Lingtep field visit - Day 5

Eager to get started on our long-day hike up to Lingtep, we were up early and on the road to start Day 4. We made it back to Handrung (where Dhirendra's illness struck...and a place believed within the family to have ancestral 'bad karma' as it were). We grabbed our pack and were on the way.

Though Dhirendra was still quite weak, were made good time. All along the path, Dhirendra shared stories about what had changed, memories of journeys past, and important spots along the way. Meg was taking it all in, as if visiting a mythical land she'd only dreamed of.

Along the way, we were met by a distant relative and young villager who'd been asked to meet us to bring us 'home'. From then on, we kept meeting up with villagers greeting us with open arms. Even a 'grandson' who nearly put us to shame met us; he was a third our height, wearing little overalls and no shoes. He couldn't have been more than 5 or 6. He tromped on ahead of us during the steepest sections of the hike with his hands in his pockets and a piece of hay in his mouth! Ho hum.

The journey back to Lingtep was exciting, but also one filled with many mixed emotions. Dhirendra was returning after 15 years to a place he called home from birth to age 19. This was a place who's soil, river valleys, rocks, and high altitude sun is all woven into the fabric of who he (and his family) is at the most fundamental level. At the same time, much has changed in the place and the man. Most immediate family has moved away from the village and life looks much different from this side. Meg was simply honored to share all of it.

It was growing increasingly clear throughout the day that this trip was about so much more than pragmatic reconnaissance work for a school.

In the early afternoon, we reached Lingtep Village. Despite Dhirendra's exhaustion, we immediately jumped into helping the dozens of community members engaged in building the stone memorial bench for our father, the late Tulsi Prasad Nalbo.


Despite overwhelming experience of meeting with many new relatives and the villagers, Meg warmly accepted the culture and immediately became part of it.


After building the bench (located just down the path from the village school, where Dhirendra's grandparents' stone memorial bench has been built), the religious/ancestral ceremonies began. First, the ceremonies at the memorial.




Then came the evening ceremonies which went late into the night. These ceremonies were filled with the essentials of Limbu culture - honoring the ancestors, recounting histories from generations and generations ago, drinking copious amounts of Limbu alcohol (tongba), recounting stories in memory of the honored person at the ancestral home, eating lots of yummy food (including the sacrificed goat), mixing and mingling of all age-groups, and an overall loving, warm environment of family and life-long friends.

That night, we fell asleep to the sounds of traditional Limbu ceremonial singing, bundled in our warm clothes.

Lingtep field visit - Day 4

Day 4 was a day of rest. Dipendra and our cousin departed for Lingtep in the early morning, leaving Dhirendra and I behind to rebuild some strength after Dhirendra's bout with food poisoning.

We rested and took short walks around the Taplejung Bazaar. It had been 7 years since either of us had been there, so it was fun to see it again. Last we'd been there was during the height of the Maoist insurgency during the on-going warfare between the Maoists and the National Police/Army (one of the important eastern stations is in the district headquarters). Also highlighting our last trip was the huge fire that burned down half the bazaar (ignited by children studying by a candle that fell over). When we went to look at the devastating effect of the fire, we nearly got injured by the sudden explosion of a cooking gas cylinder that was buried underneath the remains of burnt houses. The newer part of town has broader roads and some solid looking concrete buildings.

Dipendra rushed on to Lingtep in order to attend to some family 'business.' Dhirendra's beloved father (Tulsi Prasad Nalbo) was a respected leader within the region. Since his passing in 2005, the family has planned to build a memorial bench within the village in his honor. This winter was nominated the best time to do it. Dhirendra's oldest brother who lives in the village (Madan) had done much of the planning, but activities were scheduled to start immediately...another motivating factor to get us to the village in time to help with the construction of the 20 foot long stone memorial bench.

Thanks to Meg, Dipendra and other relatives' love and care, Dhirendra regained his strength this day; we were relieved to know that we'd be able to continue on with our journey to Lingtep (only a couple of days delayed).

Lingtep field visit - Day 2 & 3

After a good night's sleep and a filling breakfast, we were on our way to Taplejung District. We were anticipating this to be our final day driving before heading out on a one day hike to Lingtep. Along the way, we saw some of the most beautiful views of the Himalayas and Kanchenjanga (the 3rd highest mountain in the world at 28,169 feet and the guardian of the Limbu community/religion).

We had some tea in Phidim and lunch along the way. Dhirendra was daring with a habanero achar/picke with his daalbhaat (more on that later). As we went further into the mountains (or hills as they're called in Nepal - the mountains have snow year round), we were seeing more and more flags and political rhetoric for the Limbuwan ethnic movement, demanding an autonomous state in the eastern part of Nepal.

As we drew closer to our destination (Handrung), we started seeing familiar landscape. Though Meg has been to Taplejung twice in the past, this time was particularly special as Dhirendra showed her important family landmarks - ancestral villages of aunts, brothers-in-laws, friends, and even the village where Dhirendra studied. It is a one-day walk away from Lingtep village (Dhirendra's home) and is where he studied classes 7-10 and met one of his closest friends. He recalled with his brother stories, as we drove along, about carrying the sacks of dried rice and lentils to the village in sacks tied to their backs. They'd depart on Sunday for the one-day trek, sleep for the week in a make-shift hostel where they'd study by kerosene-lamp and make their food they brought with them. On Friday afternoon, they walk back home after class to their village to spend a day and a half with family. All at the age of 12. They recounted funny stories about fairs in one of the towns at the confluence of two rivers along the way, and short-cuts along the path. In many ways, this was the root of Dhirendra (and Dipendra, his brother)'s motivation to provide schooling to Taplejung District children closer to their homes.

We arrived at the banks of the Tamur River to plop ourselves down for the night, when Dhirendra's tummy started aching more than just a spicy burn (return of the darn habanero achar). Before we new it, he was struck head-on with food poisoning.

Needless to say, Day Two ran into Day Three as we drove the 2.5 hour off-road 4WD drive (made into 1.5 by our skillful driver and friend Uttam) to the top of the "hill" and the Taplejung District Hospital emergency room. They got a intravenous saline drip into Dhirendra immediately. Almost 20 hours (and 5 saline bottles later), Dhirendra was discharged from the hospital. The rest of us were simply grateful that he was on the mend. The evening of day three, we all relocated to one of our relatives/uncle's homes in the bazaar area. After a frightening many sleepless hours/days, things were looking up.

Lingtep field visit - Day 1

Day one of our trip to Lingtep village in Taplejung (Dhirendra's birth place and where he spent his childhood until the age of 19) began in the early morning darkness of Kathmandu. In the interest of time and money, we decided to hire a 4WD vehicle and driver who Dhirendra knows through his frequent work field visits. Uttam (our friend and driver) picked the team up just before 6am. Beyond Uttam, an essential team member, it was the two of us and Dipendra Nalbo (Dhirendra's immediate older brother, best man at our wedding, and intimately involved with the Taplejung School Project). We had an extra seat in our vehicle, so we offered the spot to a cousin who was returning to the village after two years working in the Middle East. It's better luck to travel not in a group of three, so we were happy to have an extra family member along for the three day trip to Lingtep.

Our drive out of the Kathmandu Valley was particularly memorable with the sun rising over the Himalayas north of the capital. The skies were crystal clear (as they often are this time of year) and we all agreed that traveling out of Dhulikhel was a great idea.

The day's drive was long - nearly 16 hours!! The new road JICA (the Japanese development agency) is building impressed us all. We later found out that it was US development efforts a few decades ago that actually was the brain child for the highway, but that's a digression. Along the highway, the afternoon was highlighted by a lunch of tasty rice and curry home cooked by a friendly family we happened upon. There was a beautiful mountain stream in the back of the home, where we freshened up.


The day brought us from Kathmandu, through the mid-central hills (most recently Maoist strong-holds), along impressive river beds in deep valleys, dusty desert dry village roads and recently constructed "pitch" highways with Japanese construction vehicles and men in hard hats, to southern Nepal (the eastern Terai), past pockets of Nepal's small Muslim communities and Bhutanese refugee camps, into the area where many lowland (Madeshi) ethnic movements find their strongest roots, and back north into the foothills of eastern Nepal. Phew! Finally, well into the night, we made it to Illam - Nepal's tea capital - for a delightful night's sleep.

Eastward Bound

After much waiting, the time has arrived for us to finally make the journey to Taplejung after many years. Despite competing professional pressures, we've carved out two weeks from our schedules to make the long-awaited trip to Lingtep, Taplejung. Prior to our departure, we're trying to meet up with a friend who has extensive experience with school building projects in Nepal and the associated community development that goes hand-in-hand with that. The goal of this trip is to do the preliminary needs assessment on.

Our starting point is an understanding that either we pursue building onto the Lingtep primary school, so that kids in the surrounding villages will have local access to education through grade 10 - or 'high school' (pre-SLC level) - rather than having to take up boarding in a regional school OR we pursue building from the ground up a new primary school in an area where village children are simply unable to attend any close schools. Our hunch is that we'll see there is a strong need for both.

Holiday Generosity!

We are overwhelmed with the generosity of friends and family over the past month. Thank you all for your thoughtful contributions to the Taplejung School Project. Every little bit moves us closer to finalizing the land purchase, securing building materials, creating a parent teacher association, and eventually providing more accessible education to young children in rural eastern Nepal who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity. For this, we thank you. We will keep posting updates as we get them. May you all have a very happy and healthy New Year!!

Turtle and the Hare

The question is raised, why are there always delays? I suppose it is because we have full (plus) jobs we tend. We're still chugging away and building our financial base. As always looking for more contributions and getting some great fundraising ideas from friends. If there is a marathon in Bangladesh over the next year, Meg will be first to sign up and all will be expected to chip in for the school...and sports drinks! This is one hot country. But we digress.

The planned scouting trip, which was intended for October of this year, will now likely take place in April, 2011. Between major activities at work, changes in personnel in both of our offices, and struggling to find time to simply meet up ourselves, we've needed to wait until the Spring for our scouting trip. This gives us time to build rapport in order to take the full two weeks off of work required to get out to Taplejung.

The great news is that a new advocate for our school has joined us - a baby niece was born October 1st (daughter of Dhirendra's brother, Dipendra)!! We are happy to report that she looks really smart and promises to be a great addition to the Taplejung School Project team.