Village Surveys

July 29, 2009 | Category: Events | News by: Spencer B. (volunteer)

I’ve been accompanying a survey team to visit several local villages, to get video footage of village life for the short documentaries I’m making.  We are going to assess the needs of the village and  to look for children who may be in serious need of help, because the school is ready to enroll 20 more children this next month.

Today we hiked several miles up steep switch-backs to reach the first village: it is very poor. The people are stuggling because their water source has become a trickle, and there are almost 100 people trying to live off that tiny amount of water. They also live off of what they can grow and the monsoon rains have been unusually dry this year.  The only way to bring any other supplies to this village is a couple hour hike back down the narrow, steep trail we came up, and then a three hour drive (or longer when you are walking or hitching) to the closest town with over-priced goods.

The people’s houses are made of local rocks, with walls 2 feet thick.  The inside of the house is only one room about 10×10 feet for cooking, sleeping, eating, etc. The walls and furniture are coated in a thick black soot from generations of cooking on an open stone hearth with no chimney, and only one window in the house for any ventilation. The ceilings are only about 5′6″, (I’m 6′3″) and they are caked in a thick, wet-looking tar that seems like it will drip off any second. All this blackness makes you not want to hang out long. It also makes me wonder what the inside of their lungs are like, from breathing all that smoke their whole life.

Often the parents are off working in the fields, leaving a band of dirty-faced kids to run around and fend for themselves. Sometimes you see kids as young as 7 lugging around their baby siblings tied to their backs. It is hard not to be wowed by the beauty of the landscape with the topograghy of steppes cut into the mountainside with long green shoots of rice or barley growing. But, the beautiful views are in stark contrast to the poverty and needs of the people.

We visited four other villages each with similar problems and needs. One was on the high mountain ridge
that is the deciding line between India and Bhutan. It was a long, tiring day but a great experience.

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