is exactly what we need to do if we want to meet our targets so this may have to change. After work we sometimes have a quick game of volleyball with some of the village and embarrass ourselves by screaming in pain everytime we ( or I at least!) hit the ball. Then we head back to the house and help with "curry making" and attempt to learn some more Malayalam to make communications a bit easier. We are getting to grips with it slowly and have picked up quite a few useful words and phrases that we use on a daily basis. The most popular one is Vegham Vegham (FASTER FASTER!!).

So far we have managed to get the walls of two toilets up and have dug the foundations for Anil's house which means we are a bit behind schedule but we should be ok. This week, while we are waiting for the stones for Anil's house we are going to repaint the medical centre but first it has to be scrubbed down with a coconut husk. A messy but very satisfying job! We are in the village for another couple of weeks and will then head off on the next leg of our adventure. We are making the plans just now so will let you know as soon as we do.

Vicky

Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

kunjama's birthday!!	sunday...washing and swimming at the lake	sunset over the western ghats	just to prove we did do some work too!
paniyam..	ome

Previous Entry Next Entry