Tiruchuli (part 2)
November 28 2007 William writes:
This man made these shorts for me and turned out to be the town mayor.
I have been in Tiruchuli for over a month now.
The other volunteers have left to work for different NGO’s and it is now just me and the Tamil Language of which I’ve learned: podum-enough, nandri-thank you, vanakam-welcome, illai-no, ama-yes, none of which I pronounce correctly. Needless to say, my charade skills are progressing well… so well, that I was able to get this pair of green shorts made to fit me at my neighbor’s sewing shop. He was a nice man but I never saw him smile.
The food cooked the ODAM chef lost its appeal after the other volunteers left so I checked out the local restaurants: very good dosai with 3 types of chutney (white-coconut, red-bean, and green-chilly). I ate at dosai in this restaurant every morning.
My favorite place for breakfast.
The website is complete and I am now training the staff to update it. To gain an understanding of the Jatropha plantation I worked with the laborers for a week. 3 days we planted Jatropha saplings and the other days were filled with miscellaneous tasks including planting seeds, carrying juliflora for the charcoal experiment, and learning what was going on in the biodiesel lab. All of it was good hard work.
Planting Jatropha
I wish I could help more with the biodiesel situation but the problem is that there are no seeds to produce the biodiesel with. ODAM has built the production center which is a very important part of the cycle but it does not have the feedstock to keep the plant running. They can buy seeds from the market but this results in a net loss due to the cost of seeds. Jack Stege came down for a weekend to see how ODAM organized its seed crushing unit because he is working for another ngo (SEDS) who are planning to crush the seeds and sell them to oil to the Indian railway.
Another volunteer arrived yesterday and Emily came back to visit so we took a walk across the train tracks, through the river, and into … well nowhere.
A walk on the abandoned tracks.
We did find two friendly women up for a game of name-that-crop charades. Stuart was the clear winner with tomatoes and beans.
New friends.
Stuart playing guess that crop.
The day after the walk we attended the rally for the elimination of violence against women which was organized by ODAM. Close to 2000 women came to listen to feminist speakers (including Emily). I must have done something right because they brought me and Stuart on stage and gave us … towels.
Eliminate Violence Against Women Day
In Tiruchuli there are plenty of smiling kids.
Categories: Tiruchuli
Anandraj on 26 Dec 2007 at 10:11 pm #
Hi William,
Nice to hear this. I am a native of Thiruchuli.
Are you still in Thiruchuli? Its really a good place.
Murugesan Arumugam on 24 Dec 2008 at 4:05 am #
Hi Willi
Its nice to see my birth place. Its really good place. Enjoy!!!
Arun Thilak on 30 Oct 2009 at 8:04 am #
Hi William,
I stumbled on this blog - this is really nice work and research (on Posopis juliflora) you have done out here … kudos to your work ..
Cheers,
AT