IY2 Construction Phase

To my dear sweet friends,

A lot has happened since we last updated you. Everyone is healthy, happy and extremely grateful for all of the messages, letters and emails received. We are sending letters home so please be patient and eagerly await their arrival.

To begin with, elephants are surprisingly hairy!!! Three weeks ago we visited Nagaragahali forest; we experienced a safari tour and got to see some wild elephants, deer and a warthog. After we went to the elephant sanctuary and we were all able to stroke the elephants and some were even lucky enough tot feed the elephants. A few days later, Rob and Ross treated the #group to some scrambled egg, beans and toast for breakfast. It was a welcome break from porridge!  That night the girls had a quiet night in and had a glamorous pampering session. Priya dyed Etta and Yuna’s hair using henna.

After training with Mykaps (to complete our first phase training) we were ready to facilitate our health camp. It was a huge success and the medical support team had consultations with 233 villagers. After that long day of work we celebrated Halloween by dressing up and telling ghost stories.

More recently we organised a day off from work an the 11^th November. Having a day off during the construction phase is rare so we planned to do as much as possible! IY3 picked us up at 7am and our first stop was at The Golden Temple in Kushalnagar. The monk monastery was peaceful and tranquil and the temples were beautiful. Our second stop was at Debare forest. Everyone went paddling in the Cavera River and kept a lookout for wild elephants wandering on the other side. After experiencing some seriously winding roads we arrived at our final destination, Abbi Falls. The hilly landscape of Madikera in Coorg was a beautiful setting for our lunch. We felt very fortunate to have spent our day off at such wonderful and exciting places and extremely privileged to have spent the day with IY3.

On the 14^th November we travelled to the city of Mysore. We visited the big bazaar and bought some things to celebrate Diwali. The girls all purchased some sari’s, jewellery, harem pants and flowers for their hair. The guys bought some lunges ready for the evening celebrations. Before leaving Mysore we had to visit King Nararhima Rajadeyar’s Palace. We sat in the palace grounds and enjoyed the palace’s epic views and architecture.  We hurried back to the village to prepare for the evening entertainment. During the evening, the Kamatchi household put on an exciting fireworks display for us. The guys wore their new lunges and the girls wore their new sari’s> everyone looked lovely and it was a great evening.

Currently we are having good weather which is ideal for our construction phase. Everyone has got involved at every stage of construction, such as digging, mixing cement, bricklaying, pointing, creating slabs, plastering, roofing, plumbing and painting. Building amongst the village has really helped us to build some rapport with the villagers. Suni, Shri, Ross, Yuna, Etta, Priya, Abi and Jack have been able to milk some of the beneficiaries cows. Ross and Yuna helped one of the beneficiaries ‘prepare’ a chicken for dinner (kill it, pluck it, burn it, wash it, gut it, chop it, wash it, cook it and eat it).

Yesterday we joined the villagers for a pre-sunrise adventure. It was very spontaneous and we were unsure about what to expect. We were delighted to find the entire village gathered at the canal at 4am. Before some of the villagers left for their new Ayyappa pilgrimage to Kerala, the whole village met at the canal for the closure of the festival. The men of the village crowded around a huge fire while the women sat and watched from afar. The fire was slowly being reduced to create a piping-hot ten metre walkway. Before crossing the fiery embers the villagers put on a performance. One villager wearing glamorous fancy dress represented the God Ayyappa while another villager wore all white and represented a tiger. They danced and fought around the blazing coal walkway. After they had sprinted across the burning hot coals, other villagers closely followed. The villagers sung and danced their way back to the village temple. They carried a statue of Ayyappa around the village and blessed people with pure water, water and prayers. The festivities went on all day. It was a fantastic atmosphere and very enjoyable. We could’t have ended our first phase better. 

Now its our mid-phase and we’re returning to Fieldbase for a few days to complete our training. Everyone is excited because we can’t wait to tell the other groups about our village and the great time that we've been having.

Hugs and kisses

India Yankee Doodle 2 over and out

p.s. Happy Birthday Mum (for the 28^th November) Love Priya xx