A Home For Raju: Getting The Team Back Together.

Johannes beat me to Nepal by a couple of days. I was able to meet him straight away as he was in our usual hideout in Kathmandu, Hostel One96, waiting with curiosity and excitement. With no time to waste we headed straight to the village together, with Johannes very excited to finally meet Raju and Phul Maya. We needed to put the team back together and say a big Namaste to all of our dear friends, introducing them all to our new teammate.

Soon after arriving in Baluwapati I heard that Indra, our site foreman for the house foundation, was in Kuwait; contracted to work there for the next couple of years. Sadly this led to his much loved family run cafe closing. However, on arriving at Sukuman’s house I was greeted warmly with chai and the excitement of him being fit and well after the accident which had stopped him joining us last time. Sukuman was now full of passion and ready to join us again. I was also met with the same enthusiasm from Keshab just a few houses down the mountain. Sukuman gave us strong support on the retaining wall on the school site with Keshab, who has been with us ever since.

Life felt great. I showed Johannes around the village so he could meet our close friends and be acquainted with our projects and the local villagers that would become a big part of his life for the next couple of months. The two of us laughed a great deal as we enjoyed a few drinks and meeting the characters in the village while getting further acquainted with each other. We stayed over for the night before heading back to Kathmandu to sort out the donation collection. This volunteer already felt like he was going to be a lot of fun to work with, and his heartfelt questions gave a good indication of his more serious desire to help and work hard. I was glad to finally meet him in person, and already it felt like a natural friendship was forming.

The donation collection between our two countries took a little longer than we had hoped, however as soon as it all came through, I was on my way straight to the closest city of Bhaktapur, to buy materials and organise the first materiel shipment trucks to deliver to the village, Chaap, two kilometers down the mountain from Baluwapati.

It was time to enjoy another road trip with our driver Mandu whom I knew well from last year’s wall building, and more recently from collecting materials for the Raju’s House foundations. Due to the road being so destroyed by the heavy monsoon this year he was the only person willing to drive through the chaotic landscape, however he drove comfortably with grace and ease. I was in safe hands with him behind the wheel. As we drove across the terrain not far from the village, we could clearly see the evidence of people that don’t fare so well, with trucks that have been pulled back up the mountain completely demolished. Thankfully they only had cargo aboard and nobody was seriously injured. To my surprise the driver was a friend of one of our strongest workers, Keshab, and would later help us manually lift materials to the site when available. We collected sand from a river far down in the valley, further away from infrastructured civilisation. The journey runs slowly across terrible, hard and monsoon destroyed terrain, to the river meandering through the valley between the bottom of the mountains. It feels like a different world down there, a different country even. The humidity at the bottom was like a different climate, as sweat poured off me, soaking my clothes. Children with their families working hard to mine the sand from the riverbed and moderately filtering it without protection from the incredible direct heat of the sun. Coming from the West it is hard to understand why these kids are working so hard in the severe heat this time of year and not in school, and why Mandu is the only truck driver that is willing drive, yet drives so well.

As fast as we were going, our team were still held back on their various jobs for a little while longer. I started moving materials down on my own but it was gut wrenching doing this kind of work, causing a serious energy deficiency and delusional thoughts. I needed some positive vibes and I missed the team. I was lucky to get the first shipment of cement down to the site with the help of Raju’s late Father Bicman’s best friends, as it needed dry storage and rain was still a threat.

I assembled a small team of people from the local village of Chaap to help lift the rest of the materials down to the site with me. To start us off I had organised 2000 bricks, 200sq/ft gravel and 200sq/ft sand with the first 60 bags of cement, but I knew for sure this was only just the beginning of the materials order. The new team started with further site clearance after the monsoon. It had become a micro jungle since I had last set foot on site. They seemed to be less motivated than my main loyal team, but I assured them that if they worked hard, they would have a job until the completion of the house and maybe even to build a school with us in the future. Unfortunately however, they disappeared after eating lunch on their first day! I had assumed they went to the shop to get cigarettes for the afternoon but they never showed up again. I continued the long slog alone for a few hours, carrying a lot of weight down the mountain. Eventually Raju greeted me after he finished school. He was so happy we were back that he too started carrying a few bricks down to the site. Moving about 50 all by himself. Pretty amazing considering his small size. The kid cheered me up a great deal, giving a motivating end to what had been a pretty difficult day.

I missed the stamina and strength of our main guys, due not only to the stress of this new village’s relaxed ‘easy come, easy go’ attitude, but also working alone again with a head full of thoughts, and a lot of weight to carry. I wondered with each heavy step when Sukuman, Keshab and the boys would be free, knowing it would be soon. Throughout the next day I grew more respect for them with every step I took. Time can be a strange but precious commodity in Nepal and I value it, there is never enough, although at times it feels like many people have more than they need.

Exhausted and walking back up to Baluwapati, a long two kilometers carrying the stress of getting the project up and running, I arrived  drenched in sweat to where we were staying at Ramesh’s shop. As I ordered a Chai, to my complete surprise Keshab arrived, immediately asking how I was, and reassuring me that his people would arrive tomorrow. These words were not only music to my ears, but felt like a full symphony bouncing through the mountains. I had to give him a hug, it was such a relief! Keshab, his brother Bicram and the younger team like Bijay use the hard labour as a competition, challenging each other, using their job as a gym, to get strong naturally. When I watch them work, I often laugh to myself about the crazy ride I am on with pure and beautiful souls that respect the work and let the work respect them back. In times like these you appreciate the friendship of the villagers you have come to know, especially the key players that help drive the work forward and respect what we are trying to do within their community. Keshab is amazing, he’s the real deal and a real blessing to know.
That evening I was having a few drinks in Ramesh’s shop and Purna (Budland School MD, our larger project’s school rebuild.) came in to say hello; his younger brother Frame was also becoming available for some work; it all sounded too good. It had taken a few days, but finally we were back together with both the people and the materials we needed to successfully continue our journey to help this beautiful little family. From struggling alone to having a large, strong team staggering back into play, we were ready and motivated for the fresh start in the morning’s clear air.