Another day, another dollar they say.
Yes, I have to admit that after a day of travelling on the train,
tired and hot in the darkness of the idyllic house and with the heat
and humidity of the tropical evening, things did not look very
positive last night. Nevertheless, Jerry and I decided to go to bed
on a positive note of ''tomorrow is another day'' and ''in the
daylight things always look brighter.''
After a good night sleep, while hearing
the sound of waves, we enjoyed our coffee overlooking the sea from
the upstairs bedroom terrace. From this perspective it was a bit
easier to ''look at the bright side of life.'' At the same time, the
brightness of the day has also shown us even more things that were
not working, that needed improvement, cleaning or replacement before
the house was able to become a true tropical paradise. Still we were
not to be deterred, on a positive note we decided to work hard on
making an inventory of things and creating a mini report for the
owner of the house back in the UK, specifically England.
Inventory and the report safely on the
USB stick we headed for the village, where we were told we would find
an Internet café. The local host explained to us in his broken
English: ''Go straight, railway crossing straight, go highway
straight, village internet café right'' so we understood that the
Internet café was in the village, which we would reach by walking to
the railway crossing that we passed the night before, when arriving.
After crossing the railway we needed to walk straight forward and
soon we would see and cross the highway, after which we should see
the village and the Internet café, which was to be found on the main
drag on the right hand side of the road, some 2 km or 20 minutes
walking from the house.
It is 3.30 in the afternoon. It is hot
and sticky, but we are determined to find the Internet café. Hence
off we go navigating the coconut grove through which we only passed
once, the night before, in the darkness with the guidance of our
host. We manage to reach the paved road successfully and are lucky
to spot an auto rickshaw coming just around the corner. How lucky can
you get? Exactly what we needed to get us to the village. We wave and
the guy stops and to our surprise we realise that the back is full,
there sits a woman with two boys. Not a problem for the driver; he
still beckons us to come in and signals to the woman and the boys to
make room, which they obligingly do. Jerry and I squeeze in, Jerry's
knees sticking out hoping that no car would come from the opposite
direction and brush against us taking his knee cups away.
After initial consultations and a
slight language problem we managed to explain, or so we thought, that
we wanted to go to the village to the Internet café. Of course, the
driver repeated the name of the internet café followed by ''yes,
yes'' and shaking of his head from left to right.
Jerry asks the driver how much to the
village to which he replies '' No problem, Sir'' giving him a smile
and the perpetual left to right head shake of all Indians
irrespective of the religion, caste or class. I look at Jerry and
instead of reassurance, which I am guessing '' No problem, Sir'' was
meant to produce I spot a bit of worry written across Jerry's face. I
try to reassure him by saying ''don't worry, let's just enjoy the
adventure!'' This seems to relax Jerry a bit and he tries to makes
himself comfortable in a limited space of the back of the auto
rickshaw meant for 2, maximum 3 people, carrying 5 instead.
All set, we leave with the wind in our
hair. The first junction and the driver takes a right turn. OK, this
does not quite seem to correspond to our local host's description,
but who are we to argue. We do not know the way to the village and
the driver says he knows, so we watch the scenery and keep holding
the bar between us and the driver, as if our dear life depends on it,
and maybe it does, given that he drives as if he is trying to break
an auto rickshaw record in the fastest customer delivery service
category. At the same time he is trying to hold a conversation with
us using all 10 words of English that he is fluent in. So we learn
that the woman in the back is his wife and the two boys are his sons.
With that we arrive to the some kind of a beach promenade that has
seen better days and within minutes he slows down, almost to a
stopping point, in front of a guest house. We look at it, with no
intention of getting out, wondering why he is stopping here. He
turns around looking at us, and we say ''Nice house, ...yours?'' to
which he says ''Yes'' while shaking his head from left to right
probably realising that this is not our destination and pressing the
gas pedal again. The suspicion is starting to arise in us, maybe this
guy has no clue where we want to go. With that we reach another guest
house where he slows down again. Seeing that we have no intention of
getting out here either, he is ready to press the gas pedal again
when Jerry shouts in half-panic ''Stop, stop, stop!'' He stops, turns
around and now in pidgin English we try to explain that we want to go
to the village to the Internet café, however this time instead of
the name of the café we use the words ''Internet café.'' He seems
to finally get it. He makes a U- turn and off we zoom retracing our
steps. Finally, he gets us across the railways, and the national
highway (mind you this is a single carriageway looking slightly
bigger than a village road) and here we are in front of the Internet
café on the right-hand side of the main and only road in the
village, exactly as our local host explained.
Happy to reach the café and to be
alive we pay to the driver 30 rupees only. A bargain!
Especially when you know that he
squeezed in an unplanned sightseeing route of the local guest houses
for us.
Once inside the Internet café, which
really is a room with 5 PC's that have seen better days, we realise
that we have no clue how to get back. At this moment Jerry has a
brilliant idea. We know that the house we stay in is listed on the
Google maps so we try our luck by typing in the name of the village
and the name of the house and asking for directions. Voilà! We
have the route in front of us. I find this amazing: we are here,
sitting at the edge of the jungle and guess what Google has sorted
for us...paradoxes
of modern globalised world.
Gordana
Stankoviċ
is
a
qualified counsellor and life coach. Her
counselling and coaching approach is an integration of humanistic
counselling, otherwise known as person-centred counselling, and the
model of Nonviolent
Communication, a
process developed by Dr.
Marshall B. Rosenberg, which
offers practical and powerful skills for compassionate giving,
receiving and
helping,
to create deep, meaningful connections and relationships, and
transforming conflicts into peaceful dialogue.
Gordana
velues
peace, the authenticity of every human being, relationships based on
trust, acceptance and genuine contribution to each other's lives.
