Mar 10 - 12 Isaac, Hilda, Danial, pottery

Thursday March 10, Gail told more stories at Lilly Creche, including the very popular Frog in the Milk. The teachers weren't so sure of the line in the accompanying song, 'just keep breathing or you'll die', but the kids were unfazed. The Children and teachers for both Lily and Peach Tree Creches are ferried about in a Land Rover type jeep by Issac, Hilda's (the supervisor of all five Creches) husband Isaac. Jim spends the day doing guess what with concrete and pottery elements. Late in the Day, Bruce and Ann, Jim, and Selvam head for yet another ridge from the center of Kodai to look at a stove installation for Danial Pierce, whose British father in Mumbai is turning 103. Part of the job is to install a new stove in his chilly cabin and part to repair a stove in the main building which has very nice tile work surrounding it, but won't draw. Danial will donate to Help-Kids-India.org in exchange. The view from his includes the valley that nestles Little Lilies Creche. The next day Selvam and I discover the perfect elbow to fix Danial's stove. Selvam tries to buy it, but the proprietor of the plumbing supply store is off on a contracting job and none of the 4 people in the office can figure the price. We will be back. Up the hill to Hilda's house, beyond the Grace Creche, Selvam and I look at her computer power and connectivity problems. We find that there's a need for a better ground wire and that the internet works a lot better with the modem plugged in. Across the street is this lovely Hindu shrine. The painted figures are cast concrete. There are perhaps two dozen shrines of various sizes within a kilometer of where we are staying. Another Creche mother and happy stove recipient: note the chimney, ladder still in place. The water supply was the open ditch to the right, directly below the road where cows and other animals roam.
Saturday morning, Ann, Selvam and Jim inspect the delivery of stove linings and chimney pots from a potter from the plains. We discuss improvements, and the potter agrees to supply a sample for approval of a cowl (chimney pot) with a wider cap before more are ordered. We will get to visit the potter on Wednesday on our way to Thanjavur. Sunday, we hit the farmers market again, where the fish are pretty, but we had just bought processed and frozen. We then have a lovely walk from Ann and Bruce's house to ours along St. Mary's Road and a paved path down the slope to the falls of the river that runs near our place, back up the road to home – takes about an hour of walking and an hour of gawking.