Tag: uttarakhand
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Men with mules
Who do you call when 10,000 kg of cement show up at your doorstep? Men with mules of course. Today we received a full truckload (200 – 50 kg bags) of cement. This is enough to build less than three houses. It took just five hours for six mules and their five handlers/loaders to move it all up the mountain to a community storage room in Batwadi Sonar where it will be kept dry and secure. Tomorrow we receive another truck load. Good thing they did not arrive together as planned. Br. Mukesh reminded me, “It is said that a…
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Tin Schools
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 sports field or a rooftop, in the warmth of the sun. They march around, sing songs, and do other formal activities. Then with everyone warmed up, they will move into the classrooms. So for now, the tin buildings you see warm up quickly and are…
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The most beautiful home site
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 Devi, their daughter Annu (13), and son Rohit (11). I wish that were the whole story. The pink staircase in photo below is all that is left of their 5 room house in Chandrapuri. To the left in the photo is a brick building…
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Vocational Education and Training at Uttarakhand
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 social-democratic empowerment through Life Enrichment Education (LEE). Fabric Painting is the first program and a batch of 20 students is underway at each center. During the first session students were asked to make a simple drawing to evaluate their skills. The results were amazing as…
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Building a house by hand
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 on the shoulders of our Nepali porters. Sand, gravel, and cement follow, some carried by man, so by mule. The bar is measured and cut with a chisel and sledge hammer. Babalu and Chitra bend and wire the bar together forming the steel heart of…
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Our “Ashram” Life
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 came within a meter of having it’s foundation undercut and falling into the river. We have two sleeping rooms plus small kitchen and bath. A gas geezer (water heater) was brought fromDelhi for bathing. “Ashram B” is a single sleeping room at Hotel Monika, one…
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A visit to the villages in the valley in Kedernath
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 paths to the furthest places possible up or down from a road. The damage on the hillsides is less visible than in the valley, but very wide spread. As we climb, people stop us to show houses cracked as the earth settled weeks after…
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The future home
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 home would be like. Some women had tears in their eyes as they looked through the windows. This would be their future home. The men, who observe our progress at the site each day, discussed every detail. – Scotti
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Everything must move up
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 itself among terraces growing rice and mustard seed. All building materials are dropped on the highway. Mules or Nepali porters show up to move sand, gravel, cement, brick, and steel bar up the steep hill on their backs. You can make 20 rupees carrying 35…