Early rise and early departure for the dam site. We arrived and immediately split into the two teams we had gathered yesterday (which seemed to be working well). My group had to walk through the grounds of the nearby Hindu temple in order to access our site and I feel that was as though we were getting a special blessing each time we went. Occasionally the Hindu priests were conducting services and classes, and they always smiled and acknowledged us we passed through.
The previous afternoon, Prakash, the foreman of our group (and a cousin to Makhan, one of the family members of the team with whom we have worked building dams since 2010) had singled out my grandson to work alongside him down in the "pit". Prakash and I had worked similarly together about five years ago and he proudly came up to the top of the pit and with a smile on his face indicated that Mister JOHN was working with him. I told him he was my grandson and laughingly said he should call him DOCTOR JOHN. Well Prakash took this seriously and called JT by that name the rest of the next two days! Whenever he needed something to be done, he would call for DOCTOR JOHN, and always with a big grin on his face.
We worked for almost four solid hours, occasionally taking an electrolyte break with a quick 8oz of infused water. This short break of less than a minute seemed to be restorative.
The previous afternoon, Prakash, the foreman of our group (and a cousin to Makhan, one of the family members of the team with whom we have worked building dams since 2010) had singled out my grandson to work alongside him down in the "pit". Prakash and I had worked similarly together about five years ago and he proudly came up to the top of the pit and with a smile on his face indicated that Mister JOHN was working with him. I told him he was my grandson and laughingly said he should call him DOCTOR JOHN. Well Prakash took this seriously and called JT by that name the rest of the next two days! Whenever he needed something to be done, he would call for DOCTOR JOHN, and always with a big grin on his face.
We worked for almost four solid hours, occasionally taking an electrolyte break with a quick 8oz of infused water. This short break of less than a minute seemed to be restorative.
We formed bucket lines down the hillside, passing basins of masala (which in Hindi means mixture, both in cooking as well as building dams). Two or three local workers at the top of the hill would mix up either wet or dry cement masala and then fill basin after basin with the mix and we would pass it along our line, down the hill to the bottom, where it would be worked in amongst the rocks, which we had also passed along our lines. Occasionally, someone would call out for a song, so I would lead the singing of "I've been working on the railroad" and the locals seemed to enjoy it, and our group did as well. If we were able to establish a good rhythm, we could space apart a bit further and toss full basins of cement or dry sand mixture down the hill. Amy Scheller from Pennsylvania and Andrew Bird from Las Vegas were two of the very hardest workers on our team. Several members of the Delhi-Megapolis Rotary Club joined us and got into the rhythm pretty well, especially Vikal and Manoj. However, not to be outdone, the "old dogs" were not so bad either. Drexel Smith from California, John Davies from Australia, Rick Tone from Yukon Territory all helped to contribute to the well-oiled machine we were becoming. Dave and Magda Baggett, both past district governors from North Carolina, also had their son, Russell, from Mississippi with them and we were so grateful for his solid and stolid and steady work ethic.
When we broke for lunch, we looked back down in the pit and I believe looked back with a sense of pride at what we had accomplished this far. As someone remarked, "we're not half-bad!"
We returned to the tent where the puja ceremony had occurred the previous day, and were served a well-balanced hot lunch by the kitchen crew from our cabin resort. Just being able to sit in a chair was a welcome exercise.
But, every good thing had to come to an end as we returned to the pit and began singing songs and slinging masala for another three hours. Occasionally, we need to speed up the process, so I would bellow, "MASALA!!!" to the crew and the people in the lines would chug along a bit faster. It appeared that ours was to be a two-tiered dam and things were shaping up nicely.
It was finally time to call it a day and take our busettes back to camp for rest or a swim in the cold and refreshing holy river. Even I joined a half-dozen great souls for a dip. A good day's work with lots of aches and pains, but a good day nonetheless.
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