Wednesday, 13 June, 2012

We arrived safely in Nangi late yesterday afternoon. The trip here isn't much fun - a 3 hr drive from Pokhara to Beni, and then a 3 hr jeep ride over an incredibly bumpy "road". We got out of the jeep and walked the last 45 minutes. It was gretat to get here finally. Lots of the teachers stopped in to welcome us, and our friend Hemkumari, cooked us a delicious traditional meal. Before we came up here, we stayed in Pokara to buy supplies for our projects. Jessica, Alex, and I went with Chitra (the man from Nangi who we do projects with) to do the shopping. He took us on the bus to the street where all of the hardware is sold. Public transportation in Nepal was an interesting experience. The bus seemed packed, and the bus just kept stopping to let more people on... I have no idea how so many people fit, but there were a bunch hanging out of the doorway. Today we spent the day teaching a few of the teachers how to make the solar bulbs that Brad and I did in Manila. We showed them the Litre of Light YouTube, and they were really into it. They were really cute making the bulbs - we had an assembly line going. Not the greatest quality control, but they were really excited about it. By the end, we had a bunch of teachers helping. Their plan is to teach the students how to do it, so that they can make and install them. A few of the teachers that are from other parts of Nepal are going to teach people in their hometowns, too. This is what we had hoped for - that they would help to spread the idea. I have some pictures on the other iPad, so I'll try to post them tomorrow. Jess and Alex spent the day trying to make bread using coals from a fire. Coals ran out of heat before bread was finished. They are trying to cook it the rest of the way now, somehow...