The Village People Project

The Village People Project
A day in the life of…Brian and Brenda

6:00am - Mornings
Wake suddenly to a strange sound in the jungle. (something like a hippo giving birth or a lions roar)
Noise replaced with loud, sick sounding goats and roosters crowing in the rubber plantation behind us.
Step in bathroom and precede to empty buckets of cold water over head.
Head out to porch to read. Sun takes its time to rise over the mountain and reflect its warmth on the lake in front of us.

8:00am
Fumble through the kitchen trying to help the family cook Indian curry and coconut rice ball breakfast. (However, I’m a helpless nuisance in primitive conditions) Enjoy cup of chai tea instead and relish in the beauty of the lake front landscape.

9:00am - Meet George, BGM Project
Go on short hike around the lake to George’s house. George is a poor village guy with bad health conditions and an unfortunate hard-life story. BGM is a small grass-roots organization that we are assisting this month. (Small, meaning one extremely compassionate and motivated man and his dedicated wife.) This couple founded BGM while helping neighbors the past 15 years in their native village. They have been providing food, education, artisan classes, farm animals, wells, latrines, women’s support groups, tsunami relief and more.
9:15am - Project “Poo Pit”
We’re sent here today, to dig a 3x4x8ft hole to use as a septic system for an outhouse. (George’s house is a one room, bamboo stick lean-to, built into the side of a hill. There is no electricity, no water and no toilet facility.)
Tools provided: Chisel, hammer, spade, pan, coconut, pick and stick.
Weather: Occasional monsoon showers
Number of chickens pecking at my feet: Nine
Number of feet to dig: Eight
Number of helpers: One (ailing man), Number of spectators: Ten (beginning to feel like a city job)
Proceed to whack, hack, heave, chisel and hoist rock and dirt out of a 3 ft hole. (While neighbors hover above, perplexed at the sighting of white people in the village.)
9:30am
Carry countless pans of dirt up the slippery hill, while the other two steadily fill them up. (Never thought a ‘wheel barrow’ would be a luxury item.)
10:00am
Propose a better location to dispose of heavy dirt and rock, so that I don’t have to walk up the hill anymore. (really out of shape after 8 months of traveling)

10:15am
Another monsoon downpour. Join Geetha (Georges wife) inside for a nice refreshing cup of hot boiled, smoky water and rest on the dirt floor in her stick shack house. (Ah, I see there’s no point in taking off muddy shoes.) Notice that there is a goat lying on her bamboo bed? (note to self: Don’t complain anymore about ants and cockroaches in my bed.)
10:30am - Fauna
Watch the fish jump in the lake while listening (‘charades style’) to stories about neighbors who were attacked and/or killed by crocodiles on the shores of this lake. A series of loud roars (or birthing hippos)
echo over the water again. George pantomimes a prowling Lion. We think he’s saying there’s nine Lions that live on the other side of the lake from us? (Suddenly trying to remember correctly… Is it, “Never turn your back to a crocodile,” and “Run from, or stare down a Lion?”) Finally we catch something about “pay, ticket” and figure it’s a National Wildlife Sanctuary. (Wildlife sanctuary’s usually have fences, right?)
No more stories today please.
10:30 - Sister Stella & Brother John
Begin bailing rain water out of hole and back to grueling, ‘gravel making’ job. Geetha decides to rename us ‘Stella and John’ for the remainder of our friendship. (I think she has some biblical reason, but I’m remembering the song , “Ol’ John Henry, A steel driving man,” and our favorite beer in Egypt called ‘Stella Lager.’)
Continue to pick rock out of the hole (and out of ears, eyes, nose and mouth.) Scrape dirt into pans with a coconut cup. Occasionally check the width and depth with our stick measure. (remembering days of old …electric power tools, tape measures and modern shovels.)
11:00am
Hit solid bedrock, and work slows to the pace of a six inch chisel. Inch, by inch continue to make gravel and sand and remove from hole. Very slow, exhausting and unrewarding work.
12:00
Sister Stella and Brother John take a group break with George to enjoy another refreshing cup of boiled smoked water. Geetha proudly shows us her cooking fire and pot of boiled water. Note to self: Be grateful for boiled water as we would be sick and running for a toilet without it. (which I remember they don‘t have)
12:15 - Meet Geetha
Graciously take in a power snack, of sliced roots dipped in salt and watch Geetha go about her daily chores. BGM has recently purchased a goat and some chickens to help George and Geetha survive in this rural area. The goat will produce milk and the hens will lay eggs, and after selling these at the market, Geetha and George will have enough food for another day.
Geetha sings to her goat as she gives it a bath in the lake. She calls it her baby, as she cleans and kisses its long black ears. (She really loves her new goat.) Then she ‘mother hens’ her chicks around the hill lifting and kissing their little beaks. When she’s not tending to her new farm, she is foresting small branches, and chopping them into fire-sized logs. What she doesn’t use for cooking, she bundles up and takes to the market and sells for 2 rupes a bundle. (that’s only a few cents) A big job for a tiny woman, but we can see by her right hand swing, that she’s well qualified for this profession. (note to self: Lucky to be born in America.)

12:30pm - Back to work
Succeed in painfully passing some stones and a steady work pace resumes.
12:35pm
Hit bedrock again. Now, we have decided to re-name ourselves, “Jack” and “Hammer.”
1:00pm -Savior
‘Angel messenger’ comes to tell us that our lunch is ready and we have to quit for the day. Say good-bye to Geetha and George. Sister Stella and Brother John vow to meet them in the morning and work full days, until the poo pit is finished.

1:15
Grab soap and head down to the lake to wash with the rest of the village. (note to self: Thought bathing my body was a more private thing.) With a billion people in the country, nothing is private. Enjoy beautiful scenery and natural wildlife until an amphibious serpent slides by my side.












1:30pm - Lunch
Enjoy delicious curries, fish and rice on fresh banana leaf plate. Dig into gooey foods with blistered fingers, as utensils are not used in most of India. (You’d think a civilization that can operate automobiles, could manage a fork?)
2:00pm
Meet up with Nija and friend and take mile long ‘shortcut’ through banana plantation into town.
Take unmarked bus, to unmarked village on unmarked roads, to unmarked trails to meet unmarked people.
2:30pm - BGM Community
Hike along a river to visit small family with a new BGM Well…Invited inside for tea-declined. Hike up the hill to visit old lady with a BGM Latrine and BGM Goat…Given bouquet of flowers-accepted. Hike down the mountain to visit young woman with a BGM Well and BGM chickens …Offered dessert-accepted etc. Continued to visit numerous more BGM projects throughout the village.
3:00pm
Stop at tea stand to rest blistering feet and suck down several cups of chai.. Arrgh, Monsoon rain begins again.

3:15 - Banana Entrepreneurs
Hike over mountain to join women’s group meeting about banana chip business. BGM has trained a group of 20 women to make banana chips to sell in the city. Watch meeting as they make predictions, collect money to buy new bananas and discussed the marketing of their product. (note to self: pay attention, I will need a job when returning from this trip.)
4:00pm - Woman Empowerment
Hike back into village to join a women’s support group. (Nice, have been missing my friends.) This is, one of many groups organized by BGM to empower and educate women. Because of social castes, women and girls are still regarded and treated as second class beings. They come for personal support, education and talk about family and community issues (and maybe a little gossip too.) The women gather together sitting in a circle on the ground, each with their pad of paper, taking notes. One of the lessons taught is ‘personal finance.’ A leader collects 10 rupes from each woman which goes into the groups savings. After a certain amount of time, they are allowed to borrow against the group money. Women take out loans for things like a sewing machine to learn tailoring, or a farm animal to produce market goods. Today, the topic for group discussion is: “Plastic good vrs. bad.” (I’m so glad they brought it up.) I happen to have an enormous problem with a billion people throwing their trash on the ground. We discuss the recycling programs in the US and they look confused by my passion to clean up India.
5:00pm - After School Program
Hike to after school “Tuition Class” which is free for all local children and funded by BGM. Public education is just a couple of hours each day and not sufficient, even for rural village children. These private classes give children a better chance to succeed. Children of various ages, assemble at a neighbors house and sit on the ground under a plastic tarp. (And we complained, when they took pencil sharpeners out of the classroom.) A cow munches on hay behind us and chickens waddle through the class, but no one seems to be distracted. Today the students are learning where the USA is located and particularly the climate of Portland Oregon. Afterwards we play a counting game, followed by playing Hangman, then sing and write the words to “You are my sunshine.” (A good song for the rainy season I thought.) Class finishes with culture dance, theatre and song. We are the highlight of their school day, as they beg for us to return tomorrow.
6:00pm
Monsoon rain returns as we wait for bus back to house. Hope to catch the end of a sewing class for local women in our village. Bus runs late as usual. (Stand in pouring rain dreaming of hot bath and nice glass of red wine.) Wake to a truck horn and a gush of cold brown water, soaring in the air towards me.
6:30pm Candle-lit nights
Arrive home after a long exhausting day and discover it will be another night without electricity. Attempt to help with dinner (unsuccessfully). Instead stand in the shadows trying to learn how to cook Indian flatbread and curry by fire light. (Relieved also, that I can’t see the things that scuttle around the kitchen in the dark) Have another candle-lit dinner squishing foods through my fingers. Enjoy stories and share in the unique culture, living with a rural family in India.
8:00pm
Have meeting to discuss the needs of BGM with its founders Wilson and Annie.
10:30pm - All in a days work
Throw bucket of cold, dirty water over head, and call it a night.
At the days end, we fall onto another unfamiliar bed, in another unfamiliar place. It has been another exciting and fulfilling day. We remember a time not so long ago when we asked for, “More out of life.” It has responded, and given us sometimes more than we can handle. We don’t finish our days asking, “What is the meaning of life? We are living it…Every exhausting and rewarding moment.

About our work- B&B Relief:
We can see that BGM is doing amazing things with limited resources. The projects they have completed are the result of generous contributors in India and abroad. Their biggest struggle is a flow of consistent funding, so that programs can remain active throughout the year. Many months pass without computer, sewing or after school programs, due to lack of funding to pay the teachers. Volunteers like ourselves are rare, as they are a small organization without a promotion/marketing budget. What they need to continue their work is sponsorship and donations.
The supporters of B&B Relief have funded a new well for a local family here in Neyyardam, Kerala. Construction will begin this week. This is one family who will no longer need to hike down the mountain to retrieve daily water. Simple sanitation and hygiene will now be available to them and their neighbors. Photos of the well will follow as it progresses. We have also purchased a goat and chickens to help a few more families learn about self sustaining investments.
If you have an interest in:
-Basic Education for Rural Children -Women’s Rights Movements in India
-Environmental Awareness -Meeting the Basic Needs of the Poor
-Children’s Health and Nutrition -Promoting Sanitation and Hygiene
-Computer and Business Training -Well or Latrine Construction
-Distribution of Chicks/Goats/Cows -Teenage counseling and Adult Education
Then you can help!
If you would like to do volunteer work around the world; Contact: Ann, at http://www.ngoabroad.com/
She will help connect your skills, to the volunteer groups who need you the most. There are opportunities almost everywhere in the world. Get out there and experience something incredible!
If your not the intrepid traveler type, then you can help by sponsoring or donating to projects abroad.
If you would like to see your donation at work, we will be here in Kerala, India for one more month. (We can photograph those who receive your contribution and relay their thanks through photos and contact.)
This is what BGM needs:

Project Aprox./ cost USD
15 Chickens/ $20
1 Goat/ $90
After School Center/ $50 per month
(25 students, teacher salary and supplies)
Computer Training/ $100 per month
(15 students, teacher salary and supplies)
Latrine Construction/ $250
Well Construction/ $400
Tailoring Program/ $600 6 months
(20 women- 6 months)
You can also visit their website at: http://www.bgm.org.in/

If you would like to contribute to any of the above projects, email us and we will give you instructions on How to donate to B&B Relief (100% of donations go directly to recipients)

People like Geetha and George as well as a few more families in rural Neyyardam, Kerala Thank B&B Relief Contributors for their compassion and generosity. You make a difference to these people!