James Herriot in 3D

Good evening.  It’s Sunday, April 17, at 8:15 p.m.  What to write about tonight....  Hmm, let’s start with the elections.  On Wednesday, it was Ooty’s turn to vote.  National Elections (State Assembly and Presidential)  happen every five years, so it was interesting to sit back and watch a bit.  We would show you pictures, but you already know the camera sob story, so I will be sure to be extra descriptive as I paint you the picture.  There is so much about politics here that I don’t understand, so I won’t talk about that, because, well, I am simply overwhelmingly ill-informed.  But elections here happen over a three week period.  Every part of the country has a different time to vote.    And the votes will be counted on May 13.  Now, the day of elections, we were driving down one side of the mountain and there were loads of people bare-footed walking in from villages to vote.  I felt so glad to be a quiet observer of such an important day.

Election Day

The two Chief Minister candidates in Tamil Nadu

We went down to IPAN Animal Shelter on Wednesday.  Our friends Alona and Nigel, who run the animal shelter, have a few vets on sight and also train other vets in India.  Anyway, their place is beautiful, crazy and I always see new things.  On this particular day, we saw a baby monkey who was rescued after his mom was hit by a car.  Now, you all know that I am not partial to monkeys.  But this monkey was oh so cute.  The best is when he popped his toe in his mouth to suck on, like a child would his thumb... My other favorite moment was when we were watching Ani getting ready to ride a one-eyed pony and we looked over and saw one of the vets with her arm fully up a horse’s rear.  All of our eyes dropped out of their sockets and we had to pick them back up to continue checking out the sight.  It’s not like I was disgusted or even alarmed, I just don’t often think that when I turn my head 45 degrees to the right, just three feet away from me, and two feet away from my kids who are painting merrily away, that I am going to see a person’s whole arm stuck up a horse’s whole rear.  Now, I actually have a great love for animal stories.  I have read James Herriot’s “All Creatures Great and Small” about a half dozen times, but this was like James Herriot in 3D.  A bit shocking you know.  You can only imagine how the kids loved to talk about it the rest of the week.

In Freedom Firm news, there are five cases right now where the judge has issued a warrant the arrest of the brothel keeper or trafficker.  All five of them are absconding (in hiding) and the police are searching for them.  Freedom Firm staff are encouraged because if found, all five of them will likely be convicted.  

I have been full of India spirit as of late.  I think that’s all quite normal when leaving a place.  Jayson and I have been eating Indian food at least once, if not twice a day.  Last week I went into town and bought three kurtas (longerish shirts) to wear in my last days here.  (Previously to now I kind of rebelled to the Indian wear, and just wore my “western” clothes and tied a shirt around  my rear when going out.)  I have also been reading a good share of Indian novels, which I haven’t really read much since the initial first few months here.  And it’s fun to read in context of cultural norms that I know about or live in.  I feel glad for this last burst of India energy.  We’ll see what I bring back with me.  

We have a few pictures to add, none taken by us of course. A few were taken by our friend Ruth of the kids sports day at school.  The others are from Google images, just to add a bit more flavor.  That’s all for this time folks...