Nepal - Setti Valley Organic Farm (I)

Nepal is in the bronze age, people use so few tools. The farm is organic, and the director very progressive about trying new farming theories, but they use local laborers, who really seem to prefer doing everything from a squatting position with their hands. I have only seen four tools in use in my time here: a small hoe, for plowing the fields by hand while bent over, a scythe used by women for cutting grass, a hammer to break the local rocks that the buildings are built from, and a saw for cutting bamboo, the main structural support for anything and everything. Modern conveniences do make an appearance, like the satellite telephones and the bio-gas that we use for cooking, and the ever useful plastic sack, but in general, this farm is human powered and the products dug of the land.

I'm here as a "volunteer", but compared to the village women I'm pretty worthless as a laborer, so I have more the status of eccentric guest. I do a little light work, enjoy the beauty around me, and learn from the SADP Nepal director who runs the farm. A truly enjoyable experience. The food is amazing, the people are so nice, and remarkably happy. 80% of Nepal is engaged either directly or indirectly in agriculture, so I think I'm getting a real feel for the country. I have more in my backpack than most of them own in the world. A grand statement on the materialism of our rich countries.

Last Friday I went on a small hike, joining one of the farm workers who was headed back to his village to pick up his wife. We were 1 hour on a motorbike, then walked for 1/2 hour and crossed a river by cable bridge. Then a two hour jeep ride (everyone was very pleased when the jeep road was built), with a good 20 people plus goods crammed into the back and top of an extra large land rover. Then a three hour walk along the terraced rice fields and forests, with frequent pauses to climb over the landslides that were the results of the recent heavy rains. I didn't make it all the way to the worker's village, so stopped in an earlier one only 2 hours walk from the road head. I have now been to a place completely inaccessible by car or horse. Incredible scenery, though it's been too rainy most days (as it was that day) to see the high mountains, but when you do catch a glimpse of the high peaks, and realize how close you are to the tallest mountains in the world, it's soul stirring experience.

Nepal is pretty clean, and we drink only boiled water, so I've been good except for the raging case of conjunctivitis (endemic in Nepal, though they've managed to eradicate Malaria). It's also a completely different cleanliness standard. The farmhouse is basically a three walled, dirt floored shack, where the farmer and his wife, I, and any guests sleep back against the main wall. The front is open to the bio-gas pit (where we dump the cow manure, collected daily by hand) and the hose where the water for washing, cooking and drinking ends. There is a small kitchen area in the back of the shed, three large wooden chests for storing food and possessions, two tables for eating, a bench and some chairs. In the back, kept dark without windows to avoid flies, is the kitchen: two shelves and a platform for the single stove burner. All of the food itself is prepared on the ground. In terms of cleanliness, the feeling is: if you rinse it with running water (and sometimes give it a good soaping), things are pretty clean. I haven't had any problems yet, and we eat with our hands in Nepal, so the system works pretty well.