Our first stop enroute to Khati was at the Foreigners Registration Office in Bageshwar (Uttarakhand). Here - despite having the appropriate visa -we were pummeled by bureaucracy for a multitude of paperwork to register at the office. Two days of negotiations ensued, trips to the computer terminal (that suffered from power cuts at the most crucial moments)for more paperwork and back, wearing a track through the town. On one occassion we waited for two hours to get one signature of a 'fat cat' who sat idly at his desk all day doing nothing in particular... frustrations mounted and you can imagine how we felt when we finally got an appointment with the Police Commssioner to discover that we needed hardly any of the paperwork, nor did we need to jump through any hurdles. We had a valid Business visa from Australia and we just needed the PC's signature, as he then stated this is just a 'formality'! However, we are now registered and have Temporary Resident Status for one year - as long as we follow the somewhat archaic Foreigners Registration Act, 1939...
Our arrival in Khati was greeted with much merriment and enthusiam, it turned out the kids had been eagerly awaiting our arrival for weeks and had been watching the track daily.There is nothing like trying to make a quiet entrance into town but you are beseiged by a multitude of little people who proceeded to hang off every available appendage!
Everyone agrees that it has been unseasonally warm. The weather has consisted of chrystal clear blue skies for weeks, though I suspect we will pay for this extended fine period with thumping winter snow.
The wheat crop is in and yet again verdant green tips are visible in the fields across town. The abnormally high rainfall during the monsoon wreaked havoc with the staple food crops - potato (alu), red kidney beans (rajma) & Amaranth (chua)- this resulted in poor yields. This creates hardship for families whose primary diet is primarily related to their crops for survival. Some families are then forced to rely on purchased produce and given rising global food prices, costs have skyrocketed. Though the Government Ration System subsidises the basics like flour, wheat, rice, sugar etc helps families who are truly on the margins, fruit and vegetables are expensive and accordingly are a luxury.
As commodity prices have escalated, this story is replicated across India with the rate of malnutrition soaring. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in its report "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008' claims that by the end of 2009 the number of people who suffer from hunger worldwide will reach one billion. India ranks 66th out of 88 countries on the International Food Policy Research Institutes Global Hunger Index with over 200 million people undernourished. This places it as the country that has the largest number of malnourished people in the world. FAO's analysis states that food insecurity has increased with rising gloabl food prices and the worsening finacial situation, I would like to add an extra component of food insecurity created by failing crops due changing weather patterns.
The women and girls have been spending entire days, walking kilometres to cut grasses for haystacks that will get the stock through winter. They head off with a packed tiffin in the mornings and return on dark. Recently a young man (Maipal) from Waucham died when he fell down a cliff while carring a heavy load of grass home from Pauri (and I must add it is rare for a Khati male to collect grass). It was a sad loss to a small community.
The high school (Years 6,7 & 8) should function with three teachers but on August 10th the school closed down. Two teachers managed to get themselves transferred out of the valley (this feat usually requires bribery somewhere along the way) and the third simply didn't come back under the pretext of a broken arm.It is predicted the school will not re-open until next March.
BK's School (library) for Class 1-5 is going well and I've now got the pre-schoolers asking when they can come?! In the new year we plan to start on some minor renovations to the building which has begun to look a little shabby, the overhaul will include new back window, wall rendering and paint
After the journey by a 14 strong mule train the solar home lighting units were all safely stored in the PEAK building with the head Pradan (Kusal) guarding the key! The excitment at the prospect of light in town has almost reached a cresendo and we have spent many hours patiently answering questions regarding solar technology. More on that later.
Enough verbal ramblings for now...
Bonnie & Scott
PEAK
