The next few days - February 9-11

The next few days - February 9 - 11, 2010

Each of the next few mornings, we awoke to go to the dining room to have breakfast and then board our bus for a ride through the wildlife preserve. Sariska Palace was located at one entrance to the wildlife preserve, and our work site was only a few kilometers away from the gate at the other end of the preserve. It only made sense for us to be able to travel to and from the work site going through the preserve - this taking approximately one hour. An extra bonus was to be able to see many forms of wildlife as we made our way through each morning and each afternoon. Although we did not see any tigers, our driver stopped a few times, and shut down the bus, because he had heard the cries of various animals, warning the approach of a tiger. Each morning, we passed by a pool in the jungle, where between ten and fifteen different species were drinking. There seemed to be total harmony in this place, where perhaps on other occasions, one animal might be the predator over another. As I have mentioned previously, it was imperative that we stay on a tight schedule, particularly at the end of the work day, because the gates to the preserve close to the public at 5:00 p.m. sharp! That could be the one and only time in my travels to India over the past ten years, that people adhered to a precise schedule. If for some reason, we ever missed entering the preserve at the end of the day, we would have been forced to travel the entire perimeter of the jungle, which would have taken approximately three hours. Obviously, this would have substantially cut into our work project and seriously diminished our progress.

On day two, the Masala Ladies were awaiting our arrival, bent over and tirelessly cutting cement mix into the piles of sand which had been dumped the night before. They smiled when they saw us, and those who were assigned to "Masala duty" immediately formed bucket brigade lines and began passing the mix down from the top of the hill to the masons who were waiting to trowel it between stones or sling it into voids among the rocks that had been placed somewhat vertically. The "rock guys" Jim, Wally, Mark, Arnold set about hefting the larger boulders up and over the back wall of the dam most of the day. A tractor was driven as close to the wall as possible and the load of boulders was dumped ion a pile for transporting to the wall. Off and on, at lunch, Jim talked with several of us about the possibility of fabricating a lift to make our productivity greater and our chance of injury a great deal less. We scouted the area for some of the straight sappling-type upright supports used in building construction so we could then brace them together, attach another pole to be set at the fulcrum and then, with a rope sling tied to one end, we could raise and lower the boom, lifting these large boulders while not straining our backs. Jim suggested it to one of the foremen and the concept was met with about as much enthusiasm as the first time we introduced the idea of a bucket brigade line for passing Masala. Work on day two went amazingly well, although some of the group failed to stay properly hydrated and grew a bit faint. I had brought along some packets of electrolytes to put into the bottled water, and urged some of the team to drink these about every half hour and to take longer periods of rest.

Each team I have led finds its own cadence and this team was no different. Some people just do not work well passing basins of Masala. Others need to work a bit more on their own. Our group was no exception. Perhaps the greatest example of this individual need arose in Elena from Russia. As she had pointed out in her Email to me, just prior to arriving in India, she is a big woman who is very strong. She insisted upon carrying each basin or hod of mix, rather than passing it along a line of fellow workers. She also seemed to exhibit a rather stolid personality, and just kept walking, in a slow but steady rhythm up and down the hill. At one point, a couple of us sort of chanted out the tune to the Volga Boatman. I am not sure if Elena particularly appreciated this or not, but she smiled and yelled out, "I am strong woman!"

Each day, at two or three different times, Jim Wischhusen took photos of our progress from particular vantage points, in hopes of making a sort of flip book showing our continued progress. We were moving this project forward and I think even the local project supervisor, Dinesh, was surprised and approving. As I had previously stated, each of us seemed to find our particular niche and produced at our own respective speeds and capacities. Sara was concerned about some of her studies while she was with us in India, so Kelly Wike worked with her on her geometry problems - she being a former mathematics teacher in a previous life. It always fascinates me to learn of the various strengths a team like this has, and our resources seem to be boundless.

Lunch meals each day were better than the previous day, and we came to appreciate the abilities of the two cooks from Sanjiv's staff, as well as the two local boys who were assisting them. Almost without anyone asking, bottles of mineral water arrived just as some of us were needing a water break. A little later in the day, boxes of fruit juice were brought down to each of us, to help us keep hydrated. Each day we had rice of some kind, a couple of veggie entrees, perhaps a mutton or a chicken dish and always curd (freshly made yogurt). The curd served to help the digestive system, and also keep people's systems in check so we did not have to suffer from DELHI BELLY.

A temporary toilet facility had been set up, away from the food tent, behind some screens, and according to the women in our group, "It even has a toilet seat!" This was really helpful to those who were not yet accustomed to the local practice of squatting over a hole in the ground. Just another creature comfort offered to our group.

On the third day, after making several mock-up sketches, Jim, Susan and I scouted the area for some of those support poles I had mentioned. I had asked Sanjiv if he knew where we might find them and he did not know. Well, second best choice was four bamboo tent poles. These seemed relatively sturdy, and so we proceeded to move forward with the plan to "work smarter not harder". Arnold Quaranta had brought along a packet of 100' of nylon rope (none of us still have any remote idea as to what his thinking was, but thanks to him, we could move forward.) Evan had brought along his "leatherman" tool and so we were able to cut the rope in small strips of about four feet each. Jim, Susan and I worked together lashing two of the poles together and then the other two. Jim then placed the two sets of poles at right angles, the one cross piece placed about a third of the way down from the top of what would serve as the uprights. We then stood up our apparatus, placing the feet of the upright poles into a crevice of the enormous boulder that served as the anchor of one end of the dam. We tossed in small rocks to jam down into the hole alongside the uprights, and then added some larger ones, making it more stable, so the apparatus could stand on its own. A rope was then tied near to the back end of the cross piece (lever) and another rope was tied near the other end (the dipping end) of that cross member or lever. Jim then was able to find some heftier rope from one of the boys in the food preparation tent, and tied that rope to the nylon rope at the dipping end and proceeded to make a sling out of the heavier rope. (Hopefully, most people reading this BLOG have had the rudimentary laws of physics somewhere along the way of their education, so they can understand what I am trying to describe.)

Well, the moment had arrived. We were ready to test a small rock, securing it into the sling, having Jim command me to pull down on the opposite end of that lever, thereby lifting the rock onto the shelf he had tucked in against the gigantic boulder. We then repeated the process and the rock was lifted with great ease up and over the wall of the dam. YAHOOOOOO! Success. With a few minor adjustments. the three of us worked in concert with one another lifting one after another after another of the really large boulders up and over the wall to set on top of the dam for the next level. I can still hear the commands: "PULL! HOLD! SLACK! PULL! HOLD! SLACK! and finally another rock had reached its destination.