Chimney

Surprising that Smoke in houses from small clay cooking stove's is a real pain in the village. 

Apparently other westerners have explained the benefits and a few had tried to build one with limited success. Every morning I watched as Kalpana made hot chai and breakfast  on a basic mud pit with no chimney. Smoke poored everywhere. I explained the physics of a chimney drawing the hot air up and fueling the fire to burn hotter and cleaner. They said "can you build me one"

With a small team of helpers keen to get muddy I quickly checked the internet for some basic design ideas and to check my own thought's were on track. I drew a basic diagram with the only dimensions of chimney bore of 100m height min 1.25 M.

Clarissa helped out with the mud science getting the poo, goat hair and clay mix right.

The team of 5of us spent 2 mornings in the sun building it. 

We all concluded it would take 4-5 days to dry before firing it to avoid cracking but the next morning i awoke at 6 am to find Kalpana happily heating chai on it, I wasn't sure what to say as I watched it steaming. I thought o no all that work wasted and they will never believe a chimney is any good!

So I said nothing and just watched the clean steamy smoke coming from the chimney.

It worked a treat, yes it cracked A little but we rubbed a thing clay mix over it later on and looks great with no major structural cracks.

Tara and Luke make  mud mortar

Tony and I with the old cooking fire in the background with a pot on it.

Tara and Lukes job was to add the goat hair, cow poo, and water to the sieved subsoil to make the mortar.

Olga on the job with the kids. 

Soil settling test in a glass. 20% clay, 50% loam, 30% sand. 

Setting out the rocks.

Making a cook top

Tara talking to Yan about mud consistency

Drying in the sun

Success, a working chimney drawing nicely!

Beyonce the cat

Beyonce is the local pet kitten where we are staying and Luke loves to play with.

Sleeping beside a the new wooly hat Clarissa just finished knitting for Tara.

Pujon on the left is a football star and Luke follows him to the stony football field to kick the ball around most days.

In the Village

A short walk up the track, just above the buffalo pond, is a  pipe protruding from the ground  pouring out water, which over time has eroded the ground and left some stones and a little mud. This is where I wash the families clothes. Scrubbing out Nepali dirt with an efficient Thai stiff bristled brush, on an excellent Nepali large flat sandstone rock. Occasionally the water will stop flowing. Up the pipe somewhere, someone  is using water. There are two water pipes that can hook up to this one. One supplies our guest house and if it is needed I carefully slide the correct black polyethylene pipe into the slightly wider bore pipe that ties into the washing clothes pipe secured, curiously with a green plastic crisp packet. And then as I walk back down the track, the ground above the cracks in the pipe mysteriously hiss and bubble with leaking water. The water comes from up the hill directly from the river, somewhere.... I have yet to find it.

Tara and Luke finish an apple. The highlight is taking the core to Kali the heifer in her shed. She recognizes us now, enjoying the regular supply of banana skin and apple cores chucked with varying expert aim at her eating area. Her head is tied  with two ropes and sometimes Lukeys  throw seems to fall short of her reach but often she manages by kneeling, extending her head and snaking out her long bristley tongue. She belongs to Bimala who  takes her rice knife/machete and collects grass for her every 3days. Sometimes Bimala walks up the hill to the jungle for Kalis food . Sometimes she walks down through the millet fields gathering grass from the field edges and pathways. There is no long grass for the snakes, every walkway is trimmed neatly in the village.

Today we walked with the kids up the hill and out into the forest. Its Saturday and the forest was busy with people collecting firewood for cooking. We watched an older man chop his firewood and arrange them carefully on a rock, all trimmed straight to neatly stack into a bundle weighing about 40kgs. He  worked steadily cutting with is rice knife/machete, stopping occasionally to remove leaches. We met a small nani (young girl) who shared some tiny chestnuts with us. We watched as two groups of buffalo met on a meadow above the Jungle  bellowing greetings and rebuttals, over the jingle of their cow bells. It took us 3 hours to walk home.

The power goes out most nights and the internet uploads photos occasionally before 6 am .... My camera has a broken lens shutter from so may pictures taken...... So for now... Just words. :-)

Gaunshaha - School

Shamser the person we are staying with is the head master of a small private school, 80 students. His dream is to start a free private school for the bright young children from poor family's.
He does not agree with the state system and it's methods.
So some German guy has funded 6000 euros to build it.

We happen to be here when the land was bought and am suddenly involved in lots of discussions on design. He likes the new ideas which are based on simple design but smart around warmth, using glass rubbish, acoustic dampening using thatching etc

Will up date as the design develops!

Life in Gaunshaha ii

Early fresh morning, Tara and Luke with Annapurna II in the background.

The 4x4 bus, the only way up other than walking. Comes once a day. The road is nothing less than a sky field access road that has never ever seen a grader or metal in its life.

Beyonce the local kitten Luke loves to chase

local buffalo get muddy outside our house

Corn drying to feed the chickens

Rice

Shamser,s mum, sweet lady who makes Tara special crushed fried corn.

Buffalo on their way up to the Forrest to graze or to the buffalo pond to wallow

Anita with her buffalo and her guava ( Boise and bel- ow- ne)

Gaunshaha day 1

Well we have found our way to a small hill village of Gaunshahar, which looks down on Besisahar some 700 m in vertical drop below, the start of the famous Annapurna trekking circuit.

Its hard to describe the view in the morning as the sun rises and the clouds are gone. We look at large rock and is faces of near 8000 M peaks, Annapurna II and Manaslu.

We have arrived mid festival, every 2nd person is drunk and very happy.
The kids playing on their home made swings. My favorite a wooden ferris wheel completely made without a single screw or nail.
Luke and I climbed on, everything wiggled and moved. It worked a treat and is on my list of things to make back home.

I am still in mild culture shock. The people of Nepal have so little to work with, near zero infrastructure from the government, and no Jobs for personal income. And for now I haven't scene much in self sustainability as an answer to the future.
We have come from the fruit bowl of Asia, Thailand where everything grows in abundance to Gaunshaha, where they cannot even grow enough rice within the village to feed the village. Even with our large western wallets in comparison we cannot just buy food. Its scarce.

So the family set off to the big city below to see what we could get to supplement our 1 egg for breakfast and rice and Dahl for lunch and dinner. 3 hrs down constantly been stopped the the continuous train of village people doing the same journey for smokes, bananas and local newspaper.

The plan was to get the pink 4x4 bus back up.
Rissa went off to get some fruit while I hung out with Luke and Tara.
The pink bus arrived for its once a day trip into the hills. No Rissa appeared.
I started to panic, calling out for her with Tara's hand firmly in mine with Luke on my hip. Should I try and squeeze on anyway and she can walk up on her own? my head trying to figure the best decision. I called again RISSA!
She appears wondering why I'm looking concerned.

We look at the bus calmly and it was fuller than a science experiment by seeing how many large and small stones can be packed into a vessel and we decide to spent the bus fare on a large lunch and the meander back home up and up. We had all afternoon.
After tying many box's to the roof about 10 climbed on the roof for there was no room inside it sparked up and trundled down the road for the hour long climb. I watched it go thinking I hope we made the right decision.
I'd had 6 days of the shits and didn't feel that strong.

The climb is comparable to North Egmont to Tahurangi Lodge and Tara walked the entire way.  Time up was 2 hrs and quicker than coming down.
Many children do this walk everyday to go to school.

Lukey enjoying the swings of Nepal

Luke started off small!

Then went large!