Four days ago I stepped off the plane into Mumbai and the most incredible rains Ive ever seen, these have continued consistently until the present moment. I Knew I was coming for the Monsoon season but wow! Rather than feeling depressing and miserable though the rains complete the surroundings providing a luscious beauty.
After a crazy ride through the city and a brief stay in a guest house (kindly offered for free by some relatives of Rushil) we boarded the plane to Mangalore where we were met by two other very friendly interns working at SELCO, Pratik and Srinath who have been our indespensible guides. A 1 hour precarious ride through the jungle in a small tin box on roads that were far too damaged and narrow for the high amount of traffic using them and we arrived in Ujire, our final destination.
Ujire is a small town consisting of pretty much a fork in the road with numerous shops and a couple of veggie restaurants fighting for space. Although theres only two restaurants from which to pick the menu is extensive and with the help of my guides I've had delicious food so far.
The accomodation is fairly basic but everything that is needed except storage space (4 of us are currently sharing and theres no cupboards, wardrobes, etc) and a shower, instead we use a bucket of freezing cold water. Theres also no western toilet in the whole town and the quads are taking some real punishment.
Upon arrival we were asked to look at various projects that were available for us. Rather than the stove project which I expected to be looking at, I am now looking into the potential for wind turbines to back up solar electricity generation by taking wind speed measurements at various potential sites and also low cost solar cooking stoves. Rushil the other EWB volunteer is looking into solar crop drying.
Although we didnt expect these projects, Mr Narayan who is coordinating this SELCO branch is very flexible as to what we want to do and the options are numerous and diverse so we both found something to suit our tastes.
From rainy India, goodbye
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment