wed, thurs, friday

Wednesday was another hilarious day filled with things that did not go quite like they were planned.  First thing in the morning I decided to take a dip in the pool.  Unfortunately I had no bathing suit.  Fortunately for me I did have some pants that I thought would be a perfect bathing suit.  I jumped into the pool in pants and swam around for about 15 minutes.  During that time I noticed that a man was standing and staring at me.  It was awkward, but being a foreigner in this country I have gotten used to it so I try to ignore it.  After 15 min. he came over and said something to me in Tamil.  I did not understand, and then he tried in broken English.  Supposedly I was not allowed in the pool.  I was afraid it was the no-pants in the pool policy I was breaking, but alas is was my entire body that was not allowed.

I got out right away and went to my room to get ready for the day.  During my shower time the same guy came up to my room and peeked his head in room door while I was still in the bathroom taking a shower.  He did not come into the room at all but I heard his voice saying something.  It was really creepy.  When I got out of the shower I assumed he had left, but I kept hearing a gentle knock on the door.  I opened it after I put some clothes on and the guy was standing outside the door.  He had a bill for using the pool in his hand.  He asked for 150 Rs. Then he attempted to walk in the door as I went to get some money.  I stopped him there and told him to wait outside.  I gave him the money then he left.

Our first meeting was with an organization in town that focused on child abuse in Chennai.  It was a two person operation and a rather impressive one at that.  They have published a great deal of training material, books, seminars, and other things.  They handle many cases and have good contacts.  When we spoke to them, however, I quickly determined that they were not ready for partnership with us.  One of the staff was very negative, very critical, and very much opinionated on how everyone else is wrong with how they do their work.  I truly believe she was quite good at what she did and had a lot to offer.  The attitude, however, would be difficult to work with.

We went back to the office to have lunch before we went to our next meeting.  The afternoon meeting was with an organization called Rescue.  Unfortunately it was my turn to sit this meeting out.  It is not always good to enter a meeting with another NGO with an army of staff so I sat out and let others go in.  Those in the meeting said it went well.

After this meeting there was a mad dash to the train, then off to Vellore for the calm between the storms.

Thursday

Thursday was my chance to breathe.  I had been travelling so much and trying to organize things remotely that I was losing a little sanity.

This week I was responsible for making sure some Americans coming in had a place to stay and a meeting time at the office at the end of the month.  Booking a hotel seemed easy back home, but here is was a three week long ordeal.  One of the staff told me if I booked it the room would cost more because I’m American.  I trusted him so I asked if he would do it.  A week later nothing had happened so I asked again.  He found some options for rooms and showed them to me, and I said they were way too expensive.  He found another and I said that was ok, and asked him to book it.  A couple days later (as I was leaving for Shillong) he called and said he had not done it yet.  While in Shillong I did not have a phone to call him.  When I got back I found out he passed the duty on to someone else.  That someone else had not done it yet either.  This was beginning to get difficult.  I then went to the latest person and made sure she was on it.  She said yes.  A couple days went by and the American group e-mailed for a confirmation.  I called the staff member and found out she had not found a room yet.  I asked her to get it done ASAP.  She did.  The room was now (sort of) booked.

I called her again for an address.  She said she did not know it.  I sent out the confirmation e-mail anyway.  These Americans come in one weeks time.  I hope they are ok with how things seem to work here.  No address, just some vague guidelines on how to get there.  A phone number that no one seems to be picking up.  It is really frustrating to me sometimes when exact plans cannot be made.

Thursday is when this all came to a head.

Thursday also was sort of a relaxing day.  I did not have to do a whole lot, and I was not in a very large city.  There was peace and quiet.  It was really hot, but the quiet was enough for me.  I ate, and drank juice, wrote in the journal, read, and took a nap.  It was a good day.

At the end of the day however things got crazy again.  This situation unfolded and I could just see the craziness from mile away.  I will not go into detail here, but I will say that it was nobody’s fault.  There was simply a lot of miscommunication between a lot of people, and the sort of relaxing day turned into a sort of hectic night.

Friday

Friday started at 4 AM. I went to the train and traveling to Chennai again.  This train was very crowded, and kind of slow.  There was no A/C either so it was kind of stuffy.  When we got to Chennai Anita and I went to get some breakfast.  After some dosa and eggs we went to the first meeting with the Department of Social Defense.

The man and woman we met here were extremely helpful.  They knew about trafficking and also gave us good input on how, if we were to start a new program in Chennai.  It was nice to finally talk to someone that might want Oasis to be around.   The purpose of the meetings all week were to establish whether an anti-human trafficking team would be welcome in Chennai and more importantly is it needed?

The first round of meetings were discouraging.  The child abuse organization thought NGO’s are all wrong, and the police thought there was no issue in Chennai.  The second round now said there was a problem, and the Oasis would do well to assist in the areas where the government and other NGO’s are not currently helping.

We all walked away from this meeting encouraged.  The DSD said that aftercare and repatriation of Bangladeshi girls was their most pressing need.  Outreach and Rescue were still needed, but aftercare was the biggest gap.  This seems to be a pattern.  These girls are found, rescued, and then they get lost in the system.  The frustration with NGO’s that the lady working in child abuse cases is well warranted.

Our next meeting was with a high police official at his office.  I had been to the police before.  In fact we had already seen someone on Wednesday and that meeting was awful.  This guy, however, had a bigger office which told us that he was much higher up.  I was praying that we would not have to sit there and wait for too long.  I was so tired.

When we walked into the office one of the office assistants took our cards and walked into the police inspector’s office.  We only waited about one minute.  He called us in right away.  We all say down in very comfortable chairs and told him why we were there.  He began right away to thank us for coming and explain the trafficking issue from his point of view.  He made sure to speak to all of us in the room (me, Anita, Vasu, Danny).  He spoke to us all like equals, and really expressed an interest in partnership.  Usually when I walk into these situations I pull out my notebook and take notes.  This time I engaged in the discussion.  He asked me questions and really wanted to know my opinion.  He joked around with us, and really gave us a lot to think about.  At the end of the meeting he even gave us a little assignment; assist in the repatriation of Bangladeshi girls they have had in custody for a year.

I walked out of this meeting feeling for the first time that being an American was different not necessarily a bad thing.  He seemed genuinely interested in what Oasis was doing, and for me he also showed interest in my studies and what I was learning about India.

By the time we left the police offices it was already 6:30, and our train was an 8:00.  We had just enough time to get something to eat and then catch the train.

When we got to the train Anita said that our tickets were unreserved.  That was ok by me since an unreserved ticket only cost about $2.  The unreserved seating thought was either in the front of the train or the back.  The back, as we walked by, was overflowing with people so we walked to the front.  The front was also overflowing.  It was still an hour before the train was supposed to leave.  Our choices were to cram in an just suck it up, or to find an open seat in the sleeper car.

Fortunately we were getting off at Katpadi (sp?) and the train was going all the way to Kerala. If we could find a reserved seat of someone who was getting on at Kerala we would be sitting pretty.  Unfortunately for us there were plenty of others with that same idea and every time we found a seat like that there was already someone like us in it.  Finally we found a seat. As the train was pulling away someone with the ticket to that seat came and said that the seat was his.  He was very gracious and let us share it as he just went and laid down in his loft above the seat.

The train ride was a mix between struggling to get comfortable and fighting the urge to just pass out from exhaustion and trying not to sleep so we didn’t miss the train station.  We arrived at the station at 10:00.  I went into the house ate some Biryani and passed out in bed.