Summer is Coming

This is our new staging area where we will be applying mosaics to columns soon we hope! (Front- to- back) Alan, Sue and Adam work in the new staging area. Alan just watches since he fractured his foot in Nepal. He is the filmaker! 

If you watch Game of Thrones, you know the family motto for Winterfell is "Winter is Coming."

This is Adam's design. He is a professional mosaic artist and is the
most diligent of the volunteer group along with Sue and Jody.

Well, here, folks say the hot season is coming. Already, around 4pm, it is 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and it is too hot to  work in the sun. Starting this morning, we all got up around 7am and started early shifts that knock off about noon and pick up in the late afternoon. I am one of the laziest. I start at 7:30am and knock off at noon and don't come back for the rest of the day....hey, I am one of the oldest, or at least that is how I rationalize it!

This is a design by Sue for her column.

I brought mostly winter clothes, and what I did bring for warm weather is way too hot as it is for all the other volunteers as well. So, the women have started to go into town and buy light cotton tunic fabric for about $8 (400 rupees) and have them tailored and sewn for 200 rupees (about $4.50). We are all testing different shops and tailors to make sure this whole tailoring thing works, but so far so good.

This is Sue's other design

We would buy short sleeved or no sleeved tops from the stores, but we are all too big for what they sell on the racks. The average Indian woman is about a size 2. A size 8 is large and a size 10 is XL. They do make an XXL but they look mostly like housecoats! So, we are experimenting with buying special fabrics ready to be made into tunics and having them tailored for our different shapes. More on that as it develops..

This is Jody's design

Our newest volunteer - We call him "dog"  or sometimes
black and white dog, since there are so many that run around the garden.
He likes bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches as well as fresh peacock meat!

This is my design so far....are you surprised? I decided I was
not making a design until the cement arrived! It is a little
more formed than this now - hopefully I will make some progress
tomorrow morning!

Sorry to tell you but we are still waiting for cement. However, Nek Chand did come visit us at our staging site to see what we were planning in the way of designs for the columns, so this is a good sign. Nothing happens without Nek Chand, so his visit is sending a very strong message.

Last night we drowned our sorrows with cheap local whisky and Gin and tonics at our guest house. Everyone brought their laptops to try and download their e-mails from Sarah's 3G network, but it is just not powerful enough to download our data. It seems we have to go in town to get that done.

So, we wait and we wait.

(L-R) Jody, Nek Chand, Alan and Anita discuss Nek Chand's thoughts on our mosaic and on the timetable for cement.

Well., that's it for today...a little positive reinforcement will go a long way. I think we will break out the Gin and tonic for tonight's dinner with the gross Indian food they give us!!!

j