Saturday, March 14, 2009

Village Visit Started

Two dozes of "juri taap" and I'm feeling better. So much so I forgot to take my medicine this evening before dinner. Now I will have to swallow the bitter concoction before I got to bed. I'm not feeling energetic but at least I'm not feeling "ill" or feverish. But I'm certainly coming in for a cold now. I was waiting for it. As I mentioned, the days are hot and the nights quite cold. We still need a quilt to stay warm at night.

Bhola came around lunch time. He managed to complete most of the tasks he had set out to do. He also brought some vegetables and grapes. I miss fruit and so I was quite grateful that he took the initiative to bring some. He also brought some beans and carrots. So dinner was grand. Suman is not here, however. He went home (his in-laws place). He'll probably be back in the morning tomorrow.

School went off well. But I lay down every time there was a break or I had a free period. But after lunch I was feeling fine and so spent some time doing accounts and telling Bhola about the project's past. He's keen to know everything.

This evening, however, I was pleasantly taken aback when he managed to convince Bansi and Nilambar to go on a village visit. Apparently, Nilambar used to do this in the school he worked in earlier. And had been wanting to visit the villages and the homes of the children. But he was told "Guruji does not like us to visit people"! So when Bhola asked him to go on the village tour, he was more than happy. In fact, he had drawn up a list of kids whom he wanted to visit in their homes. Someone else of course wanted to start visiting from Monday. But I guess had to go along because both Nilambar and Bhola seemed very keen.

They visited Roldih, Gandi tola and Danga. That's a good start. I hope this will continue. Bhola assured me that it would. Bansi, however, felt that it would be good if we had a motorcycle. To which Bhola pointed out that there was a motorcycle on the project, so why wasn't the visits taking place? Also, who is there a need for a motorcycle to go to the villages? If the children can walk to school every day, why can't the teachers walk to the village? Hmmmmmm.... Someone obviously does not want to work!

But I'm happy that the village visit programme has been re-started. And happier still to know that work on the well will probably start tomorrow. But of course here one can't be sure of anything till it really happens! So I've got my fingers crossed.

1 comment:

Sim said...

That's great about the village visits. I think it would really help to get the project more connected to the villages and maybe get the villagers to care more about the project and understand the neccessity for it.

Then again, that could just be me being naive, but I'd like to think not.

Speaking of connections, I think it is quite important that you have an open line of communication with Nimblar and everyone else for that matter. I know if no one really talks to each other, things can get pretty static. But if everyone knows what's expected of them, or what the possibilities are in there work (like village visits), it could really become something spectactular.

That's just my 2 cents, or my humble opinion. it doesn't neccessarily count for anything though. Just an opinion.