After the exams, 8 days of holidays for the small kids, 3 for the bigger. We have being using these days well.
We visited the army camp (although they didn’t allow us to cross the front door), Dhorsing, the bridge of Suping, we have to gone to the forest for firewood to cook (India still maintains trade blockade with Nepal, so we have no cooking gas) and we went to the forest again to look for “tarul” (a type of potato that is eaten in a festival called Sangratri).
Excursion to Suping, less than one hour walking from the Children’s Home.
We played many sports as well: basketball, football, table-tennis, activities directed by Kul (one of the big kids who studies the ten class and helps a lot in the Children’s Home)…
Some kids getting ready for a relay race organized by Kul.
And volunteers have organized fun activities:
– A group treasure hunt with sweet rewards:
– A game where both teams had to memorize the symbols that were at the quarter of the other team, then ran to their own quarter and reproduce them as similar as possible:
– Modeling clay:
– And five children participated in a drawing contest where they had to make two drawings that give the impression of three dimensions:
Careful! There are some big cracks on the table!One levitating ball!Another levitating ball!Still another one!Oh, these were not levitating balls, they were egg-ish drawings!The five artists!
But today Sunday the children already return to classes with their batteries recharged!
The Annual Report of Amics del Nepal 2015 is already available in Catalan/Spanish. But here you can read the article about the Bhimphedi Children’s Home in English:
A month ago Enric Recoder, vice president of Amics del Nepal, asked me to write an article for the annual report “Namaste”. He ask me to explain the Bhimphedi Children Home project with all the changes we have been doing throughout this year I’ve been living in the House coordinating it. He also asked me to explain my personal story, because people could be interested to know how someone who was investigating at the Institute of Space Sciences in CSIC about the growth mechanism of black holes in the center of galaxies, a few years later went to live in a small village lost in a valley of Nepal.
I never loved writing… The part of my job that I find more difficult in the home is to post about the Children’s Home and other projects and adventures that we live in Bhimphedi: www.amicsnepal.org/bhimphedi
I know it’s a very important job to keep the entire family of Amics del Nepal posted, because without everyone who support us, both financially and with countless hours of volunteer work, this wouldn’t be possible. You deserve it all. There are people like Ricardo Riera, who not only organizes activities like TaperNepal to raise money for the Children’s Home, but also devotes us his vacation every year, coming to Nepal and helping in Bhimphedi. Or like Tonyo Fibla, who has organized activities to raise money in Benicarló, he has come to work a month in the Children’s Home and he also collaborates every month as a sponsor of the project. Or like Albert Usó, who came to see us in Nepal, and after sharing an intense day and teaching him all our work he has given us his trust. Or as Eduard Juanati, Mar Úbeda, Laura Conde, Mikel Zubiaga and Nerea Guezuraga, who have spent three months each in the Children’s Home, working very hard; without them we could not have done even the 10% of the improvements, routines and activities that we have done in the center this year. I wouldn’t have enough place in the magazine “Namaste” to thank to everyone that makes all this possible.
I can’t forget the people which has led and leads the daily life of the association, who spend hours and hours in Barcelona. Among them, Monica Sans and Enric Recoder, chiefs of Bhimphedi Children’s Home on the board of directors. Despite having lots of work and family responsibilities, every time I’ve asked for help or advice they have immediately answered despite the 4h45minuts of time difference.
And more than any other, the president, Cristina Morales, who despite teaching at the Conservatory, leading a music school, and taking care of her family, she still has time to take care of all of us. Cristina has been twenty years associated with Amics de Nepal, and she is even a sponsor of the Bhimphedi project, like Ramon Viladomat, a former president.
It has been already one month since Enric asked me for the article for the first time and I haven’t given it yet. Generally when I have to work with my computer, or communicate with Barcelona, even with my parents or friends, the biggest difficulty is to find few minutes of peace and clearness of mind. I sit at the computer… “Dani”, a child asking for colors to draw or celotape to make an experiment, or asking me to cure a small injury or simply to pay him some attention. “Dani”, a volunteer who needs my help for some activity, or to find wall paintings or a tool. “Dani”, a worker who tells me the buffalo food is finished, or to give me the money from selling the milk of the day, or a man has come with bulls to plow the field to plant potatoes or it’s time to eat “dalbhat”. Only when it’s 9:30 pm and the kids go to sleep, I can find the peace… but not the clearness of mind… I also sleep…
But the biggest difficulty of this text is not even find the time to write… Since Enric asked me, I started this text about twenty times, and I’ve also deleted twenty times… How can I write about this intense year in few paragraphs?
Finding a new center chief. Connecting the phone line and Internet in a remote village. Making a blog. Coordinating the volunteers. Starting the Children’s Home farm with hens, ducks, rabbits, goats, buffaloes. Keeping the kitchen garden in good conditions. Making improvements and repairs to the center. Doing activities with children in the countless days that they do not go to school. Taking the kids to the hospital to treat all kinds of problems (tuberculosis, irregularity with the period, put an arm in a cast, anxiety attacks, visits to the dentist). Training two basketball teams. Carrying out emergency earthquake actions. Collaborating with the project AWASUKA to improve housing. Teaching English in the public school. Buying clothes for children. Cutting wood for cooking because India has been more than a month in a trade blockade with Nepal and therefore we have no gas or petrol…
I don’t feel able to sum up this year… So, after another day where I have failed in my goal of writing the text, I decided that instead of explaining all this, I will describe my day:
6h: I get up without any concrete expectations. I make a round through the rooms for waking up the children who are still in bed with a “Good Morning” and tickling the children who wake up in a good mood. Welcome some neighbors who have come to buy fresh milk.
7h: I’m going to have breakfast with the volunteers from Amics de Nepal, one of them, Lluc, he is leaving today after three weeks helping us.
9am: I’ll make the daily English class in the Government School, but surprise! Because in a couple of days it’s Tihar holidays, students have decided not to come and make their holidays longer!
10h: I go with the Center Chief of the Children’s Home to talk to the school Principal. In a few days we will bring new children to the Children’s Home, and we have to warn the schools.
12h: I am in the volunteers’ office (my parents arranged it a week ago). I try to write the text while there are 5 children trying to open a Gmail account. The small children have been 3 weeks on holiday, the big ones will be in holidays in a couple of days.
13h: It’s time to eat, but the carpenter has just arrived. He has already prepared one of the closets we had ordered, I pay for it and we go to bring the closed from the workshop with the help of a few children.
13h30: An Indian man comes to the Children’s Home with a tool that looks like a one-stringed harp. He is the man who repairs wool sleeping bags. After agreeing the price, he brings another five Indians and start to remake 20 sleeping bags for the children.
14h: Finally we eat dalbhat.
15h: We look for a room for one of the volunteers that has just arrived. Volunteers used to stay in the staff building, but since the earthquake the building is not usable. We find two bedrooms, three volunteers can fit, they will cost us about 27 euros per month.
16h: I go to the government office of agriculture of the village, because I want to get seeds of a nutritious grass for the buffalo and her calf for the dry season. We get it, we get 40 kg for free. I go to the Children’s Home to bring the wheeler to carry the sack. Meanwhile I speak with Enric Recoder, who is in Kathmandu. We talk about the arrival of new children and about other works we have to do. And again he ask me for this article…
16h30: We have a visit. It a group of Nepalese who come to give some school supplies.
17h: I pick up the seeds and ask Maya, to ask the plower to come the next day with the oxes.
18h: I read a chapter of Harry Potter with the older boys and girls (13-18 years old). Here in Nepal they are not used to read novels, so at least some these kids will read some few. A little bit every day before study time.
19h: We eat dalbhat again. But I also use this time to explain one math exercise to one of the kids.
20h: I go to the office where I meet the 7 volunteers of Amics de Nepal that are in Bhimphedi these days. As I write this text, two more are preparing a gymkhana hunt to celebrate the birthday of 4 children who were born in October (or at least their record say so).
21h30: I check all the children’s rooms, lights off. I brush my teeth and go to my room to finish writing this artic…
On Friday, Irene and I (Isabel), new volunteers, we arrived to Bhimphedi at 12am from Kathmandu along with three doctors, two sponsors of the project, Dani and Ashok, a boy who was going to the children’s home to see his brothers.
Photo of the expedition in the jeep, on the way to Bhimphedi.
Dani showed us the room where we will stay and we walked around the town with Monica as a guide. It’s very cozy and quiet! So peaceful! Later, we went to see the Children’s Home and we were introduced to all the kids, with whom we will live five months! After only half-day I already felt like home!
Group photo in the Children’s Home.
Yesterday was our first full day as volunteers in Bhimphedi. Although we are adapting the kids make it really easy! Next to the house there is a hydroelectric station and we organized a visit with the kids in two turns.
After walking by the large dark hallway toward the underground station a man tell us that now is not working because they are saving water for drier months, and thus generate energy. The truth is that what they tell us and teach is very interesting! Impress the size of the turbines are giants! Some children translated what the man explained us. When we were about to leave the station we get the model showed us all the stages through which the water that we had been told from the dam to the station. Incredible!
Entrance to the Power House, guarded by the army.Entrance to the 300 meter tunel which leads to the subterraneal room of the turbines.Photo of the second group with the guide in the top room of the turbines.
Entrance to the offices of the Power House.
Showing room where kids could see some photos and models of the hydroelectric station.
The way back was more difficult than the first leg, more sweaty! But children did so calm and with flip flops… they are used to wear it. Once home we drunk some tea and then in the house, when suddenly Raju, one of the children warns: “Sorry! It’s Dhalbat time!” It’s funny how they wait for this moment during the day.
After eating, the routine begins and … “It’s study time!”. We help children to do the homework, it’s hard for them because they have recently returned to school, but gradually doing. Some of the youngest falls asleep reading!
To end the day, before going to bed some of the children make a cake for Kamal, who was his birthday! We heard them singing from the library!
Amics del Nepal, besides managing the management of Bhimphedi Children’s Home, it supports four other Children’s Homes. One, Siphal Child Protection Home is in charge of welcoming children who have their parents in prison. This Children’s Home has had to accommodate many children after the earthquake, too many, some children who lost parents in the earthquake, and others living in other Children’s Homes that were affected and had to be evacuated.
One of the kids who lived in this Siphal Children’s Home, Arjun, who is studying in class 8, a very important course, asked if he could be transferred to Bhimphedi Children’s Home. After considering this possibility with NCO (semi-governmental organization, owner of the Children’s Home of Siphal and Bhimphedi, and seven more) we conclude that the best for the welfare of this boy and his small brother, Santa, was to accept his request and transfer them to Bhimphedi.
So, once the holidays of Tihar were over, I went to pick the two brothers to take them to Bhimphedi. But of course, nothing here is so simple… First I went to the office of NCO, there they told me that they could not make the letter of transfer because the file of the two children was in the Siphal Children’s Home. So they called there and told me that the director of Siphal Children’s Home would write himself the letter, so I can go directly next day to there to pick up the letter and the kids. But I do not trust it, it seems too easy.
So, I decide to go the same day to ask to Siphal Children’s Home director if it will be so easy. Of course he says “no”, he can not write this letter, the NCO office has to send the letter to him. I say: “They told me they could not because they don’t have the children file… could you call to the office?”. He does and he agrees to send the file, then they will make the letter and send it to Siphal… But the director tells me that they don’t have any staff to send with the file to the office, so they will do it tomorrow morning first time… This is becoming complicated…
Incidentally I ask to the director to show me the last year school marksheet (the course ended in April), I have to give them to the schools Bhimphedi for registration. New surprise, they don’t have it, the school still has not prepared it… I ask what I have to do to get it… they tell me I will need another letter from another department of NCO to give to the school… my god… I think tomorrow it will not be possible to go to Bhimphedi… I request the director to call back to the office to ask them to prepare this second letter as well.
The next day, very early, I go back to Siphal Children’s Home to make sure that the file is sent to NCO office. When I arrive they say they have already sent it! The day starts well!
The officials who have to make the letters will not join for duty until 10, so in the meantime I will buy an electric heater for cooking, and give it to one of the young kids from Bhimphedi Children’s Home who already lives in Kathmandu. It has been already one month and a half that the trade blockade started, and the kid has already run out of gas and he can not cook… So now he will be able to cook when there is electricity (in winter 12 hours a day there is no electricity). The smile of the boy when he saw the electric device, it well worth the 5€ it cost to me.
10:30 I’m going to NCO office and ask them for the letters. They make me sit. I spend two hours sitting there… They tell me that the typist today has taken leave, and the rest of staff are not very fast typing in Nepali. Finally they give me the letters, and I go walking to Siphal (transportation is more complicated than usual, it was already complicated, now there is a blockade and there is little access to petrol).
I arrive at Siphal Children’s Home, I take the elder brother and we go to his school to ask for the last year marksheets. An hour later we go out from the school with both marksheets. They have some errors, but I don’t dare to say anything, maybe it would take another half hour to fix it.
We return to the Home. Come on, come on, let’s go to Bhimphedi! Santa is not there? he is in the school… fortunately it’s very near. Arjun goes to pick his small brother, and once he change clothes, and they take all their bags we leave. After living eight years in this children’s home, they go to a new home, with new “brothers”, new “parents”, new school, new hopes, new everything. During the whole trip the elder brother is quiet with watery eyes, but every time I look at him he smiles. When I ask to the small brother if it is happy or sad for the change, he says: “Both”. They look calm, but not indifferent. Without drama but aware of the importance of this moment. I like how they are handling the situation.
After 30 minutes of taxi and 3 hours of jeep, we arrived at their new home. They are received them very well, and in a few days you would distinguish which kids are the newcomers.
Santa on the right, beside him Paula, doctor volunteer of Amics del Nepal, who works in Myanmar in the International Red Cross and came to meet us on a short visit in a week holiday. In a few hours she was in the children’s home, she did dental cleaning and taking photographs for each child with a Polaroid camera.One photo of Arjun, Santa and me.Santa playing carron board, a very popular game in Nepal (similar to pool).
Arjun with Sujan, both studying in forth class.
Santa, who was studying in a government school is a little bit weak for the English community school, so teachers advice to put him in third class. But we see he is working hard and he is eager to remain in fourth class, with other three boys and a girl from the Children’s Home. So we agree with teachers that we will help a lot to Santa so he can catch up in the four months left of the course. Teachers are not completely convinced, but Santa is already working hard, and always with a smile.
Ah, and three small goats have been born in the Children’s Home! The family keeps growing!
Written by Andrea and Valeria, AWASUKA volunteers:
We started this week celebrating Tihar, a celebration that lasts only a week not like Dashain, the former religious festival we held for 15 days.
Every day was different from Tihar, the first day is the KAG Tihar where crows are worshiped and blessed by people leaving food outside the home for them. All this because it is said they bring luck!
The second day Kukur Tihar, dedicated to the most loyal friend, the dog; they put red ticas and garlands made of flowers around his neck. They do this because they say that dogs can see the danger coming and death.
The Gai (cow) and Laxmi Puja Puja is the day for the cows, they are blessed in the morning.
People paint traces in their houses in the main entrance simulating the entrance of the goddess Lakshmi, who brings happiness and luck money.
On the fourth day Goru Tihar and Mah Bid the attention will outweigh the cow dung, very important in Indian culture and the daily lives of residents who use it to everything from the finished floor , lights up the kitchens.
All the houses are decorated with a beautiful mandalas, candles and colored lights, we had a Christmas in advance. Another tradition is that at night many young children go from house to house singing the song of gods, very similar to Bhailo the singing girls, although nowadays everyone in group singing and dancing to borrow money and sweets.
A colourful mandala at the entrance of a house
The last day, Bhai Tika, sisters put a tica of seven colours to his brothers to wish them a long life and prosperity are also offering food and nuts, they give them money in return.
This is how we celebrated this week in Tihar, making Yama Raj happy, because he judges our vices and virtues after our death, and his soul will treat accordingly.
Tihar with big smiles!
Among middle of so much celebration we had time to continue working, Thursday we made another trip to Hetauda to buy more plastic for the ground and thus end up covering the entire surface of the office, an A4 printer to work with amendments we do the plans for the new prototypes and technical communities work with agility.
We’ve been twice in Jyamire Suping, where we have found more candidates to join our program AWASUKA. Here people help without expecting anything in return, thanks to a guy we met crossing one of the bridges to get Suping, we could understand many of the families affected by the earthquake, since many do not speak a word of English; but with gestures and smiles we understand without speaking the same language.
So far we have visited the houses that need to be rebuilt are made of stone and mud, most of the materials needed to rebuild the house already have: they reuse of the old stone house and a lot of wood of the house in ruins, another point in our favor is that many families have already bought new “Jasta” (plates) with which they have created their own emergency shelters, they sometimes brought the plates on foot through impossible roads. Monica helps us to recognize the pathologies they identified in the journey that many houses had suffered. With her we continue working!
Written by Nerea Gezuraga and Mikel Zubiaga, volunteers of Bhimphedi Children’s Home.
It’s hard to get up one day and decide it. You’re going to take off your seat belt and travel, for example, on the roof of a bus. You’ll go to some corner of the world where you can begin to change the world.
Soon you realize that this is just a nice idea. That the work you are going to do in Nepal is really a great personal experience, but – at least for the time being – you are not going to change the world.
——-
We arrived at Bhimphedi having traveled the 60 kilometers of “road” from Kathmandu in four hours. We are in a lost village in a lost valley surrounded by mountains, in a lost country of the world that we know. We have trouble adjusting to the poor hygiene. We have trouble adapting to eating the same Dalbhat twice a day for three months. We are in Nepal but no one says that we are not the same rich Europeans any more. Here there is no cinema, there are no hamburgers and there are no night bars, every time before drinking water you think it twice, toilet paper is scarce, here there is no place to see a rock concert, here there are no big clothing stores, nor even “our football”.
For three months we worked every day to make the environment of the 28 children of Bhimphedi’s Children’s Home more welcoming. We work as farmers in the kitchen garden and farm, repairing things, building a place to put a buffalo we want to bring, with our knowledge of architecture we contribute so thefuture buildings are more resistant to earthquakes, we work as carpenters in the structure of one of the building of the Children’s Home. We help the kids with their education; we help them everyday with their homework, in addition we try to make them learn something more than lessons by heart, we do activities to improve their level of English…
Three months later Som and Anoj have in their house a buffalo from which they drink milk every morning, we like to believe that now they will know more closely the farming life that most of their countrymen live, perhaps it will be useful for them when they grow up. Raju and Sumit are improving their level of English above average, which will hopefully open the doors to them when they are older, perhaps with this they can make a difference with respect to others. Rojan knows how to use a program to create and edit videos from the thousands of photos and videos that he loves to take with our cameras. We imagine that maybe we have helped him to become in future a director of Bollywood.
We feel that we have helped this group of kids to make their lives richer, just as poor, but richer. This is what we feel. We are the ones who have got more of all from this adventure.
And then there is that other thing, to change the world. Shit. We have not done it.
In the absence of gas, during the last month we cut wood to make fire and cook. In this poor country full of rich people this can happen. Suddenly the borders close and for months it becomes impossible to obtain supplies of gas and oil. Oh! there was an earthquake as well. The grubby but cozy Sumitra’s teahouse has now also a huge crack.
Mikel Zubiaga and Nerea Guezuraga, volunteers of Awasuka Project and Bhimphedi Children’s Home between the months of August and October:
As we told some time ago, due to the earthquakes in April and May, the building of the Rana Dynasty (1846-1951) that we have within the Children’s Home was structurally affected. It is a building built for the family who was ruler of Nepal, which has an architectural quality as few buildings in the area. After the earthquake we decided it was only going to be used as storage, at least until it was structurally intervened.
Rana building located in Bhimphedi Children’s Home.Picture of about ten years ago when the building was all standing before the palace side was demolished for security reasons.
On the identification trip by the Awasuka project team in July a structural analysis of it was made and identified which is the main cause of the large cracks that appeared on the building outer walls: the roof structure had been changed at some point in the history of the building, making that the structural behaviour was not like the one that originally was designed. The diagonal bars (struts) of the trusses had been removed leaving only one diagonal in one of the trusses. Normally this was not so big problem for its stability of it in short to medium term… but the earthquake hit.
Example of structure with all elements. You can see that the king’s post is not supported on the horizontal bar (king’s post).State of the Rana building structure before the intervention, where only one diagonal bar (struts) was left (in the background of the image).
So, before repairing the cracks and reinforce the walls, the first thing to do was to repair the roof structure. What at first seemed easy, putting in place the new diagonals in (marked by the previously existing ones), gave us many headaches and made us sweat a lot.
So the first thing we did was to break the floor of the attic to check on the ties and we confirmed it was indeed formed by two beams of different sizes, but fortunately the union was well done, so the tie worked as such.
Mikel taking out the electrical system in order to install the prop ups.Nerea unleasing the king’s post of the truss (vertical bar).
The following days were spent with continuous disputes with the local carpenter we hired to do the work (Bahadur). Bahadur is a carpenter with many years of experience and we are some strangers who came to say how he had have to intervene in a historic building of his own village… You can imagine what he might think… “These people coming here to tell me how to do my job”… It was not easy to start.
The carpenter choosing wood for making the necessary elements to add to the structure.
We had to convince him that the new diagonals that he had initially cut were too small, so he had to repeat them with the same size than the originals. We had to convince him of the need to prop up all building heights. And finally, the most difficult was to convince him that, once we had put the diagonals, the vertical bar on the roof structure that ends at the height of tight-but should not touch it – it had to be cut at its base. “How are we going to cut it? What do they want? that the building falls on us?” he surely though.
The carpenter, under the look of Raju (a kid from the Children’s Home) preparing new struts.Sketch of the structure of the building with an outline of the steps to add the struts made by the co-coordinator of Awasuka Anna Altemir of BASE-A.Carpenter placing props up in the first floor of the building.Mikel and the carpenter placing a new struts.As the carpenter refused to do so, Mikel began to cut the base of the king’s post to not put pressure on the tie. When he saw that Mikel would do it with or without him, he joined him.
After four days of hard work, we left the building being friends of the carpenter Bahadur, and having achieved that the structure of the roof worked correctly again.
Image of the roof structure once the intervention was finished (you can see the corn hanged to dry and store).
Before, during and after the work we emptied and cleaned the building… The next step will be to repair the cracks and reinforce the walls, so that the building will be able to resist, not only the pass of time, but also future earthquakes that we hope will not happen in many years.
The ground floor, before tiding it, was a workshop/store-room, where it was difficult to work and find what you were looking for.Ground floor once cleaned, now that we will not use it as store-room or workshop.
Nepal is an extraordinarily surprising country. It doesn’t matter how long you stay here, it will not let you spend even a day without a “small” fright, draw a smile on your face, wonder you with something unexpected; surprise you with something you had not expected and it will change anything you, naively, planned the day before. We perpetually live in the “fools’ day”.
A few weeks ago Nepal parliament approved a constitution that had been praying for years. It’s not easy to agree with anything in a country so diverse in culture, religion, languages and idiosyncrasies. A country where the caste system is still very present, where arranged marriages by parents are the norm, where there are over a hundred different languages , faces with varied factions, people who want a communist or Hindu or liberal or federal country… But parliament approved the constitution, and in many regions people lit candles to celebrate it and even threw firecrackers.
But in “Terai” in the southern part of the country, the plane lands that borders with India, where mainly Tharu or Chhaudari people live were not so happy. They were pushing for weeks with strikes so that Nepal was not divided into seven provinces dividing Terai.
We woke up one day in the morning, and we heard that India had declared a trade blockage to Nepal, borders are closed! We do not understand anything. We asked the reasons: “India does not like the new constitution of Nepal because they are jealous that we have a better constitution than theirs” some people say… Others say “In the Nepalese parliament there are twenty parliamentarians who are Indians and have asked for help to their friends.” Surreal… But people was saying that in a couple of days this would be solved…
We wake up one day and read in the newspaper that the Nepalese parliament created a commission with the leaders of the three main parties for dialogue with the political leaders of the Terai to unblock the situation. What? We thought it was a blockage done by India?
People keep saying it is India’s fault (and the fault of all the politicians, who are all corrupt…). They say that in a few days Nepal will start importing everything from China, if India does not stop with the blockage…
Some days later no one is talking about an early solution anymore… Now it is very difficult to find petrol, taxi drivers are days queuing for ten liters of gasoline. We can not find cooking gas, people cook with firewood again (even in cities)… many restaurants have closed, others have adapted and reduced their menu…
How will the situation evolve? How will rice be brought to the cities and towns without petrol? How long will this situation last? Will they open the borders, at least temporally for big holidays of Dashain? Anything we can guess, predict, think… sure it will not happen, or it will… Nepal is an extraordinarily surprising country.
Summit, in the Children’s Home of Bhimphedi, with a pipe for the fire. Sumit always needs some invention in his hands otherwise he feels uneasy…Sumit watching the vegetables are being well cooked in the fire.Maya, the wonderful staff of Bhimphedi Children’s Home, cooking delicious food, whatever the circumstances.Whatever you do in the Bhimphedi Children’s Home, you are never alone, always there are helping hands, or at least some eyes watching.One of the main roads of Pokhara (Nepal’s second largest city). Not a drop of petrol, not even a car…In Pokhara these days you can only see bicycles on the roads, only occasionally you can see a car for tourists.
The few buses you can find are crowded inside, with people hanging on the doors or sitting on the roof.Many petrol pumps are closed, with many vehicles parked hoping someday some petrol will be available.While gas stations are closed, roads are empty of cars.A service station in the neighborhood of Naxal Kathmandu guarded by police. Lots of taxi drivers waiting, asking when some petrol will be distributed. It’s 10 am, and police says the petrol pump will not open until 3pm.Endless queues of taxis. After about two days queuing taxis can get, with luck, their “ration” of petrol that will last for a day of work. Many drivers end up buying gasoline on the black market, paying about 4 € a liter, about 4 times more expensive than the price at the pump.These are not parked cars. It is an eternal taxi queue that starts at some petrol station that provides, for an hour a day, fuel for the taxis.These are not parked bikes. It is an eternal bike queue that starts at some petrol station that provides, for an hour a day, fuel for the bikes.The newspapers are full of news about the consequences of the blockade. But none about the causes of the situation.There are also news about the actions of dialogue being carried out by government. But few conclusions…
Mònica Sans, Coordinator of Bhimphedi AWASUKA, Housing Improvement Program:
July 2015
After two years I am back in Bhimphedi. The first feeling is as if I had left yesterday, but many things have changed: some children have left and some have arrived to Balmandir, Dani is living here since last fall and he’s making lots of improvements, some of the villagers have left and some new inhabitants have arrived… but certainly, the most remarkable thing is that Bhimphedi has lived an earthquake; the most violent in Nepal for the past 81 years.
This is the reason that has brought me back to Nepal, with a very different aim than in my previous visits. I travel with two architects specialized in cooperation: Pedro Lorenzo, from CCD-UPC and Emma Ferrer from Base-A. During fifteen days we follow the guidelines of Pedro, intending to identify the state of the buildings in Bhimphedi, the will of the central government regarding housing reconstruction and the social organization of the village. All in all, to see the possibilities of developing a program of reconstruction in that area.
From left to right: Emma, Pedro and Monica at the airport of Barcelona ready to start the identification trip.
Dani meets us when we arrive to Kathmandu. He left his beloved Bhimphedi to accompany us during the trip and all the visits and meetings we did. He is going to be a key member of the project because he’s staying in Bhimphedi and can easily do the economic management. He knows the town, its people, the Nepalese society and its language, and this will make things much easier.
From inside the taxi that picks us up from the airport, we are surprised to see that the city is not that affected by the earthquake as we expected. The media is only showing images of historic centers seriously affected, but there are many new areas that have withstanded the earthquake without problems. When we get to our hotel, we realize that Dani has taken us to Geeta’s home, the accountant of Amics del Nepal. Very generously, she and her family have offered to host us in their home during the days that we will stay in the city.
The two days we spend in Kathmandu go by very fast. We’ve done some many things that it feels we’ve been a week in the city. We visit the Health Center of AN, the Maijubahal stupa, the Boudhanath neighborhood, we meet with NSET (Nepal Society of Earthquake Technology) with Bhupendra Pradhan and Juanjo Rodriguez, with people of Petit Món and with Dani Tejedor (architect who collaborates with them), with the Rotary Club Kantipur, etc … All our meetings are very interesting, there is great interest in collaborating to work in a more coordinated way. Between meetings we find a moment to see one of our kids that came out of Balmandir this year: Ashok Siwakoti. He seems to be adapting fairly well to his new life in the city and we are very pleased that Bhuphendra has helped us with his accommodation.
From left to right: Emma (Base A), Daniel (Amics del Nepal), Juanjo (Bhimphedi-Project), Pedro (UPC) and Bhupendra (Rotary Club of Kantipur).Visiting NSET models of seismic constructions after the meeting at its headquarters in the city of Lalitpur.
Finally, the day to go to Bhimphedi arrives. Excitement and nerves are enormous.
The trip runs smoothly and at midday we reach the village. After installing in Bhuphendra’s house and saying hello to a few people, we go to Balmandir. Pedro and Emma are very curious to see how it will be like, because they have never been in an orphanage before. To their surprise, they find it a much more lively and beautiful place than they imagined. We are delighted with the human warmth of the children and staff. The kids talk to me like if I was here yesterday, even asking for the song “Water paani.” I am surprised to see that although it has been two years, they still remember it and have so much interest in singing. Without even realizing it, I find myself in the games room, playing the ukulele and singing with a few fans. Then some of them take me to walk around the orphanage to see the news in the house: ducks, chickens and poultry, agarden with more vegetables than ever, the future house of the buffalo, the “cinema”, etc … It is very gratifying to see all this improvements: Dani bravo!
Monica with five of the kids of the children’s home in Bhimphedi and the pet-owl.Kush showing the farm of the Children’s Home to the team of architects.Emma lends her sunglasses to one of the girls of the center.Pedro coordinating the installation of the new gate of the children’s home, around him there are always children admiring how he works.Pedro and Emma leading two youth of the children’s home for making the appropriate measures to ensure that the gate frame is properly placed.
The following days at Bhimphedi we work hard: visiting houses of various wards and meeting with various people and organizations in the village. The members of the VDC (Village Development Commitee), the committee 3E, the women’s association, the agricultural cooperative, etc … During the visits we see all kinds of houses: totally demolished, partially affected and not affected. Luckily, the earthquake has left only material losses in Bhimphedi and no victims to regret. But the organizational level is very poor. No mayor, the secretary of the government has arrived recently and the people are in a state of total vulnerability without knowing what to do with their homes. When we arrive, the engineer of the government has reviewed all the houses Bhimphedi Area, making his diagnosis… But it seems that many don’t agree with the cataloging of their houses.
Despite the disorganization of the government, we are pleasantly surprised to find the people from Agragaami Cooperative very well organized and eager to do things. We have several meetings with them to see if they would host a Housing Improvement Program, and they respond very favorably. This is certainly one of the more positive results of our trip if ID: finding a local partner who has an interest in hosting the program.
The team of architects making a visit to one of the houses, with the volunteer translation and assistance of Rajendra (member of the board of the cooperative Agragaami).Monica making a visit to one of the houses, with the volunteer translation and assistance of Ram Naam (member of the board of the cooperative Agragaami).Pedro doing a sketch of one of the studied houses. Around him, as always, of local people with lots of curiosity. And this time there is also Illia and Rachel, two volunteers of Amics del Nepal, which have the project of documenting the work of the NGO in an audiovisual form. In the background Emma drinking a juice to recover from the heat.Pedro sketch of one of the studied houses.One of the meetings with the cooperative Agragaami, planning the route of the expedition of assessment. From left to right: Ram Naam (Agragaami), Daniel (Friends of Nepal) and Ranjit (President of Agragaami).
One day before leaving Bhimphedi there is a tree planting ceremony in the new sports ground of Bhimphedi, which was inaugurated on the day of the quake. There are many members of the Rotary Club of Kantipur led by Bhuphendra, who wants to propose us one more work. They want to build a new sports facilities building next to the sports ground and they ask if it could be one of our earthquake safe prototypes. Juanjo says he is encouraged to get the funding for that, but we all agree that before there is a lot of work to do helping needy families who have no home. But we want to include this in our program.
Tree planting ceremony in the field of sports of Bhimphedi, which possibly will be a model of seismic building.
We finally go back to Kathmandu, where we still have some meeting left with Brian Peniston, Rabindra Puri and the president of NEA (Nepal Engineers Association). We also visit Naresh and Pemba, two boys that left Bhimphedi a couple of years ago and now they are studying and working thanks to the project Young of Amics del Nepal. It makes me happy to see how the boys are living on their own thanks to their own efforts, but also thanks to the support and good advice of Dani who is their tutor.
To end the trip, we visit Thamel, Durbar Square and Bhaktapur. For the first time throughout our stay, we see the devastating effects of the earthquake: it is impressive to see the huge destruction that can be caused in few seconds… it is different to see the images on television than to be in the middle of that.
Kathmandu Durbar Square greatly affected by the earthquake.Walking through the old Kathmandu (Asan).
September 2015
As I write these lines it has been two months since we returned from Nepal. It seems unbelievable … It has been very exciting to remember our adventures during those two intense weeks. I promised to Dani to write this text when I was back in Barcelona, but the truth is that I have been unable to do it earlier. Upon arrival, the team of architects has been involved in the preparation of a report of almost 100 pages, led by Pedro. Among other things, we were ordering all the documents of the houses visited and placing them on Google Maps. An overwhelming work … but it will be very useful to start with the work of the housing cooperative in Bhimphedi. (In this town, and almost all Nepal, there are no plans of municipal plots or numbering of houses or anything like that, and we thought that using Google Maps platform would be a good initiative to begin ordering that).
In early September we had a joint meeting of Amics del Nepal. Pedro, Anna Altemir (founder of Base A) and me were explaining the program to improve the way of building new houses and the possibility to replicate the project in other communities. The project was very well received; we can officially announce that Amics del Nepal will work on it. Now we just need to know the resolution of Caldes Solidaria NGO, covering 50% of this adventure … Once we know, we can say that the first phase of the program is approved (until the end of February).
Currently the team is defining architectural prototypes of earthquake resistant buildings, collaborating with specialists in structures. The first team of architects that will begin building prototypes will travel in mid-October to Nepal.
Since its identification trip in early July, the team of architects of the AWASUKA project continues working. It has been completed a 100-page report for UPC and other organizations; houses in every neighborhood of Bhimphedi were analyzed and file cards completed and uploaded in Google Maps… And now, thanks to all this documentation, they are already working on the first prototypes of seismic houses.
And finally, the name of the program is AWASUKA. The initial letters of the words: Sudhir Aawaas Karyakram, which means “Habitat Improvement Program” in Nepalese. It was hard to find this name, especially to find an equivalent to the word “Habitat” in Nepal… but thanks to Hem Adikhari (one of our boys of Bhimphedi Youth Program), we succeeded!
Before concluding, I want to give my personal thanks to a great team of people: Pedro Lorenzo (CCD-UPC) and Emma Ferrer (Base-A) for being fantastic traveling companions; to Anna Altemir (founder of Base A) being an excellent coordinator of this team, to Andrea Llanas and Andrea Valeria Cid (Base-A) for being tireless workers and always in a good mood, to Berta Marin (Base A) who has joined us a few days helping with the files, to Ines Garcia (specialist in structures and friend) as a new addition in consultancy. And in Nepal to Mikel Zubiaga and Nerea Gezuraga, who helped complete some missing pieces. A special thanks to Dani Roig, who besides making an impressive job in the orphanage, has been greatly involved in the project AWASUKA and is one of our most important props.
Thanks also to the team of translators Marta Masip, Elisenda Mitjá, Rocío Moreno and Andrea Mauri that have translated the notes of Pedro. And the volunteers of Bhimphedi: Mar Úbeda, Laura Conde and Isabel Valero (future volunteer) to be always willing to help with translations of posts and other things! 😉
To all of them: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR INVOLVEMENT. As Pedro Lorenzo said during a meeting of Amics del Nepal “Bhimphedi hooks!”.
![image[2]](http://amicsnepal.blog.pangea.org/files/2015/10/image2.jpg)
