Well, it’s Monday and time to go to the hospital in Dindigul for a test. It is about as
far west from Mullipaddi as Trichy is east. The roads don’t get any better going that way.
The road west is much like what the wagon trains must have experienced.
Our regular driver John was tied up going to the police to get the vehicle back that was involved in
yesterday’s accident. Our new driver is less confident about the traffic but equally able to negotiate the vehicle.
We passed a transport which was carrying vanes for a windmill. Large vanes. VERY LARGE VANES.
They had to be at least 40 feet long and 5 feet thick at the largest point. The size of the mill must be
enormous. Isaac was saying that it would probably be used for irrigation or power. There were a lot of
coconut and banana farms along the way. Apparently there is quite a profit in these two items.
We arrived at the hospital and went to the area designated by Dr.Jerard. I went directly in even though
the waiting room was full. Isaac said it was because they were waiting for their results. We were told it
would be about an hour so we went to meet with the Past District Governor and now present District
Coordinator for Foundation grants.
Following that we went back to the hospital and had to wait another 20 minutes for the results. We crossed
the street and had lunch. I asked for a serviette but they had no idea what I was looking for. Isaac described
it as a paper napkin. Much discussion later the waiter came back with a page from a newspaper. After
lunch we stopped for a fruit drink. Mine was pomegranate juice and pulverized ice. Quite good.
Because I haven’t totally disrupted a school class today, we stopped at a school just west of Isaac’s place.
We met ……… the director, principal, teacher and caretaker of the school. There are presently 2 teachers
on staff, of which he is one. He is presently paying, out of his own pocket, 500 Rupees per month for a third
teacher That’s about $13 but jobs are so scarce that people are willing to do it. I took my pictures of him and
his class and watched the usual scrum as the students clambered to see the pics. Boy, I must have a sick mind!
Back home and a nap.
There was a problem with Isaac’s machine so a fellow came to fix it. He then attempted to install MSN Messenger.
The MSN software was out of date so a couple of hours were used to download a couple of utilities.
It is still not running because some more date needs to be downloaded. The fellow will return tomorrow.
Once it is
up and running, I will log on as dalit@hotmail.com so if you see it, send me
note. Time for bed.