Where am? In Ponnekarra at the hospital but tomorrow I
go to Vallikavu, Kerala, look it up on Google Maps, yes it’s really a place.
How am I? Now that my nose has stopped running for a few days, I’m fine.
Today
I am starting a very small project. For
the next week I am going to host a group of 10 people coming from Sri
Lanka. They are the Sri Lanka Women’s
Cooperative. They are a very well
established micro finance group. See http://www.slwb.org/
They
are coming here as consultants to the women’s group that are only
starting. They have 80,000 members, the
ones here only have 10,000. They have a self funded health insurance plan, the
women here have no health insurance. It should be very interesting. It’s a man
with 9 women and the man is the only one that we know speaks English. The women will be speaking Tamil and I will
have someone with me who can act as interpreter. I go to the airport at 2:00,
come back to my Guest House where they will spend the night, and then tomorrow
we head to Vallikavu. They’re there
visiting some of the women’s groups for a day, and then they have a 2 day
workshop with the 55 groups here in Kerala to exchange information. I also get
the benefit of traveling with them as they stop at these little villages, then
take a boat trip on the backwaters. Should be good.
We
return to Ponnekarra on Tuesday after the workshop ends for another meeting
here on Wednesday. They’ll get a tour of the Hospital. And on their last day, Thursday
we go to Fort Kochi, a tourist destination to sightsee, eat and in the evening
attend the local Traditional Dance Kathikali.
See http://www.kathakalicentre.com/
Friday
they have to leave for the airport at 6:30 a.m. and I volunteered to accompany
them there. I think it’s nice to make sure they get to the airport without any
mishaps.
I’m
sorry I don’t post more often. This
project took time and I didn’t get to it until now. As I'm entering this however, I realize I didn't post for Thanksgiving and I really meant to do that so I owe you one.
I’ll
let you know how the visit goes.
Love,
Marie
