A visit from my brother

 An Update from June 1st 2021

 

June 1^st 2021

Dear friends and sponsors 

Thankfully the weather is better now so yesterday I did a marathon three-and-three -quarter hour ride yesterday. Last week my total miles were 133 but I had two days without riding because I needed to catch up on housework and shopping, as my brother was coming to visit me. My total for the first three weeks is 412.31 miles.(661km).My bike needs a new gear cable so Friday will be a short riding day and I hope I don't break down in the meantime as the gears keep slipping. 

My brother lives in Devon and we don't have the opportunity to meet often, with my visits to India and his to France,  It was nice that we were able to have a family get together under the rule of 6.

Rajni prepared a written report which I will attach to this email. Since he wrote we have continued with the mask making and the education about how Covid spreads, what to do etc. Besides the loudspeaker van touring villages with the information, and individuals going to fields and work areas with a megaphone, I was surprised to learn about the walking talking method of communication. I enclose a photo of the man with his printed message version of a sandwich board.

 

Rajni was telling me how it is difficult to get the people to be especially wary of Covid, They will say 'we have fever every week and we get over it'. 

Rajni and his staff help villagers to register for vaccination, This has to be done on a mobile phone  and although most of the young population of Bihar seem to have mobiles they use them mainly for messaging and listening to music ( including seeing all those fake messages about home treatment with bleach and steam, and vaccines that make you infertile ,etc., etc,) Rajni and his driver are filling in the online registration forms on their phones. Four people can be registered at a time. 

 

 The vaccines are given at the nearest Public Health Centre (PHC) which is 12 km. away, in. Bhabua.  There is no public transport so people have to go by auto-rickshaw at a cost of 40rp for the return trip. The poorest Schedule Tribe, Scheduled Caste and Mousehars need a lot of persuasion to go for vaccination so I have asked Rajni to arrange that they are given the auto fare cost.  Once people arrive at the PHC they have a long wait, several hours sometimes, because either the vaccine hasn't arrived, the doctor hasn't or there is a power cut so the computers are not working. Of course, there is a need to be in shade, but no one thinks of arranging this to allow space between applicants! 

There were only 22 still ill or in quarantine last week out of the original 110 sick Dharauli villagers, seven died. The five village doctors are using the equipment you bought them, oximeters, thermometers, BP machines and giving out your medicine packs. The 4 bed mini-hospital is set up waiting for the oxygen machine to arrive today. and a qualified nurse has been found to work on a daily basis. The patient's families will provide food for their relatives.

 

We are looking into including more villages. The main difficulty is persuading the 'doctors' of various kinds, to use our medicines and not to charge patients.  Village doctors are usually not registered or medically qualified and can be of various kinds, ayurvedic, unami, or allopathic, each with his own treatment plan, Some sick patients turn to religious leaders for treatment  and have such faith that they might believe that  performing some rite or taking a dip in the Ganges will cure them. 

 

Rajni was saying that ex-Covid patients are often very weak. Besides recommending vegetable soup we are today buying Soya granules in bulk and will redistribute to poorer patients so they can have protein. Another suggestion I made was that we encourage each household to have a little vegetable growing area. Perhaps we could persuade some wealthier families to donate a little patch of land out of their large fields?

 

Must go out for a couple of hours ride now

 

With love from Manya