Hi,
Here's a little flavour of the building action from India ...
and some of the craic from the hooley on Saint Patrick's night ...
And that's the end of our adventure in Bangalore.
Thank you for reading the blog. If you've any comments, I'd be delighted to hear at catherine.docherty@tinyworld.co.uk,
God Bless till next time,
Kate
Sunday, 4 April 2010
Monday, 22 March 2010
Between the Jigs and the Reels

Hi again,
Back to a reasonable connection and I can close out the news on the Habitat Women’s Build in Bangalore. The Saint Patrick’s night party was a very fitting finale to a great adventure.
Everyone from all


The top photo shows Bernie treating us to some Sean Nos (old fashioned Irish Dancing), which went down a treat.
I’ve never danced a jig in an Indian outfit before but I decided to mix the cultures and give it a go. Here’s Una teaching me a few steps.
The dancing was brilliant and it was amazing how quickly our American cousins took to The Walls of Limerick and the Peeler and the Goat !. Rachel, our adopted Australian team mate was a natural and she and I were partners for a few dances.

There are not many who can successfully negotiate the Siege of Ennis in a sari, but Nirmala managed beautifully !!
Jenny’s song sheets went down a treat and any and all sorts of accents were soon belting out Molly Malone, The Boys from the County Armagh, The Wild Rover and many more.
I’ve added lots of pics below so you can get a flavor of the evening .. a great close.
So that’s the end of our wonderful adventure.
Thank you so much to Jenny for leading the Northern Irish team with distinction and looking after us all so well. Also to Nirmala, Joseph, Mahesh and all the Habitiat folks from Bangalore and all over India who came to help us.
Bye till next time,
Kate
P.S. I’ve now headed off on another little adventure to explore some of India before I come home. I have a separate blog for that trip. It’s at http://www.kateindiatravels.blogspot.com/, if you’d like to check it out.











Saturday, 20 March 2010
Back Soon ...
Hi Folks,
Sorry for the delay in updating. I've moved on from Bangalore and the internet access is very patchy. I'll do the update for our final evening Irish Party as soon as I can get a good connection,
Tks,
Kate
Sorry for the delay in updating. I've moved on from Bangalore and the internet access is very patchy. I'll do the update for our final evening Irish Party as soon as I can get a good connection,
Tks,
Kate
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
La le Padraig i mBengaluru

Hi,
Well, Saint Patrick's day got off to a rousing start, with a chorus of 'When Irish Eyes are smiling' before we boarded the bus.

Back at House 4, we had a busy morning. The wall above the lintel has been built up to full height at the front and the left hand side and today's job was to build up the 4 layers of blocks above the lintel at the back of the house. This involved moving blocks and concrete up the various stairways, barrels etc., to t

As well as being Sain



After this little

After lunch today we had a few words and a short evaluation exercise of the build with Mahesh and then we headed back to the site. One of the new Habitat homes was having it's Door Ceremony and we were all invi



We then went back to our regular meeting place at Coconut park, for the final get


Here's Sorona, Shanti's son whom we've worked with all the time on house 4.
We said our goodbye's and boarded the busses one last time to go back to the hotel and dinner and and Indian Ceili, hosted by the irish team !
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Stairway to Heaven !!

Back at house 4 today, the first job was to build a stairway from the blocks so we could use it to pass the blocks up over the lintel for the next row of blocks. (I know it's a day too early, but the St. Patrick's Day shirt is just the build up to tomorrow !). We built a lovely silver stairway ! and used it to pass the blocks up overhead (definitely a tricky proposition). Again, we were left in th



Tonight we had our Closing Ceremony, which was really touching .. just a few simple words from Joseph and Mahesh and some of the other leading Habitat personnel. We saw the professional photos that had been taken during the build and footage that had been broadcast on TV. The build attracted a lot of attention and there were a number of items. Well done to American Cathy from our House for an excellent TV interview .. and wait till you see Liz hurtling a pan of sand through the air .. priceless ! I think we will get copies.
We then had a very nice meal in the garden and took the opportunity to take some photos of our new friends. H


It's really hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day building. The time has gone so quickly and I'm sure we will all be very sad to finish up tomorrow. But we've had a wonderful time building alongside the families and the Habitat staff in Bangalore and at the end of the day, some very lovely families will have a new house .. and that's what it's all about ..

More tomorrow (probably with a few shamrocks involved ..)
Jenny's Singing and Dancing Class ...

Hi again,
One of the great things about Habitiat builds is the opportunity to get to know and to get involved with the whole community and not just the one family we build with. No one embodies this better than Jenny .. here she is with her new friends. She taught the children some singing and dancing and they performed for us by the busses today, where they had an audience. They absolutely loved it and so did we

Today I was back at house 4 with my original team, as we were ready to build the rows of bricks above the lintel.



The work today was all heavy lifting and there was an endless pile of concrete blocks on the street outside that had to be brought into the yard. We got our chain gang going and by lunch time we managed to complete the pile .. we were very happy to see the back of them ! After lunch there was a lot of carrying sand, cement and mortar and mixing. We carried and Sonara, our home owner mixed. I've never seen anyone work so hard. He's a real power house. The concrete mix then had to be passed up to fill and seal the lintel ready for laying blocks on top tomorrow. It was fun to watch the local lads shifting the pans and basins of mix .. like it was a feather .... whereas we were struggling .. a really good fun day, where we had great craic with the family and the other local helpers, but still worked hard and managed to achieve what we needed to.
After work today, there was a visit to a local orphanage, which was wonderful but heartbreaking at the same time. The children were delighted to see us and we talked and played with them for a while. Some of the older ones were coming back from school in their immaculate uniforms. And here's Emily having fun with some of the youngsters.
It was a great opportunity to meet the children but left us quite subdued and a bit sad.
Another great day and more to come tomorrow !
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Relaxing Sunday ..

Hi again,
Following our very long and busy day yesterday, we had a nice relaxing day today. A late start about 12 and the highlight for me today was our lunch .. a wonderful meal in a very authentic South Indian restau





After lunch, we hit the shops .. enough said ! and then back to the hotel to relax before dinner. Tonight, there was a sepc

That's it for tonight - I'm off to bed, to be ready for another busy day on site tomorrow. Only 2 and a half days left and tons to do ..
Bye for now.
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