Thank you to Nils Pedersen, Habitat Board Officer, for sending daily field notes of Habitat EJC’s Global Village trip to Nepal. Team members are: Elizabeth Andrews (team leader), Nils Pedersen, Joyce Francis, Beth Weaver, Katherine Kehrli, John Chrisman, Barbara Tusting, Richard (Dick) Chambers, Jim Golden, Kathleen Crosten, Penny Ridderbusch, Don Givens, Don Dybeck, and Habitat Nepal volunteer manager Rajesh Rai.
Notes From Nepal – Day 1
Our affiliate’s global village team trip to Nepal started off tonight with a welcome dinner hosted by Rajesh, our global village host coordinator from Habitat for Humanity Nepal. All 13 of us made it safely to Kathmandu, though there were many adventures in travel along the way. Tomorrow, after a brief tour of Kathmandu, we will head to the Kavre district where we will stay and work on a new home for a local family in the Dhulikhel area. It sounds like we will be doing foundation work: digging ditches, prepping rebar, pouring concrete, etc.
Many homes were destroyed or damaged from the earthquake several years ago, and many areas in Nepal are still recovering. Recovery is slow due to a lack of materials and sometimes the expertise needed to do the work. Even in Kathmandu, you can see how many older buildings have been partially reconstructed or are still propped up by wooden supports.
Most of us took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing in Kathmandu, and most of us even managed a cooking class!
The Habitat for Humanity EJC Global Village team sightseeing near Kathmandu.
Day 2
The large white domed structure that you see with all the prayer flags is a “stupa “. Note the eyes and nose painted on the top part.
Photographing monkeys near Kathmandu.
Today we left Kathmandu by bus. The global village office of Nepal took us on a guided tour of Swayambhunath, also known to visitors as the monkey temple, which is near Kathmandu. This is a Buddhist temple famous, obviously, for the monkeys that reside there.
Afterwards, we went to the cultural city of Bhaktapur. Its history goes back to the early eighth century. It used to be the capital city of all Nepal until the 12th to the 15th century. Until the early 18 century, it was protected as a sovereign country with surrounding boundary walls and city gates. The group photo of the team was taken there. I think only the last three photos are from there.
Tonight we met with Rajesh, the head of the global village program of Habitat Nepal. He introduced us to the engineer that will work on the job site with us and gave us the name of the homeowner as well as some details about the family. Our group found it significant that the family income is the equivalent of about $50 USD per month. We begin work tomorrow, finishing off foundation concrete, and then we will begin to lay bricks for all of the rooms in the house. We hope to reach window level in the house by weeks end. One unfortunate circumstance is that it will be likely much hotter than expected, pushing into the 90s and possibly 100°. We were not expecting that.
Day 3
On our first word day we were greeted by Tika, one of the future homeowners, who started the day with a blessing. After greetings and introductions we first worked on schlepping broken bricks, tamping dirt, and laying the bricks.
After a Nepali lunch we started on the concrete work: bucket brigade lines for sand aggregate and cement with their engineer mixing; then shoveling and dumping the concrete.
Good hard work all were in good spirits!
Habitat EJC volunteers at the Nepal job site.
Day 4
At 19 years old, one of the family’s daughters moves more than her weight in bricks to help build her future home.
On our second work day we completed the concrete pad for the house inside the foundation walls. This involved mixing more concrete, which went very quickly given that we had the system down. Others of us kept schlepping bricks from a pile down the road. It is the necessary for us to manually move the bricks about a quarter-mile from where they get dumped to where the house is located.
This is rather tedious work. Perhaps due to our inspiration of some of the locals, several young women jumped in and helped as well. You can see one of them carrying a basket full of bricks approximately equivalent to her own weight on her back and supported by her forhead.
Day 5
Today we got serious about laying bricks. Our goal was to have three courses of brick completed all around the foundation and separating the two rooms. We didn’t quite get there, which may be OK, because we were somewhat ahead of schedule as it was.
We worked a half day today because we went to see a village of the houses in a farming community where Habitat Nepal rebuilt 87 homes. It’s a farming community, and you can also see their fields. They grow many different kinds of vegetables, and cauliflower is currently being harvested.
Habitat EJC volunteers lay bricks for the next Habitat home in Nepal.
Overlooking a farming village in Nepal where Habitat made efforts after the 2015 earthquake.
Habitat for Humanity began efforts in this village began immediately after the earthquake, first providing temporary shelter, then eventually helping the homeowners to build new homes completely at Habitat’s expense. It was really good to see what the completed house will look like, and it gave us some hope that our efforts to bricklaying could turn into something nice looking.
On the way to the village we stopped by the side of the road because the wedding was going on! Apparently it is Nepali custom for anyone that comes by to be invited in, and take part. Note the dancers and the newlywed couple who had to sit in this group for a long time in the hot sun while everybody else was having fun. We got back to our hotel a little early, which was nice. We are a little tired, but we are getting used to the routine.
Celebrating a wedding ceremony in Nepal.
Setting bricks on a Habitat home.
Day 6
Today (Friday) at the Nepal job site the Global Village crew got into the grove of moving bricks, sifting sand for mortar, stacking bricks, mixing mortar, and laying brick for the future home. Our goal on working on the house is to get enough of the construction done to have bricks laid to window level.
When we visited the Village the other day, those homes had been seriously if not completely damaged in the earthquake. Habitat moved in there with immediate shelter and followed up with permanent housing over time.
Tika’s house, the house we are building a replacement for, sustained earthquake damage but repairs appear less urgent. His project is not only earthquake recovery, but also an upgrade in basic living conditions. The three room house will have certain earthquake safety measures. The homes are brick because that is the resource that is most readily available and affordable and there are measures taken to help make the home stronger against future earthquakes. Rebar is included to extend vertically in support columns in the structure of the brick walls of the house. Just below window level the bricks will stop for a few layers, in favor of a layer of concrete including rebar that will be tied into the vertical rebar in the support columns.
Day 7
It was slightly cooler today, and maybe that helped, or we are just getting used to the conditions, because we all felt better after working today. Maybe it doesn’t hurt that tomorrow is our last day of work as well! It has been physically tasking work, and none of us are used to physical labor every day of the week. Tomorrow morning we will tour a kiln to see how they make bricks and then go to the worksite to finish our work. The afternoon will have a closing celebration with the family.
Day 8
We reached our brick setting goal. As the week went on, naturally we got a little better at the whole process, and so things moved with relative smoothness. A strong sense of accomplishment was felt at being able to get to our stated goal.
After completing her work, it was time to celebrate! We decorated the home, and the family and the village put on a lovely celebration and goodbye ceremony. Raj and the family said their thanks and goodbyes and we received traditional Nepali gifts of scarves, bags and hats. After the more formal part of our celebration, including our giving the family a framed group photo and a lovely blessing by Katherine, it was time to dance!
The team and community celebrate in Nepal.
Epilogue
Well, it was hotter than expected, it’s halfway around the world and took about two days to get here and will take almost as long to get back, and involved a lot of demanding physical labor. But I don’t think any of us regret the effort. We believe everyone deserves a decent place to live. No matter whether that person lives in Port Townsend, Quilcene or in a rural Village in Nepal. We think we opened some eyes here in Nepal with our willingness to come and help and work hard and show what can be accomplished when we all work together. The personal connection to the family and the kids in the village as a whole has also led us to wonder whether we can keep up somehow with the progress of the house or maybe even come back at some point. For now, after having shed a few tears at our parting, we will slowly be making our way back home.
Future Habitat for Humanity Homeowners in Nepal!
