The work begins
After our October horse-trek through Helambu, we spent two weeks in Kathmandu, organizing the logistics needed to begin our work with VEC in Gangkharka. Here’s the story of what came next.
On the 1st of November, at 5 in the morning, we head back up to the mountains in a rented jeep. The early start, intended to avoid a planned general strike that is likely to shut down some roads, proves lucky, as the poor mountain roads are very slow going. Time is lost, too, trying to organize 6 porters to carry our household and children up the mountain; 7 are needed. After a tough first day on overgrown and rough trails, rice paddies full of nettles, and slippery river crossings, we arrive at our overnight stop, Yangri, in the dark. It’s a beautiful Tamang village at the confluence of the Indrawadi and Yangri Khola, low enough in altitude to have a wonderful climate and lush rice paddies. Here we’ve rented two rooms in an unfinished house; it’s where we stay on our frequent stopovers here. We also begin the logistics to setup a small health ‘outpost’ here.
Our jeep packed to overflowing with our household supplies
Chatting with the locals on the new road near Baruwa.
The jeep-load transformed into porter loads
And we’re off – 2 days to Gangkharka
When it’s steep uphill, a porter carries both of our kids.
The new bridge at Yangri
Lucky points out our two homes: Yangri (circled), and Gangkharka (somewhere behind the ‘X’).
The next morning, after ordering several dokos (big baskets) of firewood for later use in Yangri, we head off up the river towards Gangkharka. The porters go on ahead, as we pass through the beautiful canyon above town, stopping for lunch in Maikharka (‘Buffalo Hut’) at the home of Passang Lama and family. On the way we watch a band of monkeys playing on the cliffs of one of the valley’s spectacular waterfalls. After lunch, the trail turns steep, and we’re glad there are lots of people in our group to help with the kids. Lucky and Dolma, two young Kathmandu-based women from Sherpa villages in the area, alternate carrying Lia. Pema, a trekking guide whose house we will ultimately rent, carries Tim. Dawa Sherpa, retired and recently back from living in Bhutan, rounds out our party. Dawa will be building a new house in Gangkharka.
The trail along the Yangri Khola
Near Yangri we stop often to make photos.
Near Gangkharka, views open up toward the snowy Ganja La Range, the gateway to Langtang, the original home of Gangkharka’s residents.
A twisted ankle adds some troubles to the trip.
On up the mountain
Arrival in Gankharka is a wonderful relief, and warm jackets come out – up here at 2,300 meters, the air is always chilly.
Our home
Cleaning and painting is the first order of business.
Our kitchen in traditional Sherpa style
After the usual greetings and tea, and catching up on news from Kathmandu, it is then down to the business of finding a home. Three different houses have been suggested to us for rental, and after we’ve been in the village an hour, we’ve visited them all. By day 3, we’re already started on the task of setting up our household; cleaning (a two day job!), painting, building shelves. Lucky teaches us the basics of staying warm and clean in the mountains, acquiring food, cooking over a Nepali-style wood stove, and cleaning dishes without running water.
We also need hats for sleeping!
It’s not so easy to bathe, when the air temperature in the ‘shower’ is near zero!
Huge radishes from the garden are a treat in the autumn.
There are no shops in Gangkharka – we have to carry up everything we need to eat, with the exception of potatoes, rice, and some vegetables, which can be bought from our neighbors. We store the food in mouse-proof pots; every night is a concert of clanging and scratching as the mice try to find something to eat. We quickly learn the value of earplugs for a good sleep!
Lucky cooking with Lia
A typical meal for us is fried potato, beaten rice, boiled egg. Daalbhat (rice and lentils) is even more common, and Tim even likes it now!!
Evenings are dark, as there is no electricity here. We use candles and flashlights and go to bed early! If a nighttime trip to the toilet is necessary, it means climbing out of the warm sleeping bag into a cold coat and shoes, taking a flashlight, trekking out around the back of the house (what stars!) to our pit-toilet. Most houses in Gangkharka have some kind of outdoor latrine – unlike Yangri where there are no toilets in the whole village!
Our mornings begin with reluctantly climbing out of the warm sleeping ‘cocoon’, to start the fire, to make tea. As soon as the sun appears behind the mountains it gets warm enough to take off the down coats and eat breakfast, then heat water to wash dishes. Later it’s splitting wood for the day’s fires, and then walking the 25 minutes to school with the kids. We often ate there with the students. After the day’s work, whether with the health clinic or videos or washing clothes, it was then quickly time to get home and start up the fire yet again to keep warm and cook more food, filter water for drinking, and so forth. Village life really teaches us how easy our life in ‘back home’ in more developed countries!
Life in Nepal takes place mostly on the floor; we don’t have any chairs yet!. But we gave the order to make us a table and benches in order to be nice to our backs.
A typical evening meal
Pema teaches us how to mix and drink chang, home-made Nepali corn beer.
Then the work began: days in the Passang Memorial Boarding School, preparing videos of the students for the VEC website, organizing the clinic, and getting our own kids started in school. It really kept us all busy. The school is a new place, and the staff have the enthusiasm of starting something new and exciting. This has made working with them really enjoyable. Tim and Lia, as the only foreign students at the school, are greeted each day enthusiastically by the other kids. Lia loves the attention, especially being carried around by the older students. Tim isn’t so sure, and likes to play more quietly with one of the two friends he’s made so far: Ang Babu, and Karma Sherpa. Our kids both love to stop along the path home to play at the sand pit or the water-driven flour mill.
The Passang Memorial Boarding School sits tucked alone along a beautiful mountainside steam.
A classroom at the school
Our kids making friends at the school
In mid-November, it’s time for the health camps! Ina and an international team of doctors and nurses provide mobile health services to the students, teachers, and residents at Gangkharka, Yangri, and Bolgaon, over three days of intensive work. At each location, long lines of patients wait for care, with a huge variety of ailments, from skin infections and digestive parasites, to injuries and mental conditions. Donations from Germany and Scotland (thank you!) pay for two huge trunks full of medicines, which are carried by porters up to the camps and distributed to patients.
It is wonderful to see many people receiving the medicines they need after what had clearly been long periods of waiting. There are, of course, some with conditions that can not be helped in the field, such as several with cataracts and dental complaints and serious orthopedic problems. The team used some remaining funds to send some children to the city for specialist treatments, and we are now organizing visits by an ophthalmologist and dentist to the area to address the most common eye and tooth problems.
Ina treats a skin infection at the school.
Waiting to see the doctor in Bolgaon
Mike Stevens explaining medicine dosage for a child to the translator. Ina builds the student medical records.
As expected, the camps are full of excitement, hope and hard work, and a chance for the main international staff and volunteers of VEC to get together and do essential planning.
Life in the village after the health camps is a time to get back to the everyday routines and for our children to lean about planting potatoes, milking cows, building fires, and much more.
Plowing a millet field in Bangdang
Shelling beans with Ibi (grandmother) in Gangkharka
A visit to a local gompa (monastery) and participating in a village puja (religious ceremony) introduces us to the rich Buddhist traditions here in Helambu. The children are always very impressed by the noise and chanting and rituals.
Dave spends hours each week video-taping details of the local culture and holding on-camera interviews with those willing to share their perspectives on the changing life of families here. This is the starting phase of a project with other film-makers to develop audiovisual materials documenting aspects of the local Sherpa and Tamang cultures for use by the Gangkharka students and others.
Dave also spends some afternoons tinkering with electronics (batteries, solar chargers, inverters, adapters, mobile phones, etc.), exploring the options for setting up Internet access for the school.
A demon in the entryway of the Bangdang Gompa
The kids are pretty exhausted after each day’s adventures. Sometimes their creativity is sparked by what they have witnessed, as seen in their colored-pencil drawings (their favorite activity), and in their dictated letters to friends.
A drawing by Tim, after a day of hiking in the hills
Other times, they just want to ‘zone out’ and enjoy some modern electronics. The children are now experts in “Sendung mit der Maus”, a German TV podcast on Ipod, which provs the most popular method of relaxation.
Watching a video on Ipod
We’ve enjoyed getting to know other families during this month, even though language is always embarrassingly difficult (we’re such slow Nepali learners). In the villages, few can speak any English, so it is good to have our translator with us.
Passang Lama and family in Maikharka
The tea house keepers at Mahankol
Garnesh Lama and family in Yangri, the shopkeepers
Near Bolgaon
When we’re frustrated with communication difficulties, the beautiful landscapes put us at ease. Each day we marvel at the spectacular mountain panorama in front of our home. “Nepal is so, so beautiful” is on our tongues nearly every day!