Bhakatapur & Pipe Delivery to Kabilash
It's a mad dash to finish everything as we feel Saturday soon approaching. We finished the final negotiations by phone with the pipe company. The mayor arranged for a truck and the pipe was delivered to the school in Kabilash today. We found a supplier of plumbing fixtures and purchased gate valves, tee's and shutoff valves. We also had the honor of taking a tour of the historic section of Bhakatapur. We saw a well that dated from the 7th century, the royal palace of the last king of Nepal and most of the buildings were older than 400 years old. We were given a tour by Rabindra Puri, the first cultural entrepreneur in Nepal. He restored the first building in the city and now has 250 people working for him as stone carvers, wood carvers and masons. He is heading up the effort to restore the city and merge it with modern use. We saw amazing new construction merged with restored century old architecture that would have been lost. We shared 3 cups of tea and a delicious lunch together. It's low tourist season now that climbing season has begun. Most of the visitors to Nepal are high in the mountains. This means the ancient part of the city isn't crowded so it's easy to visit the sites, but it also means the vendors mob Rick and Jeff at every turn. There are good bargains but it's stressful being surrounded by so many vendors at once.
We returned to the hotel, had a short rest and then went to dinner at the home of Kamal and Sunita. They prepared delicious
mo mo, fried rice, chicken biryani, and ice cream for dessert.
We will return to Kabilash tomorrow to see the progress of the trench being dug and we see the sections of pipe being installed.
Cordella and Rick will map the houses in the village and Jeff and Madhav will inspect the work being done. We delivered
enough pipe and cement to complete our first project and start on the next. We will meet with a mason to negotiate
constructing a 10,000 gallon water tank for the school. We decided the timing was right to do the water system in the lower part
of the village where Jeff and Rick scouted out the second water source. !,000 feet of pipe, rebar and cement and we be
delivered to provide water for another 75 people. It will be a busy day tomorrow.