Children of the Home, Festivals and Traditions, Nepali Culture

Maghe Sankrati festival

Written by Krishna Pudasaini, Center Chief of Bhimphedi Children Home:

Maghe Sankrati was celebrated across the country on January, 15th 2016 (1st Magh 2072). This festival takes place every year, on the first day of Magh (nepali month).

It remarks the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season. In every house, friends and relatives enjoy Magne Sakranti by eating ghee, chaaku (a kind of fright sugar), yam, selroti (a fright doughnut), tharul (sweet potato), with other delicious varieties of food items.

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On this day, devotees who lives near a river take a holy dip known as makan snan. This types of holy dips take place in different parts of the country, especially in Chitwan, which is also known as makar mela.

Maghe-Sankranti

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Magne Sakranti is the special festival for tharu community. They celebrate as their new year and the day of emancipation and they perform their cultural dances.

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Newari community calle the festival as Gyhyo chaku sanun celebrating this day by eating ghee and chaaku.

On this auspicious day in Betrawati, a village situated near Rassuvoa and Nuwakot, hundreds of people observed annually bull fighting as the event to preserve their ancestors’ memory. Such event attracts people from the nearest districts as Kathmandu, Dhading, Lalitpur, Makwanpur…

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We celebrated it in the Children’s Home as well. The day before, the children went to the mountain with shovels and picks to dig up the root eaten in this festival, a type of sweet potato they call “tharul.”

In the morning, everyone ate the sweet chaaku with butter (gui). At noon, it was time to eat tharul.

Some kids helping didis to peel thoru.
Some kids helping didis to peel tharu.

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Som eating chaaku
[:ca]Activitats i tallers[:en]Activities and trainings[:es]Actividades y talleres[:], [:ca]Visites i excursions[:en]Visits and excursions[:es]Visitas y excursiones[:], Children of the Home, General

Hike to Dhorsing!

Written by Sergio Rodriguez, Bhimphedi Children Home Volunteer:

Today we thought that going out together to enjoy nature and give us a daring bathing in this sunny winter day was a good way to spend this holiday for small kids of Balmandir (the big ones have still class). We hike to a nearby river in Dhorsing. Start recruiting!

All the kids are scattered on the playground and many are reluctant to leave the comfort of their daily entertainment, such as spinning top, I tried to pass on the desire shouting “Who wants adventure”? Finally, we got a good group (almost all) and we set out of our way.

Alguns dels nens arribant a les cascades de Dhorsing.
Some of the kids walking to Dhorsing waterfalls

The trip was fun and entertaining for the team with an unexpected union of a goat that has followed a good stretch, battling with the two dogs from Balmandir, who also made the entire trip with us. After crossing the yellow bridge of Dhorsing we entered to the jungle trails to get into the river. Frozen water and small waterfalls received us and we have had a very good time playing in the sand and getting our feet wet.

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Soiking the feet in the cold water

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Water is too cold for Manoj!

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The return was tiring and a bit more difficult. The group splited into two because the first group went to a wrong way. The second group waited in the bridge eating some snacks. Tired but happy at the same time we made our way back looking forward for one thing: dhalbat. The feeling of having used great the last four hours with laughs and good moments.

The kids show great agility, orientation, domination of territory, knowledge of the environment and even creativity in creating tools and “toys” with different things they have been found along the way. They are amazing!

[:ca]Activitats i tallers[:en]Activities and trainings[:es]Actividades y talleres[:], Children of the Home, General

Exams week!

Written by Isabel Valero, Bhimphedi Children’s Home volunteer

Namaste!

This week had been very fast, but not for the children of class 1 to class 5 who have had a week of exams. They were all studying very hard these days to pass everything.

Every morning, after the glass of milk with rice, they have studied an hour. Occasionally, the volunteers asked them what went into the exam to verify that they knew all. And yes, the truth is that they memorize all with ease!

After eating dalbhat, they made a last reviewed and prepared, a little nervous to face the exam.

Some of the children studying before going to school

Two hours later we had the children back to the shelter. They returned very happy, I don’t know exactly why they had got rid of the exam, without thinking whether or not to pass it or so had gone well and knew that they would take good marks. In any case each time we asked them how exam had been they always said, “Very good!”.

After distracted few hours, one hour of study. Then, at 4 pm, when the big ones arrived from school, Kul, one of the youth in the shelter, managed a session of sports activities. Kul greatly help in the shelter, both in the garden and farm, such as taking care of children.

After dinner, we started all over again to study all the topics of the exam of the next day. And so, for 8 days.

The exams ended on Friday, and as a prize, have a whole week without class!

This week, as we don’t study much, we go on trips, do fun activities (playing games, using the computer, playing Meccano, they made amazing spinning tops themselves…). In the evening, the have the opportunity to put movies in English and spend a very relaxed time together.

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Som, Bisho, Raju, Santa and Isabel painting the wall of the library.
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Ramesh and Ramraj painting the wall of the library.

This week certainly is happening much faster for them!

General, News

El 2015 en la casa de Acogida

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…

[:ca]Activitats i tallers[:en]Activities and trainings[:es]Actividades y talleres[:], [:ca]Visites i excursions[:en]Visits and excursions[:es]Visitas y excursiones[:], News

Visit to the Power House

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.

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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!

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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!

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Entrance to the Power House, guarded by the army.
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Entrance to the 300 meter tunel which leads to the subterraneal room of the turbines.
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Photo of the second group with the guide in the top room of the turbines.

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Entrance to the offices of the Power House.

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Showing room where kids could see some photos and models of the hydroelectric station.

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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!

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Children of the Home, News

The family grows

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.

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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.
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One photo of Arjun, Santa and me.
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Santa playing carron board, a very popular game in Nepal (similar to pool).

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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!

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[:ca]Accions post-terratrèmol[:en]Post-Earthquake Actions[:es]Acciones post-terremoto[:], Cooperation, Festivals and Traditions, Nepali Culture

Let’s celebrate the Tihar

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

Suvha Ratri! (good night)

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First weeks of AWASUKA in Bhimphedi

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.

Welcome tikas for Andrea and Valeria
Welcome tikas for Andrea and Valeria

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.

All the team of volunteers in Bhimphedi with a the smaller kids of Balmandir went to visit Supin
All the team of volunteers in Bhimphedi with a the smaller kids of Balmandir went to visit Supin

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.

Doing the electrical installation for the office
Doing the electrical installation for the office
Algunos ayudantes alisando el suelo, entre ellos Kul y Papu dos chicos de Balmandir
Algunos ayudantes alisando el suelo, entre ellos Kul y Papu dos chicos de Balmandir

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.

The group of boys that helped us with painting the office. With so many people is so much easier!
The group of boys that helped us with painting the office. With so many hands is so much easier!

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.

Monica manos a la obra

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.

Visiting one of the affected houses to get more information for the program
Visiting one of the affected houses to get more information for the program
Visitant una casa totalment derruida
Visiting one totally destroyed house where they have built a temporary shelter and pilled up materials that can be useful for a future reconstruction

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

General, Volunteers

You’ve always thought about it

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…

mikel_low

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.

Her milk tea is still awesome.

www.amicsnepal.org/bhimphedi