From Kappikadu with love (and an update on everyone else)

Hello blog followers!

Here at Fieldbase, we have heard from all our newly-formed Alpha groups so here is the update:

Alpha 1 has trekked their first day after arriving by bus about midday. They are geared up for their first night setting up camp tonight.

Alpha 2 have reached Kalainahnhahalla without any difficulty and are sorting their kit out to start working on the next round of 15 eco-sanitation units tomorrow.

At the tribal housing site of Alpha 3, they have relocated the Raleigh campsite down the hill to be closer to the new worksite where they will start on the foundations of the next set of houses.

And at Alpha 4, they have started rebuilding their bamboo city and will today undergo "fence-fixing 101" lessons with project manager Neil, who learnt the ropes (or wires, as it were) during Phase 1.

And as for Fieldbase... it is very quiet without all the Venturers and PMs but we have started a sunflower-growing competition which the PRO is currently winning. Expect a leaderboard and betting ring to open shortly. (Left: the winning sunflower seedlings)

We have also just posted all the blog response comments - and there are quite a few - so if you have been waiting to hear from someone among the Raleigh 09C cohort, click on the "comments" from the prevous post (called "When parting is such sweet sorrow") and you will see all the comments towards the end, posted by Raleigh India.

But now we have a special guest blogger! Ed Kneale (pictured left, in action on site at the Kappikadu tibal housing project) has written an update from site in his words. Read on!

Alpha 3 blog, the story so far..

I set out on this phase thinking "three weeks, that's a pretty long time!"

Not that I was apprehensive about being on the same project site for three weeks, more over I was curious about how the phase would evolve and vary, especially as we had been set the less-glamorous task of 14 foundations for houses in Kappikadu. Retrospectively, the irony of this thought is that I am writing this in probably the first "less-hectic" period of the community phase.

And our time spent in Kappikadu really has embodied everything that Raleigh envisages when setting up community projects. Whether it's knocking slip-catches to the village children, or watching them nearly wipe-out their mud-covered-death-bike (pictured below, with no pedals, breaks or tyres!)



The kids are great, but the acceptance and readiness to lend a hand shown by the village elders is especially heartwarming. Even as I sit here in camp I can hear the chit-chat of the night watchmen who are stoking the fire and discussing how much of an elephant hazard Matt's fluroescent-pink tent is (pictured, right, with his slippers).

Matt's tent has not been the only thing for the elders to gossip about. At one stage, I thought it was only a matter of time before an exorcism was performed, as we were dropping like flies! At this moment in time, only Annie has avoided bying treated by super-medic Caz (pictured, with Felicity and community members). Everyone else has been in need of some sort of TLC, but it a mark of the strength of Alpha 3 that no matter how many workers we are down, we still force on (melodramatic, I know) in the heat and dust to tick-off our next target towards our goal of 14 foundations for flood and elephant-proof houses.


The houses will make such a difference to this wonderfully isolated village. Tucked away high in a valley in the Nilgiris, Kappikadu is nearly 2km from the nearest tarmac road and yet the community is flourishing. Ask any member Alpha 3 and they will express wonderment at the skills shown by the villagers who have so little but live life to the fullest.

But building houses is only the day-job, evening activities stretch from superhero parties, enless games of pontoon and teaching Guna new juicy words from the dictionary all the way to shopping and dancing the night away with the elders around skin-drums and primitive clarinets.
(below: one of the village elders)


Sreejith proved that he can out-dance Michael Jackson even after the third non-stop hour of twirling and hollering! That night was truly something special, which left us all with the sensation that we had totally adapted and integrated into village life.

As I've covered work and evenings, I suppose free time comes next. Along with the occasional trip to nearby Gingalur (to stock up on AAA batteries for the temperamental yet essential iPod speakers), we've also gone for a dip in a local waterfall and had some earsplitting journeys in the "Bollywood Bus" (don't ask!). The highlight definitely was the overnight trip to the hill town of Ooty. We had tuk-tuk scrapes, spicy pizzas and an actual sit-down toilet (not that the metre-deep throne that Flick built isn't the best in Raleigh's 25-year history. Pictured: Ed with his home-made toilet seat for Felicity's epic long-drop)

Everyone was overjoyed to chill for a day, drink some coke and practice price-haggling on scarfs. All that was just a warm-up to the excitement of having dinner at the Savoy Hotel that evening. This was the subject of much hilarity as, after two-weeks of curry and porridge, we thought we had stumbled across Buckingham Palace! And, for the record, it's still a mystery to me where they managed to get beef for Eveline's steak!

There is a quotation board gaffa-taped to our shelter, which is where we stored everything from tennis balls to chapatti woks.

The quote reads: "Alpha 3 is like a box of chocolates." And it is with that thought I would like to end, whether it is the quality Street-like variety of day-to-day life, the caramel-melting temperatures or even the cocoa-like dust and dirt which coats everything.

Alpha 3 is like a box of chocolates, you just don't know what you're going to get.

From Kappikadu with love,

Ed K

x

(Alpha 3, in no particular order: Matt, Caz, Lucy, William, Guna, Sreejith, Petrina, Zoe, Felicity, Annabelle, Ed K, Sebastian, Tilly and Eveline)