Day 3 of JeeWan Jal started with creativity as usual. On this creative day, Mr. Harry Morgan, an illustrator from UK, visited our workshop. He gave us concepts and ideas about reportage which is a technique of drawing that tells the story of a picture or drawing. He showed some of his illustrations and drawings and gave his presentation regarding what drawing can actually express and gave us ideas and techniques of reportage, flowcharts and visual information mapping. After h

The day started with 6 lives, just arrived we were given 6 pieces of paper these were our lives. There were two different colored papers on the floor, Blue (was clean water) and Yellow (was polluted water). To begin everyone stood on the blue paper. As the music started we began to move around the different papers. Gradually the some blue papers were replaced with yellow papers and as the music stopped, a person left standing on yellow paper lost a life, if you were left not

I started doing microbiology so that I could avoid people. I did not think of myself as a people person. I was a bacteria person. I loved to stay in the laboratory as far away from people as possible…..bacteria are so much calmer and more peaceful!! However, I slowly found out that the laboratory is not the only place we find these tiny calm. Though I did not like interacting with people a lot, I am interested in health; what makes people sick? What makes them well? And, What

Suiren Shakya I had no idea what doodle meant at first so I asked and found it was some shapes and patterns we draw when we're listening or spacing out. Sian told we had to draw while talking about meeting the researchers on Thursday and see what shapes we create, but I heard little differently and thought we have to doodle about Thursday (14th July). The first thing I remembered was Salmonella typhi and the disease associated with it. The doctors and their study indicated th

I am a documentary and reportage illustrator from the UK who was invited to join the Jeewan Jal team this Tuesday morning to help participants think about using drawing as a way of seeing, learning, recording findings, and displaying information. I studied BA (hons) illustration at UWE in Bristol, UK. I found an interest in documentary and reportage illustration – trying to unify illustration and documentary journalism.I work with Gary Embury who runs the reportage network in

The first day with Jeewan Jal was unlike any other. And I don’t mean it in the cliché sense. It really was something different for the 11 participants involved in the project. The central theme of the day was more about knowing each other and exploring our own self. Our first session was discussion about creativity and when a question “Are you creative?” was raised the discussion halted for some moment. To this a participant replied, normally this question is thought of as a

What is creativity? “Creating something from nothing, Something is always creative, nothing isn’t!” “We think creativity is creating nothing into something or something into something new. “ “Yes. Or you could say converting useless things into useful. Like say when women make dolls from socks and rice. I think that’s creativity. “ “Discovering new things, thinking out of the box and being dynamic and flexible.” “Its something you do by yourself” “We talked about creativity a

How do people view the act of caring? Perhaps, the act of caring or compassion is so ingrained in humanity that it is easy to overlook it. Especially now, with the constant onslaught of news distorting our perception into believing that humans are heinous creatures. Even through the cynicism and all the sadness in the world, I refuse to believe this is true. We are, after all, largely societal creatures who have literally evolved to nourish and look after each other. Day two

Sano Thimi is the place to find clay, just half an hour (give or take) bus ride from central Kathmandu...an old Newari town on the way to Bhaktapur known for its ceramics. Indira and I spent a good half our finding the bus which then took a good 15 minutes to leave and plenty more time hanging out in the dust and horns of the ring road..Indira regularly called our contact with updates of our progress. Finally we get there and 60 kilos of Khalo (black) Thimi clay is ours! Stil