I've made progress on three of the four goals I had when I arrived here in Darjeeling.
1. I've had a short meeting with my partners in projects at the Rotary Club. They have convinced me that the problem with water in Darjeeling isn't that there is no water, but that there are vested interests in keeping the system as it is, where everyone basically buys water from the sellers that roll the water wagons through the streets. The rich basically get more than the poor, is how it works.
What they want to do is to work with individual villages in the surrounding area to build reservoirs and then put in pipes to each of the houses in the village. They have already done this in a couple of places, with success. We have made plans for me to visit the project they have already done and one they would like to do. It needs to be accomplished fairly quickly, though, because Udaya, my main contact here, is going to be an actor in a bollywood movie the last two weeks in August. So his time is going to be limited.
We've agreed to work on some kind of proposal for me to take back to my district. We'll use the budget for their two successful projects, and also a blueprint of a Mexican proposal as well. These guys know how to get stuff done, so I'm optimistic about getting home with at least all the elements of a proposal to the Rotary Foundation in hand.
One thing is certain. They don't want to get in over their heads on some humongous project. There is already one in the works and they are not convinced that it is the most feasible way to provide water to everybody. The plan is to pump water up the 7000 feet from the river to the crest of the hill. Why would you do that when you have mountain streams and waterfalls all over the hills here? They started this project about four years ago, and it is supposed to take seven, but so far there is no discernable progress. And that has all sorts of politics involved with it, which my guys want to stay out of. They want something they can control and they can manage, then they know exactly where the money went. I told them this would be music to the ears of my Future Vision Plan buddies.
2. I've also talked briefly to Vikram, the professor of mass communications who also runs the media studio paid for by Mercy Corps, and he's busy with press conferences and announcements. So far they have not announced any strikes. I'm hoping they don't get into that stuff while I'm here this time. It was claustrophobic enough last time, when i was staying with Udaya. Now I'm in a Guest House for now, and it looks pretty certain I'll stay there for the duration-- unless they start kicking all the tourists out and shutting the place down the way they did last time.
Vikram wrote to me that there was a group of NGOs who would like to hear about making their own videos. I proposed a five-day workshop, and never heard back. Now today we played phone tag all day.
I'm not optimistic that I will find a project with him, but I did talk to one of the admins at Hayden Hall, the NGO I worked with when I was here as a Rotary Scholar. She said that the new executive director is interested in Things Technological, so perhaps that is an unexplored avenue.
3. At any rate, it looks like I'll be busy getting a root canal for the next week. It will take four visits, the way they do it here. The office is not what any American I know would be able to handle. The doc is a Rotarian here, and knows what he's doing, though the equipment is not cutting edge, to say the least.
I took a picture of the place where they did the x-ray. I couldn't believe the kid stuck his unwashed fingers into my mouth without so much as a flicker of conscious thought about what germs might be on them. And then he held my jaw while the x-ray took the pic. So he got a dose of x-ray too. No lead bib. Oh, I just forge ahead. We'll see and I'll keep you posted to see if I come down with anything. This was a hospital, after all. Yipes.
4. I haven't called Sister Ranjini. I was waiting to find out what was happening, what the dentistry schedule was, etc. And still I don't know exactly. She will be a day trip away, and so I am perhaps just a wee bit reluctant to promise too much until I know whether Vikram has any NGOs lined up to do this training or when the dentist has me scheduled, etc.
Meanwhile, I'm doing routine things like getting another hundred dollars out of the bank, recharging my phone, seeing my old landlady Miss Giri, whom I have decided to try to put off moving into her space. I looked at it today and...gulp...it really isn't very set up for having me move in.
Okay, I've been up since 2am, I fear, and so even though it's only 6pm, I'm starting to get blurry-eyed. Photos of Darjeeling when I can get to Flickr and get the code.
Wow what reasons for us to have an attitude of gratitude here...Hope you have a wonderful evening!
Christine from High Point..
Posted by: Christine Hagar | August 10, 2010 at 04:08 PM