Back in Singapore

I made it back to Singapore late last night.  I spent the day/night in Nangi on Friday, travelled from Nangi to Pokhara on Saturday, and then flew from Pokhara to Singapore yesterday.

When I woke up on Friday, the sky was really clear.  I've attached some pictures of the view from the village.  I also had a chance to take a look at where the solar heater will be installed.  It should work pretty well.  I think that the roof will hold the weight of the unit without a problem, and there is plenty of water pressure to feed the unit.  It all faces south, which is perfect, and there are no big trees to shade the panel.  Fingers crossed that it all goes according to plan...

This is the house where we will be staying.

View of the mountains from Nangi.  The edge of the house we will be in is at the far right - so this is basically the view from the porch...

The path from the campsite (where the solar heater will be) to the village and school.

I was a little nervous on Friday because my guide left early in the morning to attend a meeting, so I was left alone in the village.  But I didn't need to worry - the teachers at the school were really warm and friendly.  They all came and introduced themselves to me.  I spent a lot of time with a man named Krishna, the grade 9/10 math teacher.  He took me to his classroom, and we talked about ideas for setting it up so that it would be a better learning environment for his students.  We talked about ways to integrate computer technology into his lessons.  It was amazing to talk to him about issues that are similar to those in Singapore - in a place that has intermittent electricity on a good day and where no one has a refrigerator.  The school has really put an emphasis on using technology so that its students are developing skills that are so important for their future.  Krishna invited me to his house for dinner - very interesting.  We all sat on the floor on mats in the same room where Krishna's wife, Soonu, cooked on a wood-fueled stove.  In addition to Krishna and Soonu, there were three other men that were somehow related to Krishna.  They served meat, and Krishna would only tell me (and only after I had some - as he grinned while I tried it) that it came from the "head".  They also served me a HUGE plate of rice and a scrambled egg.  It was great, but I could only eat part of it, and they seemed to think that there was something wrong with me that I couldn't finish it all.  Only Krishna and I used utensils - everyone else ate with their right hand.  It was a wonderful, but somewhat overwhelming, experience.  I definitely felt very much out of my element, despite their warm hospitality.

The school

Krishna's son...  This was the ONLY time he sat still during the time I was with him.  He will keep my kids busy and laughing.

The women in the village making lokta paper.

I tried so hard to get this little girl to smile at me, but this is as close as I could get...

It was definitely a great trip.  I feel much more comfortable with getting our project completed while we are there.  I also feel better about what I need to bring to make the kids comfortable - especially Brad (my picky eater).  I'm now working on figuring out if there is a way to make interesting things - like bread or a cake - in a dutch oven over a gas stove...

Nangi for the first time...

Hi!  I have made it safely to Nangi!  This has been crazy so far.  On Tuesday, I flew to Kathmandu and then to Pokhara.  I spent Wednesday hanging out in Pokhara.  It is a neat town... Lots of backpackers of all ages.  Great food.  Interesting shops.  While I was there, I met up with Chitra, who is my primary contact in Nangi.  We spend a few hours shopping for solar water heaters.  We found a shop that had what we wanted, so I just hung out while he bargained the price down.  We are now the proud owners of two solar heaters - to be delivered in about a week.

This morning I met Chitra at 5 am, and we drove to a small town called Beni.  From there we hiked up to Nangi.  It is a hike, and I am tired!!  I guess it compares to the Mt. Kinabalu hike that we did.  After about 5 hours, the clouds rolled in and there was a huge storm.  Luckily, we were right at a tea house, so we stayed there to ride out the storm.  I would not have wanted to be out on the mountain in it because there were 1/2" pieces of hail.  Ironic that just yesterday Chitra and I were discussing the need for buying a special cover to protect the solar units from hail.  I kept asking if Nangi gets hail...  now I know!  Total time to Nangi was about 8 hours.

I am now sitting in a computer lab at the school.  It is a little surreal - the village is very simple, but the school has computers that connect to the internet.  This organization is trying really hard to give the local kids the skills that they will need to succeed in the world as it is.  There is a guy next to me who is on Facebook.  He is the grade 11/12 math teacher, so we spend some time comparing what he teaches to what I taught.  It is surprisingly similar.

I'm going to spend the day tomorrow walking around the village making lists of things we need for the project and of things I need to bring to make my own kids comfortable.  The living arrangements are definitely different than the Shangri-La!

Background of our Trip

In June this year, our whole family is going to Nepal to live and volunteer in a remote village. Last fall, Jessica and I watched an assembly at her school. During the assembly, about a dozen high school students presented information about people, famous and unknown, who had volunteered in various ways around the world, and they discussed how the volunteer efforts of these people had changed the lives of those they had touched. Jessica came home from school that day and decided that our family needed to do more to help others. We searched the internet for a volunteer opportunity that matched our family’s interests and capabilities. We did not want to be a small cog in a very large organization, and we did not want to be involved with the same organizations that everyone else at her school is involved in. We wanted to find a volunteer opportunity with a small program in a less-travelled area of the world – an organization in which we could really make an impact.

After much searching, emailing, phoning, and discussing, we decided that we wanted to get involved with an organization called the Himanchal Education Foundation. This organization was started in the village of Nangi, in northwestern Nepal. The organization is trying to develop a model for volunteerism which can be used by other villages in Nepal. They have built a school to educate the children in the village, as well as children from even more remote locations around Nangi. Some students walk up to 3 days from their homes to attend school in Nangi, and at the end of the school year, they walk back home to stay with and to help their families. The Himanchal Education Foundation also sponsors many other initiatives, such as community healthcare and environmental conservation. Through the efforts of the Foundation, many children are now receiving an education and many families now have access to proper healthcare.

The website for the Himanchal Education Foundation is: http://www.himanchal.org/ . The description of how we get to Nangi is very interesting (and a little daunting!). We have to fly to Kathmandu and then to Pokhara. From Pokhara, we drive about 3 hours to the trailhead, and then we hike for about 8 hours to get to the village. It is hard to even imagine how remote the areas must be where some of the students come from if they are a 3 day walk even farther from there. On the website, you can see the school, and if you click on the link to “Volunteer Living Arrangements”, you can see where we will be staying.

When we go to Nangi, we will be involved with the village in many different ways. Our family will be the first family to volunteer in Nangi. I think that they are as excited about this prospect as we are! Jessica, Bruce, and I will probably spend some time teaching classes at the school. The younger kids will have an opportunity to play with the students who are from remote areas and are living in Nangi without their families. Apparently after school, these children love to learn new games and will play games like Capture the Flag for hours. Our big effort, though, will be installing a solar water heater. Nangi is in a popular trekking region (near the Annapurna Circuit). There is a camping area just outside of the village, and we are going to install the water heater in the campground. This will provide the villagers with a means of income because they will be able to charge the trekkers money for a warm shower. Since the Nangi is relatively remote, it is difficult for the villagers to earn an income to afford to pay teachers and run their school. The revenue from our project will be put back into the school and used to make improvements. It will also be used to sponsor additional children so that more children in this remote region can attend school and get an education. The solar water heater will give the village a way to earn money so that they are more independent and do not have to rely on donations from outside sources. The other advantage of installing a solar water heater is that it reduces the use of natural resources (trees) as a source of heat, which has many benefits. Given Bruce’s and my educational backgrounds, this is a great project for us. We have been designing the system, and our family took a “field trip” to a local solar water heater business to learn more about how they work. The kids are learning a lot about solar water heaters, alternative energy, project management, pressure relief devices, etc. It has been a great experience for our whole family so far. As I mentioned, we are doing all of the work for the design and installation of the equipment.

We picked this organization for our family because we feel like it is well-managed and very focused on high-value efforts. We also feel like we can make a significant difference and that our kids will gain an appreciation for another culture. We are going to learn some Nepalese and are working on learning more about the culture of Nepal so that we can be sensitive to how our actions are viewed by others. We hope to go back to Nangi on a regular basis to continue and to further develop our relationships with the people who we meet on this trip.

Here are some general maps of Nepal: