Akole’s sister, Apele, had been ill a long time so we weren’t surprised when she had to make the trip to Vellor in South India for another operation. Vellor Christian Hospital is one of the best in India on a par in many ways with hospitals here but it is several hours flight away from Kohima in Nagaland. Food and much of the care of patients has to be provided by relatives so Apele’s husband Niepe, sister Atsole and cousin Adile all had to travel to Vellor with her. Vellor is very hot, much hotter than Nagaland, and India (even hospitals) are subject to frequent power cuts. That gave our family another job to do, fanning Apele all night to keep her as cool as possible.
In April we heard that they had operated on Apele but couldn’t do anything more than take a biopsy. When the results came back we knew that Apele had cancer, we understood of the liver. Unfortunately many people get news like that and it is always hard. The long journey to India meant that we couldn’t just pop over to see her. It became urgent to get to India as soon as possible but there was so much to organise. First I asked the Bishop if I could have an extra month of unpaid leave on top of our annual holiday. Then I had to arrange for services to be taken for the 2 months we would be away. Finally I booked the flight with BA over the internet and thought all was organised. The next day Rhys broke his arm. With two weeks to go before we were due to leave we were in trouble because Rhys would not be able to fly with the plaster on. Furthermore, the already limited time for organising everything was made shorter by the trips we needed to take to hospital. There was one bright spot, Akole passed her driving test just before we were due to go.
The day before we were due to travel Rhys had another appointment in the hospital. This was make or break time, we still didn’t know if we were going to be able to travel. They were very helpful in the hospital but the person who really knew what to do was the plasterer. He bound Rhys’ pot with a special bandage and cut the plaster. If Rhys had a problem during the flight we would be able to leaver the plaster open sufficiently to give him relief.
Finally the day of our journey arrived. We were up at 5:00am and Ian took us to Swansea where we caught a bus to Heathrow. We had a very long wait at the airport, because we were so anxious not to be late we caught the earliest bus. Akole had prepared sandwiches, some salad, pork pies and a box with biscuits and dried fruit. There was enough for about 10 people.
At the check in gate they were very kind and let us on the plane early, just after the disabled passengers. We sat at the front of the economy class, which gave us more leg room but also meant that the crew could put up a cot for Enfys. The plane was much nicer to travel on than the last one we were on. This plane had individual LCD screens so we could watch different things. Then we tried to sleep.
As we woke Akole pointed to a dramatic sunrise over the clouds. The yellow orange and red of the sunrise faded into darkness above the dark landscape of blue-black clouds. A column of dark clouds rose up like a tor silhouetted against the bright sunrise sky. Every now and then lightning lit up the dark cloud so it looked like a lampshade illuminated by a flickering bulb. We were interrupted as we watched the scene by the arrival of breakfast.
We disembarked about 5:30am (1:00am UK time). The temperature was already 29°C and very humid, the contrast with the cold dry air conditioned plane was quite a contrast, more so because we had to walk across the tarmac to the terminal.
We noticed an improvement in the terminal straight away, it was now air conditioned and the floor has been renewed with marble tiles. It was also a lot quicker and more efficient going through immigration. There was a new design of landing cards to fill in and the immigration didn’t ask too many questions. This time they collected a portion of the boarding card and stapled the rest of the card into our passports for customs and leaving India.
Collecting our luggage was not quite so quick. We were first
on the plane and our bags were about the last off the plane. We were
still waiting for one case when the conveyor belt stopped. There was
nothing for it but to report the loss of one of our cases. I was just
about to go to the information desk to report our loss when I saw that
there was a pile of luggage in the corner. Sure enough our missing bag
was there, it hadn’t been lost after all. If we had spotted it earlier
we wo uld probably have saved a long wait.
Akole’s sister, Atsole, met us at the airport. Apele had been allowed home two days earlier and Atsole had stopped off in Calcutta to meet us. After a further hours travel to central Calcutta we spent some time relaxing and all had a cooling wash. Fortunately the rooms were air conditioned because the temperature had now risen to well over 30°C. We did a little shopping that day and the following day we changed some travellers’ cheques.
The following day we were ready to go to Nagaland. We only just fitted in the lift with the luggage, the family and the porter. Soon we were out in the sun. It was hot but not as bad as I thought, the rain we had had earlier cooled the air. Still it was a sticky and uncomfortable journey. On the way into the airport I took the batteries out of my camera and Akole puts them in one of the cases, I didn’t see which. In India you are not supposed to carry batteries on aeroplanes. It is one of several differences to the UK, another is that the luggage is X-rayed as you go into the airport and a band fastened round the bags and suitcases to indicate that they have been passed.
Once we were checked in we took our seats in the waiting area. The internal terminal was better decorated and appointed than the international one, which is surprising when you think that the International Airport is a showpiece to the world. While we were waiting several people we knew came over to us, they were all anxious to see Enfys for the first time. In about an hour we went through the next security check. Men and women have different queues through the metal detection because it wouldn’t be acceptable for a man to frisk a lady. The ladies’ cubical was also draped with cloth that acted as a curtain. Of course our hand luggage went through the X-ray scanner. After scanning most of the luggage was hand searched. The man in front of me left razor blades in the side pocket of his bag and they cut the security guard, it was good that Akole had an antiseptic wipe for him. Our luggage was cleared and the luggage label on each item is stamped to show that bag has passed. For Indian airlines there was an extra security step, Akole had to go out and identify our baggage before it was loaded onto the plane.
The journey to the plane had improved since last time we were here, the bus was air conditioned. At last we were on the plane but I was still worried that there would be some hiccup at the other end, and my fears turned out to be justified. In Indian Airlines they still hand out sweets to suck to relieve the effects of pressure change as the plane ascends. The only problem I found was that I ate my sweet long before the plane left the ground. In the air Rhys fell fast asleep, he slept through the lunch provided but we saved some bread rolls for him. We didn’t have too long after lunch was cleared before we started the descent for Dimapur.
Once again it was out of the air conditioning into the furnace. At this airport we walked across the hot tarmac to the terminal. Apu (my father in law) was there waiting for us. There was the bad news I had feared, he had the Restricted Area Pass but it didn’t start until the 16th. It seemed Aweü wasn’t listening properly when we telephoned from the UK with the information about our journey and told Apu to get a pass starting in 2 days time. I knew this would mean a huge amount of trouble and effort. Partly because while lot of India has become computerised and quicker it hasn’t reached Nagaland and also because Restricted Area Passes involve a lot of paper work. It was also a difficult situation for the police and security staff because if they did the wrong thing they would get in trouble. Apu took our incorrect RAP and passports and tried to sort things out.
Meanwhile there was another problem. The luggage conveyer
wasn’t working so we had to go outside the terminal building to collect
out bags. We had to wait quite a time for ours as they weren’t on the
first set of transporters. Rhys also wanted to come out with us, but we
thought he would get in the way, still in the end it was easier to let
him come. Enfys stayed with Atsole in the relative cool of the terminal
building (there was no air conditioning here, just old fashioned fans).
Eventually we were able to leave the terminal building but we had to go
with a police escort, the police kept our passports and papers. Joseph
is there to meet us and drive us. First we went to a police station
just outside the airport. It was more like a local bar than police
station. Several officers were wearing t-shirts and some of those
wearing uniforms were quite dishevelled with their shirts only half
tucked in their trousers. Outside a group were playing Carrom. Inside a
group of officers were watching something happen behind a screen, I
later learned that it was an interrogation going on behind a screen
into some driving offence.
The inspector dealing with us asked his assistant to enter the
details on a book. Unfortunately for us this has to be done on a new
page and that involves carefully ruling lines down and across the page,
which takes quite a time. The inspector made a phone call and arranged
for us to see the Superintendent of Police. That meant a further
journey, this time into Dimapur proper. The escort was with us again
and we make rapid time as the police vehicle waved others over for us
to pass. One of the police has the job of whistling to those who don’t
move over quick enough. If they were still too slow in letting us pass
they received a gesture that showed the police’s impatience.
The SP offices are quite different. After a while we are ushered into
the SP’s office. The SP was clearly a man who was efficient and knew
his job well. His Nagamese was very good, he said it is very close to
Hindi and easy to learn when Akole complemented him on it, but he had
still made the effort. He only started as SP last week. He was also
quite young. To my mind he represented the future of India, young
people who know what they are about, who are good with modern
technology and who are not bound by the way things have been done since
the British Raj.
It took a long time for the passes to come, in fact they have been ready for some time but no one had come to get us. We were free to leave, but with the delays it was going to be dark before we arrived in Kohima.
We rested and ate. Before we retired, we went down to see Apele, she was the reason we came after all. Our visit put Apele in high spirits and she looked better than we expected. When she arrived back from hospital she looked so bad that those who picked her up from the airport could do nothing but cry. We hoped our visit can have a positive effect on her health.
That night Rhys fell out of bed onto his plaster so the next day I took him to the hospital. Bethel Medical Centre is a private hospital nearby but the cost of Rhys treatment was less than £2.00, a small amount to us but not small for many in Nagaland. Like here there was a lot of waiting. Rhys had an X ray on a machine that looked as if it would have been disposed of 10 years ago in the UK. The doctor said all was fine and to come back in a week to have the plaster removed.
We all came down with flu and we just couldn’t get rid of it. The start of the monsoon is a very unhealthy month in India and many people had colds, flu and all sorts of other diseases. Rhys was the first to get bad and when his temperature got to more than 40ºC we thought it was time to see a doctor again. By now it was Friday evening and the first doctor we went to see had left for Guwahati for the weekend. There was another long wait when we found someone and eventually we came away with something to cool Rhys down and antibiotics. By the time we came home all four of us had been to the doctor.
The first month we didn’t get to do very much but Akole had lots of friends and family to visit and of course we went to see Apele a lot. We learned that she had cancer of the bile duct, probably as a result of liver cysts. There is really not much the doctors can do for her. Someone had to be with her nearly all the time because she couldn’t move about much on her own. There is nothing like Macmillan nurses, or even GP visits in Nagaland. If you need to see a doctor you have to go to the surgery or hospital and everything has to be paid for.
Some of Akole’s cousins decided to take me to Khesima. This is a tourist village some miles outside Kohima. Every December they have a big festival, the Hornbill festival, at Khesima. This is a showcase for Naga culture. The tourist village has examples of many different styles of house from the different tribes of Nagaland. It is a folk museum but unlike St Fagans the buildings are not old. Indeed, as they are made of bamboo, wood and thatch, buildings don’t survive as long as here in the rain forest of Nagaland, termites and fungi take their toll.
Rhys visited the doctor once again and this time has his cast removed. Not for long, within two weeks he fell while playing with his friends and broke his arm again in the same place. It was much more traumatic having his arm set in Kohima. Here, he had a general anaesthetic, there they didn’t give him any anaesthetic at all. To be honest it was bad enough for me just being there and listening, for Rhys it must have been awful. At least the pain went once his arm was in plaster.
Like the rest of Kohima, our family had been without a government water supply for 2 or 3 months. Someone had damaged the water pipe into the town while building and it hadn’t been repaired. There was enough drinking water in a large storage tank but not enough for washing. My father in law had a well, but the water had started to smell. Perhaps this was because the monsoon rains were very poor this year. So they decided they wanted to tap a spring and bring water into the house. Many houses have an additional water supply from a spring because the government supply is not reliable. To get the water we had to lay a pipe under the road through a culvert and up to the source about 100 yards away. Jeho and Mewelo (Akole’s cousin and nephew) had the job of laying the pipe. To get the pipe under the road they tied a string onto bamboo, and pushed the bamboo through the culvert. Then the string was used to draw the pipe under the road. The culvert under the road was packed with rubbish so it was quite hard to get the pipe through. Then the pipe had to be taken up through an open culvert also full of rubbish to the spring. The water from the spring was not good, certainly not good enough to drink but it was OK for doing the washing. The pipe was joined onto a pipe out of the spring by a sleeve of plastic that was slipped over both pieces of pipe and bound in place by strips of rubber.
Once the pipe was laid we should have had water, but nothing
came. At first we thought it was an airlock in the pipe and tried to
clear the pipe by pumping water through it. Eventually we found there
was a blockage and once that length of pipe was replaced we had water.
Our first trip as a family was to visit Akole’s home village of
Meselumi. Before we went, Akole was busy getting small presents (tea,
milk and eggs) to give to our oldest relatives. In Nagaland it is very
important to get the blessing of the elderly and they are given small
gifts in exchange. Among Christians this blessing has become prayers by
the elderly for those they are blessing. We set out in a vehicle owned
by our relatives Ako and Akhwpëi. Harri, a Bengali, was our driver.
Although the village was only 83km it was a journey along roads which
were sometimes quite narrow and with bad surfaces. It was a little like
going on the New in road across the mountain from Brechfa, but 83 km
long and it wound round like the Llanllawddog road. I later discovered,
when I took the vehicle for a run myself, that it didn’t have any hand
break.
We stopped for lunch, but alas, although they had spent all the
previous night preparing a chicken curry, it hadn’t been packed. Harri
and Jeho had to go and buy some curry for us.
We stopped off to see another of our cousins in Phutsero, the
highest altitude town in Nagaland (2133m). This area is good for
growing apples because it is so cold (most of India is far too hot to
grow them). It was only a few miles to Meselumi, and on the way we met
our Uncle and gave him a lift in the already crowded vehicle.
The following day Tepuzo and Jeho (both cousins) wanted to take me
hunting. The guns are old fashioned muzzle loaders so it took quite a
time to reload after every shot. We walked along the road looking for
birds or animals. Tepuzo didn’t want to take me into the jungle because
at that time of year there are a lot of leaches. Possibly because I am
lucky (for animals) or because we kept to the road, we didn’t manage to
shoot anything.
After breakfast Uncle Lochinyi, Jeho, Tepuzo and
his friend Adu took me to see the rice cultivation. All the rice should
have been planted but because the rains were very poor this year there
were still a few fields left to plant. It was quite a walk to the
fields that were still left unplanted. There I had a go at pushing the
rice plants into the soft mud. It must be quite backbreaking work to do
it all day long for many days, not because it is hard in itself but
just staying bent over for that length of time. There are no machines
to help in cultivation, no fertilizers and no pesticides. Farmers are
completely at the mercy of nature and this year the rains were so poor
that the rice is unlikely to grow well. Next year I am sure many people
will go hungry.
After they had demonstrated rice planting we walked further to get lunch. We had our food on the outskirts of a haunted forest. In the pre Christian past children, young people and those who were sickly would never go into the forest. Even today people still don’t go there a lot and people still see figures moving in the forest but when they go there, there is no one. Even when people outside the forest tell them they are right next to the figures they can’t see anyone. When the figures appear in the forest it is a sign that some calamity is on its way.
We ate our meal of rice, vegetables and beef from plates made
out of banana leaves. Tepuzo was the expert at making these plates.
After lunch we walked up the stream (literally, not on a path beside
the stream) partly along the side but also through the haunted forest.
On the way we looked for crabs under rocks, even diverting the stream
at one point so that we could look more easily. The crabs were small by
our standards, about two or three inches across. I found them quite
fiddly to eat. By the end of the trip we had half a bucket full of
crabs. After climbing up the river we still had a further climb up to
Uncle Lochinyi’s house, and by the time we got back we were all tired.
During the evening there was a death in the village. Customs are very
different to here. There would be no Sunday service the next day
because the funeral wouldn’t have taken place until later in the day.
On Sunday morning we visited our eldest relatives in the
village. We gave them small gifts and they prayed for us. They also got
a chance to see Rhys and Enfys.
We had to leave later that day. There was a lot to pack as our family
were sending things to Kohima with us. The hard rain that came just as
we were loading the vehicle didn’t help. On the way back we had an
accident. Although there wasn’t much damage it took a long time to sort
out. There is no mandatory car insurance in Nagaland and that makes it
harder to come to an agreement. Also the whole village where the
accident happened came out. As the other vehicle was owned by one of
the villagers they were hardly unbiased. In the end the solution was
more about saving face. Our driver had to apologise even though the
accident was clearly not his fault. The delay meant it was late by the
time we arrived home.
When we first arrived, Jeho wanted to take me to
Dzukou valley but because everyone had flu we couldn’t go. Towards the
end of our trip we decided that if they didn’t take me soon we would
miss our chance. Dzukou is a famous beauty spot in Nagaland but it is
also difficult to get to. First you have to hike up part mount Japfu,
which is the second highest mountain in Nagaland at 3048m and then
descend into the valley, which is still 2438m. Niekhrolo, Toku, Tekhe,
Ato, and Kute wanted to come as well as Jeho and myself. We hired
tents, sleeping bags and rucksacks from the tourist office. This in
itself took quite a while as the storekeeper was away when we arrived
and we had to wait a long time for him. We also had to get all our food
together because we would have to carry that for the journey as well.
There are two ways to Dzukou, one starts from the village of Jokhama and you have to climb all the way up the mountain, but the other has a steeper path but you can go quite a bit of the way by vehicle. Joseph drove us up as far you can go on the second path. Then we started our ascent. We chose the easier route because it is very easy to get altitude sickness and quite a few tourists don’t manage to climb all the way on the other route. Another hazard at the time of year was leaches, Jeho was the only one to get caught just before we started the climb, after that we were all more careful. The path is well kept by the Southern Angami Students’ Union and they have also built a lodge in the mountain for travellers to stop and rest. Nevertheless it is still a hard climb up a very steep and slippery path through the jungle. The jungle has a lot of rhododendron trees, rhododendrons come from the foot hills of the Himalayas that we were climbing. The worlds biggest rhododendron tree was recorded on Mount Japfu, 109 feet tall and 11 feet in girth. Inside the valley, annual burning controls the trees, so they don’t encroach on the valley.
When we reached the top we had a spectacular
view but we couldn’t see Dzukou yet as that was a few km more walk.
They refused to let me carry my rucksack further and I must have looked
like a colonial explorer surrounded by porters, but the ‘porters’ were
my cousins and their friends. When we reached the lodge we were all
exhausted but I got my first view down into Dzukou valley. It was
surrounded by heavily dissected mountainsides but the bottom of the
valley was truncated (or made flat) by a bog. A month or so earlier the
whole valley would have been covered with flowers but now most of them
had gone. There were still a few areas covered in white flowers. We
were all tired by now and had a cup of tea and a rest. Then we started
our walk down into the valley itself.
The traditional way to camp in the valley is in a cave, though the caves are more like big overhangs than the limestone caves we would think of. There weren’t so many groups in the valley when we arrived so we managed to stay in the biggest cave. The floor was already covered in cut bamboo so we didn’t need to gather much. Someone had also left some firewood. Just by the cave was a huge midden filled with all sorts of waste, some rotting but also plastic and disposable items. The Southern Angami Students Union clean the valley twice a year, but it would be a lot better if people took care of their own rubbish.
We couldn’t put up the main tent because the ground was rocky but as we were in a cave we didn’t need it, we used the tent material as a windbreak. We did get the second tent up, using stones to hold the guide ropes. Niekhrolo and Tekhe decided that we needed more pans and climbed all the way back up to the lodge to get them. It would have been much easier to get them earlier. By the time we got dinner it was dark.
The next day we took a good walk round the valley. Although the valley wasn’t covered in flowers there were many plants still flowering. A few hills were covered in flowers and that gave me some idea of what the valley had looked like earlier. After our walk we went for a swim in the river. The water was clear, cool and very refreshing after our walk. It also made me feel much cleaner.
That evening we spent some time with a group that was camping across the way. They were from the Thankhul tribe and came from the neighbouring state of Manipur. The Nagas who live in Manipur were blockading the roads to the capital Imphal because they wanted their land to be transferred into Nagaland state. They feel that they get a very poor deal at the hand of the Manipuri government and people.
The following day we had to pack everything up before leaving. The pots and pans had to be cleaned after being used on an open fire. Kute and Toku cleaned the pans using a mixture of soap and wood ash from the fire. It was very effective and the pans were soon gleaming again.>
We decided to go back by the other route and this would be
less steep. At the top of the mountain Niekhrolo tried to get Joseph on
his mobile to ask him to pick us up at the bottom of the mountain. He
got a signal but unfortunately he had forgotten to switch his phone off
so the battery was too flat to make a call.
Even going down hill it was a long and hard walk to the bottom of the
mountain. It also got hotter as we descended. On the way down we met a
group of students who were working clearing the path and carrying food
up to the lodge.
At the bottom we waited till a tourist taxi came by and caught that for our journey home. At home everyone was a little worried because they had got a partial phone call from Niekhrolo and Joseph wasn’t sure if he should pick us up or even which route we were coming down by.
Soon it was time to get ready to go home. We had to go to the hospital once more for them to remove Rhys’ plaster. Rhys was not very happy about the removal but it had to be done before we travelled. We said our final farewell to Apele, it was very hard for us to leave especially for Akole. We didn’t know if we would meet again. Quite a few of us went on the first part of the journey to Dimapur. As we travelled down to the plain it got hotter and hotter and when we arrived in Dimapur the temperature was well into the thirties. We visited Avi, Akole’s brother, and saw their new house. Last time we went they were still building it.
Akole,
Atsole, Rhys, Enfys and I were the only ones to travel to Calcutta. We
had arranged to stay in Nagaland house, in the centre of Calcutta, for
one night and then to move to a hotel near the airport for the night
before we were due to travel. It was still hot in Calcutta but not
quite as bad as when we arrived (or perhaps we were more used to it).
The first day there we exchanged more money to be used for Apele’s
medicine and did a little shopping for a few things to bring home.
Atsole did some shopping for the shop that she runs with our cousin
Adile. Then we got a taxi and moved to the hotel near the airport.
We were up early to get everything ready for going and to get the airport 2 hours before the flight. The hotel had a vehicle to take us to the airport so it was all quite easy. When we arrived at the airport a board announced that our flight was cancelled. There was no further information. I went inside to see if I could find out more. It turned out we were caught up in the dispute between Gate Gourmet and its workers and that all BA flights were cancelled. All this had happened in the night (as Indian time is 4½ hours in front of the UK). They gave us a phone number but it was impossible to get through. In the end I tried the internet and discovered that we were booked on an Air India flight the following day. Just to be on the safe side I phoned BA offices in Calcutta and confirmed that we were booked on the flight.
When we arrived the following day we discovered they had cancelled the booking because I hadn’t gone into Calcutta to get the tickets, which they never asked us to do. So now we didn’t know what was going to happen. The Air India flight was booked up so they weren’t sure if we would be able to go on it. The alternative was to go to Singapore in the evening, wait 6 hours and then travel home the next day. We were anxious to avoid that. Eventually, just before the flight was due to leave we got our tickets and were able to travel with Air India. The flight was very late taking off because of the extra BA passengers they were taking.
Ian very kindly came to meet us at Heathrow and brought us home. We arrived at 3am on Sunday morning, 27 hours late.
We would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and for the cards and flowers they sent after Apele died. We also would like to thank Bishop Carl and the Church in Wales for giving us extra time off last summer to see Apele. I would like to thank everybody who helped run the churches and take services in my absence.
The vicar