Missing Nepal

Sarken Dressler made a video of his team's work on House #17 as well as showing some of the other houses. He posted it on youtube.com. After seeing the video, one of our other volunteers, Keith Martin summed up the experience; and it's so well described that it fits all of the volunteers:

 

"What a beautiful and moving video. Thank you so much. Oh, how I miss Nepal: the people, the physical beautiful of the country, my co-workers, everything and everybody. What a richly rewarding and uniquely satisfying experience. I am so thankful I was given the opportunity to make a small contribution toward helping others have a more comfortable life."

 

You can see Sarken with some local children at 2 minutes 27 seconds into the video:

 

Click here>  HABITAT VIDEO, NEPAL 2012

 

About a week later, another video surfaced, from Betsy Uhler who worked on House #11. Our team leader, Leslie Bell wrote about Betsy's video, "That was a whole lot of fun to watch! Thanks for sharing...."

 

Click here>  BUILDING A HOUSE IN 2 MINUTES

 

• Thanks to the creative videographers.
• Your videos are fantastic!
• When can we return to Nepal?

House dedications

The dedications were scheduled for the afternoon and that meant that all of the volunteers on all of the houses were in haste to finish as much as possible in the morning before lunch. For most, it meant more plastering with that favorite :( mixture, priming and painting the window and door frames and general cleanup. At House #2 we did all that.



PAINTING AND PLASTERING

BREAKTIME, THE BEST SEAT IS ON THE
FOUNDATION OF OUTHOUSE

HOUSE #2 TEAM BEFORE THE DEDICATION

And finally, the dedication. Of course, much appreciation from the homeowner who aplplied a tika on the forehead of each team member, and a marigold lei around their necks.

CHUCK GETS THE TIKA AND RESPONDS BY PRESSING
HIS PALMS TOGETHER AND SAYING, NAMESTE.

EACH TEAM MEMBER SIGNED THE PRESENTATION BANNER,
HOMEOWNER SPONSOR (L) AND HOMEOWNER (R)

Cluster leaders

The houses were divided into three clusters and the assigned cluster leaders were a tremendous help to the house leaders and team members. They answer questions, made sure that supplies were on hand and a multitude of other tasks. They made the build run smoothly. Never included in the House group photos, here they are:

AT THE DHULIKEL LODGE:
CLUSTER #1 LEADER, JEREMY AND
CLUSTER #2 LEADERS, VIC AND LAURA

HOLDING A MEETING IN THE LUNCH TENT:
CLUSTER #3 LEADER, STAN (CENTER)

Last day -- Friday

It has been such an incredible week. We came here to help some Napeli families and in turn we are gratified by the experience. Something like: the families have needs to improve their living situations, but each of us also have our own needs to give to others.

All this was realized over the past week.

It is now 2 days after our house dedications. Internet is so very slow and photos, of which there are many, take too long to upload. Please be patient. More posts to come and photos too!

For the next 10 days, no Internet, or maybe limited, during my travel in the mountain country of Bhutan.

Updates to be posted as Internet available.

Jeremy's pics

Cluster # 1 leader, Jeremy, shares some of his photos:

Thursday, the fourth day

The morning sunrise over the
mountains was today's greeting:

More of the same work ongoing. Some houses have begun the roofs and others are finishing up the plastering. House 16 had a resuffle on its crew and seven people were moved to this house. It is one of the largest being built and desperately needed more crew on site.

An updated group photo was taken.


HOUSE # 16, HOUSE LEADER, BOB

Getting to House 16 requires a short uphill trek which winds around a pond. Toads are frequently spotted in the pond, but on this day, local folks had the water buffalo cooling off in the pond. How incredible is this! Seven water buffalo out for a swim! As the animals were approached, a woman owner called to her 3 animals and they moved closer to where she was sitting at shoreside.

WALKING THE BUFFALO HOME

Back on the worksite:


PLASTER WALLS AND RICE FIELD VIEW

FIVE PLASTERING PAULINES

Roof work: bamboo poles will hold up the metal roof. Nepalise skilled workers, on site, and doing the high rooftop work.

STRETCHING ACROSS FOR STABILITY

Donor appreciation

At a dinner Wednesday evening, at the Kathmandu Everest Hotel, affiliate sponsors were recognized for their much appreciated participation in making Everest Build II a large success.

In between the award giving, those present were engaged with a game of "keep passing the ball, but keep it in the air", and two other similar games.

Final award was for years of service in southeast Asia and particularly in Nepal. This was presented to our team leaders, Bob and Leslie Bell. We all you applaud you for your enthusiasm and for your support of the work of Habitat Nepal.



LESLIE BELL AND BOB BELL (R)
ACCEPT THIS AWARD FOR THEIR
OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE.

Wednesday in Nepal

Beautiful day. Beautiful country. Working on a house in Nepal and loving it.

House #3, like all the others except for the one bamboo house, has the brick walls and bamboo poles getting installed for a metal roof.

 

In cluster #3:

 

AMERICANS AND A CANADIAN WITH
HOUSE LEADER, RICK AT THE LEFT

 

Women in Nepal do all the domestic work, including careing for the family, carry food for the animals and moving bricks and rocks for house construction needs.

 

 

 

 

Click to see a short video of how it's done:

 

(Thirty minutes waiting for this video to upload was just too long at the slow internet speed at our Dhulikel Lodge Resort hotel. Have to do later.)

 

Four : one : one

The recipe for the plastering mixture is a simple one ... 4:1:1. Throw these quantities of the ingredients into the mud pit and mix it up by walking in it. Wearing rubber boots or even barefoot.


As with any recipe, the ingredient list is important.

BAREFOOT MIXING

For the plaster mix:
4 parts mud
1 part cow dung, to increase the adhesion
 and 1 part minced rice husks, to enhance the mixture



GETTING THE PLASTER ON THE WALL

Tuesday in Nepal

HOUSE #12 HOMEOWNER MOTHER AND CHILD
WITH VOLUNTEER

It is actually Wednesday, but last night was an internet challenge. So it is noontime the next day, and I'm sitting on a Nepali short stool, in front of a little shop, roadside on the busy highway to Tibet. This road runs right by our building houses, clustered in three sites between here and 5 miles up the road. This is the third place attempting to get an internet connection and it is finally where I could be connected.
As I'm sitting here, the generator on the left is churning away providing electric for this shop and for the house down the hillside of Cluster #1.

So, OK, online, but the connection is very slow and so this post may be finished later.

With the help of Vic, one of the "cluster managers" and a well seasoned Habitat leader, we visited most of the other Bob and Leslie Bell houses.

From Cluster #2:

HOUSE # 11 VOLUNTEER TEAM
AND HOMEOWNERS
HOUSE LEADER: MONTE

HOUSE # 12 VOLUNTEERS
AND NEPALI WORKERS
HOUSE LEADER: BOB

PLASTERING OVER THE INTERIOR WALLS
OF #12 WITH A MIXTURE OF MUD AND OTHER INGREDIENTS.


The local folks are so pleased to have volunteers helping to build
their homes. Here are some of their faces:


HOUSE 11 HOMEOWNER MOTHER



AT HOUSE 11, THE CHILDREN ARE FASCINATED
BY DIGITAL CAMERA AND SEEING THEIR PICS

HOUSE #17 CREW AND HOMEOWNERS
HOUSE LEADER IS TOM



BABY BOY AND MOTHER

This house has something special to celebrate
in addition to getting the house built.
Homeowner mother gave birth to a baby boy
three days ago. Baby will receive his name
when he is four days old.




LOCAL GIRL IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

GRANDMA, AGE 60

PATHS THROUGH THE RICE FIELDS

Mud for mortar

Monday, the task was to work on completing interior walls. Houses are built with adobe brick, sun dried, not fired. The exterior walls were in place and inside walls already had a few courses of brick. So here is how the day looks:
1. Get the bricks into the house. They are stacked down the hill from the house. So a chain line, handing up the bricks.
2. Two members begin digging the hard earth. Once loosened, water is poured into a sort of "mud hole". Since the earth is hard and lumpy, this water/earth must the broken down and mixed. How to do it? By wading in and mixing with your feet. Boots have been provided for this.
3. Mud is dumped into trays and handed up to the brick workers. Slop the mud on the wall and put the bricks into place.
Presto! A nice wall. Hard work in the hot sun, 95F.



WALKING THROUGH THE FIELDS, WE GET THE FIRST
VIEW OF OUR HOUSES (FAR BACK) 

MIXING THE MUD

INSIDE THE HOUSE: OUR BRICK WALL.

MID-MORNING REFRESHMENTS WERE CARRIED
TO THE HOUSES BY NEPALESE WOMEN

Monday on the house sites

The 45-minute bus ride to the house site was along the edge of mountains with a view down the whole valley. So incredibly awesome: terraced fields, small houses and the Himalayas unfortunately hidden by fog.

This team has been grouped into smaller units, and assigned to 8 different houses spread over the mountainside. Luckily, houses #2, #5,and #7 are close and we were able to get group shots this morning.

HOUSE #2 TEAM



HOUSE #5 TEAM

HOUSE #7 TEAM

Four hundred plus

At the welcome dinner tonight, Aruna Paul, country representative HFH Nepal, said that the number of volunteers gathering here for the Build is 462, from many countries around the world. Our team, under the leadership of Bob and Leslie Bell, makes up more than 20% of the total.

Included in the ceremony were Nepalese dancers and models in ethnic outfits depicting the regions of Nepal. All this in the beautiful Durbur Square, an open area in Bhaktapur center, surrounded by the the art and architectural beauty dating back centuries. In 1979, the city was named a UNESSO World Heritage Site.

The Bell team of some 100 will be wearing their unique t-shirt during the work week. Designed by committee, printed in the U.S. and hand carried to Nepal. Monte, shows off the end result.

MONTE, FRONT CENTER WITH
L-R: BEBE, KAY AND DONNA

Most are housed in the Dhulikhel Lodge Resort: a group of buildings spilling down the side of a hill, with brick walkways, lush plantings, and rooms simply furnished.

Hello Nepal

NANCY, EILEEN AND CHUCK
FLOWER MARKET, BANGKOK

It is goodbye to Thailand where we stopped for a few days in Bangkok. Visited some important Wats, explored the small canals by long boat and spent our last morning at the flower market.

Now it's only 14 hours to Kathmandu arrival. Many of the Habitat volunteers have already arrived there, including our leaders, Bob and Leslie Bell. By Sunday afternoon, we will all be together as a group at the opening welcome. The gathering will take place in Durbar Square in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, one of the country's three royal cities and a cultural gem.

Next stop....somewhere in Asia

As I await my boarding time here in Newark, NJ, I am thinking of all the others on their way to our Habitat Build. many varied routes: through Europe, layovers in Doha or India. Or, like myself with a couple days in Bangkok before heading off to Nepal.

So many volunteers from countries around the world. It will be exciting to meet them all. And work together as we build homes in the Kavre district, outside the capital city of Kathmandu.

Nameste, the greeting



EVEREST BUILD, 2010



No longer "Hello". Instead use the familiar "Nameste" of southeast Asia.

When Nepali folks meet and part, palms pressed together and fingers pointed upwards, they often say, Namaste, which signifies the real meeting between us. It represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart.

It is both a greeting and an acknowledgment of the soul in one, by the soul in another. ‘May our spirits meet’.

As most commonly used, Namaste is roughly equivalent to "Hello", implicitly with the connotation "to be well". As opposed to shaking hands, kissing or embracing each other, Namaste is a non-contact form of respectful greeting and can be used universally while meeting a person of different gender, age or social status.

I honor the place within you where the entire Universe resides;

I honor the place within you of love, of light, of truth, of peace;

I honor the place within you, where, when you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us. -- Mahatma Gandhi