Journey to India

 

Good news and bad news. We went to the opening ceremony of a wonderful orphanage in Godavari, a suburb of Kathmandu. A German woman of Yugoslavian origin has worked, against all odds, to build a most beautiful orphanage, a Rolls Royce of buildings to house and take care of 62 wonderful children of the lower castes. She came as a tourist and could not turn away. We saw a beatifully designed facility full of large spacious rooms, clean toilets, playrooms, libraries, gardens, all built on ecological principles. ... complete with passive solar water heating, earthquake resistant walls, septic tanks that empty into living pond filters... and rain water harvesting. The children had actually been with her for many years, but in a different facility. The architect, Wolfgang, who was there for the ceremonies, told me about a model house he designed and built in Nepal using local materials and traditional design elements, but incorporating modern ecological principles.

 

You can visit her web site at www.happy-children.de

 

We left Kathmandu to go to Dhulikhel, a small town at the top of Kathmandu valley, one that I had visited with my brother back in 1972, and then again in 1983. Things had naturally changed, and one of the new things is a big huge hospital, funded by Austrian donors, and completely run by Nepali staff. It is clean and spacious, and local people are charged a nominal fee compared to private medical care in Kathmandu. I had a lovely visit with the administrator, and he gave me some literature, celebrating their ten years of operation.

 

Wolfgang's model house is in Dhulikhel. I asked around for it, but most people did not know what I was talking about. I finally found it within the municipality's administrative grounds, and asked to see it. A very formal town administrator showed me the house but did not bring the key, so it was a bit pointless. After a courteous amount of time, I expressed my regret that there was no key since we had come so far. It magically appeared and we took a good look around. The house seemed ideal for a large family or two small families complete with passive cooling and heating systems. Unfortunately no one had actually used the design, which is available free of charge, with tax break incentives, since it was built in 2002. There seemed to be no reasonable explanation for it. The house is used occasionally by visiting dignitaries as a place to sleep.

 

We were fortunate enough to run into an English speaking foreign urban planner working there. He was reluctant to talk at first, but his frustration was obvious. He said that nothing can change in a country where people do not see any need for change, and where people accept the hardships they are faced with. He said that in his experience, between the feudal system, corruption, unstable government and fatalism, most people do not think they can change anything, and therefore do not entertain the idea that things need changing. Of course, there are many exceptions, but generally this it the case. So the model house sits empty, and new houses are being built constantly using designs that are neither ecological, earth quake resistant nor cheap to build. And so the world turns, like the soaps.