Day 3

8.30am
I had not planned to visit the Kindergarten until later, not knowing how late I would sleep. As it happened I was awake fairly early and so decided to print the photos we had so far.

I unpacked the equipment, found adapters for the power and start to set everything up. Then I realised that I did not have a cable to connect the camera to the printer. I had a Firewire connector but found that I needed a USB. I could not understand how I had the mistake. I remember removing some of the unwanted cables when I packed but could not remember this one. Disaster! I was angry with myself and disappointed. I unpacked everything twice but it was not there.

All I could think of was that I would have to use the laptop and show the pictures on this. But it would be hard to leave the pictures behind as I had promised or to set up the ‘exhibition’ next week.

10.30 am
With Shobha I visited three houses. In the first house one of the older girls was visiting from her College in Mysore where she is studying and plans to continue to study for a degree in sociology. She talked about being homesick when she first left home, how she missed her mother, her brothers and sisters and her mother’s cooking. She is living in a hostel and now as friends but still likes to return home when she can. Her mother talked about how she found it hard when she first came to the Village and had to look after so many small children, but after two years or so it became easier.

In the second house there was also an older girl who was studying to be a librarian and in the third house lives the youngest child in the Village, just one year old. I asked the second mother who she would talk to if she had any problems with the children and she said the older children. I thought perhaps the mothers would discuss the children among themselves. The family is the most important social unit in the Village and the mothers seem to keep to themselves rather than being in and out of each other’s houses. The older children will visit friends in other houses but on the whole the place for socialising is outside the house rather than inside.

The second house was also home to two cats, one with a kitten. They were asleep on two of the children’s beds and I asked if they slept with the children. The children are not supposed to touch the cats and will sometimes sleep on the floor so as not to disturb them!

The houses all have the same design and are built in the same way. They are built of large, irregular shaped, stone blocks and have red cement floors and red tile roofs. Inside the rooms are mostly open to the full height of the roof and are cool and shaded. Outside a small garden leads to a verandah and the front door. The door opens directly on to a large living room, which has a table and chairs, three or four other chairs and a built in, glass-fronted display cabinet containing cups and medals won by the children at sports, a few children toys and in some houses, a few books. Several houses have sewing machines. On the walls of each house are various posters, depending a bit on whether the house is Catholic, Moslem or Hindu. Behind the living area is the kitchen, divided by open shelves as well as a door opening. The kitchen has a gas hob, a stone sink and draining board and shelving for kitchen utensils and outside there is a yard with a stone for washing and clothes lines.

Off the living area is a corridor with doors to the mother’s room, which small children also often share, a boys’ room, a girls’ room a bathroom and a further bedroom which seems in most houses to be used by older children. In some houses there is a small TV, though I am told that viewing is normally restricted to weekends, and in some houses there may be a ‘fridge or a washing machine. These though are not provided and the mothers have bought them from their own savings,

1.30 pm Lunch with Victor
I asked Victor how he saw the village in the future, when the current group of mothers are no longer able to care for the young children. He said that he saw an important role for them as ‘grandmothers’, who could continue to live in the village and remain in contact with the children, helping when they could. Some villages have already done this and have established a ‘grandmothers’ house’, a bit like the house next to the Community House where the ‘aunties’ live.

I asked Victor how the mothers were selected. He said that they looked for women who were optimistic and positive in outlook. He said that there was some discussion in Europe about whether the role of the mother should be professionalized, and require training in social and other skills. He said that they took a more old-fashioned view, seeing the job of mother as more of a vocation than a profession. He went on to tell me a little about two of the mothers, one who died of cancer a few years ago, and one who continues to work despite having a psychological condition. She wanted to remain in the Village and was managing alright on medication. Psychologists had advised that her condition was not detrimental for the children but the situation was being watched.

I told Victor that the dogs kept me awake at night and he told me a little about the wildlife. The dogs are a worry because they can carry rabies, though if you get bitten the treatment is much better than it used to be. Victor said people were reluctant to kill the stray dogs and also snakes, which are sometimes seen around the village and which are removed for release outside. Sometimes they will come into the house but then they panic because they cant move on the smooth cement floors. Mostly though he said the snakes will move out of your way if they can.

We went on to talk about health problems. AIDS is not a serious problem in this region but is difficult to deal with because it carries social stigma. The village has not had to deal with an infected child but does blood tests on admission to check. The problem Victor says they are likely to encounter is if they receive an orphan whose parents have died from AIDS and what the implications of this would be for the village as a whole. In some large cities it may be necessary to establish a village just for HIV+ children. Philosophically he says that once the disease is more prevalent, then the stigma will lessen and the problem will reduce.

2.30 pm
Returning to my printing problem I thought perhaps I could print through the Office printers if I transferred the images to CD. But before I tried that idea, I had just a vague hope that the printer might have a Bluetooth connection and thought that this might just possibly solve the printing problem.

Reading through the booklet and trying one or two other ideas I realised that I could print straight from the memory stick, if I removed it from the camera and put it in the printer. I just had to remember to set iPhoto so that it would not delete the images from the camera on transfer. I am pleased to have worked out a solution but why aren’t I feeling the enormous sense of relief that I should?

As I thought about it I remembered that this is just what I had done when I tested the equipment at home. I had printed from the memory stick, not from the laptop. I can’t believe I had not remembered this. Then I remembered that I am still operating on a five and a half hour time difference and that my brain is not functioning as fully as it should. Either that or I am aging faster than I like to think.

I remembered too, reading Malinowski’s diary and realising that frustration with yourself and your own inadequacies is endemic to fieldwork. I have only been here a few days but I wonder if being in a new culture necessarily creates these feelings of inadequacy and dependence.

3.30 pm
Shobha helped me identify the names of the children in the first set of pictures and we added their names to the keywords in iPhoto.

I had not realised that Shobha had worked here for only one week and she told me that it was so much better as a place to work than anywhere else. She was amazed that after only a week she had been asked to assist me and that this had caused no jealousy among the other staff.

We talked too about fostering and the problems this could cause. It is now illegal here but the village view is that this is the child’s home and that their family is here.

5 pm
It began to rain and so the usual outside prayer meeting was not held. We opened the Activity Room and the children quickly arrived. The plan today is to take the camera out for the first time and to visit some of their houses so they can take photos there. The mothers are very patient with this caravan of excited children arriving in their houses and comply with requests to pose, move pictures and generally disrupt their houses. We visit a number of houses before the batteries start to fail, so I have to fetch a second camera, having forgotten to bring spare batteries in my pocket. This is probably a good idea anyway as we are running short of memory.

Everything goes well and we return to the Activity Room. The children then decide that they want to photo a tutorial session (tutors come in for a few hours each evening and help the children with their work in the kindergarten classrooms). I fear their reorganisation of everyone gets a bit out of hand and we do disrupt the sessions but everyone is patient with us.

We meet back in the Activity Room to plan tomorrow. Shobha will meet me in the morning so that we can print this evening’s pictures and at 3 pm we will meet with the children for an outside visit, returning before dark. Shoubha decides we should reorganise the three groups to make sure that there is one older and more responsible girl with each group. This causes some resentment as some of the girls want to stay together but I think it will prove to be a sensible move. I had thought this evening we could have taken three cameras but we used only one at a time and this proved to be a good decision.

Comments

[Idetrorce]

very interesting, but I don't agree with you
Idetrorce