Just in case you were worried - I'm still alive.
For those of you disappointed by that news - I'm happy to disappoint you.
The title of this blog reads '్రీటింగ్స్ ఫ్రొం Hyderabad' - today's test is for you to look it up to understand. The language is in Telegu - which I haven't quite mastered yet although I can wave my hand dismissively and wobble my head a bit which seems to get me by.
So - what has he done so far and why hasn't he posted a blog for a while to brighten up our days.
Well, I have dismantled hand-made cots and re-assembled them:
That wasn't easy- they were made with the bases too high up nailed to the 'poles' and I had to squeeze a saw blade between the poles and the side of the base to cut the nails, to turn the poles, to tease the nail stubs out of the poles with pliers, remove the other half of the nails from the base, send for some new nails - they came back too long so I had to rescue as many of the old bent nails as I could and improvise with the too long ones when I had no more 'refurbished' nails I sank the too long ones not full in and bent the last small bit over - purfick!
Why do I tell you this? Because I've invented a new word 'INDIANUITY' derived from the English word 'INGENUITY'.
Why bother putting 3 screws in the bracket with 3 holes when one will do? Why bother putting a plug on your power drill &c when you can stick the 2 bare ends of cable into the holes in the wall using a screwdriver in the top hole to enable you to insert the 2 ends? Why bother with a drain rod when you can use a bendy piece of garden hose which might not have the necessary rigidity to push, but if you keep at it for over an hour and run water through the hose - you usually get it done in the end.In fact - as a 'skilled craftsman'(???), why bother turning up for days to finish what you started - oh, sorry, that's a worldwide builders skill.
So Mrs Benfield - all of those old, used, slightly bent nails, screws, used spark plugs, bits of wire, old plugs &c &c stored somewhere in my garage using my own Biblical filing system (Seek and Ye shall find - eventually) - DO have a potential purpose and shouldn't be thrown away - so cancel that skip that you threatened to book while I'm away!
On the cosmetic front - I have less bite marks and lumps than I did within the first days - the mosquitoes seem to be fewer generally, although whilst chiselling out cement to a waste drain cover and adding a pipe to waste water to run into the drain during late evening, the did seem to want to eat again!
It's a strange society where people seem content to sit around all day/ all night - contemplating nothing (I used to work with a few people like that though in the police). They do just sit and stare or look at their mobile phone - for hours. They don't seem to read even newspapers - certainly not books and I have found this very strange because it is such a place of extreme contrasts with very rich living and moving around very, very poor people; those at the bottom end don't seem to want to improve their situations by learning to do other things - very fatalistic it seems. I was told that they are educated by rote learning and never are tasked with problem solving or inquiring, working out things - so that's the way they stay.
This sort of makes me feel a bit of a fraud because, I came here to do whatever I might be able to help with, Sarah told the foster carers/house mothers that I was skilled in construction (!!!!!) and yet the tasks generally are so simple that even I am able to do them.
Here's a shed that I made:
Only joking - mine wouldn't be THAT good!
Then there's the drivers! The rule of the road is that there is no rule. Sounding your horn is considered courteous. This picture almost shows that they actually want it (the writing on the back reads 'Please Sound Your Horn'). They sometimes also have written on the back 'Proceed and Stop' (???):
And believe me - these drivers are very courteous - they take courteousy seriously - that's why they blast each other constantly. Someone described the traffic flow to me as 2 shoals of fish heading directly towards each other and then just merging together in one flowing movement - and it sort of is that way, albeit not so smoothly.
Driving at night is hazardous - one light coming towards you could be a motorcycle - or a car with one light - or a motorcycle/car with one light closely followed by a lorry with no lights. 2 lights coming towards you could be 2 motorcycles - one mortcycle alongside a car with one headlight working.... No lights ahead of you could mean that there is nothing, or that it is any combination of those other examples.
Not that lights are necessarily used at night, many just don't bother!
Oh - and on a 4 lane motorway - don't be surprised if there is any sort of vehicle heading in the opposite direction for those lanes.
*********************************************
Anyway - enough about all that - the important part about the reason that I came, Sarah and her children.
The home that I've been in is newly acquired on a 3 year lease and is specifically for children generally up to about 2 years old who are very ill. There are now about 8 there at present and as soon as the refurbishing and decor is sorted, Sarah will be taking about 20 further ill babies from the government institution where they are currently. They will be nursed and nurtured until they are old and well enough to go on to the homes where they will be with 'foster mothers' who oversee their groups in Ongole (Bay of Bengal about 10 hours drive away) - my next port of call.
One of these babys is Ruby:
The first picture shows her when Sarah received her - very malnourished and covered in boils on her head - the others show her a couple of months later having come home - 2.4kgs in weight with an arm hardly thicker than my finger! Restored to health and now in need of 'chubbing up' as Anna her foster Mom says!
The next blog will be much sooner - I have the news already in my head, ready to go - but that'll be for the next time.
Meanwhile, from sunny Hyderabad, here is the weather for the UK:
ుడ్బై ఫ్రొం Hyderabad
For those of you disappointed by that news - I'm happy to disappoint you.
The title of this blog reads '్రీటింగ్స్ ఫ్రొం Hyderabad' - today's test is for you to look it up to understand. The language is in Telegu - which I haven't quite mastered yet although I can wave my hand dismissively and wobble my head a bit which seems to get me by.
So - what has he done so far and why hasn't he posted a blog for a while to brighten up our days.
Well, I have dismantled hand-made cots and re-assembled them:
Why do I tell you this? Because I've invented a new word 'INDIANUITY' derived from the English word 'INGENUITY'.
Why bother putting 3 screws in the bracket with 3 holes when one will do? Why bother putting a plug on your power drill &c when you can stick the 2 bare ends of cable into the holes in the wall using a screwdriver in the top hole to enable you to insert the 2 ends? Why bother with a drain rod when you can use a bendy piece of garden hose which might not have the necessary rigidity to push, but if you keep at it for over an hour and run water through the hose - you usually get it done in the end.In fact - as a 'skilled craftsman'(???), why bother turning up for days to finish what you started - oh, sorry, that's a worldwide builders skill.
So Mrs Benfield - all of those old, used, slightly bent nails, screws, used spark plugs, bits of wire, old plugs &c &c stored somewhere in my garage using my own Biblical filing system (Seek and Ye shall find - eventually) - DO have a potential purpose and shouldn't be thrown away - so cancel that skip that you threatened to book while I'm away!
It's a strange society where people seem content to sit around all day/ all night - contemplating nothing (I used to work with a few people like that though in the police). They do just sit and stare or look at their mobile phone - for hours. They don't seem to read even newspapers - certainly not books and I have found this very strange because it is such a place of extreme contrasts with very rich living and moving around very, very poor people; those at the bottom end don't seem to want to improve their situations by learning to do other things - very fatalistic it seems. I was told that they are educated by rote learning and never are tasked with problem solving or inquiring, working out things - so that's the way they stay.
This sort of makes me feel a bit of a fraud because, I came here to do whatever I might be able to help with, Sarah told the foster carers/house mothers that I was skilled in construction (!!!!!) and yet the tasks generally are so simple that even I am able to do them.
Here's a shed that I made:
Only joking - mine wouldn't be THAT good!
Then there's the drivers! The rule of the road is that there is no rule. Sounding your horn is considered courteous. This picture almost shows that they actually want it (the writing on the back reads 'Please Sound Your Horn'). They sometimes also have written on the back 'Proceed and Stop' (???):
And believe me - these drivers are very courteous - they take courteousy seriously - that's why they blast each other constantly. Someone described the traffic flow to me as 2 shoals of fish heading directly towards each other and then just merging together in one flowing movement - and it sort of is that way, albeit not so smoothly.
Driving at night is hazardous - one light coming towards you could be a motorcycle - or a car with one light - or a motorcycle/car with one light closely followed by a lorry with no lights. 2 lights coming towards you could be 2 motorcycles - one mortcycle alongside a car with one headlight working.... No lights ahead of you could mean that there is nothing, or that it is any combination of those other examples.
Not that lights are necessarily used at night, many just don't bother!
Oh - and on a 4 lane motorway - don't be surprised if there is any sort of vehicle heading in the opposite direction for those lanes.
*********************************************
Anyway - enough about all that - the important part about the reason that I came, Sarah and her children.
The home that I've been in is newly acquired on a 3 year lease and is specifically for children generally up to about 2 years old who are very ill. There are now about 8 there at present and as soon as the refurbishing and decor is sorted, Sarah will be taking about 20 further ill babies from the government institution where they are currently. They will be nursed and nurtured until they are old and well enough to go on to the homes where they will be with 'foster mothers' who oversee their groups in Ongole (Bay of Bengal about 10 hours drive away) - my next port of call.
One of these babys is Ruby:
The first picture shows her when Sarah received her - very malnourished and covered in boils on her head - the others show her a couple of months later having come home - 2.4kgs in weight with an arm hardly thicker than my finger! Restored to health and now in need of 'chubbing up' as Anna her foster Mom says!
The next blog will be much sooner - I have the news already in my head, ready to go - but that'll be for the next time.
Meanwhile, from sunny Hyderabad, here is the weather for the UK:
ుడ్బై ఫ్రొం Hyderabad
