I haven't posted all week so this will be a big one about my trip to one of our field projects earlier this week. A day after starting work this past Monday I got to go check out one of our renewable energy centers in the field for a few days - sweet gig!
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| Autopan |
The 2 hour train ride north was a journey in itself, quickly filling up to certain overcapacity, with people jammed in every available crevice and vendors selling food, tobacco, and other products from baskets still managing to squeeze their way through somehow. Jumping on a pan, (like a rickshaw but with a flatbed for people to sit on the back), we motored along a country road to get to the small village of Ullon.
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| Site 25 years ago vs. today (below) |
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| VSSU main office |
The founder of VSSU started 20 years ago with an amazing vision and lofty ambitions that he has been quite successful in achieving so far, with many development goals still to go. A microfinance institution, library, orphanage, education and community center, and microentrepreneur training institution have all been established. I spent a few nights at the main site that houses the many interns they receive from all over the world. The few kilometer walk from our office to the VSSU building provided me with sites of: mud huts with straw roofs, rice husks drying on mats laid out in the sun, cyclists and school kids, cows, goats, and dogs.
Although it felt way out in the middle of no where, it is wired with electricity and I heard various TV sets playing inside houses as well as spotting a cell tower. India has some of the cheapest mobile rates in the world (like a 2gb smart phone data plan for $2 per month) and excellent network coverage.
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| Using multimeter to measure panel and battery performance |
VSSU also just this month received special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council which sounds pretty impressive and hopefully will help them continue to grow. Speaking with the founder he mentioned how frustrating the last few years have been, as the government stepped him to prevent him from raising funds from the community which he had been doing to support the various project claiming that only financial institutions are allowed to raise funds. This seems so counter-intuitive, for a government that can't provide electrification for 2/3 of the population (800 million), shouldn't they be encouraging communities to be self-sustainable, building programs such as this on their own? With populations increasing and resources declining, you wonder how much longer countries like Canada or Sweden can rely on their governments to provide such extensive social programs. I still definitely have liberal views in this regard, but I think more and more communities will have to become more
close-knit and their members start relying on eachother
for these sorts of things.
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| Small panel setup on the roof for testing |
Anyways, so my time there was eventful and informative. I got a sense of their operations and how they're trying to build up a local network with each renewable energy center. They're still a new venture and this center, being the first one established, just celebrated its first year of operation. It was cool to check out their product range and see the testing setup on the roof.
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| Chilling on the roof- playground and orphanage below |
I wandered around snapping shots, with tons of kids getting super excited to see me and running over to ask my name and where I'm from.
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| School bus |
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| New friends! |
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| plenty of room! |
We waited until nightfall to test out a few new lights then after initially getting on a train going in the wrong direction, caught the right one back to Kolkata. Finished reading Shantaram, which is a bohemeth of a novel but incredible - gripping adventure combined with words of wisdom and philosophical thought. Now reading the Dharma Bums. I'll post another update in the next few days on general life in Kolkata so far.
My flickr album is linked on the right side of this page, which has a bunch more photos, or view a slideshow:
REC Trip.
Last September I had been in New Zealand for about a week and was unable to find a working holiday job so I jumped on a flight bound for Christchurch to visit my dear friend and university flatmate Kyle, who's teaching at a rad alternative high school in the city (and fortunately safe and sound after the recent quake). It had been less than a week after the first big earthquake, which toppled many buildings, but thankfully left no casualties. We were awakened abruptly many nights in a row by strong aftershocks that shook the entire house. I wasn't too concerned about it at the time since I hadn't been there for the initial quake, and I knew that although many buildings were affected, it wasn't too grim. Still, the entire country banded together in support, and crews were working hard trying to restore some sort of normalcy to the city which had many sections of sidewalks and roads fenced off that were covered in crumbled bricks and shattered glass.
Less than a few months later, it was a mine explosion on the west coast that shook the country a second time, unfortunately resulting in the loss of 29 lives. It was incredible to see the support shown by the kiwis during that ordeal. Of all the places I've travelled, they are hands down the most genuinely kind, compassionate people I've met. I was working on an organic vineyard at the time with an awesome crew of fellow backpackers, and we were told there would be a national moment of silence that we could choose to participate in. It was without question that we all stopped our work at the determined time, which was the least we could do to show our support for those in a country that had been so kind to us. Looking down over the hills of the vineyard to the main road below, I noticed all of the vehicles had pulled over to a stop on the side of the road, while those of us listening to the radio on our phones at the time commented afterwards on how the stations had also stopped broadcasting: the entire country was on pause for those meaningful two minutes. These seem like small gestures, but it just further showed the spirit of the kiwis, and I'm not sure I could confidently say that same national solidarity would have happened in Canada.
Last September I had been in New Zealand for about a week and was unable to find a working holiday job so I jumped on a flight bound for Christchurch to visit my dear friend and university flatmate Kyle, who's teaching at a rad alternative high school in the city (and fortunately safe and sound after the recent quake). It had been less than a week after the first big earthquake, which toppled many buildings, but thankfully left no casualties. We were awakened abruptly many nights in a row by strong aftershocks that shook the entire house. I wasn't too concerned about it at the time since I hadn't been there for the initial quake, and I knew that although many buildings were affected, it wasn't too grim. Still, the entire country banded together in support, and crews were working hard trying to restore some sort of normalcy to the city which had many sections of sidewalks and roads fenced off that were covered in crumbled bricks and shattered glass.
Less than a few months later, it was a mine explosion on the west coast that shook the country a second time, unfortunately resulting in the loss of 29 lives. It was incredible to see the support shown by the kiwis during that ordeal. Of all the places I've travelled, they are hands down the most genuinely kind, compassionate people I've met. I was working on an organic vineyard at the time with an awesome crew of fellow backpackers, and we were told there would be a national moment of silence that we could choose to participate in. It was without question that we all stopped our work at the determined time, which was the least we could do to show our support for those in a country that had been so kind to us. Looking down over the hills of the vineyard to the main road below, I noticed all of the vehicles had pulled over to a stop on the side of the road, while those of us listening to the radio on our phones at the time commented afterwards on how the stations had also stopped broadcasting: the entire country was on pause for those meaningful two minutes. These seem like small gestures, but it just further showed the spirit of the kiwis, and I'm not sure I could confidently say that same national solidarity would have happened in Canada.
