6/12-6/19
After a very long goodbye to everyone at the Children's home, I caught an overnight bus to Phikkal/Fikkal in Illam. After a sleepless night filled with heaps of police check points, an amusing money collector and dust storms, I was so happy to finally hop off the bus at 6 am. On the three kilometer walk to Aarubote village with my host, Dipak Kulung, I learned a new phrase: "moor kyo" to say to everyone that asked about my cast. It was a good start filled with laughs the whole dirt, rocks and mud road to his farm. His workaway profile, managed by his friend, as there is no internet in his village, is here. His family are from the indigenous group Rai, who still worshipped the land. They practiced Hinduism but embraced Buddhism so everything goes. As I still wore a cast, my time here became more of a farm or homestay rather than volunteering. I was grateful to still have been able to pick tea and learn about the process (though I've gotten conflicting explainations since arriving in Darjeeling). It is best to pick one needle and two leaves but often times extra leaves are plucked to maintain an even height of the all stems growing from the shrub. The sizes of the leaves depend on the variety of the species Camellia sinensis. The plants are generally plucked weekly from the end of March to the beginning of November, unless there's heavy rain. These plants did not need the amount of shade due to the generally cool climate of the hilly Illam region. The workers on his farm were paid ten rupees per kilogram plucked with an average of 24 kg a day. Unlike Bangladesh and India, men and women were allowed to partake in the task. The types of tea differ in the way they are processed, from differing times of drying to oxidation.
My stay included visits to numerous houses, countless cups of tea and lots of patience that I did not always have. To everyone, I looked Nepali but also Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Mongolian, Tibetian, Thai...I tell you, I'm not sure how one person can be of so many different nationalities at once. Even his son who spoke better English than most others in the village, who I had explained my background to a couple times, baffled me at dinner by saying "you're not really American, you're Chinese." Perhaps this attests to the poor quality of education and isolation caused by the government I read about in "Unleashing Nepal". Sometimes, acutally a lot times for me, when you are in another country, your own faults are heightened as you expect one standard and are greeted with another. Impatience and shortness of temper are among the shortcomings that I must work on. I was also in disbelief at the lack of medical facilities when I went into town on the 16th to remove my cast. The grandfather, son and I walked from one clinic to another, all of which made you wait and then informed you that they lacked the tool to remove my particular type of cast. At the hospital, they ended up removing it with a pair of scissors and a razor blade.
If this family had the help of the ODW Agricultural and Development Fund, they would be able convert their crops more quickly to other crops of higher value. Dipak told me about his plan to convert some of his tea to cardamon, a highly valued spice. It fetches perhaps ten times as much per kilogram than tea. However, he would have to wait until he had enough income to buy the plants. As the plant grows on well watered land, he needs to ensure the land is constantly properly watered. Keep in mind, the villagers do not have any pumps so they have to manually adjust the pipes they built to reroute the water they need to their land. The prosperity of their land determines their family's entire well-being. Having land in their case as well ensures that his child is able to attend a private school, as the public schools are notoriously lacking in content and efficiency. The children of the workers on his land do not have the economic ability to send their children to private school. This greatly increases their chance of being stuck in the cycle of poverty. They could also set up a hydro power plant with the fund. This would allow the village to have power at night when kids need it to finish homework. Heck, you could use the toilet without the use of a flashlight if there was power! Being with this family in this village made me realize more clearly why I chose this fund. Greater economic growth and stability means not only these villagers can provide for their family but eventually pull out of the cycle of poverty through means like education.
In a country with lots of potential development, they are severely barred by old government policies and a current one that can't get their act together. One thing they still hold on to is a hope for a better future, one that many of the youth have already gone elsewhere to find. For such a wonderful country, I also hope they find a leader who will put aside their own power gains and do what is best for their people.
After a very long goodbye to everyone at the Children's home, I caught an overnight bus to Phikkal/Fikkal in Illam. After a sleepless night filled with heaps of police check points, an amusing money collector and dust storms, I was so happy to finally hop off the bus at 6 am. On the three kilometer walk to Aarubote village with my host, Dipak Kulung, I learned a new phrase: "moor kyo" to say to everyone that asked about my cast. It was a good start filled with laughs the whole dirt, rocks and mud road to his farm. His workaway profile, managed by his friend, as there is no internet in his village, is here. His family are from the indigenous group Rai, who still worshipped the land. They practiced Hinduism but embraced Buddhism so everything goes. As I still wore a cast, my time here became more of a farm or homestay rather than volunteering. I was grateful to still have been able to pick tea and learn about the process (though I've gotten conflicting explainations since arriving in Darjeeling). It is best to pick one needle and two leaves but often times extra leaves are plucked to maintain an even height of the all stems growing from the shrub. The sizes of the leaves depend on the variety of the species Camellia sinensis. The plants are generally plucked weekly from the end of March to the beginning of November, unless there's heavy rain. These plants did not need the amount of shade due to the generally cool climate of the hilly Illam region. The workers on his farm were paid ten rupees per kilogram plucked with an average of 24 kg a day. Unlike Bangladesh and India, men and women were allowed to partake in the task. The types of tea differ in the way they are processed, from differing times of drying to oxidation.
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| One bud and two leaves waiting to be plucked. |
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| Illam, Queen of the Hills. |
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| Plucking in the rain, just plucking in the rain, what a glorious feeling of snap, snap snap snap snap, snap snap. |
My stay included visits to numerous houses, countless cups of tea and lots of patience that I did not always have. To everyone, I looked Nepali but also Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Mongolian, Tibetian, Thai...I tell you, I'm not sure how one person can be of so many different nationalities at once. Even his son who spoke better English than most others in the village, who I had explained my background to a couple times, baffled me at dinner by saying "you're not really American, you're Chinese." Perhaps this attests to the poor quality of education and isolation caused by the government I read about in "Unleashing Nepal". Sometimes, acutally a lot times for me, when you are in another country, your own faults are heightened as you expect one standard and are greeted with another. Impatience and shortness of temper are among the shortcomings that I must work on. I was also in disbelief at the lack of medical facilities when I went into town on the 16th to remove my cast. The grandfather, son and I walked from one clinic to another, all of which made you wait and then informed you that they lacked the tool to remove my particular type of cast. At the hospital, they ended up removing it with a pair of scissors and a razor blade.
 |
| Everyone trying to get a hand in on the action. When the grandson picked up the scissors, I knew the craziness had to stop. |
If this family had the help of the ODW Agricultural and Development Fund, they would be able convert their crops more quickly to other crops of higher value. Dipak told me about his plan to convert some of his tea to cardamon, a highly valued spice. It fetches perhaps ten times as much per kilogram than tea. However, he would have to wait until he had enough income to buy the plants. As the plant grows on well watered land, he needs to ensure the land is constantly properly watered. Keep in mind, the villagers do not have any pumps so they have to manually adjust the pipes they built to reroute the water they need to their land. The prosperity of their land determines their family's entire well-being. Having land in their case as well ensures that his child is able to attend a private school, as the public schools are notoriously lacking in content and efficiency. The children of the workers on his land do not have the economic ability to send their children to private school. This greatly increases their chance of being stuck in the cycle of poverty. They could also set up a hydro power plant with the fund. This would allow the village to have power at night when kids need it to finish homework. Heck, you could use the toilet without the use of a flashlight if there was power! Being with this family in this village made me realize more clearly why I chose this fund. Greater economic growth and stability means not only these villagers can provide for their family but eventually pull out of the cycle of poverty through means like education.
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| The family from left to right, Dipak Kulung, Seon-yuk, a-pa, me and a-ma. |
In a country with lots of potential development, they are severely barred by old government policies and a current one that can't get their act together. One thing they still hold on to is a hope for a better future, one that many of the youth have already gone elsewhere to find. For such a wonderful country, I also hope they find a leader who will put aside their own power gains and do what is best for their people.
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