Views from a rooftop

Well I'll attempt to go to the remote again tomorrow. Hopefully I won't be waiting for a few days for a flight to Simikot. My colleagues were waiting for 5 days to fly from Surkhet to Simikot. Another waited for a day. I guess it depends on the luck of the weather.



The outbreak that happened in Kalaki (4 days walk from Simikot) was not Cholera, but a diarrhea. It was still of concern as 6 adults had died. At the moment I feel like a walking pharmacy. Carrying different types of anti-biotics, anti-nausea, water purification, rehydration salts, and other concoctions.



In the remote west, Humla I will have an intermittent internet connection, and will be out of contact for about 4 weeks. So I decided to upload some images that I've taken from the roof of the RIDS office.

Enjoy and I'll update on my return!

Almost the remote west, but back in Kathmandu!

Well I think I have gone through all the hard and testing parts of the journey to Simikot, in Humla, without actually getting there.

To get there you need to get a flight from Kathmandu to Nepalgunj, and as there were no flights from Nepalgunj to Simikot, the decision was made to drive to Surkhet.
The journey by road, in a hired mini van, goes through approximately of 100km of windy roads. The roads are about the width of a truck, again shared by everyone, cyclists pedestrians rickshaws and motorcycles. There were a number of mudslides along the road, so the driver had to keep an eye out for road repairs, buses coming the opposite direction on blind corners (remember, one lane wide) and muddy sections where some of the road had washed out.




There were some good sights along the way, some I managed to capture.







The biggest surprise was my colleagues, Manish and Paras managed to have a computer game while going up through this. Of course I'm trying to see if I can develop this valuable skill.
I have included photo's of them.




We arrived in Surkhet 4 hours later, and our flight was at 6am the next day.

Now a bit of an explanation is needed about the flights, and the workings of the Airport.
It seems that most flights to Simikot, 3000m above sea level, are early in the morning, as the winds can become to strong in the afternoon. Also if it is bad weather, it may not be safe. So flights often get cancelled. So if you have flights cancelled for two days in a row (not unusual) everyone is quite keen to get to there destination. If you arrive at 6am at an airport, with the military manning the gates, you can often get a large crowd of people outside waiting to get in. It often appears that it is who you know, to how easily you can get through the gates to catch a flight that may or may not be flying. Sometimes you can wait 5 days, in a hot humid town with nothing to do, except to go to the airport daily to see if there is a flight you can get on.

After we had someone see us, who knew who to talk to, we managed to book on a flight, and wait to see if it was flying. There was a flight from the previous day, that was cancelled, so they were due to fly out at 6am, and we were due to fly at 10am.

So I took the opportunity to try and rest at the outside cafe/shop.



The best quote I heard was from Manish, in reference to us waiting outside the airport.
"It is quite an experience we are having."
"But a very boring and useless one at that."

30 minutes before I was due to catch the maybe 10am second flight (don't worry it was cancelled) I had a call from my field officer from Engineers Without Borders telling me not to get on the flight.

There have been some suspected outbreaks of Cholera around the Humla region, which we were monitoring. They were some distance from Simikot, so it seemed to be okay. But there were reports of a few deaths in Kalika, 28km South of Simikot.

Please note that this is 28km direct, not considering the mountain ranges in that part. So it takes 3 days to walk that distance.

If anyone from Tribal are reading this, no I am not going to consider training runs through mountain ranges where if I slip, I slide 500m down into a freezing river.

So Engineers Without Borders thought it was wise I didn't go at this time. I'm now back in Kathmandu after a 4 hour minivan trip, and a 30 minute flight back.

It now seems like the outbreak was a diarrhea outbreak, but word is that it is now contained. I will try and keep getting information on the area. RIDS, who I work for, are talking to the local health office, and are organising to get medicine supplies out to the area as well.

ICIMOD well worth the look

RIDS-Nepal, (Rural Integrated Development Services Nepal, http://www.rids-nepal.org/) The organisation I am working for was invited to view a demonstration at ICIMOD. ICIMOD stands for "The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development"
http://www.icimod.org/


This is a photo of the Kathmandu Valley from the ICIMOD demonstration site.







They are an agriculture training and demonstration site for integrated farming on mountain areas. They test plants used for fruit, herbal essences, animal feed, and a range of applications. Often things that will generate an income while looking after the environment.

Some subject areas that they train farmers on may have a positive impact in the remote areas that I will be going to, Humla in the remote west of Nepal.

One of the problems is that there are not many sources of income in the area. Once source of income is firewood, which people use for heating and cooking, leading to the problem of deforestation in the mountainous areas.



An alternative that ICIMOD have worked on for some time, is the manufacture of charcoal bricks, using pine needles for the charcoal, or even weeds. They are quite light to carry, burn very effectively, and can be sold for income generation.



Some other areas they demonstrate and train is aquaculture, with an example raising rainbow trout.
One organisation is planning a training and demonstration facility in Nepal in Aquaponics, where they have a fish farm, using the fish waste (nutrient water) to grow plants, which then purify the water for the fish.

They teach animal husbandry, plants such as kiwi fruits that are a high value crop, bee keeping, water storage and alternative energy such as pico hydro generation.



Check out the website, as it seems to demonstrate what development is all about. Addressing the key needs of the people such as education on income generation, in a sustainable way.
Primarily from the community itself.

Motorcycle ride to ICIMOD

Well, as I have said that the traffic is chaotic, and I still stand by that remark, I needed to visit a location by motorcycle.


Now the main ring road is about as wide as an Australian country road, maybe wide enough for two buses going in opposite directions, with maybe an extra meter either side. Now this space is filled with whatever vehicle exploits this opportunity. Motorcyclists, pedestrians (there is no pedestrian path, and its sometimes muddy in Monsoon) Pushbikes that look like they are made into a ute, small engined tractor, cab's, tuk tuk's (three wheeled small people movers) or mini vans with seats that aren't bolted down correctly.


So it was going to be interesting travelling on the back of a motorbike, through the chaos. I'm pleased to say, I survived and enjoyed the journey. Some of the roads on the outskirts of Nepal are not as busy, but they are narrow. So there can be a traffic jam from two buses attempting to go in different directions.



The rider, a colleague of mine (who I do trust) was very familiar with the traffic, and rode appropriately for the conditions. I do distinctly remember him honking the horn at a very small elderly lady walking in the middle of the road, ignoring all traffic zooming around her.

I managed to take some pictures while on the back of the bike, with one of the rider.

I have also been testing out a gps watch of mine (which has helped me find my way back to where I was staying after I was geographically embarrassed). Which enables you to view your trips on Google earth. I've included the one from the motorcycle journey to ICIMOD, www.icimod.org which I will describe later.

FOOD

Alot of people have been asking me if I have been eating well..... Yes mum, I am looking after myself.

My main staple diet has been dahl baht. Lentil soup, with rice, and other side dishes, such as tomato's with spices, or cauliflower with potatoes. With many slight variations of those.

I've uploaded two variations of these dishes. One of them has two bits of chicken. Exciting I know!



It is clean, healthy which is cooked by the live in office assistant, Bishal who often laughs at my attempts to even remember some Nepali words. The current word of the day is "Bholi Bhetaunla". They do not say "See you later", instead they say "Will meet tomorrow" which is the "Bholi Bhetaunla" translation.

I am trying to find a good translation tool on the net for Nepali, which I'm struggling with. "Bholi", which roughly means "Tomorrow" looks like this in Nepali.
भोलि

I'm glad that has helped clarify things. Its not as if I'm confused with it.


But back to my previous topic, food.
When I was training at home in Oz, I ensured that I had enough sources of protein so I didn't lose to much weight.



I'm a little reluctant to have the meat here for a few reasons. One it is illegal to kill a cow, as it is a hindu nation, and cow's are sacred. You can be thrown in jail for longer if you kill a cow than if you kill a person. So for some reason, beef is not readily available. Another reason is that with irregular power, sometimes only 4hours of electricity a day, refrigeration is almost never used.


So the butcher has the fresh meat delivered in the cool hours of the morning, and display their wares in the open bench through the day. Often in warm days. Now from what I have been told by my colleagues, there are some good quality butchers around, you just have to know which one's they are. I certainly wouldn't trust myself.

I've included some pictures of some quick photo's I took during my walks.



Now the food hasn't all been just Dahl Baht. I've had an omelette in one of the previous palaces in Durbar square.

I even had ice cream cake on Beth's birthday (EWB's field officer based in India, currently in Kathmandu for a few weeks)

The cake was made at a popular bakery in Kathmandu, started by a German (they are pedantic) who has a massive generator in his backyard.
So I have also enjoyed cheese from the bakery with some wine. So not all bad.



I'll try and submit another blog before I leave for the remote west in a few days.

Nothing

This is the first time I have had a blog going, and I've often thought people who have nothing better to do except blog, were full of hot air. So I thought I'd join them.

I have absolutely nothing to report. You're a fool for reading this blog.

That felt much better.

Hopefully I have some worthwhile news in the near future.

Insight into Safety

I thought I would add some images to give an insight into safety in Nepal.

We were casually walking around Thamel, a suburb in Kathmandu, when we saw someone doing arc welding.

If you look closely, he is welding while standing on the item he is welding with thongs. When arc welding, there is a considerable amount of voltage and current flowing through the item you are welding.

Now if you look closely at the other image, he is doing this perched on the pole he is welding, about 3 metres of the ground.



I'll have to let the people know at Engineers Without Borders that I won't be doing any arc welding in the near future.

Capturing the Traffic Chaos

I thought I would take some pictures to give an insight of the traffic in Kathmandu.

The small roads are shared with pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes, small taxi's, trucks and buses. The roads are often only about one lane wide, and the standard way of indicating to pass, turn, or if someone is getting close, is to honk the horn several times. I wonder if the painful blasts could be made into a nice melody. Unlikely as it would be ignored.

The photos are from our taxi trip from Thamel, the tourist district (where I had no end of trouble trying to buy gloves that would actually fit my massive hands) back to the office in Imadol. We travelled down tight laneways to the overused ring road which circles Kathmandu.

The arrival

Well I have finally arrived. I will recommend to everyone, don't move out and pack your life before moving overseas the day you fly out. Silly I know, but I had a number of things happen recently that threw out my schedule.

I'll be working for RIDS Nepal, who work on development in rural communities in the North West of Nepal. The office is the white building in the photo, with a number of solar panels and wind generator being tested. More information is on their website.
http://www.rids-nepal.org/

Some of the work has involved installing alternative power in the communities, and using data monitoring equipment to verify things are working well, and to see how they can be improved. My role here is to assist them with the Data Monitoring, and hopefully I can impart some knowledge to them.



Kathmandu is a vibrant city, with a nice touch of chaos. Small Maruti Suzuki taxi's intertwine with motorcycles and pedestrians on the road. What is surprising is there are many 'almost accidents' but you hardly see one.
At the last second, motorcycles, pedestrians, and cars beep, and swerve at the last second giving the impression that it is the accepted norm.

Buildings are built closely together, with some gorgeous old buildings which were part of the palaces around the city. Water quality is a problem through Nepal, and reliability of supply. What is interesting is that there are some aqueduct's through the city, that have been there for over a hundred years, still working reliably.

The next few days I will be working with the RIDS staff, to see what is required to upgrade and test the equipment in Humla, the remote North West of Nepal.