Dylan & Helen’s Weblog

GETTING TO KANDA
We woke up around 4.30am with plenty of time before our stop in Haldwani and just in time to see our first Indian sun rise out of the open train door. We arrived around 6am with Mr. Verma there to greet us, then into our private taxi and off to Kanda. The drive took around 7 hours but the scenery was fantastic. The drive was through the mountains with views of the Himalayas so the time seemed to fly. We stopped off on the way a couple of times to have a good cup of Chai (Indian tea), which I have grown to love and will really miss when we leave, or a snack (one of them being Indian chocolate – a little like butterscotch fudge, gorgeous!), pick up a bit of shopping and stretch our legs.

We arrived mid afternoon at Mr. Verma’s house, we were shown to our room by Chris (another UK volunteer) and then offered some lunch, our first authentic Indian family meal; rice, spinach and dhaal (lentils). After lunch Chris showed us around the place. Some of the projects are clear to see as they are on Mr. Verma’s property, volunteers in the past have helped to build the kitchen and eating area, cowshed and the all important bathroom and toilets (I will come back to those), as you can see below…

A LITTLE ABOUT R.O.S.E.
Standing for Rural Organisation for Social Elevation, ROSE is located in Kanda in the district of Uttarakhand at the foothills of the Himalayas.

Kanda, and it’s surrounding villages, face similar challenges to other mountain communities in the Himalayan foothills, including high unemployment, poverty, restricted access to quality education, health and sanitation problems, decreasing agricultural productivity and environmental degradation. All factors coming under increasing pressure due to the ever-rising population.

As the majority of the adult population in the Kanda district are illiterate there are also problems in the dissemination of information and knowledge. Coupled with this is the resistance to new ideas, as many prefer to stay with traditional agricultural practices rather than risk production (and hence food on the table) by trying new methods.

The primary means of advertising the advantages of new techniques, therefore, is by example. This is where Mr. Verma (the founder/Director of ROSE and our host) has been instrumental in initiating various models to show working examples of ‘better practice’. These include a Cattle House, Sanitation Block, Shower Block, Kitchen Facility and more. In addition, Mr. Verma has also helped to establish a local school and arrange general improvements in the living conditions of some locals through various other facets of fund-raising etc. (of which the home stay we are involved in is part of).

For more information on ROSE see the website at http://www.rosekanda.org and if you are a volunteer on your way and wondering what to bring a definite winner is chocolate >:o) (even more useful is anything that the school may use such as pens/pencils/paper or second hand clothes for the villagers etc.)

SETTLING IN
We settled into our room while Chris told us what he and a few other volunteers had been up to for the last couple of weeks. Chris was here when the rice fields were harvested, they are now being ploughed to prepare for the next harvest – these people are very efficient and managing this land is no mean feat; given the geography there is very little flat land so the hills have to be ’shaped’ into terraces of ploughable small pieces (see the stepped shape of the hills in the pictures – all man made over hundreds of years and maintained to date).

Although there isn’t a specific project going on at the moment (there is the need, just not the funding), Chris and the others had been helping to maintain the road to the house, helping out at the school, as well as just helping out the family with general day to day tasks. After dinner we shared our bottle of Chakalaka, one of the wines from South Africa, and called it a night.

OUR FIRST DAY
Our first day was a trip to Bageshwar a nearby town with internet access! We got up early and after lunch had our first Kanda bucket wash.

You get a bucket and fill it up from the tap outside (the water is from a fresh spring, safe to drink and tasty – Dylan: for fresh read ridiculously ruddy freezing!), you then go into the “shower cubicle” and use a jug to wash yourself down, as you can imagine this is very refreshing in the morning!! As we are talking bathrooms we might as well explain the toilet. There are two available and they are just the “normal” stand up ones, a barrel of water is outside and after you have “done your business”, you fill up a jug and rinse away down the little hole in the floor. The spiders here can be quite massive and tend to hang out in the toilets, but as Mr. Verma says, “they are not harmful, they are our friends”, so I have come to an understanding with them, as long as they leave me be and stay still when I am there, I will not run screaming in a frenzied panic to get Dylan to come and kill them (as I was just typing this one just ran over the laptop and I was quite calm, getting used to them now and very proud of myself!)!!!

Despite the chuckles this probably gives some of our friends we are actually very lucky here, in Kanda very few people have access to sanitary facilities, originally 5% in 1992, but with the help of ROSE with their latrine building programs and generally making locals aware (funded by volunteers and government bodies) this has now risen up to around 25% (Dylan: so one is still careful with flip-flops on >;o) ).

It was a shared taxi to Bageshwar (as with South Africa they know how to pack people in these things!). The drive is up and down mountain roads with severe corners all the way; although the three of us managed to keep the contents of our stomach in our stomachs we have found that (on nearly every journey to or from the village) some of the locals are not so lucky and have to stick their heads out of the window – nice! If a taxi hasn’t got sick down the side of it then the driver is obviously driving too slow and wasting peoples time, and was clearly no fun – we’re even at the point of “no sick, no trip”!!!!!

Bageshwar is built up around a river (it’s actually formed at the only the point the rivers Gomti and Saju converge) and is quite a bustling town. This area is similar to Delhi in some ways as it is a main town in the area, but no where near to the same degree, it smells a lot fresher, a lot of the people happily exchange a “Namaste” (Hindi for “Aye up”) without expecting money in return and there isn’t nearly as much touting and begging. We spent the day catching up on the net and wandering around the town and then headed back on the 30km taxi drive back to Kanda (thanks Simon for the St Christophers’ I think they are definitely coming in handy!! – Dylan: H nearly wore hers flat on one journey but needed something to mess with after she’d gnawed her fingers to the bone!).

In the evening Dylan and Chris had a few sips of whiskey they had bought from Bageshwar (Dylan: about £1.50 a 1/2l bottle of premium Indian/Scotch mix!) and then it was off to bed. After our travels and lack of sleep we were both run down and in need of an early night.

DELHI BELLY!!!!!
The night didn’t turn out to be much of a good nights sleep. Dylan was up all night with the trotts and throwing up. After talking to Mr. Verma before we set off to Bageshwar, he’d warned us not to have any of the meat in any of the stalls or restaurants, however by then it was too late and the chicken we had in Delhi had already been planted!

Dylan spent the day either in bed with a fever and the shakes, or on the toilet, so we didn’t really get up to much. The next few days were the same, poor Dylan spent most of the time in bed. (Dylan: despite my near death experience; at one point I was, indeed, delirious – telling Helen I didn’t want to die all the way up here without my friends and family – I look forward to you sympathetic messages).

Chris and I helped around the house, read a bit and visited Kanda market a few times (A small, local stretch of road just a couple of clicks away). Here is definitely a stark contrast to Delhi, with fresh air and very friendly people, all the children great you with a “Namaste” or “hello”, and are extremely happy when you reply. In the market there is a shop owner who loves to speak English and have chats with you, he used to be in the Indian Army and was also a teacher in Kanda so we had a few conversations with him about English and Kanda life, as well as Shakespeare – his favorite writer. I also caught up with the clothes washing, all you need is a bucket, a scrubbing brush and the wonder soap they use, our clothes have been sparkling since we have been here. Although it is hard work it can be quite refreshing in the afternoon sun.

We also went back to Bageshwar for some much needed loo roll for Dylan. We ended up in the market for quite a while looking for this (there is only one shop that sells the stuff – that’s why you don’t eat with your left hand!), and when we asked the locals where they would chuckle at us (for needing it in the first place) and then all send us in different directions, however we got it eventually!! I also caught up with Kat on the internet who told me that we stuffed the Mags on Saturday 2-1, just sad we couldn’t see it – I later found my dad had been and very much enjoyed the day too, come on Sunderland!!!

VILLAGE LIFE
The Verma family are really friendly, especially the children, Ruchi, Gotam (Mr. Verma’s grandchildren) and Saju (Mr. Verma’s youngest son). They love to play games, Snakes and Ladders and Ludo being their favorite – so while Dylan was ill (Dylan: Dying) we spent the evenings with the kids and our board games. Gotam’s English is very good and in the evening as well as playing the games he also likes to spend time reading to you. There were 2 of Mr. Verma’s daughters here when we arrived, Renu and Dipti, who helped Mrs. Verma cook up some lovely spicy meals (which Dylan missed out on for the first few days due to his stomach).

After a couple of days Dylan still wasn’t well, Mr. Verma had given him some home grown herbal medicines which helped but didn’t get rid of the bug so Chris and I popped to Kanda market to get some antibiotics, after a few days he started to feel better and could stomach food again, poor guy after 4 days of eating he was wasting away to nothing! (Dylan: dropped a dress size – GET IN!!!)

DIWALI
Diwali, or the festival of lights is a religious festival to show Rama (a Hindu God) the way home after his years in exile. We had been stocking up on fireworks for the last couple of days in preparation but the first day of Diwali was a quiet one. In the evening we sat outside with Mr. Verma and were treated to a spicy Bombay potatoes, my favorite dish so far, and a glass of Mr. Verma’s whiskey (which he has purely for medicinal purposes for his chest) – (Dylan was stuck with a couple of non spiced boiled potatoes slices). While sat, Mr. Verma explained what he was doing with the ROSE foundation and how he had been able to help the poorer people in the village. He had the option to become a successful business man with his father and brother but instead chose to stay in the village and help improve life for his fellow villagers. It was a very informative discussion and it is nice to know you are doing a little to help a man who has given some 25 years to this cause. Later we all had a go at grass cutting (preparing the grass for the cows for the morning) and then after dinner it was bed, ready for the festivities the following day.

After a breakfast, while Mr. Verma’s oldest son, Jeetinder, was setting up the fairy lights and the electrics they needed (Dylan: that is, wiring directly to the roof pylon – see the pics – wiring ‘Adam Saunders’ style!), I was asked to help the children with the floral decorations, we spent most of the day on the roof making bright orange carnation chains (after picking the carnations further down the road) to decorate the house. Inside some of the women were decorating the house, they made a small shrine in one of the rooms and also painted the stairs and the floors with white motifs, very pretty. Near the end of the day I also helped Ruchi build and decorate a small temple which we put at the side of the house. The decorations were the same as the house. First a few bricks were painted with a clay like substance and once they had dried we then decorated them with a flour and water mixture, Ruchi was much quicker and better than me at this! We then put the bricks together to make a mini temple, and once this was constructed we decorated it with more flowers and some candles and it was done, very pretty.

FIREWORKS
When the sun went down it was time for fireworks!!! These fireworks were as cheap as chips – I suspect the Chinese makers of these beauties would have had difficulties getting these across the UK border (if not in the legal sense then even physically without them exploding randomly) but they suited our purpose! We had a collection of rockets, fountains, catherine-wheels, fire-crackers and ‘bombs’.

We got a few pictures and no-one died so a good result over all – surprising given the ‘bombs’ exploded at the mere site of a flame and the kids insisted on burning every inch of the remaining fireworks over a candle for full value.

Chris left after the first night of fireworks so we joined him to Bageshwar, however due to the festival most places were closed so it was only a short journey, on the way back Dylan had a “cut throat shave” at a local barbers in Kanda (although he did have to leave a goatee due to cold sores – Monday it’s all coming off!). Later in the evening it was more firework fun and a few games of Ludo before bed.

The next day was the final day of Diwali. We had our breakfast and then decided to go a tea farm further up the mountain. After walking to the main part of Kanda (a couple of kms from the market and all up hill!) we got a taxi to the farm. The farm is organic and absolutely huge, unfortunately there were no tea-pickers out and we couldn’t nip over and “acquire” a few leaves as momentos as some chap was loafing around contemplating life, so, a few pictures and then we decided to walk back. Because the farm is quite high up on the mountain you get some great views and the scenery for the 7k back was amazing, walking along the winding roads through the forest (jumping out of the way of a few taxis and motorcyclists – the latter often laden with 3 or more people). It took us a couple of hours to get back, picking up some more fireworks on the way, and when we got back to the house the sun was going down over the mountain tops.

Gottam and Ruchi weren’t about that night so I (Dylan) and Saju went into the fields to set off a few rockets – one didn’t work, one reacted more like a banger (fortunately the glass bottle was good quality and didn’t shatter) and at one point, I set a rocket off that veered disturbingly close to the dried hay stacks such that the whole family where out for half an hour with torches!

OUR LAST FEW DAYS
Saturday morning was a nice change, we went with the family to a small homemade temple along the road. The family prayed for their mothers and fathers and give thanks for the harvest (they do this twice a year after harvest). We also had brunch there which was a real treat, spiced rice, veg curry, yogurt, fried chapattis, banana fritters (Puwa) and gwava (a really tasty fruit that they pick from the nearby trees), very nice! After that a clear up and back to the house where Dylan has been helping Mr. Verma set up a blog for his volunteers (http://rosekanda.wordpress.com). While Dylan has been beavering away I have been playing Ludo with Gotam, as well as teaching him to play hop scotch, and doing more clothes washing.

Late afternoon we had the best onion bhajies and lime dip ever as a snack. Sorry Chris (who has been secretly craving this while he has been here) but Renu has promised to write down the recipe so I will pass it on when I get it. Then for our evening meal we had a treat, goat curry, it was very tasty, a little like lamb/mutton. While eating we were talking to Saju about the meat, saying it tasted a bit like sheep, but he had no idea as they don’t have any sheep here. He couldn’t believe that we ate cow either (obviously they don’t as the cow is sacred creature) and it was hard trying to explain what that tasted like (Dylan reminisces of the multitude of methods of consumption!). To finish the meal we had a couple of Indian sweets, they are small “sugar balls” and taste a bit like candy floss, very very sweet but very nice. Today was a good food day

Yesterday was another quick trip to Bageshwar to update the blog, alas with it being Sunday everywhere was closed. However we did have an exciting taxi ride on the way there, our most cramped so far with 19 people (and plenty of room wasted on the roof-rack!), 4 of whom threw up at some point!!!!! We picked up a couple of treats for the verma family in town as a thank you for letting us stay and then headed back in another cramped taxi ride. When we were in Kanda we bumped into a new volunteer Rodée who was heading to the Verma family’s house so we walked back with her, she is from Holland and has been in India now for 2 months. When we got back we showed her around, played a couple of games of ludo with the children and after dinner it was bed.

Or last day in Kanda has been quite busy, after breakfast and bucket wash we started packing, this is the longest we have stayed any where for a while so there was quite a lot of packing! We then did our final clothes wash and went to the fields with Ruchi and Rodée. Here they were getting on with ploughing the fields ready for the next crop. Once the filed has been ploughed the women go over the soil and separate any larger lumps with a wooden “spade type thing”. Ruchi showed us how to do this and Rodée and myself had a go, I have a feeling that when we left the women would be back in our field doing it properly!!

We then had a walk to Kanda Market for the last time to show Rodée around, we decided to walk further up (all up hill!) about 5k past the main part of Kanda and along the mountain roads to see if we could get a good view of the Himalayas. After trying the road (and Dylan moaning about the walking), instead of walking round the hills on the main road we (Dylan: the Royal “we” had a moment of clarity and decided the Nepalese had the right idea – straight lines – never mind the twisting roads!) decided to take a short cut and walk up the hill. Unfortunately when we got to the top the Himalayas where mainly covered with clouds so we couldn’t get any decent photos, however the views were great and you can take our word for that. It was then a long walk back, mainly down hill thankfully, to the market where we picked up some supplies and Dylan had another shave and his hair cut. The cut looks very smart but it was hilarious when the hairdresser brushed it with a typical Indian quiff at the front (will get the picture of that on line ASAP!!!) – Dylan: the haircut, shave and facial massage was 40 Rupees so I threw in a 10 Rupee tip for the scarily Germanic quiff – not a bad do for @70 pence!. We had a well deserved cold Pepsi and then headed back to the house for a rest.

MOVING ON
Tonight will be an early night as we have to catch the bus at 8am and have a 2km walk – up hill, with our rucksacks and day bags, to get to the bus station for our 8/9 hour journey of terror >;o). We will be sad to leave the family behind but can’t wait to get to Nepal (after a few days spent in Nainital – said to have been founded by a couple of English people missing the Cumbrian Lake District this area is built around the green lake Naina – before getting to the Nepal border). Make sure you check out Mr. Verma’s website and remember every penny (or any clothes, toys etc. donations) counts up here – http://www.rosekanda.org!

Sorry again for the lack of blog updates but with the on/off phone lines, holidays and power cuts it has been hard to get on line long enough. However Nainital is meant to be much better so we will try to update the blog before we leave for Nepal and as we’re in main towns in Nepal we should be able to get online fairly regularly. Hope everyone is well and miss you all!