We caught an overnight train back to Jaipur from Jaisalmer and arrived at 5am on Christmas morning.
One of my first sights was a group of children sifting through a large pile of rubbish in the dark looking for anything of value. Christmas here looks very different to those I have seen in Australia.
We caught an Air India flight back to Mumbai saving us over two days of train travel. The plane was ancient and the seat in front of me broken - it just flapped back and forth. The tray table next door would not lock into position and was permanently down. The reading material included an article about how stressed, understaffed and overworked air traffic controllers in India are. Obviously we got down alive but air travel is not something I enjoy in a country that works like this one!
We are now back in Mumbai biding time till our flight home tonight. What an adventure this has been!
Once I am home I will prepare a report on the project and will edit the video that we took. I hope to make it available on DVD for anyone that is interested.
I have made a commitment to the clinic to fundraise for their education programs which are by far the most important work they are doing. I need to raise money for the operation on the young child with the club foot (I have inserted his photo in an old entry below) and I also need to seek a sponsor or sponsors for our blind freind Cherou in Agra for his ongoing schooling.
I'm developing future plans for another aid project which I need to ponder and discuss at length. I will no doubt be in touch with you all regarding this.
I would like to thank everyone that gave so generously of their time and money to make this journey possible for me. Together we have all done something worthwhile for people who live in a world much different to our own. It would not have happened without the support you have all shown.
My very best wishes to you all.
Anton Szilasi
antonszilasi@internode.on.net
Wednesday, 27 December 2006
Sunday, 24 December 2006
Jaisalmer
We have spent a couple of days in Jaipur and are now in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan near the Pakistan border.
Our journey from Agra to Jaipur was interesting. We decided to take a local bus as it was (in theory) faster and more reliable than the train service. The bus was an interesting design - perhaps best described as a rolling coffin. Ancient of course. The seats were surprisingly comfortable but you had to be a contortionist to get in and out because the access was completely blocked by a steel ladder that led to a sleeping compartment above the seats. This compartment formed a steel plate above our heads and made our ceiling very low. Complete lack of storage left us no choice than to put our luggage under our feet. Bodies without seats filled the floor of the central passageway ready to be ejected en masse throught the front windscreen should the bus come to a sudden stop. To ensure no possibility of escape in the event of an accident, our windows were protected by steel bars.
In the rush to get to the bus I forgot to go to the bathroom and settled in for the 6 hour journey knowing that I was in trouble. Indians are always very helpful (though rarely accurate) and one kindly informed me that the bus did not stop before it reached Jaipur. After an hour I was wishing we had taken a train with it's filthy but accessable toilets (did I ever mention that train passageways were usually moist and muddy as a result of people visiting the toilets and then returning to their seats with wet shoes?). By two hours I was squirming and finally with 3 hours of journey left, I gave up and under cover of my jacket used one of our water bottles to end the agony. Within 3 minutes of doing this the bus pulled in for it's routine half way rest break.
If anyone would like a cheap water bottle, please let me know.
Jaisalmer features a large and spectacular fort on a hill. Inside it is a fully functional small city with many people living there. Tourism seems to be it's most important industry.
We've just come back from a two day camel safari into the Thar Desert. Can't say I enjoyed it much - I prefer to walk! - but the desert was lovely at night.
We were in a fairly new four wheel drive going out to the village where we were to meet our camels. Miracle - it had functional seat belts! When we went to put them on we were assured that it was not necessary as Rajasthan laws made wearing of seat belts optional. Useful information to have!
I've received word from home that my Diploma of Renewable Energies has come through. I'm finally qualified to install solar panels (among other things). That's a relief! I now have to wait until January 11 to see if this has gained me entry to Engineering at QUT.
An overnight train back to Jaipur ahead of us and then a flight to Mumbai and finally home.
Looking forward to some real Aussie food!
Our journey from Agra to Jaipur was interesting. We decided to take a local bus as it was (in theory) faster and more reliable than the train service. The bus was an interesting design - perhaps best described as a rolling coffin. Ancient of course. The seats were surprisingly comfortable but you had to be a contortionist to get in and out because the access was completely blocked by a steel ladder that led to a sleeping compartment above the seats. This compartment formed a steel plate above our heads and made our ceiling very low. Complete lack of storage left us no choice than to put our luggage under our feet. Bodies without seats filled the floor of the central passageway ready to be ejected en masse throught the front windscreen should the bus come to a sudden stop. To ensure no possibility of escape in the event of an accident, our windows were protected by steel bars.
In the rush to get to the bus I forgot to go to the bathroom and settled in for the 6 hour journey knowing that I was in trouble. Indians are always very helpful (though rarely accurate) and one kindly informed me that the bus did not stop before it reached Jaipur. After an hour I was wishing we had taken a train with it's filthy but accessable toilets (did I ever mention that train passageways were usually moist and muddy as a result of people visiting the toilets and then returning to their seats with wet shoes?). By two hours I was squirming and finally with 3 hours of journey left, I gave up and under cover of my jacket used one of our water bottles to end the agony. Within 3 minutes of doing this the bus pulled in for it's routine half way rest break.
If anyone would like a cheap water bottle, please let me know.
Jaisalmer features a large and spectacular fort on a hill. Inside it is a fully functional small city with many people living there. Tourism seems to be it's most important industry.We've just come back from a two day camel safari into the Thar Desert. Can't say I enjoyed it much - I prefer to walk! - but the desert was lovely at night.
We were in a fairly new four wheel drive going out to the village where we were to meet our camels. Miracle - it had functional seat belts! When we went to put them on we were assured that it was not necessary as Rajasthan laws made wearing of seat belts optional. Useful information to have!
One of our camel drivers turned out to be albino. His face was bright red from sunburn and eyes nearly closed from the constant glare he is exposed to. We told him about the dangers of skin cancer and the importance of covering up. This seemed to be news to him but sadly not something he was going to do anything about.
I've received word from home that my Diploma of Renewable Energies has come through. I'm finally qualified to install solar panels (among other things). That's a relief! I now have to wait until January 11 to see if this has gained me entry to Engineering at QUT.
An overnight train back to Jaipur ahead of us and then a flight to Mumbai and finally home.
Looking forward to some real Aussie food!
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Agra
We are in Agra - home of the magnificent Taj Mahal.
Agra seems cleaner than the other cities we have visited but still far from acceptable by Australian standards. Streets are still chaotic and cattle wander everywhere.
While viewing the back of the Taj Mahal we came across a 15 year old boy begging for money. This is very common and we have learned to ignore beggars as we were told that they earn more than labourers and often pay a cut to the local "mafia". However we saw that this boy was blind with what appeared to be cataracts on both eyes. Knowing that this was easily cured by an operation ($200 -300 for both eyes) we got the hotel we were staying at to help us locate the mother who agreed to have us take him to a hospital for assessment. We promised to have his eyes fixed if we could. This created great excitement in the family and we took both mother and son in the next day.
Unfortunately our hopes were quickly dashed when the opthalmologist told us that his blindness was due to an untreated eye infection he had when he was young and was now incurable.
I have spent some hours talking to a group of young (all under 10) children that sell cheap tourist trinkets near the Taj. They are from one family and their father is a rickshaw driver. They live in poverty but are all smiles and laughter. They don't go to school although the parents could afford to send them because they do not want to lose the income the kids are bringing in each day.
Agra seems cleaner than the other cities we have visited but still far from acceptable by Australian standards. Streets are still chaotic and cattle wander everywhere.
While viewing the back of the Taj Mahal we came across a 15 year old boy begging for money. This is very common and we have learned to ignore beggars as we were told that they earn more than labourers and often pay a cut to the local "mafia". However we saw that this boy was blind with what appeared to be cataracts on both eyes. Knowing that this was easily cured by an operation ($200 -300 for both eyes) we got the hotel we were staying at to help us locate the mother who agreed to have us take him to a hospital for assessment. We promised to have his eyes fixed if we could. This created great excitement in the family and we took both mother and son in the next day.
Unfortunately our hopes were quickly dashed when the opthalmologist told us that his blindness was due to an untreated eye infection he had when he was young and was now incurable.
However he recommended a school for the blind where he could be taught self sufficiency and musical instruments and would have a chance at a reasonable life. We drove him out there with his mother. They both liked it and said that they would come back in a few days to apply. It is on the outskirts of Agra and will require him to board if he does end up going there. If he chooses to do so we will have to fund this which will cost around $50 a month - more of a commitment than we had anticipated! I am going to have to find a way to raise this money so if anyone is willing to support all or some of this please let me know. An Aussie we met on the train coming in to town has generously paid for the first month's expenses but from here on we are on our own with this one.
The work we have done seems like such a drop in the ocean. The needs are huge in countries like this. We have promised ourselves not to find any more needy cases on this trip (although they are everywhere).I have spent some hours talking to a group of young (all under 10) children that sell cheap tourist trinkets near the Taj. They are from one family and their father is a rickshaw driver. They live in poverty but are all smiles and laughter. They don't go to school although the parents could afford to send them because they do not want to lose the income the kids are bringing in each day.
Saturday, 16 December 2006
Varanasi
Hi,
We have spent the last few days being tourists in Varanasi - a holy city on the Ganges river. Quite beautiful in it's own way but a city that raises the concept of filth to new levels. In the old section near the river the streets are very narrow which thankfully keeps the cars and motor rickshaws out but they still have their mandatory densely packed population of cows, goats, dogs and urinating humans. It makes for quite a smell!
The river is something else again. Each day thousands go down to bathe, brush teeth, wash clothes, swim and pray in this holy location. They also burn bodies on wood fueled pyres at the rate of 150 a day. Children run with kites between the pyres and the unburned remnants - usually pelvises and ribs are thrown into the river. If the body was that of a holy man, pregnant woman, child or snake bite victim (and a couple of other categories) it is not burned but weighed down with rocks and dropped into the river whole. Sometimes the body breaks free and floats to the surface along with the occasional dead cow floating by.
As it is currently the dry season the river is very low and barely flowing. This means there are thousands of burned and unburned bodies building up metres from where people are immersing themselves in the river. A little downstream people are fishing with nets. Further down is the water intake that supplies the city. I think you get the picture!
We have spent the last few days being tourists in Varanasi - a holy city on the Ganges river. Quite beautiful in it's own way but a city that raises the concept of filth to new levels. In the old section near the river the streets are very narrow which thankfully keeps the cars and motor rickshaws out but they still have their mandatory densely packed population of cows, goats, dogs and urinating humans. It makes for quite a smell!
The river is something else again. Each day thousands go down to bathe, brush teeth, wash clothes, swim and pray in this holy location. They also burn bodies on wood fueled pyres at the rate of 150 a day. Children run with kites between the pyres and the unburned remnants - usually pelvises and ribs are thrown into the river. If the body was that of a holy man, pregnant woman, child or snake bite victim (and a couple of other categories) it is not burned but weighed down with rocks and dropped into the river whole. Sometimes the body breaks free and floats to the surface along with the occasional dead cow floating by.
As it is currently the dry season the river is very low and barely flowing. This means there are thousands of burned and unburned bodies building up metres from where people are immersing themselves in the river. A little downstream people are fishing with nets. Further down is the water intake that supplies the city. I think you get the picture!
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Mission Accomplished!
Well, we have finished at last! Two days work completed in just two weeks. Only in India!
In the end we did not have to change the faulty switch. It turned out that it had been sitting around so long (I really wouldn't be surprised if it were 50 years old) that the contacts had corroded and were not passing current. A little sandpaper solved the problem and the entire system is now functional. The clinic now has a reliable electricity supply. I just hope they get the monkey barrier up soon.
There is just one other item I would like to attend to. As I have mentioned before, the equipment available in India is often dodgy to say the least. The Solar Regulators which came with the Indian solar panels and which control the flow of power to the batteries are cheap and fragile. I don't expect them to last the distance. When I return to Australia I will purchase a proper regulator and send it to the clinic.
We have experimented with solar cookers in the last couple of weeks. The main use for these would be to cook rice and unfortunately the winter sun is not sufficient to bring the water to boiling. However I expect that in summer the cooker will work well. The clinic now has the design and will test it in a few months and if successful will train villagers to utilise this cheap and envirnmentally freindly form of heating food.
Another project we have left for the clinic is to reduce the internal temperature of the building. It apparently gets in to the mid 40's in summer here and they have a long western wall which would really cause the building to bake in the heat. By putting up a bamboo frame about a metre from the wall and running vines up it, they could drop the internal temperature significantly. If it were an edible vine such as passionfruit then all the better.
When we arrived we noticed that although they had numerous plantings around the clinic, none of it was mulched and everything had to be hand watered daily. We introduced them to the wonders of rice straw mulch and now the plants only need watering every 5 days or so. However it has created another problem: Termites love the moist conditions and there has been a population explosion. When I get home I will be asking my Permaculture contacts what might be done about this.
One of the pleasures of living here has been using cold buckets of water to bathe in. I've designed a solar water heater which will work well all year round and give as much hot water as the clinic requires. If you ever visit you will be able to have a hot shower! We don't have time to build this but it will be done in our absence.
A young patient came into the clinic today - yet another victim of ignorance. This was a little girl perhaps two years old. She has had diarrhea for two weeks and is suffering severe dehydration. The doctor here has given her two days to live if left untreated. The parents seem completely oblivious to the seriousness of the situation and apparently unconcerned when it is explained to them. This child has been saved for now but many in a similar situation are not. Again it all comes back to education of the villagers which the clinic considers to be it's most important task.
Because the clinic is chronically short on supplies we have donated all of our oral rehydration packs. Hopefully we will not need them ourselves before we come home.
Today we visited the village of one of the workers here. He lives in a two room mud hut with his wife, his mother, his brother and his wife. That's five people in two small rooms, one of which is used for rice storage and has just enough room for two people to lie down in - a perfectly normal living situation. He earns about 80 cents a day from the clinic (a normal wage) which supplements the farming income the family earns.
We are now making preparations to leave. It's been a great adventure here and we are sad to be leaving the wonderful friends we have made. We have booked an overnight train to Varanasi (also known as Benares) which is a holy city on the banks of the Ganges river. We will be spending a couple of weeks being tourists before we return to Australia.
That's all for now!
Anton
Monday, 11 December 2006
Hi Everybody,
We are finished… well almost!
As usual, due to local conditions; challenges abound. The system is all in place and I went to flick the switches this afternoon and …….. nothing! After much unprintable muttering I did some fault finding and isolated the problem to a switch that is not carrying current. This is hardly surprising considering the lower quality of many products available here. I have constructed a switchboard out of fuses and switches that I’m sure were manufactured before World War II !! The overall appearance of the board would not look out of place in a Frankenstein movie. Hopefully all will work well once we have replaced the faulty part tomorrow. We will see!
Another unusal challenge - Monkeys! There are about 10 or 15 of them who wander through here every few days. They are quite large and they would have no trouble throwing me off the roof and pillaging all my work if they chose to. Accordingly we are all on monkey watch during daylight hours. The clinic will soon install barbed wire around the solar panels which hopefully will keep the (not so) little devils out.
Patients pour into the clinic daily and many of them are a pitiful sight. Today a young boy of about 5 came in with a club foot. This was caused by cerebral palsy which in this region is most commonly caused by malnutrition of the pregnant mother, the child or both. His foot was rotated at 90 degrees to his leg and turned on its side. He was basically walking on his ankle. Although the clinic’s acupuncture doctor can successfully treat the effects of cerebral palsy, this particular case is so far progressed that it can only be cured by surgery in a hospital. The approximately $300 Australian dollars required is completely beyond the means of the villagers here who earn less than a dollar a day. We felt we had to intervene as the child would be crippled for life unless he recieved surgery. I hope to fundraise for this on my return. If I’m unable to, I will pay for this out of my own pocket. All going well, the surgery will get underway in the next few weeks.
Although these cases are heartbreaking and sadly very common, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that the clinic’s most important mission is education of the villagers which will help prevent many diseases (including cerebral palsy) before they strike. It’s only by focusing on the task of raising knowledge about nutrition and hygiene that the general health of the community can be improved. To do this the clinic needs continuing funding for the salaries of existing and new staff. With additional and better trained staff the number as well as the sophistication of education programs in the surrounding villages can be increased.
We have taken quite a deal of video and we will create a DVD highlighting the conditions here and the work of the clinic on our return to Australia.
That’s all for now. Will let you know when the system is actually up and running – tomorrow….. perhaps!
Cheers,
Anton
We are finished… well almost!
As usual, due to local conditions; challenges abound. The system is all in place and I went to flick the switches this afternoon and …….. nothing! After much unprintable muttering I did some fault finding and isolated the problem to a switch that is not carrying current. This is hardly surprising considering the lower quality of many products available here. I have constructed a switchboard out of fuses and switches that I’m sure were manufactured before World War II !! The overall appearance of the board would not look out of place in a Frankenstein movie. Hopefully all will work well once we have replaced the faulty part tomorrow. We will see!
Another unusal challenge - Monkeys! There are about 10 or 15 of them who wander through here every few days. They are quite large and they would have no trouble throwing me off the roof and pillaging all my work if they chose to. Accordingly we are all on monkey watch during daylight hours. The clinic will soon install barbed wire around the solar panels which hopefully will keep the (not so) little devils out.
Patients pour into the clinic daily and many of them are a pitiful sight. Today a young boy of about 5 came in with a club foot. This was caused by cerebral palsy which in this region is most commonly caused by malnutrition of the pregnant mother, the child or both. His foot was rotated at 90 degrees to his leg and turned on its side. He was basically walking on his ankle. Although the clinic’s acupuncture doctor can successfully treat the effects of cerebral palsy, this particular case is so far progressed that it can only be cured by surgery in a hospital. The approximately $300 Australian dollars required is completely beyond the means of the villagers here who earn less than a dollar a day. We felt we had to intervene as the child would be crippled for life unless he recieved surgery. I hope to fundraise for this on my return. If I’m unable to, I will pay for this out of my own pocket. All going well, the surgery will get underway in the next few weeks.
Although these cases are heartbreaking and sadly very common, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that the clinic’s most important mission is education of the villagers which will help prevent many diseases (including cerebral palsy) before they strike. It’s only by focusing on the task of raising knowledge about nutrition and hygiene that the general health of the community can be improved. To do this the clinic needs continuing funding for the salaries of existing and new staff. With additional and better trained staff the number as well as the sophistication of education programs in the surrounding villages can be increased.
We have taken quite a deal of video and we will create a DVD highlighting the conditions here and the work of the clinic on our return to Australia.
That’s all for now. Will let you know when the system is actually up and running – tomorrow….. perhaps!
Cheers,
Anton
Wednesday, 6 December 2006
Hi Everyone,
Sorry it’s been a few days since I have written. I’ve been quite ill and incapable of doing much but have recovered in the past two days and am now fully back on deck.
I have a lot to say and I want to start with Mumbai and Delhi - two of India’s major cities. They are extremely polluted - one can’t see the horizon for the smog. I’m quite convinced that the populations in both of these cities which number around 20 million people each is largely composed of slum dwellers. I’ve spent some time walking through the slums (which has consequently made me realise how very fortunate I am to be Australian) and the conditions there by western standards are appalling. The streets stink – though fortunately not of sewage. I don’t know how they dispose of this but a river I passed by suggested that this might be where it winds up. Men seem to urinate indiscriminantly in any corner. With 20 million people crammed into the humid environment of Mumbai you can imagine the result. Cattle and dogs wander aimlessly through the incredibly chaotic and dense traffic. A family of say 5 or 6 people would live in a space the size of an Australian bathroom. No one seems to have what we would call a bed in Australia. they all sleep on the floor and even on the street as some people are even without a shanty house. It’s a common sight to see a family with their children sleeping on the sidewalk with many cars whizzing past their faces every minute. Shops are minute (usually much smaller than an Australian single garage) messy and dark. Shop owners often live with their extended families in the rubble at the back of the shop.
As for the daily routines of the people. As far as I can tell, wealthier families send their children to school but I think the majority are on the street and earn money by any means possible. Its common to see children collecting bottles and miscellaneous items which they no doubt try to sell. There are extremely persistent beggars in the cities who descend on any Westerner. Many of them look really terrible and you feel compelled to give them money. However we found they weren’t too keen to take food when we offered so they couldn’t be too hungry. An Indian we talked to said that most of the beggars were “professional” and could find honest work if they wanted to and we should not give money to anyone. Nonetheless each day we run into people so pitiful we find that we can’t refuse. In India no one ever seems to be doing much. Men seem to squat on the side of the road and talk all day. Men far outnumber women on the streets. I presume the women are at home.
The houses in the slums are very make-shift. Many slums have some sort of brickwork which may be one wall of the house whilst the other walls are non-existent or are composed of cloth, plastic or scrap metal. In some places everyone lives in rag-tag tents. I doubt most slums have running water or electricity however it is a common sight to see people tapping into the mains electricity supply with their own wires. This is very dangerous and extremely frightful to see. At best the cities can be described as utter chaos – hell on earth would not be an exaggeration. I find it appalling that the world can spend 700 times more money on “defense” than it does on world aid when people live in such squalor.
Since we arrived at the clinic I have had the opportunity to visit a few rural villages. The situation for the impoverished majority in the rural areas while dire, is in some ways much better than those in the city slums. The noise and pollution are absent and although many villages have no electricity, there is usually a decent supply of bucketed water to each household from the village wells. We have learned though that the water is often laden with parasites, bacteria and viruses and is a constant source of disease for these people . Most people live in quite nice mud huts albeit they are cramped and gloomy.
Now to the clinic. Dr. Derek Gehrmann heads the clinic. He is a real gentleman who has accommodated our every need – even driving us 20km into the nearest town (Bokaro) to enjoy the pleasures of Pizza once I had regained my appetite!!
Before I describe the clinic let me describe the circumstances in the surrounding areas. The clinic’s surroundings are typical of rural India. There are many neighbouring villages most of which have no electricity or running water. Although there are doctors and a basic hospital in Bokaro the cost is beyond the means of any villager and hence the reason for the clinic which serves the community free of charge and is totally dependent on donations to remain in operation. The surrounding population is largely engaged in subsistence agriculture and there are no surrounding schools which I know of.
The clinic caters to the needs of the local people via the following.
- Free Acupuncture, Homeopathic and conventional (western medical) treatment for locals.
- Education about hygiene and nutritional issues
- Training of village health care workers using the assistance of the WHO
- Free and regular disinfection of village water supplies in an attempt to control the spread of water-borne diseases.
According to Dr Gehrmann, somewhere around 70% of the cases they see are due to severe malnutrition which in this area often starts before birth. This is not malnutrition due to lack of food – no one is hungry. Most locals will eat three good meals of white rice a day. The problem is that this is just about all that they eat. No greens, no fruit, no variety whatever. This leads to severely suppressed immune systems and thus susceptibility to any disease that comes along. Due to the poor hygiene and polluted water supply, serious disease is common. The malnutrition is so severe that it actually affects IQ. Much of the population is badly affected by this. Tuberculosis, polio, malaria, leprosy, gut infections, skin conditions and other serious diseases are regularly seen at the clinic.
The area is swarming with mosquitoes which carry malaria, dengue fever and filiaris (elephantitis). We have been very careful with netting at night and repellant during the day but the villagers don’t have these luxuries.
Yesterday at the clinic we saw two cases of elephantitis which is slowable but not curable and a 10 year old boy with arthritis – caused again by malnutrition. Fortunately he has been diagnosed at an early stage and aside from providing him with pain relief, his parents are being taught about good nutrition and he should make a full recovery. One lady came in doubled over with severe spinal arthritis. All the clinic could do for her was alleviate the pain with acupuncture which is apparently very effective.
The clinics most important role is education. The only way the villager’s health will be improved is if they understand the basics of nutrition and hygiene. This is a long slow process as they are impoverished, set in their long established habits and frankly not very bright – again due to their poor nutritional condition.
In the next few days I will finish installing the solar system, at the moment the clinic still has a very unreliable and intermittent supply of electricity which has large voltage fluctuations. The system will change all that.
Aside from my being unwell, progress has been very slow due to the way the Indians do business. It’s completely hopeless by western standards. We went to a hardware store to buy screws and bolts. You can’t browse the shelves as in Australia. You have to describe what you want. The people behind the counter will discuss it among themselves for a while. One will eventually go off and rumble around in the rubble at the back of the shop and after a long delay return with something completely inappropriate. The procedure is then repeated until you hopefully get what you need. We went to an electrical shop to buy fuses. We had to lend the owner a torch so he could see to rummage around cupboards to locate them. If the shop doesn’t have what you are after, they don’t send you away. They disappear down the street for an hour (probably to another shop) before returning with the wrong item. It’s great fun! You just have to learn not to get stressed about it.
The Indian solar panels came with mounts that were woefully inadequate. We have designed and ordered new ones from a metalworking shop. They were supposed to arrive yesterday but it turned out the shop couldn’t get hold of the materials. We are supposed to get them today. We fully expect that they will be built not as designed and more days will be spent waiting for them to be adjusted. Anyway, once we have these it will only be a matter of a day or so to finish the system (I hope!).
So that’s all for now. Next time I hope to be writing to say that the solar installation is functional and the clinic is no longer dependent on the mains supply for it’s electrical needs
Until next time!
Anton
Sorry it’s been a few days since I have written. I’ve been quite ill and incapable of doing much but have recovered in the past two days and am now fully back on deck.
I have a lot to say and I want to start with Mumbai and Delhi - two of India’s major cities. They are extremely polluted - one can’t see the horizon for the smog. I’m quite convinced that the populations in both of these cities which number around 20 million people each is largely composed of slum dwellers. I’ve spent some time walking through the slums (which has consequently made me realise how very fortunate I am to be Australian) and the conditions there by western standards are appalling. The streets stink – though fortunately not of sewage. I don’t know how they dispose of this but a river I passed by suggested that this might be where it winds up. Men seem to urinate indiscriminantly in any corner. With 20 million people crammed into the humid environment of Mumbai you can imagine the result. Cattle and dogs wander aimlessly through the incredibly chaotic and dense traffic. A family of say 5 or 6 people would live in a space the size of an Australian bathroom. No one seems to have what we would call a bed in Australia. they all sleep on the floor and even on the street as some people are even without a shanty house. It’s a common sight to see a family with their children sleeping on the sidewalk with many cars whizzing past their faces every minute. Shops are minute (usually much smaller than an Australian single garage) messy and dark. Shop owners often live with their extended families in the rubble at the back of the shop.
As for the daily routines of the people. As far as I can tell, wealthier families send their children to school but I think the majority are on the street and earn money by any means possible. Its common to see children collecting bottles and miscellaneous items which they no doubt try to sell. There are extremely persistent beggars in the cities who descend on any Westerner. Many of them look really terrible and you feel compelled to give them money. However we found they weren’t too keen to take food when we offered so they couldn’t be too hungry. An Indian we talked to said that most of the beggars were “professional” and could find honest work if they wanted to and we should not give money to anyone. Nonetheless each day we run into people so pitiful we find that we can’t refuse. In India no one ever seems to be doing much. Men seem to squat on the side of the road and talk all day. Men far outnumber women on the streets. I presume the women are at home.
The houses in the slums are very make-shift. Many slums have some sort of brickwork which may be one wall of the house whilst the other walls are non-existent or are composed of cloth, plastic or scrap metal. In some places everyone lives in rag-tag tents. I doubt most slums have running water or electricity however it is a common sight to see people tapping into the mains electricity supply with their own wires. This is very dangerous and extremely frightful to see. At best the cities can be described as utter chaos – hell on earth would not be an exaggeration. I find it appalling that the world can spend 700 times more money on “defense” than it does on world aid when people live in such squalor.
Since we arrived at the clinic I have had the opportunity to visit a few rural villages. The situation for the impoverished majority in the rural areas while dire, is in some ways much better than those in the city slums. The noise and pollution are absent and although many villages have no electricity, there is usually a decent supply of bucketed water to each household from the village wells. We have learned though that the water is often laden with parasites, bacteria and viruses and is a constant source of disease for these people . Most people live in quite nice mud huts albeit they are cramped and gloomy.
Now to the clinic. Dr. Derek Gehrmann heads the clinic. He is a real gentleman who has accommodated our every need – even driving us 20km into the nearest town (Bokaro) to enjoy the pleasures of Pizza once I had regained my appetite!!
Before I describe the clinic let me describe the circumstances in the surrounding areas. The clinic’s surroundings are typical of rural India. There are many neighbouring villages most of which have no electricity or running water. Although there are doctors and a basic hospital in Bokaro the cost is beyond the means of any villager and hence the reason for the clinic which serves the community free of charge and is totally dependent on donations to remain in operation. The surrounding population is largely engaged in subsistence agriculture and there are no surrounding schools which I know of.
The clinic caters to the needs of the local people via the following.
- Free Acupuncture, Homeopathic and conventional (western medical) treatment for locals.
- Education about hygiene and nutritional issues
- Training of village health care workers using the assistance of the WHO
- Free and regular disinfection of village water supplies in an attempt to control the spread of water-borne diseases.
According to Dr Gehrmann, somewhere around 70% of the cases they see are due to severe malnutrition which in this area often starts before birth. This is not malnutrition due to lack of food – no one is hungry. Most locals will eat three good meals of white rice a day. The problem is that this is just about all that they eat. No greens, no fruit, no variety whatever. This leads to severely suppressed immune systems and thus susceptibility to any disease that comes along. Due to the poor hygiene and polluted water supply, serious disease is common. The malnutrition is so severe that it actually affects IQ. Much of the population is badly affected by this. Tuberculosis, polio, malaria, leprosy, gut infections, skin conditions and other serious diseases are regularly seen at the clinic.
The area is swarming with mosquitoes which carry malaria, dengue fever and filiaris (elephantitis). We have been very careful with netting at night and repellant during the day but the villagers don’t have these luxuries.
Yesterday at the clinic we saw two cases of elephantitis which is slowable but not curable and a 10 year old boy with arthritis – caused again by malnutrition. Fortunately he has been diagnosed at an early stage and aside from providing him with pain relief, his parents are being taught about good nutrition and he should make a full recovery. One lady came in doubled over with severe spinal arthritis. All the clinic could do for her was alleviate the pain with acupuncture which is apparently very effective.
The clinics most important role is education. The only way the villager’s health will be improved is if they understand the basics of nutrition and hygiene. This is a long slow process as they are impoverished, set in their long established habits and frankly not very bright – again due to their poor nutritional condition.
In the next few days I will finish installing the solar system, at the moment the clinic still has a very unreliable and intermittent supply of electricity which has large voltage fluctuations. The system will change all that.
Aside from my being unwell, progress has been very slow due to the way the Indians do business. It’s completely hopeless by western standards. We went to a hardware store to buy screws and bolts. You can’t browse the shelves as in Australia. You have to describe what you want. The people behind the counter will discuss it among themselves for a while. One will eventually go off and rumble around in the rubble at the back of the shop and after a long delay return with something completely inappropriate. The procedure is then repeated until you hopefully get what you need. We went to an electrical shop to buy fuses. We had to lend the owner a torch so he could see to rummage around cupboards to locate them. If the shop doesn’t have what you are after, they don’t send you away. They disappear down the street for an hour (probably to another shop) before returning with the wrong item. It’s great fun! You just have to learn not to get stressed about it.
The Indian solar panels came with mounts that were woefully inadequate. We have designed and ordered new ones from a metalworking shop. They were supposed to arrive yesterday but it turned out the shop couldn’t get hold of the materials. We are supposed to get them today. We fully expect that they will be built not as designed and more days will be spent waiting for them to be adjusted. Anyway, once we have these it will only be a matter of a day or so to finish the system (I hope!).
So that’s all for now. Next time I hope to be writing to say that the solar installation is functional and the clinic is no longer dependent on the mains supply for it’s electrical needs
Until next time!
Anton
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