Day 7.

Liam is up and OK. Will H was not the sunstroke victim, but rather Matt O'Shea. He seemed to have recovered by last night.

Will H on the other hand is competing with Beau and Denis to see who can shift the most dirt. He is of the firm belief this will improve his 6 -pack!!

Dan is attempting to blend in with the locals with a change of skin colour!

Jarrod continues to amaze us with his contraptions, although his solar battery charger seems to have been mistaken for rubbish and has disappeared. He and Liam went missing one evening and when a couple of fireworks were heard they were the logical suspects - they still claim it was not them.

Ben H managed to get the filthiest in a nice bright T shirt. Even the locals were amused by how much dirt he could accumulate. Needless to say his washing prowess was not sufficient to return it to its pristine state. He now has a lovely light brown T shirt.

Dan R and I have begun the rounds of the local coffee shops. Last years top shop still has the honours. The proprietor now serves glasses 2 by 2 rather than all 4 at once with a finger in each!!! At 3 rupees a small cup it is good value for a latte, frothed by pouring from one cup to another in dramatic fashion.

Andrew, the group comic, is worried that his bicepts are not yet the size of pigeon eggs, even though he flexes them frequently, and regards every shovel full of dirt as a work-out.

Joc continues to receive spray from the boys for his specialist abilities, particularly from Dan. Joc insists he simply “does what he wants”.

Will O’B has found out that pappadom appalam are simply the best. RTU has brought in extra supplies and Wll is fast working his way through them, when not organising sessions with jokes, bitch seesions about students and/or teachers that Dan wants to smash. Top joke so far, courtesy of Andrew is: What is a Chitschu? A zoo with no animals.

Have had scant news from Nagapattinam, except that accommodation is great, and that they even have a washing machine, that is not a person. Our washing machine is Denis!

and for some pictures:

the boys washing up

and a group photo for all the bunnings gear donated

day 3

Day 3 was a rest day. We walked around the town and explored the area we would be building.
We also drove around to the boys village and into town to get some thongs and bottled water.

Day 4 was the first (half) day of work. We went up the hill after luch to the shacks which where selected to be replaced, they where built out of wood and bamboo rods tied together with coconut-husk rope with the roof and walls covered with woven leaf sheets. We carefully disassembled the houses and piled up the leaf sheets for reuse. The roves where left intact for most of the houses and moved them aside for temporary shelter for the families while the houses are built.
We went back that afternoon satisfied, knowing that we had actually done something that day. However, this was the easy bit, the work only gets harder from here.

day 5. we started digging trenches for the foundations. hard work. kalluputty means village of stone. they got that right! the ground is full of them. you can't just dig with a shovel, we first needed to loosen the dirt and rocks with a pic or picaxe and then shovel out all the dirt.
more curry as usual for dinner. we are well fed, we even get potato wedges.
we all slept well that night


day 6. today we are continuing the work from yesterday. when we arrived, one house already had rocks in place for the foundation. by lunch time 2 had rocks, one of which was covered with mud, ready for the concrete/rock layer. 4 other foundations are still being dug and 2 are waiting to be marked out for digging.
we had our first food victim, liam who ate a dodgy bag of curry flavored chips. he is spending the day in bed. and (Edit: matt O'Shea) had a bit of sunstroke

-Jarrod

day 2 continued

Day 2- Train ride

After a long train trip filled with everything from random Indians trying to sell us food, to being told to throw our rubbish out of the moving train door, we (group B & C) arrived a Dindigul station. Group A had already left us at Tritchy Station to go to Nagapattum with Peppe. How best to describe Dindigul? From the station to the town it was almost as poor and rotting as it smelt. The main residents of the town were under the bridge- sleeping, decaying or both, and the hubbub of the road was unbelievable, worse then Glenferrie Road in peak hour (with 3 trams!). They had public urinals at the bus stop which run into an open sewer. A few boys had a go while we where waiting. Words can not describe the smell of these ‘pissiarias’- rotting death is the best we can come up with.

After we finally managed to track down a bus driver (a task filled with many arguments from half a dozen prospective bus drivers!) we boarded what can only be described as a moving Indian disco machine, fully loaded with the greatest Indian hits of all time. Then we were off on another adventure of horns, bad drivers and colourful local language, until we arrived at yet another small town- Vatulagundu. Much the same as Dindigal we quickly bordered another bus, this time joined by a dozen smiling Indian children who were all looking at us in a shy, bemused way. Then we drove to our final destination- G. Kallupatti. Our first impressions of G. Kalluptti was that it was cleaner & calmer then the other insane towns of India we had visited, which must be due to the fantastic work of Brother James Kimpton & his team at RTU.

The Children’s Village (where we are staying) is amazing- it is a breath of fresh air. It is an incredible contrast from the other places we have experienced, and it is always a beautiful place to return to. That night we were fed by Muthu, a friendly lady who is essentially our mum out here- she cleans our rooms, prepares our meals & even washes our clothes. She is amazing. We were assigned our rooms & settled in for the night.

The next few days are hard & testing, but Will & I will update in a few days

Signing off, Daniel Rodway & Will O’Brien

PS. Will O’Brien would like to send his love & kisses to his parents & he misses them dearly.

we just got access to the internet in G kallaputty so here is an update for the trip up until we split into groups

Day 0 - Leaving Melbourne

Left Melbourne late on the 22^nd Nov. Since it was a 12.45am flight it was technically a flight on the 23^rd. This created a little confusion but we all still managed to get there on time and checked in. Thai airwaves even managed to sit us all together in a group of 20. Finally, the De La Salle Coolies trip of 2008 was on its way.

Now just in case you are not sure, the De La Salle Coolies trip takes a group of Year 12 students who have just finished their exams and, instead of them enjoying the “normal” schoolies activities at somewhere like Surfers Paradise, transports them to India, where they do volunteer work at some projects run by the De La Salle Brothers. Last year 12 students were courageous enough to make the trip. This year we have 18 who will be spread over two different projects in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. One is based in G Kallupatti where students will help build houses and the other is at Nagapattinam, where students will be helping build a classroom.

Why do we bother? Well, India is a country of 1.027 billion (16.7% of the world’s population apparently), with 62 million living in the state we visit, Tamil Nadu. That’s the same as 62 million people living in the state of Victoria. Currently India has one of the world’s fastest growing economies – averaging about 8% - and as much as this is great news, the money is taking a long time to filter down to the people. The number of people living in absolute poverty is staggering with 350 million people living below the poverty line and many families cannot support themselves so have to send their children out to work just to survive. 41% of families live in a one bedroom house. There is an estimated 65 million child labourers. In 2006 the average annual wage in India was US$710. Approx 35% of the population live on less than US$1 per day. The average minimum daily wage is 55Rs (US$1.26). The list of statistics is endless, and it all translates into one simple fact. The people are suffering and could use some help. 18 De La Salle students might not be able to solve all the problems of India but they will be able to make a little difference to some and touch hearts along the way.

As we sat in the plane, all grouped together, excited, and furiously playing with the handsets to our personalised video entertainment systems, I’m not sure these stats or the task ahead was foremost in our minds. It is very hard to grasp the enormity of what lies ahead. Personally, I really needed someone to help me get Bruce Willis’ latest Die Hard movie onto my little screen – and I knew India was going to fully occupy our minds soon enough.

Day 1 – Arrival in Chennai

Melbourne to Bangkok in 9 hours, 5 hours wait in Bangkok’s massive 7 level, 800m long behemoth airport and 3 hours for the final Bangkok to Chennai leg saw India on the doorstep. Denis had organised for us to be picked up in two buses and we piled aboard and held on as we twisted and turned our way into the centre of town. We were staying at the YWCA (Yes that was a W and not a girl in sight there) in Egmore which was a good 30 min drive away. In that 30 mins we magically weaved our way through thousands of motorbikes, chaotic traffic, public buses with no windows, trucks with no concept of personal space and kamikaze rickshaws (three wheeled motorbike taxis). All this and we did it with only about 2500 beeps of the horn.

Our first night in India was spent at the luxurious and palatial surrounds of the YWCA. Bags were quickly dumped and we headed out into the madness of day time traffic in Chennai (formerly Madras), a town of 6.4 million people. We walked or got rickshaw rides with the persistent drivers that chased us down the street. There are many rickshaws about that it must be feasible for every person in Chennai to catch one at the same time.

The weather was hot, muggy and smoggy, the people friendly and helpful. Finding an English speaking person seemed easy so wandering was never a concern. That evening we had out first meal together as a large group, where spicy butter chicken, naan and hot chips Bruce would be proud of filled us up. That, and a lot of water to cool us down. But, unlike school camps where students can be a little difficult to get to bed at night, the boys were up and off to bed as soon as they were full. Reports of nearly falling asleep at the table, face down in the butter chicken, were common, as little sleep and constant travelling for over 20 hours was taking its toll. Day 1 in India was over and we were tired but excited. Tomorrow it would be a 6.30am wake up for a train trip further south.

Day 2 – Train to Trichy

It felt like the whole of Chennai had decided to see us off at the station. From the chaos of the bus drop off at the front to the packed completely platform, all we could do was try to keep together and hope to find our seats. Sure enough we found our car and a piece of paper, stuck beside the doorway, actually told us our seat numbers. Hard to believe that in all this bedlam, there was an underlying order. It did not stop people using the toilet (drop hole) while we were in the station but at least we were onboard and ready to go.

- Peppe

On Our Way

Hi everyone. The Coolies have left Melbourne!

Our midnight flight left on time and Thai air ways got us to Bangkok airport in true comfort. Videos and games in the back of every seat kept us all occupied until the wee hours of the morning and barely a peep was heard. Maybe these things should be installed in the back of every chair in class?