Day 8 - Monday, February 25

Today we went to Jalamma Palem. ASSIST escorted us, because there were a number of issues to revolve that were impossible to deal with without the presence of a proper translator (Mr. Murthy speaks wonderful English and was gracious enough to take the time out of his busy day to come with us). We learned that the rainwater catchment portion of the project was not going to be as helpful to the villagers as we originally thought because of the minimal amounts of rainfall that they receive. So to work around this issue, we brainstormed with the villagers and determined that the ability to fill the tank either manually or via an automated method would make this structure even more useful to them. We then talked to the women about how they would like their 'wash stations'/sinks set up. The women have to currently walk quite a ways to do their washing. They told us that they do not need sinks, and that the women all wash together and that it would be better for them to have at least four washing areas together on the ground. We figured out what dimensions were appropriate and plan to incorporate this into our design. Those were the only major issues and the villagers were actually fine with the present location as well. They were so excited about our plan! It gave us such an amazing feeling to see the looks on their faces and realize that we were actually going to be building something that they were excited about that was going to make their lives better.

The villagers then continued to discuss some other issues that are affecting them. The government had promised them 22 houses, but they are having difficulties getting them to construct there houses. ASSIST is a very big organization in this area, so they agreed to talk to the government on behalf of the villagers to get this process moving. ASSIST was planning to have a small event in this area to make this happen - they agreed with our assessment that the village of Jalamma Palem are filled with very nice people that have somehow fallen through the cracks. They have received very little tsunami aid, while villages next door have received numerous funds. We feel really excited that we were able to put our village in contact with ASSIST, which is a properly run organization that does much for the people in this area.