On the Road Again

Friday, Aug.7, 2009 - We left Aizawl at 4 am today to beat an impending taxi strike that was called off anyway. I think Ray had Rama make the story up just so we could beat the traffic, and we did. Aizawl at 4 am is a very different place than it is during the day--almost eerie. It was still very beautiful, a sight like none I have ever seen! As the sun started to come up, you could see the mist in the valleys and clouds wrapped around the mountaintops.

We passed through many little villages on the way. The villages get an early start on the day, and there is always something interesting going on. Can you imagine Sears delivering your fridge like this? We stopped a few times for food or to talk with the drivers coming the other way. At one market where we stopped, there was produce for sale but the people were in the field already so they just carved the price in the melon and left a jar on the table. Rama has been very kind in being our guide and cultural interpreter. I don’t know what we would have done without him.

The road itself is in not bad shape, for the most part. Sometimes landslides mess it up pretty badly, but we made it through. The issue is that the route chosen for the road is definitely the long way around! It continually goes up and down and left and right, and often it seems to do all four things simultaneously! I mean, people pay money for a ride like this at Disneyworld! It is a bit like riding Space Mountain for 7 hours straight!

The scenery makes the ride! Lush green jungle on unbelievably steep slopes; incredible waterfalls cascading through the jungle, erupting into a clearing, then crashing back into the jungle disappearing from sight. I was truly impressed with the views. I can think of few places that have such low population density. This is truly rugged, uncharted country.

I can’t imagine building this road in the first place let alone maintaining it, but they do. We met a patching paving crew that was resurfacing the road. The gravel is made by breaking rocks with a hammer, and the tar is heated and mixed with the gravel at the side of the road in wood fired containers. Many new bridges are under construction, which is good, because some of the old ones are bloody scary!

We made it to Champi to a very warm welcome, and then went straight to bed! Tomorrow will be a busy day!

Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 – As I suspected, it was a very busy day! I haven’t been eating or sleeping much the last couple of days. The up side for Ray is that he has gotten to eat most of my meals. I decided last night that, although I didn’t know if my malaise was jet lag, motion sickness, or bad water, today was going to be a very busy day and that I needed a good night's sleep. Contrary to my lifestyle at home, my motto on the road is, “A better life through pharmaceuticals,” so I drugged up with anything I thought might help and got a solid 8 hours of sleep and an appetite by morning. Ray, on the other hand, didn’t have a solid anything all night. The up side for me was I got to eat his breakfast, too! It all evens out in the end. (Ray drugged up right away and was fine by the end of the day)

After breakfast, we met with No Kap, the engineer, and the contractor. The engineer is a young man (funny how there are so many more young people these days?) with great English and a solid working knowledge of the project. We discussed the budget (sharpened the pencil more than once), the time lines, but mostly we discussed my expectations of their roles and responsibilities. We looked at the contractor’s credentials and some of his work, including the guest lodge we were staying at. We altered some construction techniques specified by the engineer to make the contractor’s job easier in such a remote place. But most importantly, we made the decisions together, in the same room, at the same time, with all concerned present! The cheap Scotchman in me was very proud! Look out, Will Smit; I just about qualify to be Dutch!

We drove to Zowkathar, and I got my first look at the site. This is a very beautiful valley with the river and the steep hill. Burma is on the other side, and the crossing is quite busy. We met the entire membership of the various committees and then proceeded down to the site for a sod turning ceremony.

It was very hot, but not too hot to have speeches and photos. I got a much better sense of the size of the lot and the lay of the land. The site will be very beautiful when the building is up and there are some trees planted for shade. Maybe we should plant fruit trees and pineapples on the site so there is always fresh juice to drink?

After the sod turning, we went up to the current clinic for tea and a meeting with the building committee. I tried to be very clear about our expectations and their role. It was great to have the engineer and the contractor at the meeting so everyone could hear the same message. The building committee would like to have had final say on all decision, but I pointed out that they could make all the decisions they wanted to pay for, but if I was responsible for the money, I would be making the final decision based on their input. This puts me in the role of “bad guy” (Ray says I am very good at it) but takes a huge amount of pressure off a few committee members that were being lobbied hard by various factions in the community.

My only personal goal on this trip was to enter Burma. Today, I set foot in Burma and made it back again! I asked the engineer to take a picture of me coming back from Burma (no sense taking a picture of me just before I was shot!), so here I am successfully re-entering India, one foot in Burma, one foot In India--the first step to coming home.

Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009

I have a guest blogger today. So without any further ado, here is Dr. Ray Comeau

Hi out there in blogland.

Gord has graciously invited me to blog on his site so here goes. The most notable and bizarre thing that has happened to me in the past 24 hours occurred last night at about 1:30 AM.

As you know we are in a very remote area of Northeast India on the India-Burma border. We are staying in flea-bag hotels and often get up close and personal with various members of the insect family. You can image my surprise last night when I flicked on the bathroom light to find the toilet virtually crawling with ants. They were stacked so thick on the porcelain that the rim of the toilet was black. The entire basin was alive with seething masses of the crawling insects.

The first thing that flashed into my mind was that freaky movie about the white guy in Africa that gets attacked and eaten by the army ants. Not wanting to suffer the same fate, I frantically grabbed a bucket of water that was left over from my bucket shower and began dousing the toilet and bathroom with wave after wave of cold water. Preoccupied by the task at hand, I failed to notice the ants that were crawling up my leg until one of them sank his teeth into my calf. Suddenly I realized that I was personally under attack. Frantically I began dousing my legs and the rest of my body as well.

By the time the fiasco was over, the entire bathroom and I were both soaked but ant free.

Content that I had cheated a painful death, I returned to my bed for another fitful sleep.

Thanks Ray. Perhaps the moral of this story is “Always Flush”

My day was not as exciting, but very busy again. Rama met me this morning to take me to 3 potential projects. We started at his school halfway up the hill. The school building is leaning downhill precariously. The wooden posts that hold the building up are rotting. This building is beyond repair. This 21-year-old building needs to be pulled down and replaced.

The funny part about the day was the transportation. Rama picked me up on his Honda 225cc bike! We gave the suspension a huge work out, not to mention the little 225cc engine. Rama dubbed us John Wayne and Jackie Chan. I am sure we were quite a picture climbing the very steep hills of Champhai!

We visited a computer training school and then drove down the long hill to the flats. Although we made the bike work very hard to get up the hill, Rama never even turned the bike on until we got to the rice patties.

The third project site we visited was Pine Hill Academy, the school that Rama attended as a child. There is no shortage of need here, I can tell you!. The dorms are leaking. The floors are crumbled in the classrooms. The foundations are failing. I was hosted to a wonderful lunch including some great chapatis! We made it back to the hotel with out incident. Back on the roller coaster highway tomorrow morning

Completely off topic, does anybody know about a singer named Lily Allen?