So how much does 5 complete bio-sand water filter kits, 2 complete "Indian Jiffy Lube" micro-enterprise sets, 1 portable ONE Prayer multi-media kit, and 1 duffel bag full of supplies for our Indian ground staff weigh? About 700 pounds! Add to that 3 hard-side "pelican" cases for our Media team, and about 4 "team" check bags, and you get about 1,000 pounds worth of checked gear spread across 7 large Army-green duffels, 10 blue "sport bags" (each carrying 50 lbs of sand), and an assortment of other bags.
Plus all our carry ons. Holy cow!
So Dan Blacketor (who is leading our Construction Team) and i set out this morning to individually mark, package and pack everything that we currently have into their appropriate bags, and i thought you might like to see how we turned the GCC Atrium into a "staging area" for the better part of the afternoon.
The tall blue cylinders you see are the container units for the bio-sand water filters we'll be installing. These are "tester" units and we will use them for demonstration set-up. Later in January, 75 filters that we're shipping via boat will arrive for them to install village-wide.
The clear bags are varying diameters of sand, gravel and rock. Each water filter contains about 120 lbs of sand and various filtered forms of gravel and rock, and the answer to the most commonly asked question ("can't you just use sand, gravel and rock that you can find in India? I mean... do they not HAVE sand and rock in India? C'mon!") is "yes, but we didn't have time to set up the appropriate filter operations to ensure sand and gravel diameter. We'll do that in round #2 for next year.
As for the Tech Team, we are taking 2 complete sets of wrenches, socket-kits, screw-drivers, battery-testers, spark-plug/ignitor testers, pliers, multi-tools, flashlights and a host of other things. The idea is that we will train a small number of families how to open a secondary enterprise venture that looks a lot like what we're calling an "Indian Jiffy Lube". It's not a full-fledged mechanic or repair shop, but if you just need an oil change for your motorcycle or to have it spiffied up before you head to Chennai for the weekend, they'll be all set to help.
Media Team is taking everything they need to fully shoot and capture footage for 3 complete "GCC quality" media, plus "B-roll" for training and other materials later.
It's a good thing that the Justice Team is planning to travel so light. With this much gear, i'm not sure how we would get it all there otherwise!
After we finished packing our "1,000 pounds of love", Dan Blacketor and i passed out on the ground. Lugging it 9,000 miles to India is going to be a different story!
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