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!”.
A clown brought lots of laughter to Balmandir few weeks ago! Now two volunteers have come to teach some aerial acrobatics! We only need to include a tiger or an elephant in our farm and we will be able to call it Balmandir Circus.
Clown Magi came to bring laughter and ballons to shelter Bhimphedi. Thank you very much!Group photo with swords and other artifacts made of balloons could only inflate the Clown Magi.
Victor and Mery Ann, volunteers from Amics del Nepal in the Youth Project:
After carrying for over a month a heavy piece of clothes (of the Association Gente Colgada) in the backpack from Barcelona via India and Kathmandu, we were finally able to hang it from a tree so the children could enjoy this activity. Well, actually older kids where the ones who hanged it because they have an incredible ability to climb anywhere.
Ashok, the most skillful guy climbing trees, did not take even a second to have hung the clothes.
Everyone was very excited to start with the activity. We started with a small warm-up: running, jumping, moving the body a little bit, to get ready to go up! First simple ascension: girls did it great, big kids didn’t follow any advice but went up by muscle. Small didn’t go much up.
We followed some inverted figures, so they could see the world upside down.
We did some demonstration of some more complicated figures: ups, downs, all where freezed (which it’s not so easy… because they are all the time moving) with open mouth!
No laugh is as fun and contagious as Bhishow’s.
We repeated the activity another day but the rain didn’t allow us to do so much. Now we have to go back to Kathmandu to continue with the Youth Project before heading to India, but we are leaving a piece of clothes so that children can continue playing or using it as a swing.
Time for free game. The game ends when the clothes are broken or one of the kids end up on the floor crying.
Thanks to Anna and Dani your welcome to Bhimphedi, tanks to Amics del Nepal to engage us to their projects and the Association Gente Colgada for giving us the huge piece of clothes for acrobatics that is being so useful all these months in Nepal and India.
On top of the acrobatics and gymkhana, Meri Ann and Víctor have worked on other tasks like fixing the entrance, putting two posts to play football or take the kids to the river.
Fixing the entrance of the Children’s Home.Victor, with the “help” of Manoj, preparing a soccer post for the new goals.
Today is Sunday, working day in Nepal, but today no class. Children have been already 6 days without school, this is normal here, very often there is no class and no one really knows why. But today we do know the reason; the Nepali government has finally approved the new constitution. More than seven years ago they already were talking about it… maybe this time the celebration was really justified.
Taking advantage of the visit of Víctor, MeryAnn and Anna, we have been able to organize a gymkhana that has kept us very busy all the morning.
All Balmandir children were distributed into the four teams and participated with enthusiasm in the 12 trials and challenges that we proposed. It was very cool to see everyone so engaged.
The gymkhana was organized around a globe and four continents: America, Europe, Africa, Asia-Oceania (we didn’t have enough staff to have all continents separated). Each team was given with a card with the name of a city or country. The first they had to do was to look for the city or country in the globe and find out in what continent it was located. In that point all the volunteers were astonished! They did not know where anything was located, “Is Africa in Paris?” “Sydney in Europe?” My god! Maybe because of the many school holidays they have not had time to study geography?
Once they knew in what continent was their city or country located, they had to go find the volunteer representing that continent (we were distributed in the garden with a sign indicating which continent each of us represented): Mery was Africa, Dani was Europe; Víctor was America and Anna was Asia-Oceania. There we would give them a challenge, and once done, they would be given with a score and a new country or city name. Then they would return to the globe to find out what the next continent to visit was.
All running and jumping, shouting and laughing, going from continent to continent, visiting in each step the globe, guarded by the director of the center. They had to do an obstacle race, and build a human tower, a pile of 20 stones, transport water hopping, knitting and even they had to make a collage. And as a final challenge they had to build a catapult and see who could throw a ball farther.
Only two members of the group are allowed to touch the floor.But it doesn’t look so difficult task for this team.Here they are!This is Africa.In America the teams had to pass a water balloon from as far as possible.In America Victor was managing the challenges is enjoying even more than the kids.Kul is not bored either…Basu in another of the challenges of America.They had to make a collage as well.
Dani explaining one of the challenges in Europe.Here they had to score in a basket. This team scored from 8 meters.Rojan giving instructions to his blind team.The small genius Sumit with his two helpers, Ramesh and Ashish, building an small catapult.The small catapult made by Sumit has created some expectation. Will it work?Sumit doesn’t look worried. He knows it will work although everyone thinks it’s too small.But Lav is pretty skilled too. And his team will not be left behind.Here Ram Raj and Rojan are ready to shot the ball with the catapult designed by Lav.Wow
The results of all these challenges were recorded. In the afternoon we made the recount and in the evening we celebrated the awards ceremony. As we were very happy with their involvement and participation, we awarded them with a hat with solarlight, and all the winners got a kit-kat chocolate. The second, third and fourth got a small prize as well, a chocolate bar with a size according with the position they scored.
In the evening everyone is waiting for the results.And the winners are… the team of Sanu and Lav!But it doesn’t matter much, because the chocolates are soon finished, and what is left is the prize we gave to all the kids: the solar caps! New trend in Bhimphedi.
We hope they learned a little bit of geography with this activity, otherwise at least we’ve had loads of fun! And they all have these solar hats, that some of them they don’t take out even when they go to sleep.
Almost every week we visit the Bhimphedi Health Center or Hospital of Hetauda (the nearest town from Bhimphedi, just over an hour by bus). But when we need to make something more than a X-Ray then going Hetauda it can only make you scared… So sometimes we have to go with a child to Kathmandu where you can find more hospitals and make more tests.
This time we went with Arati (don’t worry, no big problem), but do not think the girl was scared or worried about having to go to hospital. On the contrary, it was the opportunity to visit Kathmandu for the first time in her life! See all those places and monuments that come to school books and reconnect with many brothers and sisters who live in Kathmandu once they left the Bhimphedi Children’s Home.
Arati looking at the Bagmati river, a holy place called Pashupatinath, where the hinduists burn the bodies of the dead (at the background the smoke of the cremations can be seen).Arati walking among the temples of Pashupatinath.Meeting with Naresh, one of the youth who grew up in our Children’s Home. Now he is working in this restaurant, la Casita de Boudhanath as a cook. He is also studding Management in a college and living in a room with other two youth that came from our Children’s Home too.Visit to the Patan Children’s Home where two girls that had grown up in Bhimphedi Children’s Home now live.Arati puting a bracelet to Pemba, one of the youth that grew up in Bhimphedi and now is studing in a college in Kathmandú. Pemba now is partaking in one of the projects of Amics del Nepal that aims to bring a drama show in a very affected areas by the earthquake.We also met with many other volunteers of Amics del Nepal who are working in many other projects. In this photo you can see Neus, a volunteer who has been doing a great job supporting Amor Boys Children’s Home and Florida School in Mahendranagar.We visited Dharahara, the tower that collapsed in the last earthquake (and had already collapsed and rebuilded 80 years ago). Madan, a youth who left Bhimphedi Children’s Home some years ago came with us.On the rooftop of Geeta’s family house, where we stayed in Kathmandu. Geeta is the Amics del Nepal accountant, and she and her family are just wonderful.We also met Ashok, the only kid who left the Children’s Home this year. Nowadays he is taking care of a building in Kathmandu (and for that he has a room and salary), he studies in college, he is doing a cooking course and making loads of new friends.Ashok in the cooking class in Cocina Mitho Chha.On 20th September Ashok worked in the parliament compound. An historical date that he lived near the main characters of it.
Bhimsen is the Hindu god of commerce and industry, especially revered mainly by Newaríes.
Bhimsen Jatra is held every August / September In Bhimphedi, it is the festival of the village. It is just one day but for locals is the event of the year. In the morning they make an offering to Bhimsen in the Temple of the main street, many families sacrifice a cock that they will after eat. This main street is crowded all the day, unlike the calm of any other day of the year. Some clothing stalls, balloon sellers and the usual goodies and ice cream vendors appear.
At night there is a DJ for the young people, which is quite surprising, because it is very similar to any disco we know in Europe. Young people tell us excited that last year lasted an hour, and this year will last two. They also organize a Bingo! Very slow in our opinion (the 15 minutes between the numbers is long …) but again the locals enjoy it as children.
Finally people carries the “Rath” (a figure of the god Bhimsen) on the shoulders. anyone who wants to carry it, surrounded by men with torches shouting “Lio Lio Ha !! Ha !! Payo Payo Ha !! Ha !!” whose translation (language Newari not Nepali) we have not been able to get.
Maybe you wondered, does Bhimphedi has something to do with Bhimsen? Well, yes. “Bhim” comes from Bhimsen, and “Phedi” refers to “plain at the foot of the mountains”. In Bhimphedi we are in a valley in the first mountain range (Himal) that separates the plain (Terai) and the huge Himalayas.
What do two Nepalis, a Catalan and four Basques do at 4 in the morning in a remote valley of Nepal?
We have a long walk up to Damar, where we are supposed to pick up our Bufala (bhaisi) and its male baby. It is clear, which makes the climb more bearable… and in Damar we are welcomed with a delicious tea, made with fresh buffalo milk.
Soon it appears… here begins the most interesting part of the morning: bring them down throw the long way to Bhimphedi without hurting them or hurting ourselves. Two hours later we arrive to Balmandir where children start shouting and running excited all around. They accompany them to their new home… and hug and squeeze the new baby of the family.
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These past weeks we have been involved in preparing the stable for buffaloes and goats (bakhara in Nepali). The first thing we had to do was emptying the space that we would use as stable as it was full of wooden beams. Some of them were very long and heavy so we had to ask for help from prison workers. After Dani visited the prison at least ten times to ask for help, they finally came…
Two weeks later when the place was finally empty, we started with the reparations… and it seemed easy at first: one of the beams was broken, one of the pillars completely rotten, when replacing this one we had to move the one next to it, the metal sheet that made the back wall was set with the ripple backwards so that the water came inside, the roof needed fixes, making the door was not easy, we put an old unusable gate as part of the wall, we put six pillars to tie the buffaloes, a layer of concrete to smooth the floor inside and give inclination… Gradually the stable was taking shape. Meanwhile we also made a small extension to settle there the goats (previously we had ducks and chickens, and a dog with three puppies. This children’s home is becoming a farm!).
On the other hand, goats and buffaloes need grass, plenty of grass… so we used a part of the garden to plant grass: First we brought the ox prepare the land, then we removed all the remaining grasses and plants, and then we put the seeds. But then, to separate the area of grass from the garden area we needed a fence… so what better than to build it ourselves! We will leave this story for a future post …
So we finally have buffaloes in our farm !!
Nerea y Mikel
Long stay volunteers of Amics del Nepal for the Chindren’s Home of Bhimphedi and the program of reconstruction and improvement of the affected houses by the earthquake.
P.S. Did we tell you that Ricardo and Jorge came from Kathmandu the day before yesterday and brought 4 rabbits? Yes. In Balmandir we have also rabbits.
Beli is one of the wonderful caregivers (didis) of the children’s home. She, with Maya, is the “mother” of the 28 children living in the home. And for those who have children already know it is not easy work at all, even for those who have only one son. Everyone loves them and they never forget anyone nor anything. They cook, take care of the children, clean the clothes of small children, heal them when they are injured (every five minutes), help in the garden, watch if the kids have the necessary school supplies… They even find time to take care of the volunteers (if any of them leaves the dirty clothes unwatched for a second didis will wash them)…
Beli stays most of the nights to sleep in the center to take care of children and girls. But she also has her own family. The house where Beli’s family was staying was two stories made of stone, mud and wood; a beautiful building, but could not resist the first earthquake.
Amics del Nepal, after the earthquake, started doing emergency campaigns such as distributing tents. But we were keeping in mind that we should develop a project to improve permanent housing. Soon we will explain how the project is progressing on a new post.
But Beli, decided to act quickly in order to have a house where her two sons could stay in the rainy season. So soon we advanced the necessary money, and with the volunteer help of some of the older children of the children’s home and the relatives of Beli and two masonries (mistris) and we started to build the new house.
Not much after a month, just before the monsoons arrived, the house was ready. And if you already think it’s a big thing, it’s still more surprising for people who knows Nepal: One day you can not work because an old man from Chabeli died, and the day after it you can not work, if you don’t want to call the bad luck. Another day, before putting the stones in the foundation, it should be a religious ceremony. Just after putting the roof, it should be another ceremony. And after the ceremony, Beli had to organize a dinner to invite her relatives and employees. But in that dinner, one of the workers, who was responsible of the cement mixture (without machine, of course) drank too much alcohol (roksi) and fall down and injured his eye… The next day the mixture could not be made, so it was not possible to work. “But he says that tomorrow will come.” Beli told us laughing. A week later finally we could resume construction.
Surely something will must be done to improve her the house, once the Amics del Nepal architectural project starts, but there are other houses made like this and endured the earthquakes. So Beli is very happy to have own new house! where her children can live comfortably protected from the heavy rains of the monsoons.
Thanks to all you who make it possible, both in our country and Nepal.
Ricardo, a member of the board of Friends of Nepal and regular in Bhimphedi volunteer has returned to Nepal for the fifth consecutive year. Ricardo is the creator of TaperNepal project, in which resources for the Children’s Home of Bhimphedi are collected through selling handicrafts made in Nepal.
This year Ricardo has come from India where he was doing a course related on his profession: Yoga trainer. But he is also a gardener by profession, which has been extremely useful in Bhimphedi every time he has come. Thanks to his energy, good mood, willingness to work, his knowledge and he himself being a handyman, every time he comes to the home things that seemed impossible are achieved.
This year I went to pick him up in the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the country’s only international airport, located in Kathmandu. And as you might expect, Nepal never fails to surprise you. While I was waiting, watching if he appeared down the hall, suddenly a monkey pops! There are monkeys all over the city (the rooftops, on the millions cables hanging on the streets, temples…) but inside the airport?
It was not a little monkey, but from behind the glass everyone was watching him with a smile. Suddenly, it jumps up and hangs on the glass, and then it lands on the floor near all the people with amazing ease and tranquility. People are surprised but not get so nervous. It goes next a man who is sitting. He takes a bottle of Fanta beside his bench… he looks it without much unease… the monkey looks menacing to him blowing. But the man ignores it, and the monkey sits facing his prize. Suddenly he bites the bottle and the drink jumps pressed by the pressure. The man now runs. The monkey knows what it is doing, is not the first time… it slowly drinks its Fanta and doesn’t look up and go till the drink is over. Ricardo finally arrives. This country is great. A disaster in many ways… but great.
Ricardo:
Back to Bhimphedi for fourth summer consecutively. This year was more necessary than ever to come to help; Because of the earthquake, for the kids, for Dani… for Nepal.
And to my delight, the Children’s Home is more beautiful than ever and full of life. The garden has lots of flowers, there is a shelter with chicken and ducks, the kitchen-garden is well maintained and Kali (the dog of the house) is about to give birth. Balmandir overflows life.
Just when I enter to Balmandir, Maya comes running to put a “tika” (red dot on the forehead). Maya is a wonderful “didi” (elder sister). I visit the orphanage and I see that the workshop I left last year with all the tools of the house organized is not there. Well… then I’ll have to do it again. Fortunately Kul has taken care of almost all the tools so, we just have to find a new place for them (because the older place is not so good after the earthquake).
Sort, clean, burn what is not worth… Next morning we have already finished the task and even I’d time to organize one room for me. Then Kul and I made an inventory of what we have and what we need, one of these days we will go to Hetauda to buy and improve our tool collection, thanks to the money collected by TaperNepal of Bilbao and Zaragoza.
Manoj with a mustache made of corn’s fair.On their way to the river to have a bath.Working in the kitchen garden.A wonderful International Team, from left to right: Mikel, Daniel, Anish, Ricardo and Kul.
Many people have made possible that I can go back, again, to be with these kids and enjoy helping in Nepal. Thanks to everyone!
![image[2]](http://amicsnepal.blog.pangea.org/files/2015/10/image2.jpg)
