Not necessarily bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we strolled to our buses and boarded them. Some had slept soundly, most slept intermittently, while others did not sleep at all. We were met by our buses (our driver is Ajit) and driven back to the farm for breakfast before going to the village to being our work project. It was still VERY cold in the morning, but we shivered through breakfast in the outdoor breakfast tent erected just for our group’s meals. We once more boarded the buses and were driven through the back paths and over the craggy terrain to Chahalka. None of the other members of the team had been with me the prior year when we funded and constructed two washing platforms for the women and girls to wash their linens, clothes, dishes and water buffalos at the central well. How gratifying it was for me to see that all of them were using the washing platforms, rather than the well cover as they had in the past – thereby polluting their own drinking water supply. It seemed that some of the villagers actually recognized me and came to greet our team. We were divided up into groups – some for painting and others four outside construction and masonry.
The previous year, I worked closely with the local brick mason, Ramish, and he seemed genuinely pleased to see me again, and smiled as he embraced me with a strong hug. Last year, it took about two-and-a-half days for Ramish to invite me to place bricks on the wall we were building, but this year, it was only five minutes before he almost implored me to get to work and start laying bricks. As time passed through the morning, it was not long before Ramish trusted me with using the plumb line to make sure the corners were properly in plumb – front, side and back. This is no small accomplishment, since there is absolutely no consistency or regularity among the bricks. Mortar or masala as the Indians call it, was mixed by two local boys, with reasonable consistency, and everything done using spades and hoes, cutting into the pile of sand with a bag of cement mix dumped on the top of the cone, a hole hollowed out where the water was poured and then mixed. Basin after basin of the masala was carried over by our crew to me, I placed it near Ramish for him to trowel onto the top of the scores of bricks, to lay yet another layer. In the meanwhile, many others went inside the two buildings to paint the walls with a primer coat, in order to prepare for the final colors to be applied. Ceilings, window casings, doors and window frames – all were painted. On the side where the day-care center was to be built, Mark Brown, Ray Sykes and several others worked to draw out the mural pattern of a hillside covered with many different animals, and a sea with whales. Some of the local children joined them by sketching many beautiful flowers and vines on both sides of the mural. The other walls will be painted a solid color, so the tiny young children can really focus on the exciting animals that would now be painted by our team members, including Anna Looby and Cari Roberts from Chaska, Minnesota.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch… (I can’t believe I said that!) several of the team members were gathered in what used to be the dining room at the farm, transforming the space into a ROTARY DEPARTMENT STORE! Our team members had collected and brought literally close to 20,000 gift items, ranging from pencils, bracelets, yo-yos, whistles, Beanie Babies, other stuffed animals, bottles of bubbles, pens, solar calculators, tennis balls, footballs (official kicking balls from the Minnesota Vikings), Frisbees (tiny and regulation size) stickers, soccer balls, baseballs, baseball bats, plastic farm animals and dinosaurs, pens and stickers from various states, pads of paper, computer software programs, coloring books, crayons, canvas tote bags, and did I mention the kitchen sink??? It took nearly two full days for sorting through all of the gifts in order to provide equality for all of the recipients – whether they be teachers to pass on to students who excel or are with special needs, or to the village children. OOPS, I nearly forgot the two bushels of lollipops! The families will probably never forgive us for providing sugar highs to their children (we decided to give those out on the last day, as we are driving on to our next destination!). Tom McCaughey from Newfoundland oversaw this effort, and the sorting group consisted of Kelly Wike, Shirley McCaughey, Karen Teichman and Sarah Mutchler (who brought a youthful perspective to the effort). If I have inadvertently omitted anyone, I apologize.
Back to the farm for lunch and then returning to the work site, we continued to work on well into the afternoon, successfully completing two sections of brick wall, digging out of an area outside the playground wall to creating a footing for construction of a watering trough for the water buffaloes – during drought season, they need water and have up until now entering the playground and drinking from pails of water at the well site, all the while relieving themselves thereby having their waste seep down into the well and polluting the drinking water supply. We had just been successful in the past year of building the washing platforms for the ladies and girls so they would no longer find it necessary to wash dishes and clothes on top of the well and letting their waste water run back into the well.
When we had completed our workday, we returned to the farm for drinks and dinner, and awaited the arrival of my friend, RI Director Kjell-Ake Akesson from Sweden, who had been appointed as the official representative of Rotary and the Rotary Foundation by TRF Chair Bob Scott. Kjell-Ake had been two days in meetings and was anxious to meet his fellow teammates. In addition we were also waiting for the arrival of the Chief Medical Officer for the World Health Organization who oversees the polio eradication effort in this part of India, who would address us about concerns he has for the current conditions and outbreaks of polio in the nearby areas. The area where we are working is very close to Uttar Pradesh, which is one of the sections of India where polio remains endemic. It seems that in many instances the children who are being diagnosed with or are suspected of having contracted polio are Muslims – still the myth exists that the polio eradication program is sterilizing the children, rather than saving them from the ravages of paralysis by polio. Many of the Muslim girl children are immunized, while ignoring the boy children, in the belief that they would be rendered impotent. In years past, it has been through the intervention of Rotary and its members to convey to the imams of the Muslims in India that we are here to immunize and thereby, save their children, rather than sterilizing them. However, the message is not being transmitted into the tiny hamlets or enclaves of Muslims as effectively as we would like.
Being tired (over-tired) and cold and hungry, I am afraid that we may not have presented the best face for the chief medical officer or even the RI Director, upon their arrival, but we were presented with a slide presentation of current conditions in the area, and then treated to another sumptuous dinner. One of the aspects of traveling, particularly in India, is for us westerners to understand and respect the difference in cultural practices – dinner is NOT at 6:00 p.m., but rather extends well into the night and may not even be served until 10:00 p.m. It is not for us to impose our practices on our hosts, but rather for us to adapt as guests of their hospitality and their culture. Slowly, we are getting to that point.
With dinner concluded, we were back in the buses heading for what perhaps might be the first night of chilly but possibly uninterrupted sleep, to have breakfast on Saturday morning prepared at the farm but then delivered to the buses for our consumption and enjoyment. In this way, we would be able to maximize our time working at the site. Although some of our rooms were provided with portable heaters, others had none. Some rooms had showers, others were provided with a large bucket to collect warmish water and then to use the small pitcher to drizzle water over our bodies, soap up and then rinse – for some, their first encounter with BUCKET BATHS.
There was morning and there was evening – the FIRST day, and we saw that it was good.
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