A kindergarten inauguration, an unusual collaboration and more health

The kindergarten inauguration in South India in a tribal village When I arrive in the late morning and see all the people in front of the new anganwadi (kindergarten), the drumming boys welcoming everyone with an exciting sound and rhythm and the parents and children who are dressed up in the best way for the…

The ‘Learn to pay’ phase – that’s possible in India only

I’d wished we had some more India style trials in Europe. Sometimes and in certain circumstances, like that one I experienced today at a toll station in Kerala close to Pallakad and the border with Tamil Nadu: there, during the last months a new Indian highway has been built – not comparable with a European…

Indian tribal drumming dreams and missing opportunities

   Often when I visit tribal villages most of the males have left for school, for work, for a walk into another village … This time school holidays have started and some young boys between ten and twenty sit under a tree or close to a house, all together, and talk. “I wish we had…

Knitting with tribal women in Tamil Nadu, India

The knitting experience      I wanted to find out how the intercultural collaboration and interaction “across the borders”  works and feels: being in middle of tribal women, who are organized in some selfhelp groups, live in very limited infrastructural surroundings and who are busy with caring goats and providing the basics for their families. How…

Why I spent an hour with studying Indian job offers on a local newspaper

Reading newspapers abroad is always an interesting activity to get insights on how local people think and act. National and international events, news, comments should be presented  in a similar way all over the world – as it happened and that’s it – , but by doing so it becomes a hundred thousand different realities….

Protection and safety- a huge market niche in India

Adults of all ages and school children en masse walk along the streets without any sidewalk area. On the national highway there are Rikshas, and overloaded tractors in the middle of the roads. Cows and goats cross. Gaps and bumpy parts – no problem for the cyclists. Guard rails? In the big cities you find…

India is a picture book for understanding life

   More than 100 days of “experiencing India” have passed. But still – here in India there is so much to discover, every day, again and again. All over the country. Just as if it were the first time I get not tired to observe while travelling, simply watching: people and things that exist and…

A Christian NGO, caring sisters and brothers and a dinner with the bishop

   In Kerala, in the South of India, there live most of Christian Indians. Ca. 20% of the population are Christians, which is very high in comparison with most of all other Indian regions. From there come most of the Christian Sisters and Brothers working all over India – as priests, fathers, social workers, sisters…