Nepali Barber Shop

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Alan Stock

Day 85 – Location: Karmi Danda Village, Langtang Region; Nepal

25/11/12

There was no school today, it was a national festival, so we hung out in the morning. The goat kids had discovered the joys of jumping into the big wicker baskets full of stuff and kept spilling corn heads all over the floor. Eventually we gave up constantly cleaning up after them and just left it! After chopping potatoes, in the afternoon me, Sophie, Januka and Jhabraj walked along the path out of the village back up to the nearby town of Kalikastan, through the pine forest. The path offered great views down into the valley.

Before the woods the path goes over rocky terrain dotted with cactus-like plants

Start of the path leading to the town, note the weird and huge cactus family plants dotted around the rocks

Jhabraj met a local guy on the way who told him that yesterday there had been a suicide in the area. A 28 year-old woman had hanged herself in the forest only 15 minutes from where we were now. She was married and had a few children. At the moment noone was sure why, except they knew there had been some dispute in her household. For such an area that seems so peaceful, they sure have a lot of life and death drama here!

At Kalikastan it was quiet because of the festival. The town (well, village really) sits along a hairpin of the tarmac road winding up the mountainside, a typical mix of open-fronted shops, restuarants and residences supporting the local villages. The buildings are more modern compared to Karmidanda. A few new buildings were under construction, bamboo scaffolding criss-crossing their bare structures. We went to a tailor shop where Sophie bought some day-glo furry trousers for the cold evenings, and picked some colourful material for a long dress she could wear to work at school. The tailor took her measurements and said it would be ready in a few days. Whilst I waited, some kids and adults said hello, although this is a trekking stop-off point they still don’t get many westerners here. We walked up the road to a barber shop where Jhabraj got his hair cut. I got the same, wondering what kind of Nepali hairstyle I’d end up with this time. Not too bad, as it turned out, and for a few dollars you can’t complain! It was finished with a relaxing head massage. We bought some supplies, had a coffee and sauntered home as the sun got low, passing lots of school kids in uniform coming back from private school – due to the fees their families pay a festival isn’t enough to stop proceedings there!

I get attacked with scissors

Me and Sophie took a longer way back via the dirt road as the sun sunk below the ridge, taking in the great views of the valley wreathed in orange and shadows. Back at home we had dinner and I chatted to Jhabraj over some glasses of rakshi. He was quite stressed out at the time because he has a lot of problems, mostly financially. His daughters in Kathmandu (just out of uni) are living in their new apartment there and he’d had to pay a lot of money to outfit it with furniture and necessities. On top of that, both girls were very bored and getting a bit depressed. When they were at uni they stayed in a uni hostel and so had lots of friends around. Now that uni is over they have to find work or continue their studies. Their friends have all gone and they’re lonely. They don’t have money to go out or have a social life and had been asking for a TV, another expense Jhabraj can’t really afford. Another worry for him is that if they get scholarships (which he encourages) – he’ll also have to find money from somewhere to pay for that, perhaps being forced to sell some of his precious land. It’s a tough life working in such a poor place when you want to give your children a good life and education. After Jhabraj went to bed I read for a while and got an early night, arriving in my bedroom to find the baby cat of the household had left me a present. A little poo sat right on my silk sleeping bag holder. Thanks kitty!

Sophie on the walk home

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

Januka (Jabraj’s wife) and her beloved goat kid!

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…

Jhabraj teaching at school

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: Langtang