Namaste!
We have been for week in Bhimpedi and we want to stay forever: People, landscapes, culture and the desire to learn and help… make us have fallen in love with this community.
On arrival “didis” (older sister) receiving us putting a red “tika” with flowers.
People seem very reserved but always have a smile on their faces.
Only we spent half a day in the chaos of Kathmandu where we did some tourism and we visited Boudha Stupa. We also visited the Community Building of “ Amics del Nepal” with Alex Sreshta Nepal, Nepali engineer, we decided which would be the best solution to repair damage caused by earthquakes in the last months of April and May.
During the three-hour drive from Kathmandu to Bhimphedi we look at the general state of the houses of the communities through which we passed; and arriving Mikel and Nerea, we did a tour of the village to situate; We locate the mistris with whom we had contact and some of the houses that had been visited on the trip identification.
On Monday finally we met Ram, a very competent Nepalese member of the agricultural cooperative AGRAAGAMI. He was who taught us where we could establish Bhimpedi Awasuka office. Two days later, Ranjeed, also from AGRAAGAMI gave us the keys and we could see the space where we will create a new office. We were cleaning and tomorrow we will go to Hetauda to buy all the necessary equipment.
One of our priorities in these days is to find a local technician able to carry the project forward; so we thought about putting an announcement in the local and municipal newspaper so much as a municipal.
On Thursday we went to the ward 7: Suping neighbourhood… It was a great tour with the bridges and the mountains. Suping is one of the most affected wards and next week when the holidays will finish (Dashain, which are like our Christmas) will come again and we will visit more homes.
As you can see it was a very productive week and still really looking forward with this project.
“Pheribhetaula” (see you soon)!
Suba bihana (good morning)!
This week we started with a trip to Hetauda to buy some paint, a plastic cover for the floor that simulates wood and all the material we needed for the electrical installation of the new office. Now we only have the furniture left and presenting the space of Awasuka to the public, as well as having the phone connection and wifi. Tomorrow we will go back to Hetauda with a member from Agragaami to hire the line and do some last minute shopping.
All the electrical installation was done with the help of Xavi (doctor and volunteer of Balmandir that knows how to do everything) and Papu, a boy that came out of the orphanage some months ago and now is working as an electrician in Hetauda. Also Kul, another boy from Balmandir, helped us with the finishing of the floor putting some cement.
Last Saturday, was one of those days where you remember that even though there is a cultural gap between us, the important thing is that we are people, no matter who we are, or where we come from or when we arrived. It went like this: we wanted to start painting but we couldn’t open the paint, so Valeria went to ask if someone could help. We ended up with half of the town helping to open the paint and a group of dancers of the village helped us to paint the room, the “Bhimphedi Guys. Our office is located in a public building (Janajati Hall) on the main street and we share space with this group of boys and girls.
Here you can always find someone who helps you and that’s something to be thankful for. We almost have finished preparing the office.
The 9th of november Mónica will arrive, she’s an arquitect member of the board of Amics del Nepal. Then we will decide in which houses we will start, because there are many families listed in the Shelter Program and others that come to the office with curiosity to ask what we are doing. This Tuesday a women came walking from one hour foot away to apply for the program.
Now there is a time difference of 4.45h hours between Barcelona and Bhimphedi, we wish you have a good day of all saints.
Kisses from Bhimphedi.
Ke bhayo (Hi, how are you?)
This week Mónica has finally arrived. Everyone know her in Bhimphedi and says nice things about here. It has pleased everyone with her arrival.
The office is almost ready, all painted with the plastic simulating wood on the floor and we have also rehabilitated the toilets that were already in the public building where we have our space. This Thursday we ordered the furniture to the carpenter. We want a polyvalent space where we can receive public but we can also do meetings and team work. We finally have phone connexion and internet.
With Monica we have started visiting houses in ward 2 (Bhimphedi Bazaar) and 4 (Targam or Simaltar), the ones that are more accessible and near to the center. With this first contact we have detected possible ways to improve how we communicate the project to the interested families and some improvements we could do to the prototypes designed in Barcelona. We’ve found that some houses we had visited have already been reconstructed so we’ve been able to see how they usually do it. This days we will work doing improvement in the project, because Tihar is coming now an there will not be many activities in the village. That’s good for us because we can do some office work.
We also met with Ram and Anju to talk about the technician we want to hire, so the 15th and 16th of november we are starting with the interviews.
Namaste!
ANDREA & VALERIA