It was my first Nepalese bus ride and 3 and a half hours later we arrived about 60 kilometres (only:)) North from Kathmandu, to Dunche – Trisuli bazar. We were already a bit tired although the ride was actually easy compared to the ones I had later. But they needed us to clean a base they were using on a different project so we put on our gloves and started cleaning. After finishing we needed to get to the new base which was not far but very much uphill on a very bumpy road. Finally we arrived at Rate Mate (it means Red Mud which was soon all over our clothes), our new home.
We got a tour around the camp, saw our toilets which were opened at one side to make them fresher and also this way we got nice view while being in, which for me was kind of nice as I love peeing with a view :). I just had to forget the fact that actually anyone can hear you or also see you in there, but I don’t think this was the purpose or a wish of anyone there so I was pretty relaxed :).
I just wanted to put up my tent but next there was the meeting which took place every day. There was a discussion about the work, the rules and also time for the new volunteers to introduce. I was pretty uncomfortable standing in front of plenty of people, answering some questions. But here I learnt for the first time that this is a special place where I felt not being judged, like everybody has its own story and each one is ok. After the meeting it was time for dinner. What I didn’t know was that I would have to walk up a steep hill for about 20 minutes to get to the dinner place. After a long day it was quite tiresome but I made it and learnt that I will be eating quite good here. Finally, already being dark, I got a spot for my tent, which meant way more privacy I definitely needed there. There were some spots for tents but mostly people were sleeping in common tents with bunk beds.
The next day at 7 o’clock we already had to be at the building site for the morning meeting. I woke up earlier to make my own breakfast, I could choose from sweet toast with jam / peanut butter or eggs. I tried to make different breakfast every day: rice with egg, rice with apple and cinnamon (I loved this), rice with a banana, pancake with orange (actually quite good), pancake with apples (very nice), pancake with peanuts and even pancake with fake Nutella. I bought rice and corn starch (I wanted to buy corn flour but got this – actually pancakes with this are very nice :)) and improvised to make my mornings nicer. We also got one fruit a day and we could buy more at the local shop – I love fruits so I was there often :). Sometimes it was quite hard to eat a lot so early but we needed a lot of food to keep us going through the day :).
I don’t actually remember what I did on my first day as I did so much stuff there, every day was different. But I surely did some shovelling :). In the morning we could choose from the jobs that were available and they changed often. Sometimes we could put our name only under the gravel team because others were taken and this meant we got to ride a truck 20 minutes downwards on the same bumpy road we came. This happened to me on my 2nd day and our job was to fill up two trucks with gravel, luckily there were plenty of us so we exchanged often. I actually like this although it involves really a lot of shovelling the gravel up on the truck. In between we were waiting for the next truck and we got to rest, talk and some did even some acroyoga :).
The jobs were different every day: sometimes I was shovelling sand from one place to another, shifting the sand (nice for relaxing but can get quite boring soon), carrying different stuff that needed to be moved. Once I signed under the name of team which was landscaping – when I realised this actually meant digging behind the school to level the ground I quickly changed to another team. There were days when you felt you can do the crazy shovelling but that was not one of those day- the team leaders were sometimes quite inventive with the names to get more people to sign up for the works nobody wanted to do them :). One day I was playing with a sledgehammer to make bigger parts of used wood smaller for the fire – well, this was fun but it was quite heavy, sometimes some boards were covered with cement and I needed to use the sledgehammer more than 30 times on the same spot to break them. Then came the pour day when we were pouring first floor. I heard about pour days that they are so much fun as everybody works together like one big oiled machine and that is exactly how it was. In the morning I was “lucky” to get a job to clean around the base, we were two and were cleaning until lunch, after the Saturday feast and Friday pizza time (which was amazing – we had an improvised pizza oven there) there was so much cleaning to do. After lunch I got to be a part of the gravel team which meant quickly putting the gravels in a bucket and then also moving them, so carrying heavy buckets of gravel which were then put in a mixer together with sand and water to make cement. It was fun and in between there were some dancing, singing and passing / throwing the buckets. It was so incredible – everybody played an important part, no matter how small it seemed to be, and we finished in a good time to see the first floor poured! Incredible!!
For the pour of the roof we needed to make a lot of wooden forms to support the concrete that was poured on it. I was working on them 3 days and these 3 days went by so fast, I loved it. I loved learning more about working with the wood and making “a puzzle” from all the used pieces that weren’t the best but were all we had. I have learnt so much and realised it is quite easy to learn new skills, of course if the motivation is there. I also liked tying the rebars to make the columns and later for the roof top. It was fun using a snake but I got frustrated sometimes when there were so many different informations about the way we were supposed to do this – a lot of people have different opinions, which is natural, but that meant sometimes we spent quite some time to make it like we were told and then realised masons are doing it a bit differently :). One day I was again in the movers & shakers team which meant moving stuff from one place to another and just doing some other stuff that needed to be done. Carrying bamboo wasn’t so hard although carrying 2 long death sticks (which support the forms) was quite challenging, but sometimes we were carrying heavy two- by- twoes (long pieces of food which were the size of 2 by 2 inches). And in between when the truck came we were unloading 50 kg bags of cement. I could carry a few of them but not much – they put it on your back as this was the easiest way to carry it as they were so heavy. And also working with dry cement you realise you need to be really careful. If it mixes with water or sweat on your skin it makes an reaction that makes burns on your skin. So after working with cement we needed to wash with vinegar that helped not to get the burns. I got some really small ones but I saw on others what it can do and it is not innocent! I also loved working with the bricks, mixing masala with water, watering the bricks, cutting them and then helping the masons to build a wall :)! When later I saw the wall that we built it felt so good to be a part of it! I also did scaffolding – building a safe place for people to stand outside the building. It seemed crazy dangerous at some times, especially with previous work at the court where I saw a lot of claims because of the injuries that happened while working on a height ("objektivna odgovornost!" :)). I started being very cautious but soon got more relaxed and did some tying on a height of about 4 metres, just standing on another scaffolder with one foot. I was very careful and felt safe to do more adventure stuff. Luckily nobody got really hurt although they were some injuries, but nothing serious. Considering that about 70 % of the people working there hadn’t had previous experience with construction work it is a great result. In the middle of my days there was an instruction to wear hard heads all the time on the construction site – I actually didn’t mind because I have been thinking before just about it how it would make it a bit safer even though it is sometimes annoying.
I can’t say it was easy doing all this stuff. Our work day started at 7 and finished at 15.30, with an hour break for lunch. I actually loved lunch at Ram Krisna’s, Dal bhat power 24 hour :)! We also had tea break in the morning and some water and toilet breaks in between. But nonetheless it is a lot of physical work. If you also consider we had only one free day (Nepalese have only Saturday off) you can imagine we were tired. Sometimes exhausted, annoyed, upset, in some pain. But I loved the fact that just when I was feeling a bit crappy another volunteer or a mason came across and gave me a big smile :)! That reminded me again why I was doing all this. To do some meaningful work, to help to make a safe environment for kids who don’t have much. The motivation was even greater when we had a presentation about the All hands project and about the earthquakes that happened 2 years ago. If it wouldn’t have happened on a Saturday there would have been so many children casualties because a lot of the schools collapsed. So scary! And another person was for me very motivational, although she probably wasn’t aware of it she is an inspiration to us all. Ama, the lady who gave her land so the school could be built. But she gave so much more than that. She shared so much love that is indescribable. She doesn’t speak English but when she looked in your eyes there was so much love and warmness in them, I have never seen anything like that! If you don't believe me check out her video: https://youtu.be/bz8rpbSDUuk!
This is one thing I noticed and I love about Nepali people. They look you in the eye. Usually they don’t look what you are wearing or how “messy” you are but look in the eye when saying Namaste. I feel like in the West we hurry so much most of the time we rarely take our time and look into each other’s eye. I am not saying just a quick glance but a real look. To acknowledge the person, the divines each one has. And that is just what Namaste means – “I acknowledge the God in you”. We spend too much time judging and having opinions about others and not enough time just listening, hearing each other. Without judging. I know we are so busy and our mind can be full of thoughts what still needs to be done and what wasn’t done right so we can be distracted. But I shall try my best to be more aware of the present moment just as it presents us. With people who are there, with the words they are saying, not trying to change but just accept it as it is. It sure will be a challenge ;)! Usually when I “see” a problem I try to solve it. Help. But sometimes the situation doesn’t need my help. It just needs my attention.
I remember when I was trekking I was talking to one of the lovely Sherpas I met and he told me: for you people in the West it is so hard not to do anything. You have to be busy all the times. Busy with doing something or thinking about something. Why not just do nothing? I don’t really know what is the answer, it might have something to do that if we don’t do nothing we can feel useless and that other’s will perceive us as lazy. Or when we don’t do anything our mind gets unleashed and out of control and we really don’t want that :)!!