GUEST BLOG by JLD
Day 10 (read in Big Brother’s Geordie accent). We have now been here for 10 days and so far survived dangerous driving, torrential rain and at times, seriously spicy food to nearly complete what we set out to do - build two bio-gas plants in the beautiful village of Vellery.
We set up camp in the front garden of a local family. This involved setting up seven tents, digging a long-drop and creating our “luxurious” showering area in their garden. Our home is a convenient two minute walk to our work sites. The family have been incredibly warm and welcoming and are enjoying having their home practically taken over by 12 Raleigh volunteers!
Every morning at 8am after fuelling ourselves with porridge made by whoever was unlucky enough to be on rota for that day, we split into two groups of six people and walk to our respective work sites. At the work sites, we work for a good nine hours (interjected by numerous tea breaks and a well deserved lunch). At first, our tasks seemed never ending. We had to constantly dig the ground and clear water created by the torrential rain. But after a few days, the weather changed in our favour and we were able to see some real progress made on both sites.
Our tasks involved digging the ground to lay foundation for the cow shed, digging the ground to place the digester and the overflow. We also laid breeze blocks for the cow shed which involved copious amounts of cement and concrete mixing. But it hasn’t been all hard work, we have attracted some attention from the locals and have been touring neighboring houses almost every evening for tea and handmade sweets before dinner. We are contemplating getting a secretary to manage all our invites!! On a more serious note, this has helped us understand the culture, lifestyle and the challenges the villagers face (and watch football matches on their televisions!). We have got on so well with the villagers that on day 9 we played cricket with them and they seemed genuinely amused by our lack of cricket skills/ rule awareness!
Anyway, on that note we better hit the work bench! See you soon!
fOR fIONA mARCHBANK cHARLIE tWO.
ReplyDeleteCaps Lock now sorted!
Hi Fi!
I just typed a bit of a message to you and then talked to someone for a minute and it disappeared, so I don't know if its been sent or not, I'll carry on as if it hasn't.
Hope you are getting on well in your new location, we are following the blog and looking forward to hearing more from your group. Today is the premier of Deathly Hallows! If I was down in London with Gillian I would be up the Westend to see what was going on. We are celebrating your birthday with a trip to Hexham Races! Thats on the Wednesday, so we might just have to get the neighbours in on the day itself! Craig Nicol is doing some fund raising for "breakthrough Breast Cancer" He phoned last week, because he doesn't want Fiona to know until he has done it. He is playing 2 x 12 hour badminton matches! Has he ever played in his life before? He will be sore for days, but godd for him! We will need to sponsor him for that. On the sponsorship front: Despite your misgivings, I am taking part in "Movember"! We will need to make sure you get to see a picture of me with a 'tache. I think it will have to be a close up! I am hoping to meet Matt on the 27th to get your stuff to him. Thats all just now, hope you get the letter soon. Happy Birthday hope we can speak again on your next changeover. Love you loads! Dad x
Hi Linzi,
ReplyDeleteI believe I can just about make you out in the photo with Emma. Shame there aren't more photos of the rest of the group and ones that are a little larger in size.
The main thing is you are all safe and in Bangalore. Well done to all the JLD group and lets hope the world (well at least Vellery!) is a better place for your amazing efforts of building the Bio sheds.
Love
Dad
xxx