After recently returning from a loop of 3
of the Myrada villages in Tamil Nadu, it is clear to see the teams are well under way with
their final phase and producing fantastic constructive work and running some
very successful health and vet camps.
I was fortunate enough to spend 2 nights
with India Romeo 3, where Kehni wasted no time in getting the group to work
collaboratively well in mixing cement and renovating up to two Cow Sheds in just
one day! It was here where I learned that it is possible to mix cement without
machinery and that a simple but very effective technique of creating a ‘volcano‘
works wonders. After a 7 hour day of
labour in the hot sun and seeing the team’s construction well underway, I then
made my way across the beautiful Tamil forest to India Romeo 4.
(The 'Volcano' Technique of cement mixing)
(It is hard to not have a photo interrupted by a Cow!)
A vet camp was held at 7am in the nearby
village of MP Kallam, where we met the vet and walked around the village,
providing health care to any cow, goat, sheep ready for our healing hands! A
total of over 100 four legged creatures were seen to, so all in all a very good
outcome. This was India Romeo 4’s second vet camp as they had previously held another
very successful one their own village of Hosur. They too were steaming ahead
with construction, with James putting his carpentry skills into use and the
rest quickly learning the ropes!
My final stop was to the beautiful, quaint
village of DP Doddy, where they too were holding a vet camp, in two villages’ a
short walk away, of Noorondaswarmy Pura
and Chikkananndi. Between these two small villages the team still managed to cover
a remarkable number of over 150 animals. It was extremely interesting to see
how anti-biotics is given safely to a large and powerful cow (something much
different to what I’m used to in a hospital!), and the team were keen to give a
hand in de-worming a few goats there selves! I was familiar with the syringes
but no consent was needed this time in putting it in the goat’s mouth!
It was here I took my labour skills one
step further and learnt, from both the team and locals, the Indian way in
renovating house floors with cow pat. It is a process that needs to be carried
out every two weeks and consists of mixing fresh cow pat with water and then lathering
on the floor to provide a new, smooth (less crumbly) layer – all with your bare
hands!
The next few days were spent moving, sifting
and mixing sand, cement and bricks across all three nearby villages. With
azolla and vermi composts now just needing some final plastering and a few cow
shed renovations to go the team are confident in leaving some great work behind
and a mark on the villagers.
(India Romeo 5, with 'Aacii' (Grandma) the cook and her daughter)
Thank you to all three villages for having
me and I look forward to seeing them back at field base in just two weeks!
No comments:
Post a Comment