Reflections on Charlie One and Echo Three

While back at Fieldbase for the first changeover, two of the PMs took time out to reflect on the end of their projects. Here are their thoughts:


Charlie One - Jenny

Garlands and the words of Gandhi were the parting gifts for Charlie One on their last day at Gandanahalli.

The team of twelve successfully completed twelve eco-sanitation toilets on time, painting several with educational murals and giving beneficiaries a lively lesson on how to use their new loos – dubbed ‘high tech toilets’ by the locals. 

To say thank you, Raleigh’s project partner MYKAPS and the villagers held an ‘opening ceremony’ at the high school, where each Charlie One member was presented with a colourful floral garland and small gifts of appreciation for all their hard work over eighteen days.

One villager quoted Gandhi, saying that by changing the villages, the whole country could then change.

And there was a fond goodbye for the masons, some of whom will also be working on the environmental projects in the next phase.

Jenny taking her turn to receive thanks and a garland 

All smiles for a job well done

Echo Three – Emma

As phase one draws to an end for Echo Three, here’s a look back at our time in Gundathur and achievements to date.  Firstly we designed and built a luxurious and sturdy basha camp (sturdy except in monsoon wind and rain, after which it did need rebuilding on several occasions), and then got on with the task at hand, namely digging. For the first seven days of work in the village the group dug continuously, creating four circular biogas pits, each 4m in diameter and 4ft deep (it seems Indians like using a mix of units as much as Britons!)

This hard slog was interrupted by the Dasara festival, a major event in the Hindu calendar, celebrating when Raman killed Raean who had kidnapped his wife Sita. Over this time everything in the home and even vehicles are blessed to ward off evil, so with everybody celebrating there were no masons available to assist us in the next stage of the construction process. 

Thankfully the Loop arrived, bringing Ruth, Gemma and Teija with welcome shop goodies for the group to indulge in.

Ruth also brought twelve monitoring and evaluation (M&E) questionnaires for the beneficiaries of the first Raleigh biogas project, which took place this time last year in Gundathur. These asked about the families’ experience with Raleigh groups (unanimously positive), how well the unit functions, the reduction in firewood consumption (previously their only fuel source), and the benefits from milk and fertiliser production from the cows. Most group members got involved with the interview process and really enjoyed the experience of visiting families and seeing the benefits first hand, with Jocelyn declaring that by doing M&E her enthusiasm and focus for the project were renewed. 

The next day we took a trip to a temple on a hill with a spectacular view. The temple itself was currently more of a building site... but many people were still worshipping and receiving blessings there, including Carrot, Sivam and Jocelyn. After delicious chai and sweets we took the rollercoaster-like bus ride back down the hill.

On our last free day before being able to work on construction again, we filmed some of the music video to be shown back at Fieldbase (wait to be wowed!) and painted a mural on the bus stop in the village illustrating the biogas process. Carline organised and designed this fantastic and lasting image for the village, with everybody else helping with the painting and at least writing their names. 

We were then back to work after the Dasara festivities had subsided and skilled masons were finally available. With yet more digging to be done to change the slope angle in the bottom of the pit (would it never end?!) we then got on with concreting the base of the biogas pits, mixing sand, cement, stones and water in the right ratios and in the right way. This was really interesting for everyone in the group to learn and get very messy in the process. After concreting the base we built brick walls around the circular pits and output tanks, where the digested cow dung goes to be used as fertiliser. 

In challenging circumstances the group has had to accept that due to Dasara we simply ran out of time and masons to complete the biogas units. The next stage of the construction is to make domes to cover the pits and trap the gas that is released from the cow dung. The masons will finish this technical work over the coming weeks, so we left safe in the knowledge that the units would be finished and the benefits of biogas felt by all the families we had become very fond of. 

One of the four biogas holes - lots of hard work went into them ...

... And lots of appreciation came out

To show their gratitude and great thanks to the group, the village leaders and beneficiary families came to give us a farewell ‘function’ on our last evening. This consisted of speeches of thanks, beautiful fresh flower garlands and a cheers toast using bananas! The male heads of the families and members of our group expressed bonds of friendship and goodwill, followed by shouts of ‘matchee’, the Tamil word for friend that has been the catchphrase of Echo Three. 

More smiles all round - Emma kneeling on the right

Details of what happened at first changeover and team allocations for Phase 2 will follow very soon …