Handwashing in Hagaranahalli

GUEST BLOG BY JOSSE EMANUEL

On Thursday morning three lucky fieldbase team members (Polly B, Hannah and I) headed out to check out the progress on Charlie two. It was particularly exciting for me as I was keen to see how things had progressed from the last phase in Hagaranahalli.

As soon as we arrived, we headed straight to the village primary school to see locum supply teachers Kate, Isabel and Lucy taking the equivalent year 4 class. They taught an amazing lesson on based on the health and hygiene syllabus created last phase on why, when and how to wash hands. The lesson was a good mix of interactive fun games with some educational stuff, which definitely got picked up despite the communication barrier of language.

After school, we joined in the daily chai (with ginger) break, and got some time to appreciate the winter wonderland created by the team, complete with Christmas tree, cards, decorations and a beautifully home crafted advent calendar. It was a quick break though and it wasn’t long before day leader (Sarah) motivated the team back to work.

We were taken on a tour around the village. It was great to see the 12 toilets built last phase in use (well not literally), and that the new 12 toilets are making great progress with the majority at the critical ‘1m brick height’, meaning that they are well on track to finish exactly on time for the closing ceremony.

After lunch we left them, happily learning skills in brick packing/laying, plastering and concrete mixing, looking forward to the Michel inspired ‘Sinterklass’ celebration which they are eagerly awaiting on 5th December…

All text by Josse Emanuel and photos by Polly Baldwin http://www.dynamicpictures.co.uk/ (unless stated otherwise).

Focusing on Foxtrot Two

Hannah, our videographer, captures life with Foxtrot Two:

"I was looking forward to catching up with the final Foxtrot group and they didn't disappoint.  They have all but put the roof on the toilet block at the boarding school in Madapura and have also some how managed to make time to build an adventure playground. 

PM Ken starts the day with porridge

Hellllllooo!

Even the videographer dabbles in a little manual labour!

The playground in progress

The fantastic weather has continued over the last week and I didn't even see a sprinkling of rain on my stay with Foxtrot Two.  Such sunny weather seemed a perfect time to host a school sports day. The venturers made time in their busy work schedule to enter the 3-legged race and an unusual game that required a blindfold, bucket and large stick...see below. 

Sports Day

Sabrin playing 'The Penguin' game

The venturers have established a regular lesson time between 6-7pm which has been very popular with the children from the boarding school.  I dropped in on a very fun anatomy lesson. 

Foxtrot Two make time to teach

Isabel finds time to glamour up

Good Times!

Next stop is the Adventure Challenge down in Kerala where all the Foxtrot groups will get the chance to catch up with each other.  Nevermind the venturers, I cant wait to don my hiking boots and get adventuring!" 

Robin and Marie also visited Foxtrot Two recently and picked up the following messages.

Kay

Hi mum and dad, thanks for the messages, I loved them. Hope the holiday is good and the place hasn't changed much.  I'm not sure of the plan for Sunday yet but I'm pushing for going to the internet cafe.  Mum I opened your letter 3 days early - I hope you dont mind but it was really lovely so thank you.  We have 2 days travelling down for the adventure phase which I'm really looking forward to. How's Alex? Has she been looking at the blog? I miss you both so much. Can't wait to speak to you.

Eva

Tack for meddelandena, sa roligt att att fa dem. Projektet gar bra och vi jobbar hart men har aven lite tid att ha kul.
Langtar efter att fa se er och prata med er alla.

Catching Up with Foxtrot One

Hannah, our videographer, gets behind the lens with Foxtrot One:

"Back from a short but fun visit to Foxtrot One. They are having a great time and well on the way to completeing their task of building 16 eco sanitation units throughout the village of Gandathur. Their campsite is based at a local school so there is always plenty of interaction with the local school children. 

The weather has been amazingly sunny and hot especially for monsoon season so there are definately some T-shirt tans developing at Foxtrot One. They are also very lucky to be catered for by the local community.  Their fantastic local chef has been cooking them up some delicious Indian cuisine for lunch and dinner and many of the venturers are also treated to a second breakfast when they turn up to the worksite by their local family.  It's rumoured that waist lines may be expanding. 

Joe takes a well deserved rest

Everyone's been working very hard but there's still been time to chill out and have fun!  I've been having a great time working with all the Foxtrot teams on the creation of a music video. I've one group left to visit so now I'm off to Foxtrot Two...I'll keep you updated." 

Following in Hannah's wake, me (Marie) and Robin dropped in on Foxtrot One, and as well as teaching the group some amusing parlour games we extracted the following messages:

Alissa

Hello Everyone,

Belated Happy Birthday to my Mum and advance to my Grandma! Today I put on walking boots full of waters and trousers with mud on the inside but it's all good. Much love to EVERYONE. Alissa xx

Annette

Hi All,

Why have I got a brand new kitchen at home? I am sitting eating porridge from a mess tin, have powdered milk in my tea. Slopping around in mud. But hey, I am having a great time.  Love to everyone. Annette xx

Sophie

Hello Mum, Dad and Selena,

Happy Birthday Mum for the 15th!! Hope you have a lovely day. Also hope Selena's exams went well. Having a great time out here but it rains pretty much constantly!! Enjoying all the curry but very sick of porridge. Have a good few weeks and see you on the 29th. Lots of love, Sophie

P.S. (Flight gets in at 12:40 not 6:30!)

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Joe

Hi all,

I am having a great time. The community project is going well, really enjoying the food. We have had a lot of monsoon rain! Hope everything is well. Love Joe

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Amy Davis

Hey Mum, Dad, Chris and Tara,

Hope you are all well, I'm having an amazing time. We have been on project for just over a week, and it's going well. Enjoy your holiday. See you soon. Love Amy xxx

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Abu

Hi All and Mum,

All is going well so far, having a great time in Gandathur. Enjoying the hospitality of the locals...they're such amazing people, by the way. Food is incredibly hot! Lots of love, Abu xxx

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Amy Barrow

Hi Mum and Dad,

All is going well so far. Having a great time building toilets in Gandathur and meeting the locals. Food is good. Curry at least twice daily and porridge for breakfast. Weather is intermittent, quite a lot of rain and mud. Hope you're good. See you soon, Amy B xxxx

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And here are some more photos:

   

          

          

            

          

                                 

Hosekersunda revisited: The real Raleigh story

NEWSFLASH!!

Blog comments have just come in from Alpha 1 (the trekkers). Check out the comments section at the end of this blog to see if there's a reply for you...


Welcome to your Monday blog double-whammy!

Today we've posted two blogs:

The first is a special report by Dr Julia Mitchell who, among other things, is developing a monitoring and evaluation programme for Raleigh India. This means Dr Mitchell is returning to previous project sites to evaluate the long-term impact of Raleigh's projects on the lives of people living in rural and remote India. Already Dr Mitchell has discovered Raleigh is fondly remembered by those who have come into contact with our venturers and volunteer managers.

The second is your stock-standard Raleigh wrap-up from the past few days of work out in the Alpha groups, featuring such tales as the Alpha 4 love chair, the Alpha 2 goat fiasco and the finals days of walking for the trekking group.

Read on!

(above: Deputy Programme Manager Dani Esterhuysen (left) with the members of the Hosekersunda community, the location of Raleigh India's first eco-sanitation project 12 months ago. The women are pictured looking at the 08i magazine and spotting photographs from their home village.)

By volunteer manager Julia Mitchell



Hey everyone, I am very excited to be able to tell everyone what I have been up to recently....... part of my many roles here at Raleigh India is the implementation of our project monitoring and evaluation, thus investigating our project outcomes. Therefore as well as being part of the loop visit down to Alpha 2 this week, I visited a village where Raleigh previously worked in our first expedition 08C at this time last year.

I met with the small community of Hosekersunda, a rural tribal village situated on the beautiful Kabini reservoir in Karnataka, which is less than a 20-minute drive from Raleigh's current eco-sanitation project at Kalaianahalla. Raleigh constructed 30 eco-sanitation toilets at Hosekersunda as Raleigh India's debut community project in February 2008. Before Raleigh built the eco-sanitation units, the residents of the village had no access to proper sanitation.

When we arrived it looked as if the whole village had turned out to greet us and welcome us into the village school where we held our meeting. Sitting cross legged in a big circle, ladies on one side gentlemen on the other, I felt rather nervous armed with my many questions.

After going through the pleasantries of recording who was attending the meeting and being introduced – a custom fervently adhered to in India, signatures and names recorded we began. Before I could even start with my first question the community spokes person sprung to his feet and delivered a speech prepared by the community.

At first they admitted they were afraid of what it would be like having people from else where coming and living and working at Hosekersunda. However their fears were unfounded as they said once Raleigh arrived they could not believe how hard working, kind and open the Raleigh people were throughout all three phases. They said they were now using the toilets and said Raleigh had done a wonderful job in building them.

The women especially said they now had no anxieties while relieving themselves as the toilets were private. Previously when using the surrounding forest and fields, the women said exposing themselves to male residents was a constant worry. In addition all the villagers said they felt as if their village was cleaner and their health was better as a result of having the toilets.

As the meeting continued and villagers eagerly answered our questions, and one lady started crying. She said she was overwhelmed when remembering the people who had visited and worked in her village. She said she thought everyday how lucky she was to have the toilets and remembered the friendships she made. The whole village could not believe people from the other side of the world would come and want to help their community, live with them, eat their food and wear their style of dress. For them not to be looked down upon and scorned for the way they live. They said that when building the toilets, the Raleigh people became part of the community, part of their family and they would never be forgotten.

In meeting with the community of Hosekersunda I realised Raleigh had done some much more than just build toilets. They had changed the lives of people for the better, left behind memories and stories that will always be remembered and told, making the residents and the Raleigh participants global citizens.

Are you a former Raleigh venturer? Post a comment!