Our friends… ?

Interesting interview with a schoolgirl about her photos today. Turns out that outside school she has been on a nursing course, which she will finish before she finishes her O Levels at the end of this year. She said that she will then be qualified to work in a government hospital. This is the first child at the school I have met who has actually arranged a career for herself, impressive at 16. But this does not necessarily mean that she will leave the fishing village. She says that she loves it there and wants to stay.

Later we went down to the beach to see Roshan, the boy who J played with J during the beach cricket match last month, and his mother Roshini. I ran into Roshini in the street outside the school earlier, and promised we would come down.

Its great to be so familiar with a group in the village now. We chatted with Udaya and his wife and his mother, saw Kishmi, and saw Roshini hurriedly finish preparing food for her husband to take fishing overnight. The boats (including the Boat that Della funded) launched for the night in pretty precarious fashion.

NB - for more footage of the boats launching, plus other great vids, see the FODAD blog:
http://wwwfriendsofdellaanddon.blogspot.com/2009/07/time-to-reflect.html

Are these people our friends? On one level, it’s a straightforward yes. People like Roshini and Udaya’s wife exude warmth and have invited us into their houses and lives very willingly. Its easy to joke with Udaya, and he’s so keen to help.

But this is of course a far from equal relationship. They need help and we have a lot of money (to them). Della has been generous over the years, helping to support many of the villagers. I am Della’s sister, and that is why we are here. Udaya is about to further consolidate his position as head of the village as a Friend of Della and Don funds new “pulling” nets for the whole village, that he will manage.

But however unequal, there is a real relationship here, and it is something that I value most from this trip. We have been putting faces and lives to the faceless sea of life in the third world, to people who suffered heavily in the tsunami and before, and who have to deal with all the problems of poverty the world over, but who are helping themselves and for whom we are contributing something that hopefully will make a real difference.

Finally, children of course create their own relationships free of all this baggage. J and Roshan seemed to have developed a rather odd one today, with Roshan repeatedly presenting his bottom to J for J to hit with a cricket bat. Won’t even start to try and analyse that one…