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April 18th, 2010 Mumbai, India

Our team of local masons and helpers have been working long days and we’ve made some great progress. DWP hired a local welder who has welded all ten of our support beams with metal plates that we will fasten our second level of floor beams to, creating a strong and structurally sound building. For the first time, I can start to see some real progress. I have been helping whenever and wherever I can, carrying cement and keeping tabs on the children who are eager to help us. On the first day of construction, we had a handful of children wanting to help, and now five days into construction, there are at least twenty children helping us! As we order cement, rocks, dirt and supplies for the masons to build with, it is dropped off on the main road above the pipeline. We know our latest delivery has arrived when there are no children around us and soon the sounds of laughter can be heard as our “supply chain” of eager children is making its way from the road with supplies that they can carry to the building site. The helpers are from about six to twelve years old and help in any way they can manage. The smallest children fill bags of rocks weighing less than a few pounds, sling it over their shoulder, and bring it to us smiling all the way. They enjoy mirroring the older boys and our masons. At first I was worried and attempted to discourage them from helping, but that has become an impossible task. The children are currently on school holidays and are eager for something to do. They take turns filling heavy bags for me and the other workers to carry, and then fill small bags for themselves.

When it is time for lunch all the children gather around Ashley and me and we all decide on what we will eat. Then, a few of the older children and I dash up to the local restaurant and order the food, while the rest of the children sit giggling in the Balwadi anxiously awaiting our return. While our masons take a well deserved nap in the shade, and the boys and I return with rice and curries, the children waiting in the Balwadi erupt into dancing and cheering as we hand out the food. Using our steel beams as our lunch table, we all sit together and eat, and I can’t help but smile at the sight of twenty children, sitting cross legged, eating on steel beams, after having worked all morning building their own community center.

I have also become friends with a family who share the small building with the Balwadi. Their home is a small, 100 square foot room, that houses a family of five which includes Sureesh, his wife Shalu, and their three sons. Sureesh has two major health issues; both TB (tuberculosis) and Aids. He contracted the HIV virus years ago from a hospital during blood work and has since contracted TB as a result of the AIDS virus. He is currently on antiviral drugs and has been feeling stronger and hopes to resume his work as a Tempo driver in the coming month. Luckily, the rest of his family has not contracted the disease. Shalu is a teacher at the Balwadi and also works as Ashley’s assistant, helping to find families that need assistance with their child’s education. They have welcomed me into their home on several occasions and we have shared lunches.While we are rebuilding the school, we are also helping Sureesh and Shalu renovate their modest home to make life a little more comfortable. I consider both Sureesh and Shalu my friends. We often sit in her brother’s home and while Shalu cooks, Sureesh and I have conversations in broken English and he attempts to teach me Hindi. They are amazingly generous given their modest situation and they always prod me to eat more than my share. During construction, Sureesh and I often work together doing odd jobs, and although communication is tough we always find a reason to laugh.

We have raised the ceiling in their home, and the Balwadi, by almost three feet, making the space feel much larger while adding some much needed air space.We have also added two small windows for the family which brings light and air into their home. A small loft space has been added in the hallway that will hold Janvi’s supplies that Sureesh and Shalu had previously kept in their small home, further reducing their living space. Next, we plan on replastering all of their walls, make them a new bathroom and replace their old kitchen.This may sound extravagant, but for those who have not been in a slum dwelling, all of these “rooms” are within 100 square feet of living space. The repairs are all basic and modest.. Things are built for purpose and have only utilitarian design. Our hope is to give them a new, brighter, stronger and more livable home. I recently found out that Shalu’s birthday is on May 2nd, and I hope to have them back in their new home in time for some small celebrations.

With the first floor of our school nearing completion, we will look up and start the second floor, which will create the new space that the community desperately needs.

Cost: Labor (as of today) – 7200 INR or $170 CAD  Materials and other costs will be shown when our building is complete.

Sincerely,

Kane Ryan

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April 16th, 2010 Mumbai,India

Now that we have broken ground and have started excavating holes around our old school building, it was time for Dirty Wall Project to make the biggest ever, single purchase. This morning Ashley and I visited several steel companies around the area, trying to find the best deal. The current rate per kilo is 40 rupees(93 cents CAD). The price has risen from 37 rupees, in less than a week and due to rise again soon. After some negotiating, one company offered us the steel at 39 rupees per kilo, but they would charge us a hefty delivery charge.We headed back to the first steel company, which is less than a two minute walk from the Balwadi, and they agreed to 39.5 per kilo with only a small delivery charge. Our deal was sealed with a handshake and they began to cut our steel beams which would strengthen our walls and create our new support for our floor and roof.

Steel shops in India are far different from their western counterparts. The six men in the shop weld and move the heavy steel in sandals with no eye protection or any safety measures whatsoever. While I was counting my money to pay the bill, I felt something warm and then hot on my feet, and as I turned around I realized there was a man cutting a steel beam with a torch, less than six inches from my feet. As I turned and moved away from the hot sparks I could see the man smiling to himself at the soft foreigner.

While our steel was being cut, Ashley and I rented a Tempo (small truck) to load the school’s computers and teaching material out of the Balwadi and move it to Sangarsh Nagar until the building is complete.With a group of children, both girls and boys, we moved all of the school’s stuff to the truck. Children as young as six were helping to carry the wires that dragged behind me as I carried the monitors to the truck, handing them to another group of children waiting at the truck. After an hour, with the truck fully loaded, the children and I piled into the back of the truck, and with a lurch and a wheeze of diesel smoke, we swerved into the busy mid- morning traffic. The fifteen minute drive was filled with laughter as we all tried to hold on while keeping the computers from falling out of the moving truck. We arrived at Sangarsh Nagar and we all jumped out and began the four story climb to Janvi’s beauty parlour, where our stuff would be stored. Covered in sweat, I climbed the stairs behind the children, amazed by their willingness to help and doing my best to keep up with their endless amounts of energy. After four trips to the top and back, our truck was empty and we all piled back in for the return trip to Saki Naka. As the truck started to pull away, one of the children noticed my bag was not with me. I had forgotten it upstairs. I quickly jumped out of the truck and was running toward the stairs when I heard the children behind me. They had decided to come with me for one last race to the top. Singing and laughing, we raced the four flights to the top, grabbed my bag, raced to the bottom again and sprinted back to the waiting truck.Covered in sweat, we jumped back in, and collapsed in a fit of laughter as the truck began to move.

When we returned to the steel company, our beams had been cut to size and had been loaded onto a two-wheeled trolley, balanced by six men. The weight was a staggering 990 kilos. Nothing is easy in India. Although the trip from the steel shop to our school was short, it was filled with many obstacles. I watched these strong men push and pull the trolley loaded with the steel beams, through chaotic, no-rules traffic as taxis, auto-rickshaws, large trucks and motorbikes honked and swerved within inches of the men and their very awkward, heavy load.

Next, our steel was lifted onto shoulders, carried piece by piece down a steep hill and passed through a barbed wire fence that we had tied back with string, into the garden of Saki Naka. Once the beams were on our side of the fence, a few local men and I carried it farther into the slum. The next step was to paint all of the beams with red oxide to prevent rust from forming. At first it was just myself and two other men painting the beams and it looked as though it would take us all night to finish.We still had a spare paint brush and as one of the children stood by me, watching, I offered him the brush and I witnessed the happiest painter I have ever seen. Soon children were coming from all over the community and we had to send a runner to get more brushes and paint. An hour later we had an army of kids and local men painting the beams, sometimes more than six people painting the same beam. The community is so curious when I am working that even mundane tasks like this one become interesting and the project really brings the community together. Two hours later, we had finished painting all the beams and when I looked around there were children everywhere smiling, laughing, and covered in red paint.

Night had come and our work day was almost finished. All that was left to do was to move the rest of the steel into the Balwadi. In slum communities, construction material is a precious resource, and although the metal was heavy and not easy to move, if we left it out during the night we would surely lose a few pieces. With a team of about twenty people, we picked up and moved the heavy steel over fences, down stairs and through the narrow door to the Balwadi. As I washed my hands under a communal tap with several of our children I couldn’t help but smile.

Leaving the slum, I headed by rickshaw to Ghatkopar train station where a 45 minute train ride would take me back to the south end of Mumbai and my guesthouse in Crawford Market. As I was sitting on the packed commuter train, I noticed I was getting more stares than usual. It was then that I realized that I was the dirtiest person on the train which confused the rest of the passengers. My feet, arms, and legs were covered in red paint and oil from moving the steel so I didn’t look like the average foreigner. Soon someone got up the courage to ask me why I was so dirty, and when I told them I was building a school, I watched as whispers were passed through the train compartment and soon men were giving me friendly nods and gestures.

This is my biggest project to date and one that makes me nervous as well. Construction has a way of costing more with each turn of the shovel and although I have confidence in my workers and Ashley’s ability to manage the project, I can’t help but hold my breath until the building is complete.

Steel 990 kilos – 39,000 INR or $907 CAD

Red Oxide paint – 465 INR or $11 CAD

Food for the children – 600 INR or $14 CAD

Workers  - 1000 INR or $23 CAD

Tempo truck rental – 200 INR or $4.75 CAD

Total – 40,815 INR or $950 CAD

Sincerely,

Kane Ryan

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