Ramnad.
So we rushed off to Madurai and arrived tired, in pain (hard seats) and hungry for some good food. We had dosai. Rev Fenn had written off to Mr. Anthony, the missionary at the Conban Valley Project, but hadn't had any reply so we didn't know whether we were coming or going. He turned up later though and at six the next morning we were up (well I was - C. was thinking about it and not liking the idea) to go on our Great Adventure.
It was another three-hour bus journey, but the flat landscape rippled and became not-quite-mountainous, but pretty damn hilly! It was great lurching round the S-bends, bouncing round autos, cars, other buses and the like! At one point there was a piece of road that the workmen had left out by mistake - a 20' pothole - and we had to career around it on to the bank. Almost all the roads are raised up with a ridiculously high camber and steep, rutted banks down either side. When a wheel goes off the road you soon know about it! But the view was good - huge slabs of rock thrust into the sky.
The place is called Conban, and we went to Mr Anthony's house first. we met almost his entire family and they insisted on giving us Iddly (no, no, no! We've just eaten, I'm not hungry, I'm sick, I can't - Doctor's orders, please, PLEASE!). Mr Anthony's not one to take no for an answer, so I switched off my vomitting reflex and as best I could and forced it down. C. ate loads because he'd had hardly any breakfast - I'd had plenty (bombay toast / french bread).
We visited various people in the town, each of whom gave us hot milk / coffee and tried to feed us. I don't know how much food they think a human being can take - Mr Anthony certainly has no idea - he kept asking us if we wanted more! We met another missionary with an extremely young wife who has two brothers (with underdeveloped legs - polio I think) staying with him. These two were keen musicians and before long we had the keyboard and tabla out as they gave us a little concert. The keyboard was the most modern I've seen in India so far - actually playable and pretty good! They were superb musicians and when we came back we played a bit more.
The brothers were very interested in hearing about England and it's immoral culture. Questions we were asked ranged from restrictions on alcohol to, in India, the rule is 'One Man, One Wife', is there any restriction on marriage in England? I don't know where they get their ideas from. We talked at great length about music, films and politics. They asked me if I knew that bloke who's had the world record symphony - were surprised when I said I didn't - and said he came from Conban. Funny that - Joel at New Year asked the same thing and said he was from Veerambal!
We met a couple of school teachers and this is where the plugging for money started. Mr Anthony's been left some land in a Hindu village to build a church. The trouble is, there are no Christians there so he has no support and no money. In another village, the Christians worship in a tent. The Diocesan office don't approve of the project, so they don't give him much funding - his salary is only six hundred Rs a month!1 Mind you, I'm not sure I really approve of the way they talk about the Hindu's 'Living in Darkness' and how they must be 'Shown the Way of the Truth'. It seems to me that they're using the you're ignorant and wrong method to convert people.2
But then, Mr Anthony's such a nice chap I can't imagine him preaching like that. In any case, shouldn't he convert a few people before building a church in their village? Ah well, the question never came so we didn't have to make any excuses for not asking our churches for money for him.
With everyone we met, Mr Anthony introduced us as students 'who are interested in Mission and Missionary work'. No, we're NOT missionaries, preachers, or training to be such. No we DON'T want to join any missionary work! We cried at various points during the day. Finally he got the message and stopped asking us to pray at every house we went to.
He was incredibly protective, asking us not to talk to anyone at the bus stand and even getting some stools so we could sit away from everyone else (We're fine on the steps, stop fussing, mum!). We got the bus back to Madurai, stood for half the journey and zipped off to the Pandyan as soon as we arrived.
...
Over the last few days I've had very little to eat, because my stomach decides it's full after two mouthfuls. I've got no idea why this is, but at the Pandyan I ate a whole meal! It hurt, but I did it and I was so happy. The food is gorgeous there. But with Indian food I have no willpower left and have to settle for very little. I think I've worked out what the horrible 'South Indian Chicken Mank' ingredient is that ruins the taste of everything. It's coriander! They use it like rice and chillis - far too much and far too often. They use it so much that you can't taste anything else. It's disgusting, but if they used less it would be quite nice.
Rev Fenn is on the case with our round trip and has given us some excellent ideas for making it more meaningful. Say we get a letter from the Bishop saying the who-what-when-where and whys of our visit, then get a list of church addresses in each place we're visiting, we'll have a cheap place to stay, meet people who know the place and maybe even get a local guide! This will separate us from the 'Tourist' label a little bit. It's such a good idea because it means we won't be travelling blind and we'll learn a lot more than if we had no contacts.
I've had some more ideas about what to do in the mornings, the most attractive being (sleep) to document the interesting things about Ramnad in photos and the written word - ie the bazaar, Hindu shrines etc. This will stimulate both my interests as photographer and writer and I should get a good 'project' out of it as well!3 We've also decided to buy some games so that all the kids who come to stare at us have more to do! We're going to buy a carrom board (a weird, smaller hybrid like pool) and already have Monopoly, Chess and cards. I'm not sure USPG would approve of us introducing capitalism to the 'third world', but it IS a great game.
By the way, it's called 'Cumbum', not Conban as I thought when I first heard it! Well THAT's a relief.