Though I have been trying hard to write about the progress in Bihar for the past two weeks, time has kept on eluding me. The medical team along with the ambulances reached Supaul district on the wee hours of the morning of 26th September A new chapter in the medical services of the team started since the number of affected people here were many more than in the earlier district. Things were also much more difficult here. In Purnia district we had sufficient local help but here it was not so, and we ha to work harder to make ourselves heard.

The doctors were directed to serve in the area of Triveniganj, which was close to the place where we were going to set up our next camp. Along the narrow banks of the Kosi river for several kilometers, there were thousands of small temporary shelters as far as the eye could see. Since the accommodation was at Supaul the doctors and ambulance had to travel one way, for nearly two and half hours to cover the 50kms distance from their accommodation centre to the Kosi Banks.

Where ever we went we heard the same stories about the sudden arrival of water, the speedy rise in water level and the subsequent losses of all belongings, savings, crops, granary, etc. As many people had ran from their homes at night they had also lost track of their near and dear ones and were still looking for them. But needless to say help was pouring in small and big ways from many parts of the world.

The work on the temporary shelters was going on at a frantic pace so as to be completed in time for the inauguration scheduled for the 3rd October 08. Being a much smaller city than Purnia, many things were not available here. So had to be brought from Purnia, which was nearly 300 kms away! The distance may not seem too much, but when you couple it with bad roads than it seems a Herculean task. Since this camp was designed to hold 800 people, we had to procure more materials GI sheets etc from Purina, which also hampered the progress of the construction.

In between this there was heavy rain followed by cyclonic winds, as a result of the storm in Orissa. So work got held up and some of the sheets were blown away and had to be re-fixed. This cost us a time delay of 3 days. The brahmachari in charge of the construction was crestfallen and had to be pepped up to get on with the work. It helped in one way as the shelters that were done later was stronger than the earlier one and the sheets had been secured to the poles in a better manner, to prevent such reoccurrences.

On the 3rd morning, I called up the brahmachari in charge of the construction and he told me that the stage and pandal were already up and so I waited till 3pm completing all the formalities in Supaul area itself. The Inaugural program was to start at 4 pm, and the District Magistrate Dr. N Saravan Kumar had agreed to inaugurate the same. But when I reached the Camp site at 3.30pm, I was in for a great shock and decided to cancel the inaugural program……

– Br. Sadasiva Chaitanaya