Working on Water

Rabai lives in one of the villages and also works with MV Foundation with whom we are partnering on the water project. The only English word she spoke was "Photo" at the end of our day and I had to ask Shekar to translate because I thought she was speaking Telugu. She wanted her pic with us and then it turns out her eyes are closed. She was a sweet lady and very helpful in getting us where we wanted to go and finding the Sarpanch, etc. She's also the one who directed us to the good restaurant that was so inexpensive (see earlier blog).
We have been seeing ceramic elephant heads galore along the roads whenever we have gone to visit NGOs. Then recently we saw them all painted. Last Wednesday was a big Hindu celebration for which Hindus purchased these creatures and then either put them into tents for worship or dunked them in the Tank Bund River/Lake. It's hard to see exactly what the image is in the pix but look hard for an elephant's head (two different villages). The fellow in dark glasses in front of one of the "gods" is Shekar, a member of the Church who travels with us and interprets for us, which is good except that we don't understand everything he says either but we're understanding more as time goes by. Shekar is great actually. He has helped us with so many things and the whole reason we will be able to do this water project (or try to do it).
The little girl in the village pic is one who cried everytime Dad looked at her and then hid her face in her mother's skirts. They were all getting a kick out of her reaction and so were we. She never would warm up to us.

When we walked into this building where they do weaving, Dad fell into a big hole in the floor which catches rain water from the big hole in the roof above. He said he was OK at the time but his leg has bothered him since. Other than that, the weaving was rather fascinating to watch. It takes five days to weave cloth for one saree and they get 200 Rs for it which is $5. The woman nimbly spins the thread onto the box. Couldn't really see why she has to do that but we couldn't understand the Sarpanch (who thought he spoke good English but didn't) well enough to ask plus I had sweat dripping from me like crazy and couldn't wait to get out of that building. The Sarpanch took us in his car to the building for the filter and then to their Hindu temple which they invited me to enter. I took my shoes off. It is where they go to pray--very small and very perfumy. Looks a little different from the ones pictured and is in a permanent building.

The children in this village belong to the same village that does fabric weaving (see above). When we arrived we happened to stop at the school just as the children were getting out and they followed us to the Sarpanch's house where we are taking the pix. At first they were very shy. They crowded around us because of their curiosity but were afraid to shake our hands which we offered to them. After at least 10 minutes some began to take our hands and then they didn't want to let go. The Sarpanch tried to shoo them away and I couldn't help but think of the Savior when He said to let the children come. As you can see, they are very precious. They loved seeing their pic in the camera.

Some of the water-problem villages we've been visiting have had reverse osmosis filters installed by a political party seeking votes. They used the building this village had built for us and the filter produces only about 5 liters per hour so it is basically useless. They said they would build another structure if we would give them a filter. Not sure what is going to happen. We're willing to do it but SMAAT who has the filters doesn't want to tread where a political party has been.