First of i would like to apologize for not blogging as much as I had promised. My time on project was very busy and I ended up forgetting about my blog much of the time. The time on project was amazing and life changing. I found out today I will be returning there in early February 2016.
We moved out of Kathmandu to a district called Nuwakot. Here we will continue the same type of work we did while based in Kathmandu. I will be sent to a village called Melamchi to continue my work on a different base. Most of my friends will be gone when i return, so i will do the obvious thing and make new ones. I am looking forward to continue my work on the housing project. Its no longer called 50 Homes. It is now called HMRG and is more inclusive of the community. We will have a technical training program for the villagers so they can learn a new trade.
I cannot promise anything but i will try to update my blog more frequently when i return.
For most of my time here I have been working on building houses with a project called 50 Homes. We built homes in the Halchowk district of the Kathmandu Valley. Everyday I got to work above the valley and was blessed with an amazing views of Kathmandu. This week we finished our work in this district. It is sad leaving this area because there are so many more people that need help; also I have gotten used to the routine of Halchowk.
Now I am back at rubbling for the next few weeks until we move our base to Nuwakot. We are closing our Kathmandu base in the next month or so and moving our work to the village of Nuwakot. Life there will be very different. Nuwakot is a small village with twenty estabsihments at most. Night life will be smaller than Kathmandu. I have been told as well that the region we are moving to is predominatly Mongol. They are more open and we will be able to interact with the community more than we are able to in Kathmandu. I am looking forward to being able to see a new part of Nepal, but by the time we move more of my friends will be moving on with their travels. Adam will be heading home mid-November. Nessy leaves in two weeks. It is great to meet this new people, but i am still not used to people leaving. Its looking like it will be just Dan and I until the end of the adventure.
INDRA JATRA: FESTIVAL OF THE RAIN GOD
Tonight we headed to Durbar Square to partake in Indra Jatra, the festival of the rain god. As part of the festival people drink wine from the mouth of a statue representing the rain god. Only the strongest people can drink from the mouth because of the large amount of participants there. To make it to the mouth you need to push and shove your way to the front. Its best to have a partner run you in on their back. I was the base because I could push and shove my way to the front with ease. When you get to the front you still cannot just drink from the mouth. You need to reach over the others also at the front to be able to drink the wine. I ran to the front five times; four times carrying, and one time by myself to drink from the mouth myself. When you are at the front there are so many people that you are taking elbows and shoves constantly. Eventually if you are strong enough you will drink the wine from the statue.
This is an experience you should try if you have the chance. Its rough and difficult but very worth it. The festival continues tomorrow so we are going back to drink from the statue in the same manner.
Around 12:30 KTM time, we felt an earthquake aftershock. I was sitting in our lounge upstairs since I cannot go back to work until tomorrow, and I felt the floor shaking. As far as we know, nobody was hurt, and no buildings were damaged. It was such a slight tremor we weren't even sure what it was at first. The locals outside paid no attention to it. Updates will follow if we learn more.
I was injured while working last week and was told I can't work in the field for ten days. I will be able to return to my normal work duties on the 23rd. This week has been extremely slow since I can't do much to help out right now.
I am grateful that I am only temporarily out of the field and didn't have to go home to have my injury cared for. Last week my team had finished the house we were working on, so we decided we would pick up structures at the manufacturer to bring to our warehouse. While we were loading the metal structures into the trucks, a beam slipped and sliced my hand. At first I thought I would just need a band aid, but when I washed away the blood I realized the gash was much deeper than I thought.
We went to the government hospital, but the wait was too long, so we headed to a local private hospital instead. I had the wound cleaned and stitched. When I sent pictures of the wound to my family, my mother became worried that it hadn't been cared for properly. The stitches didn't seem to have been done well, and my mother was concerned about possible nerve or tendon damage from the depth of the cut. There was some talk of bringing me home for at least long enough to have a different doctor take a look at it.
Instead, I went to the United Nations hospital of KTM to get a second opinion the next day. I saw a western doctor, and he said there was no nerve or tendon damage, but that I would have a larger scar on my hand than necessary due to the poor stitching job the first doctor had done. He could have restitched the wound, but he chose not to because he felt reopening the wound wasn't worth the risk of infection. I have seen that doctor all week to get my hand cleaned and rewrapped. Today I had two of the five stitches removed, and the rest will be removed tomorrow. I am looking forward to returning to work in the field.
This Saturday was Maike's last day. We went shopping all day so she could buy gifts for her family. Last week our friend Max went to Melamchi, a satellite project All Hands is running. He joined a demolition team that backpacks up into the mountains for a week at a time to take down houses in the remote villages of Nepal. I had planned on joining, but I decided I am enjoying Kathmandu too much to leave for that long.
I haven't been able to update my blog as much as I would like because we are so busy. Most of us go out to the local pub nearly every night. We frequent a local Irish pub called Everest. There is nothing Irish about it except for one Irish flag.
I have been working on the 50 Homes Project wire team for a week now. We put up metal wire to protect homes from falling brick in case of another earthquake. I am now leading the wire team, which means I manage the worksite. I file any paperwork required for my team and make sure we have any supplies we need.
The week went by pretty quickly. I did everything from clearing rubble in the mountains and city to building shelters at IDP camps. Our water system broke this week, so we had to call a local plumber. He showed up and took apart our system, then decided he was done without fixing the problem. When we finally got him back, he fixed the problem...but decided to wash his feet with all our water. This type of behavior seems to be the norm here (being so comfortable you do as you please).
The driving here is controlled chaos. There are so many cars on the road but only a few stop lights, so people just cut in front of you. People do not stop for pedestrians crossing the street. We simply keep on walking, and they find a way around us. The first few times I tried to cross the street I had to have locals guide me.
I ended up getting sick from the water this week. The water here is not safe to drink, but I used it to brush my teeth, and that was enough to mess me up. People say the sickness will only last a few days and is cured by eating, staying hydrated, and sleeping. If it is still bad tomorrow, I may ask if I can take work off until I am feeling better.
This morning I headed over to the All Hands Volunteers base with a guy I met at the guest house (Steve). We got checked in and then headed straight to the work sites. We drove about 40 minutes from the base to an IDP camp outside of Kathmandu. From what I was told, the IDP camps ( Internally Displaced Camps) are basically FEMA camps. We worked on building community shelters. There are about 90 people living in the camp we worked at. I heard about other camps with up to 8000 people in them.
When I got off the plane this morning, I was excited to start experiencing everything Kathmandu has to offer. What I did not expect, however, was that everywhere I went in Kathmandu people tried to sell me things. You literally cannot take one step without a taxi or a rickshaw trying to convince you to get in. This is how I got dragged to the Monkey Temple today. The ride to the temple was not smooth. The roads have a lot of damage done to them, including plenty of potholes and bumps.
My rickshaw driver was an interesting fellow. He enjoyed pretending he did not know much English for the first half of the trip, which is how I got stuck going to the Monkey Temple even after telling him I did not want to go today. Oh well...it was a great time.
On the way to the temple he stopped at a Hindu funeral. I later asked him if they were closed for the family, and he said yes, so I have no idea why he had us watch. I think this type of thing will happen often while I am here.
The Nepali people are very nice and hospitable, but they do not like taking no for an answer. I ended up buying prayer flags for 500 rupee because the woman selling them just kept talking about how great the price was until I gave in. I will have to work on just walking away from those situations.
For those thinking 500 rupee is a lot, let me clarify. 1 USD is 100 rupee, so everything here is very inexpensive. I got my rickshaw ride for 20 USD, and we were at the temple for about three hours. For those who may travel here in the future, be careful about rickshaw drivers. Mine told me it would be 500 rupee, but when I tried to pay, he insisted I give him 2000 rupee! I will be avoiding the rickshaws from now on.
Its been an interesting start, but it will most likely calm down once I meet up with AHV tomorrow night.
Welcome to Nepal.
For the next two months, I will be working with the earthquake relief effort in Kathmandu, Nepal. The earthquake killed more than 9000 people and injured more than 23000 people. Schools and homes have been leveled into rubble, forcing people to rebuild their lives. I will be working with All Hands Volunteers (AHV), sorting through and clearing rubble to allow the people of Nepal to rebuild on their plots of land. I will also be building temporary schools because many schools were destroyed by the earthquake. Luckily the children were not in school when the earthquake hit.
Come back every week to see new blog posts, pictures, and the occasional video update on my travels in Nepal.