My village has been
without water the past 1.5 months and its brought quite an increased workload
into our lives. The main pipeline was shut down for repairs, so the entire
village’s water source is coming from 2 natural taps. Before, water would run
through concrete irrigation channels that criss-crossed through the rice fields
and ran right by most peoples houses. While most families still go fetch water
a couple times a day to use as drinking water, the irrigation ditches are
generally sufficient to water everyone’s gardens and crops. My family even
devised a method to pipe water from the ditch straight to our house using a
long hose and plastic water bottle at the end as a funnel. We then would use
this water to fill our giant drum tank used to wash dishes and to fill the
toilet and bathroom buckets. SO, suffice to say that when this water all got
shut off, problems arose. All of the water for the garden, toilet, bathroom,
kitchen, drinking water etc is now carried multiple times a day by my family
and I. I carry the gagris, which are large 15 liter metal containers, in
a doko, which is a wicker basket that I strap to my head. Then I hike
straight down a steep hill to fill the water and hike right back up with it all
strapped on. My calf muscles are looking quite nice these days. While most days
I make around 5 trips to the tap and back, I think my record is 9. Its
exhausting, but even more so for families that are farther away.
With increased
pressure on the tap and little to no rainwater recently, one of the taps
actually completely dried up. Thanks to the innovative skills of my neighbor,
we now have a new tap with a decent flow, but the hard part is that it is about
1.5 feet off the ground, meaning that showers are really hard. The new tap spot
is also in a muddy ditch with plants all around. Today while showering a
legitimate tarantula climbed up my leg. I screamed as usual and, as usual,
everyone laughed at me. I’ve also had 2 giant snake sightings right next to the
tap as well. Really looking forward to the ditch getting turned back on in 10
days!
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| Getting books at the warehouse in Kathmandu |
Besides carrying loads of water each day, I also made a trip
to Kathmandu recently to collect all the books for my library! I met with the
Asia Foundation to receive my books. The staff at the Asia Foundation were so
great and you can truly tell they have a passion for getting kids interested in
reading. The books were then transported by rickshaw, taxi, tourist bas, tiny
micro van, and jeep back to my village! One of the books was so heavy I had to
strap it on my rickshaw driver’s back to get it down the stairs of my hotel in
Kathmandu. About 15 kids and my principal came to collect them from my house
shortly after I got back and then we installed them temporarily in the school
office! It was definitely one of the best days of my service so far. The kids
were so excited unpacking the books and reading aloud to each other. Its days
like these that make all the hard and frustrating days worth it. The books were
about half English, half Nepali and all brand new! In total, I received $1900
worth of books….something I am extremely grateful for and feel very lucky about!
I still have 3 boxes of books arriving from the states, so once those get here,
we will continue work on making our school library! The kids just finished up
their district-level exams and are on a month long break right now, so I am
trying to find bookshelves and other means of funding in the mean time.
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| with school staff and books |
While in Kathmandu, my friend Chad and I also had the chance
to meet with a Nepal RPCV who now lives in Kathmandu and is the Director of
Monitoring and Evaluation for the United Nations World Food Programme. We had a
lovely lunch with him and it just gave me even more things to think about for
my future now…
The collection center building is looking better and better every
day. We have a foundation built now, and structural support for the walls is
going up. However, I’m getting increasingly more stressed out by the grant my
group and I applied for as the days go by. We originally write our entire grant
on an Excel application. However, Peace Corps just rolled out an online system to
submit our grants which, while easier for everyone involved, has caused major
problems in its early stages. There have been massive IT glitches and the
entire website was shut down for maintenance. This caused a 2 week delay in me
submitting my grant and because I also had budget issues, there have been lots
and lots of revisions to the grant. I was told that my grant could qualify for
SPA, which is Small Project Assistance funded by USAID (United States Agency
for International Development), but because my budget increased after
revisions, its still being looked at by a USAID grants person. Crossing my
fingers it qualifies because then I don’t have to solicit donations from
friends and family and blog readers. I’ve
also been in contact with a man from iDE Nepal, an organization founded by a Nepal
RPCV, that works with communities on irrigation projects and collection
centers. I’m hoping to get a man out here to help my group start developing
market connections and give a training on how to manage their collection
center. The discussions have been going well so that is something to look
forward to in the upcoming month.
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| Collection center |
My sister and I, who is basically my counterpart in all
things work-related, are also in the beginning stages of trying to hold a
mushroom training that would cover all 9 villages in my VDC (Village
Development Committee, sort of like a miniature county). We’re hoping to have 3
participants from each village and teach about mushroom cultivation and selling
over a 2-3 day training. We’re in the beginning of the planning process, but
hope to have a couple meetings over the next couple weeks to get the ball rolling.
Its corn planting season here, so everybody has been pretty busy in the village
carrying manure and water to their fields.
In other news, I’m running my first 10k in 5 days! There’s
an annual triathlon in Pokhara called Himalayan Rush (www.himalayanrush.com) and I’m
competing in it as part of a team. Another PCV friend, Nick, is doing the
biking section, while a man named Manju is doing the swimming. Manju is from
India and lost his leg in a car accident. He’s training to be a Paralympic
swimmer and so when the Facebook page for the triathlon sent out a request for
teammates, I eagerly signed up! I had heard about this race last year and
always wanted to do it, but didn’t think I’d be able to find a team, and I definitely
knew I wouldn’t be able to complete the entire thing by myself….my swimming
skills are a little poor. I also don’t own a bike. So running was the only
option, and even that is hard. Training at site the past couple weeks has been
challenging, mostly because I run out of road at a certain point, so I’m
doubling back and re-running sections of the road multiple times, causing even
more stares in my direction than usual. Theres also been the usual dodging of
monkeys and oxen and goats along the way, not to mention the amount of muddy
potholes that have cropped up since yesterday’s rain. I feel pretty confident about it though.
According to the website, the first 3 miles are uphill and the last 3 are all
down. I’m sure the first half is going to be a struggle. The entire triathlon takes part at a place
called Begnas Lake, right outside of Pokhara, which I’ve actually never been to
before. The whole race is basically set against a backdrop of the Annapurnas,
around a beautiful lake. I’m stoked. Then I plan on chucking my running shoes in the garbage can because they are dead. They are 3 years old and have holes in them and I'm actually surprised I haven't broken my leg while running in them.
Oh I also celebrated Holi with my village. In a nutshell,
Holi is this great festival where you run around attacking people with brightly
colored powers and water. Its extremely messy but really fun. I think they have
those color runs in the states based off of Holi. My hair definitely still had
traces of green and purple in it the day after even after a thorough shower. Then
I got a little bit sad realizing it was my last Holi in Nepal.
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| celebrating Holi with my sister and bhauju |
And last but not
least, the lovely Daina Allison and Jilli O’Mara will be arriving in Nepal in
exactly 8 days! We all lived together our senior year at Bucknell and I am
beyond excited to be reunited with them. We only have a short time together but
plan on doing an overnight trek and exploring Pokhara as well as my village. I’ll
post pictures of their visit on my next blog. Also, I just finished book #60 of
service. So many books!
Wait, not done yet. I forgot I gave an interview for this
website called International Relations online about my experience as a PCV. If you
want to read it, heres the link: http://internationalrelationsonline.com/a-glimpse-into-the-life-of-a-peace-corps-volunteer-alex-clayton/
Raamro sanga basnus
(literally “sit well”),
Alex
