Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Elderly, some naughty kids, more cows & paper bags and a chicken or two



A beautiful hibiscus flower


Piles of completed paper bags 


Naughty children on their afternoon nap, slightly distracted by the funny white woman making snoring noises to encourage them.


The beneficiaries of the Kindergarten & Elderly Centre at Seeterampet.


Some of the elderly at Keelalathur. The women have benefitted enormously from the goat scheme which worked very well in this centre. The lady on the left is saving all her earned 9000rs (£13) for her funeral expenses so she can go out with a bang.


RUHSA staff: Rural Community Officers, Training officers and Community Physicians, including Dr Rita.


A particularly beautiful cow donated by kind British people to start a milking & fertiliser scheme for very poor farmers who form a co-operative. The income from the first cows bought (5) will subsidise future investment in cows for the remaining farmers in the co-operative. The Farmers also pay back the money  to RUHSA, so it acts as an interest free loan, so more farmers clubs can be started.


The local RCO trying to catch another of the RUHSA purchased cows.


A sleeping calf


The third cow. Nice shadow.


Negotiations and picture opportunities with Richard and the cows.


Jungle fowl and little jungle fowlets


The fifth cow (fourth cow wasn't very photogenic)


Richard showing some more naughty children his photo of them.


Prabhu, the OT, assessing an elderly gentleman who had a stroke a month ago with R hemiparesis. He is going to show him & his family some basic activities of daily living, exercises and positioning to prevent contractures, reduce weakness and improve function. Behind are some informative posters.



Bullock cart in the sun.


You made not be able to see, but this lady is not sure of how jigsaw puzzles work, so she just puts the pieces together regardless of the picture.


We came across a huge festival on the way home one day. There was this crazy, enormous foil-covered construction being dragged through the streets, whilst people danced to loud drumming and generally made a lot of noise. Not sure what the reason was, but with 1000's of gods, any old excuse will do.




Chit-chatting at Kovasampet whilst making paper-bags. They have always been a fiery lot here and they had lots to tell us. 


One lady was all fingers and thumbs and kept getting herself stuck to the bags rather then the paper stuck to itself, so she needed help from a neighbour.

1 comment:

Sally Whittingham said...

Love all these photos Arabella and especially love the video of the non-sleeping children at Pachaikili. Am sure you will have enjoyed your visit there. If you do have a chance to eat lunch there do take it as the SHG make super meals for very canny amounts of rupees, usually supplemented by local veg. We are hopeful of getting a garden going in front of the centre with lots of veg as the teachers, ayah and the SHG are very keen. Glad you're having a good time!