Saurath village in Bihar

I visited in June in Saurath village in state of Bihar. We got to know some of the 5000 villagers, how they live and what services are there available in the village and nearby.

Drishtee, a civil society actor, helps this village with logistics service targeted for small shop keepers. The service cars bring sales items for the shops in small quantities. I saw how the driver brought 10 single use pouches of shampoo to one shop.

Drishtee serves the village with a computer center. Villagers can learn there to use computers, software and internet use.

The medical center nearby serves mainly pregrant women. Here is the reception.

Colors here and there.

Animal dung is used as fuel. The shapes of the cakes are innovative.
 

Sami from EarthHouse Finland Ltd was part of our group. He tested their housing consept in the village with a small scale model that fits in luggage. Villagers made the walls and the roof of the house from local materials with local methods. And they were really excited about the possibilities. For more information, visit Earth House Systems

Three solar panels charge batteries of the street lamps.

I found a page of a notebook of an English learner.

Inconvenience regretted

Repairs: We have lived in our modern first floor apartment now for 7 months. Our landlord told that they chose to buy this home four years ago because it is of so great quality. Best architect and best builder. The best builder has used only the best materials and the best workmanship. Repair crew repaired all items from my repair list I had been able to create with help of my experienced colleague before signing in the rental agreement. Well, below is a partial list of repairs that have happened in the last 7 months.

Only one repair crew has cleaned up their mess

Repairs during 7 months:

• 4 x repair of the Internet connection. The last repair seems to have worked, as the service provider crew installed new 50 m cable from the connection box on the street to our apartment.
• 4 x repair the main power line coming to apartment. Three times the main fuse has burnt down. Once a piece of electric wire had melted.
• 4 x repair the backup power generator that runs on diesel. One time some wires burnt in the end of the repair process.
• 4 x scheduled maintenance of the backup power generator 
• 3 x repair the water pressure pump on the roof.
• 2 x change the broken light pulps. First two months, 14 light bulbs. After the next four months, 19 bulbs.
• 1 x repair a burnt electric outlet in living room.
• 1 x try to repair broken in-sink erator in the kitchen. Cannot be repaired.
• 2 x repair dishwasher. The second time it took a week to replace the water pump at the repair shop.
• 5 x repair kitchen sink plumbing issues.
• 2 x repair water filter. One time the power converter had melted.
• 3 x water filter scheduled maintenance.
• 3 x repair a hot water geysir in one of the bathrooms
• 1 x hot water geysir scheduled maintenance
• 3 x opening of the pipes of a floor water outlet in the inside balcony / storage room
• 4 x repair electrical problems inside
• 2 x repair few of the AC devices
• 2 x scheduled maintenance for all 7 AC devices
• 3 x expert visits to check the bubbling paint and mold in the dining area wall. Still waiting for a good moment to re-paint the wall.
• 4 x expert visits to check the water leakage in the master bedroom wall
• 2 x digging out the wet brick wall under a big mirror, mold, plywood sheet and concrete
• 3 x repair of the water leakage in the master bedroom wall. 2 x fixing the toilet water tank and finally 1 x breaking up the wall and changing a totally rusty and broken water pipe.
• 2 x ordered new filters to air purifiers. First they just vacumed the devices and said the filters are still ok. well, they were already totally black and starting to break. The second time they brought new filters, but ones without smoke filtering feature that I had ordered. Then they told that those ones will be available in few months.
• 150 phone calls. It has taken 2 to 15 phone calls to coordinate the repair of each of the incidents. Luckily our maid Seema, who started in December, has taken care of the most of the coordination.
• In addition to these repair needs that have required professional expert help, I have fixed some tens of minor issues myself.

Internet installation

It took two months to get internet installation and modem

Main electric power

Electrician tool set has a screwdriver

Problem is always found by watching and poking with the screwdriver

Our electric main power cabinet is pretty wild

Our apartment's fuses need to be poked at, too

Main fuse has burned three times

Burnt main fuse

Water leakage in master bedroom's bathroom. I told more than ten experts for three months that only possible reason for wet wall that stays wet in tall area is a leaking pipe inside the wall.

4.12.2011 Water dripping from under a huge mirror

6.12.2011 Bubbling paint in the neighbouring wall

6.12.2011 Nice layer of mold on the wall

6.12.2011 Plywood sheet under the mirror full of mold

20.12.2011 A professional came to clean the wall after I did not find respiration filters

22.12.2011 Plumber fixed the toilet water tank problem

9.1.2012 Builder and two experts repaired the toilet water container a second time

1.3.2012 The Expert came to dry the wall with gas flame blower in 4 hours. It had stayed wet three months with three of my heaters used for drying. Luckily we did not have a gas bottle.

1.3.2012 Helper of the Expert noticed that hey, the wall is wet from above the toilet water tank.

5.3.2012 Team of experts spent a day and cut through the wall into a leaking rusty pipe.

One more thing about this wet wall. In one day, the men cut the wall, changed the leaking pipe, and immediately filled the hole with tiles and concrete. Now we are waiting about their next moves. They thought to put the wall back to original condition in few days. I do not think so. We wait for the wall to dry up.