2,500 Feet Above Sea Level

High Range is a name given to a few districts in the State of Kerala which are literally atop mountain ranges, 2,500 feet above sea level. One these districts is Idukki where WV has a 15-year area development program covering Kattapana and Nedumkandum blocks. I was in Idukki from April 27 to May 2 as part of WV team to evaluate the program.

Kattapana, which is the capital town of Idukki was where we stayed during the evaluation. To get to Kattapana, I had to take a 45-minute flight from Chennai (where I spent a week for evaluation preparation) to another city of Tamil Nadu called Maduarai. From Madurai , another 3-hour drive coursing through a winding road scaling up the mountains was needed to reach Kattapana.

On the day of my trip to Kattapana, I was wakened at 4.00am by WV logistics officer, James, informing me that my flight was cancelled by Jet Airways. He personally came to the hotel to send me and another colleague from Philippines Regional Office, Remy Geraldes, to the airport and negotiate with Jet Airways to find a way to get us to another flight to Madurai. Jet Airways, true to its claim for unparallel service managed to get a seat on another airline called Paramount. To top it off, we were upgraded to business class!

Benjamin Benji, a WV staff from High Range ADP met us at the airport and brought us to a farm hotel resort. The hotel, called Carmelia Hotel and Resorts, is situated in a 55-acre farm where cardamom, tea, pepper and fruit bearing trees are cultivated. It is about 8 kilometers from downtown and considered by many as sanctuary, what with its large pool, tree houses and lakes. The rooms, although large, are not properly maintained nor cleaned. I found it ghastly. In the evening, the sound of crickets and other nocturnal animals served as lullaby that brought me to sleep while the chirping of the birds served as alarm clocks in the morning.

After three days, I had to move to downtown Kattapana to join other WV colleagues at the Edassery Hotel. Despite its modesty, the hotel is well-maintained and the staff very helpful. My room was huge with mini receiving and dining rooms. The drawback was, it had no air conditioning and it faced the road so that I could hear the honks and sound of motor engines all night long.

The evaluation was a learning experience. There were about 30 of us in the team including WV national office staff and volunteers. I was assigned to lead a five member- team to assess the sustainability of CBOs. CBOs are classified as District Family Forum (1), Regional Family Forums (5), Wards (45) and self-help groups (355). In my team were Shanti Hopper, KK Thomas, Sanal Mathai and KD Kuriakose. We visited five villages but I could only remember the names of three: Nirmalycity, Vazhavara and Nedumkandum. Using the assessment tool I have developed while I was still at ICOMP, we held dialogues with representatives of regional forums and wards. Between 10 -40 people participated in each meeting. We have talked to all 5 regional forums and 5 wards. Very typical of Indian gatherings, women were seated separately from men. However, women were most of the time more vocal in the discourse. In Nedumkandum, after the assessment, the women asked so many questions about my life and the Philippines. They showed keen interest to learn about other cultures. Although reports showed that the people are poor in the villages, the men and women came in their best bib and tucker. Women were even adorned with jewellerie, I wondered if they owned a pawnshop.

In the course of our stay, we had also the chance to meet with the ADP Fellowship Support Group composed of different churches and other stakeholders. During our evening, I had goosebumps seeing pastors and priests who were wearing cassocks and robes similar to those worn by Sadducees and Pharisees. I facilitated a two-hour session with them to discuss their vision for High Range, their contributions towards this vision and strategies to achieve this vision. The discussion went well although some of my Indian colleagues were shocked to see me engaging the representatives in small group discussions. They told me that these high ranking members of different churches are not accustomed to such kind of activity and might get offended. Contrary to their fears, the discussions went well and they even congratulated me for facilitating the session well.

The initial results of the evaluation was shared to several stakeholders on May 2. The event was participated by about 50 community leaders and members, some government officials and even a tribal king! I had a chance to present my team's finding for 30 minutes.

Rubbing Elbows with a King

Yes, I had the opportunity to talk to, shake hands with and even wrap my hand around the shoulders of a king. It's no joke. He's is the only tribal king in India. His name is Ariyan Raja Mannan and is known as the Kozimala King of the Mannan tribe. He is not your typical king living in huge palaces but he has quite a large number of subjects living in several hamlets in Idukki. He does not have a car, yet people show deference to him. Despite being poor, he radiates confidence and exudes regal composure. He seldom smiles and is laconic in his conversation. According to colleagues, he is actually one of WV sponsored children in the past.
Here are some of my photos with him.

More Dakshina Chitra Photos

Dakshina Chitra

The workshop on nutrition that I participated in Chennai was for five days; however, most of the sessions from the third day onwards were not relevant to my job. Instead of getting bored at the session hall, my colleague and I went to visit our office branch in the city and met with the officials. The meetings did not go well with so many people we were supposed to meet not turning up. On Friday afternoon, February 29, 2008, we decided to visit some tourist areas in the city. We were brought by the driver assigned to us to several places which not catch our attention. Finally, we visited Dakshina Chitra in East Coast Road, Muttukadu which is about an hour from the hotel. It is like a museum of sorts showcasing different types of traditional houses and crafts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. After paying the entrance, the staff gave us a map for our self-guided tour of the area. It is like a small village where you hop from one house to another. Inside these houses – fragments of which were part of antique houses somewhere – are dioramas of people engaged in what look like normal day-to-day tasks like weaving and cooking. Here are some photos I took during the visit.

Beautiful Windows

Intricate Doors

Sculptures and Carvings
The Hallway

In January 16, 2008, I joined an international non profit in Canada covering the India and Bangladesh portfolio. This Christian organization is a partnership with several support and national offices worldwide. I traveled to India in February 22 as part of my orientation to my new role. The orientation involved participating in a workshop, courtesy calls to the powers that be in the India national office and visits to community development programs.

I travelled with my boss which made my orientation a lot easier as someone expert in the organization’s operations was there to mentor and guide me. We took Emirates Airways via Dubai to Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. The trip was a bit tiring since we had a layover of about seven hours in Dubai. This is my nth time to India and my first to Chennai, formerly called Madras. Based on the information sent to us by our national office in India, we should change our USD at the airport. That was a big mistake. Aside from a low rate of Rs 36.50, the agent (Thomas Cook) also collected a commission. We later found out that it is Rs 39.50 in the city. First lesson learned: always take the national office’s advice with a grain of salt. Thankfully, we were picked up at the airport, so we did not have to haggle with taxi drivers for your ride to Green Park Hotel in the district of Vadalapani where we were billeted.

We arrived to Chennai on Sunday, February 24th morning. To avoid going to slumber immediately – which will worsen the feeling of jetlag later – we decided to take a look at the city’s surroundings. Of course, the easiest was to visit a mall. We were told by the hotel staff while Chennai has several small shops, the largest is Spencer’s. We took an auto taxi (actually a motorized rickshaw or tricycle) to Spencer’s. The hotel bell boy negotiated for our fare to Spencer’s which was Rs 120. The mall is about five kilometres away. Considering that crowded streets of the city, the trip took longer than initially thought as the driver had to adroitly squeeze the vehicle in between lorries, other auto rickshaws and cars not to mention avoiding people who cross the street without warning. As normal in any Indian city, Chennai is so dusty and excruciatingly humid. Loud honks and shouts filled our ears. The city is replete with movie posters and bill boards. I found our later that Chennai is the epicentre of Kollywood, which is the Tamil counterpart for Hindi tinsel town’s Bollywood in Mumbai.

Spencer is a three or four-storey mall which reminds me of MBK in Bengkoko. It’s underutilized as many spaces are not yet occupied. It contains a mix of internationally-branded outlets and low-quality stuff from China and the middle-East. Lots of bootleg products of course. We had our lunch at the food court and explored a bookstore inside a shop called Landmark. The book store is considered the largest in Chennai, although it is nothing compared to other large book shops in Asia. I bought two books – The Document by Irving Wallace and My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk a Turkish Nobel Prize awardee for literature. Books in India are cheap – about 30 – 50 percent cheaper than US or Canada prices.

The ride back to the hotel was a real headache. We had to negotiate with several auto taxi drivers. The first driver we approached asked Rs 250 citing bad traffic at the time. I reasoned that the traffic in India is bad all the time anyway. When I said that we only paid Rs 120 on our way to Spencer’s, the driver got clever. He said the return trip is much longer by two kilometres since we have to make several U-turns. Obviously, we attracted attention as other drivers joined the fray. When we decided to talk to other drivers, the first one we approached lowered his price saying we will only pay Rs 200 but on condition that he would show us some shops along the way (where he presumably gets commission – what a racket!!!). I raised my hands in frustration and shouted NO and proceeded to look for other drivers. He followed us and offered Rs 150. It was getting dark so we relented. On arrival to the hotel we gave him the Rs 150 and he protested saying we agreed on Rs 180. I called the hotel bell boy to deal with him. Only when we were inside the hotel, I found out that we actually agreed on Rs 180 when my colleague told me about it. The problem was I did not hear it right. I felt guilty of course but well, this people are really trying to milk foreigners out.

That was a (mis) adventure! By the time we reached the hotel, it was already about 8pm and I was a bit tired. I tried not to sleep too soon and succeeded. The hotel is quite expensive. For Rs 4,500 (more than USD 100) the hotel room looks very basic. However, there is a kettle for free coffee and tea. Two liters of water, two bottles of softdrinks, chocolates and a mix of snacks are also for the taking daily. On top of that, there is broadband Internet connection which made our communication with the outside world much convenient. Not bad, afterall!

St. Thomas Basilica

Do you know that there are only three churches in the world built atop a tomb of an apostle of Christ? These are the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (St. James) in Spain and the St. Thomas Basilica in Channai in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. On March 1, 2008, I was blessed to visit St. Thomas Basilica and pray before the remains of St. Thomas. The basilica, which is smaller compared to its counterparts in other part of the world, is situated along one of Chennai's marinas. Gracing the walls of the church are paintings of Christ and His apostles with inscriptions highlighting their famous words and contributions in Christian faith.

The basilica is considered as the center for Christian pilgrimage in India and the main church for the Mylapore-Chennai archdiocese. It was declared an international shrine in 2006. Underneath the basilica is a chapel which houses the remains and relics connected to St. Thomas. It has a separate access outside of the church to allow pilgrims to pray to St. Thomas without disturbing the functions of the church. It looks like a dungeon - dark but gives an ambience of calmness and serenity. From the photos at the entrance of the chapel, I gathered that Pope John Paul II paid homage to the apostle known for doubting the resurrected Christ during one of his visits to India. Displayed in front of the chapel is a glass oesophagus which encases a ceramic sculpture of St. Thomas which purportedly cloaks his remains .

The church was built by the Portuguese in the 16th century and was rebuilt by the British in 1893 using the neo-Gothic architectural design. St. Thomas the doubter is said to have preached in Chennai between 52 to 72 AD and was killed in what is now known as the St. Thomas Mount.