October 4-5, 2016
Today was a nice rest for us, and
yet it was one of the most important reasons that we needed to come to
Nepal. The driver picked us up at 8 AM
and we drove out of town in the other direction to meet with the Red
Cross. They are actually with the Danish
Red Cross but are I think mentoring the people in Nepal. We are not sure how that works. This meeting took the morning and we were
done and back at the hotel by noon.
We have a project that is very
important. Most places in Nepal have
water coming out of the mountain and they can access the streams, which are not
polluted like they are in Africa, although they are not probably as clean as if
they were accessed and filtered.
Nevertheless, they have a lot of water in Nepal. However, this area is high up on the mountains
where there is no water to be had. They
hike down and back up a steep hill to access a spring. The project was to pump the spring water uphill
to a tank, then another tank, and then another.
Then distribution lines would be taken to households or near
households. The elevation was high
enough that the improper engineering caused the project to fail. Transformers blew up, pumps didn’t work, the
spring box was poorly designed, etc. We
finally stopped giving any money as everything broke down quickly and they
wanted more money for pipes, which were useless without the water.
This is a shallow but
large pond of water next to the offices of the Red Cross. I don’t know how many years it has been
collecting moss, but there are fish in this pool that are living; how they are
alive is a wonder. It was solid, green
slime…
Finally they appealed to the Red
Cross who decided to use their earthquake funds to get the project started
again. We had the meeting today with the
district engineer, the representative from TRUST whose project it was as
implementer, our site monitor, the local Red Cross, Oliphant’s and us. A young gal from the Danish Red Cross presented
what they wanted to do: to retrain the community, get community money saved,
involve the government, re-engineer the project, and come up with a plan that
might work. Another tank or two will be
added to keep the elevation down from tank to tank and perhaps redesign the
spring box. If they can do this right,
we will then release or use the rest of the funds that we have left in the
project. We felt good about the plan as
it follows our criteria. Once they come
up with the plan and costs, they will implement the project. We also will be partnering with them and not
TRUST to complete the project. E/S
Oliphant will return to the States next June, and so they hope that this
project will be moving right along and nearly completed before they leave.
After the meeting we
spent a leisurely afternoon. Jim even
took a swim just to say that he did. It
was windy on top of the hotel and the water is ‘refreshing’, so he did not last
long. It is the pool with no fence at
the top. There is a nice view. We tried to find a pharmacy, and eventually
we did, but they didn’t have what we wanted.
We were walking and it was warm, so we gave up on finding another one
and went back to the hotel for a much-needed nap.
Taking a very short
swim in the ‘refreshing’ pool 8 floors up with no fence at the side and back
edges. It is a beautiful view from up
here on this side. The business side is
not so pretty with muddy strips between the road and the buildings, electrical
wires strung everywhere and only a few pretty buildings. The residential sections are much prettier,
and the country this time of year, beautiful.
Wednesday: Our car showed up at 8
AM and we’ve been awake since just after 3 AM so we had plenty of time to get
ready. This time CHOICE was with us as
we would be looking at a couple of their proposed projects and a couple of
completed ones. Kiran Neupane
accompanied us on this jaunt. CHOICE set
up the vehicle so we had a different driver and car. We were happy that it was not cramped like
the last one—this one was a roomy jeep-type but still, Kiran had the rumble
seat in the back, sharing his space with the luggage. Unfortunately we had to go down the same road
even though we turn off of it before the torn up highway. We would have more logically stayed there and
completed it all together except for the meeting, which we could not change,
and because it was so important.
Weaver’s were not accompanying us
on this trip as they are involved in Helping Babies Breathe—lots of paperwork
and set-up to do. They also work on
wheelchair distributions. These two
couples split the humanitarian responsibilities. Obviously Oliphant’s are the ones in charge
of water projects and they also work with the food initiative. Both couples also participate in the Branch
and have callings. Elder Oliphant was
just called to be the executive secretary to the Branch Presidency; I think the
others work in Primary.
As we drove along we were stopped
so that the driver could pay a bribe.
During festival times the police get bribes or keep you stopped for two
hours. They select cars that they think
can pay this bribe, which is about $5. We
have a certain routine on this road, knowing all the bathroom stops that are
decent, and always eating at the same place where they have good food. We had driven about 4 hours when we arrived
for our lunch. We were so happy when it
only took us one hour to get out of town.
This was because a great many people are already out of town celebrating
one of their big festivals. This took an
hour off of our trip.
At the restaurant you can walk down
and take a picture of the river that snakes through the canyon. It is muddy because whenever it rains the
dirt comes with it. During the dry
season it clears up a bit. At one spot
on the road we could see that the rains the night before had filled the road
with a lot of mud.
After our lunch we
were walking up the long stairs back up to the parking lot and as we did so we
met some American’s with some NGO coming down.
One man stopped us and told us that they had just left a big traffic jam
caused by a rock slide across the road.
He said that they estimated that it would take at least 3 more hours to
clear it. After sitting in it for two
hours, they turned around and decided to stay at the hotel there (at the
restaurant), or head back to Kathmandu.
I couldn’t believe such a gift as this, to be at the right place at the
right time to get this information. We
discussed our options. We had at least 4
more hours to get to Besishahar in the Lamjung area, which was exactly where
these people were going and even staying at the same hotel we had planned
on. So we added the 4 hours plus at
least 3-4 more hours to clear the jam and it just didn’t seem like such a good
idea to go. We turned around and went
back to Kathmandu. We had just taken a
9½ hour ‘Sunday’ drive…
Along the road we
occasionally pass through a town in a wider spot. Some towns were inundated with mud.
We arrived at our hotel at 5:30
PM and invited the Oliphant’s to dine with us, telling them about the pork
chops that Jim had enjoyed the night before.
They went into the dining area while we went up to our room for a minute. We came to find that the bed had been made
into twin beds so we asked the hotel to fix that. We were puzzled. It turned out that because they have been
doing a bit of renovating and had been painting that they wanted to move us up
to an ‘executive’ room. So, we packed up
and they moved us to the exact spot, only 2 floors higher. I was surprised that the room was not any
larger, but noted that it was a king size bed instead of a queen, there was a
fridge, an ironing board and iron, and a tub shower and magnifying makeup
mirror. So, it has been an eventful
day! We have regrouped.
This is a typical site
in the main city. If there is dirt
beside the main road, it is muddy during rains, and dusty when it’s dry. Either way, it isn’t pretty. In contrast the countryside is lovely.
Tomorrow we will write reports,
maybe swim, and in the afternoon go to CHOICE and be fed a wonderful
lunch. All I can say is that life is
interesting and one has to ‘roll with the punches.’
Back at the Shambala.
Love, Jim & Karen
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