English | Français
Sai Maa Humanitarian
  • Home
  • About
  • News
  • Projects
    • Cataract Surgery
    • Feeding Program
    • Women's Empowerment
    • Ashram
    • Past Projects >
      • Ayodhya
      • Flood Relief
      • Haiti Project
      • Margh Mehla
      • Vitamin Angels
      • Warm Winter
  • Donate

Day Six: Selfless Service

9/1/2013

 
It is Saturday and the floodwaters continue to recede. However in Varanasi, there has been 24 hours of almost uninterrupted heavy rain. This adds a new dimension both to preparing the meals for distribution and in getting the meals to the affected village areas. Today, Sai Maa Vishnu Shakti Trust and Asmita are returning to the impoverished communities around Ghasiyra Ghat, where, even though the floods have receded, the brown muddy water is still more than waist-high in the tumbledown houses.
Picture
Volunteers work throughout the morning to prepare the food and keep the fire protected from the torrential rain, and to ensure that the food packets are hot and dry when delivered. The large bags filled with approximately 250 precious meals are balanced on the motorcycles as we prepare to leave for Ghasiyra Ghat. The volume and nature of goods carried by motorcycle in Varanasi often challenges both logic and imagination.

However, before getting half way to Ghasiyra Ghat, one of the motorbikes stalls in the deep waters now covering all access roads to this Ghat. It cannot be restarted. Father Sunil and Mohan Das try to find a rickshaw that can carry the stranded bag of food parcels. All the auto-rickshaw drivers are unwilling to enter the flooded areas choked by water until eventually, they find a bicycle rickshaw willing to attempt the journey. We transfer the food and continue on through even deeper waters.

It is now dark, as the stormy weather brings early darkness. This does not stop the communities eagerly coming to greet us with smiles and the words ‘Namaste’, the children waving their arms to say hello. The first community we visit is still entirely isolated from their homes. The walls around their community have been high enough to hold back the Varuna from the one small area where they have congregated for the past week and here the remaining members of this community stay.


The rain drenching the city has turned the access to their community area into thick mud. As we make our way through the mud, we sink into it with each step, our shoes then held by the consistency of the mud. The black mud splatters on our clothes, up our legs and on all we are carrying. We support each other in the darkness and think about the community living in this unhealthy situation. However, as is the repeated experience, there is only gratitude and humility from these people as they crowd around us in the darkness, each person receiving enough meals for their families.

Although late, we move to the next community in this area and the rickshaw meets us at this location. When the people hear us coming, many women, children and a few men move towards the distribution point. Local volunteers have notified the community leaders that the food will be delivered late. Although crowded and chaotic, there is order and gratitude here too, with each receiving their food packets and returning to their family to eat the meal on this monsoon night in Varanasi.

Comments are closed.

    Latest news

    Get the latest information on Sai Maa's humanitarian projects.

    Archives

    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All
    Cataract Surgery Program
    Ceremonies
    Flood Relief
    General
    Just One
    Women's Empowerment

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.