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February 15, 2011
After I got back from India last summer, I told a friend that I am going to spend the rest of my life building nutrition centers and toilets. He told me, "well, I guess you have both ends of the human body covered". I am very happy to report that the kitchen is finally starting to look like a kitchen. The marble countertops have been installed and the tiles on the walls have started to go up. Next week the construction workers will start working on the dining room. The skeleton of the dining room is there, but they still need to put in the floor and windows. Other than that, everything is starting to look very nice. We are really hoping that it will all be done by the end of March. Furthermore, we are still working hard on putting together the curriculum for the health and nutrition class we intend to offer the refugee population. Our hope is that by offering cheap, nutritious meals, along with an education component, we can really affect some long lasting change. But I am leaving Mcleod Ganj today for flatter ground and warmer weather.I am off to the India state of Bihar to continue working with a new Omprakash partner called Deep Jyoti. The purpose of this trip is to build our first set of toilets for the community there. Our hope is to build three new toilets and make them communal for Deep Jyoti's students and their families. Much like the kitchen project in Mcleod Ganj, we will have an education component. We are going to teach the community the health and lifestyle benefits of using latrines rather than resorting to outdoor defecation. We are going to employ a few locals to keep the toilets clean; we have no desire to solve one public health problem by creating a new one. That way, we are also pumping some cash back in to the communities. I am extremely excited to be going back to Bihar. I am excited to see the community members. I am also really excited to see how things are going to work out with these toilets!
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