Day 15

Last night we finally made it to a place called Fort Kochin, which is a pretty touristy town.  We found this really amazing restaurant that had a really great outside seating area with a sitar player.  Unfortunately, there was about a 30 minute wait so we decided to grab a beer first and then head back.  It was much needed! The restaurant was a little pricy, but amazing, definitely some of the best food we've had so far.

This morning we got to do some shopping around Fort Kochin (finally!) and I got a couple things.  Then we took a ferry to the mainland, the city of Kochin and met up with another class from Iowa that was located in Kerala.  We got to talk with them for about and hour and share stories with each other.  It was cool to hear what they've been up to.  Then we headed out for the 7 hour drive back to Trivandrum.  I'm glad to finally be back at our "home" hotel.  It's weird to think that I only have two full days here left!

Day 14

Today we are on our way to Kochi, but will be stopping a couple of times to visit some villages and listen to some presentations from Costford on their non-construction activities and sustainable development.  We got to visit a factory where they make bras.  This factory employs about 60 local women and also gives them the opportunity for profit sharing. 

 We had a surprise visit to a school!  They were SO excited to see us, it was the coolest thing ever!  They would just crowd all around you and each kid wanted to shake your hand and know your name.  It was one of the highlights of the trip so far for sure!

 This is the noon meal, an incentive program for poorer families to send their kids to school.  Each child is guaranteed one nutritious meal at school.

 We stopped for lunch which happened to be by the beach, so we got to hang out here for a while.  So much fun!

 Next we went to this preschool.

 We also stopped at a local house.

Tomorrow we will be meeting up with the other class that has been in Kerala for the winter session, so I’m really looking forward to that and hearing what they’ve been doing while in Kerala. 

Day 13

Today we’re traveling another 7 hours to another place in Kerala called Thrissur.  Thrissur is the cultural capital of Kerala and Costford wanted us to experience it a little before we left to go home.  On our way to Thrissur we stopped at a Ayurvedic and spice garden and were shown plants that are used to make spices and natural medicines.  I was able to get some tea there, which Jerry said was the best place in the world to get it.  

 We also saw some wild monkeys on our way!! 

 The town of Thrissur is set up where the center of the town is a circle with a 2.5 mile diameter with a Hindu temple in the middle and the road and shopping all around it.  It was pretty cool to walk around in there because there is so much going on all the time.  Jerry said that not many tourists come to this area, so once again, people would stop and stare at us as we walked by. 

Day 12

Today we were supposed to have a day to do whatever we wanted, but basically had the day scheduled for us to do a bunch of touristy things in the area.  It was a little frustrating to find this out, simply because almost all of our time here has been scheduled for us, and I don’t feel like I’ve gotten a chance to go out and explore the area without the entire group, but the day ended up being really fun.  We started out by riding elephants!!  

Then we drove through the mountains and taking pictures at some really scenic sites.  

 We also got to check out a hydroelectric dam and do some shopping.  Once we got back we went to another showing of the traditional play (because apparently the last one wasn’t very good at all) and a martial arts presentation..  We were going to do a night safari after that, but it had rained and we were pretty exhausted after the day.

Day 11

Today we got up early and left Trivandrum for a place called Thekkadi, which is located in the mountains in eastern Kerala.  This area is known for its tea and spice production.  We stopped about half way there and went on a 3 hour boat ride through the backwaters.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  You can rent these boats overnight because there are two rooms on the boat you can stay on.  Our boat had an upper balcony, so we hung out there and were able to get some sun (finally!).  They prepared lunch for us, which you can see below.  There was fish that was freshly caught a few hours before we came, but traditional fish here is not cleaned like we would in the United States.  The head, bones, and other organs were all fried together and served.  I opted out of that one, and went with the chicken instead. 

 Our boat was similar to this one but had an upper balcony and was a little longer.

After the boat ride, we hopped back in the van and headed towards our hotel.  What we didn't realize however, was that there are two mountains with towns at the top, and we had gone halfway up the wrong mountain.  So originally it would have taken us about 5 hours to get to our hotel from the boat ride, but ended up being more like 8.  I made the mistake of sitting in the back of the van, which made the very poor roads seem exponentially worse.  We did make it though, and were ready for our free day the next day.

Day 10

This morning we finally got to visit the slum that we couldn't go see last week.  We didn't really get to go through it at all which was kind of a bummer, but there had been some violence during the week so I was just fine being on the outskirts.  We were able to go into the building below, which is a building the costford built for the slum, to replace the shantys that were there before.  These buildings house 10 families, with one room for sleeping, a small kitchen, a small bathroom a living area and a terrace.  It's hard to imagine more than 2 or 3 people living together in such a small space, and makes me appreciate my small apartment at school!

After visiting the slum we got a day off, but my eye had kind of been bothering me so I wanted to check it out before we left for our 5 day trip the next morning.  Kerala is known for its healthcare, and I was told by my teacher that I was in the best place to get sick in all of India.  We ended up going to an eye hospital, and I was able to be seen in 1 hour for 150 rupees (3 dollars) or I could see someone right away for 600 rupees (6 dollars).  I decided to splurge and see someone right away.  I only had allergies (thank God...) and was sent on my way with some drops.  Once I got back we found a Dominoes Pizza that delivered to the hotel and ate our way through 4 boxes!! It was delicious!  The rest of the night was spent packing for our 5 day vacation to other parts of Kerala.

Day 9

Today we visited two places, Costford's headquarters and the current director's home that he and his wife are building.  The first two pictures are of the director's house.

 These are from Costford's headquarters.  This house used to be Laurie Baker's, the founder of Costford and once he died, his family gave the house to Costford to use as their headquarters in Trivandrum.

Day 8

Today our focus was learning about the government, decentralization and people's planning.  In Kerala, there is a very level platform for each of the different political parties, and they all have a fairly equal chance of being in power.  There has only been one time in the history of the government where one party was re-elected after their first term.  This is good because it gives each party a chance to be in power, but it also doesn't facilitate any long term planning.  Terms here are 5 years, and so parties in power usually only focus on projects that will affect Kerala during their term.  There has been a shift since India's independence to move towards a decentralized government system.  This type of system gives local government a lot of power, especially over planning and on projects in their specific area. 

Goals of a decentralized government:
1. give people the power to demand what they want, but also allow them and empower them to participate in the process necessary to make the change.
2. revamp politics by nurturing grass-roots politicians and encourage rational vs ideological thinking, which functions better at the local level
3. come up with diverse solutions by using the people's ideas
4. inclusion; bring the people into mainstream development
**overall goal was to "humanize" the government

One definition that was mentioned in class today that I really liked was this:
good governance should open the door on hearing the footsteps, rather than waiting for the knock.  This basically means that good governments anticipate the needs and respond in quick and effective ways, before those needs become more of a priority.

People's planning encourages the villages to take public project requests to the state for funding.  Kerala sets aside 1/3 of it's budget for these types of projects.  The state will review the project and make sure it is feasible and check to make sure the amount of money requested is accurate, and the disperse the funds if they believe it is a worthwhile project.  They are taking a risk giving out money in this way, but typically only about 1/15 of these projects fail and they feel that the empowerment and positive effects seen from these successful projects far outweigh the associated risk.

After lecture today, we went to former General Pillai's house, who is the American equivalent to Colin Powell.  His house was built by Costford and we were able to talk to him and his wife.

 This beautiful picture below is my dinner.  We found this really yummy italian place called Casa Bianca right by our hotel.  Even though I really do like Indian food, I'm still feeling a little iffy on eating it after getting sick, so this was the perfect meal.  This pizza had pesto, tomatoes, mushrooms, ricotta cheese and mozzeralla on it. DELISH!