Kaule and Bhalche

The first two days of our field visit was to the villages of Kaule and Bhalche in the Nuwakot district, about a day's drive from Kathmandu and in the Himalayan foothills. The two villages are over a mile in elevation and have populations in the neighborhood of 2,000 to 3,000, and are only accessible by the narrow dirt trails that I discussed in my last post.

The lives of the people who live in these villages is very basic. Most of them are either farmers or merchants. There is electricity and cell phone service there but you won't find much other modern technology besides that. It was also very cold...

Both villages sustained damage in last year's earthquakes, though it did not appear to be as much evidence of damage compared to some of the other villages that I've seen. There was enough though to lead Build Change in partnership with the American Red Cross to open up technical advice centers in both villages. I was told about 5 people per day on average come to the centers for drawings, technical resources, or to arrange for training and inspections of the reconstruction of their houses.

And now for the photos, first from Kaule:

Main Street, Kaule

This structure built over a natural waterfall is for a grain grinder that is hydro powered

Our dishwasher was a hose from a natural stream

The view from the roof of the guest house

The Build Change technical assistance center

Excavation for a new house footing

How a retaining wall is built in Nepali villages. First the stones are tossed up and placed in the wall

Then the cement mortar is mixed by hand on the ground and handed up to the masons

Who then pours and trowels the mortar in between the stones

The base of a new concrete column. See if you can identify both the good and the bad construction here

Homemade concrete blocks

There was some concrete frame with brick infill construction happening in Kaule too

A new stone building under construction

Training on how to bend reinforcing steel, under the watchful eye of the Build Change trainer (he's wearing the cap)

Photos from Bhalche:

The views from Bhalche are even more dramatic

There were still damaged houses

Build Change training on framing concrete reinforcing

Typical existing housing construction

New stone masonry houses under construction