UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Finally after two weeks of digging trenches and mapping out the new route for the distribution system, we received the materials for the pipeline. However while we had received a majority of our materials, there were some parts that didn’t come or some that were the incorrect size. While the new order was being taken care of and pieces were being returned, we started laying the first section of the pipeline. We broke down the system into four or five housing sections for engineering purposes. Luckily for us the community members were familiar with the pipe material we were using, Supertubo HDPE pipe, because they had used it for their intake pipeline, which is going to run from the source to the water tank. Their familiarity with the pipe really helped speed up the process of unrolling, laying, and applying the connecting joints of the pipe. While the familiarity made the work run smoother, there were plenty of challenges that would pop up while we were working. One of the biggest ...

I am just about halfway into my third week in this children's home and I've become to feel very familiar with the place. The physical comforts of home that are absent here were surprisingly easy to get used to. Admittedly, there isn't all that much to get used to since this part of Nepal has been very comfortably developed. This particular home has both flushing and squat toilets, a water pump outside, a water filter in the kitchen for drinking, and two showers (although most of the children just use the water pump to bathe). There is no hot water, but I don't think I would use it even if it were available since it's so hot and humid here. Electricity cuts out often, which is a problem for almost all of Nepal, but it's really not so terrible. Electricity here is used only for light, fans, and internet. We only need light in the evening when the sun goes down, fans can be easily substituted with whatever scrap of paper is lying around, and internet is hardly used...

Walking to the future garden at Mukongoro This week has been busy with starting my new projects under the Batwa Development Program. I am first working with the agricultural coordinator to develop a school lunch program at Mukongoro Primary School for Batwa students. Poor nutrition is one of the biggest problems contributing to the cycle of poverty in this village. Many Batwa suffer from poor nutrition and a school lunch program could significantly help the Batwa children by providing them with at least one full meal per day. For the school lunch program, we have realized we need to start from scratch by growing the food. We have a man (named Jumba) specifically responsible for the gardens. He is also being taught how to harvest the seeds so that he can continue the garden for years to come. The plan is to have some students from the school as his helpers so they can learn the skills and share them with their families back at home. On Tuesday, Brian and I hiked up the mountain ...