6/4/2017

Volunteer experience Manidada, Gorsyang village

Camilla Børsand

Camilla Børsand

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Contents Welcome to Gorsyang .......................................................................................................... 2

To bring or not to bring, that’s the question ....................................................................... 3

The home stay ...................................................................................................................... 4

Culture and activities ........................................................................................................... 5

The projects at school .......................................................................................................... 6

Documents attached ........................................................................................................ 6

How far we got ................................................................................................................. 6

Usual progress for new projects .................................................................................... 12

Useful tips? .................................................................................................................... 13

ENJOY your stay. Gorsyang is awesome .......................................................................... 13

Camilla Børsand

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Volunteer experience Manidada, Gorsyang village

Welcome to Gorsyang The village is really small and consists of about 20 houses in total. It is located approximately 6 hours on the local bus from Kathmandu. Prepare for bumpy and narrow routes with a great view. In the village you can find a pool house, plenty of small restaurants and the local school. The village is also located about one and a half hours from Battar, which is the closest city. Here you can find everything you will need, as well as all the materials or others necessaries for your projects at school.

The people in the village is super nice and it is very safe here. It is usual to get invited for tea and a snack in someone’s house. This is a sign of trust and their way of welcoming you to their culture and the village. My tip is to always say yes and go with whatever happens. Remember that everyone goes by the nepalitime so small adventures may take hours. The English in the village is at a very simple level. So most of the conversation goes by the few nepaliwords you have learned, the few English words they know and mimic. There are however some people with impressive English knowledge and are eager to learn more.

Camilla Børsand

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To bring or not to bring, that’s the question Before you leave home I recommend that you bring a computer, a pen drive, warm clothes (wool underwear), towel and a sleeping bag as well as the usual. To bring gifts for the family and school is highly appreciated but not expected. If you want to bring something for the family local food is a good gift. Milan (your soon to be brother at 6years old) loves chocolate, so that is appreciated. Writing and activate books, English to nepali books, as well as pencils, eraser and pen sharpener is also good gifts for him. This can be given upon arrival. If you bring activate books I recommend that you do the activate with the children. That way they understand the task and it is a great way to interact with the children. For the school writing books, pencils, eraser, pen sharpener, pen drive (they just got a computer lab at the school), games and toys that all the children can play with (ex. Football) is great.

If you want to give bigger gifts like old electronics (computers, cell phones etc.) or money gifts, arrange with the teachers and VolNepal. Remember that it is not required or expected to bring anything; but they will be happy for all small and big help.

Before you arrive in the village I recommend to buy a local sim card in Kathmandu. For the sim card it is only 150 NRP (= 1-2 dollar), and you can buy internet packages 250 NRP (= 2-3 dollars) for 1000 MB/mouth. This way you can both make local calls to the office(VolNepal) and use internet to stay in contact with family and friends.

Camilla Børsand

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The home stay For your time in Gorsyang you will stay with a local family. They are three in their family, Father (Bhim, 27 years old), Mother (Theresa, 28 years old) and their son (Milan, 6 years old). They are very welcoming and let you be a part of their family.

They are used to foreigner and our cultural differences, food habited and other. Therefore, it is easier to adjust to the situation knowing that cultural stuff you do is acceptable here. Their house is mainly a restaurant which means good food and a lot of people all the time. Get use to a noisy environment. Bhim speaks good English and will help you with anything you need. I highly recommend that you learn some Nepali words and sentences to interact the rest of the family and more people in the village.

For your sleeping arrangement they have newly build two new bedrooms with connecting toilets and showers. At this time the toilets and showers are not finished. The room is without any furniture’s, so mainly just a concrete room. They make the bed of soft styrofoam and blankets. (consider bringing an expandable mattress). There are squat toilets and no toilet paper in the village. So bring toilet paper from Kathmandu. For the showers there is an outlet in the street where you can shower. This is way better than it sounds, but bring a sarong or something to covering up (if you are a girl).

Camilla Børsand

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Culture and activities Upon arrival you will get a briefing at the office in both the Nepali culture and the language. However, the most important cultural things you need to remember and do is:

-   Every time you pass someone on the street, see or meet someone, greet them with a “Namaste”

-   Don’t put more on your plate then you will manage to eat. Remember that once it has toughed your lips it is “poisoned” for everyone else. If you get served to much, ask for a plate and take some off before you start.

-   If you share water bottles with others, pour it into you mouth. -   Don’t be afraid to say “no” more than once if you don’t want more or at all. But they will be

very happy if you say yes as it is a sign that you liked it. -   Take off you shoes when entering someone’s house. Or never mind, take off your shoes

whenever the locals do. -   Be open minded and try everything. (ex. Nepali people eat with their hands. Try it, it is actual

better) -   SMILE -   Best tips: Do as locals do!

Small village, but a lot of parties. If you are invited, you are expected to show up. It is great way to see their culture and to meet people from the village and neighboring villages. You will most likely be treated as a guest of honor (ex. If there is a stage you will get invited up). It is usual to get louds of food and drinks, so bring a small amount of money (500-1000 NRP) as a thanks to the host. If you have learned some neapli words, use them. It is great party starter and it doesn’t matter what you say. An other party trick is to dance and try to sing their nepali songs.

Weekly activates is working Monday to Friday (also Sunday if you want, as the locals do). For your weekend or Saturday, you can explore the hills around the village, learn to ride the motorbike, play billiard, or the local billiard (Carron board). Like my earlier tips: Do as local do(!): If you see someone working in the field, making local wine or playing poker… Join them.

Camilla Børsand

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The projects at school Documents attached

-   3-5 years plan for the school o   Shows all the projects planed for the school. 11 construction program, 4 education

projects and a landscape design of the school area. -   Budget

o   Estimated budget for all 11 projects. -   EIA for the school

o   Report for how all the projects effect the environment. -   Survey for a green school

o   Survey for how Shee Nila Saraswoti Lower secondary school can become a green school.

-   Report for the computer lab o   Installation report for Shee Nila Saraswoti lower secondary school.

-   EIA for the computer lab at Bhamara o   Environmental report for the computer lab at a neighbor school.

How far we got Before you read this; read the 3-5 years plan for the school.

-   ECO club o   The Eco club has been established. All teachers and almost all children signed in for

the club. The meaning of the club is that teachers and children has a place to share their idea about a green school, plan for the projects necessary and do the projects as well.

o   We have already completed three meetings at the school. For the first meeting we did a survey asking the children what would make their school nicer, greener etc. (See: Survey for a green school document). Trough the survey we noticed that all the children replayed “clean school and no littering”. Therefore, for the next meeting we gave the school 4 dustbins and ten brooms for cleaning. In the same meeting the children shared 5-10 ideas for how to make a better school environment. Additionally, all children participated in cleaning the school and classrooms afterwards. For our last ECO club meeting we did a garbage collection competition. Divided into classes the children ran around the school and school area to collect dustbins full of garbage. The class how collected the most won books for the class. (Class four won and collected ten full dustbins of garbage). During this exercise all children participated and where really excited. At the end we gave some gifts for the school (small balls and a football) plus all children got cookies.

Camilla Børsand

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-   Old building (Building 3) o   Crack management is completed at the front of the building

o   Installation of chicken wire at the back wall is completed

Camilla Børsand

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o   Plastering the back wall is completed

o   While working with this building and looking into necessary takes for a reinforcing of the front of the building. The fact there were three structures in the school area prior to the earthquake, and that two fell down, prompts the question whether the remaining structure should be reinforced as a measure of safety and risk management. The three structures were, as far as we have found out, of similar make and foundation. No steel in the walls and plain concrete foundation. The only discernable difference seems to be that the longitudinal axis of the remaining building was oriented 90 degrees relative to that of the ones that fell down. The current team here has theorized that this is what kept the structure from failing. Given that this theory is correct the first priority should be to reinforce the sections of the wall on the longer side, to prepare for a quake with forces resulting in a horizontal displacement parallel to the northern and southern walls. We have located what we believe to be three weak spots: The wall between the windows and doors leading out of the classrooms are not supported against caving of tipping. Horizontal forces of a large enough magnitude will likely cause a part of this section to fall out, leaving the roof overhead unsupported. Since the door is the only exit from the room (the windows are barred) this seems the logical place to start for a risk management standpoint. After having conferred with experts at home, workplace and university, we have designed a steel frame for this specific scenario. The frame consists of a u-profile on the outside that is connected with a plate on the inside by bolts. This will stiffen the wall and keep it from caving. At the top a square steel profile is welded in place between the column opposite the wall and the u-profile. The columns are reinforced with a steel pipe and is standing on a concrete platform going three feet deep. It should be able to handle any bending moment generated from the wall tipping.

Camilla Børsand

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Furthermore, the shear strength of the longer walls should be improved. On the western wall, we have already applied a steel net under the plaster as a cost effective way of handling this issue but additional measures for the front should be considered, with the wall sections above the windows and doors in focus. The sketches below show the idea. It has also been made AutoCad drawings of this installation. (Made by Vetle and Hindou)

Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScannerOVERVIEW OF THE BUILDING 1: U-PROFILE, 2: STEEL PLATE, 3: BOLTS, 4: �-PROFILE

Camilla Børsand

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-   Two new building (Building 1 and 2) o   Plastering of the two building, as well as 6 classrooms are finished.

o   We have painted the front of all three buildings in red and white. Classrooms are being painted in the same colors. Windows and doors in blue.

Camilla Børsand

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o   The installation of the computer lab is completed. We have fixed and installed 7 computers and one printer, as well as all electronics. Wi-Fi connection is being set up as well.

Camilla Børsand

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-   Rainwater harvesting o   Here I have already done all calculations and have been to Battar to find the

materials necessary with Parasuram (the English teacher). For the project we want to install gutters on the roofs of all three buildings. For building nr 3 (the old building) we want to put the two tanks already in the school´s possession in the back on top of the steel platforms. For the two new buildings (nr. 1 and 2) the teachers at school are looking into installing a big under ground tank in the schoolyard to collect the water from those two buildings. The calculations and plans for this tank as not been started. For the gutters, each building has a roof area around 42 m2 (<50m2) and will than need gutters with width 12cm, depth 6cm and outlet drain 6,5 cm diameter. The length of the wall pr. side is 14,07 meters (for the new buildings). The gutters will need a fall/drainage of 35 mm (2,5 mm pr. m) and an angle of 27degrees. The frame for the gutters should be fasten with a CC600 (60cm apart). In Battar we found some small gutters with lower width 10,5cm, higher width 14cm and depth 8cm. This will fit perfectly. The total cost with gutters, frame, screes and installation is: 1600NRP pr pcs. (1 pcs is 8 feet = 2,44m. Remember that some of the gutters overlap and you will likely end up with approximately 7,5 feet length pr. pcs). For this project we will then need 85 meters of gutter = 40-42 pcs

-   3-5 years’ plan o   The plan is continuously subject to change and is open for new ideas, plans and

designs. Therefore, share your idea for the school and include them in the plan.

Usual progress for new projects o   Make a plan o   Show the plan to the teacher’s/head teacher at the school and discuss progress o   Talk to VolNepal about the plan and budget

Camilla Børsand

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o   Either go to Battar to find/buy materials or the English teacher (Parasuram) will arrange for it. If there is an element of uncurtains it is usual easier to go to Batter to find the suitable things you need.

o   Start the project with the local labor workers or by yourself. (depending on the project)

Useful tips? o   The English teacher, Parasuram speaks good English and is a good coordinator for all

projects. Include him, in all the planning, even on your idea level. He also has ideas for the school and wants to help. Additionally, has he been involved in all the project since VolNepal got engaged at the school and has a lot of useful information and inputs. He includes the other teacher’s/head teacher in the discusses and can translate to labor workers if needed. He has a good estimate for cost; rates, amounts and other measurements needed. This could also be at good help.

o   Remember that skilled labor workers have a lot of local knowledge. Involve them and ask for their tips. Ex. If you are painting, make sure to talk to a local painter before you start. Most likely has he used the same paint before or has other tips for the work.

o   If you want to tell the children something. Go to all the classes and tell them yourself. Bring Parasuram as a translator.

o   If you are finding this document useful at all, make sure you write an experience letter (for the projects and status) yourself. That will make it easier for future volunteers.

ENJOY your stay. Gorsyang is awesome