Surfing in Kerala

Surfing in Kerala

The journey:

For those of you who know me well, you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of going anywhere by bus. However, over the past couple of years I’ve become a little better (especially when travelling in Asia as there’s often no better option) so when I was told that the bus ride to Kerala from Hassan would be 15 hours I wasn’t happy but I definitely understood that it was the best way to transport 30 girls to the beach. Initially Molly and I were told that we would be travelling by Jeep so we packed up the costumes for The Wiz into a bag and packed our clothes (including our washing!) into another as we thought we would have plenty of space for our luggage. We positioned ourselves in the Jeep with two of the smaller girls in the middle – we had lots of space and we were very comfortable. 40 minutes into the trip we stopped at the bus station and were asked to get out and get onto the overcrowded night bus to Kerala!!!

The night bus was no different to the night buses back in UK. It was filled with drunken men who thought it was fun to ‘accidentally’ touch my leg for hours on end. For me this wasn’t pleasant but it was just a part of life in India. However, when the men started to touch the girls things really started to get serious. Molly saw this first and swapped places with one of the girls so that she could try to stop it. Molly then woke me up as it was happening in multiple places on the bus so, in the end, both Molly and I spent the rest of the bus journey standing in the centre isle patrolling or moving seats to make our presence felt. The saddest part was that Sister Mary and the teacher, who had come as the designated chaperones (Molly and I were never asked to be chaperones but obviously couldn't turn off our maternal instincts!) knew that it was happening and did nothing to stop it. This is probably because it is accepted in India, however, in US and UK it’s illegal and those were the rules that Molly and I were working to.

Once we arrived in Cochin we were taken to one of the other orphanages that is linked to the Homes of Homes for some well needed breakfast (I hadn’t managed to eat dinner on the bus as my nails were too long to manage to eat the rice with my hands!!!). Molly and I borrowed the computer at the orphanage and emailed Paul to get some more money to charter a bus home to keep the girls safe.  We then piled onto the school bus and were told that we had another 3 hours of driving to the beach. I was so tired at this point that I put my headphones in and listened to some familiar music. The girls danced in the isle and were a lot happier on this bus. The journey actually turned out to be 5 hours and my top that started off white ended up grey with black speckles!!!

As soon as we saw the sea the girls’ jaws dropped – they’d never seen so much water before! All of the rivers near their boarding house are dry. They jumped off the bus and were excitedly met by Jack and Jeff from Indo Jax Surf School from Wilmington in US. We were taken to a brilliant hotel (it has a pool, A/C in the rooms and is pretty much heaven on earth compared to the 'if there's electricity then the fan will work' boarding house!) and given time to shower. This was the third best shower of my life (behind the showers after trekking in Nepal and climbing Kilimanjaro!)! And we actually have a working shower so I don’t have to shower with buckets for the next couple of days!

Surfing and the beach:

Indo Jax seem to work on all sorts of projects with autistic children, blind children and children with learning difficulties and I can see how rewarding it is for all involved. After the girls received their t-shirts, hats, nail polish and necklaces from the team they were taken down to breakfast. This was an interesting experience as none of the children had ever drunk from a mug before (they only have metal beakers at the boarding house) so they had no idea how to drink their tea. We have breakfast every day at a coffee shop run by a Cockney man who moved to India 10 years. The food is good and plentiful.

After breakfast the excited girls were led down to the beach, complete with inflatable shark, inflatable crocodile and life jackets. Some were scared to get into the water at first but most of them jumped straight in with smiles like the Cheshire Cat. The water was beautiful. Some of them needed to hold onto Auntie Jenny as we jumped over the big waves (I think at one point I had 8 girls clinging to me) and some of them were confident enough to stand on their own. None of the girls have ever learned to swim so it’s no wonder that they were a little apprehensive. A couple of the girls were taken off and taught to surf but most of the girls aren’t strong enough swimmers to learn. They are still having fun though, regardless! Johtikka, our Tinman, is fearless and managed to stand on her first attempt.

After lunch (more rice!) we went to an elephant sanctuary so that the girls could ride on the elephants. It was very sad to see the elephants as they looked really miserable. They had lost all of the traits that made them elephants (the children could go up to them as if they were trained pet dogs). Their eyes were very watery and their ears were very ragged. We had taken bananas to feed them (probably the most nutrition they’ve had in months) and I enjoyed showing the girls that they could feed them directly into their mouths, not just onto their trunks. Some of the girls tried it and the elephants seemed to be a little happier at this point.

We had dinner at The Juice Shack (that does amazing fresh juice – the Joint Relief juice being my favourite as I’m now 30 and old!) and then the girls went back to the hotel to watch TV as it’s a huge luxury to have a TV in their rooms.

Molly and I have also done some shopping and I bought some fabulous Asian trousers. I also got my nails taken off (I was shocked to see my real nails for the first time in 8 years!) and so far I haven’t bitten my nails which I’m massively proud of as it’s my worst habit! Let’s see how long I can last!

We have the first show today of The Wiz. The surfers are all really excited to see it and I have no doubt that the girls will be able to pull a good performance out of the bag. We’ve also met a nice lady called Kelsey from Australia who will bring some of her friends to watch too. Fingers crossed!