Xmas eve

Today we are mostly hanging out along the waterfront. Very little sea traffic this Xmas eve, but lots of visitors, Indian and foreign. Today two 12th graders anxious to use their English approached us. They asked a lot of questions and told us about their families. They want to be email pals. Very sweet

We modified our itinerary to fit this city in – causing much difficulty in getting the replacement tickets. Half of the day was spent trying to get tickets to our next stop – Kochi. We haven’t yet got this problem resolved, but have hopes for tomorrow.

This morning we tried to locate a travel agent mentioned in Lonely Planet, but the taxi driver couldn’t find the address. As he was floundering around, we noticed the most famous temples were nearby, so we redirected him to take us to these fabulous monuments and another one we could pick out as we were driving around. So the mission got changed, but the day turned out quite productive.

Tonight’s dinner in the hotel was something special. The hotel put on a fabulous buffet with 20 dishes plus a dessert selection and a salad bar (forbidden for travelers), it was great and the staff was very proud of what they put before us.

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2 star travel has its issues - and opportunities. To meet people and experience aspects of life that might otherwise have been unobserved.

Tom and I have witnessed lots of poverty; it seems to divide into three categories:

The slum dwellers, which seem the largest group by far –- living in makeshift shacks built of a range of materials, from concrete, to thatch to bricks. They are everywhere –- cities and countryside. They are usually clustered in communities with narrow, often dirt streets and little if any sanitation or running water. There is a range of income apparent in these communities; some houses are reasonably nice with marble flooring and well maintained buildings. A lot have courtyards where cooking and other family activities take place. Residents struggle to keep these hovels clean, an uphill battle at best with the kids running in and out on the dusty streets and water often having to be hand carried into the homes.

There are also squatter communities that exist only by sufferance of the municipalities. Frederick tells of one in Chandigarh that was summarily bulldozed, causing the slum communities that his program serves to increase hugely in population and overburdening an area that was already overcrowded.

The second category is families and other groups who live on city streets – probably landless migrants from the countryside, looking for work, we are told, on a day-to-day basis. They live in hopes of finding enough work to afford to rent space in the communities described above.

The 3rd category is single individuals who beg or lie motionless on the sidewalks or any odd space that they can find where they won’t be hassled. Many appear nearly lifeless and are probably dying a slow death from disease and starvation.