Monday March 14, 2011

Learning from my earlier shopping faux pas I've been getting a little more adventurous in the town of Gurgeon - taking a daily walk to one of the local shopping centers.  I've found my morning coffee place and an excellent Italian bakery/pizza shop.  (The Indian food at our guesthouse, Cambria Inn & Suites, is amazing so we have only gone for pizza once.)  Also discovered a local tailor today and found a physio for Meror who has aggravated “mouse” shoulder…  Aside from the very important latte source my favourite "cubby-hole" shop is one that sells ayurvetic aromatic oils, feng shui stones and figures of gods that bring blessings and protection to the house.    Yes I did buy a few trinkets there.  The shopkeeper was full of information - most of which I understood.  I love the energy of the Indian people and their willingness to humour my naivety about local customs.  

It is extremely dusty everywhere - and hot...  I can't believe I am wearing a long sleeved t-shirt tromping around in 28-degree temperatures.
This is where we're staying...

Sunday March 13, 2011

‎"Do not shed blood, shed hatred." Indira Gandhi

Saturday March 12, 2011

Friday March 11, 2011

I did purchase 2 small dictionaries for us - neither of which is at all helpful.   One is English-Hindi, which you would think would work except the Hindi word you are looking for is in Devanagari script...  The second was my mistake, as my synapses didn’t process that it was Hindi-English so impossible to search the English words alphabetically - and again the Hindi is in script so even stumbling around in the pages is not going to bring any clarity to learning the desired words.  (I'm about to find out what the return policy is in India.) I notice that my powers of observing detail are compromised by the intensity of being in a strange land.

Can you figure out this image?  

Galleria Market, Gurgaon

It is a two storey outdoor shopping mall - everything you could need is available somewhere in here.  You just have to find it!  The shopkeepers do go out of their way to be helpful and the English is good, though the accent heavy.

Wednesday March 9, 2011

plumbing in the lab

We are in India!!!  Hard to believe after two years of planning and postponements...  We arrived here at 2:AM got a few hours sleep and then went to the site to meet all of the key people.   The work site is an amazing place and the hotel is going to be beautiful.  The volumetric mixer (big, modern, cement truck) is there and a SIREWALL office and a lab for soil testing.  

There are families from the village living on site and working there - men and women together building "random rubble walls".  The results are stunning and will compliment our SIREWALLs beautifully.  

Our delivery method on this project will incorporate old traditions with new technology in a way that we've never done before.  From the volumetric mixer to the wall there will be a chain of people delivering our material to the forms for tamping.  Imagine that!


For the brick walls I saw them building yesterday the women carry and the men stack & mortar the walls.  

16 bricks = 88 lbs.

After lunch when Jerry & Meror went into their architecture meeting I walked down to the village with two guides - a local and a translator.  (English-Hindi dictionary on my shopping list) It was fun photographing the people and my guide told me that they enjoyed me too.  Out of many smiling faces this is my favourite portrait.  

One of the men asked if my pictures were going to be published.  He expressed cynicism about NGO's coming and exploiting them - taking their images and never giving anything back to the village.  (India is estimated to have around 3.3 million NGOs according to wikipedia).  I visited the school but it closes at 2PM so missed any action there.  The guide told me that there is not enough room for all of the students in the classrooms so many of them do their lessons in the yard.  I'm going back when school is in session.  If I can contribute anywhere it is going to be there - I'm excited to see what develops. 

A Link for your pleasure...

Tuesday March 8, 2011

We did a 3-day stopover in China to break up the travel time. 12 hr. flight to Shanghai and then 3 sleeps before we do the last 7.5 hr flight to New Delhi.

Shanghai is great - even in the pouring rain I love this city.

Surprisingly Jerry, who lives on the wet coast of Canada, has never owned an umbrella before today.  The inclement weather conveniently produced street vendors with umbrellas for sale.

With our friends, Raefer and Sasha (Canadian trained architects that have a SIREWALL license in China) we shared amazing food and toured some of their rammed earth projects.

Check out this link.