View from a Volunteer Team Leader: The Monsoons arrive in Bhinder Rajasthan

View from a Volunteer Team Leader: The Monsoons arrive in Bhinder Rajasthan: They have arrived....... The monsoons.......  I am not sure how long they will last or how intense they will be, but for the villagers of  ...

The Monsoons arrive in Bhinder Rajasthan

They have arrived....... The monsoons.......  I am not sure how long they will last or how intense they will be, but for the villagers of  Bargaton Ka Kheda it is a joyous time. 

As you will remember, In April this year my team of intrepid adventurers and I set about helping the people of this village build a sub surface dam to help refill their wells and irrigate their land. Supported and organised through Developing World Connections based in Canada and their partner Sahyog Sansthan in Bhinder.

You may also remember that we had to leave them with a couple of weeks work left to complete.

And they did, with splendid results..

Well now you can see the results of our and their labours, the rains have come and the dam is performing well. Their wells are being replenished and water is seeping into the ground to irrigate and support their crops.  

The pictures show the same scene, before and after. In previous years the rains would have swept though the village and over the land, disappearing and dissipating long before it did any good for the villagers or the land.

Before

After

Life will be different from now on, it will still be hard, it will still bring droughts and dry river beds, The wells may run dry in the summer. But the villagers of Bargaton Ka Kheda now know that when the next rains come, life will improve once again.

But that's not the end of the story. Bargaton Ka Kheda is only one small village in one of the biggest and driest States in India, Rajasthan. There are thousands of villages like Bargaton Ka Kheda in need of help and support. In need of water harvesting technology.

And you know what? you can help. You don't have to get your hands dirty on one of my teams, although that's a great way to experience the real India and understand exactly how you can impact upon the lives of others. But you can also donate to any water harvesting project you can find, although as you would expect, I would suggest you donate to Developing World Connections. And make that difference in the world. Just click on the link below for more details on how you can help.

https://developingworldconnections.org/dwc-global-village/ 

#developingworldconnections #waterharvesting #volunteering  

View from a Volunteer Team Leader: Now onto Nicaragua, Las Penitas to be exact.

View from a Volunteer Team Leader: Now onto Nicaragua, Las Penitas to be exact.: With Rajasthan behind me, Although the memories of that project are still so vivid in my mind, I move onto the next one which will be a hom...

Now onto Nicaragua, Las Penitas to be exact.

With Rajasthan behind me, Although the memories of that project are still so vivid in my mind, I move onto the next one which will be a home building project for The Fuller Center for Housing.

I am currently building a new team of intrepid adventurers to go with me to Las Penitas. That is near Leon in Nicaragua. Situated on the coast, it is apparently a surfing area but not being a surfer I doubt that will enter my consciousness at all. It is also a fishing area and most of the local inhabitants are employed on a temporary basis in the fishing industry. 

 

We are not talking great big trawlers here, we are talking small boats with a couple of guys and a net going way out to sea at night and catching whatever they can. Their market is the local restaurants and villagers that can afford a bit of fish now and again. But the guys who risk their lives to catch these fish are not the ones selling them, that would be the chap who owns the boat. And as you would assume he keeps the lions share of the booty.

Some men go away to work in neighboring countries or into the coffee plantations to earn money and return home to their families once every 3 or 4 months. To say the least, they don't earn a great deal, maybe enough to scratch by and keep food on the table if they are lucky. What they really struggle to do is keep a roof over the families head. Mostly they live in shacks made from corn stalks with plastic sheeting stretched over to keep out the rain. What it doesn't keep out is the cold, the damp, the disease, the mites and bugs that live in the corn stalk and mud floor. All those sorts of things that endanger the children's health.

They cook on open fires. You need to read my blog on Guatemala to understand what that does to the health of the family. I just hope that at some point we can also start to install eco-stoves here, but at the moment there is not a manufacturing facility nearby. Who knows maybe another project to be looked into.

So what am I doing to encourage new team members to join me?. Whilst the Fuller Center has the trip details posted on its web site, I have been mailing my many many followers who receive email updates about upcoming trips, contacting previous team members and advertising wherever I can for free or a negligible sum. Last year I advertised on a UK website called Gumtree and received a load of enquiries which amounted to nothing. I realized I had not worded the add in such a way as to explain exactly what I was looking for. I thought I would give it another go this year and make sure I worded it properly. Whilst the response has been minimal, it has been quality, in fact one person signed up, that makes it all worthwhile on its own. But I have had another call which also sounds as though it will materialize into a new recruit. Fingers crossed. I have also had great results from friends on Facebook sharing my post and their friends sharing so as to spread the word. 

I am currently at the 50% mark with members from the US Canada and the UK. Also plenty of people hovering on the outskirts of commitment. And still plenty of time to go before cut off.

After I finished in Guatemala last August, I traveled to Nicaragua to meet the team of dedicated "Fuller" guys and girls who hold it all together down there. They are an amazing team and I am so looking forward to working with them in November. They took me out to the project area to see exactly what they had been doing to date and what was still required I met families who had already received the benefit of a Fuller home and those who were still waiting. It didn't take much for me to commit to a project there. The need is so great.

So what can you do to help? Spread the word for me, tell everyone to visit my page at the following address and hey.... why not get involved yourself..... now that's a radical thought

http://fullercenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Ray-Fowell-Nicaragua-Nov.-16-2.pdf 

Or drop me an email to rayfowell@gmail.com 

That's it for now. More updates to follow soon.

A Fuller Center House in Las Penitas

View from a Volunteer Team Leader: Update on Rajasthan project, It's finished

View from a Volunteer Team Leader: Update on Rajasthan project, It's finished: Its been 3 weeks since we left the village of Bargaton Ka Kheda in Rajasthan having helped the local villagers construct their sub surface ...

Update on Rajasthan project, It's finished

Its been 3 weeks since we left the village of Bargaton Ka Kheda in Rajasthan having helped the local villagers construct their sub surface dam. Returning home is always difficult, thoughts are still with the people left behind. Especially when the job we went there to do was not completed before we left.

Of course I understand that the locals are capable of finishing it, I know that they are driven to finish it by their need for water. But such a bond is formed when working so close with so many people that it is hard to return to the real world (as we call it), I'm not sure what is so real about it other than it is our real, it is what we are used to and the way we choose to live our lives.

I have been doing this for 11 years now and it is always the same, There is a formula that I sometimes discuss with team members before they return home. Its called the "four stages of transition". I first came across this when working with Habitat for Humanity. Fun, Flight, Fight, Fit.

I will put it at the end of this blog if you are interested.

Anyway, even after 11 years it still affects me. And one of the causes of this is the fact that we leave a project unfinished and sometimes we never get to see or hear the end result, we just have to assume that all went well and the house or school or in this case the dam get finished.

Well I can tell you that this time the dam went from: This..

To This.. During our time in the village

It may not look much but, if you read my previous blog you will understand just how much hard work went into achieving this result. The incredible team I had with me, along with the villagers, men women and children all worked in 45-50 degree heat, heaving rocks, digging for water and sand, mixing concrete and more. But you are right, it doesn't look much.

But just look at it now!!!!!

In just 3 weeks the villagers turned it into a fully working

Beautifully finished

Amazing structure .

From the above picture you can see that the central level is where we got it up to before leaving. The villagers completed the project by raising the side wings, constructing the run off on the backside and put the concrete surface finish in place. Even decorating it with the basket weave pattern. The run off is there to stop the water flow undermining the dam as it flows over the top. 

I am amazed at how quickly the villagers finished this, Makes me wonder how much faster they would have completed it had we not been there. But I'm sure we helped in some small way even if it was only to brighten their day. 

I am also extremely pleased that our partner Sahyog Sansthan sent these pictures so that the team members can see the result of their efforts. Now all we need is to see it full after the monsoons have passed.

So once again my thanks go to the team and my praise to the villagers for not only putting up with our interference but for completing such an amazing structure in such a short time without all the modern machinery that we take for granted.

I salute you

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Four stages of re-entry 

One helpful tool to understand people‘s responses to the new environment and culture is the U-curve developed by Lysgaard in 1955. It defines the four emotional stages team members may go through following an overseas volunteer trip. 

Fun 

Immediately following the trip team members are on an emotional high. Visions of home, hot showers, and hamburgers may be unrealistically glorified, but it‘s HOME! 

Fascination, appreciation and excitement over home, people and their environment. 

Feelings of rejuvenation and being fulfilled by their work. 

They are in the limelight, reliving the experience through videos, slides and non-stop stories. 

Flight 

Before long the high begins to wane and team members: 

Begin experiencing reverse culture shock. 

Realize that life is relatively unchanged. 

Notice that people ask sincere questions, but don‘t linger long enough to hear the whole story. 

Begin to distance themselves emotionally/physically. 

Become frustrated, confused or irritated. 

Daydream of host country, team and host community. 

Have trouble readjusting to the fast pace, individualism and affluence of home. 

Begin to feel disappointment. 

Fight 

The flight stage often is followed by the desire to lash out. Team members: 

Feel undefined anger at affluence and apathy toward the people around them. 

Return with more compassion, a more tender conscience and bigger world view. 

Feel spiritually superior. 

Fit 

The final stage is returning to reality, but not quite the way things were before the experience. Team members: 

Begin to return to tolerance, understanding and creativity. 

Realize that they have choices once the emotional high has waned. 

Determine changes they want to make and acknowledge the things they cannot change. 

Accept affluence but commit to a simpler lifestyle. 

Accept indifference but keep the fire burning by seeking ways to serve.

A run out with the Robin Hood Army in New Delhi India

The Robin Hood Army is an amazing organisation that only came into being in August 2014. Started by a couple of youngsters in 1 city with 6 Robins. It is a volunteer based organization that works to get surplus food from restaurants across to the less fortunate people.

By December 2015 they had 2000 Robins in 21 cities. That is monumental by any standards. They currently have 3500 Robins and have served over 51143 people in 23 cities.

On my last night in Delhi I had the privilege of joining a Chapter of Robins at Nehru Place New Delhi for their Sunday evening run. I joined a group of people meeting on the lawn outside the Metro Station. I had previously communicated with them via email and was pleased to locate Symantak De who informed the group of the evenings plans.

We would place as many of the group in the available cars and head out to a restaurant who regularly packs up a vast amount of hot prepared food ready for collection. No money changes hands as these restaurants join willingly to help the underprivileged people of the city.

We then drove to a location outside the local hospital, one of the largest in Delhi. Now as you will know, I have worked in some very poor and deprived parts of Delhi, but I had never come across the site that was now before my eyes. 

There were people on mats, lining the pavement because there were either no beds available in the hospital or they could not afford the fees. This is so unacceptable on so many levels.

A queue quickly formed as the car boot was opened and the Robins commenced their first distribution for the evening. Whilst two members distributed the food others kept the line in check.  After a while and when the food stocks where running down, a halt was called to the distribution. There were still some people who didn't get a share, but this is always the case as there are more hungry people than there is food. Hopefully they will get their share on the next run.

We then moved off down the street to re-group. The remaining food was distributed among the cars and the volunteers split into groups and given a location to head to. I and 4 other volunteers headed off to a large intersection and flyover under which a few homeless families were living.
  
                                        

We took the bags of rice and dhal from the car and walked into the homeless area to be greeted by smiles and open arms by young and old alike. It is not surprising they were happy to see us as this may be the only hot food they will have all week.

My time with the RHA was short, but it certainly impressed upon me, not only the need for more support both in the volunteer sector but also the generosity of restaurant owners. The large chain restaurants will not support this group. With them it is all about $$$$. It is the small independent restaurants that make this possible and my heartfelt thanks goes out to them  because without them, these food runs would not happen. This is not waste food the RHA is distributing, it is fresh cooked especially for them by people who see the need and have a caring heart.

The RHA is a very decentralised organization and does not accept monetary contributions- they just need your time. http://robinhoodarmy.com/