Examination Day

Fast track human chain to clear up the front of the building

This was the most critical day in the whole 20 Day project and we have been waiting for this day with our fingers entwined, I would say. Not only because they each weigh 800 Kgs and need some 30 people to lift but also because among different types of ferrocement roof channels we had chosen the most challenging shape and size — elliptical and 8. 5 meters long. Nirmal ji my local colleague and I had ventured into making these ferrocement channels after only a brief training.  So it was like a student waiting for the results of the annual examination. But we were already feeling reassured after our Guruji found them to be of good quality. Still we thought, the proof of a pudding is in the eating, so we were anxiously waiting to see how they perform, in handling and on the roof.

And here they come... Here they go

For lifting this back breaking weight the community leaders had kept insisting on inviting only male volunteers to come for the roofing day. We had hoped that we would put all the 25 channels up by this evening, but things in reality turned out differently.  First of all our famous male volunteers took much longer to arrive; somebody had to go call them again from the village. Normally our volunteer work force would comprise of some 80 percent women who would arrive spot on time. By the way volunteers come usually in groups of 20 to 30 from each locality in the village turn by turn. Secondly, it also took us much longer to clear all the leftover blocks from the front of the building and set up the movable scaffolding supports for mounting the super heavy channels.

And here they rest

So it was finally 12 noon when we could start with the channels. And the first one went straight up and on with very good coordination among the people and Satprem giving the instructions. The joy was no less than that of a rocket scientist seeing the rockets fire correctly and lift straight up and off, on D day. The second one went and the third one went and one by one all the fourteen on the first classroom went. Even the two channels which seemed to have developed minor cracks on the ground during curing behaved very fine. But by the time we put the 14th it was already 5.30 and our famous male volunteers seemed too tired.  So we decided that it would not be wise to start more as it would also be dark soon. So! Contrary to what we had thought, they actually had an earlier break today.

By the end of Day 12

South side of school

And finally this is a rare picture of the back of the person whose front you almost never see because his front is always behind the camera facing the pictures that you have only been seeing the front of. Confusing huh! All this while I have been trying to make complicated things simple for you. I am tired of that and now I thought why not try complicating a simple thing, of saying — this is a picture of me. You now also understand why some diaries are late. This is how I send information from the field for the website, from the slow mobile internet on my laptop.