As I travel down the road, my mind wonders to the people and families I met in the village of Samibhanjyang, Nepal. As I worked side by side with the ladies of the village painting school benches, with several people hoping to expand their businesses, and with elderly men in dug out pits I felt a connection to these people... A connection that will last forever.
As mentioned in earlier blogs, I cane to Nepal with a non profit group called SHe (Singular Humanitarian Experience). They have partnered with CHOICE Humanitarian who has worked in Samibhanjyang and othe villages through out Nepal. What I didn't know before coming was that Dr. Jim Mayfeild, the co-founder of CHOICE, would be on the trip along with a film crew, Scott, Maureen, and Mariah Proctor. CHOICE has a goal to lift people out of extreme poverty and a specific goal in this area of Nepal thatin 3 years every home will have a smokeless kitchen. This trip was the first of many CHOICE trips to assist the villagers of that goal and to document the progress. Dr. Mayfeild talked with us many times about the need for sustainable assistance in communities, not just coming in, doing work or giving service and then leaving. He explained that over the past 50 years of assisting those in need there have been many ideas, theories and practices that all have "unintentional conveniences." However, he feels, and I agree, that bottom-up assistance sustained by local villages is currently the most effective method to end extreme poverty.
We worked on several projects hand in hand with the CHOICE Nepal team (that has a constant presence in this village and others) and with the people of the village.
The first day I was asked to assist another SHe menber in showing the school headmaster how to work donated microscopes. He was so eager to learn and watched with great intent as we showed him the different slides, power levels, and how to focus. We also gathered things like potatoes and grass to splice, stain, and examine. Blood is a great substance to look at under a microscope, so I made the small sacrifice and cut my finger to donate my blood for science. It was well worth it!!
While painting school benches with about 20 Nepalese woman I met a new friend, Sunita. She is a teacher at the school, is 30 years old and has 2 sons. She was baffled when I told her I did not have children, and wasn't even married. I can only assume that Sunita told the other ladies that I wasn't married cause they all looked at me with sad eyes then proceeded to touch my hair, face, stomach, and hips. All the the whole talking to me and to each other in Nepalese. I like to think they were saying "How? With this beautiful hair and skin is she not married!?" Sunita then said, "you are big, I am small, I should be like you. You are good to get married to." Being big in Nepal is good for marriage!! Just another reason to love this county! The ladies then took turns posing for pictures. Some things are the same no matter the country.
I found that technology was very different in the village than I anticipated. Most people had electricity for lights, cell phones, and cable TV.
We also lead a discussion on how yo help the villagers be more successful in their businesses. Most of the people had livestock that they either sell for meat or sell products from the animals. They were looking to double their numbers. On man had an already large veggie greenhouse; he was looking to expand because the demand for his product is so great. I learned that the people were very able to grow their businesses, they just needed the tools and opportunity to do so.
The main project of the week though was building bio-gas digesters. The first step, which we participated in was to dig 5.5 ft deep by 10 ft wide holes in the Himalayan foothills. I soon found that Nepal has a healthy supply of rocks! We used picks and sledge hammers to break up the ground and rock. Everyone in the SHe group were rock stars (pun intended), but no more so than Bryan, whom the group affectionately called Thor through out the week. When people asked Bryan if he was having a good time he responded, "I get to break rocks with hammers, of course I'm having fun!" We all had our "Thor" moments as there were plenty of rocks to go around. My favorite scene though was to come back after lunch to find that the head of the house had cleared an area or a large boulder by himself. The CHOICE team explained that the hikes would get done with it without is as the people wereotivated to have a smokeless kitchen by cooking with the methane gas the digester provides. We were there to assist families that were not able to fully complete the digging by themselves. But, they did what the could and we're tremendously grateful for our help.
In the evenings we were treated to music, dancing, tika blessings (red dot on forehead), and games. The best game was "cupatea." Ok, it's not really called "cup-of-tea," but that's what it sounds like when the Nepalese say it. Basically you're on two teams on a court with a center line. One person crosses the center line and tries to tag a member of the other team without being captured, aka tackled, by the opposing team... All while exhaling and saying "cupoftea, cupoftea, cupoftea.." It's painful and totally fun!
My bus ride is almost over.. It's been a long day in the back of the bus. I'm excited to get on the trail and start the hike!!
I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the village to add on this blog post. I kept my phone off and buried during my week in Samibhanjyang. I will add pics when I get home.
Namaste,
Kami
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