Gorilla Hunting

As part of their 175th birthday celebrations, Bristol Zoo commissioned 61 plaster Gorillas to be placed around Bristol - one even made it up to the bus station in Birmingham. They called it Wow Gorillas, and over the summer thousands of people visited them. Hannah and I decided we wanted to see as many as we could by foot and bus, so went on a wander one Tuesday afternoon in the school summer holidays. We enjoyed it so much, that we went the next day as well to find all the other ones nearby! Below are a couple of the gorillas, the album with the 53 gorillas we saw can be found here.

Gorisambard and the Clifton Suspension Bridge

Banana Shirt and me

Back to Nepal - Part 4 - Janai Purnima and Goodbye

I arrived back in the Kathmandu Valley in time for Janai Purnima. Janai Purnima is a time when Brahmin and Chhetri caste Hindus change their sacred thread, it is also when sisters give their brothers bands which they place around their wrists to protect them. Both Saru and Rachhu came to give me and Achut our bands.

The Rakhi that Saru and Rachhu gave to protect me

During this time there is a large festival in Gosainkunda lake in the Langtang Himalaya, where many people go to on a pilgrimage to change their Janai. In Patan, at the Kumbeshwor Temple a similar mela takes place. It is said that the temple is connected to the lake at Goskainkunda by an underground river, whether this is true is anyone's guess. So, I took a quick visit down to the temple with Mama's son, Subash.

Kumbeshwor temple at the Janai Purnima Mela

There were thousands of people at the temple, all wanting to visit the temple, pay respects to their gods and have a blessing from the priest and another thread rakish.

The idol from the temple in the middle of a chariot in a pool - the people were gathering the money at the bottom of the pool to give to the idol

The priests sitting outside the temple

Me and Subash

Janai Purnima is a family time too. Saru and Rachhu had come over from their respective new houses. It was great to see them as I would be leaving in a couple of days afterwards. Going this time was going to be a bit strange. Every time I have gone in the past then I knew when I was going to come back. This time, however, I didn't really know what was going to happen, in the next 2 years I would be needing to finish my PhD and then write up, so when I would be back I wasn't sure. So I made sure I saw as many people as possible in Kathmandu before I left.

Bob

Me and Bob

Krishna and me

Achut and me at the airport

It was a sad day leaving, Aama was ill again, I really couldn't answer when I'd be back next. Buwa gave me a tika and as quickly as I'd arrived it was going again.

SAM

Back to Nepal - Part 3 - Learning Planet

Before I left for Nepal, I spoke with Arthur Williams, who had been conducting research in pico hydro for over 20 years. I had met Arthur a few times over the last couple of years and found him a great person to chat to and bounce ideas off. He had hands on experience of pico hydro systems and was always interested in improvements. He was supervising an MSc project looking at the feasibility of a pico hydro project in Gorkha district of Nepal for a charity called Learning Planet. Learning Planet was run by a former teaching volunteer and her friend in the UK, as well as the Nepali headmaster of a school in Gorkha district. They were looking at trying to improve the local school and community though educational projects. I was quite intrigued, on a pico hydro side, I had never really done any site studies and so wanted to look at different potential sites. On a more development side, some of the projects they were talking about doing were quite different for Nepal. So I decided to visit and see what was going on.

Bus from Pokhara to Gorkha

I took an early morning bus from Pokhara to Gorkha, the district headquarters. From there I caught a bus towards Arughat, a town on the Budi Gandaki river. Soon, a 600MW hydro power station would be built on this river, flooding 40 square kilometres of land and causing many families to be relocated. I'm never sure how I feel about large hydro, especially when land is flooded and people are forcibly relocated. Obviously, a reliable electric supply is invaluable to Nepal's development, and using their own hydropower they would not depend on imports of oil from India. However, there is a lot of research, for example here, which suggests the greenhouse gas emission from these lakes negates any gain compared to fossil fuel based power sources. I have also heard stories from places like Sarawak in Malaysia about large hydro projects not being thought through properly.

The road to Arughat was problematic. In the monsoons, the road had washed away in two places, so I had to change buses twice. Several times, the buses slipped and slid, getting closer and closer to the edge of the road. From leaving Pokhara at 6am, I got off the final bus at about 4pm, being met by two pupils of the Learning Planet school in Dhawa. We then walked for the next hour or so down the valley and then up the side of another hill to reach the village. By the time I arrived in Dhawa I was a sweaty mound, always a great way to meet new people! Sat outside the school was the Headmaster, an unassuming man called Giri Raj Lamichhane. We had tea, and chatted about the school. Another foreigner, a German who had been living towards Manaslu for the last couple of months, had arrived the same afternoon, and Giri took us back to his house for tea. We ate and chatted. Giri told me about his ideas and plans. He wanted to expand the school, currently there were 10 classrooms for 500 children, and they were just going to start teaching plus 2 - A Level equivalent - so needed more classrooms and teachers. As always, money was a problem. They had started to build some classrooms, but funds had run out. Giri seemed to have a different mindset to many that I had met in Nepal. He wanted to improve things by learning themselves, through education and knowledge transfer. It wasn't what I'd normally heard from people.

My two pupil guides to Dhawa

Dhawa

Over the next couple of days I began to really respect Giri. He had taken a lot on, and wanted to make his village a better place. His ideas didn't stop at the school, he wanted to help improve the water supplies, help continuity of electricity through micro hydro projects and help to keep talented people in the village by offering them opportunities there. He did seem to have the whole world on his shoulders though, I wondered if he was taking too much on himself.

The current nursery school

The main school buildings - solar panel provided by Learning Planet through the Envrion Foundation

The classrooms

Pupils clearing a field to do athletics on

Practising the long jump in the newly built pit

Giri took me to look at the river they would like to build the pico hydro. Even in the monsoon season, the flow seemed quite low, so again, my research would not be much use here. However, there was a good head drop, through a waterfall and so could use a small peltric set. There were a couple of possibilities for sources, two rivers in different locations. Arthur's MSc student was conducting the feasibility study for this, to see which would be most appropriate. It was good to try and look at the site and try to picture what it would look like. As it was a river, there was a point where I needed to wade, and being clumsy me, I did fall in the river, to a mix of concern and laughter from the locals that were accompanying us. I didn't damage anything too bad, although I managed to bash my toe and this went black for a good week.

The river for the pico hydro source

There are a couple of projects that Learning Planet are still undergoing, and require funding for. They are both building projects, the pictures are below. If anyone is looking for worthwhile and meaningful projects to support can I recommend these. You can donate here, on their website. They are also looking for teaching volunteers, schools to twin with and communicate with, so if you're interested please contact Learning Planet. I felt very at home in Dhawa, a very friendly little Nepali village, who want to improve all their lives.

Building the new classrooms

The new Nursery school, supported by Architecture for Humanity

The journey back to Kathmandu was as fraught as the journey to Dhawa. When I climbed aboard the bus after an hour's walk along slippery paths, the aisle was full of stones, which confused me. When we arrived at a particularly muddy section of the road, I finally understood. The kalashi (bus conductor) got out and filled in the muddy section with the stones, allowing the bus to drive over it. Again, I had to change buses twice. The final bus coming into Gorkha almost didn't arrive. There was no seating on the bus, so I had to stand in the aisle. The bus was baking, everyone had sweat dripping of their faces. The road had a particularly slippery section a couple of kilometres from Gorkha which the bus seemed unable to pass. We would slip and slide, but never get any further. After a long run up, we flew towards the mud and slipped and slid right to left, towards the edge of the road, which was followed by a drop of about 30ft or so, but the bus managed to squirm its way along the road, finally finding some grip and shooting forwards once again. After the excitement of the bus ride to Gorkha, the trip to Kathmandu was mundane, only a couple of occasions my pulse quickened where the bus overtook on blind corners where we were met by trucks on the opposite side of the road.

I had arrived back in time for Janai Purnima, and then after a couple of days I would leave for the UK.

SAM

Back to Nepal - Part 2 - Rest and Relaxation

I finally arrived in Lalbandi in the late evening, it had taken me the best part of a day to reach there from Ilam, on 4 different buses and being squashed against several different strangers. Bhinajyu, Didi's husband, was waiting for me at the bus stop and I rode pillion on the back of his cycle the few kilometres back to their house in a village outside Lalbandi. They had finished planting their rice a week or so before and were now taking things a bit easier.

Didi's house, just outside Lalbandi

Didi's two sons, Bibek and Bipin - I did a lot of exploring with Bibek during my year in Nepal, see here

Lalbandi is in the Terai, the plains area to the south of Nepal. As such, during the monsoons it gets a lot of rain from the Himalaya above it, and when it's not raining it's roasting hot, normally 40 degrees celsius. I spent my few days in Didi's house sleeping and keeping out of the sun. It was great to just sit back and do very little, the walking in Ilam and then the bus journey had taken it out of my legs, they were not only aching a little, but bruised from the small seats.

When I arrived at Didi's house, Bhinajyu pointed at their buffalo and said that she was due to give birth any time soon. The pregnancy for a buffalo lasts about 11 months apparently, and they were now looking forward to getting some creamy milk. Even better, in the days immediately after the birth the buffalo produced a high colostrum  milk, bigauti in Nepali, which was very tasty. Obviously the calf would have to have some of the milk to ensure it had all the vitamins it needed, but the buffalo would produce too much, so we would have that.

A few days later the buffalo began looking more and more uncomfortable, and in the evening, just before tea after a very short labour the calf was born. It fell to the ground and crumpled in a heap. We waited. The calf didn't move. Was it still-born? The mother looked up at Bhinajyu, it was her first calf and she probably wasn't sure what was supposed to happen now. The calf eventually gave a little cough and came to life.

The calf minutes after being born, Bhinajyu cleaning it up

Bhinajyu rushed in and cleared the calf's mouth from the afterbirth. The buffalo then moved in an started to show a little motherly affection to the calf, before returning to its food. For the next few days the calf got stronger, stood up, walked and one day drank all the milk from its Mum. We ate the bigauti, which when boiled for a long time became quite sweet, and full of vitamins.

Monsoon season is also the time for snakes in the Terai. I had been warned for the last few times I had visited Lalbandi that I would have to be careful about snakes, but I still had never seen one. I wasn't sure if I would be scared to see a snake or not, but I was just very curious. So, one day Bibek and I went to look for snakes, and to visit their fields that were now full of sugar cane - ukhu in Nepali. The snakes would come out during the day as the sugar cane fields wouldn't provide them anywhere cool to lie, and they would lie on the pathways between the fields. I had heard there were snakes the thickness of my leg that regularly sat out.

Bibek took me out to their fields, and showed me a field with banana plants in. Apparently an elephant had come through here a couple of nights before and eaten some of the bananas - I could see some of the footprints it had made. Then we walked through the sugar cane, looking out for snakes. But as we emerged from the field, we had seen none. I was slightly relieved, but a little disappointed as well. I asked Bibek what he would have done if he had seen a snake, he said he would run, and I have a feeling that I would have done the same thing.

Bibek with the sugar cane (left) and bananas (right)

However, a day later my curiosity about what my reaction to snakes was fed as a snake made a dash towards the veranda of the house where Bhinajyu and I were talking. I wasn't scared, it was quite small and I heard the reassuring words in my ear "it's not poisonous".

The non-poisonous snake. But still a snake!

Then all too quickly it was time to leave, from Lalbandi I was heading to Pokhara, the main tourist area in Nepal outside of Kathmandu. I was in Pokhara to meet Narendra Limbu, the chairman of the Pahar Trust. The Pahar Trust is an NGO that develops schools and community health posts in rural locations in the hills of Nepal. It is supported greatly from the UK by the Rotary Club. During a presentation to the IMechE in Bristol in March a supporter came and talked to me about the possibility of putting pico or micro hydro into any of these sites to electrify them. So, I visited the office and had a good chat with them. Although my research I'm doing I don't think will be able to directly help them, I was able to put them in touch with some people that can, which was great. I looked over some of their projects, and they seem to do some fantastic work. They have completed over £1 million of projects now, and are still going strong. I spent the rest of the time in Pokhara near the lake people watching and avoiding the rain, which at times flooded the roads.

Phewa Taal in Pokhara

From Pokhara I was going to head to a new place for me, Gorkha district, to visit a school supported by Learning Planet that wanted to install a pico hydro set to power some lights in the school. Quite exciting!

SAM

Back to Nepal - Part 1 - Tea and Hydro

In the middle of July I headed back to Nepal to have a holiday, catch up with some of my friends over there, try to learn a few more things about the actual implementation of pico and micro hydro and speak to people who now are electrified to see what they see the benefits are.

The first few days were taken up with rest. The previous 3 weeks had really taken it out of me, I was so tired but my mind was still working overdrive and sleeping was a real problem. The continual fly past from the mosquitos didn't help with sleep either. But after a few days I was relaxed and my sleep got better and better. I ate the Nepali staple food of daal bhaat twice a day, went for wanders around Patan where I was staying and watched some truly hideous Indian TV (so many talent shows and bad adverts - my favourite being the Bangur Cement advert when a little old man says Bangur Cement, similar to these).

I visited KAPEG again in Dhulikhel, who had been working with PEEDA (from my year out) on the low head pico hydro axial flow turbine project. They had redesigned the electronic load controller that allowed the voltage to drop below the reference voltage for a short time. This allowed motors to be started with the large inrush current they draw. This is a significant move for pico hydro controllers, as this will allow more industry to be used from the site, bringing cash into village communities. KAPEG had also installed a test site in Panauti, Kavre, where the turbine was installed beside a traditional Nepali pani ghatta, as originally envisioned by the designer. The site was installed next to a irrigation canal that was already constructed meaning that there was only minimal civil works needed. The site provided electricity to a school and a local chicken farm, and now could be used to drill, grind and cut material.

A traditional Nepali pani ghatta

The low head axial turbine casing and induction machine as a generator

The ghatta and turbine side by side in Panauti

Alongside the work KAPEG had been doing, PEEDA had promoted the turbine unit all across South Asia. They had received orders from Bhutan and India, which showed the potential of the project. They had finished their one year project, so during my second week held a workshop to present all the work done with the turbine, from the beginning of the project. This project is very close to my heart, as it is the project that I worked on whilst at PEEDA, and had inspired me to do the PhD. I was very happy that PEEDA had finally managed to get some movement with it.

Pico Axial Turbine Workshop (photo from PEEDA website)

After the workshop I left Kathmandu for a 2 week tour around Nepal. I first headed back to Ilam to see what they thought now they had electricity. I had visited the village of Amchowk last year, where my friend Krishna Panthi was instructing them on the installation of a 28kW micro hydro unit. Now they had it, what did they do with it and what did they think? To get to Ilam was not an easy trip. Last year I flew to Bhadrapur, but this year I decided to take the bus as it was a lot cheaper - around £10 compared to over £100 for flying. The downside was that it took 2 days to reach Ilam Bazar, instead of the half day it would take flying, before another day's jeep ride and walk to Amchowk. As I had arrived in monsoon season, the roads were impassable in many places, forcing a 3 to 4 hour walk to reach the village. Krishna was no longer in Ilam, working in another district, so I went out to Amchowk with NCDC, a renewable energy NGO in Ilam who I also met last year. They were going to a site nearby to do a commissioning test, so I tagged along. In Amchowk, I met with some of the villagers and asked them what they thought the best thing was. They all answered the same thing, ujaalo - the brightness. Before they were dependent on kerosene lamps for light at night, with a few torches. Now, with the energy saving lightbulbs they could see so much better, and even with the 'zero watt' incandescent bulbs - used as they were 10 times cheaper than energy saving bulbs - the light was so much brighter than the kerosene lamps. Alongside the bulbs, people used the power for TVs, radios, mobile phone charging and the community had invested in 3 mills that they ran to process rice and maize. There was also a computer institute that ran classes for locals and a couple of people had their own computer too.

The site in Amchowk last year

The site in Amchowk this year, finished and generating for the last 13 months

A 'zero watt' bulb in Amchowk

I also visited the village of Ekatappa which I had visited last year. They had recently finished their micro hydro system too, and had been running for about one month. As with Amchowk, they powered TVs, mobiles etc. It was interesting that in Ekatappa, as with Amchowk, when there was power, people ran their bulbs, charged their phones, even if it was bright outside. I supposed that this was the advantage of hydropower, the power is always there, you don't need to pay for more fuel to provide it, so you might as well use it whilst you can.

Ekatappa's Deu Mai Micro Hydro project

Ilam is the centre of the Nepali tea industry, and so in Ilam Bazar I went for a walk through the chiya bari - tea gardens. They are a most amazing place a very strange place to wander.

The Ilam chiya bari

From Ilam, I headed to Lalbandi to see Didi and Bibek, who I spent a lot of time with during my year in Kathmandu. The road to Lalbandi passed by the Koshi river. 3 years ago the Koshi burst its banks and flooded across Nepal and India causing widespread devastation and loss of life (news reports from the time can be seen here). However, still in Nepal, the road across the Koshi had not been rebuilt fully, several sections still washed away and people's houses still temporary. I did wonder whether these people had been forgotten, once the initial emergency is over, how does life go back to how it was before? What has been done to prevent this happening again? Well, from the news I watched they still have been doing emergency work on the river dyke to ensure it remains firm, more firefighting than fixes though.

The dykes along the skyline

The rebuilt houses

The Koshi Barrage - meant to prevent the type of flooding that happened

That's all for part one, there still more to come. Lalbandi - Pokhara - Gorkha then returning to Kathmandu for Janai Purnima!

SAM