Today I'm taking my third and final bus from Kathmandu out to my village in Nepal's Far West. I have been away for almost a month, two weeks in pokhara for a peace Corps training, a week in Thailand with my beautiful girlfriend Melaina King that really can't be summed up via modern word, and a week altogether in buses. My village, which lies on the face of a mountain, has been a perfect match for me. The difficulties and living conditions that characterize a village in a developing country's "far west" clash with the loving and inviting tendencies of the area's villagers to create a balanced harmony. In the thall of this harmony I find myself dancing to a busy but inspired beat. These last three months I've become a part of the family I was planted in, a member of my community comprising of around six hundred households spread through a half-dozen villages. My overall mission, titled Food Security, encompasses any projects to improve livelihoods through health and agricultural work. While I've been assessing my sites needs, working with several schools to teach nutrition, and getting to know the individuals I'll be tackling projects with, the bulk of my work has been in making stoves.
The traditional Nepali method of cooking involves a small fire in the corner of the house. The smoke from this fire is a huge health issue to all family members, especially small children. The sudarieko chulo, or improved cook stove, channels smoke outside, and is made from available resources such as cow dung, mud, and corn husk. Training villagers to make the stove is simple and often fun, especially hammering holes through walls for the smoke to flow.
Although I have plans to start fruit tree and coffee production once I return, I find myself focusing on the bigger but more difficult roots to strike in development work. Mountains like facilitating behavior change, fighting caste discrimination, and working towards gender inequality, which has cast a wide shadow over my site, are the ones that I want to look down from once my time is done. So yes, I am excited to get back to my site, I've missed running through the woods to the villages im working in, herding goats with my little brothers, and being confused by the local dialects. Although these mountains may prove to high to climb in my time, I plan to start slowly, and certainly not alone.
