No Village Visit

Sharad and Bansi are watering the plants. Nilambar is painting the small gate. Suman is busy cooking dinner and I am, of course, writing this blog entry. No village visit today. It's market day in Chandna and the chances are that most villagers have gone to market. So we decided that there'd be no village visits on Thursdays (Chandna Market) and Sundays (Agiya Mor Market). There's so much to do on the project. Some of it gets neglected because of village visits. Fortunately, plant-watering continues unabated. I think that after initial resistance and reluctance, people are falling into a routine.

Bhola was here this morning. The motorbike has been repaired. He submitted accounts and took off for Chandna. He'll probably drop in this evening with vegetables and meat for Bruni.

The well-diggers are here. The hole is now 12 feet deep. The soil is damp. The diggers feel that we should get water at 16 feet. Even if we do, I'll insist they dig a little deeper. I want the well to be at least 24 feet. The problem is that if we do hit the water table, digging is going to be more and more difficult. The water will have to be pumped out so that digging can continue. I'll have to make a mental note to ask Bhola to arrange for a pump. But I suspect he's already thought of it and doesn't need a reminder.

Yesterday Bhola brought the photocopies of the drawings that Yvonne sent. Today the teachers asked the kids to colour them using the crayons and colour pencils that they got recently. I've taken pictures of a few "good ones". We are trying to figure out a way to hang them up in the classrooms. I've also taken a picture of parked bicycles. I'll put it up here.

Yesterday the team had gone to Gadda Parom to Shanti's house. Unfortunately, her neighbour had died. So everyone was in mourning Santhal style -- the entire village was drunk. Shanti's uncle insisted on talking to Sharad in English! He kept repeating "One bottle please". Everyone thought it was funny. Sharad and the team beat a hasty retreat. In fact Sharad is quite amazed that in every village that he has visited, he has found groups of villagers simply hanging around and in various states of inebriation.

"How can they be drunk this early," he asks. What do I say? Because they want to be? Because they have nothing better to do? "Why aren't they doing something? There's so much land lying fallow!" Once again, what can I say? They don't want to do anything! They've harvested enough rice to last them for most of the year. They DON'T WANT MORE.

That's why I'm working with and for the next generation -- I try to explain. Hopefully, the education they receive here will change their attitude. Education and exposure will help them strive to improve their lives. Sharad feels frustrated. He's been here a short while. Imagine how I feel. Sometimes I do wonder if I've wasted my time here. Perhaps I could have achieved something elsewhere. Maybe even seen some results of all the effort and money that has gone into development activities. I guess I'll never know.