The past fortnight has really been the CHAI project writ small – the life and times of a development project aged seven and a half months. In these two weeks, the villages have shown us both positive and negative surprises, both signs of natural luck, and natural tragedy. Headquarters has stepped in to advise on key programmatic elements. The team here has shrunk in size, and then grown again – one step back, two steps forwards. And the situation with registration, unbelievable though it may be, has actually become even more complicated. All that and Lord Shiva has been drenched in milk, and Mr. Das has become concerned about "the increasing commercialization of these witchdoctors."
Whatever next?

In the Field
The villages of Upper and Lower Lingtem, where we have water sanitation and dehydration projects planned, are both nearly three hours drive from Darjeeling, and then up to three hours walk from the road. As a result we opted to stay in the village for four days, rather than spend all our time climbing and commuting. It was our first visit to Upper Lingtem, and although people were welcoming and we had a good group of volunteer trainers, we were faced with an extraordinary situation: we discovered that there is basically no diarrhea. There is a lot of scabies, there is jaundice, but no diarrhea.

On the other hand, in what seems like just a brief tumble down the hillside to Lower Lingtem, thThe Tamang family, who have been suffering from malnutrition and associated chest and eye complaints in the children, lost a wall from their house in a recent downpour. This would be unfortunate for anybody, but is disastrous when all you own in the world is one roof and now just three walls. The community group that we are working with is coming to the Tamangs’ support, and we managed to get a young English medical student who has been volunteering in Upper Lingtem to come and visit them and provide them with a referral to a doctor. But cases like the Tamang’s need a longer term solution that we are still looking for.

In two weeks, the CHAI villages have shown us both positive and negative surprises, both signs of natural luck, and natural tragedy.

Help from Headquarters
Judiann from the Health Technical Support Unit in Portland spent a very useful 30 minutes on the phone with our health team discussing the CHAI strategy for collecting statistically accurate data on the levels of waterborne diseases before and after our water sanitation campaigns. We also discussed how to investigate what made Upper Lingtem suffer from so little gastric disease, despite suffering from other waterborne disease.

Planning
In one day of participatory discussion last week we set a basic plan for the whole year ahead, and a more detailed plan for the coming four months. Highlights of this planning session include the need to pick up and refocus the skills of our community health volunteers, especially as the main project focus swings from health towards youth work and the Open Initiatives. With those in mind, we also need to find the space to pick up and develop our existing contacts with youth training facilities, and improve our skills and knowledge in preparation for the discussions in the communities that will determine the Open Initiatives.

Human Resources
We have hired Pravashika Limbu, who came into the team as a volunteer two months ago, as full-time Community Worker, bringing her excellent field and engineering skills She is a very welcome addition. Anjali Shrestha, our office manager, has been offered a job with Emirates airlines, to fly all over the world for a lot of money, which sadly for us, (but also rather understandably,) she has accepted. So we have advertised for a new Office Manager and have received some very strong applications. Expect news on that hire in the next thrilling installment!

Registration
I won’t dwell on the subject, because it gives me a headache, but after two and a half months of (I presume) careful consideration, the Reserve Bank has decided to forward our application for registration in India to the Central Government. This will mean a further delay, and it is our intention to try to nip that in the bud by visiting Ministry offices as soon as possible, ideally at the same time as the visit of Bob Newell, Chair of Mercy Corps’ Board of Directors.

In one day of participatory discussion last week we set a basic plan for the whole year ahead, and a more detailed plan for the coming four months.

And as for Lord Shiva
At this point in the year we give him offerings of milk and water to try to get him to coax the other gods out of the ground, where they have wisely retreated during the wet season. A few days later, all of the local traditional healers spend a night and day offering thanks to the gurus who taught them their skills, and then converge on central Darjeeling dressed in their traditional clothes and singing and dancing. Mr. Das, who develops our photos, feels this tradition has lost some of its wonder over the years, because the healers are now arriving in groups with political agendas, rather than as individuals paying their respects. He sees the change, but I will only be truly disappointed when it goes so far as to be sponsored by Coca Cola.

A Ride To Remember
Fondly, it’s called the "Grand Ma" and perhaps, it’s the only thing that is closes to the heart of the entire Darjeeling hills populace. The brainchild of one Franklin Prestige, started by the then East India Company (British Raj) in the year 1889, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), popularly known as the Toy Train, is in a world of its own. Aptly called toy because of its small size, the train runs on steam engine and has been running on steam ever since its inception. It huffs and puffs its way up the winding Darjeeling hills, covering a distance of approximately 80 kilometers from a town called Siliguri to Darjeeling in about 9-10 hours, where as a car will take about two-andahalf hours. Despite the long journey, come the tourist season, you will almost rarely find a seat to enjoy a ride, as it’s almost always fully booked in advance. If you want to enjoy the scenic beauty of the Darjeeling Hills and have plenty of time on hand, the train ride is ideal.

For those of you who want to experience a ride of a life time, there is hope in the form of a short ride rightfully called ‘Joy Ride’ from Darjeeling to Ghoom, (which, until a few years ago, used to be the highest altitude railway station in the world, at almost 7,200 ft above mean sea level and situated about 8 km from Darjeeling). The ride takes about 45 minutes and passes through the War Memorial Batasia loop, a place from where you can have a majestic view of Mount Kanchanjunga. Due to its unique status in the railway history of the world, the DHR was included in the list of World Heritage by UNESCO in the year 1999, an achievement that made all the Darjeeling residents proud of our good ole grand ma. So the next time you are visiting Darjeeling, don’t forget to add the ride on the ‘grand ma’ in your itinerary, and rest assured, you will remember the ride forever or you will be missing an experience of a lifetime that you could share with your grandchildren long after the good years are over.

Contributed by Colin Spurway, Darjeeling Project Director for Mercy Corps in India.

To read another Global Envision article about Mercy Corps' CHAI initiative see A Passage from India: Project Development during the Monsoon Season.