June 1st: A final namaste in poetic form

A final namaste (a poem for my team and for our new friends):

4 weeks ago our team left Canada
Vienna, Vikas, Eunice, Vita, Ana and Mariana.
We met Jatan and our guide Chirag-Ji,
who introduced us to India - the culture and biscuits called Parle-G.
Chirag rapped to Akon.
Our car had air-con.
Many carries were shared, and cows and camels scared,
as we ventured through the Rajasthani desert.

One day we visited a temple.
We went to a health centre and women's empowerment meetings.
We embraced new situations with patience,
and gave children and villagers namaste greetings.

Our team's flexibility was admired by all.
We worked in the 40 degree heat and thankfully no one had a fall.

One weekend we took a bus and a train.
We made it inside just before the rain.

We played Stella Stella ola with our new friends.
It really felt like our routine would never come to an end.

Many funny things happened every day.
Encounters with wildlife, public transportation, and just funny things people say.

Despite a language barrier in communication,
We managed to finish a bathroom's foundation.

We never imagined to become so attached
to people and places as we travel.
But with an exceptional group, brought together by fate,
We will not soon forget India and the warm dusty gravel.

Taking part in women's empowerment meetings and gatherings in small villages around the district of Rajsamand

Pooja, our good friend who came to the worksite every day and even helped carry rocks and cement.

Uur young friends at the worksite

A woman who worked at a laundry shop in Udaipur with her grandson.

Saying goodbyes and giving thanks to Jatan for this experience.

Vita Sackville-Hii
DWC U30 Team Leader
Udaipur, India May 2014

May 28th: Saying goodbye to our host family & Vikas

We packed our bags last night and said goodbye to our host family early this morning. They have been so hospitable and accommodating during our entire stay and we were so glad to stay with them and experience village life! We are going to miss waking up to a cup of chai brought to our bedside, made with spices and fresh milk from our family's cows. We are going to miss the rooftop with the most incredible view of the stars on a clear night. We are going to miss the food and our new Indian little brother who always wanted to play games on our phones. Most of all, I think we will miss the warmth of family that we got to watch and also be a part of for a short while.

Our final dinner with our host family!

When we got back to Udaipur we went for a tuk tuk ride in search of a restaurant to eat lunch at. We found one, and fittingly, it was the same one that we had our very first lunch of the trip, one month ago! We came back to the hotel and finished a Bollywood movie on Vikas' laptop that we started last week. 

 In the afternoon, Vikas' cousin came to pick him up as he continues his travels in India to visit family. Our little group became even little-er, with just Vita, Mariana and Ana left. Eunice, Vienna, Chirag and Vikas - we miss you! Wherever you are right now... 

Vita, Ana and Mariana
DWC U30 Team Leader and Volunteer Participants
Railmagra, India: May 2014

May 27th: Last day of construction on the women's washroom project

We woke up early today and were treated to a breakfast of rice flakes made my our house mother, Saneha. Then we drove straight to the worksite, a few small villages away for our last day of construction. The masons and kids waved at our car as soon as it turned off the main road and down the short bumpy path to the location of the almost-finished bathroom. Man, are we ever going to miss this place!

We hopped out of the car and went straight to work, comfortable with the routine now. We mix "masala" (aka cement) with shovels and water from the nearby water trough that the cows drink out of. We carry the cement in "tagaris" (aka small metal bowls about the size of ones people use to bake cakes and cookies) on our heads and up steps made out of bricks up to the foundation of the new bathroom. We spread the cement on top of brick layers with metal tools resembling spatulas and we lay the bricks, lining them up with strings.

The day went by quickly and we had so much fun with the kids today. We stacked bricks around a small boy named Rahul who stood still and giggled as he began to be trapped in a rectangular brick box. We played Stella Stella Ola and drank chai our of small plastic cups and when it finally came to say goodbye for the final time we gave hugs all around and waved goodbye through the car window with tears in our eyes.

This is a photo of Shankar and Shanta, two of the villagers working with us and their two sons, during a chai break.

Though the bathroom is not complete, it is almost finished, with just a roof and some more stalls to build. We can't wait to see the finished product via photos or maybe even in person if we ever return to India!

Vita Sackvill-Hii
DWC U30 Team Leader
Banediya, India: May 2014

May 26th: A farewell party for the remaining volunteers

After a fun-packed weekend, we started the day off early since we had to head back to Banediya to continue on the construction work. Sadly, we had to say our final goodbyes to Chirag before leaving since he was leaving later that day to his trip to Mauritius! We all promised that it would not be a goodbye forever though, just a see you later. Vita, Vikas, Ana, Mariana, and Azad then rode all the way back quiet, absorbed into our own thoughts with sad-movie music playing in the background. The car felt empty with Eunice, Vienna and Chirag missing.

We finished two rounds of construction, one before lunch and one after lunch. We are finally making visible progress and we get to start laying bricks which is much less technical than fitting stones and cement together like a puzzle to build a foundation (which is what we had been doing for the past week and a half).

Standing in front of the brick wall with some local children.

In the late afternoon, Jatan threw us a farewell party where all the staff, construction workers and representatives were invited. It was nice to formally talk about our experiences and share some funny and inspiring stories over a cup of chai and some handmade sweets. We were given a traditional Rajasthani farewell by receiving scarves and tikis (small red dots between the eye brows or the position of the "third eye"). To our surprise, our group was also interviewed on camera for the local news.

The remaining team members with Jatan's Kailash (far left) and Om (far right).

Although we held a farewell party, we decided that we want our work tomorrow since we have one more day in Banediya before heading back to Udaipur.

Vita Sackville-Hii and Mariana
DWC U30 Team Leader and Volunteer Participant
Banediya, India: May 2014

May 23rd: The first of many goodbyes

Today was the first, of many, goodbyes of the trip. But before that, we all enjoyed Eunice's last day in India, trying to keep a positive attitude despite being sad about her leaving. We didn't really do much the first part of the day, as we had to wait for machines to fill in the wall we had made with dirt. The wall we built is only the base where the floor will be!

After that, Chankar Ji rolled up his pants, grabbed a water hose, and jumped in. At first, we all thought he was crazy, but soon enough Chirag joined him. After that, there was no stopping us! We all joined in the craziness, jumping around in the mud and trying not to fall into the deep ends of the (very dirty) "pool." Even Nerayan, Pooja, and other kids from the village joined in, helping us eventually succeed in tackling Eunice and Chirag into the mud!

After that, we all gathered around Eunice, as she was given the honor of placing the FIRST brick. While she was posing for a picture with the brick, Berulaal grabbed it and placed it himself. Though anticlimactic, it was a memorable moment of the construction.

After saying goodbye to Eunice, we all teared up in the car on the way to Kumbhalgarh Fort while reading the nice notes she had given to each of us. We got there and it was breathtakingly beautiful! The views of the city on one side, the rolling mountains on the other side, and the wall that lined them was amazing!

The fort itself was also incredible, with the towering buildings and the magnificent carving on the walls. We all stayed there, awe-struck, for a good while before attending the famous "Light and Sound Show" of the fort; this consisted of a narration of the Fort's history (in Hindi of course) and different parts of the enormous fort lighting up with it.

We had a delicious dinner and stayed up talking with Chirag and Azad, reminiscing about all the good memories we have created on this trip and crying of laughter at funny moments, which have been many!

Ana Gargollo
DWC Volunteer Participant
Railmagra, India: May 2014

May 23rd: Week #3 in photos

Here we are hanging out in front of Jatan's office in Railmagra. We are sitting with Jatan staff member, Om (far left), our driver, Azad (second from right) and our translator, Chirag (far right).

On Tuesday night, we watched a Bollywood movie with a group of school kids that attend programs run by Jatan.

 The foundation of the women's washroom is coming along quickly!

Time for a chai break!

The construction crew in front of our complete wall on Wednesday.

 Mango break!

 Hanging around at the work site and enjoying the shade.

We were interviewed for the local paper!

Vienna poses with a giant bag of Parle G cookies, our new favourite to eat while drinkin chai.

 Visiting a temple.

Vita Sackville-Hii

DWC U30 Team Leader
Railmagra, India: May 2014

May 20th: A recap of the team's work

As for our project work, we have finally almost completed the base of a building that any will be a women's bathroom. Our small team of six has been working so hard and it is really incredible to see the progress we have made with thee help of some masons and an engineer from the village. With about 1 week to go of work days, our goal is to start the brick walls and finish the building foundation so women can begin to use the structure as a private bathing, washing and toilet area - which is something in this village that they don't even get in their own home.

A group of girls came to visit the team at the project site!

A mother who is working on the project shows us her beautiful henna designs.

Our daily visits have been very eye-opening as well. We do not have a visit every day, but some days we go to women empowerment meetings, police stations, health centres, temples, or people's homes. We are always greeted with a small cup of chai and a place to sit and talk. Yesterday our "chai count" reached a new record of 8 cups of chai as the daily total per person!

Vita Sackville-Hii
DWC U30 Team Leader
Railmagra, India: May 2014

May 14th: Productive workday followed by "American" ice cream and the Sunset Temple

Whoever said noodles wasn't an acceptable breakfast clearly hasn't been to India! After that nutritious breakfast, we were fully ready to go to the work site and achieve the goals we set for ourselves yesterday. We arrived and got piles of sand ready for the cement mixture. We then went on to categorize rocks into sizes; this process ended up having around 5 sizes ranging from "super small" (with a Mexican accent), to small, to kind of medium, to medium to big and everything in between. Having completed this, we started building our own part of the wall, trying to communicate as much as possible and to help each other fit the makeshift puzzle pieces. We spent the whole day doing this kind of job and, I might add, getting very good at it.

As always, we went back to the office to have lunch and, before going back to the the work site, Chirag (our awesome translator) had no choice but to listen to our cries for ice cream. We tried a flavour called "American" and it was great - although nothing like you would find in America!

After finishing our work for today, we went to Sunset Temple, a beautiful one in a mountain. All the trees around were covered with bracelets and clothing, representing wishes people had made.

With roosters singing and locals cutting coconuts in the background, we took on the challenge of going through holes in between the rocks. This is done after you make a wish, and only people who are good at heart are able to go through. No, ladies and gentlemen, it is not based on body shape at all! You'll also be glad to know that everyone in our team made it to the other side!

After a bumpy ride back, in which the always adventurous Vienna chose to ride the motorbike with Chirag, we went back to the house. We played very intense card games before having dinner and going to bed!

Ana Gargollo
DWC Volunteer Participant
Railmagra, India: May 2014 

May 13th: More delicious food and trip to the Technical Resource Centre

Today was a bit of a frustrating day. We worked on building the last part of the foundation, which is a very technical process. We had to align rocks like a puzzle and then use cement to make the wall as flat as possible. However, because it was very technical work, it was hard for everyone to be useful and we constantly found ourselves doing nothing. We helped bringing rocks, mixing cement and bringing it to whoever was building, but it wasn't a very active day.

After a delicious lunch of cantaloupe, papaya, daal, chapati, rice and some type of curry, we went to the Technical Resource Center with Om. They showed us the tools they rent (for a maximum of 20 rupees per day!!) or sell to women in the village; these tools help them be more efficient in their work and therefore give them more economic opportunities, as well as time to spend with their children. After the demonstrations, we went to a field and used a sickle to cut food for cows and goats. We realized how much the new tools helped the process!

Later, we went back to the house and took much-needed showers before another (you guessed it) delicious dinner. We talked for a while about our frustrations of the day and decided to come up with a plan for tomorrow in order to be more proactive and productive.

Ana Gargollo
DWC Volunteer Participant
Railmagra, India: May 2014

May 7th: Starting work on the women's washroom project

We left early for the Jatan office in Railmagra, where we had breakfast of corn flakes (in hot milk), poha (rice flakes), and bananas. Then we visited our project site for the first time. This is where we are to construct a community washroom for women over the next several weeks. However, as of now, all that is present is a plot of dirt with few linked narrow canals dug in.

We dug in the morning in 40+degree weather, took a chai break after 15 minutes and went back to work before lunch. After lunch we rested and resumed clearing the canals of dirt. Tomorrow we will be laying bricks and cement to construct walls.

While we were working some local children came to watch us. They are on summer break from May until July. When we took a rest under a large tree, we made some new friends and taught them how to play Stella Stella Ola and then they sang ABC for us.

We waved goodbye as we walked to a nearby house in the village of Morra to sit in on a youth meeting, a project sponsored by Jatan. The meeting happens once a month for children as co-curricular learning and a chance for them to learn social and personal responsibility. These kids are told to look up to leaders such as Gandhi to stand up against injustices they may experiences in their families and villages. They attend government schools where some teachers do not show up or teach according to the curriculum because they are paid either way. The youth group aims to let children know that they deserve a proper education and that they can speak up if their teachers are not teaching.

On the road today, we picked up a small turtle and saved him from getting run over. We named him "uger" like the Jatan initiative because we gave him/her a "new beginning". We also saw part of Indian wedding as village women paraded down the streets singing and later there was load music and celebrations. Our guide Chirag G tells us it is wedding season in Rajasthan. Fun!

Later in the evening, we rested and snacked on chai and Parle G glucose cookies. They taste like baby cookies only more tasty, especially with chai.

Vita Sackville-Hii
DWC Team Leader
Railmagra, India: May 2014

May 4th: Introducing the team

And we're off! Today we spent about 27 hours in transit including flights, layovers and bus rides and we are still not at our final destination of Udaipur!! We still can't believe we are in Delhi feasting at the airport McDonald's on wait for it...mcpaneers! Yes, ladies and gents, India has mcpaneers.

We thought we would take the time in this first post to not only rave about the mcpaneer (which we'll be lobbying for back in Canada), but also introduce you to our team, who is getting close already. Our lovely team consists of 5 girls and one guy who is either err very lucky or...very unlucky, though we definitely think he is very lucky. Everyone, meet our dream team...

The team (from left to right): Vita, Ana, Vienna, Mariana, Eunice, and Vikas

1. Vikas: the sole bachelor of the trip and of Indian descent, this guy exudes cool strolling down the streets. Ladies, he looks like a local! All the way from Prince Rupert, he is bound to be a future MD reading casual lit on Harvard's healthy food and drink research as we board the plane. Our translator and cultural encyclopedia, the ladies are lucky to have Vikas!

2. Vienna: a Toronto native, this gal is THE most talented packer by far, weighing under any of our luggage with just two pairs of pants in addition to other needs. She is fearless launching for the spicy mcpaneer at McDonald's. A rowing superstar, we know she'll be laying down the most bricks this trip! Fun fact, her uncle works with Jackie Chan. No joke, this gal is one cool cat.

3. Ana: world traveller, this gal is visiting Eastern Canada followed by parts of Europe and then Mexico before heading back to U.B.C... and all after India!!! Crazy!!! Nothing fazes her, even when her shampoo explodes through half her luggage, she is calm. We're lucky to have this travel savvy gal.

4. Mariana: growing up in Mexico, this gal moved to Vancouver about ten years ago. Fluent en espanol, Mariana, is ready for anything and most excited to see the wondrous Taj Mahal. We will be keeping a record of the many sounds that she uses to communicate ideas, along with their translations.

5. Eunice: a talented writer, Eunice may very well be our resident blogger for our trip, beginning with her debut post: this one! Her wide smiles and wide camera lens will serve us well. Fun fact: Eunice went to preschool in Malaysia so she is well accustomed to the heat.

6. Vita: Last, but not least, our fearless leader Vita is responsible for guiding us through the entirety of the trip. First aid kit in hand, Aladdin pants on, this leader is ready for an adventure. After a trip with DWC to Nepal, she is a veteran to volunteering with DWC and keeping up team spirits! We're in such good hands.


So there you have it, a little intro to the team that will be spending the next month near Udaipur looking to help construct a women's washroom.

Until our next post. Namaste.
Much love from Delhi.

Eunice Hii

DWC U30 Participants

Udaipur, India: May 2014