Autos are so much fun! Week Three!

Good morning from a now rainy Chennai! Yes, I said RAINY Chennai; supposedly the monsoon has finally arrived! This means chaos on the roads because Chennai has the worst drainage system ever, but it also means colder weather and much needed restocking of the reservoirs!

So onto the blog entry,

Our new timetable was fully underway from Monday 19th October so it was exciting to see how it was going to pan out seeing as we’d so carefully planned it! However the week didn’t get off to a good start when after moving into the living area to sleep (broken A/C meant spreading the body heat) I managed to wake SIX times during the night, giving me the worst night’s sleep I’ve ever had! So upon waking up at the time I was supposed to it was such an effort dragging myself out of bed, although this was made easier because I was dripping with sweat! We got into the office for Rs.30 after every auto was demanding Rs.40 (this would be a bad day for autos) for a morning of various things including learning a Tamil song (all I remember is bubbles) planning for the week, checking the internet for various news, reading/replying to emails and our Tamil class (Mon, Wed & Fri). After filling our stomachs with food we headed out to catch an auto to BV School, one auto asked for Rs.100, we laughed, didn’t even bother bargaining and walked away. Ben flagged another auto down, he wanted Rs.80, we said Rs.70 and whilst Ben was bargaining I flagged down another auto who straight away said Rs.70. So we jumped into the auto for Rs.70 and whilst the other auto driver was still shouting Rs.80 to Ben, we drove off with my auto guy. The other auto driver then leant out the side of his auto to look at us, I shouted to him, “See (pointing to the auto we were in), seventy!” It was pretty funny and we both felt good inside about refusing to be ripped off, getting an auto for our usual price! So we eventually got to the school, playing animal pictionary (the kids were older than we’d planned for so some improve. occurred) and giving them a colouring sheet of animals (they love anything art based). So we rode to John’s church with one of us on Bala’s bike, one on John’s, it’s so much fun riding pillion on bikes especially without a helmet :P! The Fun Station went really well, we did a similar program to the school (different games though) and then travelled to the Vyasarpadi office to then go out into the community to meet some youth. After refuelling with Lays Magic Masala crisps we rode pillion out into the slums, hung out with some youth guys, chatting to them whilst Bala & John talked to them about the programs Oasis is running for them. So after a long day we finally made it back to the flat for some food, although it was food shopping first, Laurie was asleep so I pulled his boxers down, which eventually woke him up! None of us were sure if the A/C had been fixed, so after praying (including a prayer during grace) and trying it out, but to no avail, we phoned Becky. She said the motor had burnt out, which was going to be expensive, with another guy coming on Tuesday to look at it, it meant no A/C till the weekend, NOOOOOOOOOO! WHY? HOW? What have we done to deserve this! We shopped for breakfast & snacks at Spencer’s/Mummy Daddy’s ate Chapatti & chick pea curry and relaxed until bed at 11pm. I decided to move into the spare bedroom with Ben to see if I’d sleep any better, so only time will tell...

I woke at ridiculous a’ clock, but this was expected because it was a football day, this meant I’d only woken when I had to, YEAH! Football was such a struggle today, primarily due to all the sleepless nights I’d been having, the boys recognised I was tired too, saying to me, “Sleepy, sleepy!” So basically whilst wondering around with the energy of a sloth, I also suffered the embarrassment of losing the ball every time I received it because the boys were full of energy, they just nicked it away each time! So after trying seven in an auto (failure) and paying our cheapest price yet Rs.40, we arrived back at the flat for breakfast, a shower and some sleep. However sleep didn’t really happen because we were woken firstly by Shanthi trying to burst into our bedroom with two of us asleep in boxers and secondly Swamy with the A/C mechanics. However as much as I was annoyed because I needed sleep, the thought of the A/C getting fixed game me renewed vigour! So after getting on/off rest/sleep we had lunch after everyone had left, sometime near 12.30pm and we made it into the office for 1pm. Anita (Bangalore Team Co-ordinator) was down for a few days, with a couple of Yanks from IJM, so we spent the afternoon playing with her daughters, planning for the spoken English class later on, writing our blogs and working on our Fun Station spreadsheet. We were dying for a fruit smoothie so from our beloved Greams road Fruit Shop, so we asked Vimel, who cycled off to fulfil our cravings! We were still waiting for the football boys attending the spoken English class by the time Vimel got back, so we gleefully drank our Tweety’s (watermelon combo) and Ben & I left for our SD Puram Fun Station. We ran the same animal program as Monday, which again went down very well, although with no translator it was very difficult to get anything done. We also had our first music class straight after the Fun Station, this went ok, but again with no translator it’s nigh on impossible to teach them anything! The evening’s plans were to go bowling with the guys from Bangalore, so we went back to the flat to wait for Swamy to arrive to take us in an auto and we had just enough time to scoff some dinner before leaving for the bowling alley. We ended up at the Du Bowl (place we went on our first Saturday) because the Snow Bowl didn’t have working monitors, we had great fun, our lane was between Ben & I and on the last frame I snuck it with 113-111.We then found out that nobody had eaten so off to Pizza Hut for our second dinner! It was a lush Pizza Hut, pretty much brand new, nice interior, we ordered a feast for 10 (9 of us) and I stuffed my face with garlic bread, pizza, Pepsi, you wouldn’t believe how much I eat here, it’s crazy!!! I chatted to Barry (an American) for quite a while about NFL & College football; you know what I’m like! We got home late at 12.15am and went straight to bed; the diary would have to wait till tomorrow!

Waking twice was still better than six times, but getting up was still a mission and after seeing the time, 8.45am I had cold pizza & Red Bull for breakfast! We met with Becky to discuss how things were going and prepared for the afternoon’s school session and Fun Station, we also learnt some more Tamil before heading home for lunch. We managed to squeeze in some diary writing time before getting in the craziest auto ever to Vyasarpadi, he was going the fastest we’d ever been since getting to Chennai (Ben thought he was going to die), and no gap was too small for his auto! The school session was difficult, they were so hyper for some reason, John tried calming them down, so did Bala, but in the end all we managed to do was musical bumps/statues and the animal colouring sheet. We did the same at the Vyasarpadi Office Fun Station, but slightly more successfully, although this is probably down to the fact the kids are so well behaved! So we met Bala at the Vyasarpadi Office, headed into the community, but the problem is that the youth work till 8pm every night which makes it impossible to meet and chat with them, so we spoke to two guys, then grabbed an auto back to the flat. When we got back we ate our dinner of noodles & fried egg, wrote our diaries and found out the washing machine had leaked all over the spare room floor, so after clearing that up we went to bed!

Thursday was a slightly more eventful day than Wednesday, it started off with another early football morning, which I spent just watching and taking photos for Bala to use for a league presentation. Whilst watching the boys I also saw about five rats in the scrub land, they were just foraging around in the scrub, I decided to throw a stone at one but I missed! So after waiting at least 15mins for an auto (usually 5mins) we got back to the flat, ate a well deserved breakfast (not deserved for me though) and grabbed a couple of hours sleep. I’m sure Shanthi (our cook/cleaner) is going to walk in on us sleeping in boxers at some point; I look forward to seeing her facial expression! So lunch today is something new, rice (never new over here), beef casserole and a dahl (lentil curry). We decided at the office to do the BV school session based on the environment because they had a rally around the community during the morning, so we hoped it would all tie in! We left late (3.15pm) giving us 15mins to be at the school, no chance, but after eventually getting to the school the auto demanded Rs.20 more, when it should only be Rs.10. I said to John that the auto wanted Rs.100 and they spent the next 10mins arguing, (bear in mind we were already late) eventually settling on Rs.90 and the auto driver snatched Rs.10 from one of the school kids, giving it to us. John told me on the way to the classroom that the auto driver wasn’t a nice man and was very unreasonable. We headed into the school, the session went really well, I joined in with the colouring and I saw the kid who had his Rs.10 nicked, and he said he’d got it back from the driver. We then rode pillion over to a new Fun Station with the KG Puram football boys, lots of familiar faces and an awesome location. The room is a church on the top floor (3rd floor), no windows just holes (five in total) and amazing views across Chennai from the roof. We found out we had no Fun Station at SD Puram (Kelly’s), so after getting an auto back to the flat we ate dinner and walked to the main Medavakkam Tank Road to get an auto. Ben stopped one and got bargaining (Rs.50 max), he wanted Rs.60, I flagged down another, bargaining for Rs.50, I got it, so I called Ben over and we jumped in, with Ben’s auto driver shouting at us aggressively as we pulled away. Ha, little did we know he’d get his own back in a funny sort of way! So we were heading for Egmore underbridge then onto Sparky’s to meet Anju who was going to pick us up and take us to Thom’s house, we started going a weird way, I had my suspicions and when we went over the Chetpet bridge I knew we were going the wrong way. The auto guy stopped and I said, “Sparky’s?” He asked some random Indian guy, who had no clue, so I said to Ben to phone Anju and get her to speak to the auto driver, sure enough this worked, but only for Rs.20 extra. I was getting angry, especially when he said we’d agreed Rs.60 and not Rs.50, so a total of Rs.80, this was ridiculous. I argued with him for about five minutes, but I was getting nowhere so I gave in to Rs.80 and eventually we got to Thom’s house. This house was palatial, especially compared to what we’ve been in, it had a huge Sony TV, Wii, fully A/C’d, huge sofa, double height ceiling and I fell in love with the place! We introduced ourselves, the food came out, Meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, salad and garlic bread, it was a feast and we sat back enjoying being a bit Western again! So we played Charades & Taboo and ate an American size portion of scrumptious chocolate cake, at 10.30pm everyone leaves. We stayed behind to play Beatles Rock Band on the Wii, it was awesome, we had Thom & Tom on vocals, Ben on lead, Anne on bass and Taylor on drums (Taylor & Anne work in Sparky’s, they’re from Minnesota), we left at about 11.30pm. We paid Rs.100 (usually Rs.60) to get home, it was so weird seeing everywhere deserted and Chennai kind of asleep! I actually stayed up to write in my diary and then straight to bed!

After such a manic Thursday, Friday was a lot quieter. After Ben worked out at 8.30am what he was doing for the office prayer time at 9am, we get into the office slightly late and Ben leads a brief study! We found out that as an office we were going to the first Oasis Seniors match at 3pm so all Fun Stations were cancelled, however there was lots of work to do with most of the day taken up with the first report. We only had one break which was for a fish curry lunch and at 3pm we crammed 5 of us (plus the driver) into an auto to KG Puram football pitch. It was weird being at the ground with flip flops & trousers on, but we sat in the heat for 1.5hrs whilst they cleared the pitch, put the nets up, marked out the pitch and sorted out paperwork. The match kicked off at 4.30pm, the Young Hunters FC looked dangerous early on, but Oasis came back into the game strongly, but with few chances at either end, the game ended 0-0. It was interesting watching this match because it was an official senior league match (all ages), proper officials and the standard was way below even Guernsey church football, it just shows how young football is as a sport over here. We were mobbed before & after the game by various kids, who’d obviously never seen white guys before, they even chased after Becky’s car as we drove off to CSF! We got to the CSF English service late again because of a massive jam up just outside the ground, the problem is because there is no lane discipline vehicles just try and go around each other and eventually block up the entire road (I’ll draw you an example when I get home). I struggled through the service due to severe hunger & tiredness, Viji lead worship again, which was great, but after the service we decided to go home and grab some food. The plan was to meet Viji at the Fruit Shop, but when we realised we couldn’t call/text anymore and also we had a 5am wake up for the church football tournament, we decided to chill and watch Family Guy! Lights out at 10.30pm...

Waking at 5am for football seems to be the norm around here, so once again we went through the usual routine, but this time we were playing for serious and possibly for the whole day! So it was Saturday, the day of the churches football tournament, our team Powerhouse had never played together and some of us didn’t even know each other’s names! We got to the MCC School at 6am, but in classic Indian style we didn’t play for at least another hour, so we spent our time talking tactics, warming up and looking cool. Our formation was 1-1-3-2 with 2 Yanks, 3 Brits, 3 Indians, 1 Canadian and a Bangladeshi, so we were by far the most multi-cultural team in the tournament! Obviously I played up front, with Ben across from me, Laurie was playing defensive midfield but he was all over the park in most games. Timmy our youth pastor did an amazing job at the back the whole day, especially seeing as there were no goal keepers! Our first match finished with a win for Powerhouse, 4-2. We’d gone behind early on, but after developing some chemistry as a team (especially between Laurie & I) I managed to beat two defenders and slot it away top left, I then doubled our lead by being persistent, robbing a defender and finishing low and hard, the crowd went wild (at least 100 watching) and it was an amazing feeling! After I squandered two chances of a hat trick, Ben got the third, a breakaway lead by me, I slid Ben in and he slid, kicking the ball into an empty net. Sharon (Canadian) grabbed the fourth with another break away and the opposition pulled one back whilst Steven (centre back) chatted with me on the sidelines (whilst we were both still playing) about going off for a rest! I was high-fived, hugged, labelled Ronaldo (my first goal was Ronaldo ‘esque’) and it was an amazing feeling, maybe it’s because I’m white or am I just amazing at football? :p So we were through, next up the team in white, possibly the favourites, but time for a rest, some dosa & thunder bread (light noodles in a pancake form) for breakfast and our fans (Bram & Arpet) went to get bananas, water & Red Bull! So our next match was at around 10am (already been there for 4 hours), it was clear from the outset the whites had played together for a while (they had league players which was against the rules), but Laurie went on a mazy run and finished nicely for 1-0. We went backs to the wall as the whites bombarded our goal, but our defense (marshalled by Laurie) held firm and just into the second half (each half was 15mins, 5min break in between) Laurie pinged a ball over the top and I controlled in, banging it in on the half volley (you could only score from inside the ‘D’). Even after being taken out twice (one guy got yellow) I managed to break through with an open goal, a defender kicking my heels (the guy who fouled me earlier but didn’t get yellow), but I stayed strong and finished to go 3-0 up! I turned around and put my finger to my lips in ‘Shhhhhh’ style, pointing to the defender, but the ref saw and booked me for an excessive celebration (taunting the opposition)! The ref eventually blew for full-time, the match had been won, the opposition didn’t shake our hands they just walked away disgruntled. I was hailed on the sidelines again by all our fans, including other players knocked out or just watching, I could get used to this attention! So Powerhouse marched on, I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted (bear in mind it’s 350 heat with 90% humidity), but we had a 2.5 hour break till our semi-final. We spent this time eating (our fans had been to get us water, ice-creams etc.), sleeping on the dirt and enjoying the shade the tents brought (they had a tented area for food/rest). We were playing the greens in the heat of the day, after getting up at 5am, adrenaline gone because of the huge break, what would happen? The white boys suffered in the heat, with the greens outplaying us to go 2-0 up in the first half, although I missed a sitter, putting a cross over the bar. Ben pulled one back with a driving run, but the game was wrapped up with a counter-attack for 3-1. We were still congratulated, the Indians really loved us, but it was 3/4th place playoff, not the final! So after being waited on with Glucose drinks, water etc. (Becky & Viji spent the whole day watching us which was awesome, Viji gave some helpful tips too!) we played the 3/4th place game, with the teams mixed up because it was really just a friendly. We started badly again (probably because Laurie was on the bench) going 2-0 down fairly quickly, but with Laurie restored to the team, I managed to turn a Ben cross into the net with my left peg. Early on the second half we pressed for an equaliser, it came, with a neat interchange between Laurie & me, I put him through on the left wing and after running into the D, he returned the favour for a tap in, 2-2! In the dying moments it all went wrong, a mix up between Blesson & Ebe meant their forward nipped in and finished the game at 3-2. We weren’t too fussed because we’d punched above our weight all day, we even had three girls in our team! So after a horribly long presentation (just like this blog ), we had some snacks Timmy had bought (chicken pasty & muffins) and headed straight to music practice at the church office. We were late so by the time the very retro kit was set up and Ben had run to the flat, then back (no keys, Laurie had them), then to the music shop, so finally we started at 5.30pm. It was great just jamming with some guys again, I just sang harmony which was awesome and after the practice we walked to get the keys from Laurie. We walked all the way to the mosquito infested cyber cafe, no Laurie, but fortunately Theo from the office was there, so we used his phone and Laurie would meet us back at the flat. He had a long story to tell about his adventure at Timmy’s house, but fortunately we had keys, but no phones (sim cards still broken) and we went to Dosa Calling for dinner, at last hitting the hay at 10.30pm for a much needed sleep!

We had to be at church for 8.45am so at 8.35am after showering, grabbing my new un-ironed shirt, throwing down some Chocos and brushing my teeth we rushed out the door hoping for an auto nearby! We got one almost outside for Rs.50 and when I checked my watch after getting into Sparky’s, it was 8.49am, not bad but still late! The band was Pastor Jake (Lead vox & acoustic), Me (Harmony), Richard (Keys), Ben (Drums) and some new dude on bass. It was a great sound and we lead, Give thanks to the Lord, Let everything that, Over the Mountains, I will Worship, Majesty and Jesus lover of my Soul. After church we were on a mission to scrounge a lift, hopefully with Ruth, so we hung around chatting to the Spark’s guys, even experiencing a power cut (the backup generator gives light & power, but no A/C). So youth was awesome again, food was great, we played signs & Inky, pinky, bonky, wonky and the word was on ‘Finding Yourself’ based on Disney movie Cars. Blesson (goalkeeper who had the mix up yesterday with Ebe to lose 3-2) invited us to his place to watch the Liverpool v Man Utd match at 7.30pm, so before that everyone headed to our favourite Fruit Shop for a drink & chat (Romancing the Apple, Fruit Salad & California Quencher, just for me :p) and then onto Blesson’s for the match, with Laurie & Ben with Ebe, me with Blesson, all riding pillion going at least 50 kph without helmets! Blesson’s house is lush, Samsung HDTV, Xbox 360 etc. we decided to order pizza takeaway and we sat back watching football on comfortable sofas! So the pizza came at half time, we scoffed it down (so hungry) and enjoyed the 2-0 victory for Liverpool, now time for the match I came for! The Hammers game started soon after the other match, which was great, although we were 2-0 down at half time at the guys left just Blesson & me. After coming back into it, Ebe & Steve came back from taking Laurie & Ben and at the final whistle a 2-2 was a great result! Ebe gave me a ride home, this was an insane experience, I had no helmet, holding on for dear life, we hit 90 kph (56 mph) several times, whilst avoiding potholes, animals (we swerved at 60 kph to avoid a cow in the road), cars and people. It was genuinely the scariest thing I’ve ever done; if we crashed I would probably have died! But at 12.45am I got to bed so thankful I was still alive!

So that’s my week, I guess each time it’s gonna get posted up on Thursday because it takes me a while to write as you can imagine! This baby is over 4000 words, which is impressive, that’s almost my dissertation in one blog entry!

Take care and God Bless,

Tom xx