Friday, June 12, 2009

My first trip to the village...

My first trip to the village was short, but very exciting and adventurous. It all began with the bus ride: sitting on sugar and rice bags for several hours with no legroom at all, and the dust coming in from one window and leaving through the other made this ride an unforgettable one. It was a huge relief to arrive to the village and finally be able to stretch my legs!
The villagers were looking forward to our arrival, and made lunch for us. I hope I impressed them by trying to eat with my hands, but for me, it was great success.
We began our tour of the village by getting an idea of where the houses were located, and how the cables should go. The villagers had started putting up the poles for the electric wiring, and few of the houses were already connected to the system. There were 2 houses located on the side of a mountain, about 2.5 km away from the power house, whose owners had been working hard and helping in the project as a labor contribution to get electricity in their houses.
We had the chance to take a look at the power house also. The peltric set was set up, but we were still waiting for the electric equipment to be connected.
We got to meet a few locals who took us along the river where the pipe was running. The 465m of pipes were set up on the side of the mountain, and the top is located about 120m above the peltric set. I was amazed by the beauty of the environment. We passed by countless waterfalls on the way up to the top. One filter was put on the entrance of the penstock which maybe not enough in the future, but everything else seemed to be ready to work.
Unfortunately we could not do more after sunset, so we decided to head back to our host for the night. We were invited for dinner, where we got to learn about the village, the people who lived their, about their lives, and they also got to learn about us.
I think the first visit went very well, and now we can move on with the project.
- Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

No comments:

Post a Comment