A Diary From India

Dawn Irvine and Gina McLean: Building Futures

> Day 1

> Day 2

> Day 3

> Day 4

> Day 5

Monday: Day One on site

Starting off so keen and jovial, it was something of a blow to our pride and self-esteem when six of us, including Gina and I, had to leave the site after lunch because we were all suffering the symptons of heatstroke.

Fighting against the disappointment of not completing our first full day was helped somewhat though when we found out that it was not only the hottest day of the year so far, but that it was even too hot for the two local site engineers who also left the site early!

I have however missed out much of our adventure so far, so I shall transport you back a little...

After 21 hours of travelling with no more than a couple of hours sleep, it was a very weary bunch of 11 volunteers that stumbled up the steps of our very welcoming hotel on Sunday morning. Travelling from the airport of Chennai on an airconditioned coach felt a bit wrong when we passed the old-fashioned buses crammed full of Indians, but sometimes needs must! We also missed having our sense of smell assailed by the barrage of sweet scents and pungent odours that hit you as you fly through the streets in a haphazard (slightly scary) fashion.

Listening from our hotel room now, I still find the cacophony from the madly busy streets and honking horns fascinating, whilst the thought of crossing the road is somewhat terrifying. There is a definite opening for lollipop ladies and zebra crossings in Pondicherry!

In between catching up on sleep and trying some of the delicious food (deep fried yam - it's a winner!) we also had the fortune to take a short tour of the French Quarter in Pondicherry, as well as learn a little more about the building challenge that we were undertaking.

A 7.45am start, with a hair-raising rickety bus ride to site, was all part of the adventure. For those that are used to building sites in the UK, the sight of cows, oxen, chickens and goats wandering around your foundations might be alarming but here it's all par for the course.

Following a Health & Safety briefing (there's just no getting away from it!) we got stuck into our first jobs - mixing a cement based mixture (by hand) and pointing the walls of some partially-built homes.

The work was tough, the sun unrelenting, but it was all completely made worthwhile by the constant stream of eager young faces, seeking our attention, and if they were cheeky enough to ask, our hats (which we were told not to give them along with anything else - in order to prevent jealousy around the village).

Tomorrow we will hopefully be better adjusted to the conditions and we will be leaving even earlier in the morning to try to beat the heat. And with a 6am wake up call on the agenda, I'm off to bed!

Tuesday: Second day on site and even hotter!

Gina came up with a profound thought at lunchtime when we were both cooling down from our morning's brickwork in the sun: if all those people that spend £2,000 or more on their holidays came and did something like this, not only would they have the holiday experience of a lifetime, that money would be spent on building a better future for dozens of people, rather than lining the pockets of the already rich tourist resorts. And it's not all about hard graft and sweating in steel toe-capped boots either - we're spending time experiencing the lives of a poverty stricken community - something that is enlightening, endearing and fascinating all at the same time. And they've got a packed entertainment programme for the evening too - you know what they say about all work and no play!

Today was something of a victory for us. Our numbers were boosted by the arrvial of Amanda Lamb and her friend Jo, and the earlier start was definitely a smart move! We all took it a bit easier with many more drink breaks, and the majority made it through the whole day without feeling ill. Our tasks consisted of more pointing to fill all the gaps between the bricks, sanding the doors and windows of the first almost complete house and chiselling away any drips of concrete from the floor.

Our reward for such good progress as a team was to be taken to a restaurant specialising in South Indian vegetarian cuisine. If I explain that I am having to lie down whilst writing this update, you might get an idea of how delicious the food was.

It's an even earlier start tomorrow, so I until then I bid you adieu!

Wednesday: Day Three and the first house is nearly complete

Today was the most touching experience yet. It was Emma's 21st birthday, one of our fellow volunteers, and we made it as special as we could by taking her some balloons and a cake to the site. This might not sound anything out of the ordinary until you saw the expressions on the faces of the children when we gave them each a balloon. It was like all their Christmases and birthdays at once. For one balloon. Now tell me one child in England that gets quite that excited about a piece of inflatable rubber.

To these people we are rich westerners who bring food, stationery and toys. To me these are people that haven't forgotten to appreciate the real riches of life, such as their families, their health and their homes. Many of them just have the foundations to their new homes that the Habitat for Humanity programme is building for them, and yet you can already see how proud they are. One man was having a shower on the foundations of where his new bathroom was going to be! They don't take food, clean water and good health for granted - instead they embrace every good fortune for what it is and are thankful for it. I think we could learn a lot from them.

Today the work was even more demanding. A 7am start aimed to beat the heat, and yet it seemed the sun had got up even earlier! It was both hot and humid so that even just standing up in it was tough. Despite this, we all still managed to do a lot more work on the first house which is nearly complete - though previous volunteers had done some of the work on it before we had arrived. My jobs consisted of more sanding, scraping down the brickwork to rid it of any lumps of cement and then applying the first touch of external paint. I found the demands of the children a little too much to cope with though when, balancing precariously on a ladder with a bucket of paint, a roller and a paintbrush, they asked me to dance! I know I'm good, but I'm not that good!

Gina spent much of the day up a ladder too, filling in the gaps between the bricks in the gable ends. I did get a picture as evidence but she demanded I delete it for reasons 'that her bum looked too big'.

Everyone seems to have adjusted to the heat, in so much that we know when our bodies need us to stop and take a rest. Now we understand why those builders you see in Spain never seem to be doing much during the day!

We're off to a temple, travelling in rickshaws, tonight - so this maybe the last time you hear from me!

Thursday: Day Four, Exhaustion sets in...

Last night we visited a temple of Ganesha, the zoomorphic Hindu god of success. He has the head of an elephant, which is why when you arrive at the temple, there is a real- life elephant that blesses you. You hold a 10rupee note out in your right hand, which the elephant picks up with his trunk (kind of like an elephant Dyson), then you bend your head forward and he lightly bops you on the head with his trunk - it was brilliiant. Gina almost wet herself with the excitement!

We're starting to understand how the Queen might feel when she leaves the house now... As we were pedalled from the hotel in our rickshaws, people in all the streets were waving and shouting 'Vanakkam' (welcome/hello). We have perfected our royal wave, and are delighted that we seemingly bring so much pleasure to everyone by us being here!

Day four on the site and we looked like an exhausted bunch of vagabonds, who all just happened to be wearing matching Shelter t-shirts (for the photographer that came on site with us today). After four days of 6 o'clock ish wake up starts, blasting sunshine everyday whilst building, unrelenting children and a whole heap of spicy food, I think we had all reached our peaks and rolled to the bottom on the other side! That said, a hardcore group of us did manage to work until lunchtime, painting the walls and window frames, sanding the doors further and filling in more holes. It's probably important to point out that the tools we are using are quite rudamentary and therefore you have to work even harder to get the results that you would expect at home.

There are a lot of men on the site during the day that appear to be unemployed. When I asked our group leader about them, he said many are unemployed because of the tsunami - either because they were farmers and their fields were overcome, or fishermen who lost all their equipment. Even now, two years later, the community is struggling to recover from the effects of the disaster. The rest of the men either struggle to find work, or choose not too - preferring to devote their time to alcohol or other substances instead. Problems that are not any different from our communities in England - but with a lot less support from the government. In this village, they are empowering the women to find ways to support their families themselves, in the hope that it will either encourage the men to pick themselves up and find work. And if they don't, at least the woman are in a good position to feed themselves and their children.

Friday: Day Five, The final day in the village

Today's been a good day. In fact, a very good day. Gina and I have just been discussing what this has all meant for us, and although we don't feel that we have been able to achieve a huge amount in the village itself, we are glad that we have been able to do something. We each raised £500 for Habitat for Humanity, which almost covers the cost of one of the 85 new houses that are being built in Chinnakuppakumran (probably spelt that completely wrong!) By coming to India ourselves, we have boosted their tourism, raised awareness for both Habitat and Shelter, and made the whole village feel special - or so they told us. And let's not forget the £4700 that we also managed to raise for Shelter (with a little help from a lot of friends) to help people in the UK.

We almost finished the first new house today - painting all the external and internal walls, doors and windows. Everyone was eager to get it complete, and the family whose house it will be are very excited. Following our morning's work, we were presented with a beautiful garland of flowers from the villagers and told how delighted they were that we had come as strangers to help them. It was very moving, and we were all sad to say goodbye.

We then went to the local school, on their last day of term, where we were presented with some more flowers and shown around some of the classrooms by the headmistress. The children were very pleased to see us, and we recognised a handful of them from the village (it certainly helped when two of them shouted out 'Dawn'!)

Now we are back at our hotel reflecting on our experience. For me, it is probably the most important thing I have ever done in my life. I'm not silly enough to think that one person can make a big difference to the poverty that is unfortunately everywhere on this earth, but I do now really understand the importance of us all making those small gestures at every opportunity, as they really will make the difference. If everyone did that, then maybe we could rid the world of poverty, and people wouldn't be dying every day from starvation, poor sanitation and no shelter.

If I could only take one lesson away from this experience, it would have to be that there are always more important things in life - don't sweat the small stuff. They might have had only one set of clothes, no more than a mouthful of food to eat for the whole day, no more than palm leaves above their heads and no idea what the future held in store for them, but the villagers never stopped smiling. And neither shall I when I think about my time here.

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