It’s been a crazy week.

Last Sunday one of the Aunties here passed away. She was a former orphan who grew up here, and had then worked here throughout her life. She’d suffered from ill health & Alzheimer’s for quite some time, and her passing away was not unexpected. Her body was placed on blocks of ice in the church building for people to visit throughout the night. In the morning our carpenter built a casket, some of the ladies decorated it, and the funeral was held that afternoon. She was buried in the orphanage graveyard, under the shady mango trees.

Wednesday, one of the older girls mentioned she had a splinter in her arm. It had been there a week, and she’d been squeezing it, but it wouldn’t come out. I told her to come with me & I’d at least put some antiseptic on it, so it didn’t get infected. I then got Brad to come have a look – he seemed to think he could get it out (with her approval). So he went to the work bench, got some pliers, and after some squeezing & pulling, out came a 1.5cm long splinter. So we plied her with antiseptic & a band-aid & sent her on her way.

Thursday, one of the girls was bought in asking for ice for her eye which was very swollen. Ice is currently hard to find, as the electricity is pretty much off all throughout the days at the moment. But we found her some & she was given some Panadol. Later, the eye seemed even worse, but the there was no ice to be had. There was mixed stories about what had happened, something about banging her eye on the bed. But it now appears that she may have fallen victim to the dreaded Rove Beetle (the spider-lick wound Brad had recently). We just hope no scars are left on her beautiful little face after it heals. These beetles are nasty.

Saturday night, one of the small girls was bought into the room whilst we were having supper. She’d been found in her bed with high fever, pretty much unresponsive/unconscious. She’d been running around just hours before. After sponging her down, she was rushed to the nearest hospital. At the mention of needing to be given an injection, she miraculously awoke. She was still a very sick little girl, and obviously wasn’t faking her fever, but she definitely must be afraid of injections.

Sunday – a day of rest…not so… Our plan was to have a “siesta”, after popping down to the shop at the end of our driveway & splurging on a bottle of coke – our first soft drink for a month. We were sprawled on our bed under the fan trying to keep cool when the mobile rang & Priscilla called Brad to urgently come help in putting out the field which had just erupted in flames. Many from the farm used wet hessian and broken branches to beat at the flames and poured buckets of water in front of the fire and managed, after an hour, to get it under control. We were lucky, since the wheat had all been harvested and only stubble remained otherwise the damage could have been a lot worse. A bit of excitement for the arvo, but after a quick bucket bath Brad was back to teaching year 10’s for their business studies exam the following day.

Never a dull moment round here…

Exam Time...

The Class 10’s are having their 4^th exam today – Maths. Brad was madly doing some last minute prep with the girls in the living room this morning, and is now on the roof of the boys hostel, helping them cram. They head off after lunch…

In India, grades 9 & 11 don’t seem to exist, kids jump straight from Grade 8 to Grade 10, then from Grade 10 to Grade 12. Some of this first year of Class 10’s at the orphanage, have had massive breaks in their education, only a few have come straight from Grade 8. So it’s been a real battle to get them through to exam time, and we’re not feeling too confident about. However, the pass rate for these exams is 35%, and if they do fail a subject, they get 3 more chances to resit the exam.

The Class 10’s school year began in August, but being India, they didn’t receive their books until October, with computer books arriving just before Christmas. So this didn’t start the year off the best. But we’ve all been working as well as we can with what we have.

On the first exam day, after much hugging & shaking of hands, along with a quick prayer (much needed at this stage) the 18 students jammed into 2 vehicles along with 2 drivers, to make the 20 minute drive to Khatima. They arrived at the exam centre to find they would be sitting ON THE FLOOR for their 3 hour exam with 150 other students in 2 dusty rooms, with no fans. Ashish one of the teachers rushed off to the market to buy up Khatima’s stock of clip boards, so they at least had something to lean on. On the students return we heard that a good deal of their time was spent filling in forms and having their ID Numbers checked & double checked with no extra time given, cutting the exam from 3 to 2 hours. The ID photos don’t get checked against the ID holder, so we’ve heard that many students have other people sit in on the tests for them. A mother came in to one exam and explained that she would be doing the exam for her sick daughter, they not only let her, but allowed the textbook to be used to find the answers!

The We were also told how prevalent cheating was during the exam, with people bringing in their books with them, along with mobile phones and notes etc., as well as asking the person sitting on the floor next to them if they knew the answers. Even the person running the show was helping students with their answers.

We’ve spent days on end preparing exam preparation papers – thankfully they’re all done now. Brad’s been sweating away for hours in a hot classroom, without electricity, in temperatures up in the 40’s. That also will be over soon…

So keep your fingers crossed… we definitely are…

Whirlwind re-entrance into India

So far we’ve celebrated our 10^th anniversary. The new leper colony building has been officially opened – a big event with many special guests from the community in attendance. The school kids finished up their school year, with prizes given out for the top students for each year level. They have now started back for the new year, but will soon have a couple of months off over the hottest part of summer.

Brad got ‘spider licked’. No he didn’t get licked by a spider, but squashed a beetle on his neck during the night, unbeknownst to himself that it contained a highly poisonous poison. The wound blistered up, got really red and itchy, but has now pretty much healed itself. Others at the orphanage have not been so lucky, and have had huge infections take place from the same bug.

Had a rushed trip to Delhi to pick up a new American visitor from the airport. With our overnight bus stuck in a traffic jam for around 4 hours Our excitement was short lived when for the first time in India we saw people lining up in an orderly fashion, but as soon as the metro arrived the orderliness returned to chaos. Picked up a packet of imported Salt & Vinegar chips from Khan Market – I’ve been craving them since leaving Australia, and had not been able to find them anywhere in India or Malaysia.

Celebrated Easter, made even better by the arrival of Brad’s uncle and aunt who spent a few days with us at the orphanage, after having travelled around India since mid Feb. Was good to catch up with some familiar faces, and have them see where we’ve been hanging out and what we’ve been up to. They enjoyed the time out away from the hustle and bustle of India. And everyone benefited from their presence and fabulous culinary delights.

Brad turned 32, not his best birthday though as he was extremely busy with year 10 exam prep. Exhausted, Brad was still able to enjoy the beautiful supper prepared lovingly for him. Not only did he get spoilt with yummy butter chicken, potatoes, greens etc (which did turn out splendidly if I do say so myself), but his uncle and aunt also whipped up some apple pies in the gas tandoor oven. We shouted all the kids a tub of icecream for his birthday, which I’m pretty sure they all enjoyed as much as we did.

Year 10 Exam preparation is our main reason for coming back to India, and it is so hectic and all consuming. Brad is pretty stressed, exhausted, I’m his lacky, at his beck and call for any help required. We’ve held 2 practice exams so far, with another currently taking place. The real exams start on Monday, so it’s all systems go… We’re pretty nervous about what the results will be.

Ten years have passed …

Thirteen years ago, 2 young 18 year olds fell in love… Aaahhh

25th March 2000 - Ten years ago, 2 little 21year olds got hitched. We had a nice little ceremony in Veale Gardens in Adelaide, a quick fun honeymoon in Hamilton Island and the Barossa, and were excited about starting our new life together.

25th March 2010 – Ten years down the track, we’ve learnt a bit, done a few things, and are still excited about continuing on down the path our life is taking – together…

On our anniversary all the kids wished us a happy anniversary, plied us with flowers, we even got a fancy card. Priscilla spoilt us by baking 3 tiers of anniversary cake (our wedding cake was only two cakes high). We even went on a date for dinner. We caught the bus into a nearby town, went to a nice Indian restaurant, enjoyed our Rogan Josh, Malai Kofta and Naan, whilst sipping our Limca, and popped into the local deli to pick up an icecream before catching the bus back home.

So here’s to the next ten years together – we’re excited as to where they’ll take us…

Melacca & Tioman

Melacca

Melacca is a town 2 hours drive south of Kualu Lumpur. Once a busy port town with lots of fighting between colonial countries and the locals it’s now settled down to be one of the premier tourist sites of Malaysia. The large Chinese population influencing the architecture and the canals running through the town give it a old-world charm and you can wander it’s alleys and shops for days. Unfortunately due to the local bus schedule we only had 24 hours. High on our agenda was the local cuisine which is supposed to be quite famous. We threw ourselves into our explorations and by afternoon we had looked in art galleries, antique shops, up a dragon’s kilt, strolled along

the canal, seen the empty tomb of St Francis (we’ll catch up with him later in Goa) and stuffed ourselves silly with the following: poh piah (cold rolls), rojak (imagine fruit salad with bbq sauce), laksa, chendol, satay, pineapple, tart and dim sum. Since we covered the town the day before, the next morning we hit the shops and bought a pile of clothes for Miriam before heading off to Tioman Island.

Tioman Island

Tioman is an island off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia and our last destination before heading back to India. We were looking forward to some relaxing on the beach, snorkeling and a bit of social interaction (Brad especially). We met a lot of interesting people on the island from Kiwi Nick - the bird nest soup guy, American Asha – the novel writing, earthquake relieving, activist (Who has a boyfriend Marco – the activist plumber), Sandrine (aka Frenchy) who likes wine cheese, and dislikes the English, Aussie Greg the oil-well mechanic and his Scottish girlfriend Carol (pronounced Carl), Rene the hard rockin’ computer distributor and his girlfriend, Heidi the museum curator. As you can imagine meeting all these folk and spending hours chatting with them was a fascinating experience.

One day we decided to cross the island and stay a night at a more secluded location. Due to the steepness of the middle part, transport is quite expensive (costing $30 each one way!) so we decided to walk it, taking only a small backpack with us. We went via the jungle track and armed with a big stick (to pat any eager wildlife with) we huffed and puffed our way through a well-maintained path to Juara. On the way, we surprised a large black snake that wasn’t up for attacking us and we later learned this was probably a cobra! The walk was tough but quite pleasant, taking about 2 hours and deposited us on the only Malaysian beach we’ve seen with waves. We booked in to a chalet right

on the beach for the princely sum of $10 and set about body-surfing the day and next dawn away in solitude (we saw only 2 others on the beach the whole time). The next afternoon we returned to the other side of the island, vowing to return to Juara as it had great surf, accommodation, company, peace & quiet. We decided to take the steeper, hotter bitumen track on the way back to avoid snakes and saw 3 on our way back (albeit the biggest one was dead) with Brad nearly stepping on one (harmless yellow snake).

The rest of our Malaysian trip was filled with getting back to KL, buying scissors, digital bathroom scales and topping of our culinary experiences with a big red steak to boost the iron levels for beef-free India. After 35 hours of planes, trains, cars and taxis we made it back to the orphanage where after a short nap and meet & greet, we were thrown into teaching class 10 immediately – No rest for the wicked!

P.S. We've updated our Malaysia Favourite Photo's

Goodbye Malaysia, Hello again India

As the sunset fades on our Malaysian trip it suddenly dawned on me to let you all know we're still alive and well - in KL awaiting our departure to India tomorrow. I know we've been a bit quiet recently but that's what happens when you are tucked away on some secluded, idyllic island.

We'll update our blog and photos when we get back the orphanage which, all going well, will be very late Tuesday night. There should be plenty of time on the 24 train trip from Kolkata - Bareilly (which we have already done 3 times!)

Talk soon,

B & M

Taman Negara & the Perhentians

Random ramblings

It’s odd how many of my blogs, to the unknowing reader, are titled in a fashion that could be mistaken for some emerging alternative musical ensemble. It’s not though, it’s just where we’ve been for the past 2 weeks. Whilst we had splendid Internet in Taman Negara you can’t very well blog about what you’re currently doing, as you are currently doing it. Now that we’re in the Perhentian Islands (where I’m writing this part of the blog) we don’t have Internet, splendid or otherwise so you will be waiting until we’re back in KL to sort out our visas before you can read about what we did nearly 2 weeks ago – very confusing isn’t it?

Taman Negara

Taman Negara for all you non-Malaysian speakers means National Park – whilst it isn’t the only National Park in Malaysia it’s the only one bearing this name which speaks for itself. Imagine jungly rainforest punctuated by winding, fish-filled rivers and animals such as monkeys, tigers, elephants, deer and reptiles of all descriptions and you’ve thought of the right place. We were here to stretch our legs a bit more after our warm-ups of the Cameron Highlands. Using the trusty Lonely Planet we planned out some little “familiarity walks” leading up to a whopping (for us) 25km day-hike. Taking a relaxing and nap-inducing 2 hour boat ride we arrived at the picturesque town of Tanah Rata, nestled alongside the confluence of 3 rivers. Arriving at the heat of the day and burdened with more luggage than Alexander the Great (and he had elephants), we were a little dismayed at the steep sand embankment we had to climb and greatly dismayed to discover at the top there was a steeper bitumen road to walk up. Starting to warm up and slightly out of breath we made our way to the first of the accommodation options where we were shown some nice bungalows with Air-con and attached bathrooms for $17. “Sold“ I said, and was puzzled by Miriam’s frown, who thought we should look for a better or cheaper option. After a bit of intense discussion that travelling sometime brings out, I put my foot down and decided that we should look for a better or cheaper option. After about an hour of traipsing around the countryside, up and down staircases, all the while carrying our lead-laden packs we arrived back at the first place, fully satisfied that this was the option for us.

The next day we woke up and moved to a cheaper accommodation option ($8) and for the next 3 days did a number of walks which, whilst walking, were very interesting and whilst reading about them, would send you to sleep. We were very impressed by the wildlife encountered with highlights being gliding lizards, wild pigs, deer, monitor lizards and fresh elephant poo. I’m keen to go back there one day armed with a fishing rod as we also saw plenty of nice fish being landed by the locals. After our 4 days we were a bit tired and sore, looking forward to our next bit of beach-going where we could rest our weary legs.

Transit

We were waiting for some money to clear into our main bank account before arriving at the Perhentian Islands so we decided to make a couple of 1-2 night stops up the east coast at Kuantan, Cherating and Kuala Terranganu, the best of these being Cherating where in typical Crouch Potato fashion we did nothing but read books by the beach, so lazy in fact that we didn’t even dip our toe in the water as the tide took the water 200m out. We met a pretty interesting Malaysian guy called Edward who has worked all over the world for an oil company and our discussions covered Immigration policies, surfing, religion, Oz/Malaysian cultural differences and fishing – he even invited us to go fishing at his riverside home but we were leaving the next day. We also met a guy at the hamburger stand where we were getting a cheap tea that had started his own company and has now handed it to his sons to manage while he travels around the world, we chatted for quite a while and we were very embarrassed when he insisted he pay for our dinner!

Perhentian Islands

I’m pretty sure all the photo’s you ever see on travel brochures are taken here – blue, crystal clear water on palm-fringed white sand beaches and easy access coral made this place one of our favorite destinations in Malaysia. We were in a nice chalet with sea views and spent almost every day trying another spot to snorkel from, or just relaxing on the beach or balcony. The variety of fish around the coral reefs was excellent and we didn’t tire of it although I had to cut back on my diving down as I started having a few ear issues (they’re fine now). One day we went on a snorkeling tour and were able to swim with giant sea turtles over 1 metre long and also some small reef sharks. I’ve always been pretty disappointed with other places I’ve been to when snorkeling and this is the first place since the Great Barrier Reef (honeymoon, 2000) that really floated my boat.

KL

We were in KL for 2 nights to confirm our Indian visa and have finally received it with our arrival back in India in about 2 weeks. Before heading off we are going to Melaka for 2 days and then spending a week on Tioman Island – supposedly another great beach/snorkeling location.