For our non-Dutchspeaking friends

   And then it was time to say goodbye to everyone after all. We had invited the fathers and Geo for dinner on Friday evening. But in the meantime, we were invited to a high tea at the Albertian Institute of Management ourselves. Before then, we quickly renewed our phone subscription with Vodafone Idea, so that we kan keep our Indian number, and our Indian contacts can still reach out to us.

   No, no spaceships and tough guys. Today, Aug. 15, is Indian Independence Day. The day the British returned India to Indians in 1947. And like everything else here, this day is surrounded by ceremony and rituals.

   Today we were facing a busy day. At 8 a.m., the taking of the oath and appointment of the new principal was on the agenda. This took place in the chapel of St.Albert's college, in the presence of the management, almost all the department heads and some of the teachers. What is special is that before taking office, new staff, managers and administrators must make a vow, with their hand on the Bible, that they will do their utmost for St. Albert's college.

   Slowly we are entering the last week. From counting weeks to counting days. Last Saturday we visited Geo Fernandez and his family. It was agreed upon long ago that we would have breakfast there and that Jaklien would learn to bake dosa's. Finally the day had come. Around a quarter past nine we ordered a rickshaw via Uber, that drove us to the house on Popular Road, where Geo lives with his family. The extended Fernandez family lives in several houses close to each other: his father's younger brother lives in the house next door, and cousins live across from him. The name Fernandez goes back to Portuguese roots. Geo shares his house with his parents, his wife Karen and their three daughters, Claire, Haylen and Hester.

   Yesterday afternoon, while we were enjoying our lunch, consisting of white rice, a curry with shrimp and fried fish, I suddenly chewed on something hard. I was thinking, “Strange, there is a pebble in the food.” It turned out to be a chipped piece of a lower left molar. When this happens, you  immediately start feeling with your tongue all the time. Soon I thought it might be best not to wait to go to the dentist until we were back in Deventer. We stopped by Geo Fernandez to ask for advice on which dentist we should visit. A suitable dentist was close by, so we decided to walk there right away.

  This weekend, we had another nice long weekend ahead of us. After a weird week, in which there were two days of no classes due to heavy rainfall, and all the news and thoughts were focused on the landslides in Wayanad, we decided to get away from it all for a few more days. Simon is still feeling a little better every day,luckily,  and the list of things we would actually still like to do is not getting any shorter. One outing that was still on our list was another visit to Trivandrum. Like we did before, only a day longer, AND including a day when not everything would be closed.  I quickly  booked return  train tickets to Trivandrum. On the way there, we'll enjoy the luxury of the VandeBharat. It would provide Simon with comfortable chairs and the journey would only take three hours. 

   Kerala is in the news worldwide, and unfortunately it's not good news. For the past few days, there has been prolonged heavy rainfall in the Western Ghats. The rainfall reached up to 300 mm of rain per day in some places. As a result, there have been at least four major devastating landslides in Kerala's Wayanad district. The landslides have changed the course of the Chaliyar river. Two villages have been affected and roads have been partially interrupted. The landslides have already claimed 200 lives so far and the death toll is sure to rise further. According to Indian Express newspaper, many people are likely to have been swept into the Chaliyar river and many are still trapped under the rubble of entrained houses. Many victims were labourers sleeping in tents. They were working in tea and cardamom plantations in the area.

   Only two and a half weeks left.... It does make me a little melancholic. I am saying a little goodbye every time we drive across town. Just a few more classes. One or two more outings. We're sorting out stuff we won't be taking back to the Netherlands. The rhythm instruments that we used for the parish children, we donate to a primary school, to be used during music lessons. The guitar goes to St. Albert's students, to help a young person on his or her musical journey of discovery. Clothes that no longer fit (or that we no longer need or want) go to a clothing bank. And we are arranging parting gifts for all those wonderful people who have made this trip possible for us.

   As was to be expected, we took it easy this week. Simon is still in a lot of pain at times, but the doctor told him to keep moving in moderation. So we only took some walks in the immediate area. The distraction also does him good. And fortunately, the surroundings of St Albert's offer plenty of distractions. The school is in the centre of the old town. Close by are plenty of shopping streets. To start with, of course, MG Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road) with its luxury shops and abundance of restaurants.

   We had quite a bit of a thing this week. All the rain made the pavements everywhere extremely slippery. In Hinterland, we had both almost fallen down because of the slipperiness. Then Jaklien fell on her knee after returning to St Albert's. But that is nothing compared to what happened to me, Simon. Because of algae growth, the campus is as slippery as an ice rink in some places. On Thursday night, I went down full on a wet stretch, hitting the ground hard on my left side. Trousers and shirt dirty and elbow bleeding. Bummer. I took off my clothes and took a shower. Jaklien lovingly provided a bandage and we went to sleep peacefully.

   On 17 July, another special event was scheduled for the students of St. Albert's College. For the promotional tour of their new film Level Cross, the lead actors and the director came to the school for a Q&A session with the students. The film industry in India is huge. In the West we are a little familiar with the phenomenon of ‘Bollywood’, but this turns out to be only a small part of the entire Indian film industry. Almost every state also has a thriving scene. And often its own signature films as well. Are the Bollywood films, often featuring internationally known Indian film stars, shot in Hindi. But here in the south, you have Tamil films, from Tamil Nadu, Telugu films, from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Kerala too has a thriving film industry, with its own Malayali films and its own film stars. In fact, many of the local film stars often also star in different language areas and associated films.

   One of the things still high on my (Jaklien's) wish list was a multi-day ayurvedic/yoga retreat. And Simon, of course, was so kind to want to join me. We went looking for a resort not too far away, and found one on the outskirts of Kochi: Hinterland Village Eco Retreat. Located about 20 kilometres from St Albert's College, an hour's taxi ride away. Given our programme for the coming week at the College, we had until Tuesday, a total of three days, for our retreat. We contacted Hinterland on Saturday afternoon and  were told we were welcome that evening, after dinner. So we packed our bags and got into the taxi around eight o'clock.