I think you like the pictures best

Just a little British remanant, hahaha

Everything, everything is made from concrete around here, we're not really sure why, but this picture epitomizes the construction. It's concrete. and there are 7 men, 7 whole grown men working on this tiny section. India's whole economy is based on surplus labor. Have I mentioned this before? It is. Efficiency means nothing, employing as many people as possible is everything.

This building says "Cooperative Service Examination Board". I have two things to say about it. First, my colleague Katrina commented that, "India has a way of making even legitimate operations look illegitimate." I think that encapsulates it perfectly and succinctly. YOu start looking around the cities and it's true. YOu can stand in one spot and the longer you stand there the more notice, but at a glance you'll miss most of it because our western eyes don't register what doesn't look clean and in good repair etc. So this building is a good example. It probably is exactly what it says it is. WHICH, lead me to my second thing. Speaking with the men from the handloom weaver's, we learned that one of their wives if a government typist and what an honor and security that was for their family because she can never be fired and she has a lifetime pension, plus the job pays well. What they also told us was that she competed against over 100,000 other people for the job. Incredible! We next learned that Anhil two weeks earlier had taken a civil service examination test because he had applied for a government job. We asked why the test? He said that's how you get any of the government jobs. They're all roughly the same test. He wasn't sure if he had gotten some of his answers correct so he wanted to double check with us: "What is the national animal of the United States?", "Who abolished slavery in the United States?" "Who said, 'A government for the people, by the people and of the people' (?? did I get the quote right?)"? These questions just to be a typist or any other government position. Pretty interesting.

THis is the lighthouse on Kovallum beach, I felt like I owed you another beach picture since I am staying beach front.