Nepal – Day 16

Today Heather, Shahzad & I headed to Sangachok to distribute the remainder of the quilts from the hub to those affected in the surrounding area. We stopped on route at the start of the road that leads to China for a break and it was interesting to note that they had an Anti Trafficking check point. Apparently after the earthquakes they have seen quite a spike in the amount of women and children being trafficked.

We arrived at the School with three trucks in tow after having to travel along a dirt track for a while, but it was no where near as bad as yesterdays adventure. The local officials (of sorts) started to organise the group of people who had gathered into some sort of order, and then we started to distribute the quilts from the back of the trucks as the people came forward.

At points in the organisation of people it sounded quite tense, as voices were raised and a few waves of the hand were seen. Some of the people who approached us without their cards ticks and/or were trying to jump the line, were quickly ushered back to the larger crowd to go through due process. As we were unloading the quilts people were heading back up the hill to their homes while others were heading down to pick up their quota.

The officials finally got some semblance of a system going and we got through the amount of quilts that we needed to distribute reasonably quickly.

Shahzad was funny moving people along using a combination of English, Hindi and Nepalese, thanking everyone as he handed quilts to them. Bhim (our driver) also got stuck in helping out. Heather had an absolute blast as we were constantly heckling each other and the truck driver assistants with the quilts which seemed to lighten the mood for the villagers as well. She also got to hang out with some of the children from the school as well who had great delight playing with bubbles.

What struck me again (as has been the case in most of the distributions to date) is the fact that the people appeared to be very appreciative of our assistance. Although we had the odd person trying to request additional supplies that we didn’t have to give and couldn’t supply as we start the shift from initial response to recovery mode.

It was extremely hot and therefore quite draining and we all appreciated the breeze as we drove home. However, as we started approaching Kathmandu the temperature dropped and it got quite muggy, and it wasn’t long before the heavens opened and it poured down with rain.

By the time we got back to Sister’s it was about 3pm so we grabbed a late lunch and sorted out some of the paperwork before heading home to do a spot of tidying up and sorting out of the house as the owners had moved out that morning.

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Nepal – Day 15

Today Andrew & I headed out to Dhola in Dhading to do a distribution of quilts and to see the work to date which has been done at the two camps up in the hills.

This time we traveled in a 4WD due to the hassles we had the other day trying to get to the village which is only accessible via a dirt track.

The camps have been home to a group of people who had trekked approx. three days from higher up in the hills to this location after the earthquakes had devastated their homes, carrying with them everything that they could salvage.

After negotiations with the landowner they were able to buy a portion of land in which to develop their new village. Over the next few months we are going to be monitoring the progress of the building of 30 homes in the lower camp.

The truck that had the 110 quilts we were going to distribute to the villagers could only go as far as the next settlement that Shahzad & I had not quite gotten to just a couple of days earlier. So another truck that was a 4WD was being organised.

On the way up to the camps our 4WD came across a truck that had got stuck in one section of the road, so we had to wait until the guys had put enough rocks underneath the tyres so that the truck could get out of the rut that it had made for itself.

Once past the truck we finally headed up to the lower camp and looked over the progress to date of this settlement. The tents, which were donated by the Pakistan Territory, have been badly affected by the monsoon rains, and will be replaced by the homes that the villagers themselves will be helping to build. Over the past month construction has started on the ablution blocks in both camps so that they have suitable toilets and washing facilities.

As we had to wait for the quilts to arrive we also went for a look around the upper camp which is a further 5min drive up the hill towards the Primary School.

Again much of the work has been carried out by the villagers themselves and as can be seen in this photo they have had to use rudimentary tools compared to the tools that many tradesmen use back home.

By the time we had headed back to the lower camp for lunch and the start of the distribution, many of the locals had gone down to the truck to pick up the quilts and bring them back for distribution.

This was due to the truck that had previously got stuck had ended up getting stuck up the hill by the upper camp and Primary School, talk about calamity after calamity. But the villagers saw the funny side of it and just got on with it…

So finally Andrew & I did the distribution and the families were very appreciative as the winter season is fast approaching, so the quilts will come in handy.

It ended up being a full on day and we didn’t get back to the house ’til after 7pm due to the long drive home – but it was quite memorable.

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