First Day at Work

My Hotel in Chennai

Today I met the people that I will be working with in Tamil Nadu. Basically, Oxfam America in Boston sent me over (unpaid but with all expenses paid by a grant plus a stipend form OA because I am still only a student) to help with the research methods and survey design on a study of the tsunami recovery in this area and how local communities can increase their resilience to disaster.

I will be based in Nagapattinam, which is the city that was hardest hit by the tsunami and the location of Oxfam's local partner organization, Bedroc. I am slightly nervous about heading down to Nagapattinam. I have heard from various people within Oxfam and Indians have met here that Nagapattinam is "nothing much", "a shit hole", "not much", and "nothing there". So, I am, um, excited but nervous. I stayed in places like this last summer but I had my research team with me...so, I had two friends with me at all times. This summer I will be alone (aside from the people at work and in the village)...and no city to divert my attention. This could be good for me, or it could just be lonely. I have no idea what type of internat access I will have.

I was supposed to take the 7 hour bus ride down to Nagapattinam today, but Annie, the head of Bedroc, decided to stay another night in Chennai and didn't tell me until 4:30 pm! I had already checked out of my hotel, but thank goodness they still had rooms available. The Oxfam person was like "It is probably for the best, there is nothing much there." Hmmmmm....I am interested to see what this "nothing much" looks like.

As I got in the taxi to go back to my hotel, there was a very disturbing gentleman outside. He was stunted...he kust have been less than 4 feet tall. He was skinny, even for his height, and he had a giant head and giant, red rimmed eyes. But, he was dressed in clean clothes and didn't look like a beggar. He was standing in the middle of the road staring at me, and he seemed out of it, like he was in a daze. He stared at me the whole time we were standing there, and sort of moved closer to stand near me. It was strange. He didn't beg or make any expression, and he didn't look like one of the priests that walk around. I couldn't stop thinking about him later: What must his life have been like? He must have either had long term undernutrition or some sort of disease. But he had clean, nice looking clothes on. Is he a domestic worker that was mistreated? It is so sad. I mean, you see lots of sad cases in India, but this one seemed unusual and I guess that is why it sticks in my head. And it was ironic....there we were, working at Oxfam trying to "help" people and there is a starving guy right outside our door. And when we stood out there, all of us ignored him. I guess that is the line you have to walk when you are in India...you can't get caught up in each and every person, because if you did it would be overwhelming and impossible.

On a more cheerful note, there are lots of catholic churches down here. There is one on the street of my hotel. I didn't realize it was a catholic church for a while, because it looks like a Hundu temple to me...the insie is very brightly colored and decorated with lots of red and gold and garlands. On closer inspection, I realized it was catholic. Here are some pics: