Update 4

Hi again,

Well how was Christmas for you, did you have a good one or was it better forgotten?
I read some research that said that Christmas was the third most stressful thing in our lives after moving home and divorce/marriage. Strange isn't it that the birth of our lord has become such a stressful time to so many.
It got me wondering, and being here in India where a celebration is just that really helps put it in perspective. A few days before (around the 20th) an Indian we know told us there was a big festival coming soon, 'we call it Christmas' he said. To Indians its like the festival of light or Diwali, just another festival that different religions celebrate, and frankly a good excuse to sing and dance. Have we in the west forgotten that Christmas is a celebration, a birthday party, it should be about joy and happiness  not about drinking until we fall over, eating until we are sick and running up a huge credit card bill buying many many things we don't actually need. I am not trying to preach, just commenting on how we now see things from a different perspective here. Yes we both bought each other a present, but it was something we would both use, we also gave to our Indian friends less fortunate than ourselves, not as the rich westerners some seem to delight in portraying themselves as but as Chris and Kris that some have come to know and call their friends, something that honours us greatly, Indians don't give you their honest friendship easily. We gave as the wise men gave to Mary, with joy and happiness to celebrate the birth of our saviour Jesus and surely that should be the point of Christmas, a joyful celebration.

Kris with her Christmas present, she gave her easel and painting equipment away in the UK to a local school along with all her paints before we came to India so that their art department could continue as its budget had been cut.

                                      Who's a happy girl then!

















Some years ago I hurt my back and as a result as I have got older the pain has got a bit sharper! Kris bless her didn't want me digging in the garden and having to be in pain afterwards so she bought me a rotivator, its only small but so is our garden.

Cool! Goodbye back pain from digging and hoeing.

The engine is about the same size as the starter motor was in my Motoguzzi 1100 California. Its a two stroke mix oil and petrol in the tank, revs like crazy! Started it up in the house....mistake, the air went blue from the fumes. Cough, cough cough!

My first Indian engine, 39cc, wow.

Friends came over Christmas day, Debidutta Pattnaik (Managing Director of PMF) and family , Janet Halford also came and even Santa put in an appearance later so it was a real family feel for all of us.we had a really good time and enjoyed our first Christmas day here. Food was interesting, all sorts including highly spiced chicken (powerful stuff) and sliced roast chicken that they had never seen before as well as lots of nibbles.

Some pictures of our Christmas, everyone had a good time.

                       

                                                                     Santa in the background!

New Year at the local club

Saffron (Marigolds) and typical buildings.

               Away from the city......India.

                                       

Wild Bees high in a tree

New School building

Sunset, this really is a fantastic country.

Just nice rock, me photographing the road.

Cultivated fields

Mountain Roads ?

No,the MAIN cross state road

Things that made me go mmmmm.

India is now in mourning, they lost the One Day International cricket match against Pakistan.  Kolkata, Jan 3 (IANS) Indian batting fizzled out virtually without a spark as Pakistan took a winning 2-0 lead in the One-Day International (ODI) series 

Nude men walking through Udaipur, apparently  Jain Gurus walking for donations, huge turn out, police blocked roads and stopped traffic for them.

Listening to Christmas carols in a very western mart, all in Hindi, jingle bells was a scream.

Buying eggs from a shop selling soft toys........a side line?

At a New Year party, all the guys up dancing, all the women sitting watching.

An add on TV, a little boy runs into the TV room to his father with a piece of wire with the Indian flag on it, caption ,Havell, the wire that dosn't catch fire'..............you mean the others do!


Work.

I have completed building two filter units, one based on a two gallon bucket that filters about one  gallon overnight into a water jar.  

                                                                                                 The other is based on a five gallon barrel that filters three gallons in much the same time.



The smaller size is for hanging from an overhead beam from its wire handle or placing on the window sill and filling from a water jar while the larger one is taken to the pump and filled. It can be carried by the handles back to the home and other than the filter is made entirely of recycled materials to keep the cost down. As I said in a previous Blog, the problem I think with previous designs was either the cost or making things too complex, sand filters, carbon elements taps bowls etc,.............this works and can be made very simply, the only filter is one ceramic filter candle available here very easily.
It looks so simple now its done.

At last I have finished writing the course of 'Spoken English' that I will be delivering to the cluster group leaders who work with the Pragati Marg Foundation in their villages. The idea is week by week I teach them and then using the materials I give them they teach others. I am struggling however to afford to buy dictionaries for all of them, we have so little money it can be so difficult to do as well as you know you could if only you had the materials needed.

I will be delivering a slightly modified version to the young men in the bible college in their first year where they are to train as worship leaders and Pastors. Most who come are filled with the Holy Spirit but have very little English so it is going to be my job to help them over that hurdle.What a wonderful task  helping these young men train to spread the wonderful news of our Saviour.I cant stop grinning when I think of it.

Home
I know I promised to continue showing you our house but there has been so much to write this time that I am going to wait until the next Blog to do that. I will also update you on our garden and some news we have about a friend who's life has changed thanks to Jesus.

Kris and I both wish you all the best possible new year and pray that our Lord Jesus will through you enter other peoples lives and bring them to the joy of knowing Him.
A new year resolution, 'I will bring one person to the Lord this year' imagine the world by next Christmas if we all did that.
Chris Hyde

Update 3

Well here I am again.
Christmas is just around the corner, the Sun is shining and it is a beautiful day, strange birds sing in the trees, the mist on the hills is burning off and there is a cow eating my lawn, an almost surreal scene. Kris is having a lay in this morning, she has been suffering from the dreaded 'delly belly' for a couple of days now, its funny but she wasn't impressed when I told her 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger' as she rushed by me heading for the loo. All of this got me thinking about the differences to our life here over what we have been used to in the UK. so here are a few things that have made me go mmmmm
Going shopping for a chicken, then looking it in the eye and saying 'that one' knowing you were ending its life, leaving five minutes later with it in a bag.

Making friends with a stray three legged dog that guards our side road from all other dogs, all the neighbours feed him as do we now, he hops about, loves kids and plays with them, quite a character.

Seeing my first dead person on the side of the road with people just walking past ignoring him.

Trying to find a garden fork here.................try Delhi I was told.

Discovering that a main through road is one lane when we went to visit Panawar and nobody gives way until the last second.

Coming home late one night and really seeing how many people live on the edge of the streets in groups or what looks like small colonies, sometimes grouped together around their occupation, brush makers, potters, fruit sellers an other time  I saw a small group alone on a road, why I have no idea, were they outcasts or had they chosen to be so far from others? Children play, grow up, marry, have children of their own, die having known only their patch of road, their life spent on the roadside in the fumes and the dust of passing traffic.

I thank God for being so fortunate to have a home and such a standard of living as I have, there is a saying that I keep remembering 'There but for the grace of God go I'.

Enough for now but I will keep you updated as they occur to me.

I have been working on a design for a home water purifier that PMF could sponsor for the local villages. I have bought plastic containers, looked all over for plastic taps without success, and generally struggled with making it simple to make and to use.
The problem is that nobody in the villages sees a need for one, diarrhoea is a normal part of children's life, as it seems is the lack of knowledge about water borne parasites and the dangers of dirty water, sometimes polluted with human or animal faeces.
3 AM this morning I had to get up and make notes and draw a diagram.....got it (I pray so anyway).
The problem is to get people to use it, the common design uses two bins one on top of the other with an internal ceramic filter, dirty water is poured into the top and drips through to the bottom via the filter where there is a tap to fill cups from. Just what you need you would think.
I was sat in a rickshaw watching local people drink in town from a water seller yesterday. At the time I thought nothing of it, however my grey matter was working on it.
Indians don't put cups to their mouths, they pour from an inch or two away, the water seller had a ladle that customers dipped into his clay water pot then lifted to their mouths and poured, at no time did they touch the ladle to their mouths.
I had been trying to design a water purifier for Westerners not Indians!
My design now uses a plastic 'bucket' with a lid with the ceramic filter on its side. A pipe (from the side low down) delivers water to a clay pot with a ladle. The bucket can be hung or stood on a surface and refilled as necessary  In this way the only change to the drinking routine is to pour the dirty water into the 'bucket' rather than the pot, drinking is done as normal from a (new) clay pot with a ladle  I want to put smiley faces on the new pot to re-enforce the connection between clean water and happiness/health and Kris will include it in her health teaching sessions. I also want to give one of these free to each of PMF's  cluster group leaders, in this way they become advocates of its use and people can see the benefits first hand and will hopefully also want to use one.

Home life.

John Parker was here for a visit and ate with us last week. It was great to see him and hear all the news from Durham. He passed on many many hello's so thank you all for that.  I bet Eddy Bussy is having a quieter life now we have gone, no one to argue with in the discovery group and the pub! Go on Eddy explain how the universe is the size it is in the time available. What was that? variable light speed? Ha got you, can't argue now can you. (I bet he will). I also miss those debates on many and varied subjects. Does the discovery group still continue in the pub on Mondays?

Our seeds are all growing well. It is really weird, this is mid winter, got to get a bit colder yet but no frost or anything remotely close to that and I have sweet peas, beans, various gourds and lots more all growing away. The chysanthamums in the garden are all in flower and the poinsettiers are looking great, I said it felt weird.

                                                                

                                                    

 


Kris is mastering her kitchen, gas hob,  and (now) a new combination grill/oven/microwave to play with. No cooker as such so no big oven. She is planning a semi English Christmas dinner as we have guests coming so it will be a buffet style of various dishes some 'spicy' some not...........NO sprouts!

As promised in my last blog a look around the house.

Kitchen with new cupboards, note the coffee machine, it made it to India. Back door leads to garden.
                                         
   

Here there is a space between the fridge freezer and the door (about six feet) we are going to put a long table/bench there to work on as there is very little bench space now, lots of under bench storage but we will fit screens of some sort. The main thing is Kris is happy with it and is looking forward to making it 'ours'.

    View of the main room from the stairway, the floors are all marble, the furniture is ours bought here instead of a car.

 From the dinning table end, under the covers (in the corner) is my tenor sax and Kris's clarinet.

 From the lounge area looking at the kitchen door and dining area, water cooler far right.

From the lounge end looking at the front door (first on left) and the stairs to the first floor. The door on the left by the stairs is Kris's studio. The door in the centre is the kitchen. There are 36 steps on those stairs, that's a good cardiac work out for anyone!

 

This is going to be Kris's studio, very light with two windows so it is ideal for her.

All the bedrooms have a changing room and an en-suit wet room, Kris's studio is intended as a downstairs bedroom, hence the wet room and changing room leading off it.

That's the downstairs other than a small under stair area we use for storage of garden tools. The first floor with two bedrooms and the roof I will show you in my next blog.

When Kris and I sold or gave away everything to charity and came here to work for God we didn't know where or how we were going to live. It says in the bible that God will reward you ten fold for what you give without thought of reward, we have received far more than that. Just look at the house He has given us, the people we have connected with since we came here, the friends we are making both Christian and Hindu. I cannot explain how it feels to just put your trust totally in the Lord, \I never thought I would do such a thing, commit in such a way. I suppose it is like a parachute,  when you jump you pray it will open but until it does all you have is faith, then comes the moment when you realise that you are being held, you are safe.Some reading this might think we are crazy, but that is the nature of faith isn't it, to just trust and go for it. We have been granted so much for doing what we feel was so little. God is wonderful, he is our light in the dark, our guide through the dangerous places and our friend and saviour.I saw a belt buckle while I was in America, it said 'Jesus rides with me' worn by a Biker I had met, one day I will find or make one that says 'Jesus, always at my side'.

As we have mentioned before we have spent the car fund because we have decided to go in for a scooter (maybe two). Every time we go anywhere we have to use the rickshaws, it will be SO good when we get our international licences for India. Kris's brother is sorting the England end for us, as soon as that is done the fun really starts, trying to wade through all the paperwork for the Indian government, oh joy.

Solar water heater has taken a back seat at the moment because the water filter has priority but I think I have given up on plastics, they are either ideal but not UV stable or UV stable and very poor heat transfer rate. Galvanised steel is plentiful here so that maybe the route I will go, that way it can still be made in the villages by anyone who can weld, yes I know it will rust eventually but I really cant think of anything else. Any idea's would be very welcome.
The idea isn't to make lots of them, my job is to make one that can A/ be made from local materials as cheaply as possible  B/Can set up as a small business using micro finance to get it under way for one or more people making and installing them. In this way we are helping raise the standard of living and making a real difference to lives. Remember the principle of 'give a man a fish'.

This is our Christmas tree, Kris worked on decorating it for hours but I think it was worth the effort.


Oh I have just heard from Debidutta of PMF, he wants me to go ahead and build the prototype clean water filter....yeah!I will see him at church today (now Sunday very AM) and get a filter so that I can get on with it. I will keep all of you updated on progress.

Oh yes, I just remembered, I have been dragged onto Facebook I am told it will make communication easier, we will see, as you may have guess I am not a great fan of it, I have seen too many children hurt by comments from others or by slurs about their lifestyle.In my darker days I knew people who would by gaining info from it know when a person was always out so they could break in and rob them, think how much you tell a friend of a friends friend that you have never met and dont know!


Well I think that's about it.

We pray you all have a wonderful Christmas and are blessed in all you do.

Chris

 

Ok so it only took her ten minutes!

Update 2

Hi all,
Before I get started on this update I thought I had better mention frequency of updates or more to the point the lack of. I will not be writing every week/ month or whatever, I will write when there is something to say. the upside is maybe more than you expected, the downside is maybe more than you expected!
I hope this will be fairly frequent but who knows. Also, this blog will contain items on our work here, our home life, visits to etc. we hope you will enjoy reading it.

Firstly, what was India doing on day two of the England / India test they just collapsed. Kris took me shopping, when I left they were 38 for no loss. when I got back they were 8 for I think about 160! English bowlers are good but not I thought that good......guess I was wrong.

England won, ho hum, the country has gone into mourning...........I kid you not!

Panawar.
Kris and I visited Panawar last week. For the first time we got to see where all your money from our sales and donations will be going. Kris was deeply upset by some of the living conditions the boys injure, especially one of the bunk rooms where they are packed in with no space even between the bunks.Sorry about the quality but I was shooting practicably in the dark at ISO 3200 as I couldn't use flash. No light enters here except from a very small window, no ventilation either. Can you imagine how hot that tin roof gets in summer and what it must be like to lay there.

 Here are a few more photo's of the day.

Hole in the wall lets the smoke out of the kitchen.

This is the bunk room, dinning room and kitchen in the one block. The roof has all but had it and I make no comment on the kitchen! Note the low level cooking facilities. From this 50 boys are fed, beats me how.

Some, not all of the boys. With a new building girls could be catered for as well.

                             One of the two toilet blocks                         

The church building, it raised a question for Kris and I, so much room and the boys are crammed into what are basic stables where they cook in the summer heat and have no personal space or privacy..... It has got us into trouble before but we asked ourselves 'What would Jesus have done' would he have left them suffering or not.............

I am unsure how to feel about this, part of me says use the space God will understand, room here foe about 50 bunks spaced better than they have ever known, the other part of me say's this space is important to them to worship in, all I can do is pray and put it in Gods hands, your comments would be most welcome.

Off to school. This started a conversation, why a crocodile why not an alligator? believe it or not there is a perfectively sensible answer, to be honest it wasn't me that figured it out. They keep this formation all the way, or until out of sight at least.

Dish washing after breakfast, this concerned Kris as she said, 'all it takes is for one to catch anything and without proper washing of plates they all get it' no available hot water.

It is rumoured that I like chi.

The main building, the car is our transport for the day, below a potato patch ready for planting with chips and bits of potato left hanging in the bag to produce shoots

                                                                                  I must put on some weight or get help

This really got to Kris, it was the only toy she saw, a small truck placed carefully above the light switch, a future dream of one of the boys perhaps?

Another look at the kitchen

When we began selling our possessions prior to coming here we had never visited Panawar, there is no doubt in our minds that this is where the money will do the most good, those who know us have heard us say many times 'It was not our choice to donate to Panawar we were told to'. We had never even seen the hostel but knew that God had told us to do it, just the same as he now leads us day by day and overcomes all in our path. That really is the story of our coming here to India, God spoke and we listened. Friends have asked 'How did you know' what can I say, have you ever experienced a compulsion, a need so great that it dominates all your thinking, you cant make plans or even go day to day without feeling it in your heart, it was like that for us from last November (2011) it never let up. Every obstacle to our coming here was removed, everything that we needed was provided, it was a year that will always amaze us, one day we must write about it but for now it will have to wait, far to much to do!

Nothing much will happen until January or February then we will have a meeting with all concerned and begin to make decisions as to what to do first etc. We will keep you all up to date as work begins.

I have been working on a design for a cheap solar water heater, not so easy in a country where copper pipe is all but impossible to find, I have found a plastic that is UV stable and should stand the heat but its heat transfer rate is less efficient than copper but I am hoping that the climate will compensate for the reduced efficiency  here we have to resort to that well known technique trial and error. Next step build one and see what happens...............I will keep you posted.

Kris is beginning to develop a simple guide to hygiene,  wound cleaning and care for the villages she hopes to laminate a small book in Hindi, English and pictogram s, that is where the free hot water comes into the plan. Each 'cluster group'would have a trained person in basic first aid and be able to give hygiene advice to the other villagers, showing them how to clean wounds or properly wash after giving birth. The introduction of simple basic hygiene knowledge could save so many wounds from becoming festered and septic and could contribute to saving babies lives. What we in the west take so easily for granted is in some places here unknown. Try this, turn off your electricity for a day maybe if you are really brave two, now wash and cook, what about clean water? try it without drinking any that you haven't boiled.............could you? I know being honest I would find it very difficult even for a few days, first thought what about the fridge? how do I send e-mails, do I have any candles, see what I mean! I am not criticising us for what we have, I would just like all to be as lucky. The Pragati Marg Foundation (PMF) is doing a wonderful job here. They believe in empowerment of the individual, not charity in the sense of 'Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day' but in 'Teach a man to fish and he will eat every day' By raising the standard of education in all area's, Hygiene, water conservation, finance, basic schooling, they are contributing to a general rise in the standard of living for all. It is hoped that by working in partnership with other organisations who are also here working towards the same goal in Rajasthan more can be achieved than any could achieve alone. I think the next year is going to be so exciting.

Home

Well we have cleared the 'garden' and have started to grow seeds ready for planting out. The soil here is 90% sand so compost is a must. On that subject, our compost heap we were building is now cancelled, too hot and dry so we are now trying a container where we can add soil and waste in layers and keep it damp, a stir every week or so should keep it aerated.

Tools here are very different, I bought a rake, at least that what its called here, its more like a large draw hoe with teeth!

I'm sorry but I have to: 

                                This is our seed bed!

 

The back garden area the kitchen door is left by the rake.

                                     

 Close up of rake.

                                                              

The side garden area, we have just put up the netting to grow sweet peas up. The sun gets there in the afternoons.

We are planning to grow quite a lot of food but the main use will be to learn what works here and what doesn't, Kris and I both also want to plant containers on the roof and erect a sun shade net up there so she can sit and paint or just relax.

Well I hope that has given you a flavour of how things are here, next time I will take you on a tour of the inside of the house and update you on the progress of our work with the PMF and of course anything else that occurs to me. Please feel free to comment I will try and reply to all.

God bless you all

Chris and Kris Hyde