Raising Funds and Raising Hands
December 14, 2014
Things Move in Phyang Village
After arriving from Mumbai yesterday, today I went to the Phyang village to see the progress there.
The 2.5 km trench digging has all been finished. Meanwhile the pipe laying work is taking longer as roughly 18% of the PVC pipes supplied by Arotek Industries in Jammu have broken in transport itself (we are taking up the issue with them).
Undeterred by this, we are using alternative sources of water supply to start the initial trials of the water dispensing systems. For this, we are testing three sizes of rain-guns supplied by Jain Irrigation India. You can see the photos of the beginnings of a trial ice stupa in the forming.
Today I also joined a huge meeting of the representatives of Phyang village and the monastery to discuss the progress of the project. Despite all the snow, roughly 100 village elders and youth joined and sat in the cold hall for 2 hours. I updated them about the tremendous support they are getting on Indiegogo crowd-funding site from around the world. They profusely thanked all of you who have contributed and who have shared the information.
Finally I asked them: "The whole world is making contributions for you. How many of you would come to contribute voluntary labour for the pipe laying work?" And guess what? 100% raised their hands… some even cheated by raising two hands.