ROTARY DREAM TEAM - INDIA 2019

Each year, it has become a tradition that those on the ROTARY DREAM TEAMS have brought with them, their country flag and their state or province flag, to display at the construction site.  Again, this is a small way to add not only to the pageantry of the project (with flags wafting ion the breeze, adding their colors to the already very colorful saris, worn by the ladies who are working with us from the villages nearby.  This year we had the Indian Flag, the American Flag, the flag from the State of California , the State of New York and the State of Maine.  (Next year, there will be more!) These flags were displayed on poles of bamboo and small saplings, placed in the ground near the location of the tablet that commemorates our efforts, by naming the dam, naming the group(s) which financially supported the project, and naming the Rotary Club(s) and Districts which helped with financing,  However, each year, there is an anticipation to make sure that our names are also inscribed on

Yesterday, after the afternoon pooja (prayer ceremony) where we dedicated ourselves and our project, all led by a Hindu priest (Pandit ji) we did not have much time to actually get dirty and work in the "pit" to begin the construction of our tenth water catchment dam in India.  The local laborers were already in place and working hard, so by the time we arrived, following breakfast at our hotel, as well as perhaps a one-hour drive to the dam construction site, we just had to more or less observe and then choose the area where we "fit in" to the rhythm of moving boulders, smaller rocks, basins of sand, basins of massala (mixture) down the line and deposited (dumped) where we were told. The lines stretched from the piles of massala mix (sand and dry cement) over to the edge and then snaked its way down to where Prakash was teetering on a couple of larger stones which had been tossed down into the pit.  If was a bit of a shock to me  to learn that

If you have never attended or observed the Hindu ritual of pooja (prayer ceremony) you have missed one of the most beautiful and deeply meaningful experiences - summoning God (or many of the Hindu gods) to be present at the ceremony and to shower blessings on the particular event - a marriage, a birthday, or a project such as ours - the construction of a catchment dam which will benefit directly or indirectly between 11,000 and 15,000 villagers within a 10 kilometer distance from the dam location. We were welcomed by Dinesh Sharma and others with whom we would be working for the next few days, and inside a colorful reception tent, we saw the place where the havan (fire) would be placed. The priest (pandit) from neighboring village was there to lead us in prayer.   It is difficult to explain fully and adequately the emotions and the pageantry of this ceremony, and I am not sure if I can actually upload a link to videos, but I will try.  Each of our team members was given t

Although I had visited this Jaipur Foot Clinic back in 2001, I had not been allowed to observe the entire process. Let me take you, if I can, through the process a member of the public experiences... Imagine for a moment that you or a friend was a victim of an accident - perhaps a traffic accident, or falling from a train, etc., and one of your legs was severed, above the knee.  You recovered from the physical trauma, but were scarred for the rest of your life and relegated to walking either with a pair of crutches, or hopping with the use of one crutch, or confined to a wheelchair.  If you were a street person here in India, you might well be tossed aside and forced to live by perching yourself onto a "creeper" (remember the auto mechanics who used to slide under your car - they did so using a flat wooden platform on four wheels, called a creeper. Fast forward a few years of misery. Then someone told you about a clinic in Delhi, where you could go and be provided wit

INCREDIBLE POSITIVE NEWS - our Global Grant #1982446 - is APPROVED and we are on our way from Delhi, to the Jaipur region of Rajasthan to  a remote village not to far from Dausa, to construct a Water Catchment (check dam) dam to Paidwala Ki Dhani.  Rotary Dream Teams have over the past nine years constructed an equal number of catchment dams, benefiting the villagers nearby our sites, to assist them in creating gravity-fed irrigation systems, in order to increase annual crop yield from one to three! During this period of time, we have cooperated with the PHD-RDF (Punjab, Haryana, Delhi - Rural Development Foundation) which organization identifies the areas which would benefit considerably from our efforts, in the most arid regions of the State of Rajasthan.  More than ten years ago, while looking for service work projects, I consulted with Sushil Gupta, the current President-nominee of Rotary International.  Sushil is a dear friend to me, and he is also associated with the Rotary In

It has been a few years since my last visit to Kathmandu and surrounding areas, so when we were met this morning to be taken on a tour of various sites within the limits of Kathmandu, I guess I was not prepared to see these historic monuments, temples, palaces, etc, reduced to piles of rubble. I remember back to when the earthquake occured in 2015, and the horrible photos and newsfeeds showed the damage,but untill one actually walks through areas which were destroyed, one cannot comprehend the magnitude of the destruction. We toured through areas, including the Boudha Stupa - the second largest in Nepal but one of the two largest spherical stupas anywhere.  When entering the complex, for lack of a better word, there is a certain peace which pervades the atmosphere - nobody is in a hurry, the smiling beatific faces of children as well as seniors is infectious.  I am also confident that if I were to stay in this place for a protracted period of time, I might just set aside the "b

Guess my computer skills are totally lacking, as far as moving and saving photos to insert here, but I wanted to report on a meeting I had with UNICEF officials yesterday in Kathmandu.  As most know, UNICEF is a partner with WHO and ROTARY with respect to the efforts for eradication of Polio worldwide.  Through an introduction from Past Rotary International Vice-President, Michael McGovern, I was able to arrange for a meeting at UNICEF South Asia headquarters yesterday.  I invited my Dream Team member, Chuck Bortasch to join me, as well as Nepal National PolioPlus Committee chair, Ratna Man Sakya.  We arrived at the UNICEF headquarters and were welcomed bu Dr. Paul Rutter, Regional Health Adviser and Elke Wisch, a special adviser, both of whom have been working diligently with Mike McGovern and others to finally get a handle on ending this campaign in the near future.  We were also "joined" via Skype, by Harsham Ali Khan, who has been very instrumental in working with  the p

When we checked out of our Hotel in Delhi, this was the new floral design at the entrance to the hotel lobby. Each day, a man comes by and cleans up the marble floor, removing all of the design from the day before and then sets about creating a new design - using red rose petals, daisies, marigolds and even mown grass clippings. We set out for the International Airport, where we had arrived less than one day previously, and worked our way through the snake-line at Jet Airways, finally to the ticket counter.  We were directed to go through immigration, and after waiting in that queue for about fifteen monutes, arrived at the counter, only to be told that we had been sent to the wrong part of immigration and had to retreat out of that area and walk about five hundred yards further in the airport to get to the right section.  We made it without incident through immigration and then entered one of the largest DUTY FREE ZONES I have ever encountered.  Everything one could possibly want

Checked into my hotel - the PRIDE PALACE in New Delhi - not far from the airport, and when I arrived in my room, I looked on the desk and saw a calendar - one of those triangular ones which stands, and one has to clip the pages to access the various months.  And WHO should I see on the JANUARY page? None other than my adoptive niece, Pallavi Mathur Saran (now Gujral) in one of the most beautiful of her dance poses from when she was rated (horrible word) in the top three of classical Indian dancers.  This is a particular type of dance - Bharatanatyam - which is very traditonal, particularly in South India. Several years ago, when I led a DREAM TEAM to help with tsunami relief in 2005, and we worked in south India, in the state of Tamil Nadu, helping to rebuild communites through the construction of 100 homes, in cooperation with India Heritage Research Foundation (founded and headed by His Holiness Puaj Swamiji Chidanand Saraswati) in a small village which was nearly totally destr

Happy to announce that the theme for the 2019 Dream Team is ROTARIANS ARE DAM CRAZY.  These work tee shirts will stand out well at the dam construction site. 

There is something to be said for peace and quiet.  After sitting on the tarmac,  waiting for our gate to be available st Newark's Liberty Airport,  I retrieved my checked luggage,  which UNITED refused to check through to Delhi. After taking the train two terminals away,  going up to the ticketing area and re- checking my bag,  I decided to venture to the UNITED CLUB. I was able to purchase a one-day pass and the price was entirely worth it.  There is a slight din of activity,  people moving about to find comfortable chairs or a charming station or to grab a libation at the bar.  All the time,  travelers speaking in hushed tones.   Stepping away from the noise and the nonsense of world events,  I found an oasis where I can restore myself,  recharge my inner battery and to draw in a few quiet breaths and exhale almost imperceptibly. I highly recommend pausing for a while along your journey.

Each and every year, since I have been leading ROTARY DREAM TEAMS to India, I have depended upon the generosity and support of a dear friend, Bruce Lamb, owner of Springvale Hardware to come through with his donation of "painters gloves" for me to take with me to India. While working on the various service projects, including building washing platforms in a remote Muslim village, or a computer training center or re-habbing a deserted government building into a day care center, or constructing water catchment dams throughout various parts of Rajasthan and the Punjab, Dream Team Members have protected their hands with these simple cloth gloves, with the rubberized palms.  When we depart from our service projects to go on for travel, each of us chooses one or two of the local laborers with whom we have worked, and pass on our gloves to them, to help protect their hands.  These gloves are the most sought after items we leave behind.   Not sure whether that desire to

As though it were yesterday, I recall my first trip to India, in January 2001, when I was serving as District Governor for Rotary's District 7780 (covering southern Maine, southern New Hampshire and one club in Newburyport, Massachusetts).  I was very fortunate to have been able to travel to India for the purpose of immunizing children against polio. On January 21, throughout all of India, children five years of age and younger were brought to literally thousands of distribution centers to receive their polio vaccine - just two tiny drops of this miracle drug, which would save them from paralysis and possible death, if they were to become infected with this insidious disease.  On Sunday, January 21, 2001, through the cooperation of the Indian Government, the United Nations, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Rotary International, and through the mobilization of literally thousands of volunteers from throughout the world, and with the cooperation of the Imams an

Hard to believe that in just seventy-two hours, I will be departing from Portland International Jetport (seriously?) to fly to Newark-Liberty Airport and that evening, flying out to India, landing the following night.  This will be my twentieth trip to India, in behalf of Rotary International and the END POLIO NOW campaign, as well as other service work projects. On Tuesday, the 29th, I will meet one of the other Dream Team members - Chuck Bartosh, from the Ithaca (NY) Rotary Club.  He and I will fly off to Kathmandu, NEPAL for a few days.  While there, I have arranged to meet with various Rotary Clubs and members of ROTARACT,  Additionally, I am looking forward to meeting with officials of UNICEF to discuss the successes and concerns they are experiencing regarding the Polio Eradication campaign in neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan. Following our time in Nepal, Chuck and I will return to Delhi to meet up with two other Dream Team members - Bonnie Dwyer and Elana Levens-Craig t