Wednesday 6 October
A rich experience: Our teams are involved in community service.
Early morning in Team Tara's little village home - where we had spent the night on thin foam mattresses spread on the living room floor - saw the father of the family rise first, and coming through to open the door and let in the new day. He stretched to the switch, to put on the single light bulb hanging from a nail on the wooden post. We watched from the sleeping bags as members of the family followed and all headed outside. We rose, rolled up our sleeping bags as we watched some of the early morning activities. The youngest child, old enough to pick some country flowers, came in with a little posy which she arranged in small brass vases at the picture of the family's chosen goddess which was set in an alcove. Beside her were the kitchen shelves, two plastic baskets containing tooth brushes and paste and an electric point for the TV and another appliance. The young teenager studied herself in the single mirror hanging from the post in the centre of the living room. We ventured outside and saw the early morning light bringing a golden glow to the surrounding snow covered, Daulageri Mountains. The golden light on the mountain tops, soon faded and the beauty of those moments was left for the mind's eye. I had never before seen such exquisite lighting on mountain tops. In the village below, people were assembling beside the single tap provided by the government and set into a concrete post with a small surrounding wall which contained the water. We had seen the same thing in every village we passed. All there, still warm from their beds, were cleaning teeth and washing sleep from their eyes.
We took photos and then made our way up the road to the school where we prepared to receive instructions for the work on the school. Breakfast was in the grounds of the school. Our simple meal consisted of apples, for which the Mustang region is known, and delicious pancakes with honey and perhaps a beverage.
Each group was allocated a task suitable to ability and agility it seemed! So the strong and athletic Team Trisuli, Angelique, Helga Crystal and Karine from the Netherlands were to put primer on the corrugated iron roof. Some had the task of white washing the inside walls and our Team Tara had the task of unpacking the many cases of clothing brought in from Australia by the girls from OZ and the many books and stationery items alongside. We organised this by categories and with the invaluable support from Durga who did the translating and negotiating we had a structure whereby the villagers would arrange for fair and sensible distribution of the clothing. I sopke to the school principal about setting up a simple library and categorising the books but in the end, we felt that the villagers would be disempowered had we been prescriptive so we left the final arrangements and decisions with the principal and his teachers. It is my opinion that contexts are best known to those in the context and that in the end people will do as they wish to anyway and those of the village are best informed for making decisions that affect themselves. There is an intelligence in all cultures and communities. There was a social structure in the smallest of the communities. Durga spoke about the resource not been sustainable and the possibility of setting up a welfare system in the community, namely one where benefits in terms of the new clothing brought, might be reasonably sustainable but, what was decided upon we have not heard. Following our visit, there would be a second group which would be building on our work and thus there was some continuity in the process begun by ourselves. Having done what we thought right with the resources brought we set about helping the hard working painters of the school building. There was a need to work fast as the hike out of the mountains had to continue with time to drive to our next over night stop in Jomson. Villagers assembled, photographs were taken and speeches made. We all had red dust applied to our foreheads and were given a scarf across our shoulders, as we were blessed and thanked by the senior women who prepared to show their enormous appreciation.
Our hike down the mountain took us through neighbouring villages and we settled into a restaurant or tea room of a larger village where we had a delicious lunch with some fresh salad (at last) and even some dessert! The 4x4's were waiting. Clearly visible in the faces of those who had been involved in the accident three days previously was the the impact of the realisation that the driving on the mountain roads was to continue. A drive with the Kali Gandaiki river below on the right and the mountain on the left. Anxiety levels rose when it was found that the replacement vehicle to be used by the group who had had the accident, did not have a working hand break! It was decided that Suzi, who was an experienced 4x4 driver, would drive the vehicle. Marion who had driven the car when it overturned, for emotional reasons, could not drive, even as a passenger, in this car. She moved to the lead car with team Ganesh. This was the best solution and we felt concern for Marion who had disintegrated emotionally and was having a wretched time, as she was governed by fear and trepidation for any driving along the mountain roads which were both narrow and rough. She had cried the whole way. It was an upsetting situation indeed. It also broke up the cohesion of the team as her distress impacted on other members in the team. The night before, we heard in the village, a bus which had been on the roads we had traversed, had slipped into the river below with many lives lost.
By nightfall we reached Jomson where we unpacked and found the comfort of a trekkers lodge at Om's Home. Hooray! There was an Internet Cafe up the road! There was a substantial supper served. There were bathrooms off each of the rooms and plugs to charge cameras and phones. We were feeling 'civilised' again! The ping pong table had the Indian girls busy and Team Ganesh and the official photographer along with Limor who too, was such a good photographer coordinated video clips and photos to be sent back to Israel for posting to You Tube and communications with links e-mailed to loved ones back home.
Tomorrow would see us leave early and head for Muktinath which would be the highest point we would reach. It is a most holy Hindu site, south of the Himalayan Range and visited by pilgrims and travellers from all corners of the world. The trail we were to take was to lead through a change in landscape with breathtaking views of mountains, agriculture lands and deserts.
These are links you might like to try for video clips of the trip.
Enjoy the films
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| The single road through the little village. Washing on the wall and to the right the house in which we spent the night |
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| Up the road. The steps lead to the vegetable patch beside the family home and also to the toilet set against the mountain behind the house. In all villages wood is stored on the walls and the amount is indicative of the 'wealth' of the family. |
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The early morning light on the Daulageri Mountains above Titi Village
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Flowers set before the picture of the goddess worshipped by the family
The teenager who studied her image for a moment in the mirror
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Marion (Israel), Maughreen (South Africa), Durga (Nepal) and Cho Cho (Burma)
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Busying ourselves over the resources donated by the Xtrip participants
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| The Principal's office |
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Painting the new school building. Girls you rock!
The school principal and Maughreen discuss the classification of books.
XTrip
Our girls from Holland
The assembly of villagers grouped for the farewell speeches
The road out of Titi Village - 'Xtrippers' leaving a job well done
A typical village outlet for running water
Passers by as we walk away from Titi Village and down the mountain
The idea of a visit to Gyan Jyoti School may have been pivotal in my vacillation as whether to join the trip or not. It was the highlight for many of us.
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