My new house, number 11 - it's got 24hr running hot water!
After a very long day I've finally arrived in Mohuda in south-east Orissa, India. I left home at 2.15pm in a taxi on 21st September and arrived at Gram Vikas in a Marshall jeep at 3am on the 23rd. Where did September 22nd go? I was greeted at Bhubaneswar airport by a driver from Gram Vikas, a friendly chap called Swaine - he would accompany me for the three hour train journey down the coast to Berhampur. My lift to the train station was made in a Hindustan Ambassador - fifty years ago this car was known as a Morris Oxford in the UK. It was the perfect car for my first trip in India. Using Indian Railways would also be fun - the 160km journey cost the princely sum of 77p - our tickets were for general class (these are the jam-packed cattle cars without reservations at the end of the train). Fortunately we found an empty sleeper car, although being very tired I didn't sleep a wink for fear of waking up 1,000km down the line in Chennai (formerly Madras). Most India towns are known by two names - the former colonial title and the original name that the country is now reverting to. It gets very confusing as the state of Orissa is officially Odisha and Berhampur is actually Bramhapur - various spellings exist and train stations use abbreviations - so the station I needed to look out for was BAM (not BRA or BER as you might expect). The number of people sleeping rough at the entrance to Berhampur station straight away shocked me - as we drove out of town (population of over 800,000 by the way) into the countryside people were sleeping at the side of the road, in rickshaws – basically wherever they could. The vegetation is very jungle like - a lot greener than The Gambia. The Gram Vikas estate is about a thirty minutes drive, I wasn't expecting it to be a walled village with a main gate set in one hundred and fifteen acres of jungle. After another five minute ride down a headlamp lit jungle track I finally viewed my new house - it was 3am - welcome to room three, near the bio-diesel labs.
The room was very small - it did have a bathroom with a toilet and shower, so things were definitely looking up! The days of checking my pit-latrine for bats were well and truly over. The other volunteers (Olive (VSO) from Ireland, Rich from Cheshire (near Chester not Sandbach), Jack from Wales, Matt from the US & Dorothy (from Bangalore) were based in much bigger rooms with facilities I could only dream of in The Gambia - kitchens, hot water, having access to more than one power socket. Nikolas, a German volunteer would shortly be leaving so I seized the opportunity - after all I needed a kitchen - I live to cook! Talking about food, Olive "kindly" woke me at 8.20am the following day to suggest we have breakfast at the mess! Three hearty meals are served each day, 8.30am breakfast, 1pm lunch & 8.30pm dinner. Looks like my butternut squash curry signature dish would have to be put on hold. We all wash our metal trays before and after eating – currently I’m the only one using a spoon. After a couple of days near the Bio-diesel plant I moved into my new home - it was a good job as two days later they found a five foot hooded-cobra there! I really like my new home - it has a nice tall ceiling, it's well ventilated so it keeps relatively cool. The wet-room/bathroom area is open to a screened mesh wall so the jungle outside can be very easily seen (and more importantly its occupants can't get in). There are only a few minor issues - my ceiling fan is permanently set to take-off speed and I have to hold the cistern when I flush for fear of ripping it off the wall! Mustn't grumble - all things considered it's five-star volunteer accommodation.
Gram Vikas stands for village development in Hindi - their main focus is the supply of water and sanitation systems for poor rural communities. In many rural villages the only supply of water is from the local stream or pond. This source may be quite a distance from the village and it falls on the women's shoulders (literally) to collect & carry the water each day. The same water source is also used for cleaning and human waste disposal. When I arrived at Gram Vikas I was warned that I would see a lot of people "ODing" when we went back into Berhampur. Is there really a big drug problem here? It turned out that "ODing" means open defecating - people will defecate by the side of the road, stream or pond. Obviously this presents a huge health risk. I didn't appreciate the less obvious impact it has on the community. Women don't want to bath in public so wait until night - and even then will wash fully clothed. Risk of attacks deters them even further. They will only make toilet trips at dusk or dawn and run the risk of related infections from "holding it in". Project Mantra (Movement and Action Network for the Transformation of Rural Areas) aims to supply a separate clean water supply, kitchen & bathroom for each family in a village. One hundred percent participation is required (one family that doesn't join can still pollute the whole village) and levels of financial commitment varies depending upon the wealth of the family. Once a clean water supply is installed village life dramatically improves. Human waste (after composting) can be used to grow crops; ponds that were previously polluted can be used to stock fish.
Life in the Mohuda settlement is very relaxed compared to our local town; we can arrange transportation into Berhampur if required. It's quite easy to remain in our peaceful oasis if you can get by without toilet paper (this will be covered in a later blog entry). The main forested area of the village is made up of Eucalyptus trees – we get the benefit of the wonderful fragrance on the way to work and their natural mosquito repellent properties too. For my first trip we headed into town with the imaginative plan of "having an Indian". We were saying goodbye to Nikolas (and thanks for the room) and enjoyed an amazing meal of tandoori chicken with butter nans, paneer, and kofta. My previous visit was at 3am so the sheer volume of people came as quite a surprise - 800,000 people, that's about half the entire Gambian population. The chaos on the roads was staggering - people on scooters/bikes (no helmets), cows, cars, buses, trucks, sheep, and dogs - all heading in whichever direction (and side of the road) they pleased. When we arrived at a roundabout I thought surely they'll all go round in the same direction. No chance - it was a complete free-for-all, to be fair you can't expect a cow or goat to understand the Highway Code. Despite the madness I didn't see a single crash - it somehow works; quite a few close shaves though. As we only have a one-day weekend (yes I work until 4pm on Saturday) - we decided to head to the nearest coastal town - Gopalpur-on-Sea (a very quaint name - it even had a lighthouse). We travelled by stretched auto-rickshaw (known as Tuk-tuks in Thailand) – “stretched” as in it could fit five people. This time I witnessed two crashes (one guy fell asleep on his scooter and hit the side of our rickshaw, the other guy left the road and landed in a padi field. Both appeared to be OK, if a bit startled. Gopalpur was once a fashionable location for the British (hence the name) it now feels a little run down - but the friendly staff at Grishnas Restaurant more than made up for it. We even managed to get a chocolate Cornetto for 30p.
The room was very small - it did have a bathroom with a toilet and shower, so things were definitely looking up! The days of checking my pit-latrine for bats were well and truly over. The other volunteers (Olive (VSO) from Ireland, Rich from Cheshire (near Chester not Sandbach), Jack from Wales, Matt from the US & Dorothy (from Bangalore) were based in much bigger rooms with facilities I could only dream of in The Gambia - kitchens, hot water, having access to more than one power socket. Nikolas, a German volunteer would shortly be leaving so I seized the opportunity - after all I needed a kitchen - I live to cook! Talking about food, Olive "kindly" woke me at 8.20am the following day to suggest we have breakfast at the mess! Three hearty meals are served each day, 8.30am breakfast, 1pm lunch & 8.30pm dinner. Looks like my butternut squash curry signature dish would have to be put on hold. We all wash our metal trays before and after eating – currently I’m the only one using a spoon. After a couple of days near the Bio-diesel plant I moved into my new home - it was a good job as two days later they found a five foot hooded-cobra there! I really like my new home - it has a nice tall ceiling, it's well ventilated so it keeps relatively cool. The wet-room/bathroom area is open to a screened mesh wall so the jungle outside can be very easily seen (and more importantly its occupants can't get in). There are only a few minor issues - my ceiling fan is permanently set to take-off speed and I have to hold the cistern when I flush for fear of ripping it off the wall! Mustn't grumble - all things considered it's five-star volunteer accommodation.
Gram Vikas stands for village development in Hindi - their main focus is the supply of water and sanitation systems for poor rural communities. In many rural villages the only supply of water is from the local stream or pond. This source may be quite a distance from the village and it falls on the women's shoulders (literally) to collect & carry the water each day. The same water source is also used for cleaning and human waste disposal. When I arrived at Gram Vikas I was warned that I would see a lot of people "ODing" when we went back into Berhampur. Is there really a big drug problem here? It turned out that "ODing" means open defecating - people will defecate by the side of the road, stream or pond. Obviously this presents a huge health risk. I didn't appreciate the less obvious impact it has on the community. Women don't want to bath in public so wait until night - and even then will wash fully clothed. Risk of attacks deters them even further. They will only make toilet trips at dusk or dawn and run the risk of related infections from "holding it in". Project Mantra (Movement and Action Network for the Transformation of Rural Areas) aims to supply a separate clean water supply, kitchen & bathroom for each family in a village. One hundred percent participation is required (one family that doesn't join can still pollute the whole village) and levels of financial commitment varies depending upon the wealth of the family. Once a clean water supply is installed village life dramatically improves. Human waste (after composting) can be used to grow crops; ponds that were previously polluted can be used to stock fish.
Life in the Mohuda settlement is very relaxed compared to our local town; we can arrange transportation into Berhampur if required. It's quite easy to remain in our peaceful oasis if you can get by without toilet paper (this will be covered in a later blog entry). The main forested area of the village is made up of Eucalyptus trees – we get the benefit of the wonderful fragrance on the way to work and their natural mosquito repellent properties too. For my first trip we headed into town with the imaginative plan of "having an Indian". We were saying goodbye to Nikolas (and thanks for the room) and enjoyed an amazing meal of tandoori chicken with butter nans, paneer, and kofta. My previous visit was at 3am so the sheer volume of people came as quite a surprise - 800,000 people, that's about half the entire Gambian population. The chaos on the roads was staggering - people on scooters/bikes (no helmets), cows, cars, buses, trucks, sheep, and dogs - all heading in whichever direction (and side of the road) they pleased. When we arrived at a roundabout I thought surely they'll all go round in the same direction. No chance - it was a complete free-for-all, to be fair you can't expect a cow or goat to understand the Highway Code. Despite the madness I didn't see a single crash - it somehow works; quite a few close shaves though. As we only have a one-day weekend (yes I work until 4pm on Saturday) - we decided to head to the nearest coastal town - Gopalpur-on-Sea (a very quaint name - it even had a lighthouse). We travelled by stretched auto-rickshaw (known as Tuk-tuks in Thailand) – “stretched” as in it could fit five people. This time I witnessed two crashes (one guy fell asleep on his scooter and hit the side of our rickshaw, the other guy left the road and landed in a padi field. Both appeared to be OK, if a bit startled. Gopalpur was once a fashionable location for the British (hence the name) it now feels a little run down - but the friendly staff at Grishnas Restaurant more than made up for it. We even managed to get a chocolate Cornetto for 30p.
Wow, what an interesting post. You're house looks great and the facilities sound good.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to hear about the lack of clean water and sanitation for the local people (especially the fact that women are scared of attack when washing).
I really miss you here in The Gambia. Think about you a lot and I'm sure people must be tired of hearing stories about how wonderful Marcus is!!!
Wishing you all the best with your new adventure. I'm sure you'll change the lives of so many people because you're ace.
Take care and all the best. xx
Looks like I'll be heading back to The Gambia - just when they thought it was save! Gram Vikas want to set up an office so they can start providing water supplies/sanitation to rural villages. Looks like region 2 first. Let us know of any communities in region 3 that are particularly in need. I'll be back in the UK for Christmas. Look after yourself and keep a look out on your bike!
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