Want to be more flexible? COME TO INDIA!

Living 6 magnificent months in India, as an intern in Educare, has been such a great, incredible experience. I learnt so many things, met so many amazing, awesome people and lived so many experiences that I cannot list them in one single page, but that I'm sure they will stay in my mind and heart for all my (long, so long,) life.

However, I believe the most important thing I learnt in India and in Educare is the flexibility. I always thought I was a very flexible person, able to deal with any kind of unforeseen events, to find a way to sort it out even if everything could seem a huge issue.

Because I had never been to India before January 2016.

All my ability and skills have been tested, again and again, during my whole indian adventure: every time (that probably means almost every day) I thought I was about to go too far and overcome my limits, and probably kill someone.

But what am I talking about?

-Flexibility, when you plan a meeting with someone from the community, you go to his/her house, and she/he is not there because "random excuse/things to do" or, on the opposite, you just go to check if they are okay, and they offer you the longest chai-time ever, asking you everything about your family, country, studies, and why we "Angresi" are so weird, and, last but not least, taking a picture

Dr. Pinkie, such a precious, friendly resource in Rait! (but sooo curious about our lifestyle...)

-Flexibility, when you schedule your trip all around India, and you don't have so much time, and the train is cancelled/delayed, or your bus runs so fast that you reach the destination 3 hours before the scheduled time, but it's 4 AM and all you can do is sitting outside with your friends, blankets, and see the sunrise; 

-Flexibility when you are waiting for someone and after 3 hours they come as nothing is wrong, because "this is indian time", even if you have loads of things and duties to do 

- Flexibility is when you go meeting your friend, the Ayurveda doctor of the village, for a project, she invites you to her house for a chai, and finally on the way to go she asks you to stay overnight and have fun together at the yoga school where she teaches; 

- Flexibility is when you schedule such an important skype meeting/interview/call with your family, and a powercut comes for 10 hours; 

- Flexibility is when you plan to cook for the doctors arrived for visiting the women of the community for the Free Health Camp Day, and you run out of gaz, and the place where you can buy a new one is far away and impossible to reach in time; so all you can do is going and praying a Dhaba to cook for 15 people to take away, 

- Flexibility is when you plan your weekly schedule with meetings, research, staff to do...and there is a Dam, a wedding, a birthday party and we are all invited for the next 3 hours, eating the best thing you will have in your week, meeting incredible people to whom you can show your (poor) hindi; 

- Flexibility is everywhere and anytime, from your breakfast time with no power and no gaz, to your evening, when you want to take a shower because outside is 40 degrees and there is no water left in the tank. 

But flexibility, for me, can be summed up in one of the last moments I lived in Rait with our landlord, Uncle: it was 11 AM or so and as I was about to leave Educare, I was full of things to do, manual to complete, event reports to edit...It had been a rainy week too, meaning lots of powercuts; but suddenly Uncle arrives.  He literally ordered me to take a knife and follow him in the garden, because we had a lot of "saag" (for me, simple weed and leaves with no interest). 

He showed me how to cut it (hey man, it's not the first time I do it!), he showed me how his vegetables are green and big (yes, I can see them every day) and then he told me he will teach me how to cook the famous "saag". 

WHAAAAAAT??!!!! 

Cooking, right now, only understanding half of the words he says and with all the things I have to do?!? 

No possibility of explaining him about my schedule, so...let's go for it!

We cut onions, garlic and tomatoes (of our garden!!;), he came in the kitchen and showed me hot to cook these dark green leaves I would have never eaten (common', this is like salad!you don't need to cook it!): finally we spent nearly one hour together, without almost saying a word, or at least until I saw him putting a full spoon of chilly, and after that obliging me to try the sabzi: NAHI-JI!!!ME HACHA NAHI (or however you write it)

I tried my best hindi to let him understand I don't like such a spicy food, but, as you can imagine, my hindi skills are soooo undeveloped, that I was forced to try it...

OH MY GOD!!!SUCH A GOOD SABZI!!Probably one of the best I ever made (with some help). Uncle smiled (I promise, I probably saw him doing it only twice in 6 months) and seemed very proud of himself teaching how to cook to this white (unable) girl.

Flexibility is one of the most important teaching and gift that India and EduCARE gave me: I must add, of course, all the people I met there, from my house-mates, now part of my global family, to the little children in the After School Program or Girls Club, passing through all the shopkeepers and doctors who helped us.

They completed and supported me in such an incredible adventure!

Federica Villa - Italy

Health Project Manager and Coordinator in Rait

Events in Rait

We have just worked intensely hard for the cultural and religious events in Rait. These events were Mithuna Sankranti and the Mela. The former describes the entrance of the sun starting the third solar month in the Hindu calendar. This is considered to be a highly auspicious time in which women take part so that they can find a good husband. So what did the Rait Centre team do to take part? We made a gargantuous amount of Halwa (a sweet dish made of Semolina, raisins, ghee and of course oil). We served the Halwa on plates made from leaves. We focused on celebrating the Goddess – more in particular Bhumi Devi (a Hindu Goddess representing mother Earth) and had various pictures of her printed along with some of her inimitable traits. We also focused on Laxmi, Saraswati, Tara and Parvati. We had a quiz for the community members to attempt, if they answered the questions correctly, they would receive the amazing Halwa. The main aim was to get the children involved, so we could celebrate with them and link the traits of the Goddesses to the environment. As soon as the school finished for the day we went and got the children to come to the Restore to take part in the games we had set up for them. We had a funfair type of game where the kids had to throw a ring around a packet of cookies or a bottle of soda, if they were successful then they got the prize! Nonetheless, the kids were incredibly excited about the Halwa and the games and a lot of them seemed to be interested in Bhumi Devi in relation to the environment.

Stand during the event

Interested school students

Informative talk

A few days later we had the Mela event. The event is historically important to the state of Kangra. The story goes like something like this.... the king of Kangra and the King of Chamba had a battle in Nerti (Nerti is a town that is only 2-3KM away from Rait). One king was beheaded and had blood on his hands, he fell to the ground and his hands landed on a rock that is now part of a temple. All of Kangra state takes part in this Mela and celebrates it in their own unique style. We set up a stall in the central area of Rait. We made chocolate Ladoo’s (a delicious recipe of almonds, dates and coconut...THANKS GAJNER!!!!)... over a 100 of these bad boys. They were popular. Very popular. It was like Shakira in the form of food. Or Amitabh Bachan... whatever makes people crazy these days. Everyone loved them. The ladoo’s sold out in just three hours. For the rest of the day we served Nimbu Pani (water with lemon). Luckily it was a hot day, and the people found it to be a refreshing drink so they can continue their adventure in the colourful cacophony that was the Mela.

Colorful kurtas

We stayed there until 7 PM. We handed out brouchers about the Mela, encouraging the story of the Mela. We had pictures printed of various community events all the previous and current interns were involved in. We also had items made from the women that  were involved in the MicroFinance projects (hand-made stitched bags along with hand-sewn pine needle baskets and bracelets).

One man from the massive crowd of people had approached and asked “What’s this all about? Explain what you are doing.” I put on my ‘most positive ideal EduCARE intern’ hat and explained why we are participating and what was on offer on the table. I explained that the Restore items were made by the women in Rait to improve their economic development. He said it was a good initiative. I went back to my chair, he went back to his friend. They started talking and slowly approached the small table with the modest yet highly intricate and skilled items available on the table. His friend asked how much one of the pine needle baskets was and happily bought it. WE SOLD A RESTORE PRODUCT! This was a moment of celebration in itself and this boosted the morale of the team.

Food break

People came from everywhere to witness the hustle and bustle of the Mela. The small road (the only road) in Rait was swarmed by people of all ages, mothers with their mothers and children smiling enthusiastically at each stall and boys and girls having fun. Colours of electric orange radiating from the ultra sweet Jellebies, mountains of golden brown fried Pakoras with litres of bubbling oil, the aromas of the unhealthy and undeniably tasty food attracting people of all generations spellbinding them to their stalls lining up like ants to consume the food.

Pakoras making

It was awesome to be part of this experience, to be on  the other side of the table serving people experiencing how challenging it was to serve so many people. Despite the level of humidity, ear-piercing noises from the endless traffic and the mosquitos that were swarming around us we were more than capable of putting our best foot forward, promoting the organisation, our projects and ourselves. BRING ON THE NEXT MELA!

Educare Team

Jayan Amin - United Kingdom

SWASH project manager in Rait

A dreamer with the feet firmly on the ground.

It is a fact that when someone chooses voluntarily to work for an NGO does it for personal motives. Although for some reason, it is easy to forget that in our freedom of action, to work for an NGO in a foreign country requires adapting ourselves to certain rules and ways of acting.

Before enrolling myself within EduCARE India my personal and professional expectations were far away from where they are nowadays. I thought that in an already established relationship between the NGO and the community I was going to be able to create artistic and creative workshops for the community within my project for the NGO.

After my first week in Rait (Himachal Pradesh) in which I observed how other members of the team worked, I realised that there was almost no community engaged so consequently projects running with difficulties. This statement does not only reflect an issue but unrealistic expectations from my side and an incoherent action plan proposal.

Is it the lack of verbal communication the cause of the problem? Is the strategy for engaging community what it is failing? Is it that community does not want to work with people coming from Western countries? Lot of questions came into my mind since I arrived but none of them well enough formulated under EduCARE premises.

After uncountable number of productive meetings, brainstorming and informal conversations with the members of EduCARE for the past two months, I understood that expectations should be according to the context; otherwise they are not expectations but utopic dreams.

Meeting in Naddi

How good you know the NGO and how it operates?

In the daily living within the community we discovered that members of community do not really understand what EduCARE volunteers/interns are doing in the villages. It is known we work for an NGO but what does to work for an NGO really mean? EduCARE India works with concepts such as Sustainable Development, Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation, Systems and Design Thinking, Grass-roots level community engagement, Community empowerment. Prioritises learning over anything else; and promotes to project and act locally under a global approach (very roughly said).

Without knowing the meaning of these and more concepts the NGO work with, the way it operates and its scope it is difficult to get a complete understanding of what, where, when, why and how we and our projects should be managed for accomplishing positive outcomes as individuals, as part on an organization and as citizen of a global world.

How good you know the community?

Talking from my experience, I came to India as individual wishing to be able to make a difference on the quality of living of the village population, then I found that I did have almost no idea about Indian way of living, Indian culture, its languages, its religions, and so on. How possible is to create a successful socio-cultural project for an almost unknown culture? Now I am allowed to say that it is practically impossible.

To work for a community or even just for an individual a deep knowledge about its/ their needs and wants is required. Before creating a project proposal is needed to make an exercise for ourselves and ask to us what are the individual/ community needs? Do its/their needs match with the global needs? Then, and only then, the scope of the project will be better adapted for the change.

Women from the community

How good is a project to make the difference?

The goals and objectives of my initial project proposal are another incoherence to add to the list of false expectations. As Rome was not built in one day we cannot expect to change the vision of a whole community from one day to the next one.

If I have seen we have certain issues in the way we run some of the projects and the way they impact in community is because we pretend to make all changes at once. We are told from EduCARE ‘think big, do small’. My dreams and ambitions did not allow me to see that the sum of many small steps marks a path ahead where there was none existence before.

Taking all these things into account might help to create more realistic expectations and better outcomes of our experience and our projects; otherwise, frustration and demotivation might become part of the Indian experience, and as I always say and repeat to myself ‘there is no need to suffer’.

Emma Gutierrez - Spain

CCC project manager in Rait

It has been 4 months...

It has been 4 months, since a new chapter, a new journey has started. It has had many unique moments, challenges, days of travelling (in total), super tasty food (which made me quite surprised). However, I still cannot forget the reaction of the officer in Larnaca Airport who saw me flying to India and asked the reason behind this. As I told him that I am coming here to work in a small community, his reaction was “Woaww! Be careful and I wish you all the best good luck!” This conversation made me think what I was actually about to do is to start a brand new life in a land with so many surprises that I could not think of at that time! This was a bit frightening and made me nervous. Yeah, I should be careful from a person with a Western life perspective. However, as I kept moving on, I found out that I should be careful not because a bad accident can happen such as an attack from a monkey around our house or an unlucky choice of a food can cause some trouble later on, but more because of the things can go unexpectedly with India bringing surprises to a daily life.

You never know or guess what can happen in a day here. This actually makes me more enthusiastic on the daily routines of the life, making the experience full of thrills and actually fun! You start the day with everything well planned in your mind then ending up at the end of the day doing something completely different, for example being involved in a “Dam” being invited from a known family or even a random person who is interested on to hang out with “Angrieji” people. Such attractions during a daily life become the highlights of the days here for me, being involved in cultural wonders of Hindu family, tasting amazing foods, chatting and even doing yoga after the dinner.

Random Dam Invitations turn into good memories

On the one hand, such attractions can trip the plans involving your projects. I can recall such events on my past 4 months here easily. For instance, a project related visit to clay mines in local area in order to get some clay for building can end up with being involved in wrestling event as part of the festival which took place just in the clay mines where most of the people were watching, community men being involved. Or for example, cancelling training for making bamboo furniture as the trainer person from local community turns out as a drunk man and being inconsistent and unreliable. Although such surprises can be annoying, they are all challenges, which make the whole experience colourful. I need to add the unexpected trips, which were decided in 5 minutes, either project related or for weekends. I can honestly say that such experiences are the ones who keep more places in our minds and of course in our hearts.

As I look behind to make a small feedback to myself for this blog, I am amazed on how much I learnt and I am still learning. I have learnt not only about the culture, local community, foods, language (although I still have big struggle with), but also within eco building premises. As a manager and a newbie coordinator, I now have a freshly growing knowledge, practical experience and more courage to handle the problems that can be small in our daily lives but are bigger in India! Before I have acquired myself as a non-practical engineer, whereas now I am getting into a medium-level practical engineer where I can lead as manager, plan ahead, handle challenges, and create solutions! These can become handy in our house for building shelves, shoe racks, ReStore furniture, garden solutions and the newest ones clay stove and a clay oven or these can even be project related solutions! The latest ones are just because we have been out of gas in the house for several days. 

Clay stove after having no gas at home

Greenhouse construction with a spectecular view

In these past four months, I have met many people with beautiful personalities, some being interesting, funny faces, serious faces, personalities with warm hearts and some people just staring at me endlessly with a lot of curiosity. I would like to mention about the interest of people on me. Hindu people seeing a guy with dreads, I can be a Guru or Baba- spiritual person in Hindu society. By the way my whole country, Cyprus, should be proud of me or award me as a representative of Cyprus as I have so far informed many people about my little island, they are now aware of the existance of Cyprus, an island that exists in the Mediterranean Sea!

PS.1---Another thing that I should mention is how the cow dunks and cow urine is an amazing thing! People here use them for building, burning material, natural pesticide, natural fertilizer; this should be why Cow is a holy animal here! I have used it as building material and it gives a soothing effect to me while mixing it whit my hands! 

PS.2---I am writing this blog post in a day that started with 35-37 degrees Celsius and I am working under hot sun and now, I can barely have access to internet or electricity due to a heavy storm and rain outside with a show of lightnings to our view!

So, one should accept the challenges and surprises here in India as advantages and fully enjoy them!

Faik Nizam - Cyprus

Eco-Building Project Coordinator/Manager in Rait

Rait and the progress of its Vika Centre

It’s now a couple of months that I landed in India. First experience in this incredible big Country.

My new home for the following months is Rait, a village situated 20 km from Dharamshala, in Himachal Pradesh, the State in the North West of India. The town is quite nice, every morning I can have my breakfast facing an incredible view of the Himalayan Chain, I can hike along the river as well as walk throw the wheat fields. Such an amazing location!

There is just one thing I like more of the extraordinary nature in Rait: its inhabitants.

It’s incredible how the people living here are very kind and always ready to help for everything you need. Of course we are the foreigners coming from all over the world, so they are curious about us, about our families, our countries, but it’s not only that. If you need any help, no matter what, you will find at least one person ready to help or support you to come out of the situation.

One example that shows the kindness of these people happened just few days ago:

During the last weeks the team focused its energy on the VIKAS Center. VIKAS has a double meaning : in Hindi means development and, at the same time, is the acronym of  Village Knowledge, Awareness and Sustainable development. The idea is to create a proper space built for the needs of the community. The Center may include several facilities, which the more important will be : an Education and career Resource Centre, an ecoStore / REstore, a public health assistance and First Aid centre…  In the long term, we hope that these ViKAS Dev Centres can be run directly by the village communities where we work in, as a platform to help them address some of the social, environmental, educational and health issues in their own communities.

Following this mission we are renovating the space, where the VIKAS Center will soon open. Our priority was repairing the wall of the center with the plaster and then coloring it. The people were really interested in and often they stopped by. They love talk with us, have a chai together, try to help in every way they can. The community or at least the neighbourhood  were really helpful. They borrowed us brushes and spatula and they also gave us suggestions. Even the children wanted to give their contribution on helping us to paint. It was really funny!

Painting with the children from Rait

What can I say…within the village I feel at home: smiles and good friends! I’m very glad to be part of this supporting community, always ready to welcome the new entries. 

Thank you to our helpers!

Andrea Putelli - Italy

Centre Administration Coordinator and Forestry Project Manager in Rait

A weekend in India

Before coming to India, I was assigned to work in Rait, Himachal Pradesh. As excited I was to get to know this community, I also wondered how much I would travel and see the areas outside of this village. I read all the blogs on this website to obtain as much information as I could about what my weekends would look like (in addition to information about the projects in Rait, of course). Regardless of how much I read, nothing could have prepared me for the adventures that were to come. 

Now that I have been in India for more than two months, I, alongside my fellow Rait-ians, have travelled every weekend to villages and cities near and far. Included in the growing list is Shimla, Kashol, Manali, Dalhousie, Chandigarh, McLeod Ganj, and Udaipur. 

Shimla will never be forgotten (not that any of these weekend adventures would be) because It was riddled with both the good and the bad.

During one of my first weekends in Rait, I went to Shimla with Sylvja and a friend from the Harike centre, Sacha. It was a perfect opportunity to un-wind and seek some adventure outside of the Rait. So at 6:00 p.m. on a Wednesday (the last day of the work-week), Sylvia asked, "So are we going somewhere?" We looked at each other with that "oh-what-the-the-hell" look, and we quickly packed small backpacks not really considering logistics or considering; we were our the door by 630pm. Let me tell you, travelling by local bus during the night is not exactly fun. To all the future interns reading this, just know that local overnight buses will become your norm. Sylvia and I must have taken the world's worst bus driven by the world's worst driver (all of the buses in india will seem like this but, seriously, this bus was bad). With foreign smells and broken windows, we spent the next eight hours of our lives holding on to our seats for dear life. We literally could not rest our grip for fear of flying to the opposite side of the bus or inadvertently elbowing some cute, unsuspecting child. Sylvia and I also did not anticipate just how cold it would be in Shimla and on the way there. By the end of those grueling eight hours, we ended up wearing literally every single piece of clothing we had brought.

Arriving at 4:00 am with no reservations, Sylvia and I proceeded to walk the hills toward the main area. For two hours, we knocked on guesthouses door to door inquiring about availability. What made it worse was the snow. Yes, it was snowing. The two pants, two shirts, and two sweaters I was wearing could not keep out the cold. We finally found a guesthouse and slept for a few hours. With tired still in our eyes, we met Sacha mid-day. The first destination was the monkey temple. As you can guess, there were monkeys everywhere, but these were no ordinary monkeys; these monkeys were monkey thieves. Slowly creeping towards us with a nonchalant and calm demeanor, one monkey was just asking for trouble. He suddenly leaped toward my head and stole the sunglasses of my face. I wish I could say that my wonderful friends, Sylvia and Sacha, jumped to my aid, but no. They shouted and stared at me. I have to admit that my reaction would have been no better! 

Over the next 18 hours, the three of us unexpectedly went on a hike; visited some interesting and not-so-interesting temples and monuments; and nibbled on everything imaginable from coconut and peanut brittle to Chana Baturi to pizza. Finally, on Friday evening, Sylvia and I said our goodbyes to Sacha and we parted ways. We got on yet another gruesome overnight local bus back to Rait. We returned to our centre at 5:00 am with zombie eyes and strained backs (as we always do after a weekend of travel). After sleeping for a few hours, Sylvia and I went to the main market for the weekly house grocery shopping. As I was buying vegetables, several locals gathered around Sylvia and asked if she had been in Shimla the previous day. In a state of confusion, Sylvia and I pondered how they could have known that. A man came running to us presented us with the Himachal Pradesh newspaper.

Low and behold, a picture of Sylvia and I was on the front page. In Hindi, the caption read, "Tourists are enjoying the snow in Shimla" (or so we were told - I won't pretend I'm cool enough to read Hindi). Sylvia and I had no idea that we were being photographed! Being that Sacha is not in the photograph, I assume it was taken before her arrival. On one hand, I suppose it's kind of cool to be in the state newspaper, but on the other hand, it is somewhat disconcerting... We were 8 hours away from Rait yet everyone in Rait knew exactly where we were!

All in all, my weekend in Shimla was, like all the other weekend travels, unforgettable. For any future interns coming to India, don't do what I did and try to obtain as much information about as much as possible. Much of that information still won't really prepare you for this great adventure. Just know - You will be cold; you will be hot; you will be happy, you will be sad; and you will be sick. 

Just take it as it comes and have fun :)

Kelly Strautins - USA

Women's Empowerment Project Manager in Rait

Living in India

Before coming to India, I was warned by my relatives about how careful I should be and was told about so many clichés here. I am not saying that they were wrong but after staying 6 months here, I have seen so many things to say that India is incredibly amazing.

Beside my stay in Himachal, I have also been able to travel for holidays and I have seen things that I would have never expected. Travelling here can either be exhausting or incredible; all depends on how you place yourself in the situation. I understand why people call it Incredible India. From north to south, west to east India, everything changes so much: language, people, food, habits, weather and nature. And I have not even seen 1/3 of this country.

Here, all your senses are awakened and you will feel yourself alive and awarded.

Your eyes will be amazed by so many things - The colors of clothes; the crazy cows, donkeys, horses, monkeys and goats that will chill in the street; the Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians that will follow their religion next each other; the Himalayan mountains in the north; the incredible forts almost everywhere; the crazy Taj Mahal; the beautiful beaches in the south; the nature of Hampi; the spirituality of Rishikesh and Varanasi; the star gazing in the desert, in the mountains and at the beach.

But the paradox between rich and poor living close by each other is also part of this experience, as the lack of waste management system that is a real question and the craaaazy traffic of big cities.

All the smells will stop you. From the food smells to the street smells, that is what will make you stay in a place for more than few minutes or make you go away. Curry, masala, turmeric, ginger, but also less appetizing smells from the street and pollution. If you love spices like I do, you will have to make sure to try every single food. There are so much tasty food and different tastes from north to south. It’s maybe not always the healthiest food but what is good is not always healthy!

Travelling is crazy and so is the available transportation: car, bike, tuktuk, local bus, public bus, roof of a bus, train (with proper ticket and general ticket), camels, jeeps, truck, and an ambulance. I might repeat myself but once again, India is incredible. So many noises, from the horns, bus conductor, street sellers and music. But in all the mess, you always have a peaceful place, for me it’s Himachal.

I have been lucky to be placed in the beautiful state of Himachal. Among the mountains, sometimes very cold, sometimes super-hot, there are so many to see and so many people to meet. My stay in Rait went through ups and downs, as I have already mentioned in the other blogpost. I am very thankful to EduCARE to have given to me this incredible opportunity. I have been lucky to spend 6 months with people from this developing village. If you ask me about my daily activities, it would never be the same but here are some of them that I won’t forget. Waking up and taking your breakfast in front of the mountains; going to fun club and having fun with the cool kids in town; going to girls club and discussing relevant subjects to girls’ development; going to the migrant camp and having fun with the kids; teaching the woman how to use the stitching machine; visiting the woman in Rait that are willing to work with us on microfinance projects and planning it with them; finding out new projects and visiting different people that can help; organizing workshop in schools; working in the garden; going back home and preparing the food all together. I have learned many things here that make my stay a life changing experience. Among many things, my relatives will be surprised to see me cook Indian foods, stitch with the stitching machine, growing mushrooms, tend to a garden, etc.! I will miss all the people in Rait that were always smiling at me; that would fill my tummy with chai and sweets every day; that would converse with me through smiles, laughs and sign language as I believe that the language should never be a barrier.

View of Himachal Mountains

Besides them, I will miss all the interns that I have been working with in Rait. I have seen fifteen different interns coming and leaving the house and my time has now come. I wanna give a big shout out to all the people that cross my way on this beautiful journey!

Anyway, here is how you should see life: Never stress your mind with little things when you can just make it easy by looking at it through another perspective.

Sylvia Rajaonah - France

Rait Centre Coordinator and Microfinance Project Manager

Eco-Building in EduCARE India

When I arrived to EduCARE in October, there were no Ecobuilding interns nor previous coordinator. Some projects were done in the past and a few more were already spotted, so it was time to start working. I was expecting to stay in Naddi but I was sent to the new centre where community engagement was the most important part of the first months in Harike. Through all these house visits and walks around the village, I was able to observe the habitability conditions of most of the families. Five factors define a slum - lack of potable water or sanitation, overcrowded houses with no durability and insecurity of tenure - and you can easily identify some of them in the communities where we work in EduCARE. Although it's a small scale, with between 40 and 120 families, reaching awareness and improving their skills to finally help them building the needed infrastructure are the right steps to make a difference.

The number of Ecobuilding interns increased in the last months what allow us to develop new ideas and projects. In December we received Niall from Ireland, who has previous experience in bamboo and earthquake construction. He came right before Christmas holidays with lots of enthusiasm and willing to start building!

In January two more interns joined our team, Faik from Cyprus and Alexis from France. They are now working hard in Rait and Naddi respectively and we'll see the results very soon! The last Ecobuilding addition was Lamia from Madagascar, who joined EduCARE a couple of weeks ago and will be starting the new centre in Rang Mahal.

Currently, we have ongoing projects in the three main areas we work on: interns' houses, furniture and community projects.

Indra´s homestay with bamboo structure and mud walls

In Harike, we are improving our centre by building a fence that will keep strangers away during work hours - they are welcome the rest of the time!, making new furniture for our common area and designing the future ReStore that will open soon. The garden keeps busy our interns in Rait, where they are planning a greenhouse and experimental vertical farming to extend to families who don't have enough space for an horizontal orchard. Faik is also making new furniture now that the centre is full. Alexis will show soon the result of the greenhouse he's been planning in Naddi, next to the nursery where the forestry team work. Finally, all the interns in Gajner are finalizing details for the ReStore launch, including furniture and a canopy made by Niall. He's also working on the ECRC design and a new homestay in Indra's colony. Two weeks ago, he delivered a three days' on site workshop for interns and community about bamboo and mud techniques, and the outcome is that the homestay is almost ready to use!

Indra's Homestay

They all are small projects that will improve the interns' stay or the communities' conditions. Hopefully we'll serve as an example to them, increase awareness and family incomes, transfer our knowledge, eliminate the stigma to some materials, adopt a more sustainable way of life for, at the end, improve their habitability conditions and dignify their lifes.

María Reyes - Spain

Ecobuilding coordinator in Harike

Surviving Without Gas!

I am currently working as the ReStore/Microfinance project manager in Rait, Himachal Pradesh, as well as the ReStore Supply Chain Coordinator for EduCare.

Being in India for almost a year now, I learned a lot about myself, about others, but also about how resourceful human beings can be! Sometimes, you have to deal with power cuts, sometimes there is no water running, and sometimes you run out of gas!  Not being able to shower and smell for a whole week is one thing that I can do! But, not being able to cook and taking away my body juice, ohh my god this is too much!

Just kidding!  Human beings are capable of always finding a solution to their problems, isn’t this amazing? Not that I didn’t know that before coming to India, but sometimes you truly realize things when you are facing them.

So, this is the story of when the Rait center ran out of gas!

It happened on a Saturday morning, we woke up and, as usual, we want to cook our breakfast. As Pooja turned the stove on, no gas was coming. No pressure, don’t panic! We tried to call Uncle, our landlord, but he was not answering. We, then, went to his house but he was not there. Can we panic now? No, of course not! We will just have to deal with it. So, how do we do that? Well, we go back to the basics!

Lunch was not such a problem because usually people go to the dabba in Rait to eat something but we had to be prepared for dinner.

Since we are eight in the house now, we divided people into cooking teams. That night, Pooja, Sylvia, Fayk and Andrea were cooking.

Cooking on the fire thanks to Pooja!

Led by Pooja, they scavenged some woods and paper in and around the house and used bricks to build a fire place. They set up everything on the roof of our house. They brought the utensils and had previously cut the vegetables. They managed to make a nice fire. Before cooking on fire like this, you need to dip the pans in soil and water so they do not get dark and ruined.

It was pretty awesome to look at how they managed to cook all the food like this. They made pakora and curry with rice and, I gotta say, it was really tasty. The hardest part during the cooking was the smoke because it was getting into their eyes. And let’s not forget that at this time of the year, it is really cold in Himachal Pradesh. Cooking in the dark with fire and the cold was a big challenge, but they did it! The taste was so different than when we cook on the stove. It did take a long time to be ready, of course, but the result was amazing!

Interns having a great time despite the inconveniences of cooking on the fire

The day after, it would be our team cooking (Kelly, Craig, Federica and I), so we got some good tips that night. We were already talking about what to cook the next night and when we should start cutting the vegetables to have the dinner ready by 8 o’clock.

On our way to the Fun Club on Sunday, we saw a truck delivering gas tanks in Rait. We did the exchange and we didn’t have to cook on fire that night. I was pretty disappointed because I was really looking forward to doing it. It was not the first time the Rait team had run out of gas and this won’t be the last time, I’m sure. When it happened, they had to cook outside for a whole week before getting a new gas tank. Fortunately, Pooja was there to save the day and she showed us everything.

So, if it happens to you, don’t panic! Team work and a little bit of imagination always makes it work.

Mathilde Buchet- France

REstore Supply Chain Coordinator, Rait (Himachal Pradesh)

My experience in EduCARE: from Paro to Rait

I have to refer to two different places when I write about my experience with EduCare as I had worked in two centers (Paro and Rait) completely differentiated by people, thoughts, projects and atmosphere but united by EduCare. What I can mention and what I cannot in this blog seems very difficult to me because there are a thousand memories coming to my head when I think of my last three months with this organization. To witness the diversity in this country in two neighboring states with respect to people, lifestyle, language, food and landscapes was very intense. Two states so close to each other but so far in many ways.

Initially, attracted by its mountains and scenic beauty I wanted to be placed in Himachal where I thought I could work alongside nature but I was asked to move to Paro which I must say was disappointing. However after speaking to Mr. B I realized that to begin with it would be better for me to move to Paro to work on the projects that I was interested in and then move to Himachal later depending on the projects I will be involved in. Punjab was a very good experience indeed as it was a remote village and I had the opportunity to learn a lot from the villagers and the other interns I met and worked with. All of us were from different parts of the world and it was very nice to live and work together on different projects, we had the time and liberty to work on our projects at our own pace and convenience. Even though we were all assigned to different projects we made the most of it by sharing ideas and helping each other wherever and however we could from soap making to making a garden for the migrant community, we had our hands on all the possible work that we could be involved in. I am missing all those people I met, the migrants at the camp, the kids, the interns with whom I had spent so much time every day from making breakfast till hitting the bed and not to forget, breakfast at Indojap and Fauji’s chicken curry. I hope to meet all of them soon during my travel. 

My initial plans were to stay with EduCARE only for 2 months, but by the time I started enjoying my work it was already going to be the end of my internship so, I decided to extend my internship for another month to be involved in something I really liked and always wanted to do. Thus, after a month and a half in Paro, I was asked to move to Rait. I was happy to go to the hills but I was equally sad to leave Paro as I had been already attached to the people and place there. Thus saying good bye to the place and people I already felt belonged to in just a month and a half, I left for Rait ready to meet new people and a place which I was not aware of. 

Me with Aurelien, Breanne and Amelie in a festival in Hariana

The place and the intern house was very different from Paro, two neighboring states but so different in every way pertaining to weather, language, people, food and landscapes. To witness the diversity in this country was very immense and intriguing. Nevertheless, I had to start getting used to the new interns, the villagers and also the projects that I would be working on. But in no time I was very comfortable with everything already and I commenced work with the same enthusiasm I had been working in Paro. Again it was an intense time in Rait as I had only 6 weeks there. I felt that I did a lot of different things in Rait when compared to Paro as I was always on the move working with the other interns on different projects, meeting the villagers to speak about our projects, meeting government officials, working at the local school and so on, I was never confined to a single project, I had something to be involved in all the time which helped me learn and understand many things, things I may never be associated with In the future. 

Working with completely different set of people in two different centers in such a short span of time was very intense for me, but I enjoyed every bit of it during my three months with EduCARE. This organization has helped and inspired me to get involved in the kind of work I was always interested in. Now all I wish for is to involve myself in helping the underprivileged in this country in whichever way possible.

Madhu, Sylvia and me with Dr. Sudarshan Dabroch and his family, the only ones using biogas in the village

Rizwan Ahmed - India

SWASH Project Manager, Paro (Punjab)-Rait (Himachal Pradesh)