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Over the past few years we have had some fantastic interns at Hunar Ghar- from the early days when Rob applied his carpentry skills to help build the first rooms of the school, to becky’s fantastic work with the children and more recently Teddy (an architect that has defined the physical space of Hunar Ghar) and Neha who has started some incredible work with women’s health groups in the village.

Each of these interns has brought something new and valuable to the project but also, I hope, left with an experience that has re-shaped the way they think about education and development.

To date we have been relying on these fantastic people to just come across Educate for Life and Hunar Ghar; which has had its benefits, but also meant we are less accessible than we might be.

Over recent weeks, Ed and I have been working to open up the process of interning with us. Based on our previous experience and understanding of the needs of Hunar Ghar and of interns, we have started compiling some intern packs that pad out the different opportunities available to have a challenging but incredibly rewarding experience working with us and the community.

We;re hoping that in the next couple of weeks we will have some totally revamped intern pages that will get people excited about working with us and engaging with Hunar Ghar and the community in the future.

Update: the ‘before’ shot isn’t quite as dynamic(!) :

I’ve had my fingers crossed all week. Why? Because I was hoping that Wolfgang Scheffler would come to Hunar Ghar to advise us on our solar cookers.   And it turns out it was worth it! Along with Stephen from the Global Hospital, he Heike and the rest of his sun-tracking gang came yesterday. We identified where to put up to 4 solar reflectors for cooking. We’ll start with two, and then we can expand to four later.

Solar cooking is really important to us for several reasons. The first is that in sunny Rajasthan it is a limitless source of free energy. Secondly, we normally cook on wood and deforestation is becoming a bit of a problem here. We’ll burn hundreds less trees over the coming decade as a result of having solar reflectors. Third, it helps in the definition of our intention to try and innovate in rural development using the most sustainable methods available, as well as acting to inspire all our students and potentially community with solar energy and make it seem that solar cooking is the norm, not more environmentally degrading alternatives.

So what’s the timeline for this excitement? We’ll ask Teddy to map the area where we plan to put the reflectors when he comes in March. This map will be sent to Heike and Wolfgang, and they’ll advise in where to order appropriate reflectors from as well as where to put the foundations for the reflectors in. The reflectors will then be made to order in Maharastra, sent here, and hopefully we’ll be cooking using sunlight by the end of the summer (although that is just me guessing, I have no idea how long it will take for them to make and send the order).

The man himself, pretending to dance like and Iberian

No solar reflectors …

… an artist’s impression of what Hunar Ghar will look like with Scheffler solar reflectors.

Kerry-Anne and Teddy being our architect team. Long ago Kerry-Anne designed our new accommodation and although since then Deepak has emailed a few photos, being taken using a mobile phone means they weren’t that clear. So here I present, with very few more words, the work done to date: