Book club

I looked at the 5 books I had under my pillow last night and thought I would turn it into an entry, mainly because there's a wee theme brewing...

1. How Dangerous Men Think
2. How to Survive a Stalker
3. Bridge to Holy Cross
4. Banker to the Poor
5. Everybody Loves a Good Drought

Creepy though the titles of numbers 1 and 2 are, I really would like to recommend them to everyone, men and women. Men, because it would really help you understand your female friend's fears of being harrased/abused, or their feelings if they already have been, and women, because it turns around something we've all been taught to be when we're getting attacked - submissive. Am talking about that whole 'if someone's raping you, don't enrage them, it will only make it worse', when its actually been proven through numerous studies that fighting back doesn't make things worse and in many cases saves you from this situation. Am just waiting for my brother to come back to try out some of those nose cartilage breaking moves recommended.

Bridge to Holy Cross is one of those 'romantic epics'. I read the last page before I even got to chapter 5. The last 2 are for work.

On the road again Part 2

Last June I went to see one of the projects I work with in Madyha Pradesh with the Korku hill tribes. The project concentrates on literacy, local governance, savings (getting economic control back form the money lenders) and improved farming methods. I'm going back in October and can't wait to see the little improvements made year after year. The community in this project is amongst the poorest we support, and really understanding these people is beyond a white kiwi, living in Auckland who doesn't speak Hindi, let alone the local dialect. The closest I can get is through supporting the local NGO and these very quick visits and observations I make. The distance between town and the interior is not so great yet takes hours over dirt roads in a four wheel drive, and as you get more into the interior the more apparent is the poverty, the less apparent are the women, and the quieter the children. Literacy classes are taken by animators who themselves didn't make it past the equivalent of 6th grade, but are the most educated in the village. I remember asking the women why they liked the literacy classes, their answers ran along the lines of - 'we now don't get cheated out of change at the market as we can count', and 'I can read the numbers on the buses into and out of town and don't get lost'. Small things.

I'll be in Singapore again through this trip, its a nice stop before coming back home, kind of like a halfway rest point between chaotic India and super sleepy and safe NZ.

On the road again...

I missed taking a photo of a donkey walking along with a load of lavender on its back (actually I got half of its arse) and decided to take this arty one instead. On the back of a scooter in Hvar, Croatia, August 2005. I will never forget that scooter ride, or the burn on the inside of my calf resulting in an A & E visit at St Thomas'/Guy's hospital back in London. I recommend 9.30am if you're ever down that way. Premium time to go. No one there, and when the nurse handed me FREE antibiotics I couldn't believe it. That little trip in NZ would have cost about 50USD at least. Anyway, I now have that trademark 'naive Western tourist who hardly ever rides a scooter or development worker in developing country' scar.