March 14, 2018
A bed feels the best when you
need it the most. I managed to stay
awake till 8:30, after which I dropped off to sleep in record time. After sleeping 5 hours though, I began to fret
again about the fact that I won’t be able to send any letters until after I get
home, and then all at once. My phone
also will not send e-mail, but both bring it in. I fretted enough to try suggested (on the
Internet) fixes, none of which worked and some that sounded a bit scary. So I went back to sleep eventually, but not
soundly or long enough. We needed to get
an early start so I got up just after 5:30.
We left at 6:50 to walk out onto the street (the roads in this area are
rather small) so that the driver could pick us up. It was cold in the AM.
We drove to Kiran
Neupane’s since he has been hired as a consultant on the Chilaunepani project
even though he’s with CHOICE Humanitarian and this was not their project. The Red Cross became involved when the
project was failing because of corruption.
TRUST was in charge, and they do worthy projects, but never do them very
well and they usually fail as this one did.
Red Cross saved the day. We had
already added more money to complete the project, but it never moved
forward. This was one of the most important
projects that we discovered more than 6 years ago. The people live high up in the hills and the
methods for getting water are extremely difficult and take up most of their day. So when the Red Cross got involved we were
thrilled. Finally they claim it will be
completed by the end of this month, with water flowing into taps in front of
houses.
Visiting with Red Cross
before the site visit; Kiran Neupane in the middle, Red Cross monitor in the
red (Hari), engineer on the right.
Next
to Jim, the Red Cross director on the project.
As we drove by the
spot where we first discovered the problem, we again saw people waiting to get
the water—about an hour to fill one jerry can.
We found one woman who collects 4-5 cans of water a day, which you can
see takes up most of her day. We
interviewed her for a story. We asked
what she would do with the extra time when she got water close to her house and
she said their family would be able to have a kitchen garden—they would have
the water for it and the time to work it.
She was a cute, little lady of 40 years, with two children and in-laws
living with the family that she was collecting water for.
This is the lady we
interviewed about how the project will help her.
As we visited we saw an older man
sitting at the dripping water, collecting it patiently. Then another woman came hiking up to the road
with one of those large baskets on her back, filled to the brim with all sorts
of water containers. As strong as these
women are, who carry the burdens in this country as they do in Africa, even she
struggled up the steep slope. We don’t
know how far she had to go to get the water, and how far she had
to go to get to her home.
This lady’s basket was
filled with many containers of various sizes, all filled with water. As strong as these women are here, we heard
her grunting as she climbed this steep slope to the road. We can’t imagine how much that water weighed! We don’t know where she got it or how far she
had to haul it to get it to her home!
This is why we love this project, and this is why we are thrilled that
the Red Cross saved it. They have people
on the ground to make sure it does not again get corrupted.
This road has become a
muddy river. It is not slippery because
under the muck are sharp rocks, causing a jarring ride. Unfortunately a great many roads today caused
us all to be violently shaken for miles at a time.
Today was pretty rough. We were surprised to see that instead of the
roads getting better, they have deteriorated considerably since our last
trip. On the way to pick up Kiran the
road was full of sharp rocks and made for a jarring ride. Even when we finally got out of town and
headed down the highway, we were even more surprised to see the highway road
completely gone! We thought maybe it was
caused by the earthquake but Kiran said ‘no’.
It just deteriorated and has not been fixed! It went on this way for a long time before we
finally got to paved road, and even that in great stretches has begun to
crumble and we can see that it will only get worse. It I obvious that there is great corruption
in the government—this country is not that poor, and the taxes would cover
making the roads better, not worse, which means a few people are getting very
rich at the expense of the rest of the country.
This is so sad to me. I believe
elections have taken place recently. We
hope they elect some honest this time…if there is such a thing these days! Kiran said that some work is going on though to
widen the roads, so that is better news.
The road near Chilaunepani
though, which has always been dirt, was improved a bit. We were able to drive all the way to the top so
it must have been bladed—this could be because of the Red Cross and their
wanting easier access to this project.
When we got near the project site they wanted us to see the
redevelopment of the spring. They said
it would be 15 minutes. This is true, if
you are a Nepali, but with the rest of us gringos it must have taken more than 30
minutes to walk up and down this narrow footpath, which sometimes was slippery,
steep, and a bit dicey. Jim felt the
need to hold my hand all the way there.
I discovered it is impossible to see ahead and sometimes was harder to
follow as he pulled me along (it is a one-person-at- a-time trail, so you can’t
stand side by side). But he seemed to
think I would fall off the trail (he might have been right a lot of the time)
so I held his hand. We finally arrived
and saw that the spring development looked completely different than before and
Jim was pleased. He had a few simple
ideas to protect the spring further, and then we hiked back.
We went on to see more tanks
(they have to pump this water up hill, up to 3 different tanks, and then it is
to be distributed to tap stands near individual house compounds. We saw several of these taps, and it was a
thrill to see that in a short time (they say the end of the month) their taps
will contain the long-awaited water! And
there will be a few hundred!
Walking down the narrow
path to the spring source. Red Cross
monitor Hari & the Wilkinson’s.
They went on another very short
but very steep hike to see one of the new tanks. By this time my jetlag and a growing sore
throat were getting to me and I stayed back.
I stayed back one more time as they took a short jaunt to a tank I had
seen years ago. I noticed that I had no
energy and began to feel that this had to be more than just jetlag. My exhaustion was overwhelming.
The dirt road that
winds around this area has many hairpin turns and steep climbs, some filled
with water left by recent rains. As we
began one of these turns it became quickly obvious to all of us that the car
wouldn’t make it up this long and steep spot at the bottom of a hairpin
turn. We began bailing out of the car
and someone put a rock under the back wheel—we didn’t want it to go careening
backwards over the side! The driver made
some wiggle maneuvers after locking his hubs and finally made it up the hill. We all ran to join him (or at least everyone
else did—I found it hard to walk and Jim helped pull me along). I found out later that the driver was also
not feeling well, both of us having sore throats. He did an amazing job of it even so!
Jim and the engineer at
the spring source; this has been happily redesigned to Jim’s liking, but he
usually also has something to increase the success of the design so that when
sometimes huge rains come, it won’t fall apart.
He is showing him a couple of things that they could do to better secure
this water catchment.
We made a couple other stops and
then drove out the other way onto a paved road.
As we got closer to the city though the roads were again severely
jolting and even the others commented on the challenges of the roads today. We dropped off Kiran and headed back to the
house.
The first thing I did was take a
shower, which was wise. I felt good
enough to eat and write and download pictures.
Then I had to pack up again, only this time consolidating my stuff into
Jim’s suitcase since we are going to be gone for 4 days, visiting CHOICE future
projects, Rakesh’s future projects, Benson Food Projects (one of the church’s
major initiatives), and perhaps other possible sites unknown to us yet. Luckily we won’t have to get going till about
8 or so tomorrow. But still, the thought
of even having to think makes me crazy so instead maybe when I am rested I’ll
make the decisions of what to bring in the morning.
One of the many tap
stands that will probably have water in them at the end of this month! This was a 2012 project that finally is being
completed for a very worthwhile project.
On the way back to the house we saw
these dancing and celebrating women.
Someone was getting married, but the bride is off elsewhere as is the
custom, and the women have a big party about it. As we tried just taking their pictures they
drug us in to dance with them. This tiny
lady was strong and liked to hip bump, hard!
I normally love to dance with the local people, but it was at the end of
a hard day and all I wanted to do was go back home, but each time we’d leave
they’d drag us back in! It would have
been fun if I’d had an ounce of energy left!
We had another wonderful,
homemade meal. There is nothing as good
as home cooked!
Okay, it is too early for bed but
it is calling my name!!
Till tomorrow…
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