Frustrations and progress

It is the cool crop season in India, called kharif, and this is when, in Rajasthan, they grow wheat, chickpeas, barley, and mustard, among others. The time period is about November to March. Millet is grown during the monsoon season, along with other crops such as chilis and tomatoes. The time period for the monsoon season is about late June to October. Not many things are grown during the hot season, when it is too dry and hot for much to survive. The hot period is roughly April to early June.









I love the look of mustard fields in India. Very pretty, all the swaying yellow stocks.

Hi all,

Work continues with LSS, with some hiccups as always. I have found the most hiccups in the process come from paperwork and money transfer, not the actual work itself! The latest hiccup was in a money transfer for the first quarter's work, which I had initiated on Christmas Eve. The account was not checked in India for a while due to a death in the family of the person with whom we are working in NSS. By the time it was checked in middle of January, it was found the money was not there. After many harried calls to India in which I tried to figure out where the money was, I finally ordered a wire transfer trace from Wells Fargo. After 10 days news came back that it had been sitting in a bank account because of some currency conversion issues. Shockingly, to me at least, it seems that Indian banks cannot receive money in rupees and have to have the money sent abroad to be converted to rupees. Apparently this was done in this case, and then the money was put in a "suspension" account, waiting for action on what should be done with it. I was not contacted when it was put in this suspension account, mind you, so how I was supposed to know to call them and tell them to release the funds, I do not know. Frustrating. However, the money is there now and with it Rohitash and Gopal can be paid for their continued work this year and get the equipment for the start of this year's work. After some time and effort, all has worked out.

Some of the funds sent were for a couple computers for starting the youth leadership and technology education groups, while others were for travel costs, stationary expenses, etc. For the YLTGs, Rohitash and Gopal are in discussion with several villages about starting these groups once the examination period has ended and students have some time to focus on outside things. We anticipate some preliminary meetings of the groups in March and then we will start in earnest in May when school is out. Conveniently, that will be precisely when Meg and I will be visiting Rajasthan to see how the operations are going. The villages in which conversation have begun about the YLTGs are :

1- Berki
2- Mohan gurjar ki dhani
3- Pando
4- Kukrella
5- Swami ke Dhani / Checawala

We will focus on these 5 villages and try out different methods of computer education to see which works best.

For the SHGs, groups have been established in 5 villages and Rohitash and Gopal have been in he process of getting the by-laws getting written for these groups, as well as doing all the paperwork associated with getting a formal bank account for the groups. As expected, this work is humming right along, largely due to Rohitash and Gopal's extensive experience in this area of work. This work is being done in the following villages:

1. Kukrella
2. Pando
3. Berki
4. Swami ki Dhani
5. Badshapura

I am happy the funds are now in India and we are on track to begin the work with the youth. Things are going quite well and Meg and I are excited for our visit in May.