JVSL and Hampi

JVSL is an amazing town and has been like Spring break for the Team. A planned community with sports facilities, a meditation center, shopping center, conference facilities, it attracts workers from all over the World and hosts conferences on mineral management, mining and resource management. It also houses India's second largest steel manufacturing plant and employs several thousand persons. We watched them unload a cargo train car full of coal in less than a minute by pulling the car onto a revolving platrorm, picking it up and tipping it into grates that run on a conveyor beneath the ground. The facility has its own electricity plant and makes enough from the natural gas available to provide the energy needs for the plant and surrounding community with plenty of extra to spare. Theyalso have their own water purification center, sewage treatment center and recycling center,

In nearby Hampi, the team spent the day yesterday viewing temples and ruins of a civilization that vanished from the region fully 500 years ago. Temperatures by late morning were already well over 100 degrees but the team kept cool by exploring underground passageways and dwellings. We keep hearing about natural air conditioning and camera lenses made by angles of holes cut in domes and ceilings and there is evidence of amazing architectural and engineering feats present at every turn in these ancient structures.

This early afternoon the team visited the government hospital In Ballary. I just got a chance to speak with Megan about the visit and she said the bulk of the time was spent in the office of the Administrator with an overview of the type of patient they care for and the scope of practice then a tour of the hospital that only lasted about 10 minutes. The team is home for lunch and a brief rest and then in another half hour are off to visit the jail. This is the first time we have been scheduled to visit a jail. Tomorrow is the Mother Theresa Church and school and the school for disabled children. There is a great deal of polio here still as well as birth injuries and disability to parasitic infection or illness, Then in the evening tomorrow is a wedding. The reception takes place with the community present the evening before the actual ceremony which will happen the morning of the 19th.

All is well with us and we seem to have gotten into a nice rhythm of activity.