These last weeks have made this entire summer worthwhile. We will try to give the condensed version, but we’ll see how that goes
The trip to Torpa, which is near Ranchi, India, began a day later than planned. On our way to the train station, we almost cancelled the trip due to traffic jam (like rush hour traffic, but worse) and torrential downpour (we are in monsoon season here). Luckily, we made it to the train 10 minutes before it left, phew. The train ride is a story all by its self. We dealt with a very very rude man who wouldn’t move, then forced us to move, then snored the entire night. We were on a three tier sleeper train, and Mary Ellen and Tim got the top bunks. Tim didn’t fit, at all; his feet stuck out into the aisle, past the curtain, certainly a sight to see.
When we arrived on site, after a 1.5 hr jeep ride, which felt like we were off-roading most of the time, we had some breakfast, as it was not even 8am, and took a short rest before our first tech session. Everyone still in the same clothes, the clothes that were soaked the day before, the same clothes that we slept in, twice, we began our first ever class on Solar Troubleshooting 101. Some of the sisters that put the class together were videotaping and taking pictures of their beautiful leaders (us) as we went over the basic introductions. Oh, I forgot to mention, we are teaching about 40 Indians, from villages, that have very little education, if any, and speak no English. Immediately, we realized this was going to be one of those experiences. One that you know is going to be a challenge, but somewhere along the way, it all is going to click.
Fr. Paul, our host did most of the talking which helped. Since we have been in India for about 7 weeks, we have picked up very little Hindi, the language spoke most commonly here. We are learning that every state has its own dialect with some not even recognizing Hindi as a language! That would be like if every state in the US spoke a completely different language, mass confusion! The class was taught in Hindi with the exceptional English word for tools and components like resistor and capacitor.
The first day of class might have been the funniest. We divided the class into 5 groups receiving a multimeter to test voltage, amperage, etc, special screwdriver, mini screwdriver set, wire stripers, pliers, solder iron, flux, and paste. It was a solid set up, especially the special screwdriver that would light up if it was touching live power, aka in an outlet. So each member of the class lined up to put the screwdriver into the outlet. This was hilarious/absurd to us about how backwards this was, but a lot of it stemmed from some of the students never even seeing an electrical outlet before; they were just fascinated a screwdriver could light up. Seeing the students starting to grasped basic concepts about electricity brought us back to our youth and the first few years of college.
Over the course of 5 days, we taught an extensive amount about fuses, battery voltage and other very basic fixes to make their solar lanterns emit light again. These lanterns were the lifeline for the village people. Without them, they could do nothing past sun down, which is about 7pm every night. This lights allowed the women to cook, the children to study, and the men to work on the house, well past dark. We were impressed with how much was covered in this class and wished we could have taken this class too. The best part was the practical applications where the students got free range to attempt to repair broken solar lanterns. Surprisingly, they were fixing a few on the first day. Fr. Paul saw no problem with letting them try to solder and cut wires without even mentioning these techniques in class. It would be if a teacher told us to go to chemistry lab and saying ‘go’ without much other instruction. We never formally covered soldering, an integral part of troubleshooting circuit boards. Luckily, we both were pretty well versed in soldering, and were able to observe, attempt to coach the students, demonstrate how to correctly use the tools, and then explain what we did. It was difficult for us at first to just let them make mistakes, but by the end a large percentage of the class understood almost all the material we covered about circuits, Photovoltaic panels, series and parallel connections, how AC and DC currents differed and several other ELE topics that we did not learn about until well into our college curriculum. The language barrier did hinder quite a bit of our communication to the students as we could not understand everything they were being taught and the questions they had (different language, we only followed by drawings on the dry erase board and via questions to Fr. Paul.). They few words most knew were corrupt, good, and the basic electronic components names. The most rewarding part of this trip was seeing the students struggle with soldering, watch us do it once, then reattempt and create an ‘achaa’ (Hindi for good) connection. Their faces would light up then they would show it off to their classmates. In turn, they became the new solder master and explained it to others in the class, exactly what was desired to happen in these types of classes.
The final day commenced with the us handing the students certificates for completing the class. They were so happy. It was obvious they were very proud of themselves that they could now troubleshoot their own solar lanterns and create electrify for their entire house/village based on a simple solar panel system. The amount of thanks and praise we got from the students made our time fully worthwhile in Torpa.
Class ended around 430pm every day, so e had most of the afternoons off. We were able to go hiking in the nearby mountain range as well as learning ‘28’ an Indian card game similar to Euchre. The bugs there were the biggest we have seen so far. And the mosquitoes carried the Malaria virus so we made sure we were careful. At night, we slept in mosquito nets, like we have been accustomed to our entire stay here. Some nights it was so hot it was very difficult to find sleep, even with a fan running above us. Tim recalled one night, climbing into bed around 10pm (very late) and having giant beetles and such already covering his net. He said he could hear them buzzing and running into the fan, bouncing off the walls and ceiling, falling on to his net causing it to move. After while, the bugs noises just becomes a lullaby of sorts. The coolest part for us was playing futbal with the local children. It was a blast to see them run after us, chasing the ball. Most of them were under the age of 12. They called us father and sister respectively. Although some teachers later asked me if Tim was a cowboy or a priest, gotta love his hat! In the end, we donated the ball to the local children, after signing our names to it of course! This was an awesome trip, it also included the trip back on the sleeping train; both of us were again on the top bunk, living the Indian lifestyle, comfortable as can be.
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