<p>Today is one of my two happiest days of the year – I get to pay my older daughter’s college tuition bill. Don’t laugh – I’m not trying to be funny. I still pinch myself with the good fortune of being able to pay it (though, in usual college terms, honestly it doesn’t amount to very much), and the education she is getting as a result. In September, she takes off for Florence for a year, and now that she is fluent in Italian, I expect when we come to visit, she’ll have figured out how to order just the right gelato, and I know that her education will have been worth the cost. </p>
<p>And there is enough money left over that on Saturday I fly in India, or more accurately, to my little village in Tamil Nadu near the coast, for three weeks! This is where my daughter and I had gone following the tsunami last year, and work continues. We have just gotten land for a thousand more landless Dalit (“untouchable”) families (bringing the number to just under 12,000), and the housebuilding program continues – the villagers themselves (with our help, have now built more than 1,200 – you can see pictures at <a href=“http://www.lafti.net%5B/url%5D”>www.lafti.net</a> .) Several months back, the state government came to my adopted mother asking her to rebuild houses, built with international aid funds following the tsunami, that are already falling down. She accepted, provided we can recycle the materials from the old ones. On touring the supposedly permanent houses that didn’t withstand the first rains, she discovered that all of them were built without toilets. So we raised a little money for molds, and now employ 25 women making toilets.</p>
<p>A bunch of us international supporters are going to arrive at the same time to meet with their leadership to discuss future directions, and especially what do about the gray cracked chemical wastelands left behind by the multinationals which had been growing prawns for our buffet tables. The lands give out after 7-10 years, and needless to say, no one is attempting to restore them. The one acre of land that used to support 120-130 workers in season supported only 2-3 when the prawn farms were operating. The rest of the workers became migrant laborers, and since they couldn’t take the kids with them, we are now caring (with lots of help from Italy) for 250 of them. What to do now with the lands is high on the agenda.</p>
<p>And, one of my best friends from graduate school 30 years ago originally from Iowa, a professor of cultural studies at a Buddhist university in Kobe, Japan (and fluent in Tamil) is marrying a Japanese social worker in a Hindu ceremony at the Menakshi Temple in Madurai <a href=“Desktop Wallpaper: Free Trial!”>Desktop Wallpaper: Free Trial!; </p>
<p>The world is becoming a much smaller place. Now if we could only make it a little bit more convivial. Meanwhile, I get to celebrate….</p>
<p>You’ll be able to follow my journey on my India blog if you like at shantinik.blogspot.com</p>