February Happenings

Just a little reminder of part of our view. This is Annapurna II and IV with a recent fall of snow.

These are pictures of our farm visit. We are standing in the centre of the buildings. The brick place in front of us has chickens in the top floor and baby buffalo in the bottom. (The top of the slope in the background is the level of the hospital and school.)

This building was out of shot to the right in the previous photo. The buffalo are brought back here each afternoon after they have been grazing around the hospital grounds and are then milked by hand and fed.

This one was tethered separately- not sure why. That rope goes right through the nose, in the same place as the bull's rings on N.Z. farms. It must give their handlers a little leverage when they want to take control. The buffalo are quite wild and we are very cautious when we meet them on the street, particularly within the narrow confines of our lane for example. They have a mind of their own and will take off not minding whatever is in their path. There is a story told over here of Tony's close encounter with one early one morning and arriving at school ashen faced.

Rice straw is trucked into Pokhara from surrounding areas and made into a  big kind of haystack around a pole or the trunk of a tree. This is a chaff cutter driven by an electric motor. It cuts this rice straw up both as mulch for the mushrooms grown on the farm and for buffalo food.  We were surprised at the amount of straw they fed through at once, but obviously the teeth are very sharp.
My Dad used to talk about motors at times sounding 'like an old chaff cutter'. I now know exactly what he meant.

The farm has pigs, goats and rabbits as well as buffalo and chicken. They had quite a few breeding sows with good sizable litters. A big sow like this had her nose right up to another gate which greatly intrigued the children. I was watchful they didn't poke their fingers too close though. The stys were very clean and had little smell, but some of the children were holding their noses as they walked around. Clearly townies!

The farm is quite extensive. We understand that it is on the original site, but later when an adjacent block of land became available, at a slightly higher elevation, this was purchased for ongoing hospital work and the lower land, which does not catch the breeze the same, was used for the farm. This view looks almost directly across to the airport and the lower view has the side of Sarangkot in the background. You may be able to see the surveyors working on the bare land.  This is to be the site of new and enlarged  chicken sheds.

All the veges looked so healthy. They are all organically grown and get lots of buffalo and chicken poo . The patients work on the farm. They grow cauli, broccoli, cabbage and a big long white radish outside. Inside the houses are bean and tomatoes. We bought some veges and they were so fresh and crunchy. There is a block up shops right up at the gate near the school which have just been completed. One of them is going to sell farm produce, so we will be able to buy eggs and veges more easily.

These are the wedding shots. The top one is with Shrison and this one is the Garambesi contingent. Hard to recognise those who came to carry out packs!

These are from the first wedding we went to. Note the distance between the bride and groom and the expressions on their faces. Even the dancing evoked no real response.

These are pictures from the second wedding. That is Sue beside me busy chopping veges and below is Dinesh washing out the pots at the pump.

This is where all the food was cooked in the open shed. The chicken cages are above the shoulder of the person in blue. You can get some idea of the large quantities of food that are prepared.

A close up shot of the cooking arrangements.

Sorry this is a very blurry picture, but have included it so that you can see the differences between the two services. This was a more relaxed service in every way, but the same protocols re showing emotion and looking at each other were evident.