Making Butter

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Alan Stock

Day 86 – Location: Karmidanda Village, Langtang Region; Nepal

26/11/12

It was a very cold night and I didn’t sleep well. Poor Jhabraj had to get up at 6am to plant potatoes before school. Strange noises were coming from downstairs. It turned out to be Januka churning butter. They make it at home – as you can see in the photo, there are two handles and you pull alternately to spin the mixer in the churn. I helped out too – it was hard work!

Churn harder, Januka!

After about twenty minutes of churning, lumpy bits of butter were formed on the surface. Januka scooped them off and put them in a pan for cooking. For breakfast we had some with roti bread. It was quite rich and not too bad, but not like any butter I’ve ever had before!

Lumpy butter from the top of the churn, ready for cooking

That morning I went to harvest millet again, this time in a higher field. After a few hours Januka joined me. It was back-breaking work as a lot of the millet stalks were competley flattened, forcing us to stoop over. Eventually we started sitting and kneeling to save our backs! Januka exchanged shouted conversations with women in nearby houses and fields. Jeneet, the funny kid from next door was being a monkey today and was shouting at us from half way up a tree in another field. I wish I knew what he was saying! After 4 hours and about to topple over, we stopped with two baskets full of millet heads. I helped Januka to chop some leafy branches from the trees for her animals and she chopped some millet stalks, then bundled both piles together with rope and hauled the huge load up the fields to the house the traditional way, using her forehead as a brace. It was so heavy I had to help her stand up at the start!

The cats’ little present for me. Thanks for that. Bedroom door staying closed from now on!

I met Sophie at the house and we relaxed in the afternoon sun in our favourite spot on the path. Plenty of villagers use this path and they stopped to watch in curiosity as Sophie dug around with a needle in her foot to extract a splinter, surely wondering what madness the westerners were up to this time! I became acquainted with the Neupanes house cat, Soorie, who looks like a leopard. Soorie is a friendly chap when he’s in the mood, and jumped into my lap, purring away. There’s also a very young cat, a female, who just turned up one day a few months ago and stayed. The Neupane’s aren’t sure if she is Soorie’s daughter but they look after her anyway. She loves to play-fight with Soorie and you can watch them for hours running up trees and laying ambushes for each other. She is very scared of people though and won’t even go for food until everyone is far away. Me and Sophie chatted in the evening and we turned in early. I started to read “Into Thin Air” by Jon Klauser, the true story of the 1996 Everest disaster as told firsthand by Klauser who was there. It’s a really good book, recommended!

Day 87 – Location: Karmidanda Village, Langtang Region; Nepal

27/11/12

Another day in the millet field. Januka joined me after a few hours and we managed to finish the field we were working on. Jeneet joined us and practiced his monkey skills again, shimmying up the satsuma trees in the field, bringing us down little yellow satsumas, which inside were quite sweet. Ama, Jhabraj’s mother was also harvesting in a field above us. Impressive considering she’s in her 70s!

Awijit looks out at the view from the top of the rocky outcrop. You can see the beam of sunlight at the top as the sun slowly rises over the valley. The white section on the top right is a huge landslide, you can make out a village to the left of it – why would you want to live there?!

In the afternoon after some tea, curd and beaten rice me and Sophie walked up to the big viewpoint rock I’d climbed with Awijit previously, to admire the view. Unfortunately it was already quite cold by the time we arrived and we only got twenty minutes before the sun went down. We had taken up beer from the village shop and had to use rocks to get the bottletops off! We came back as a lovely blood red sun dissappeared behind the mountaintops. In the evening I smoked some ganja in the chillum, just a little bit to avoid the horrors of the last time, and got a mild but not unpleasant effect. Jhabraj told us an old man in his 80’s had died in the village today. After going to bed I couldn’t put “Into Thin Air” down and ended up finishing the whole book!

Sophie unleashes her demonic powers to push down the sun! Nooooooooooooooo!

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Would you like to stay in Karmidanda village with the Neupane family? Read on…

Jhabraj at home

If you are thinking of visiting Nepal and would like to do a homestay with Jhabraj’s family and see his village, or you need an experienced trekking or private tour guide, Jhabraj is very happy to accommodate you. He can do tours anywhere around Nepal and for trekking, he is very experienced and a safe, responsible guide, having guided on all the major Nepali treks multiple times as a guide (including the popular Everest, Annapurna and Langtang treks). It is also possible to do some spectacular trekking in the Langtang area from his village area so you could always combine a homestay with a trek. Jhabraj charges very reasonable prices, he speaks good English, and you couldn’t meet a friendlier, more interesting and hospitable guy! Your enjoyment, satisfaction and safety are his primary concerns. Money that Jhabraj earns from visitors and clients goes towards the higher education of his children, which is extremely expensive for a village family. If you want to hear more, please contact me via this website and I will put you in touch with him. Highly recommended!

——

Would you like to help Jhabraj’s village community of Karmidanda? Read on…

Like many outlying villages in Nepal, the village Karmidanda is extremely poor and the community has many serious problems as a result. Almost all the families here are in a lot of debt, living on the breadline on the meagre earnings they can eke out – most are farmers. Other avenues of work are simply not available up here and most families cannot afford to put their children into higher education to improve the cycle. Public welfare does not really exist in Nepal and the area only has one health clinic staffed by volunteers and supplied by charity. If a villager requires hospitisation the villagers have to pool together to get enough money to pay for an ambulance to take the patient 5 hours to Kathmandu and also pay the expensive hospital treatment fees, if they can afford it. The village school was built thanks to charitable efforts but staff wages are low, equipment and resources are always scarce and there are not enough teachers for the number of students. These are just some of the problems that the community has – yet despite the difficulties the community spirit is amazing here, people help each other, they have a smile on their face and they are welcoming and friendly. If you think that you can help with donations, volunteering (including English teaching at the school) or charitable projects, please get in touch. Jhabraj has many contacts and can direct you to the right people so you know your money or resources are going directly to the local community and no share is going into anyone elses’ pocket. Some charitable efforts have also been started by foreign visitors who have visited Jhabraj and decided to help the community of Karmidanda – please check out the following websites: (links coming soon!)

Corn on the Cob

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Alan Stock

Jhabraj’s nephew, a farmer, pops by for a chat

Day 84 – Location: Karmidanda Village, Langtang Region; Nepal

24/11/12

It was Saturday and everyone was off work. I rose early after yet another restless sleep – I kept rolling onto my damaged shoulder in the night. In the morning I helped Januka and Jhabraj to strip the ears from a big pile of dried maize, and then we went through the arduous and slow task of breaking the corn off the cob. It was hard work working it off with bare hands (a twisting grasp was the most effective method) especially with the Australian variety corn which was rock solid and hard to budge. We had blistered and sore hands afterwards, but a few sacks full of corn. They mixed it with dry rice and millet seeds – then Jhabraj sacked it up and carried it a few houses along to the village mill, where it was ground into flour. Jhabraj lugged this back in sacks. This flour they add to the water that their livestock drink. Jhabraj said the mixture contains carbohydrates, protein and vitamins, a real power feed. The flour they’d made today should last fourty days. Unfortunately due to the poor maize crop this year (they had six months without rain!), they wouldn’t have enough to last the whole year and would have to buy flour in later months.

Januka and Jhabraj break corn off the cobs whilst one of the goat kids causes havok as usual!

Jhabraj served us a traditional Nepali dish of maize paste with curd, joined by spinach soup and egg. Then we relaxed for a while in the sun. I helped Januka and Awijit to chop a big pile of potatoes that they’d harvested recently. These were for planting and so we chopped them so that each segment of potato had a few potential shoots on it. After planting, each shoot can grow into a new potato plant – an easy self-sustaining crop. The Neupane family would be planting these again soon. The rest of the afternoon was leisurely; I read, chatted with Sophie and watched the goat kids at their amusing jumping antics. Sophie told me about a man she’d seen at the mill with a wrecked face, Jhabraj said he’d been attacked by a wild bear a few years ago whilst cutting grass nearby! He was lucky not to be killed.

Jeneet’s grandmother and his sister

I watched Jhabraj chopping very dry firewood (collected from the woods) for the kitchen fire, splintering into dusty pieces. There was a nice sunset thanks to the cloudy sky. Down in the fields below the Neupane house, Awijit was teaching some new karate students, in the absence of his karate master. I watched them for a bit and played with Jeneet who for some reason was wearing his baby sister’s pink hat!

Awijit (in yellow) leads the karate training in harvested rice fields.

Jeneet loves his girl’s hat!

Then I did some physiotherapy excecises for my shoulder, I am trying to build my shoulder strength up again. After dinner we chatted and Jhabraj had some news. He’d heard that in Kalikasthan (the town half an hour walk away) there’d been a fight in a pool house. One guy had been stabbed badly in the back and had been rushed down to hospital in Kathmandu. The attackers had gone into hiding. Under police law if they can’t be caught and charged after around 35 days then they are safe. Crazy! He also told us another baby had been born in the village today – the good and the bad in a day!

A cloudy sunset over Karmidanda’s fields.

——

Would you like to stay in Karmidanda village with the Neupane family? Read on…

My awesome host Jhabraj, a great man indeed!

If you are thinking of viisting Nepal and would like to do a homestay with Jhabraj’s family and see his village, or you need an experienced trekking or private tour guide, Jhabraj is very happy to accommodate you. He can do tours anywhere around Nepal and for trekking, he is very experienced and a safe, responsible guide, having guided on all the major Nepali treks multiple times as a guide (including the popular Everest, Annapurna and Langtang treks). It is also possible to do some spectacular trekking in the Langtang area from his village area so you could always combine a homestay with a trek. Jabraj charges very reasonable prices, he speaks good English, and you couldn’t meet a friendlier, more interesting and hospitable guy! Your enjoyment, satisfaction and safety are his primary concerns. Money that Jhabraj earns from visitors and clients goes towards the higher education of his children, which is extremely expensive for a village family. If you want to hear more, please contact me via this website and I will put you in touch with him. Highly recommended!

——

Would you like to help Jabraj’s village community of Karmidanda? Read on…

Sophie on her first day of English volunteering

Like many outlying villages in Nepal, the village Karmidanda is extremely poor and the community has many serious problems as a result. Almost all the families here are in a lot of debt, living on the breadline on the meagre earnings they can eke out – most are farmers. Other avenues of work are simply not available up here and most families cannot afford to put their children into higher education to improve the cycle. Public welfare does not really exist in Nepal and the area only has one health clinic staffed by volunteers and supplied by charity. If a villager requires hospitisation the villagers have to pool together to get enough money to pay for an ambulance to take the patient 5 hours to Kathmandu and also pay the expensive hospital treatment fees, if they can afford it. The village school was built thanks to charitable efforts but staff wages are low, equipment and resources are always scarce and there are not enough teachers for the number of students. These are just some of the problems that the community has – yet despite the difficulties the community spirit is amazing here, people help each other, they have a smile on their face and they are welcoming and friendly. If you think that you can help with donations, volunteering (incuding English teaching at the school) or charitable projects, please get in touch. Jhabraj has many contacts and can direct you to the right people so you know your money or resources are going directly to the local community and no share is going into anyone elses’ pocket. Some charitable efforts have also been started by foreign visitors who have visited Jhabraj and decided to help the community of Karmidanda – please check out the following websites: (links coming soon!)

Another day as a Nepali Farmer

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Alan Stock

From the day before, looking down the valley from the rocky outcrop me and Awijit climbed.

Day 83 – Location: Karmidanda Village, Langtang Region; Nepal

23/11/12

An extra sleeping bag helped with the nightly death freeze, but I had a restless sleep because of a strange problem: really sore ears when lying with my head on the side, enough to wake me up. It’s happened to me before (when I was trekking around the Himalayas) – I thought the cold might be responsible but my ears felt warm to the touch. Weird. Januka was still asleep. She helps at the village medical centre and had been there till 4am helping to deliver a baby. Jhabraj, Awijit and Sophie went to school and Ama went off to whatever mischief old women get up to in Karmidanda.

A common sight in the village, villagers lugging grass to feed their animals. They head out into the fields and countryside twice a day to gather this amount. Cows sure eat a lot!

After breakfast and a read in the sun, I set off for another day’s work in “my” millet field. I spent four hours filling another basket with seed heads. This time I borrowed a cap to ward off the beating heat and I found the work boring but sometimes meditative. Traditional Nepali songs drifted over the fields from a house radio and an occasional local conversation, other than that my only company was the sounds of nature. It was quite therapeutic cutting away. At 2pm Jeneet, the funny little five year old from next door arrived in my field, wielding a sickle! Ealier he’d passed with his mum and seen me working here, now he was here to help. I watched as he violently hacked away at the stalks, cutting towards himself, and I immediately confiscated his sickle before he needed Januka’s help in the medical centre. To give him a job I handed him the seed heads to put in the basket and tried valiantly to keep him away from the sickle which he kept attempting to grab, determined to be a little farmer boy! Ten minutes my basket was full and I hauled it to the Neupane house, where Jhabraj and Sophie had arrived back from school.

Another full basket of my harvested millet seeds

I took a much-needed shower before the water temperature became Antartic, and spent most of the afternoon relaxing with the others and playing with Jeneet with his boundless energy. The father of the baby Januka had delivered dropped by with a big smile on his face. Mother and child were doing well. In the evening we chatted away over copious amounts of rakshi, discussing trekking and Jhabraj’s work as a trek and tour guide. I hadn’t realized he had done so much of it – in the holiday months of school he is usually out earning extra money as a guide. When Jhabraj turned in, me and Sophie watched a film on my laptop, it was a bit strange to be transported to the remote Arctic in John Carpenter’s “The Thing” – and then step outside in real life to the middle of the Nepali mountains in a moonlit, isolated village!

——

Would you like to stay in Karmidanda village with the Neupane family? Read on…

You want fresh milk for breakfast? Gotta get it yourself!

——

Would you like to help Jabraj’s village community of Karmidanda? Read on…

Village school kids await Sophie’s instructions

Like many outlying villages in Nepal, the village Karmidanda is extremely poor and the community has many serious problems as a result. Almost all the families here are in a lot of debt, living on the breadline on the meagre earnings they can eke out – most are farmers. Other avenues of work are simply not available up here and most families cannot afford to put their children into higher education to improve the cycle. Public welfare does not really exist in Nepal and the area only has one health clinic staffed by volunteers and supplied by charity. If a villager requires hospitisation the villagers have to pool together to get enough money to pay for an ambulance to take the patient 5 hours to Kathmandu and also pay the expensive hospital treatment fees, if they can afford it. The village school was built thanks to charitable efforts but staff wages are low, equipment and resources are always scarce and there are not enough teachers for the number of students. These are just some of the problems that the community has – yet despite the difficulties the community spirit is amazing here, people help each other, they have a smile on their face and they are welcoming and friendly. If you think that you can help with donations, volunteering (incuding English teaching at the school) or charitable projects, please get in touch. Jhabraj has many contacts and can direct you to the right people so you know your money or resources are going directly to the local community and no share is going into anyone elses’ pocket. Some charitable efforts have also been started by foreign visitors who have visited Jhabraj and decided to help the community of Karmidanda – please check out the following websites: (links coming soon!)

Alan Stock Photography

My travelling (mis)adventures. It's ok to cry.

Tag Archives: Karmidanda