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VOLUNTEERING
All Hands Volunteers: Bachchhala School, Nuwakot, Nepal
JHAM JHAM!!
*This is the nepali way of saying "let´s go!"
Jan-May 2017
Natural disasters are something that terrifies me the most in this world, and I have always wanted to help the communities unintentionally affected by them.
In January 2017 I traveled to Nepal to help the recovery of the communities that were affected after the great earthquake that occurred there in 2015 (magnitude 7.8). I spent almost 5 months in Nepal, adding my energy and efforts in the reconstruction of a rural school, where I also approached a real practice of architecture: construction.
I chose to join as a bricklayer an NGO that accepts volunteers and works on mitigation and recovery after natural disasters helping vulnerable communities: All Hands and Hearts.
It was a great opportunity not only to learn about construction:
Digging, building wooden formworks, mixing different concretes, pouring concrete, nailing and denailing, hamering, unloading cement bags, loading and unloading gravel and sand trucks, cutting rebars with the saw, tying rebars, sand sifting, mixing paint, painting walls, bucket chaining, wheelbarreling anything, measuring, labeling...etc.
But also to live differently and explore the unknown:
Living in the oriental culture for the first time in a beautiful country, eating rice every single day, learning a little bit of nepalese, experiencing a communal way of living with incredible people from all around the world, live at the top of a mountain with breathtaking views, living 98% of the time outdoors with no encolsed spaces, have monkeys, goats and buffalos around,...etc.
I would definitely do it again!
*The school site, about to be finished:
- NAMASTE -
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