60 Days in Nepal
Below is the blog I kept in during my 2015 trip to Nepal, alongside my Instagram posts.
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6/15/15/the initial post
A life update brought to you by me. In less than two days, I'm going to be cutting my vacation in Israel short and flying to Nepal, where I will spend two months (June 14-August 14) volunteering with All Hands Volunteers (hands.org), an American organization focusing on disaster relief. This is in light of the large earthquake there on April 25th. A week after the earthquake, I applied to volunteer with All Hands, and less than a week ago they reached out to me and asked for me to join them.
FAQs:
What will I be doing? Manual labor primarily, setting up emergency shelters, clearing rubble, and distributing foods. Also possible is climbing the Himalayas, building Buddhist Monasteries with my bare hands, and rescuing princesses from faraway castles-- wait, I'm thinking of Mario.
Will I be reachable? Yes, I will have internet access while I am there, but not as much as I am used to. Please send me messages! They'll be appreciated, and I promise I will respond with wild (and potentially untrue) stories.
How much work will I be doing? 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.
Am I excited? Oh yeah!
Am I nervous? Oh yeah! Haven't had a good night sleep since they asked for me to come!
What if there's another earthquake? Pray... and wait for me to post an OK message on FB.
And oh yeah-- it's MONSOON SEASON!!
Take a minute and check out the organization, even follow the project on Facebook. If you want, donate a little. This organization pays for everything while I am there, and while I don't yet know how the experience will be, I expect it to be unforgettable. Every dollar counts, and it goes to a good cause!!!
Yalla, bye!!!!
I made it to Kathmandu! After 28+ hours of travel, 3 flights, 4 currencies, one subpar fast-food mean and one above average fast-food meal, a connection in a country that doesn't recognize Israel, and a 90 day visa, I made it!
Nepal, where the cars drive all over the road (I guess they're supposed to drive on the left?), where lines are like traffic jams in that people fight to get to the front first, where you pay extra if you want AC in your cab, where I just tried Yak cheese (tastes like cheese).
Flying in, I saw hundreds of bright orange emergency tents set up. Driving to the All Hands base, I saw mountains of rubble.
I start tomorrow, boots on at 7.20 a.m., going to be clearing rubble at khanpati. Can't wait!
when I got here yesterday afternoon, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I had seen the All Hands site, clicked around, just enough to see that it seemed legitimate. But I really didn't know how they ran or what they believe in. Now, I've gone through a whole day so I have a much better idea. The short intro lesson on the program this evening also really helped.
All Hands is a young organization, just 10 years old. They started after the tsunami in the Philippines and surrounding areas. What do they do? Disaster relief. Their program is divided into two segments, respond and rebuild. They go into communities where disaster strikes, and help get them on their feet. The initial phase, respond, includes clearing rubble (what I did today, details to come at a later date), TLCs (Temporary learning centers), and temporary shelter building for families. The next stage, which I may or may not participate in depending on how the progress goes and how the monsoon season is (not bad thus far), is rebuilding. They get a lot of expert architects and builders to come in and help rebuild areas.
What makes All Hands special? They focus on the most needy people. Shortly after disasters, an initial assessment team comes in and finds which communities, and within them, the individuals within these communities that are most in need of aid.
Their typical projects can run several years. In fact, All Hands has already committed to being in Nepal for at least two years!
It really does seem like a special organization, and everyone here is great! And there are SO many volunteers here who keep coming back, project after project.
Now, a special question: What is my favorite book? Clue: Also one of my favorite movies
Kathmandu.
Currently, I am staying at Famous House Kathmandu Youth Hostel, in Kathmandu. It is located in Kathmandu, near Thamel, the "touristy" district. However, it seems to me that for the most part we are fairly isolated from the tourists. I haven't really been out for the hostel during off hours, as the work is totally exhausting (will be described in a later post) but it seems very Nepali. Across the street is a little vendor who sells beer for 160 Rupee, about $1.60. And they're big beers.
The hostel itself is totally fine. The mattresses are kind of uncomfortable (feels like sleeping on a stone slab) and the toilet water is naturally yellow (took me an unnecessary flush to realize that was the natural color) but I'm not complaining. We get breakfast every morning (Nutella sandwich and oatmeal for me!) and dinner every night (changes daily, apparently the chef once worked for the 2nd best restaurant in Kathmandu) and the showers are, surprisingly, hot (even though they said they would be cold and today the cold water didn't even work!).
And rumor has it, lodging+food is costing All Hands a whopping $3 a day per person or something. Wowsers!
That's it.
Today was a great day. More rubbleing, more sore. I was actually up for several hours last night, too sore to sleep. But the second day is hardest, so it's all downhill from here! Or at least that's what they told me...
Finally gong to explore the surrounding area now, more later!
I woke up this morning at 6 am to shouting outside, which is saying something because I am a) a deep sleeper and b) staying on the third floor. And things were shaking! It took me a second to realize what was happening... An earthquake!
For an instant, I was terrified. I glanced around the room looking for cracking walls, and Dougie, a roommate, was in my face, telling me we had to go outside. I don't really know how long the earth shook for after I woke because I was just waking up and slightly disoriented but I jumped to the ground (off my top bunk) and hurried downstairs and to the empty lot next door, no shirt and no shoes. Everything was okay, in the end it was only magnitude 3.7, a small quake, but scary nonetheless.
My first earthquake was The Great Seattle Earthquake of 2001. I remember it fondly, in 2nd grade. My class was dancing when it happened, and I initially though we were dancing so hard the ground was shaking, but obviously I was wrong. Nobody died. One storefront collapsed. It was no big deal.
But this was different. People were still yelling when I got downstairs. And let me remind you, this wasn't a big quake, especially compared to the one on April 25th and the second one several days later.
One of the most powerful things I've gathered from Nepal is the incredibly depressing aftereffects of the earthquake. Yes, buildings fell and thousands of people died. But those who survived were deeply affected. Dougie was here for the initial quakes (and decided to stay longer and help repair) but on my first day he told me that for two weeks after the quake, he and his travelling companion got drunk every night in an effort to take their mind off the quakes. Today, I talked to a Nepalese man who told me about clearing rubble and finding dead bodies. It's unfathomable to me, and while I will remember waking up this morning for a long time, and the yelling on the street, it's nothing compared to what people who were here for the initial quakes went through.
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On another note, today I went to help build shelters for displaced families. These tents measure 28' x 15' and hold, on my estimate, 8 families, so up to 50-60 people probably. They're probably going to live in these shelters for the next 8 months or so. It was interesting, but not as satisfying as rubbleing. And while many Nepalese tried to help, it was very slow going and another organization was there (tents for Nepal), which opened my eyes to the complexities and shortcomings of disaster relief.
It was a lot of fun though, and I met some pretty cool people.
Also, a couple of my closer friends from All Hands left today. It's only been 4 days, but it seems like its been so much longer, and the people here are all so great. I guess I am going to have to get used to saying a lot of these goodbyes in the next two months. You really bond with people fast when youre doing this kind of work and living communally.
Alright, bed time for me! The internet was not working all evening and literally I saw that I received emails while in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I got into bed, goodnight! zzzzzzzz...
Rubbleing- I've been talking about it for days, but what is it? It's a hard days work, a specialty of All Hands, and a great way to get in shape.
To put it simply, rubbleing is what we call taking a plot of land/former house that has been reduced to rubble and creating order from the mayhem. We deconstruct semi-collapsed houses, separating wood and red ceramic brick for use later and we throw the leftovers, primarily mudbrick, on the side. This takes a huge amount of effort- shoveling, hoeing, wheelbarrowing, pickaxing and flattening. The work is slow, but rewarding. And it's a heck of a workout. The first day, my shorts were snug. The second day, they were already loose.
Today marked my third day of rubbleling, and it was fantastic. After spending the first two days of my volunteering rubbleing on a massive open lot without many complications, we arrived to this site today, a new site that even the leader had not yet seen, and it was not what we expected. There was a massive pile of wood to clear and not a large area to deposit a huge amount of rubble. BUT, we killed it! We made a chain of people and got rid of the wood, and then worked like machines and somehow managed to clear the entire site in one day!! Even I, the eternal optimist, was sure the plot would take multiple days. We celebrated with some beers on the ride back.
For me, the greatest part of rubbleing is when locals join in. The earthquakes can be paralyzing to an individual, they forget how to function and are frozen in time. But they see us, people from all over the world, coming and sweating to clear their lots, and they come and help out, and we all work together, side by side. Hopefully seeing us work propels them back to a better place.
As exhausting as rubbleing is, I hope to do it on as many of my days here as I can.
Other than that, nothing too special today. No earthquakes, but we had a power outage this morning during breakfast (planned-- this happens every day and is to reduce the stress on Kathmandu's electric infrastructure) so I substituted an egg for my oatmeal.
That is all. Hope I answered all your questions. If there's something you want me to blab on about, let me know and I will try to appease you.
Tata for now!
I got here a week ago tomorrow, and time has both flown by and gone so slowly. The days are long and grueling, but it's crazy to think that I am already pretty much am eighth of the way done already. I'm sure the trip will fly by.
Some thoughts:
-I miss the days when I didnt have to use hand sanitizer after washing my hands.
-the air quality here is terrible. After one week, my throat is starting to feel swollen, and I feel like I've been chain smoking for 20 years. I am going to have to start wearing a mask as we drive through the city to get to our worksites.
-the runs have hit! Sorry if that's too much information but hey, that's life. I thought I was living healthfully, but I guess somewhere I got some contamination. I hope it gets better fast! Or at least doesn't make me unable to work.
-things are so cheap here! You can literally get an amazing, satisfying meal for about 3 dollars.
-I'm so tired. Today was our day off but instead of taking it easy, we went on a hike to a waterfall. When we went, nobody was expecting it to be a hike, just a short walk. But "Nepali time" is real, their concept of time is very different from us. They said 20 minutes, it took about an hour and a half. When we got to the waterfall, it was full of Nepalese taking showers, and it also started to pour while we were there. Thankfully we found a shortcut back.
-All Hands is building- yes, building- another base, out in sinapalchuk, or something like that. Tomorrow they are taking a group of people, and I may be one of them. There is still internet there, I think, but its way out of the city (could be good for my throat) so we shall see. I will doubtlessly find myself there at some point in the next 7 weeks.
That's it for now. So tired, and we have to be up extra early tomorrow for a meeting.
Today is fathers day, so this post is dedicated to my dad. And specifically, to one of his favorite things, mornings.
I wake up at 6:15 every morning. Well, my alarm goes off at 6:15, but I'm already awake because at 6:00 people start clanging prayer bells right outside our windows. And they keep on clanging until we are off base, so they effectively make sure that we don't fall back asleep.
I lie in bed for 15-30 minutes, slowly making
sure all my limbs still work and stretching the soreness of the day before out and trying not to fall back asleep (made much easier by the aforementioned bells). I drag myself put of bed by 6:45, brush my teeth and get dressed (we wear All Hands shirts on worksite, so I try and remember to bring one upstairs the night before, but usually end up walking downstairs shirtless every morning to get a clean one).
Then I go upstairs for breakfast (discussed in an earlier post).
After breakfast, I get my bag packed (water, work gloves, rain jacket every day) and try and be downstairs at 7:10 to help pack the van. My group, usually consisting of around 6 All Hands volunteers, loads the van with wheelbarrows, shovels, pickaxes, two massive water jugs, and whatever else is needed for the site (it's a very different set of materials for TLCs and community shelters but I'm not so much about that) and set off to Pilgrim House, a hotel where we pick up various day volunteers (10 volunteers per group total).
While we wait for them to get organized at Pilgrim house we go to this amazing tea shop. It's run by a nice old couple, and they make the best chai tea I've ever had. Honestly, knowing I will drink the tea the next day helps me get through the work day when the going gets roigh. Mmmmm I want another cup right now. And its also 20 rupees, or 20 cents, a cup. So you get tea for the team and it costs $1.20. They also have black tea, a dahl soup of some sort which I am slightly scared of, and omelet sandwiches, which are delicious, but spicy (the lady throws in some hot peppers!). It's obvious that the man is the face of the restaurant, but the woman runs things. When it gets busy (all the All Hands volunteers come through) she takes over. The way she makes the tea, aerating it and mixing it and pouring it mesmerizes me.
Once we're all ready to head out, usually around 7:45-8:00, off we go!
And that's a typical morning.
Happy Fathers Day dad, love you 😊
Obviously, after posting about my mornings, the next logical post would be about my evenings.
After working in the sun or rain all day, we return to the base some time between 4:00 and 4:30 in the afternoon. The first thing I do is shower (if there is water (not hot water, just water)) because while cold showers are great after shoveling rubble for hours, they're not as great after you've cooled down.
When I finish my shower, I change into clean comfy clothes and come upstairs with my phone, water, books and cards (staircases are the worst, especially going up and down many times a day as we already must, and also there is the extreme physical exertion that is rubbleing). There is dinner set out at around 5:00 which usually consists of rice or pasta, chicken, a little salad and occasionally, dessert. The meals aren't massive, but they always hit the spot.
Then we have a meeting, where we recap the days events, go over any notes the staff find important, meet the new volunteers (name, origin, how you found out about All Hands, how long are you staying for), and then sign up for the next days worksites. Meetings used to be at 6:00 but now they are 5:30 instead. They're fun, the whole team sitting outside on the porch.
After meeting is adjourned, I do whatever I please. I've been reading a lot (The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat currently) but also there is this great card game called shithead which gets a little rowdy, and I use my phone for internet, catching up on the previous day of news. Every night is, as the locals say, "same same, but different." Relax, do what I want.
Usually, at around 9:30, I start getting ready for bed, because I am beat! Brush my teeth, make sure I have water, climb into bed, and pass out. I sleep so well here.
And that's an average evening.
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Today was a good day. The rubbleing was slow, our day volunteers were not great, and the lunch was probably my least favorite so far, but in the afternoon a nice drizzle came and cooled us down and we had a great second wind, getting way more done than expected.
In the end,we made something out of not much and will probably have only one day left on that site.
Tomorrow, back for more of the same!
Today was a meh day.
It got off to a crappy start, both figuratively and literally, but somehow made a comeback so in the end I guess it was fine.
I woke up early this morning with some serious stomach pain. Gastrointestinal issues are never fun, but when you have both lower and upper gastro pain, it's only worse. For the past two days or so, I've felt on the verge of throwing up (hasn't happened yet) and diarrheaing (has happened). There's a saying that goes around the All Hands base- never trust a fart in Nepal. In the beginning, I challenged that saying frequently. Now, whenever I feel a fart coming, I fear for my pants.
So back to my day- I woke up around 5, and felt a fart coming. Fearing for my PJ's and dignity, I jumped out of bed and just made it to the bathroom in time. I sat there for 15 minutes, and when I was content that was empty, I went back to bed. Until probably 10 minutes before my alarm went off, I was rolling around in bed, stomach still hurting. I finally drifted off to sleep to be rudely awakened by my alarm. Tired and empty, I force some food down for breakfast.
Fast forward an hour and a half. I'm napping in the car ride to the site, and all of a sudden I hear a howl. An awful howl. One of the girls in the van says "I think we just ran over a dogs leg." The howling continued until we were out of earshot. It was awful. So yeah, that happened.
And this is all by like 8:45 a.m.
And rubbleing was, for the most part, not too fun. The site we were at was wide open, no shade, and the sun was HOT. My stomach was still not happy, and even though I took many breaks, I had a difficult dilemma. Drink too little and get dehydrated. Drink too much and my stomach feels the water sloshing around, not comfortable. I took it very easy, but then I deal with feeling like I am not being useful. In the end, I think I toed the line successfully.
BUT.
By the end of the day, we finished the site! It was a two house plot, and took two and a half days to clear. There is little more rewarding than finishing a plot, and seeing the owner happy with a job well done.
some other great moments:
-Cloud cover and a nice breeze at the same time
-cold Mountain Dew (even when we asked for coke)
-Finding "India's Magical Masala" Lays potato chips- intrigued to see how they taste. There are wild flavors here, and instead of sour cream and onion they're called American style cream and onion.
Crappy start, but only got better as the day went on. And now it's time to play some shithead!
Tomorrow, I get to do housekeeping. Woot woot...
housekeeping day, and a little about basecamp
A lazy day, a nice and relaxing day.
As I said yesterday, I was assigned to housekeeping duty today. This means many things,which I will try and summarize curtly as it's not that interesting.
Housekeeping: You get to wake up a little later than everyone else, then clean leftover breakfast dishes (people are in charge of washing their own dishes for breakfast, but don't always do so), sweep the floors, clean the bathrooms (gross, especially because TP is thrown away, not flushed down the toilet) and make sure garbage bags have been replaced.
Dishwashing: The water here isn't exactly clean (even though it is filtered, we have a water bottling service bring jugs every morning) so dishwashing is an arduous process. First, rinse in soapy water. Next, wash off soapy water with plain water. Last, soak in a bleach solution. That's it, we just let the bleach evaporate off our dishes. There are three large tubs outside which we use to wash the dishes, then let them air dry on dishracks outside.
That's it for housekeeping. There are two housekeepers selected daily, everyone has their turn. We eat lunch at 11, then usually go out into the field for the second half of the day. However, because of my stomach, I asked to stay in and rest, and they let me. Very nice, now I feel much better. I slept for a few hours and then helped out around base a bit. Soon the hordes will return and dirty up this clean base.
Today was also kind of like leg day, as I found myself walking up and down and up and down the stairs. I had to lift 2 jugs of water up 4 flights of stairs as part of my job.
Let me describe base, because I don't really have much else to say today. It is 5 floors tall, consisting of ground floor, 1st, 2nd, 3rd floors and top floor. There is also a roof floor where water treatment occurs and a few people have set up tents.
Ground floor consists of the entrance chamber, which is technically outside but gated in, and the inside part, which has been claimed as the All Hands Project Nepal office. During evenings, it's not so busy inside but being here today I see that there are many people working during the day. The outside chamber is where we leave our shoes and all equipment for the sites. Sometimes a huge mess. Sometimes very organized. No shoes allowed inside, which I guess makes cleaning easier?
Floors 1-3 (actually 2-4 but whatever) are sleeping floors, with various sized rooms and bathrooms. I found out today that my floor (2nd/3rd depending on what system you use, the middle floor) is the only one with communal bathrooms. I'm on the top bunk which is not nearly as fun as when I was a child.
The top floor is where we eat, have meetings, hang out. There are semi-comfy chairs for lying on, tables, and a kitchen. There are also two patios, smoking and nonsmoking. This is where the dishes are done. There is a communal fridge, a TV which never gets used, and a disappointing lack of board games.
There is only WIFI on the ground and top floors.
There is only consuming alcohol beverages - I guess all food and beverages other than water- on the ground and top floors
Curfew is 11 on work nights and 12 on Friday nights. Quiet hours begin an hour before curfew.
There are a lot of rules, and I kind of feel like I'm in college again. Actually, I feel like I am in Camp Green Lake from the book Holes, but that's mainly because of the extreme manual labor done during the day.
One of the best feelings is coming up to the top floor after a hard days work, fresh and clean, the breeze blowing through. The peace and quiet here today has been nice. Maybe I can finish my book before everyone comes home...
I don't really know what to talk bout today, so I think I'll just post this:
http://hands.org/removing-rubble-in-suryamandali/
its meeee!!
All Hands is a fantastic organization. Staff, volunteers, recipients of aid, they all love the organization and how it runs. It's super transparent, and the staff love talking about what they do. Pretty sure this won't be my last time here. I'll also make a fundraising page at some point, probably after I get home.
That's it for now. T'was a great day today, finished a site. Going to get some na'an now.
Saturday, both the Jewish day of rest and the All Hands day of rest. Working (now focusing on All Hands) six days a week, we are only given Saturdays off, and let me tell you, the days off are very much needed. It's both physically and mentally exhausting work, trying to please the landowners whose land we are trying to clear. By Friday, most people are seem to be already ready for a day off. But we push on.
The quandary for Saturdays is that while I want to go explore, I also need to rest. Last week I went on a hike, and was more tired on Sunday than on Friday. This week, I woke up early, not hungover, and have rested after going out to breakfast with some people. I napped, played chess, and read. A bunch of people are going to a movie soon, and I may join but I may just hang here and read some more. I have many copies of The Economist to get through.
Once again, it is crazy to think that I am already now almost 1/4 of the way done with my time here. I have two and a half weeks of work, then an extended break (required every month on site for mental health reasons- probably going to Pokhara and visiting the family of Sunita, a co-worker from Carm) and after that, just 4 or 5 weeks left! Days are long, but time flies by.
And now, some revelations from the past week.
-I actually like squat toilets, potentially more than western toilets. Yes, it is hard to make sure that I a) dont let my pants drag on the floor/toilet or b) dont accidentally poop on my pants, but it's a balance I have achieved, and its kind of fun. I heard they're more healthy and natural, and now I believe it. Sadly I doubt there will be ever large scale regression back to squat toilets in the western world.
-I used to think snot rockets were a dangerous proposition, and would lead to boogers sprayed all over the body. I now, after rubbleing with dirty hands and no way to easily clean them, realize how wrong I've been all along. It's just like riding a bike with no hands- you just have to trust yourself and go for it.
- I saw a (pretty decently sized) snake yesterday on-site. Those things look awesome, but are scary. Not poisonous, I heard. But like, I would still rather not get bitten. Some locals started throwing rocks at it, and I got really annoyed.
-when 100 rupees equals one dollar (which it does) it makes me feel like I am spending way more than I am, and it makes me spend way less. I had breakfast today- eggs, potatoes, salad, bread, tea. It came out to a whopping 325 rupees. I was annoyed at myself for spending so much-- and then I realized it was $3.25 and I spend twice that, or more, for the same thing in the states.
-the value of money: money, it can be said, is much more valuables to locals than me. I will bargain with a street merchants for something about 20 rupees or so, and I always find myself giving in. Maybe I am a bad bargainer, but I feel foolish bargaining over less than a quarter, it seems so little for me.
Every day brings new adventure. I may spend the next week building TLCs (details to come later) or I may go back to rubbleing. Who knows?
TLCs. Hmmm, what's that? Tender loving care? The Learning Chanel? Nope! TLCs, from the All Hands perspective, are temporary learning centers. The Nepali earthquake(s) destroyed tens of thousands of schools. Fortunately, the earthquakes were at noon on a Saturday so all of the kids were not inside the schools, but regardless, a lack of a schools is a problem.
The thought behind TLCs is that we are able to provide children a place to learn that isn't sitting on the ground, under a tent or a tree. I saw some completed TLCs today, and they are solid, stable, designed to last two years. They have desks and a door and windows. Each TLC is approximately four meters by 12 meters and holds two classrooms.
Each one takes about a week to put up, and consists of a ton of bamboo posts tied and wired together. It's like a large 3-D jigsaw puzzle thay nobody knows how well it's put together until it either falls over, or lasts until the schools are reconstructed.
All Hands puts up tents designed by UNICEF. They had an inspector come by last week, and apparently, All Hands puts up the most stable tents in the area.
For the next week, I will be putting up a TLC. Hopefully, it is done by Friday. Today we started with a bunch of bamboo poles in the ground (painted with a rubber paint to assure they don't absorb water and weaken). By the end of the day, we had all the poles in the ground as well as several roof supports. Didn't look like too much, but it was progress.
Much more restful than rubbleing. Looking toward to a less intense week from a physical perspective, and I love puzzles!
Today was day two at the TLCs. For me, yesterday was a lot about learning what's going on, seeing other TLCs, and doing little menial tasks which the team leaders asked me to do. Today was a lot more interesting, more immersive.
Let's travel back in time to last night. Last night, we had a training lesson on TLC basics. The basic structure, plan, procedure, tools, safety, and most importantly knots. We use the clove-hitch for connecting bamboo pieces together, and even though I am not sure exactly how the rest of the people tie it, it always looks right in the end when I do it. All the skills we picked up yesterday night, I used today.
We wrap, we pull, we tighten, we cinch. And then we do it again. And again
And again. We lift giant pieces of bamboo and put them in place, and while some hold, others knot. We saw, and saw some more. And let me tell you, sawing bamboo is not as easy as sawing wood. But it is easier if you bend it so you cut through tension.
Building TLCs is a group effort, much more than while rubbleing. You can't let someone climb a ladder without another person holding them in place. It's a lot of fun though.
And there are kids everywhere, because we are now constructing TLC number four in this open field, and the kids are studying in the other three. And playing soccer, and volleyball, and I try and join them but should be building.
Kids and construction don't mix well. Yesterday, we had to make due with them running around and trying to shoo them away. At one point, I was holding oli's ladder in place, and I looked down and a little kid was shaking the ladder! Oh no! Today, we had caution tape around the site. It probably was a big help but also, the kids treated the tape like a game because a)they can't read English (well at least, because I did hear them studying English today) and b) they're kids. But I only almost impaled one young girl with a massive piece of bamboo once, so it probably helped.
Day 3 at this TLC, and there wasn't too much noteworthy stuff happening (other than starting to put up the roof and it being hot as heck out) so today, I'm going to talk a little bit about Nepali Food.
Nepali food really boils down to one thing-dahl bhaat- rice and lentils. 24 hour dhaal bhaat power!, the shirts read. My first day here, more than two weeks ago, we had dahl bhaat for lunch, and since then, I have had dahl bhaat for lunch... every... single... day... Other than Saturdays, our days off. Rice, bhaat, is rice, not much to explain. I chipped my tooth on what u think was a little stone in the rice on day one, but it's dulled out. Dahl, lentils, is more than just lentils. It's kind of like a lentil soup that you pour all over the rice, mixing it all together. Some dahl is a little milkier, some a little chunkier, some is cooked with hot peppers, some is pretty much just flavored water. Everybody has their own special recipe, I would expect, and honestly, it's all delicious.
Though frankly anything is delicious after working hard in the sun for hours on end.
Along with the rice and lentils, lunch usually comes with some kind of curried potatoes and a spicy pickled vegetable. There's also usually a spicy sauce of some sort and occasionally, an unidentified side that's like mushroom with beans? Unidentified.
Every place I've gone has served a very different derivative of dahl bhaat, but rice and lentils is the staple.
What else? Our breakfasts and dinners are on base, so it's not very Nepali typically.
Last week, we went to an Indian restaurant, and with us was a Nepali who is studying in India. He said Nepali food is like Indian food, but less spicy.
Also, Momos, which are kind of like dumplings. They are delicious, and only cost 60 cents for 10. I'd eat them every day but am too tired to leave base when I get back in the evening. Chai tea for breakfast. Na'an to die for. I'm rarely hungry here. With all the hard work I've done, I dont think I've lost much weight, if any.
Also, they have some pretty interesting flavored potato chips...
As early as I typically fall asleep, and as exhausted as I usually am, I don't think I've had a decent nights sleep here yet. It could be the bed being an inch or two shorter than me, it could be the bed being only slightly softer than a rock, it could be my pillow being not a pillow, or it could be something else... Every night, I sleep early, but I wake up a few times during the night.
So I am really tired.
I wake up in the mornings and yearn to sleep in, but I can't. I try and sleep in the van ride to the site (sleeping while riding in the car = a specialty of mine) but usually, I can't.
So yeah.
I can't wait to get back and sleep in a comfy bed again, with pillows, climate control, and a hot shower.
But all complaining aside, it's all good. And today was a great day, put the roof up on the TLC, started with the walls, and in about 45 minutes I singlehandedly stamped down a mound of mud to be the floor in one of the classrooms. It was a lot of fun :) hopefully we almost finish tomorrow because Friday we can then just play with the kids and have some ceremony the principle is preparing.
Time to wash dishes!!
TLC day five today, and the building is almost complete! All that's left is the front wall and a little bit of walls on the upper sides, but that shouldn't take to long. Tomorrow we should finish early, then get to play a lot with kids!
Hopefully I feel better tomorrow than today, because honestly, the gastro pains are back, and I was pretty useless for the second half of the day (sorry mom I know you said you don't like reading about my "sickness" but it's true).
I first felt bad my first Saturday here, two weeks back. It was a slow road to recovery but within a week I was feeling good again, and I hoped that that was it for the trip. I guess I was wrong. But hey, we get sick to feel better.
Also, today we had something new for lunch! It was actually almost the same, but instead of rice, we had this delicious fried bread thingy. I think I had around 8 pieces, sooooo tasty.
That's it for today, maybe I'll change my pattern and post about my final day of TLCs tomorrow, a Friday. We shall see. Dinner time!
Great day today! Best day yet! Time to celebrate!
More tomorrow...
Another week come and gone... But this week was unlike any week before. I'll start by explaining TLC completion and finish with a list of things I miss about the states, in honor of the fourth.
So TLCs, as I've said, are temporary learning centers. They're classrooms for kids whose schools have collapsed, so instead of learning under trees or crudely constructed tarp shelters or the hot sun or rain, they can learn in sheltered classrooms. The All Hands team was working with this school located in the outskirts of Kathmandu for almost a month, and I got to join the TLC team for the last week. When I got there, the fourth and final TLC had just begun, a few bamboo posts in the ground. As the week progressed, we made a ton of progress, putting up the rest of the bamboo support beams, a roof with a UNICEF tarp, then bamboo matting for the actual wall protection. Yesterday, Friday, we finished!
We were done by lunch time which was fantastic. After a delicious lunch, we returned to the school and had the rest of the day to enjoy the children. We played soccer and volleyball, sang, danced, and took hundreds of pictures. Twice, I dropped to a squat to take selfies with the kids, but I was swarmed, tackled to the ground, so I couldn't really even get a good shot. It was amazing fun.
At one point, the kids and teachers gathered around and the principal of the school called us (the volunteers) each up to give us gifts. We all got white scares, then guys got traditional Nepali hats and girls, colorful scarves. They showered us with flowers, cheered and chanted. I honestly felt the same elation as when I graduated from college, so proud of the work done.
And now, for the next 2-3 years, the kids will study our classrooms. Talk about good work.
So yeah, that was great. And I also feel good and healthy once again.
And now, 10 things I look forward to when I get back to the US.
1.Beef. Cows are holy here, so there isn't any beef. There is a lot of buffalo, chicken and other less identifiable meat that I haven't tried yet, but I want a nice juicy burger, or a steak.
2. Bacon mac-n-cheese. No explanation needed.
3. Hot showers. Cold showers are nice after a hard days work, but 3 weeks without hot water is taking a toll on my cleanliness, and if I don't shower right after work it takes a lot of nerve to dive in.
4. Clean water, all the time. Shower water, sink water, it's all cleaned with bleach and chlorine so I depend on bottled water, which I dont like. Mouth sealed is shut in the shower all the time. Oh, and the toilet water is always yellow.
5. A comfy bed and pillow.
6. TV. It's not terrible not having TV by any means, but I could use some SportsCenter and FIFA.
7. A phone with the ability to be a phone. Mines been on airplane mode for more than a month now!
8. Air Conditioning.
9. Convenience of going to a fridge and grabbing whatever I want, whenever I want.
10. 24-hour electricity, all day every day.
Happy fourth, everyone!
A big first for me today, first day as base manager. What is base manager, you ask? Let me tell you. There are around 7 of us on base, and each day, Sunday through Friday, while the teams are out in the field, one base manager stays behind to manage base. This involves: Water treating, shopping, overseeing housekeepers, helping staff, and just making base a better place.
Water treatment gets special mention because not only does everybody depend on you for showers when they return (and dishes and toilets, which are literally the worst when there's no water) but also its a complicated process. You have to pump water from the kathmandu water system into holding tank for approx 7 minutes. Next, you wait around an hour for the water to drain into an underground cistern. Then you pump water up to the roof, which takes about an hour. Then you add chemicals: Bleach and some crystal to remove the mud. Last, after letting the chemicals work their magic for around 2 hours, you pump the water up to the upper tank. I did this thrice today.
Helping staff is cool too, and you get to listen in on meetings and make suggestions for making base a better place. And shopping is great because you get to go into kathmandu and haggle with shopkeepers.
Today, I ran up and down the four flights of stairs around 40 times. I went to the laundromat with dirty volunteering shirts three times because they take a friggin 3 hour lunch break. I went to the copyshop to laminate 11 pages reminding people not to waste water in the shower (lather with the water off!) and I bought 60 eggs and 5 loaves of bread. I cleaned and restocked 3 med kits. And, I was able to get the clean, or "clean" water tank overflowing, which has apparently never happened before.
And the more I base manage, the more I'll be able to recommend as change, or improvement.
Tomorrow, back to rubbleing!!!
Funny day today...
I started with a new team today, at a site which All Hands has been working on for probably upwards of a week. It's a four house plot of land, all of which has been reduced to rubble. People described the site as the size of a soccer pitch (yay women's US team on victory in the world cup!!) and depth of a swimming pool. We showed up today, and the site was still a mess. Much better than before, but not a pretty site. We worked hard until lunch, but still thought there was a couple days work to do. However, after lunch, the rubble coordinator, Nikita, came, and after talking to the landowners, told us that they were all satisfied with what we had done and we were finished!
We then moved to another site, back at khadka, where I had previously cleared 4 other plots. "Grandpa" was very excited to see me again, as were several other villagers. As we got close to the sire, our truck got stuck on a hill and we had to heave our shovels up the hill. And about 20 minutes after starting, the rain came pouring down on us so hard that we had to leave early, which was good because the traffic on the way back was horrendous and there were rivers in the roads.
The first site we went to was really amazing though. There was a massive tree at the head of the site (pictured on FB) and down the road just a 3 minute walk was a beautiful place. An outdoor temple that was just a couple statues and a large bell, and a great view. At one point, while everyone else was working, I took a little walk, sat overlooking the view, and collected myself, listening to the birds chirping.
That's it for today, a bit of a headache brewing and I want to go buy some naan before trying to get an early nights sleep
This is a post about how i feel about where i am and what i am doing
So my sister just wrote to me on the facebook, and told me that she has been reading my blog (thanks, sis!) but it's been reporting, not how I feel about where I am and what I am doing. So here goes how I feel about where I am and what I am doing. I'll divide this post into two parts: Nepal and All Hands.
Nepal: How do I feel about it? I've never been to Asia before this trip. Before I left, my dad told me that Nepal was on a whole different spectrum than Guatemala, where we had gone over winter break, and Guatemala was already unlike anywhere I'd seen before. Frankly, I disagree, I think there's a lot in common: the level of poverty, the extremely nice people, the crappy roads. But I have also stayed primarily within Kathmandu, and apparently things change for the worse outside of the nations capital. But it's not even all good here.
The destruction is evident within the city. Obviously, this really changes my perception of the country, because I'm sure the state of Nepal was wayyyy different on April 24th, right before the earthquake. I often find myself looking at the destruction on the way to the sites, wondering about how things were before earthquake. It's really impossible to tell. But it is pretty amazing seeing everybody here working together on the streets, on houses, trying to rebuild.
Also, as Community Health and Economics major, it gives me a lot to think about. Where should the money be spent? Garbage is a huge problem here, and I wake up daily to the smell of burning trash, but the roads are falling apart (and have no lines on them, scary), the water coming from the Kathmandu water system literally smells like shit, and the sewage systems can't handle toilet paper. There are a lot of problems, how to best approach them?
I think next week, when I go to Pokhara for my mental health break, I will have a much more clear idea of the country as a whole.
All Hands: I love it. I don't know if I've said this before, but I do plan on making a fundraising page for the program when I return to the states, and I really don't usually like to ask for money from others unless I really believe in what its for. All Hands really has no big flaws in my eyes. The staff is passionate and transparent, the volunteers are all amazing and keep coming back to different sites, and the people who we are helping are super grateful.
I dont know what else we can ask for. They have volunteers help with household chores, which frees up money for more important things. They work directly with governments and other organizations. Every week they have lessons to better show us how we fit into the bigger picture, for instance today 3 Nepali men came and talked about architecture, what went wrong, and what can we do to fix things for the future. It's so interesting.
I guess this has all kind of ben reporting too, but I only report on things that I feel strongly about. Every day is tough, but rewarding. The work can be slow, but it's making an impact, one that I can see. I decided to go on this trip to give myself some time to clear my head, work hard, see what was important to me. But I really do feel like it's been more than that already, and I am not even halfway done.
I am going to be out of the field for the next week and a half, but I will explain why tomorrow. But I am sure my next task will give me a very different perspective.
Today I started a special project (okay, not very special) but I don't want to bore you all with the details until they all become clear over the next couple days. So instead, I am going to talk about the people here. Not the Nepalese, but the All Hands people.
I know I've said this before- even yesterday- but I really find them all amazing. Today though, you'll get more details. Not names, but stories/general feelings.
There is something special that relates all of the people here at All Hands. They have all dropped everything, put their lives aside for a little, and travelled to a faraway place in order to help people get their lives started again. It's a shared connection that makes the whole group so much tighter, and welcoming to the new people. It's always overwhelming trying to meet new people in a big group, but not here! It took a few days, for sure, but even on day 1 I had plenty of people coming up to me and making me feel like part of the family.
It's also the most eclectic group of people I have ever been with, even more than at the international schools I've gone to. There are Americans, Englishmen (and women), Scotts, Canadians, Australians, Indians, and so many more. Ages range from 19-40+, but age really is just a number. Two of the people I feel closest to, and who are in my eyes closest to each other, are the 19 year old and a 40 year old.
Some people are just graduated like me and trying to work out (or delaying) the next steps. Many are in college, just on summer breaks. Others are on sick leave, or vacation, from work. More have simply quit and are doing good, clearing their head for a while.
Almost all staff started as volunteers, again proving to me the integrity and strength of the organization.
And it really is a team. And one I am proud of. It's been a pleasure being here, getting to know people.
Days are long, but the time flies by.
Sometimes, you don't realize how much you miss things until they a) aren't usually available, and b) become available once again. As part of my special task, which will be described in tomorrows post (trying to build up the tension here!) I have access to a computer for this next week, and I guess I didn't realize how nice keyboards are. I feel like I've spent all day typing- not because I necessarily need to, but because it's so fun!
So now I'm typing up my blog post a little early, before everybody returns home, so I have access to a keyboard.
Nothing special today really- quite a quiet day for me as the person who's been training me since yesterday was sick today.
So what to write about?
One of my friends (LAAAREN) asked me today- what am I looking forward to most in the second half of my trip. It's hard to say, but I think, after thinking about this for the better part of the day, that I have the answer.
It's crazy to think, but the next week doesn't really count for me in terms of work, which means I am essentially halfway done with my time here. The first half has been a blast- I've been thrown into work and have enjoyed almost minute of it (sorry stomach, you really know how to mess up a day). But until this point, I've been just another cog in the wheel, just doing what is needed to make us operate well.
The second half of the trip brings a couple additional possibilities which will be exciting for me. First of all, there is a good chance that I will be going to Sindhupalchuk (sindhu), which will be beautiful and a nice change of pace. A lot more intense based on what I've heard, but also more beautiful, and probably even more worthwhile. Kathmandu is the center of Nepal, but didn't have too much destruction, as the architecture is solid. The farther you get out of the city, the worse it gets. Sundhu is a region which was hit hardest, they lost almost half of the lives in all of Nepal, and there was unbelievable destruction of homes, schools, and more. Here, it takes an hour to get to a typical rubble site. There, it's right next door. I may go to Sindhu, I may not. It seems to be a logistical difficulty, and because I only will have a month when I get back, it may be better for me to stay here and not move base. I also know the people here well, and don't want to leave. If I leave here, I leave for good. But the idea, and the possibility, is very exciting.
The second thing that is exciting is the possibility of being Team Leader. I've done base managing, and will continue to do that. But that's only concerned with the day-to-day operations around base. Team Leader is for on-site. We are the point person, in charge of talking to the homeowners, figuring out what they want, how it fits with what we can do, and finding a good middle ground. I totally plan on trying to be a team leader, and I don't think it'll be a problem. I like problem solving, and finding compromises. It's exciting too, I like to be in charge, and enjoy the challenge of keeping peoples spirits up when the work is hard.
A weird thing though-- as time passes, fewer and fewer people remain that have been here from the beginning. It's turning into a very different crowd, albeit similar as well. It's always nice hearing that somebody will be here still when I leave, but many people are coming and leaving all the time.
Hope that's a good answer, LAAAREN.
Happy Thursday, y'all.
So what's the secret mission then?
I've been talking about it all week-- now it's time to blow my cover.
This week... I'll be working... As a field coordinator, a staff position!
Last Saturday, as I was walking back to base, Kyle, the full-time field coordinator, pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to cover for him in his job while he went on his three day break. I obliged, and now, the time is coming. He leaves tomorrow morning, but my real responsibilities begin Sunday morning. What am I in charge of? Making sure everybody has a place to work during the day, making sure that there are vehicles available for staff to go on various day-trips, making sure the tools are in working order, and more.
There's a lot of data entry involved too. But not too much. I actually am only taking on a small portion of his overall work load, so I will have a fair amount of "free time" when I can work on other projects.
It should be an interesting week. Sunday through Tuesday I'll be FCing, and then I go on break after. It's too bad that I'm not going to be working hard this week and will be in need of a break physically, but it is a much more daunting task, with a lot of responsibility.
I think it should be very interesting, giving me the opportunity to interact with staff a lot more, and see a very different side of operations.
That's it for now, more details to come later.
Well, this week certainly was unlike the previous 3. First day base managing, though that seems like it was eons ago. Then, 2 days in the field and the rest was training with Kyle.
And next week will be even wonkier, 3 days as Field Coordinator and then my break, so no actual work in the field.
Not much to say this week. I've seen the impact monsoon has in the field, and now understand better why all this rubbleing is important to do ASAP. But also, I really think other projects are much more important and can lead to much larger impacts.
I look towards to working closely with staff this week and being able to ask them questions about how things are run.
The day off has been really relaxing, just sleeping and eating good food. Going out now for more.
Bye bye!
So today was a lot more eventful than I expected...
I woke up at 5:55, as Kyle 1 trained me to do. I come downstairs. Now, Sunday is a special day because a) there is a day break before Sunday, which throws things off, and b) there is a meeting at 6:45 in the morning when everyone signs up on the board. Now, I was pretty tired (and lazy) last night, so instead of setting up the board yesterday as I should have done, I instead decided to do everything this morning.
So I awoke at 5:55 and for the next 50 minutes, I was staring at the board, trying to make the numbers work, trying to magically add people because we had too many people leave this weekend and none come. In the end, I did the best I could, and we were a few people short. Meeting time came and went, and people signed up, though sadly there were open spaces (as I had expected) so I had to shuffle people around against their will (I guess that comes with the job). Finally, everybody was off to work sites.
Then, a few staff members came up to me and told me that they needed jeeps, and I needed to say no to a few because THEY DIDN'T GIVE ME 24 HOURS NOTICE LIKE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO. So that was fun, putting the staff in their places.
So what was I planning on doing during the day today? Data entry, then wait for teams to come back to set the board up for tomorrow. First thing I noticed was that Kyle did ALL of the paperwork Friday night, so there went that. I was ready for a lazy day of Facebook and other fun things (reading news and watching baseball) but before I got going, Matt, the Associate Project Director, sent me on a mission with a team from Sindhupalchuk to buy things, calling me "trustworthy." I got a bunch of cash, and went off, "babysitting" and bargaining while the Sindy team went crazy. We went to an awesome supermarket, a pharmacy with EVERYTHING, and a street of stores with hardware, such as wheelbarrows, pickaxes, and other tools.
All in all, we spent a lot of money, but saved almost $100 through expert negotiation. We also found that playing the "we're for an NGO and here in earthquake relief" was a great way to get a deal.
It took about 5 hours, and when I got back, I was BEAT and there was no more lunch. It was really hot out today.
Then, shortly after returning, there was a flurry of activity as the teams started to return, and a real headache because the numbers just didn't add up. But I got it all done in the end, and I'm looking forwards to another day of Field Coordinating tomorrow-- hopefully no emergencies arise, once again!
another exhausting day at the desk
Another day which I expected to be nice and quiet, another day which was far busier than I expected.
Today, a day volunteer (DV) blacked out on site, tumbled down a hill, and had to be transported to the CIWEC clinic, a Kathmandu hospital. Of course, over the three days of training there was never a serious crisis to be trained on (thankfully) but then, as soon as Kyle left and I took over, boom goes the volunteer. Fortunately, I had a good general idea of what I was supposed to do because I had read the team leader handbook, but it's hard to assess a situation without being present. And of course the team leader, Jaakko, was on his first day as team leader, so he was a little over his head too.
Thankfully, I had the staff (full time) around me to support me and tell me what to do and tell Jaakko, but it was still a headache. The steps: Assess whether the DV needed to go to the hospital (he did). Get him going in the van with another person, but not the team leader. Tell the team leader to hold tight and not work while the van was away (so if somebody else gets hurt they're not stranded). Send a staff member to the hospital to await arrival. Everything happened with minimal delay. But for three hours I was fretting about, talking to Nepali van drivers who barely understood me, and trying to reach Jaakko on a phone he rarely answered. I only felt good again once I saw his team back for the day.
But it was also a day of musical cars. People ask for cars, and I usually make sure there is one for them. But then I always need to have one for emergencies, so when the emergency happens, all of a sudden there isn't a free car for future emergencies and I need to figure out who to call back.
Other than that, not much eventful. Took a couple wheelbarrows to the welder to get fixed, work out a crazy board with SO MANY SPECIAL TEAMS, and figure out a way to do so without making anybody angry. In the end, I think only one person was unhappy with the way the board worked out... maybe three people... but that's part of the job. Got to send people where they're needed, not where they want to go.
All in all, there is a lot more stress and worrying than Kyle warned me about. I can't wait for break... in two days!!!
I will get into that, my exciting wonderful break, tomorrow. For now, good night!
The all-caps of the title isn't big because I'm excited, but it's in BIG LETTERS because it's a BIG DAY! It seems like just a week ago that I arrived, but so many people have come and gone already, and more set to come and go before I finally leave for go.
Half way done. Here from June 14th-August 14th, and today is July 14th. So pretty much right smack dab in the middle of things. Also, a month into my trip, which means that tomorrow, I'm going on break! So what's my plan for break? I'm going to Pokhara- just like pretty much everybody else on All Hands. I'm going alone, and let me tell you, I am excited for a few days of quiet privacy, and have no real plans.
Other than take a hot shower... or three... or ten...
And take pictures.
And read a lot.
And sleep, and sleep some more.
And eat some good food-- probably not dahl bhaat.
And probably get a massage. I guess I do have some plans.
I may go kayaking, and I may go bungee jumping or paragliding or rafting, but I am on a budget (and unemployed, you know, so no current income...) so anything I do will be only if it works with my limited money. Apparently I can get a great hotel there for $3-8 a night, so that will be nice. We'll see how far my money takes me.
What won't I be doing?
Administrative work. Rubbleing. Waking up at 5:55 in the morning. Constructing shelters. Sleeping in a room with 5 other people. Being constrained by quiet hours (not that I plan on making a lot of noise). Updating this blog and my daily picture to facebook. In fact, I'll have my phone but I really don't want to use it much.
Pretty much I'll be using this break to get as far away from all things All Hands, so that when I get back I'm full of energy and ready for the second half of my vacation.
And it all starts tomorrow. Don't worry though, I'll be back on Saturday.
On a different note- I said I wasn't going to set up a fundraiser until I got back home, but I decided it really wasn't worth the wait. This way, I can post updates and all that while I'm still on site. I just posted a link on FB, but for those of you who aren't my friends (on FB), the link is:
https://give.hands.org/yanivsfundraising
Thanks for donating, and thanks for reading! I have way more readers than expected, and it really makes my writing of posts a lot more enjoyable... More in a few days!!!
I'm back from my "mental health" break today, and it was... unexpected, powerful, eye-opening, scary, confusing, emotional. All in all, it was the farthest thing from a mental health break possible.
I'll get right down to business, skip the frills. The first day was nice and relaxing. After a 7-8 hr bus ride I arrived to Pokhara, found a nice hotel, and settled in for the night. The next day, I had plans with Asu, the sister of Sunita, a lady I worked with at Carmichael Dining. It was rainy, but we went to see a waterfall and a cave. And then, it happened.
As we emerged from the exit of Devi's waterfall, there was a commotion, people running across the street and down the hill beyond. We made our way to a crowd of people, and Asu was shortly able to explain to me what was happening. A school had collapsed nearby, and there were kids inside, taking exams. She asked if I wanted to go see, and to me, it seemed like more of a "come along" so off we went.
We were incredibly close to the school, it turns out. It was less than 2 minutes away. And the building had apparently just collapsed, because as we made it to the entrance, the first ambulance was just arriving. I entered the school courtyard, and it was, to put it plainly, mayhem.
At the far end of the field was the school building, totally collapsed except for a room on the far left. Dozens, maybe hundreds of men were where the walls had once stood, most of them trying to hold the roof up (why, I am not completely sure) while dozens of others were furiously throwing large slabs of concrete, old walls, onto the side and out of the way. Boys were running around, pulling goalposts out of the ground in order to help prop the roof up. When the goalposts were gone, they returned with bamboo posts. Schoolgirls stood in circles, holding onto their friends and crying. And interspersed in the ever-growing ground were mothers and fathers, wailing.
I've never seen anything like it before.
The rain was still cascading down, and I was standing there, under my umbrella, a wave of emotions spreading through me. I wanted to help, but didn't know how. It was chaos, and I didn't want to add to the confusion. I had my camera, but didn't want to take pictures. I took solace in the huge amount of people standing around as I was, feeling that if there were things that needed to happen, there wouldn't be a crowd. Yet I still felt both powerless and that I should be doing something.
Occasionally, a large slab of concrete fell off the wall of the room on the left with a THUNK, crashing on the floor into a million pieces. At one point, a tree fell off the hill behind the classroom and onto the roof. People shouted in fear. I was scared that the roof would fall again, on top of the people holding it up, and that I would be forced into action.
I felt so scared, so alone, so far away from everyone and everything that matters to me. My mind was racing, I became extremely thankful for All Hands and what it does, thinking that a TLC in this school courtyard could have made a difference. But I also wanted to be able to make a difference when it mattered, but I felt frozen in place, unable to act.
Standing in the middle of the chaos unfolding all around, I was stuck in my thoughts, trying to process everything.
At one point, the men started pulling people from beneath the rubble. First, a young girl with a battered and bloody face. Next, an older girl, who couldn't stand on her own. It reminded me of the news, gory pictures of kids suffering at the hands of others in war zones.
Soon after they pulled the second girl out, Asu and I retreated back to the main road. We stood there for a while-- her neighbors husband (I guess her neighbor) was driving us around, but he was busy helping out.
We watched, standing back on the main road, as truck after truck of military and police arrived. The first to come were armed with shovels, hoes and pickaxes, much like the tools we use at All Hands. Next came another brigade, with rope, and a chainsaw.
Eventually, her neighbor returned, and we were off for more sightseeing. But for the most part, I couldn't get those moments out of my head. I had a delicious dinner at her other sisters house, then returned to my hotel.
A 9th grade boy was killed in the schools collapse, and some 13 others were hospitalized, students and teachers alike. From what I gathered, the earthquake had weakened the back wall, causing cracks. Then, on Thursday, the torrential rain caused a small landslide behind the school, takig out the back wall and with it, the rest of the school.
The next day I spent almost exclusively inside, trying to wrap my head around everything that I saw, make sense of it all.
I'm lying on my bed now, writing this post on my phone. It's been more than 48 hours since the school fell, but it's still prevalent in my mind. Honestly, though I still am trying to figure it all out, I can say it was a life changing moment. On one hand, I am happy that I didnt dive into the rubble like the men, so far from home. But I also wish I was able to do something.
I have to see how the next couple of days are for me here. I need to talk to some people, and hopefully tell my story to the All Hands team tomorrow morning during the meeting. I need to see if things get better or worse or stay the same. I feel like I'm not totally with it yet.
I may return home early, back to the states. I feel like it will only be easier for myself to move on in a place that I consider to be more of a home, though just returning to base today was a great feeling.
I just have to feel it out, and see where things take me.
A week ago today, I was in Pokhara and watched the terrible aftermath of a school collapsing during the school day with kids sitting inside taking exams. I posted on this blog about it the day that I returned to Kathmandu, but since then, I've gone radio-silent. Everything is okay, I'm doing alright, slowly moving past what I saw. But those terrifying moments, probably no more than 15 minutes, will sit with me for a lonnnng time as I struggle to come to terms with everything.
This past week has not been the best week, to put it lightly. The day after I returned, I started writing another blog post, got distracted, and then forgot about it for the evening. Lying in bed that night, I remembered writing a post, but had no idea whether I had finished and/or posted it. My mind is scattered and frazzled much of the time.
Let's do a basic rundown of how the week so far has been, day by day:
Saturday- returned to base, read a lot.
Sunday- went out to site, rubbleing. It was, for the most part, very good. My body was occupied, not giving my mind the time to wander too much. Returned back, and spent a lot more time reading... Reading has been a great outlet for the past week, I've read 2 books. Bel Canto and Dan Brown's Inferno. At the Sunday night meeting, I told the people of All Hands about my experience. They've been extremely supportive, always there to talk if I need.
Monday- Housekeeping in the morning; never fun. In the afternoon, went out to an IDP camp (to be explained at a later date) and dug trenches/built bridges for a few hours. It's good work, but sometimes disorganized.
Tuesday- Toughest day yet. After a fine afternoon on Monday, I decided to spend the whole day at the IDP camp. But I really didn't sleep well (a recurring theme- having trouble falling asleep) and my mind was not in a good place. I worked for around an hour, took a nap in the van, then Matt, the Team Leader, told me I should go home. Not only was I not doing work, I wasn't encouraging productivity among other workers (they kept checking in on me). I went home, finished Bel Canto, and took a nice nap. Even after the nap, I wasn't in the best spirits. However, Dougie and Doran, two great guys, my initial roommates, who had met before the earthquake and have been a totally inseparable force since then (though they left All Hands almost 3 weeks ago) were leaving the next day, so a group of us went out to celebrate with them. It was a good end to a bad day, but unfortunately included some painful goodbyes.
Also, after a great conversation with the Program Director, Gary, I decided that I would try and stay for last 3 weeks that I had initially signed up for. For the past week I've been having a fierce internal debate over whether I should stay or go. I wanted to stay, but felt like going. Even now, I hope to stay but am not 100% confident that I will. For the time being, I'm taking on a diminished workload, sleeping in, having some quiet time in the mornings, with the option of going out with housekeepers in the afternoon. Work is good, but I need time to process everything and that's hard when I'm getting shepherded along with the rest of the volunteers.
Wednesday- Many of my good friends remaining went on break together, for 4-9 days. I spent the day on base, reading, napping, and then I went out with the base manager for the day, Sabrina, to do some shopping, where I bought myself a ton of good food. Then in the evening, Google people came to talk about their project here (will be explained in a later post).
Today- I slept in a little, had some eggs (WITH CHEESE!!) for breakfast, then went to help with Google stuff for a little. It was a productive day, we did everything, but there wasn't much to do, so I also read a lot. I finished a 610 page book in two days. Oh, how I enjoy books!
The next 3 weeks will not be easy, but I hope I use them to slingshot myself back to good positive energy and help. The support I've received has been amazing, both on base and online. The things I saw imprinted themselves in my mind, and though I wish I hasn't had to witness everything, I am thankful for the growth that it will eventually lead to.
Looking forward to a quiet weekend, and a ever-improving next few weeks.
I booked my ticket back home yesterday. I am leaving a little earlier than expected, spending a few days in Israel, then back to Boston! When I return, it's off to visit my grandma in upstate NY with my sister for a weekend, then who knows where life will take me. Incredibly, I only have 13 days left here! Oh, how time flies.
I kind of explained my week yesterday. Things are much better than they were last week at this time, and I think the last two weeks will also be good for me.
This morning, I woke up really early and did a mini fundraiser. Only raised around $10 making pancakes, but I also did a valuable service to my volunteers by offering cheap breakfast on base, and Betty Crocker, at that. I had a delicious chocolate chip pancake myself.
Trying to read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein but it's quite dense and hard to get into. Yeah, not much to say today...
Looking forward to another week in the field-- hopefully this one is better than the last!
In the intro packet for All Hands Project Nepal, they warn us that May-September is monsoon season, and that we should be prepared. I was sure that meant that for the entirety of my time here, it would be raining cats and dogs. Frankly, I was wrong. Sure, it has been raining a lot, but it's not an all-day, every-day kind of thing. Most night, it rains for a few hours. Occasionally, it rains while we're out in the field, and occasionally a small drizzle turns into a torrential downpour.
And although, as a Seattle native, I like the rain, the monsoon rain is something else. It has large, stinging drops falling, and the water is COLD. I like the rain, but not monsoon rain.
But really, I've been unimpressed with the power of the monsoon. Until last night.
Last night, after I posted my blog post, it started to rain. And boy, did it rain. I was sitting upstairs on a couch, and within minutes, the rain was seeping under the doors. The porch was flooding! Dom, some guy here, went outside to try and clear the drain, but it wasn't clogged, the rain was just too powerful and voluminous! And in the 10 seconds he was outside, he got drenched! Like, jump in a pool with all your clothes on drenched.
Looking out the window, I'd never seen the rain coming down so hard. It looked like the air was totally saturated with water. You could barely see to the edge of the porch, less than 10 feet away. This is the monsoon I was imagining.
All in all, I think it rained for about 30 minutes. But by the end, the streets were flooded- people had to wade through 3-6 inches of water to get back to base. Wow.
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Today was a very good day. Exhausting, but good. Rubbleing on a little site in a village I've already cleared 7 plots on, and this site was all mud, no rocks or brick or wood, which makes everything run well. And the team worked like a well oiled machine, rotating through shoveling and wheelbarrowing. It was hot out too, and humid, but we worked our butts off. You know its a good day when the entire can of people falls asleep on the ride back! A little reading, then going to bed early.
Last week, I mentioned working at an IDP camp but delayed talking about what it was. Today was fairly uneventful day -- sure, we finished a rubble site (probably the prettiest end product I've seen for a rubble site in my month and a half here) and ate the spiciest Dahl bhaat for lunch I've had yet (spicy omelet included) but other than that, not much happened.
So what is an IDP camp then? To put it simply, an IDP camp is an internally displaced persons camp. It's like a refugee camp, but instead of for refugees fleeing across borders, it's for people who have remained inside their own country but have nowhere to live. After natural disasters, many people obviously find themselves without homes. While Kathmandu was relatively unscathed, surrounding areas were devastated. So what do people do, then? Flock to the city, of course.
IDP camps are set up to house all of the homeless. They are large expanses where families can come, set up tents and live. Emergency food supplies are often delivered, and each camp should, in theory, have a manager to ensure things are good. But they rarely are.
So what do we do with All Hands?
IDP camp work is varied. Most camps are on level ground, meaning that during Monsoon season, the entire camp can be flooded. So we build trenches, and then bridges over trenches. Sometimes, we build toilets when sanitation options are poor. In the beginning of my time here, I built a large shelter for multiple families to live in.
The work is fine, but frustrating too. A lot of the time, people on site are trying to direct us, when we already have a plan. For example, they didn't want a trench to drain the massive puddle in the middle of the IDP, because kids played in it. But mosquitoes also laid their eggs in the puddle/pond, and that's a big worry. Sometimes though there is a lot of community engagement, and that's awesome. I don't think I plan on returning though, because I find the rubble to be great work for me right now.
Tomorrow, base managing! But now, sleep!
oops, forgot to post yesterday!
Base managing is always a lot more busy than I expect it to be, especially if I really want to go above and beyond and not aim for the bare minimum. Yesterday was busy, and the best part was that in the middle of the day Ashcash and Cedric returned from Pokhara, so we had to celebrate at night :). So I totally forgot about posting until it was wayyyyy past my bed time (around 11:15 pm).
What did I do yesterday? Bought breakfast food, managed water processes, updated the sign out book, bought 200 garbage bags, and also typed up a "info packet" for new Base Managers. I have seen so many people come and go here - I'm now the third most "senior" volunteer - and I have seen the base managers change and change again. I've talked to staff about having a base manager liason in order to serve as a responsible entity above other base managers, and they agreed. They asked if I could do so, but I'm leaving in just over a week so it doesn't make sense. But yeah, hopefully going to implement some changes before I leave.
I woke up today with wicked stomach pains, and knowing the dangers of going out to site feeling unwell- particularly having no clean bathroom in range and feeling useless, I decided to stay back and rest, hoping to feel better tomorrow. I read, listened to mariners, and just woke up from a 4ish hour nap... Hope I can sleep tonight!
Only 8 more days here! Lemme know if there's something you want me to write about before this blog goes kaput!
My phone is about to die, and I want to go downstairs to sleep, but my time here is running out and I suddenly feel like there is a lot to say, so a quick blog post about google.
Google is partnered with All Hands, and in the past two weeks came twice to talk about a) what they are doing here and then b) what they did while they were here. It was really cool stuff.
In the past, Google has donated money and services to disaster response projects, but in Nepal they have started a pilot project, sending 18 employees to work for 2 weeks on various projects. They had a hackathon, appathon, and four separate projects relating to Youtube video production, data conglomeration and analysis in a simple way, citizen empowerment, and website design. They came in and had large projects, and for two weeks they worked to make Nepal better off.
And because of our partnership, we hosted them for a couple dinners, and listened to their presentations. It was very cool.
Okay my phone has 3% battery, so goodbye! More tomorrow :)
Well, it's my last Saturday here, so it may be my last Saturday reflection, though I will probably post something next Saturday when I am back in Israel. It's pretty crazy to think about it but I've already been here for seven weeks and I don't even have a full week here left.
When I arrived, I was less than a month out of college. Graduation now seems like a lifetime ago. I've experienced the most chaotic event in my life, and worked hard, 6 days a week. But I don't want to get into everything now, that's for next week. I guess I will post next week.
So what did I do this week? I listened to google, did a lot of rubbleing, spent a day base managing, and spent two days working on the 50 homes project (described later). It was just another week, but I already feel the sentimental vibes and nostalgia looking back on everything. I also sang "another brick in the wall" at zibros, our favorite bar, on my last Friday night here. That song really has been the theme song for the trip, one week we listened to it daily on or way to AND back from site.
Don't get me wrong, I am excited to go back home, but now that the end is near, I feel like I could easily stay longer.
I also met up with the parents of a high school friend today, and it was amazing. Great conversation, recollecting old times, and the most incredible meal I've had in a long time. Thanks Robert and Jill, and Laura for telling me they're here.
And the cab ride there was insane. First of all, we agreed on 300 rupees after a little haggling, but when I paid 500, I only got 100 change. It's only a dollar, but when you're here you really see how far 1$ can go, so I argued with the cabbie for about 3 minutes before slamming the door and storming off. But the ride was also crazy. He was honking for around 1/3 of the time, swerving into oncoming traffic, honking some more. It kind of reminded me of the bubble I've been in here, I really haven't gone out to explore much. I really like this country and definitely plan on returning, but this trip I have been focused on work.
This next week will certainly fly by. I plan on focusing on rubble but may dabble in other projects, based on where my friends are.
5 more days of work, that's all.
And now, bed time! Gotta be up for the early 6:45 meeting tomorrow!
Last Sunday today. Lots of rubbleing. I'm now working on my 10th house for the same family, Khadka. It seems like half of my time here has been working in the same village, and in fact, I guesstimate that I have spent around 20 days working to help this family. And I am back for more tomorrow!
I had a little bit of heartburn on site today and it's always a bummer when you don't feel like you're contributing 100% to the team effort, but there is only so much you can do and we got tons done today anyway.
Had a fantastic lunch today too. As usual, rice and lentily soup with curried potatoes. But they also served us some delicious spicy cabbage coleslaw thingy, and best of all, hard boiled eggs with this delicious coating which looked threatening but tasted delicious, kind of like deviled eggs, and I still feel fine. I mixed it all up on my plate and it was a great concoction, a melody of flavors. After lunch the beneficiary laid out a tarp, then mats, then a nice rug on top of it all, and we had ourselves a siesta.
One thing I've realized here is that while flies can be annoying, they usually cause no harm (unless they land on poop and food/your mouth in quick succession) but our body WAY overreacts. I'm trying to take a nap, a fly lands on my leg, and my body freaks out. JUST LET ME NAP IN PEACE!!!
Took my laundry to the laundry place today for the last time just now, and going to pick it up for the last time tomorrow. The laundry place doesn't as much clean the clothes as disperse the filth evenly across it all. It also comes back with a funky smell. As I was throwing all of my laundry into the laundry bag, I realized I dont need to clean it all... Only four days left! Plus Friday, my travel day.
And Thursday night, I'll be staying in a hotel, with hot water.
Ta Ta for now!
Third to last blog post today. I figure I'll churn something out tomorrow about something undetermined (feel free to make requests) and then probably write some concluding post back in Israel on Saturday... Not done yet!
Today I am going to write about the 50 homes project, the last project I've worked on which hasn't been discussed in a post. I've talked about rubbleing, TLCs, IDPs, and so this is it. And though I said I was going to rubble hard all week, I was pretty beat today so I've decided to do 50 homes tomorrow, gather some energy (it's not the most physically taxing activity) and then go extra hard on Thursday, my last working day.
So what is the 50 homes project?
Gary, the project director here, had a conversation a while back with a donor. I am not quite sure how it went, but it ended up with her donating $50,000, enough for us to build 50 "transitional" homes for 50 families. As of now, only the pilot house is completed, but we just got a shipment of CGI roofing and hopefully in the next few days we will be able to finish the other 10 that are otherwise ready.
What goes into a home in the 50 homes project? A lot of love, hard work, and metal. A typical home takes 3-4 days to set up, but there are also 3 teams working on different parts of the project at all times.
Typical set up goes as follows. Day 1, the structure assembly occurs. The house is prefabricated metal, so imagine a house made of metal from Ikea. You dig holes in the ground, bury the foundation poles three feet deep in the holes, then connect the foundation poles together with other metal pieces, connecting them all with nuts and bolts.
The naked structure is walls, two front doors, and a roof, all just metal poles. This takes a team of five almost a whole day. The day I helped with this step, I spent the last fourish hours of the day tightening all the nuts and bolts. All in all, I tightened up probably upwards of 100 of them, and by the end my hands were SO sore.
The next day is wire mesh, which is weaved through itself in 15 cm intervals along the entire bottom half of the house. First you tie and tighten the vertical wires, then you weave through the vertical wires horizontal ones, tying them up and tightening them. It also takes a whole day, and it's not the most exciting work, but it has to be done. The reason we do this instead of making a wall is because the Nepali government wants to take control of building houses, and if we build a wall, it becomes a permanent structure. This way though, if the beneficiaries build a wall, the wire mesh prevents stones from falling into the house.
Day 3 is metal sheeting around the top half of the house. I won't be doing this, but it requires a power drill, and seems to be very slow work. Lastly, the roof (CGI) and floor (brick) is placed.
It's really an amazing project. We're building homes in 3 communities, and I've already raised enough money to build a home!
Also, for any house which doesn't have WASH facilities, we come around after completing the homes, and build them toilets.
These families only own the land they live on, and lost everything when their houses collapses. It's really amazing and I am happy to say I was a part of it.
2more workdays!!
Halfway through my day today, I realized exactly what I wanted to post about! But first, a quick recap of the day.
All in all, not the most exciting of days. Did the wire mesh for an entire house, and had a lot of fun too, asking questions like "if you could only go to one new country from here on out, where would it be?" (New Zealand) and "if you were a kitchen utensil, what would you be?" (a spatula). We finished an hour early, and after asking the other sections of the All Hands house building teams if they needed help (they didn't), we sat on the most beautiful overlook of the city. It would have been a fitting end to the trip, but there's still one more day!
Tonight, the Associate Project Director, Matt, is leaving. So all the staff, and many others are going out to the bars. Who did they ask to be the staff on duty? Me! Why? I don't know! Maybe they trust me? So I am in charge of base right now! And if anyone misses curfew, I get to lock them out.
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So what did I suddenly realize that I wanted to blog about today? David Campbell, the founder of All Hands. He's visiting this week, and last night, he gave a talk about the first ten years of All Hands. And let me tell you, it was phenomenal. David is 73 years old, and if you had asked him when he was 61 years old what he was looking forward to in his coming years, he would have said nothing about disaster relief. Then, the typhoon in Thailand happened, and as he likes to say, his life changed with a single sentence, in conversation with a businessman who was in typhoon range just a week before it struck.
David went to Thailand, and that was essentially the founding of All Hands. He spent around three weeks there, helping those most severely affected rebuild their lives. Then Hurricane Katrina happened, and he decided to go there, help with the lessons he had learned from Thailand, and spent a while there. They were one of the only NGOs doing work in Haiti, and were on the ground in Nepal within 72 hours of the earthquake (yay Gary!).
And it was really cool hearing about how, though the organization has undergone a ton of growth in the past 10 years (they now have seven active projects) there are several key points developed in the first weeks that still are critically important, such as heavy use of whiteboards and the nightly meeting.
It's always great hearing influential, powerful people speak. It was a great semi-end to my trip here. And David seems to be a very nice and genuine man.
Last day tomorrow! Then I fly out Friday night. I'll spend tomorrow with my people here, so dont plan on a blog post until some point Friday night or Saturday.
Wow...
I'm sitting here, in my apartment in Tel Aviv, thinking back on the past two months...
Three months ago, I was stressing about finals and graduation from college. That now seems like a lifetime ago. Since June 14th, when I flew to Kathmandu, I've seen and experienced things that I would have never expected. I joined the All Hands family, and made some lifelong friends from all over the world. I've helped families unable to help themselves, built schools and shelters, and improved others. I took photos, updated a blog, and started raising money for an organization that I trust wholeheartedly.
So first of all, thank you All Hands for the amazing experience. I'll be back.
I'm sure that a lot of how I feel is going to wear off in a couple days-- I still have the urge to throw my toilet paper in the garbage, to wake up super early, and to not wash my hands with soap and water because that'll just get them dirtier. I have a nagging fear that the power will die out at any moment, and it's hard to trust that the food here is already clean without excessive amounts of cleaning. There's always a period of time when travelling where you need to get used to the way of life, but I find that the shock factor is usually larger coming back from low income countries that going to them.
In the past year, I've travelled to Guatemala and then Nepal, two very poor countries where to me, the people seem happier. Sure, they don't have high paying jobs and fancy houses. Their concept of time is less that it defines where we are, when, and instead is just a background factor in their life. They aren't rushing from place to place, but enjoying their time where they are, when they are. On my flight from Kathmandu to Istanbul yesterday, I watched Boyhood, the story of a boy growing up. At the end of the movie, he's sitting with a girl in the desert, and she says "You know how everyone's always saying seize the moment? I don't know, I'm kind of thinking it's the other way around, you know, like the moment seizes us." And that really resonated with me, in light of my past few weeks. We get wrapped up in moving our lives forwards instead of enjoying the moments that matter most.
I have so much to say here, but I'm going to try and keep it short-ish because otherwise I'm going to go on for ages.
The people at All Hands were fantastic. I miss them already, though I have several conversations with them going on Facebook as I try and write this final post. They opened my eyes to a new kind of person; I met so many people who live their life almost entirely on the road. They work for 6 months, then travel for 18. They volunteer, they trek, they do whatever they want. I've had life plans for the past 10 years. These people never stay in one place for long. It's not a lifestyle I see myself having, but I didn't even realize that there were people who travel for so long. This was my longest trip ever away from "home," almost two months. I met people who have been travelling for 6 months, a year, two years! Some of them don't even really have a home! It's amazing to see the variety in people. And though we were from all over the world, all ages, we all got along great. If you asked me who my 10 closest friends were, I wouldn't tell you. But I would tell you they were the most diverse group of people, including those from the US, UK (England, Scotland, Ireland), France, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, India, and many other places as well.
The work was even better than the people (sorry, people). When I saw the school collapse in Pokhara, I was sure I wanted to return home. But as time slowly passed, I started to want to remain for longer, so that's what I decided to do. I threw myself into the work, shoveling like my life depended on it, wheelbarrowing load after load to the dump site, and so on. There's something amazing about watching a site transform from a pile of rubble to an open area with different materials neatly sorted on the side. And more than the transformation of the site, it's amazing to see the transformation of the beneficiary, from sad and helpless to so happy and hopeful for their future for the first time in months. All Hands goes where the help is minimal, and it can be transformative for an entire community to see a group of westerners come to a beneficiaries house and clean up the rubble. I'm looking forwards to the job hunt but I doubt any work will be as rewarding and the work I did in Nepal.
When I first arrived in Nepal, someone asked me what I studied, and after I told them Community Health and Economics, they said that I would find Nepal incredibly interesting in both regards. And I did. The lack of sanitation in the IDP camps drove me crazy. The way people spend their money was infuriating. The lack of good paved roads and $1 packs of cigarettes made me question where the country was going. There is, to say the least, a lot to "fix" in Nepal to bring it up to the standard of living that we are used to in the west. But as I said in the beginning, the people there were so nice and happy, that I don't even know if most interventions I was thinking of would be morally sound.
Lastly, thank you to all of you. I had more than 2,500 page views on my blog, and though I'm not sure how that number is tabulated, it's WAY more than I expected. Knowing there were so many people reading my posts was more than enough to make me look forwards to writing a new post every day. Thank you for liking my pictures on Facebook, and sending me messages whenever you pleased, with questions, words of support, and comments. Thank you for donating to my fundraising page, and thank you for anything else that you may have done. It was an amazing trip, but your virtual company made it all the better. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
What's next for me? Israel for the next three days. Then back to Boston, then a weekend in NYC, then back to Boston, then a weekend in upstate NY with my sister visiting my Nana, then back to Boston. And starting now, the Job Hunt is back in business. Woo Hoo, wish me luck!
That's it from me. This short chapter of my life, and this blog, are finished. And though I will remember it for a long time, it is time to move onwards.
Links:
David Campbell, founder of All Hands, talking about the organization at a TEDx event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdHzXRGr79c
My fundraising page (almost halfway to my goal, please donate!): https://give.hands.org/fundraise?fcid=477419
The official All Hands Project Nepal facebook page (follow for more updates): https://www.facebook.com/All.Hands.Nepal
David Campbells short book (longer one coming soon, proceeds go to All Hands): http://www.amazon.com/Being-There-Surprisingly-Effective-Organization/dp/1629670391/ref=redir_mobile_desktop/182-8110207-2230105?ie=UTF8&dpID=51esPhpOgHL&dpPl=1&keywords=Being%20there%2C%20campbell&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&qid=1438576755&ref=plSrch&ref_=mp_s_a_1_1&sr=8-1