Normally April vacation last one month in Nepal. In this period they there is the Nepali New Year (2072 now), and children begin the new school course. But this year the holidays have been extended over two months due to the earthquake. Finally, however, the school has begun.
The children of the children’s home go to the community school up to 5th of primary, where they study in English. Fortunately this school has not been affected by the earthquake, and the course started normally once the government decided that classes could resume.
Children from class 5 go to the government school of Bhimphedi. The school building is a historic building, one of the oldest schools of Nepal. But it has been completely damaged by the earthquake. The engineers sent by the government have labeled red all buildings, so they will be torned down and a new school will have to be built. But surely this process will take few years before it doesn’t conclude.
For now, they have built four classes made of bamboo and plastic, where the small kids classes will be held these coming rainy months (quite uncomfortable to make class…) and high school kids are using the classes that have been less affected by the earthquake (though they are pretty scary too…) All in all a rather bad situation… After the monsoon the school committee and management will have to decide where to make the classes the coming years in order to leave space empty for the demolition and construction of the new school.
While the students of the school have been left without school this year has decided to wear a tie, belt and shoes. So at least now they look much more cool in their new uniform.
It’s been two days after the second earthquake, but still noticeable consequences, most shops are still closed in Kathmandu and I still have not managed to return to Bhimphedi. The jeeps that would come from Hetauda to pick people do not come, drivers are afraid to come to Kathmandu. But here in Kathmandu is impossible to make any work these days… so I feel impatient to go back to Bhimphedi to do something useful .
At 9am finally I receive a call to tell me that if I reach on time I can have two tickets at 10:30, one for me and one for Shree. Wow, now time to run. I’m at Geeta’s home, the wonderful accountant of Amics del Nepal in Kathmandu. She and her brother were telling me all the adventures they were living these days in the expeditions to Sindupalchowk and Dholakba to give some support to the victims of the earthquake. As quickly as I can, I go to pick up my things and take Shree and we go by taxi to Balkhu. Impossible to reach by public transportation on time.
Surprisingly the taxi driver asks for a resonable price from the beginning so we don’t have to make bargaining ritual that precedes any transaction. On the way we see some destroied houses, Ratna Park is full of tents… finally the matter comes. The driver tells us he is from Dholakha, his parents OK, though their house collapsed. But his uncle died in the earthquake…
Three hours journey by jeep, on paths that go up and down one hill after another. From the first hill we see Kathmandu city I look carefully trying to see what caused the earthquake devastation. I see no obvious effects from the buildings from so far, but there is something different from the other times I had done this way: everywhere there are orange spots, tents everywhere.
During the three hours journey the same vision. Next to each house, there is a tent, no matter if the house is completely demolished or no apparent damage from outside. Everyone is living in tents that stand on the side of the house. Who has no house has to sleep outside. Who has cracked home sleeps outside for fear that the house is not safe. Who owns the house without damage, is afraid that in the night comes a stronger earthquake and this time the house doesn’t hold.
We reach on the last hill and we can see the hills and valleys of the Bhimphedi village. Like any other place, there is a tend next to each house, but to me they look different because Amics del Nepal was the one who provided 264 tents of them. Seeing all these tents makes me think of the adventures we lived in the two journeys to India to buy the tents and the distribution and monitoring.
We already explained here how we got the first 123 tents in “The Tent Adventure” and how they were distributed and tracked in “The tents are finally at home.” But not yet what happened on the second part of the project that started on May 8th going towards Hetauda to withdraw the money from the bank and take the jeep we had previously booked to go to India at 10:30 morning to buy a new shipment of tents. I can not cross the border, but the Nepalese do not need a visa to cross it, so I leave jeep and I do shopping for shelter and to pay the electricity bill while waiting for the rest of the team to come back.
Ram Naam Lama (Member of the community of Bhimphedi and the medical center that supports many projects)
Ram Bahadur and I were in Hetauda in the agreed place in the agreed time waiting for the Tata Sumo (jeep). It was10.30 and the tata sumo should be here but it’s not. I call to find out if it will take long time. But he tells us he can not come, he has to go to Kathmandu! why he didn’t inform us? Here begins our unlucky day…
We ask all the offices of transportation but none has any available jeep. Finally, through a relative of mine, we get one and we go to Raxaul (India near the Nepalese border).
Once we got there we began to wonder, store after store, but no one has medium tents, or so they say… when we start to lose hope, we see on a wall of a store a picture of a religious group in a volunteer campaign. What a coincidence, it is the religious group that my family belongs! We began to chat with the shopkeeper and finally asks: “What do you need?” “150 tents” we say. “No problem, it’s done” he says. It seems that after all today may not be an unlucky day!
We load the jeep with 141 tents and head towards the border. They stop us… The other time was very simple with the military car…
The official of the Indian border makes us go into his office and they start asking details of our mission. We explain where we came from and for what reasons, but they are not convinced because we don’t have any documentation to prove it. They ask us to go back again and give back all the tents to the shop where we bought them. It’s already 2 o’clock and it doesn’t look we will succeed… What should we do? Where should we go? To whom should we speak? We feel frustrated and without much hope… but we ask the officer to let us cross the border again. He says that if we confess that we bring the tents to do business, then with a small amount of money we may be allowed to cross… But we will not lie… the tents are not for selling, they are to be distributed to the Bhimphedi victims of the earthquake…
Finally the officer advised us that we should bring a letter from the Indian embassy… but we do not believe this is possible… But when we leave the office a Agent (a person who is on the border, but worker is not public) approaches us and he advices us to visit Jee Mishra’s office. We do it. There we pay 1,000 Nepalese rupees (about 9 euros) and Mishra Jee help us talking with the border officials. This time without any problem they let us cross. Mishra Jee Thanks!
We should not have given this money, because It was something wrong… but what to do? there was no other way to resolve the situation… However we completed the mission successfully, and the next day we distribute tents to the 9 representatives of the 9 wards.
Bishwa carring one of the tents for Ward number 9.Bishwa looks a little bit tired. Kul and Arati seem to be stronger.
Amics del Nepal Barcelona Team thank you for your support. Especially thanks to Dani and Laura!
DANI (Cooperating with Amics del Nepal in Bhimphedi)
After 17 days of the earthquake, it seems that the aftershocks are becoming softer. People, though is still frightened, struck by the death toll of over 8,000 and touched because many people have lost their homes or they are cracked, it appears that the activity is slowly coming back. People begin to move the rubble of the houses. Nearly a million people had left the city Kathmandu again slowly. The government announced that schools will begin next Sunday and is preparing actions to mitigate the consequences of the earthquake.
I decide to go to Kathmandu to do some work that I have pending, including help one of the children from the center to get his ID. We want to leave on Saturday or Sunday, but the jeeps to go to the capital are full. People go back to the capital to continue their tasks (open their store, working with their taxi…). We finally got tickets for Monday. The jeep normally carries 9 passengers and the driver, this time we are 10 plus the driver. And just before arriving at a police checkpoint the driver asks a truck to carry one of our passenger some kilometers, to avoid the fine.
Just after arriving to Kathmandu we quickly start doing our works so we can come back to Bhimphedi as soon as possible. The next day we asked for some documents that are needed to make the identity card of Shree. They tell us the documentation is in a building that has been affected by the earthquake and they are afraid to enter to pick them. But they will tell us something in the afternoon, because a team of policemen may take a look to the building. But it’s been twelve… and it’s almost one in the afternoon…
MIQUEL (Cooperating with Amics del Nepal in Kathmandu)
Days in Nepal continuously change. Here life can switch at any time unexpectedly. You never know what, how, with whom, even when something will happen. And suddenly comes a quake. A quake that lengthens. A quake that stretches and is not a replica. An earthquake, it is an earthquake and you have to hurry.
I still remember the great earthquake say. After it happened I said to myself and my friend: “Do you want to stay here and wait or do you want to see what happened?”. An earthquake does speed up the heart and I assure you that our fear could be appeased even by the infinite curiosity to know what had happened. So we went around the city in the splendor of large aftershocks.
But that was 18 days ago. Now we returned to go home after a new earthquake. Then came Dani and Shree. We were all quiet in different degrees. Some had more fear. Other more relaxed. A new earthquake. Fuertecillo long. Let’s making forecasts: May 1, not June 1 point something … 7.1 … about 20 seconds … Finally July 1 point 3 point 4. They are certainly not good news. People who had left the streets, resumed sunrooms. The shops had reopened, all closed. The cars they occupied the streets, they disappear and leave a strange silence.
Sure there will be dead. Here nothing has happened. Have they fallen buildings? We started to call and send messages. Everybody calls everybody. It seems that the lines do not fail today. No connection. We can live all “live”. We have more access to information and informants, this time, have access to us. The burning Whatsapp, Facebook twists.
We will also talk to people asking if they know anything. People seem to not return home. I go out to see the Stupa. The street is deserted, not a soul, I miss those times silence. In the Stupa we can see someone else, some who go round, others walk … After an earthquake although most accumulating on Esplanade to expect aftershocks, always find those who are branded as “foolish” and can not stop going to and fro. The Stupa is worse. I return home. And start calls from Spanish media.
Buddhanath suffers theearthquake with us.
It seems odd as they get the news away from the news. From there the expectation has always been great. There has been talk of tragedy and great misfortune. It certainly has been, the amount of lives lost and material damage are very high. What is more surprising, however, anyone who talks to us is that in the midst of destruction we are well, we slept at home and our fear level is medium. And the earthquake is not over yet, no, there’s plenty of walking and we luckily and fortunately we are in a place that for now everything is as it was before and after the first earthquake.
But beyond what anyone says or does not say on TV and the press, the reality is always more colorful when you see it with your own eyes. Today is the second night after the second earthquake. People have invaded the street. This time already has stores in more sophisticated campaign. There seems to be more fear, a fear more elaborate, less visceral than the first. Not just to understand if it is a reply or a new earthquake …
But remember something before finishing:
“The days in Nepal surprisingly rotate continuously. Here life can turn around at any time unexpectedly. You never know what, or how, or with whom, even when they happen. And suddenly you do not know how this Once you’ll be surprised. ”
I always tell Dani: this country is surreal and then laughed. And sometimes we look and say to ourselves, “Surreal”. And sometimes we call and say “Surreal”. So I hope that Surrealism surprisingly not leave us as we try to restore our normal again.
It is always difficult to have enough time to do all we are requested. This time google translator made it possible to turn it into English, even if the structures are light and sometimes even no sense. Please forgive us.
If you haven’t read how we managed to buy the tents, read the last post The Tents Adventure.
Next morning Laura, Ram and I meet with the objective to distribute the 123 tents that we have brought from India. First we prepare a table to keep record of the families to which we will handle the tents so that afterwards we can trespass the information to the VDC (the equivalent to the major in Bhimphedi). We also write a letter of donation of the material to the VDC. At that time there are many villagers in front of the school waiting for their tent and food that they are distributing thanks to the donation of the jail.
It looks like we are going to distribute the tents from the school. But it’s not completely clear. Laura and I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to decide from where to do the distribution. We ask the kids of Balmandir to help us to carry the tents to the school. We place all the tents in one of the classes and prepare how we will do the distribution.
But suddenly, the people that were waiting outside begin to enter in the class and a big argument starts. From what we understand, it seems that some want that we begin the distribution in their ward. In Bhimphedi there are 9 wards and each of them is inhabited mainly by people of the same cast. So, each cast wants to start the distribution between their relatives and friends. More and more people continue entering in the class. Some say the tents will be given first to those who have their house completely destroyed; others claim we have to start with their ward.
It doesn’t look like there will be any agreement… But after an hour of argument everybody agrees in the following. There is going to be a leader of each ward that will take a number of assigned tents and he will be the responsible to distribute them in his ward. Everybody is satisfied with the final solution so we distribute the tents. Finally at 2 pm all tents are distributed and we can go home!
The process has been quite surrealist but the point is that at night it starts raining and we are happy that 123 tents are being useful to 123 families to give them shelter. Thank you very much to the volunteers and donors of Amics del Nepal, and also to Ram Lama, Anju Lama, Laura Conde, Dharmaraj Rijal, Ram Bahadur Adhukari and Surendra Kumar Thapa!
Two days after that, we go on expedition to the nearby mountains to see how they are using the tents and see the needs of the people there. It’s not an easy job… It’s extremely hot and only the first few kilometers can be done by motorbike. To reach the rest of the villages there are only small paths that go up and down the hills. We pass past houses and more houses and everybody wants to show us theirs. Many have a part destroyed but most of them only have cracks and some holes. But anyway, most of them don’t dare to sleep inside because they’re not sure if they are safe in their houses.
They have used the tents to built cottages that will be their shelters for an undefined time. Very few will be able to build a house before the monsoon that is approaching (time of intense rains that takes place from June to September). Some will start building their house in October after Dashain (national festival equivalent to our Christmas). But most will not be able to build a new house in the immediate future because they don’t have enough money to pay it. The government has promised loans for those who have lost their homes to build a new one. But nobody thinks this measure will be easily implemented and in any case, nobody thinks it will be done soon. Therefore these cottages will be their homes for many months.
Some days after, VDC distributes some more tents that they have received in ward number 9. But they are overwhelmed by the demand and the 30 tents and the mattresses donated by Amics del Nepal are not enough again.
So we must return to work. Tomorrow we will try to bring more tents from India… The adventure “Tents 2” starts. Second parts never were good, or so they say… But there are always exceptions…
Meanwhile in Balmandir we keep working hard and willing to start new projects in the center and collaborating with the government school and the community. It is not true that all the problems of Nepal have arrived with the earthquake. A lot of people want to help “rebuilt Nepal after the great quake” but the truth is that this country already had big problems before the 25th of April. Undoubtedly it has been a big natural disaster in which more than 8,000 people have lost their lives and lots of buildings are now collapsed or damaged. But in my opinion it’s important to continue working in projects of empowerment of new generations and women and promote activities that can give opportunities to the most needed so that they can improve their quality of life and their country. I have lots of friends that have asked me how to help Nepal now. This answer says a lot of them. Even Catalonia it’s not undergoing his best economical moment, Catalans want to support people who are in need in the rest of the world. That’s why, to these friends I would recommend to collaborate with the projects we are developing here in Bhimphedi and that we will keep explaining in this blog.
You can do so, by doing a donation to Amics del Nepal with the concept “Bhimphedi”
We wake up at 5:45 am and make time with the telephone tucked into our pocket and the first tea of the day, until 6. We finish our tea, meet up with the children to organize the day and is now 6:45 and there is no call yet. Laura and I leave the centre to sit in a bar in front of Ram and Anju’s home and we have the second tea of the day. It is now 7 o’clock and nobody has called so we decide to knock on their door.
A woman greets us, must be Anju’s sister because she looks a lot like her. These days they have many relatives at home from Katmandu (more than half a million people have left the capital to avert the shortage of water, food or disease infection such as cholera) and they sleep all together in the patio in case there was another earthquake. Finally, Ram and Anju get to the door asking if it’s already 7. Both of them have been up all night looking after a woman with an anxiety attack. Ram, even though he is a pharmaceutic he ends up doing the same role as a doctor would when there is no doctor (that is very often). They phone the people we were supposed to meet at 6 and they say they are about to leave the house…
We approach the village with Ram to start coordinating the transport and phoning shops in Hetauda to see if they’ll have enough tents. All of these phone calls are done from a bar in town with the third tea of the day in our hands just at 8 in the morning. It feels like we are taking one ant step at a time. Finally, the man we were supposed to meet at 6 arrives but he starts making phone calls too and it truly does seem as we weren’t making any progress. Ram tells us to go back to the children’s home and assures us he will call us when they are ready to go.
We are at the children’s home and around 9:30 there is still no ringing on the phone… we aren’t sure we will make the trip today so Laura and I decide that if necessary, we will go by bus. Going back into town, we pick up Anju and tell Ram that is now 10 o’clock, we might as well go by bus. But as it happens quite often in Nepal things work in a different way and different rhythm that might make you want to pull your hair out but extraordinary and surprising things might happen. Ram looks at us and tells us the transportation is on its way. Initially we were going to get a jeep from the hydroelectric company but that wasn’t possible… so they had been working it out to get another vehicle.
Suddenly a military jeep comes into view with two soldiers in it who approach us and welcome us to get in the car. So we are finally on our way to Hetauda. I had been to Hetauda by bus, on the roof of a vehicle, by car and by motorbike… But Nepal never ceases to surprise you. It takes half an hour to get there not without making our way through many cars that move away just by seeing the vehicle.
The first step is to get the money from the bank, but the passport and the cheque book are not with me. Nevertheless, we manage to get our money… we might be quite intimidating with two soldiers by our sides.
The following step is to go see if the shops have enough tents of 4,5×5,5 metres. Any of the establishments we’ve been to have many, and the price is more on the expensive side… while we are all thinking of what to do the soldier who was driving comes up with a great idea: “We have a car, all of the day to spare (it’s 12 o’clock) and just a mission. We could head to India where they’ll have cheaper tents so we will be able to buy more of them and help more people!”.
That’s marvellous, we jump in the car and half an hour later we are in Birgunj just at the frontier from India having warmed up to the soldiers. We know now they were at the official presentation of the basketball court with the minister and they have very interesting opinions regarding many topics. The one in charge of driving goes by another rhythm (driving too), he is energetic and passionate and ready to help. The co-pilot is very friendly and has friends all over so when we get to Birgunj two of his acquaintances are there to help us with our mission. Extraordinary!
We ask around the shops in the city but all of them are sold out of tents… it looks like we will have to cross the border. We stop at a hotel, Laura and I have to stay because we can’t cross to India unless we have a visa. The Nepalese people can go, so we wait for four hours eating and looking around town (which we didn’t like very much) until they come back with 123 tents that they had managed to buy from different places at half the price they were asking in Hetauda because they didn’t have to pay any taxes because of the military vehicle.
Before going back home, we make a stop in Hetauda and buy plastic rolls to cover the ground and so people can sit guarded from the cold ground. These people are indefatigable! We are so lucky to have Ram, Anju, Ram Bhadur and Dharmaraj…
But how are we going to bring those enormous rolls with us?… Why do I even ask? This is Nepal. In half an hour we are back at the children’s home and all of the children come out and help carry things and then they have some sweets the soldiers had bought in India. We have managed to get 123 tents at a very good price, transportation provided by the military, two good friends and a good adventure to narrate. Mission accomplished! Well, at least the first part. Tomorrow it will be time to give out the tents. “Tomorrow morning at 6 am” we say to Ram and Anju before saying goodbye.
After falling, you must always get back up on your feet. And that is our task now. At the centre, we are returning to the daily routine little by little, but without forgetting what has happened and acknowledging what is happening now.
The earthquake has been brutal in some centre-north districts in Nepal, such as Sindhupalchowk, Kathmandu, Dhading or Gorka where thousands of people have lost their lives. We have been lucky in Bhimphedi, with no mortal victims even though many people have lost their homes and many families have been left unguarded. Rains have been forecasted in the following days and many families are afraid their damaged houses might collapse. That is why many of them choose to sleep out in the open or to share shelter with their cows (many of the families that live throughout the mountains base their subsistence economy in a vegetable garden, some chicken, goats and maybe one or two cows or buffalos). Naturally, this is worrisome in a sanitary level, even worse knowing there is no health assistance nearby.
Now more than ever, we should ask ourselves “and what can I do?”. Because of the earthquake we still don’t know when the school year will start, so the children now have lots of free time which will be used to increase the cultivated land, so in the future there are more vegetables and we shall need less support from Barcelona, which then can be directed to helping the ones affected by the earthquake.
For our part, Laura and I, we go to the village for a check-up and to see what is needed there. Firstly, we go to Beli’s house, one of the carers at the centre, and to Sanu’s house, one of the women we are helping so her twin daughters can go to school. Both houses were made out of mud and stone, two-story-high, and now they are completely ruined, to the point they won’t be able to use them anymore.
Later, we go and see the Red Cross committee and the VDC (Village Development Committee) which is equivalent to the town hall. In these meetings they tell us that tents are what are needed most urgently because of all the families who can’t sleep in their now ruined or damaged houses. They have gathered data and about 300 families are in this situation and they have just been able to give 61 tents (of poor quality).
It is time we get down to work! We contact Amics del Nepal in Barcelona, and the amazing volunteers start pulling strings. In just a few hours they send me an incredible message saying we can go through with the “camping tents” operation thanks to a donation of Carlos Recoder Miralles. More like the “camping tents” adventure… After all here in Nepal everything ends up being an adventure…
And so, tonight we meet up with Ram and Anju, a lovely couple from the village, she is a teacher in the public school and he is a pharmacist and a member of the health centre in town. They never say no when someone needs any help. They are very happy to hear we have received the approval to provide tents to all of the affected families and they commit to finding free transportation. They are also happy to come with us and help us with getting the best prize. They do a few calls and tell us to meet them the next morning at 6 am. Before we leave and say our goodbyes they tell us…we will call you when they get here…we said we would meet at six but in Nepalese time… Anyway, see you tomorrow morning!
On the way to the children’s home we saw the first consequences of the earthquake (7.5 Richter scale) Many houses made of stone and mud, have been affected by the earthquake, some had cracks, some need a piece of wall and others are completely destroyed. Few houses have remained intact.
Fortunately, many people were on the sports court (see the post of the act) and others outside the houses, so we didn’t have injured people, but they were strongly affected, especially those who have lost their home and shop.
We hurry with the children to come back to the center and meet the other kids to see if they’re right.
In the children’s home, only the volunteer’s house (an old building of the Rana dynasty) has been affected. No light, no mobile phones… We have no battery to charge mobiles or computers …
After a while the earth trembled again, this time more gently, everyone wonders if it will return the strong earthquake. They are coming rumors and mixed news, so we don’t know how can be the rest of the country…
Seems that there are no serious injuries in Bhimpedi, but many people have lost their homes. Our four workers that we have in the center;Beli and Ram, they can’t live in their homes … and Maya and Santa Maya’s houses have been cracked. Everyone is sad, but mostly of them scared. They all sleep in the streets, now they don’t feel safe in their own homes, now there are dangerous places. So, they sleep all together in the street and they spend hours with family and friends, giving support to each other.
At night there are five or six earthquake aftershocks, soft but enough strong to shake the ground and the villager’s hearts.
At the morning we follow with no communication with the outside and we get confused news, some expect a stronger earthquake. . Schools, shops and medical centers, everything is closed. But the streets are crowded, groups discussing the same issue “was the strongest earthquake I’ve ever experienced”, “there has been no equal in the past 80 years”…
At night the situation is even more complicated, it seems that there will be storm tonight … People did not dare to enter inside the homes because they are convinced that there will be another earthquake of level 9, but they cannot sleep in the street … the center workers come to sleep with their children in our children’s home and we slept together in one room, close from the exit. This night there was a couple of trembling, but very soft.
In the morning, finally becomes the light and we can charge mobiles. We can communicate with the outside and talk with our friends and family. We also can read the Newspapers and see that Kathmandu and Sindupalchowk the earthquake was devastating. The newspaper speaks about 3,000 dead but it can become 8,000. It is a sad day but we have to be strong, smile and be together.
At night we projected a film on the outside, just after the film we feel another earth’s trembling. They are very soft but there not calm the situation … Hopefully at night there’s no more. Now, while some children snore, we are writing this post and we will try to send to Barcelona by phone. If you are reading this it means that we have been lucky. Thank s to Barcelona’s volunteers and to you for following us.
We send you a warm hug from Bhimpedi and we keep in touch!!
Thanks to a project by Rotary Club Kantipur, with financial support coming from Spain coordinated by Juan José Rodriguez, a multisports court has been built in Bhimphedi village.
Everybody was talking about it some time ago, cause it has been a long process: first its planning, then its construction process. And now it is finally completed, and everybody can play whatever they like: basketball, football, volleyball, badminton …
Although many villagers were already using the court some days ago, the official opening will be held on April 25th. The project promoters are coming to Bhimphedi from Madrid and Kathmandu, along with the sports minister and other personalities from the country. So, on April 25 a big event will take place in the village of Bhimphedi!
About one month ago, event organizers asked Laura and me to organise an exhibition basketball match with the children in our home and the children in the village. So, this month we really had to work hard, because children do not forgive any single training!
Every afternoon from 4h to 6h, and some days even in morning time from 6:30 to 8am, we had to go to the sports court and teach them how to play basketball. And most of the times we had to stop them, otherwise they would have kept on playing on and on, until midnight!
Both boys and girls have learned to play very quickly and plus, promoters offered us team t-shirts and sports shoes for the two teams, which we delivered on the events day. They all looked like real teams!! It was great to see how good they played while wearing sports shoes, after having trained wearing flip-flops! (Almost everyone in Nepal wears flip-flops, no matter it is summer, winter, rainy, must climb a mountain, or must work at construction sites). Ram Raj, the star in one of the teams, achieved to reverse the score in favor of the orange team, while executing his attack movements very well, but still having to count his steps loud, cause he had only been doing them for one week: “One, two, toss!”
After the five minutes basketball game, the speeches came. Two hours of speeches where everyone was getting infinitely bored… Finally they decided it was enough and let the local kids do some dances, “but do it quick, quick, it’s about to rain!,” master of ceremonies said…
But it’s not the rain what closes the event. The ground begins to shake… it’s an earthquake! We look at the village and we see many town houses starting to collapse, everywhere. And, far in the mountains, where many detached houses used to be, we can only see some smoke plumes.
After a long minute, the ground seems to be still again; but we are not looking at it the same way we did before: everybody is scared. Nobody had experienced an earthquake like this before… Everybody is very concerned about the consequences this quake might have had, and also to know whether it is stopped or it will have more afterquakes. We all head to the village very quickly…
On April 25 there has been a big event in the village of Bhimphedi! Although it was totally different event than what we all expected …
If you want to know what happened the next hours and days after the quake, read the next post about the earthquake.
In early April in Nepal children finish the school course. Everyone, including those studying nursary make final exams. For one week students only go to school to make the daily exam. After finishing exams, holidays!
Basu happy to be on holidays after scoring very good results in his class.
The Nepali new year begins in mid April. This year we start 2072, we celebrate it by eating chicken and and shrimp bread! And, of course, rice with lentils soup (no Nepalese is satisfied if he doesn’t eat Dalbat twice a day).
This year, all 28 children living at the Bhimphedi Children’s Home have passed the course. Everyone is very happy. Binita, one of the girls of the center, has been the first of the class (about 55 students), here they don’t care much about the marks but on the possition within the class.
Binita, in holidays, cooking “rotis”.
Ashok S. is the only kid of the center who has finished class 10 this year, so he had to do SLC (very important exams for Nepalese students). To do this test Ashok moved to Hetauda for 10 days, living in the nearest town (they can not do the exam at the same school where they study). The results of these examinations will not be made public until the end of June, so Ashok has gone to Kathmandu to start a new stage in his life, now out of the children’s home. He has to think what to study, where to work, to meet interesting people who do interesting projects in the capital, and start making friends there; so Ashok will spend his holidays doing a course in EduLift (www.eduliftacademy.org) we will tell you how things are going for him!
Ashok (left) leaving the children’s home to do the examinations after class 10 in the nearby city.
The other children, staff and volunteers of the center, we continue our daily life in Bhimphedi. One day we went to play cricket in Hetauda with children from other children’s homes, our kids were very confident about their victory, but after an hour and a half we were already out… “They were small but they were very good playing cricket!” say the our kids! “We do not ever play cricket and they had a lot of practice; we didn’t win because we have failed to make any point “balling” (no idea what balling means) and they have made twenty” they complain. And it is true, because since some weeks ago, the only sport they practice is basketball, but that we will explain in the next post!
We are also doing the usual work at the center, we collected all the potatoes and planted corn (lot’s of them for the animals and weat, and some to make pop-corn). We have also improved the entrance to the center, cleaned the water channel, cooked roti (a type of bread shaped crepe), practiced typing, planted trees and did other projects we will explain in future posts as well.
In early May the new year begins, here between course and course students don’t have very long vacation, but they do have, instead, many festive periods; in August nearly a month of holidays for monsoon, in October another month to celebrate Dashain and Tihar (most important festivals for Hindus), and many other festivities… I will keep telling you about many of them!
Don’t worry, Manoj only has the bottle of beer on the hand to use it to flatten the mass of the “rotis”, what a chef!
Some of the kids and staff cooking “rotis”.
This group turn: helping in the kitchen garden.
After recollecting the potatoes, it was time to plant the corn.
Holi by Paula Minguell, Coordinator of the Health Projects of Amics del Nepal.
You can notice Holi is approaching, when the street shops are full of water guns and colour powder. During the previous days, kids would charge them with water and colours and shot anyone passing nearby. Although it wasn’t my first visit to Nepal, it was the first time I would celebrate Holi here. This festival after Dashain and Tihar it’s the thirdth most important celebration and one of the most enjoyed by people who have survived to it. So I decided it would be better to move from Kathmandu where we are working for the reopening of the Health Center that Amics del Nepal has, to Bhimphedi to enjoy the day with the kids of the Children’s Home.
Holi is a hindu celebration that settles the beginning of spring, leaving the long and cold winter behind. It is also known as the love festival, because as well as you leave winter behind, it is the moment to get rid of misunderstandings and bad feelings. The colour powders are used in honor to Vishnu, the god with a characteristical blue skin.
So I head to Bhimphedi with a big box of water balloons and powders of all colours. When we got there we found Mar, a volunteer, with a cold. “The kids have been throwing water balloons the whole day, and today was not a warm day…” she told us. And she warned us “Be prepared for tomorrow”.
Early in the morning, the kids were awake as usual but specially calmed, walking around the compound, with their hand in their pockets and angelical faces. We saw this weird behavior from the windows of the volunteer room (we are not ashamed to say we were a bit afraid) and we decided we wouldn’t go out of the building until we were well prepared with a good defense: a basket full of water balloons. That wasn’t really useful, as soon as we stepped out of the room water balloons started raining from all directions.
Once we where completely wet, we decided it was time for the colours and that’s when the real war started. The colours went from hands and water baskets to faces and clothes. Every time the recipients to throw the coloured water were bigger and bigger. Children running trying to avoid the water and balloons and colours kept flying through the air for hours. We went from green, to blue, to red and pink depending on the colour we were using at the moment. Even the staff got into the game.
And in this way we enjoyed the Holi, and also the days after as cold and paint accompanied some of us for some days. Anyway, there’s no way to be happier than listening the kids saying “Happy Holi” while they paint your face with colour powder.
