The Gram Vikas Campus

...speaks for itself.

The secret is simplicity.

Domi

This week I returned from a second insightful visit to a Domi village in Melghat, Maharastra.

The project involved implementing LED lights. Here is link to some photos from the installation. Next time, I'll post more info on what happened during the installation and the 6 month update.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Karan.ldce/Domi

Amazing Nature

Do you know...






...where a cashew comes from??!?

Typical site visit

I am learning more and more that my I-deals cannot fit this world. I have to let go and let Life take her course. Once I do let go, things become amazingly fun!

















For instance, take a recent typical site visit. We had to re-install a solar water pumping system (1200w solar array, surface pump), simply because the initial installation was done over night due to donor deadlines. The village needs the system only 6 months of the year. Since it didn't want to guard the panel during the agriculture season, they took the system apart until the dry weather returned. Hence, the "re-installation".

















Of course, since I wasn't around for the first installation, my ideals got an ego boost and started questioning: Why did we do it wrong the first time? Why weren't the people trained enough to do it themselves?

Fortunately, I didn't voice my thoughts in frustration this time. I held my curiousity to observe. I saw that is was not too late for the people to learn. Take Nilambar and the village leader in this photo--completing absorbing the procedure...even though we were still not teaching with the goal for them to sustain.


















...And finally our staff did see the need to let the villagers do it themselves.




No matter how many villages I see, I am always in awe of the specific style of work that different communities use. This one was especially appealing because they were so silent, always communicating with gestures and still being efficient.





In silence, a fence was built around the array...yes, we will have to watch out for shade during certain seasons. Still, the fence was built without us telling them to build--yep, that's what my I-deal terms as 'community ownership'.





Things didn't take too long on the second day. We were able to hang out a bit and see what was going on. Behind me, some folks were drying salt that they had traded in for juhar, their local crop.








As we were about to leave, we were pleasantly surprised with fresh coconut.




Philip and Jessica, engineering student volunteers from France, tagged along. ...I think their presence surely helped to keep frustration levels low.




...It is in the youth that the purpose of the work, the bigger picture, comes out. The community now has running water again. No more young girls (some as young as 2 yrs old) and women carrying water by the head to their homes, often contaminated water causing severe disease. Now a water and sanitation system (with household toilets) that can match what's available in the developed world.




On the walk back down the hill, students returning home from school which is 2 km away!!




May Peace prevail...within and without.

Movement galore,
Emotions flow,
i feel my core.
All else ceases,
Only the inevitable remain.
i am indebted to Her,
She gives, gives, gives.
How can i return to Her?
Be still. Be Love. Be Her.

Karlapat Micro Hydro

Latest on the Gram Vikas micro hydro system being built in Karlapat village, Kalahandi district, Orissa:

Working is progressing slowly due to rains. Not much remains to be complested: the main cable and the penstock.

















Karlapat has an amazing banyan tree near the micro hydro site.
















The 110-or-so home village also has amazingly sweet kids...non-stop gigglers.

















Rains have washed out the road in front of the power house.
















The system has 2 pumps as turbines designed for an output of 10-25 kW.































Laying the penstock should have been one of the first steps in implementation, but we could not manage the schedule...

Rice Green

Everywhere,
Fully alive,
Transplanted one by one,
The colors of the fields
Make me soar.
















You probably know more about the process. From what I've seen during trips to the villages, the rice seeds are planted in fields allocated for seedlings. Once there are seedlings, they are individually transplanted to larger fields.
















I have been told most of the rice fields we see here in Orissa are owned by the villagers. About 15% are owned by larger estates. The villagers take turns to work each other's field.