Working for Rajasthan health at Disha Hospital

The children arriving at Disha with their school teachers

We've talked about travel and some of the amazing gardens we saw on our Rajasthan trip, while researching plants for the garden at Disha, but we haven't yet shared details of one of our Health Camps, which we all helped to run. Health Camps are a vitally important way of spreading news to the villagers in Rajasthan and while we were in India, we ran a special Children's Health Camp, where students from two of the local village schools came to Disha Hospital for a general medical check-up.

Dr Deepak Babel carrying out a medical check

Some 120 children from two schools within walking distance of Disha came and spent several hours with their teachers and a team of local helpers, plus the four English visitors (Paul and Pauline McBride, Chris Walker and Charlotte, who founded the Raven Charitable Trust). Dr Deepak Babel conducted the health camp, with assistance from Mr Subhash Goyal, Ms Pooja Bajaj, Mr Hetal Amin, and many other local helpers. The children were weighed, measured and had a 10-point medical check up.

Charlotte with some of the younger children

With more than 100 students, ranging in age from three to 12, we organised a full activity programme for them while they were waiting to see the doctor, including drawing, singing and a traditional Rajasthani puppet show, with a health theme. All volunteers turned their skills to entertaining the children and we also provided a healthy lunch for them.

Pauline (left) and Deepak serving the food for the children

Everybody joined in to help and for once the Indian caste system was left behind. Paul, Pauline, Chris and Charlotte organised the drawing competitions, where the children were asked to draw their homes and families. In the next entry, we will be featuring some of the artwork they produced and asking you to help us choose the winners.

Chris Walker, helping with shoes after the medical check

Chris had to turn his hand to shoe-putting-on-skills as the children finished their medical checks, and Deepak and Pauline got busy serving the lunch (above). But all in all the day was hugely successful and both children and adults thoroughly enjoyed themselves. When the children left, they were all given soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

One of the groups of school children at Disha

When a project like Disha starts, it is vitally important to let the villagers know that there is a hospital nearby where they will receive free treatment, so Health Camps need to be run on a regular basis and aimed at all sectors of the community to encourage the villagers to visit the hospital for the first time. Once they know it is there, they will return when they need medical help.

Skirting the Thar - the Desert Festival

So much for all my good intentions to post regularly from India! Somehow we got swept up in such a flurry of places, events and India-style "happenings", along with such patchy internet connections, that JSF fell by the wayside as we four intrepid travellers visited forts, castles, palaces and gardens. My fellow travellers - Paul and Pauline - have done much better and  have chronicled our adventures on their Sussex Prairies blog, which you can follow by clicking the link.

A not so "wandering" calf, firmly tethered outside our haveli in Phalodi

So filled with remorse, I pick up the reins nearly a month later, from where I left off in Phalodi, the strange, NorthWest frontier town that borders on the Thar Desert. You only stop and stay here if you want to see the remarkable crane feeding ceremony mentioned in my last post. Sad to say, but Phalodi is a real one horse town, filled with wandering cattle and piles of dung that make midnight meanderings around the town an absolute "NO, NO, NO". Although its magnificent Jain temple is worth more than a passing glance. 

The tiny temple (left) is filled with wonderful, ornate glass and mirror work, shimmering in the sunlight. Few visitors get this far in Rajasthan, but if you do make it to Phalodi, make sure you put this temple on your list of places to visit before careering off on a camel in the Thar Desert.

Smiling holy man, found sitting below a tree within the hill fort of Jaisalmer

From here it's on to Jaisalmer, the ancient hill fort town that rises out of the desert in the Westernmost part of Rajasthan. This is a strange place, and not one that I'm likely to return to because it's become such a slave to tourism that every sign screeches about "Lonely Planet" write-ups; every tout tries to sell you a camel safari into the desert; and every spare wall within the city is covered with tourist tat - Ali Baba trousers, carpets, fabrics, and endless pashmina shawls that will not only lose their sparkle when you get them home, but are also likely to disintegrate the moment you try to launder them.

Two children quietly waiting in a sidestreet in Jaisalmer, before they join the Desert Fair parade

We had travelled hundreds of kilometres across deeply rutted roads for the Desert Fair, but soon realised our folly, when the parade started on Day One! We had thought we were coming to a Pushkar style camel fair, but found ourselves enmeshed in a noisy, but colourful parade (top), where camels and drivers were festooned with acrylic decorations. But it's alright, because life looks up after this .... and we start visiting the gardens of Rajasthan.

Travels through Rajasthan

Just a photo-entry today, as my fellow travellers are sleeping after four exhausting days on Rajasthan roads, but we'll be blogging together later in the week. We've completed the first part of our journey - Paul, Pauline and Chris arrived in Ahmedabad in the middle of last Thursday night (+ 5.5 hours UK time, + 9.5 hours EST) and we drove to Udaipur where we spent three days working on the garden and other projects at Disha.

Pauline and Paul, Chris and Charlotte (on arrival in Udaipur on 10 February)

From Udaipur we travelled north through Jodhpur to Phalodi (see map on previous entry) where we spent the night at an ancient haveli before leaving at dawn to see the cranes being fed at a tiny village in the middle of the desert (more pictures here).

Demoiselle cranes arrive in huge flocks from the desert to be fed by the village people

Travel here is very slow as the roads are extremely congested and lane control doesn't apply, so you can only reckon on driving 25 miles an hour, including highways. Now we are in Jaisalmer, where it is wet and foggy (most unusual for this time of year) and tomorrow sees the start of the Desert Festival.