Monday, 14NOV

Day 1

Right from the beginning we know that it isn’t going to be an easy day, we are trying to organize ourselves on a piece of paper  and pack the clothes from the bed. We say good bye to our hosts and by the first rikshaw we are heading to the computer shop of Raj. Zsofi is getting of a bit earlier to do the last shopping before going to the village. Supermarket, a place that village people can only see in Bollywood movies or hear about from foreigners. 

I arrive at the office with the 4 backpacks where the ever suspicious smile awaits me…I unwillingly associate it with problems…..

I haven’t even sat down when the avalanche starts- they only have 8 of the 12 monitors- he has forgotten to order the power stabilizer and when he is trying to to do so they say the shop is closed on Mondays-they start to negotiate- it is not quite sure whether they are really closed or not- they have decided- they are open until 6- they are going to wait for me- waiting- the rented car has arrived- it’s 4 o’clock and the monitors are still on the way- to kill the time we are going to buy the cables- they don’t have them- they give us an address- the driver doesn’t want to go their due to the rush hours- we are going back to the computer shop- it’s 5 o’clock- the monitors are still on the way- we are going to buy the internet usb stick- tourists cannot buy it- 5 minutes later tourists can buy it but they need a passport photo- they send us to a shop 5 minutes away- we walk 15- we take the least possible 8 photos and wait another 15 min- we go back to the shop buy the stick and return to the computer shop- it’s 6 o’clock- we are starting to load the cars- things don’t fit in it- one minute later they do fit but without any space left- it’s 7 o’clock- we have to fetch the chairs- the driver doesn’t want to go- the car is overloaded- so we are going to buy the cables- the driver snorts- it’s 8 o’clock- we are going to the electronics shop- we load the car a bit more- the driver protests- we turned down the chairs and we are leaving for the village directly- it’s 12 o’clock- the driver stops at a restaurant and asks for out permission for a shot of whiskey- the trucks don’t have lights but at least all the cars go with high beam lights- all we trust is our Karma here- we arrive at 4 am- the people of the village get out of their houses and those who sleep outside get up as well- they wake the mayor up- the foreigners have arrived with the computers- they invite us in to sleep- we don’t want to disturb so we decide to sleep in the car- the driver disturbs and goes in to sleep- we are tired and fall asleep in the car on the computers with our cheeks stuck on the windows.

The first week of the Green Education Project

I have tried to make a list of things I have done so far but it does not seem to be working.  Not because I am not capable of making lists but because here every nuance becomes a complete chaos or adventure in a second. For example on the very first day they tried to cheat us by making us pay the fare on a bus that did not even go in the direction of our destination.

Bangalore like India itself is a place where nothing is for sure. It is  a place of contradictions where poverty and richness, traditional and modern things live together in a strange symbiosis without the seemingly necessary balance between them. We are only here for couple of days  to buy the computers, and the necessary things and also we are sorting out the transport to the village. It is not at all easy but we have arranged  a van for Monday at 2pm.

Last Saturday we finally got out of Bangalore and visited the village which is 330km north to the city. We started the journey in the Indian way….almost departing an hour after the “official” timetable. The driver decided to catch up on time by driving in a way which the “bored Europeans” would not call a life insurance. I don’t  understand why it is not clear for them that in case of a head -on crash with a truck both them and the passengers would die on the bus.  Maybe they think about their next lives or they just don’t care at all. Well, it did not take us long to see such a terrible head -on crash between two trucks.

I think in India everything is based on your karma, so we arrived safe and sound at our destination- a town called Kudligi. It is in backward India where people can hardly afford to even have shoes. Not much after getting off the bus all the curious eyes focused on us at the main square of the town. The bus left with leaving dustclouds behind and we were left with the curious gaze of the dark brown eyes of the autorikshaw drivers. Some old people kept stealing furtive glances at us and sent their grandchildren to say “Hello” to the newcomers. The cloud of dust does not but that of the shyness  disappeared soon and we soon found ourselves surrounded by people asking “Which country you are?” and why we were there. Prabu, our contact person from the village explained them our project which resulted in a smile on the enthusiastic  faces of the people around us.

Entering the village was like entering another world I could only read about in tales. The only people with brick houses and cars are the mayor and some of the council members. The narrow streets are full of barefooted children wearing only a small rectangular material around the waist.

 First we went to see the high school building and then the primary school. The first was a small building with only 3 classrooms for its 120 students.  The primary school  is much bigger given the fact that it is the only school for the 500 students of the nearby villages. We saw two empty classrooms thinking that they had prepared it for us- we actually found out later that the students don’t have benches and desk at all, they sit on the floor while they are on the class.

Later we were invited to the mayor’s house where all the important decisions of the village are taken by all the important members  of the community ( and in the presence of the not so much important people, the dozens of children hanging on the terrace handrails to see the newcomers)

They asked me to decide where we want the computer room ( the primary or the secondary school) but I wanted themselves to choose from the 2 options.  I told them my ideas on the advantages and disadvantages of each place ( the secondary school has less space and electricity, the primary school is more spacious but there is no electricity).  At the end they decided on the primary school and the mayor promised to install electricity as soon as possible.

We said good bye until Monday when we will come back with the computers and the necessary material.

So that’s all for this week. I hope  I can show you more photos and tell you more stories soon about the project and our village life.

If you want to take a look at the rest of the photos you can do it with a click here :  Picasa Green Education