Another 6am start. Dipak has invited me along to a community meeting in a village up in the mountains not far from Kathmandu. We catch a mini bus to the bus park, then a city bus to the edge of Kathmandu and the entrance to a national park. From here we walk. There is a small group of us now including a Thai bee specialist and a man that will be visiting the community meeting to promote a product he has invented. It’s a simple but clever invention that is designed to make cooking fires burn more efficiently. This means less fuel required, whether it be wood, dung or fire brickettes, and more importantly, less smoke and pollution. The Nepal I have seen is mostly covered in a haze of smoke and dust and the humble cooking fire contributes to this significantly. I think this is a great idea and hope it gets accepted by the villagers. He was a Maoist in his younger days and learnt the art of making metal casts from making bombs. He will come to your home and apply his invention to your cooking stove. It includes a cast metal disc he puts at the base of the fire pit and a suitable chimney, all designed to maximize air flow and improve efficiency. He’s walking with us with bits so he can build a demonstration cooking stove onsite.
The hills we are walking through are beautiful. We follow a river and the hill slopes are covered in bio diverse forests. It’s hot but as we get higher up, the breeze is cool. Also with us is a man who will talk to the community about organic farming. This is clearly a progressive thinking community. Like many of these mountain villagers, some of the terraced paddocks are left unattended as the young leave home for a different life in the cities. Breakfast and lunch is provided by the organizers and I feel like a user. So when they ask me what I do, I think to justify my visit by saying I have worked with agriculture and integrated pest management (IPM) in the past. They are excited by this and ask me to talk briefly on organic farming! Ouch! Dipak translates for me. Fortunately I only had to speak for a few minutes and it had to be simple. Great, I know simple. The audience is all women. It is a women’s group who have organized this gathering. This reall is a progressive community. Also talking was a representative from the Development Bank. Dipak also spoke. I was given special status, which I hate but foreigners are seen differently by these communities. There are so many foreigners doing charity things in Nepal and Dipak explains that they see all foreigners as a possibility of some advantage. So I get special treatment.
Also there, but not speaking, was a man from an NGO that is working a social project here in this village and in the Kathmandu Valley. It’s all about the community being a family. Everyone works together as equals despite religious and caste differences. It sounds great to me but I can imagine it will take time and effort to over ride age-old traditions.
Dipak and I leave early to get back in time for the bus. We try a different way to save time and get a bit lost. Fortunately we get back on track and to the bus on time. The walk is through beautiful country. The river we follow is dammed and supplies drinking water for Kathmandu. It’s a favorited spot for young locals to take their friends and have fun.
I walk back to the hotel from the bus park. I’m tired. The heat of the day and walking and standing around has taken its toll.
angusmccoll 