Kodaikanal - Finally!

I arrived at the bus station in Madurai and quickly found the bus to "Kodaikkanal". People tried to get me into a private bus with A/C, but I resisted and entered another typical government bus. So no doors and getting full along the way.

Nice! The bus to Kodaikanal! ... Kodaikkanal?

After a long drive over the plains around Madurai the bus finally turned towards the mountains. It went uphill, the driver wasn't botherered by all the curves and kept on speeding up the road! Only cars from the opposite direction or driving slowly infront of him were a short obstacle. He quickly sped up and overtook the slow vehicles infront of him, be it a car, bus or lorry (every verhicle was slow compared to him...).
We had some nice views on the way, I tried taking a picture with my phone, not that easy while driving and all the trees around...

The plains around the mountains...

And the mountains!

At about half of the drive up the hill it started to rain. Unfortunately I was sitting at one of the non existant doors so I got a little wet. When my seat neighbor sat somewhere else I got away from the leak in the roof and then another friendly indian fellow let down a small covering at the door, which seems to be installed in case of rain. Very nice!
The rain kept on going for the rest of day, almost like in Hamburg! ^^
After some time I finally started recognizing some buildings. Then I saw a KIS - Kodaikanal International School - Bus! It probably was heading towards Gonga compound.
On that compound 6 new dormitories were built, I was later told, so other dorms are now accomodations for staff rather than students. Then I saw the Lochend compound with the Zion church and dirctly after this I saw the seven road junction with the main gate to the KIS! I was so excited to see it all again!=)
After getting off of the bus I went to see Yvonne, the alumni officer of KIS. The entrance to her office wasn't at the main gate, but to the KMU building (old elementary school building, entrance between main gate and the lochend compound). She welcomed me verly friendly and gave me a few infos, including the Wifi password - the school now has wifi! (although it is rather slow...) - and she gave me the keys to the dunmere guest house, where I'll be staying the next 2 weeks. She also was willing to let me look into things and would have helped me get appointments with people, if I had wanted to.

So first to the cosy guesthouse. The Lochend compound. Somehow it looked different, but still the same. I definately remembered the church and the ways. I couln't remember the buildings all around (the dorm etc), though thats probably just because of my childs perspective and not because they weren't there yet. Oh and it's been 17 years.
I remembered this was the place where Ms. Block lives, but couldn't remember which house, I was staying in the annex of the house she lives in! ^^

On the way to Clavarack compound, the stalls near the lake (the lake is to the right)

I was told by Yvonne I could visit all the school compounds, if I wanted to go into a dorm, I'd have to tell her before, so she could inform the dorm parents.
So I directly went to the Clavarack (old UCB) compound. No one knew the name UCB, only the name of the Clavarack dorm from there. I also don't know what the long version is, but apparently the school owns it completely now, so it got a new name.
The streets had changed, but only their appearance. The way down to the lake seemed much emptier and many shops/ stalls now closed. But then when I arrived at the lake it was crazily full. Shops everywhere and alot of people. Shops for clothes, Chocolates (alot of chocolate stalls!) and other stuff. The railway they had started building in 1999 (or already in 98?) was gone, it wasn't worth all the pollution the guard of the clavarack compound told me. Now they have 3 big boathouses, one now also at "our" end of the lake. They had also built new stables at the gate for riding around the lake and many people were walking around here (of course).
First the guard was hesitant towards me. He told me there was a new rule he couln't just let me, an alumni, on to the compound, so he called the main security. They then talked to me, to confirm my identity I guess (I wasn't sure if I was listed, since I had just arrived a few hours ago). But apparently I was, the main security told the guard infront of me and he allowed me onto the compound. Nice! And I wandered up the road, which felt all too familiar. It almost felt like I still knew the rocks laying on the ground and saw the small house at the foot of the hill, I think Pavitra lived there. And the stairway/ short cut to the way up to our house. It was in worse shape and seemed way smaller than I remembered. But I guess thats ok, if you remember everything from the eyes of a nine year old.

The stairs... up we go!

Looking the wrong direction...

To the right, the old Hariharans home

And to the left our old home!

The brewster... oh memories!

The garage with a new fence

And here you can see what they built newly, the kitchen is much bigger now!

And the other side of the house, I remember how we built a dog house for Lucky back here...

And inside!!! Daddys old computer room

The living room

And the kitchen (view to the annex)

(I will soon make more pictures public at flickr!)

I of course had the walk up them. Then I saw our home. Our home for more than 5 years and alot of childhood memories. Amazing. It was almost like I was just on my way home. I was hesitant. How weird was it for a guy to suddenly show up and ask to see your house, saying he had lived there? I wasn't ready for it. So I walked around instead. I walked past the old home of the Hariharans, the place where they had kept their dog was now closed (a wall has connected the two House with it's Annex). The small bushes, where we once hid with Lucky (our dog back then) and which also bordered the street were still there. I went on down to see if "Devins house" was still standing. Past the house of the lady, who owned the crocodile farm (if I remember correctly). The u-turn street was another sort of mile stone I remembered well. The trees on each side... Just everything was familiar. It was great. I was overwhelemed. (even now I still am writing this 3 weeks later and I wished I was back to make more fotos or could somehow show my family)

I went past the Leyden house. It didn't seem to have changed alot. But then I saw the house of Devin (it now belongs to the elementary school coordinator I was later told). It has alot of cool play stuff around. A tree house, climbing stuff and toys laying around (maybe everyone was inside, because it was still raining - I was wearing my rain jacket). I saw the tree, where we would climb up and down all the time. The time we went down to the edge of the compound and argued with tourists, if they were allowed to take fotos of us.
As I went towards the house 3 loudly barking dogs and 1 more quiet one came running towards me. Kind of scared I stopped to show them I meant no harm. It worked. They sniffed me and huddled around me, I think one of them tried to snap at my hand (more or less), I shook him off and he didn't try it again. They followed me closely, so I'd try nothing stupid I guess.
As I passed the house I remembered the sleepovers we did here. And the route we toke to Peters home, as a sign of all the great fun we kids had. Well "route"... the forest we crossed between Peters and Devins houses. This was our place, our playground.
I saw the entrance to clavarack dorm. Peters old home. It looked very familiar, though Yvonne had told me it was no longer a dorm. Only staff are living there now. I went past it to look down the hill. There were the steps down to "our road" and the Brewster (our old home). I remember when the gardener or whoever had slained the gigantic snake and had spread it on the grass, to see it's length (it was so big!!) and could still see the tree stump, where once this huge proud tree was standing, untill the big storm had brought it down and left us without electricity for more than a week. Especially the one time I was sure I had seen the eyes of a huge squirrel, which was supposed to be living in the tree.
I still wasn't ready. I to see the last 2 houses I remembered, one where Tiki and Riki lived (the twins, who lived next to the dorm, not sure if those are their actual/ real names). Lastly the house were another german family lived for a short time. I was in the age of finding girls disgusting and she sent me a letter with a heart (it was hidden as an I-dot). Yuck! Not sure if Daniel or my imagination put it there, I'm sure he was teasing me because of that girl...

So I walked down towards the Brewster and thought I should definately come back another day, so I could take pictures of it (my phones battery was recharging in the hut and since it was raining I left the digi cam inside). So I kept going past the house, I'm pretty sure I saw people inside, which made me feel a little creepy (as in me possibly creeping them). As I walked down I met Olav. He is the strings teacher (Bass Strings) at KIS. He later told me he lived in germany for 17 years before coming to India. But then I think it was just weird, me approaching him. His dog was uneasy seeing me, but was more shy than the ones I saw before close to Devins old house.
We chatted briefly, introducing ourselves and him wishing me a nice time back in Kodaikanal. He went back inside with his dog and I left back for the Dunmere Guest House.
A very emotional day for me, just seeing our old home and walking all these familiar paths. Unbelievable. Amazing.

Before I headed home I walked into a restaurant to get dinner. Of course I didn't bring my wallet (who needs one? ...) and had to get back to the annex quickly. I should mention I was already sitting in the restaurant and had ordered. When I left with my wallet I had apparently walked hastily past a Bison! Because then a guard stopped me and sent me around another way to avoid it. I was confused (I had just passed the road like a minute ago, so it must have been there before). Luck? Bad luck for me missing it? Not sure... Any way I didn't see it, as the guard showed me the way through the compound. I had my dinner and then was able to see it later (it was just getting dark). The Bison (a big one! Wow these things are huge!) was just sitting casually on a small yard eating the grass. The 2 guards made a joke it was always walking in circles to sit here, it's probably the Bisons bed. They walked me past the thing, in case it suddenly decided to attack. Nothing happened. It probably didn't care. Ms Block later posted it on facebook, apparently the guards chased it some more around on the compound...

Next day I did a little shopping and got a hotplate from KIS, so I coul cook a little myself. Nice! It cost a little extra, but worth saving all the money on going out to eat, which is a little extra expensive up in the hillstation.
I explored the Highclerk Compound this day. The main compound, probably the one I knew very little about considering it is the main campus. But then again I was suprised almost everything seemed familiar. I saw the computer labs where I would head after school to play sim city (thank you dad! ^^) and the library. It seems most offices are still in the same spot, a few more music rooms were built and of course I'm not sure if the buildings and rooms had actually the same function as this day, but it doesn't really matter I guess. The buildings were more or less the same. When I walked into the middle school building (now called Arts Block, I knew it as the place for sunday school) a teacher (or someone elsee from an office) asked me if she could help, I said I'd just like to look around and pointed at my Alumni-Badge, she smiled and let me know I could definately have a look around, this is after all my school and she is pleased to welcome me back to KIS. Things like this always made me feel really good about being back. This is what I more or less always expeted from KIS. So I looked around when the bell rang. The kids changed classrooms and after 5 minutes it was "empty" again. (they were in class of course)

The alumni hall at KIS, for assemblies and canteens!

The Flaggreen, meeting place and eating place for alot of students

The hallway for the administration towards the library

View on the main campus from the KMU building... left is the church

From the main campus down to the KMU building (our old elementary school)

Here there was once a jungle gym and playground for preschool and elementary school, not the buses park here!

The KMU building, here I went to from preschool till first or second grade!

The church on Highclerk

And a view from the main gate

The art block (earlier the middle school building), for me it was our sunday school place

And inside of the art block

The same day I had a look around town. Looked for the shop "Sheep in a Jeep" and the ones where my mom would like to buy things. I saw that Eco Nut still exists (she is still making the sourdough bread after my mothers recipe!). Others I didn't find.

3rd day I headed to Ganga compound. The secratary knew my dad (especially his work in the IT area) and was kind of surprised he's now working as a pastor! :D
I saw the then new now old buildings of the elementary and middle school. This compound now has rooms from preschool till 8th grade. I saw my old classrooms, the library and our practice rooms for music. Just awesome. So many memories of class, monkey "attacks", story times, plaing on the playground, sport eventy, the time someone threw a stone or something really hard against my head it bled. Ultimate frisbee and football matches on the big green field. Some gatherings in the courtyard and lunches in the cafeteria.
Awesome plays and stuff in the cafeteria.

View on the sports hall of the Ganga compound, the old dorm is at the left

View from the field upwards, you can see the canteen

The classrooms of the elementary school! Ground level preschool, kindergarden and first and second grade

First floor 3rd till 6th grade (if I got it right)

Apparently now alot of Bison come to the compound and are a bigger problem than the monkeys (ok they weren't really a big threath back then either, but they scared the kids, alot). The newest building on the compound was an entire new wing with classrooms (for middle school) and the many new dorms behind the old single dorm back then. Generally it all wasn't a forest anymore. Many many more buildings were built on and around the compound. Not just school houses, also private houses. So the way to the school looked very different than what I remembered!
So far I didn't have alot of contact with any students or teachers. I was kind of hesitant to approach any one. I haven't been in Kodai for 17 years, no one remembers me or my father, were my thoughts. Except now the secretary from the Ganga compound. And of course most of the staff had to work so I didn't want to disrupt that. I talked with a few people about me being alumnus and how everything felt to me, but they usually had to rush to the next appointment.
Then on that day I met Caroline. She is from the class of 2001. She is married to a german doctor and was just in Kodai for a few days vacation. As we talked in the staff lounge she remembered me and our family an was very excited. We spent the next days more or less together. So thanks to her I met Mrs. Esther Paul again, Peters mother. Esther was very very happy to see me again and we talked about the old days and how our familys were so close back then. I could remember hanging out with Peter alot and actually all the time. She also gave me a few gifts for my family and she told us about a project she is now supporting, which is helping women earn some money and becoming more independent. She herself is retired now and is keeping herself busy with this.

Next day was Saturday, here I headed out with the school to "Cloudlands Peak". A beautiful place with a great view, when the clouds aren't there you can see down to the plains.
So we started in the morning, 2 teachers, a student teacher (doing her internship at KIS) and me as the adults. A girl student, who has done alot of hiking was our guide with John, one of the teachers. We headed out and had a nice breakfast in the morning sun. It was a very nice day so far and we felt lucky to reach the peak earlier than the other groups and actually be able to enjoy the view!

Our breakfast view on the hike

On the way to the view point

Arriving at the view point with the group, the kids relaxing or fighting their fear of heights... (behind me)

Beautiful view! Luckily no clouds =)

On the hike I had some chats with Olav, the strings teacher I met in Clavarack, Rachel, the Biology student from the USA and John, the Religious Ed teacher for high school, he actually is the only one at the moment...
So it was really nice to get to know these people, it helped later with not feeling that weird when sitting in the staff lounge. Caroline left on sunday in the morning, so then I was "alone" again. But I had more confidence and John had allowed me to visit his classes and one of the girls on the hike wanted me to visit her class, so I did. I also got to know Daniela, the german teacher and visited her classes aswell.
So the second week I still explored Kodai, but was more involved in school life.
One last thing I had to do was at least try and get into our old home which I did. I arrived at Clavarack compound and headed to the brewster. The maid told me the lady who lives here isn't there yet, but should be back in half an hour. So I went around the compound to take some fotos (the weather was better).
But while I was walking mist arrived here and there. So suddenly a few places were basically clouded (see the pictures). I then came back to the brewster and waited for the lady to come back home. When she arrived she was freidnly enough to let me inside and we talked a little bit. She is from the netherlands and is a teacher at KIS. The interior has changed (of course), though it was nice just walking around and inside our old house. The loft we had installed was still there, though the stairs have changed. This family had 2 children, so the kids had more space than we did back then. The kitchen was much bigger, because they had built a wall around the walkway to the small rooms behind the house. So it is all connected now and the family can eat in the kitchen itself.
So far they don't have a pet, though she was thinking about getting a cat. But they had just moved into the house beginning of July (so about 2 weeks ago) and had to move in properly anyway.
I was happy to see the house again and took way too few pictures I guess. It still felt a little awkward, because the things of the new inhabitants were lying around and it was their stuff, I didn't want to take pictures of all of that.

Wednesday I met the family Paulraj once again. The wife was once a librarian at KIS and her father worked in the administration and knew my father well. It seems he noticed me and wondered who I was so he waited for me one day at the Lochend compound and he invited me to their bookshop. When they had both retired they opened a bookshop to keep themselves busy and they help alot of people by selling their goods (cookies from this old teacher, jams from another friend, a cheese farm close by also gives them the cheese for sale). It was very pleasant to talk with them.

On thursday I headed to dolphins nose. A popular site people "hike" to (a very short and easy hike). And around it is the village Vattakanal. There I saw alot more tourists and backpackers. It is also a propular place for jews apparently (many shops had the writings also in hebrew!).

Dolphins nose

Dolphins nose with Jakob

Dolphins nose without Jakob

View into the plains

In the afternoon I headed to Yvonnes office to see if any alumni had already gathered and there were a few! I met Sieglinde, a german pastor, whos father was missionary in Sri Lanka and had visited KIS till 78. She had written a book which is now also on sale at Paulrajs bookstore!
We had a few meals together (thanks my hotplate), because she was staying in the other alumni guest house on Lochend compound.

The alumni hall greeting the alumni =)

Friday I met Geetaa Abraham, she was my old dentist and is the mother of Samantha, one of my classmates in elementary school. It was very nice seeing her again. I couldn't believe to be actually eating lunch with her, it was almost as surreal as the other encounters in Kodai. I almost would never have thought to meet these people again and there I was, she remembering me in Kindergarden, I remembering her as the dentist (every kids favourite) and more as the mom of Samantha.

In the after noon the program for the alumni weekend continued. There was a meet up at tea with some juniors (not seniors as planned). But it was fun, we played a few games, talked and later met at Correys house for dinner. The staff and a few students had prepared some music for us and it was beautiful!

Saturday the alumni were actually supposed to go to the campsite of KIS, but for some reason it was changed to Berijam lake (not sure why we didn't go, I would have liked to see the campsite). But Berijam was fun aswell! With 2 busses we sped into the mountains. The 86ers climbed a derelict tower (well not really derelict, but not 100% safe, it was kind of shaky on the top). They said it was the "Kodi way" and went past the "No Admission" sign. I also headed up, nothing happened and from up there we had a great view! No one could really complain because when we arrived at the lake we searched for a place to eat our breakfast. We kept on walking down the road and past a gate. Very few noticed a "No Admission" sign close to the gate. Granted it wasn't really visible, so almost everyone walked right past it.

The tower we climbed up

The view of Berijam lake from up in th tower

Can you see it? We saw him on the way to our breakfast spot!

After breakfast we went back to the allowed area and spent the next few hours throwing frisbees, playing with a soccer ball and just talking. At one point most of the young people headed back to Kodai with one of the buses. In the evening there was a canteen (dance) with the students. It was fun just to goof around and go crazy on the dance floor in the alumni hall ;) 

Sunday after the service we headed to a orphanage for girls and joined them for lunch. It was really nice to chat with the young girls and spend some time there. Unfortunately it took longer than expected and we missed the ultimate frisbee game. Because after lunch the school had organised a few games, students (embryos) vs. alumni (fossils) vs. staff. luckily we were in time to join for the volleyball games. We won against the students but lost against the staff. Like really bad. But it was fun!

The new sport houses at KIS, wenn the colours now have animal names! Go Orange!!!!!

And for the officials, the KIS Bison

I didn't chose the Bison life, the Bison life chose me ;)

And here a real bison that I saw on the Lochend compound, opposite of Barbara Blocks house

The rest of the day I spent with the younger alumni, we visited Ganga compound and spent the evening in Benderloch (the principals compound, two of them were staying in the guest houses over there).

On monday most alumni left, some even left on sunday already. I had packed my things aswell and got ready to leave Kodaikanal. I felt a little sad, but didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so I just said my good byes to the people I met and got a bus to Madurai. I was there earlier to check the timings and a guy wrote down my name, so he could call me in case a cheap taxi would appear. One actually did and he called me. He forgot to tell me it was leaving at 7 pm not 5, as I had planned... So I did have to run to the bus station anyway, though I actually planned enough time. The bus journey was nice and I had time to think about a possible job at KIS.

While I was at Yvonnes one day I mentioned I'd like to talk about maybe working here so she made an appointment with Correy, the principal. So I met him and we had a short talk about a possible job. He seemed more interested in me being german to teach german than my special education abilities. Olav had also told me that the department at the school for "special ed" (it's called learning resources at KIS) has enough people and is working well, so I might not be able to get a job there, if no one quits. But because I have studied religion and can theoretically teach german I might still be interesting and Correy also made me really think about. I'll stay in touch with him and who knows, maybe I will be heading to Kodaikanal once again, hopefully not in only in 17 years, but sooner!

Last but not least! Pictures from Kodaikanal:

 Seven roads junction! (view from bazaar road/ direction of the bus station)

Bazaar road 1

Bazaar road 2 (this is towards the bus station)

The road to Benderloch/ the field and our way home after a regular schoolday

The road down to eco nut, to the right are alot of smaller shops, I later discovered Kopedeg! Also Paulrajs bookshop is here

Kopedeg<3

View to the school main gate from the road

The Kodaikanal Lake

This is how most of the road looks like, a nice pavement on the side, to take a walk on!

An old boatshouse, pretty sure it is at least 18 years old (I think it was there back then aswell!)

Another view on the lake

And Van Allen Hospital!

The hospital itself (not just the sign)