Tag: Ilam

20.12.2009

Hi,

I will start from the end and go back, so I can tell you fresh things first. I finally took a shower. It’s Sunday evening and since Wednesday morning I haven’t had a shower. Today in the morning I wake up and made myself to take a shower never mind what happen – that means even if there will be no hot water. Well there were no hot water, in the mater of fact there were no water at all. Think about it the next time you open the valve in your house and drink water from it….

We built the dome formwork! it is standing 25 meters from the bed I lie down in, Waiting for the concrete to be cast upon. We got to Namsaling an hour before the porters with the pieces of the dome got here. So we had a little bit of time to rest before we built the dome. Because the moment the dome got here, the villagers jumped on it opened it and we could barley stop them from building it themselves (no matter that they had any idea how to do it). We build it so fast and without thinking what we are doing, until we found out we missing a part. We got so nervous we thought we forgot it in Israel, Until I got out of the hole and saw it in front of me 🙂 I felt like I found the Afikoman of Passover (If you don’t knew what is it, I will explain it you in a different time….)

Before we start building we said we will split into 3 teams: One building the dome, one making the tests for the concrete and another one taking pictures. We did it later, because in first moment we all went to build the dome :-)…

We left Ilam today in the morning for Namsaling. To save the money on the porters we took our own personal equipment by ourselves. We took the dome formwork on the plane as our personal luggage. That is why we took the most lightweight bags we had. And they are definitely not for trekking. We had to improvise ourselves some bags: I knotted my big bag to the small that is good for short hikes. I really looked like a Nepali porter

After building the dome they decided we are too tired to cast the concrete, we weren’t – but it wasn’t our decision. We went to a little walk to the center of the village (we were thinking of how to make one of our tests). And we were eating, singing and dancing.

Shon and I played the harmonica (he did it better no doubt), They had their drum and while sitting by the fire outside we were drinking Tonga and singing. They sang a song and then we sang a song (we couldn’t think of one that will be with enough rhythm in Hebrew so we sometimes sang in English – most of us are English speakers). Someone was always dancing in the middle of the circle. We stop only to had dinner.

Of course it was a plate of rice with all kinds of extras on the side – so you mix them with the rice it to give taste.

We came back to the fire with reinforced powers and kept dancing, drinking and singing until we all almost fell down from our feet. And they took the highlight of the evening of the night – A stereo system with the only disc they got – A Vengaboys disc from 1999 🙂 (I think you are too young to know there was a band like that, in the matter of fact it better that way. They are horrible). Apparently I remembered almost all the words of the songs – what made me the main singer.
So it was like that – We were dancing in the middle of a Nepali village in the end of the world to sound of a song I was singing when I was 15 years old. It was hallucinatory….

Take Care
Gad

Setting the formwork for the bio-gas reactor dome

After work – this is the time for celebrations!