Day 38, Sept. 17

Today was a preplanned fun day. Fr. Vijayan knew my love of geography and history, combined them and added a friend of his for a trip to the bottom of India. Kanyakumari is the resort town at the southernmost point in India. As such, it is at the confluence of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea. So, it became my pleasure to put my body in all three of them at the same time. For those who might dispute the exact spot for this to take place, I went in three times one for certain in ach of the three. Just realize that the next piece of land from me would be Antarctica.
The town also had a monument to those killed in the Tsunami. It was simple and poignant. Then, there were the host of 20 rupee stores. They were more like our old Five and Dime stores than our present dollar stores. For instance, I bought a 40 cent flashlight to replace a much more expensive one I left in the rectory in Jaipur.
On the way there we satisfied my need to get in touch with history by visiting a small slip of land where St. Francis Xavier had lied in a cave. The cave was previously inhabited by a Hindu guru who voluntarily gave it to the Jesuit missionary. From there, Francis would walk the beach and preach Christianity to the townspeople there.
Fishing is the industry there much the same as it was for hundreds of years ago. The boats probably look the same. (In fact, they look similar to the first century boat they found in the Sea of Galilee.) Only here we were able to follow the fishing boats from the horizon to the shore, watch them come to land, see them empty their nets, sort them out, and then sell them. The only part of that routine I did not understand was the last. The sale took place fast in the form of an auction. The middlemen were there in numbers. You would think the law of supply and demand favored the poor fishermen. Nevertheless, each of the many times we watched a large catch of sardine size fish went for about 300 rupees. That amounted to $6.00 for three men working all night and well into the day. Coolie labor brings in about 50 rupees a day o $1.00. Now we did see some fishermen stow away some large fish in the boat which they did not sell on the shore. Maybe they made a good deal elsewhere or had it for dinner themselves.
Speaking of food, we had been in a quandary as to where to eat. Our first effort led us to a basement restaurant with no patrons and plenty of flies. I took the lead to get us out of there. Then, Fr. Vijayan called his brother-in-law who arrived in less than five minutes. He showed us to a fine hotel with a restaurant with a good clientele. We enjoyed a fine seafood meal including squid (my personal favorite) cooked just right. I had to trick Vijayan to get the bill and pay for the meal before he realized it. This was too good an experience not to.