From the Sikkim side of the valley, our village Daragaon looks two dimensional. The mountainside is so steep it looks completely vertical from head on. Houses, cowsheds, clumps of tree and buildings look like flat images barely clinging on due to friction. It reminds me of those flannel graphs used to illustrate bible stories on the Sunday mornings of my youth. Green felt land, blue felt sky, smiling paper cut out Jesus, demons and angels dangling precariously in 2D.

The third dimension (of villages like ours) is never seen by governments and large aid organizations. They are dots on maps and pixels in satellite images. There are flat paper reports that tell about infrastructure (or lack there of) and demographics. Their scissors make cookie cutter schools, health centers and community centers to fill in the gaps. After that, the flannel graph communities are filled in with all the necessary decals.

It is true that we built a 10ft by 12ft square to hang on that hillside. My family, Ian Kile and our constant stream of visitors live there. Some call it a shack, I prefer to call it a cabin. It is also true that it took 8 months to put up 440sq.ft building on that green wall of a mountain. Some call it a hospital or a dispensary, I prefer to call it a health center. The stone trails we built slice up the hillside with thin grey ribbons. A few years back we built an 8 room woven bamboo school building. Eighty kids come there 5 days a week. This morning as we stared back at our flannel graph village we noticed how different it looks than it did in 2003 when we first came.

Continue reading Flannel Graph Development

Hi everyone,

During monsoon the weather changes quickly, very quickly. A sunny morning can quickly change into a week long down pour. Our valley faces southeast. Usually, you can see the weather systems approaching. A thunderhead will approach from Darjeeling filling the sunny valleys with dark cloud. Then a heavy moisture laden wall hits like a tsunami.

Given the fact that the health center, the ‘big project for 2007′, is done we should be enjoying some blue skies and relaxing in the sun. Even though there is a bit of bright sky over head there is a crisis looming on the horizon. I’ve seen the clouds gathering for a few months now and prayed they would dissipate. They haven’t and we can’t ignore the inevitable anymore. We need your help in a way that we’ve never needed before. More importantly the people of Daragaon need your help. Before I tell you what we need and why, some background information is needed. The story of Tekke’s family should work as an appropriate illustration.
Continue reading Urgent: Potential Crisis

Mid July 2007

The spring sun is gone. The peas have all been harvested. The corn is head high. It’s mid-monsoon and everything is starting to feel wet.

Man Prasad is 11 months old and has kwashiorkor, a type of malnutrition. It happens when a young child has little or no protein in their diet. His mother came a few weeks back and showed him to me. On first appearance the baby was plump and looked quite healthy. But it is a façade. He isn’t fat, he is swollen. There is so little protein in his body that his cells are breaking down and leaking their fluids. The baby’s extremities swell as a result.

Continue reading Mid June Newsletter - Daragaon