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JOHAN’S DIARY – 27TH OF JANUARY 2016
Johan’s diary – 27th of January 2016
07:15 I wake up feeling refreshed, and can hear animals and people beginning to come to life. I slept well last night, as my body and mind are becoming used to tent life. It is a nice, but cold morning and it looks like there are clouds rolling in from the mountains, it will probably be overcast a little later on today. For breakfast I have rice porridge with strawberries and coffee.
08:00 The truck with sand and cement arrives, and immediately starts to unload. I check on the laundry that is still hanging on the drying line, it’s not dry yet since it rained during the night. This means I have no change of clothes today. I write more in my diary from yesterday, as it was not completely finished yesterday.
09:30 Now the builders arrive one by one, and the work is resumed. I go and check in on it.
10:00 Shyam and I have been meeting concerning the building of Home of Hope, including discussions around the rafters, different reinforcements and some other issues. We arrive at a good understanding on these issues. We are preparing for the hand out of jumpers I have with me from Mariestad. There were three women from Mariestad, Elisabeth, Vanja and Inga- Lill who knitted them. As we prepare to hand them out, an elderly widowed woman arrives to get a big load of branches and leaves for her goats. When she sees the jumpers, we let her try one of the big children’s jumper on and she gets so happy when we give her one as she has no warm clothes.
Shyam then leaves for the little temples, as the ceremony for his deceased relative is today. Now it is clouding over and I feel some drops of rain.
11:00 I go down to Shyams family’s home to see if I can charge my computer and I talk a little with Asha (Shyams wife) about how her day has been. It is interesting and informative to hear, as it is a very different life compared to ours in the West.
12:30 I’m back at the tent for lunch when Shyam pops in with eight eggs I asked him to buy me. They are locally and organically produced, and I will have them for breakfast and lunch.
13:00 I have a powdered drink mix for lunch with coffee. The building of Home of Hope continues on. We have reached the next concrete level with mortar in several places. We will probably be completely finished with the mortar by tomorrow. It feels good that we are making so much progress at a fairly fast pace.
13:45 Now it is lunch time at the construction site.
14:15 The construction starts up again, and they are reinforcing the reinforced concrete around the doors, and will do the same around the windows. The elderly woman that we gave the knit child’s sweater to has returned to pick up another load of branches.
I help her get it on her back and it weighs alot. I am really impressed how an 80 year old can head off with 25 kg of branches on her back and then leap down a 1.5-meter terrace edge. I wondering how many elderly people at home could do the same.
15:00 The children are here with me to get their jumpers. It’s so fun to see them try them on. They get really excited, and some may even get knit hats. I take some pictures of them leaping with joy, as they are also warmer in the jerseys now! Feels great to be able to give them this, but the only problem is that we do not have a jumper for every child in the village and that feels a little sad.
16:45 Home of Hope walls have now been built up to the lower edge of the windows. It’s about 60 cm high. I follow Shyam to a small shop, and I mean very small.
I buy some nuts, drinks, noodles and a beer, which I will feast on tonight. I also carry home some firewood.
17:30 I try to send some photos and diaries to Sophie, which goes well at first, but then the internet turns off.
18:30 For dinner I have pasta with chicken, delicious. Now it’s really dark, there is no moon but it’s starry and cold. I message Sophie and Martin a little.
20:15 Now I crawl into the tent, and didn’t manage to send all that I wanted to send over the Internet. I hope to get everything sent when I continue with it tomorrow. I crawl halfway into the sleeping bag and ponder about the day. It feels like the days go by so quickly and are full of impressions and meaning. It is very meaningful to be here!
20:45 I feel an earthquake, a rather sharp one with 4-5 subsequent aftershocks. The village comes to life and I hear some shouts. It evokes memories from last spring, and I lie and think about it for a moment. I message Sophie and tell her about the earthquake, and then solve some crosswords!
21:30 Sophie calls me, as she is having trouble with setting up her emails on her phone so I talk to Stella who helps solve the issue. I continue solving some crossword puzzles.
22:45 Now I start to wind down, as it’s late in the night, but it went so well with the crosswords I could not stop!