15/3/14
IST was difficult.
When there were trainings that I was excited about, which was rare, they
turned out to be not-as-advertised. The
rudest shock we got, was when we found out that the “goat dairy” we were
expecting to learn about, was actually a goat meat farm. Finding this out, while holding a darling
baby goat, was NOT fun.
Most of the time, we sat there, either bored or
confused. I understand that it’s hard to
pick trainings for everyone’s taste, but there was only one training for health
volunteers (who make up ½ of our ranks), and for those experienced Ag.
Volunteers, the agriculture trainings were old hat. In between trainings was bland hotel food and
high-school level drama. While it was
nice to see people, to have different restaurant options, and have hot showers
for nearly two weeks, I can honestly say that I was more than ready to leave
when the day came. The trip back was
long a hard, and made me even more glad to put my stuff down in my lovely
little room and hug my dog (who got so big!).
It’s hard to believe that it’s been two weeks since I’ve
been back! Our big report about the
status of our villages is due in two weeks, so we’re all scrambling to get that
together. I got a little cocky about it,
since I’d worked on it early, but now I’ve gotta play catch up. It’s nerve-wracking preparing to try and ask
complicated questions, that I’ve had to translate myself, to people. I started with my Buba, and things went
pretty well-I’m feeling a bit more confident, now. The next step is to go to our local administrative
office and ask about population statistics, etc., which is a laugh. I will be very surprised if they have any
useful information. Not to say that the
people working in the offices are bad workers, just that when it comes to the
Nepali Government, we’ve all learned to be skeptical about them providing us
what we need.
Since I’ve been home, I’ve also been trying to actually get
started on projects. At the moment, us
Dang-ers are getting rolling on making improved cook stoves for our area. Ben has found a community resource person to
help him (and hopefully the rest of us), and Christine has molds for the
bricks. The goal is to work with this
guy, but also to train people in the community to make them, that way; we
aren’t spending every day for the next two years making stoves. Plus, passing on the knowledge makes the
project more sustainable, and opens up the possibility of a village person
taking it on as an extra income-generating job, which would be great!
Besides that, I think we’re all trying to get started on
IPM. IPM stands for “Integrated Pest
Management.” This is just a fancy way of
talking about ways of dealing with pests without resorting to tons and tons of
chemicals. Chemical pesticides and fungicides
are a big problem in Nepal. Not only are
they used much more often than they need to be (since many people can’t, or
don’t, read the package directions), but when applying, farmers don’t use
proper equipment and protection.
My family’s farm is better than other farms in the
area-using new techniques, being precise, but even they use way more chemicals
than are necessary. As a group, we are
hoping to develop a curriculum of lessons about IPM techniques by the end of
May. Then, as a group, or as individuals,
we can travel our area and show farmers their other options. We also may have found an NGO that will give
us funding to do these trainings and buy supplies. Unfortunately, money is a huge stumbling
block for all of us. Our villages assume
that we have tons of money to start projects, but, the truth is, PC gives us
almost no money for projects. We have to
use money out of our own living allowance, and if we want more, we have to
apply for highly competitive grants, or find outside funding. This means that we spend valuable hours just
trying to fund projects, instead of doing them.
I guess this is good training for working in the int’l NGO/non profit
world!
I’ve had three successes in the past two weeks:
1. I made some johl
mol/compost tea, which is just a mixture of manure, water, medicinal plants and
kitchen scraps. You let this sit for two
weeks, and then can spray it on plants as a natural fertilizer and
pesticide. The problem with a lot of
these IPM/organic methods is that they are hard to apply to larger areas of
land. However, I found some old, huge blue barrels in our barn and was going to
suggest that my Buba use these to make a huge batch of johl mol. Before I could even say anything, I came down
stairs this morning, and he was already working on it! If it works, it might be a model for a
community-sized johl mol-making program-pretty exciting!
2. I taught my Buba
about companion planting (planting things like corn, squash and beans
together-this saves space, decreases the need to weed and enhances the soil),
and he decided to do this in an entire field!
I sure hope it works, or I’m going to look pretty stupid.
3. My friends Christine, Ben and I planted a little perma
garden next to my house! It’s only 4
days old, so it doesn’t look very interesting, but it’s the most gardening I’ve
ever done, and I felt pretty proud of us!
The thing about being an “Agriculture” volunteer and not
really knowing much about agriculture, is that there are many times where my
knowledge or opinion are called for and I have absolutely no idea what do, so
it’s small victories like these that make those moments a little easier to
bare.
Other than work, things with the family are fine. I still get frustrated about things-like how
I finally bought a maxi, which is a long, loose dress that all the older ladies
were, that looked super comfortable, but found out that I have to wear a
PETTICOAT underneath it. I was so
disappointed that I was nearly in tears over my dhal baat.
Also, it’s now become a thing to invite me to weddings, make
me take tons of pictures, then expect me to have them printed out and delivered
to the family within a week! It feels
really shitty when you turn up somewhere only to find out that all the people
want is your modern technology. People
literally shunned me after my camera died during a wedding. I’m going to have to put my foot down, next
time. I am not here to be a wedding
photographer!
Danny is good. He got
his first bag of dog food, courtesy of his Auntie Nikea and her trip to
Kathmandu, so I’m less worried about his nutrition.
The weather is getting really hot, and I’m panicking a bit,
thinking of the coming four or five months of monsoon season.
I’m, of course, missing all of you and want to hear all of your
news!
I’ll put up pictures soon.
Xoxox
Maria
