Just 100 yards further down stream from the house seen in the last post, two of the three schools in Chandripuri were washed away. Both are operating again in temporary metal buildings. There is no heat anywhere here, so all buildings are cold and damp in winter. At any school, the day begins on the […]
This is one of the most beautiful home sites I have ever seen. A perfect view of the Himalayas rising over yellow terraced fields of mustard. Sitting alone on this beautiful plot of land will be a single house, our ninth in Batwadi Sonar. It’s owners will be the Singh family, Lakhpat, his wife Manju […]
An important part of Amma’s rehabilitation work in Uttarakhand is the Vocational Training Program. It is off to a great start. Three centers have already been inaugurated — in Ukhimath, Gupthkashi, and Agastyamuni — and local trainers have been hired. Each center will offer economic empowerment through Computerized Vocational Education and Training programs (CVET) and […]
The terrain here makes any kind of mechanized building impossible. A cement mixer is too heavy to be carried up the mountain, even in pieces. So, we are doing everything by hand. The skeleton of our house is nine steel re-enforced cement pillars. Very heavy bundles of 24 foot steel rods are carried up […]
Our “Ashram” is on the main road, north of Chandripuri and directly below the hillside village of Batwadi Sonar where we are building houses. We live in two buildings about 1 km. apart which we have dubbed Ashram A and B. “Ashram A” is four small rooms on the lower level of a building that […]
My guide to this valley has been Sudheer. Our task, to find the 34 villages adopted by Amma, meet or at least get name and mobile, of the village mayors (pratans), school officials, and especially kindergarten (anganwadi) teachers. That is not as easy as it may sound. Most villages are reached by steep, winding foot […]
To prepare for the MLA’s visit and the assembly of the villagers, Br. Premamrita was up most of the night building a scale model of the house to display. It was done with such care and love. The scale model was a big hit, with many seeing for the first time what their future […]
Sankranti is a solar festival; Sun changes his path to northward (solstice). The day is celebrated by different cultures differently all over India. In South India it is also called Pongal as it is associated with the harvest. The day is dedicated to worship of Nature. Amma often remembers this festival from her childhood as […]
Since so much land was lost along the riverside, the only place to build here is on the hillsides above. This valley is quite densely populated, with almost all suitable land taken for existing homes or farming. There is no possible place to efficiently build a tract of 50 homes. Our first house sits by […]