CordUSA Sidhabari Service Visit 2013: July 22nd

Authors: Hiren Gihwala, Akash Mukavilli

Hari OM to all,

The New Jersey group would like to send our well wishes to all as we celebrate the auspicious day of Guru Purnima. We started our day by attending a Guru Paduka pooja this morning at the Tapovan ashram. Also, shortly before we left for the field we attended another puja where we were FASCINATED by a bhajan that the CORD workers sang. The bhajan was in Pahadi and was one of the most beautiful sounding bhajans we have ever heard.

Today, the New Jersey group had a chance to visit Soknidakot village. Upon our arrival at the village, we had a chance to meet with the owner of the house. She is 70 years old and full of happiness. After speaking to her we found out that she has been paralyzed on the left side of her body for the past 13 years. Despite being paralyzed for so many years, we were astonished by the warmth that she welcomed us with and by the happiness that she spreads with her smile everyday.

After sitting and having tea with the kind lady, our group set out to start the process of building the bathroom for her. (P.S. The tea was AMAZING!!) The process of building the bathroom will take three days. Today we focused on making sure the base for the bathroom structure was sturdy.

We started the process of constructing the bathroom by digging a hole in the ground. We used our great TEAMWORK in order to expedite this process.

Next, we went and fetched several rocks. We later used these stones to fill the hole that we dug. These rocks were HEAVY. As you can see in the images, we worked as a team to get the rocks from the spot where we found them to the hole that we dug. With the help of the mason and the CORD volunteer, we were able to easily put down the foundation of the rocks.

The next step in our process of building the core structure for the bathroom was to put a layer of gravel on top of the rocks. After completing this step, we repeated the process twice. We then put a layer of bricks around the rocks that made up our main structure.

While a few of us were working on the process of building the structure, Ananya and Radhika were diligently working on creating the waste storage tanks. They did this by cutting holes in these huge barrels. The purpose of these holes is to ensure that the water gets out of the barrels, but the waste remains in the barrels.