Back In Pokhara

The past few days in Nangi have made the entire project worthwhile: these rural villages have such potential that can only be achieved using the kind of technology Mahabir is setting up, and the type of computers I am distributing. A few years back, Mahabir had given two neighboring schools computers — we’re talking the Windows 98 days, with big bulky CRT monitors. Back then, everything worked fine…but as the power consumption of major population centers like Kathmandu and even Pokhara grew, the amount of power available to rural villages decreased as supply stayed constant. For every hour of load shedding Kathmandu had, places like Kaphal Danda had two. Eventually, the harsh on-and-off nature of the electricity in the villages took its toll on the computers Mahabir provided, and they were no longer usable. I am back in Pokhara now, but I’ll post the story of the past few days work.

The first full day I was in Nangi, two more Australians arrived. Ben and Lauren started trekking in Spain, where they got married, and have found there way over land to Nepal ever since. They are en-route to the southernmost point of Asia they can find — perhaps somewhere in Indonesia — where they will take a boat back to Australia. Sounds like a great trip! After they arrived, I setup Mahabir’s computer room with an additional five computers. The computer room has a number of computers already, some being old and some being new. One misunderstanding I had was that the computers downstairs running Ubuntu aren’t used in the classroom, they are used for internet access only. The computers in the classroom require Windows for the curriculum, so I had to uninstall Ubuntu and replace it with a Windows installation. Oh well! I installed Windows 7, Office and Firefox, which is all Krishna said they needed for now, but more software can be installed later. I installed these programs from .ISO files extracted to a USB key, since the computers don’t have CD/DVD drives, and I showed him how to make an ISO file from a CD and extract it to a USB key. I called my computers the ‘babu computers’ (baby computers), because they are so much smaller than the towers they have.

Because the Himanchal High School’s computer lab has four 300aH batteries connected to a 48V DC to 220V AC inverter, we used the AC-DC converters and plugged them into the wall sockets (that are wired through the batteries and the inverters). The 10-15% loss in efficiency instead of running straight off the battery is made up for by the extra capacity of the four batteries, plus the ease of use of just having to unplug the computers from an extension cord if they need to be moved or replaced.

A variant of hockey that kids play in Nepal, using bamboo sticks and a discarded plastic bottle.

As I was to set off to Benche the next day, Ben, Lauren and Lee decided to come with me to the school. Thankfully, a jeep drove by the Himanchal school just as we were leaving, saving us having to carry the 35kg tubular lead-acid battery on our backs through the two and a half hour hike. We brought with us three computers, three monitors and a 15 amp battery charger, in addition to the 300aH behemoth. Wiring was a breeze: I cut off the output end of the AC-DC adapters, so that I’d have a positive and negative terminal with a DC power connector that fit the motherboard’s DC input jack. One of the brands of adapters had an obvious “positive” wire: the inside of the connector was positive, and the cable was shielded on the inside of the cable, with the rest of the wire wrapped around the outside. The other brand, however, was less obvious. Rather than red and black (positive and negative), it had brown and blue wires. Brown and blue? I took a shot in the dark, vaguely remembering a lighting project (for photography) I once did with brown/blue wires, where brown was positive. Thankfully I was correct and nothing blew up!

The old computers broke down, these CRT monitors were all that were left in the unused computer lab.

Krishna, Ben, Lauren, Lee and I took a while to show the teachers of the school the ins and outs of the computers, and then we had a long meeting talking about the usages of the computers, what to do when things break down, what to do if they need help, etc.

The 300aH battery can also be used to power 12V LED lighting, fixing their lighting problem.

Next, I was given a tour of the school and the rest of the Benche village.

Teachers grade the exams students took last week.

This is the wireless receiver the Himanchal High School uses to connect to the transmitter located on a mountaintop a few kilometers away.

The next day, Chandra invited me to a wedding in the Nangi village (Ben, Lauren and Lee had already left Nangi). The groom is a serving soldier in the British army (also called a Gurka / Gorkah), like his father and grandfather before him. The wedding slaughtered a buffalo, so we had a lot of meat to eat in addition to the rice. I still have trouble eating rice with my hands, so I was the laughing stock of the wedding reception. Thanks, guys!

The next day, I left for Kaphal Danda with Krishna at 7:00AM. This time, we hiked down through the valley and up the other side. It saved us having to follow the newly-constructed road which stays at a constant level around the valley. We arrived at Benche at around 9:00AM, finally arriving at Kaphal Danda at around 10:00AM. Thankfully, we were only carrying two computers and two monitors this time (the battery had been taken to Kaphal Danda the day before by a group of four students walking home after school).

This computer was donated fifteen days ago. It has yet to be used, due to electrical concerns.

I cut the wires using this sickel.

This is the first time the school has had a working computer, so the teachers needed to be trained. Some of the teachers have used computers before, but none of the students have.

The flowers were given to me by the teachers at the Kaphal Danda school.

After setting up the computers in Kaphal Danda, someone from Benche came to walk me back for an official ceremony. Because I had set the computers up on a day where the students weren’t in, they wouldn’t know who had set them up — the school officials wanted the students to meet me. Walking back to Benche, I could hear the loadspeaker / PA system they setup echoing throughout the valley.

The top-scoring students took turns giving me a lanyard of flowers and honorary red powder. The white sash on my back is a traditional Nepali dress, used to store things while walking.

I even got to meet the village elders. Quite the honor!

After the ceremony, the rest of the students gathered around to learn their exam grades.

We met with the teachers at the Benche school one more time. In-N-Out?!

Later that night, I finally got my first cloudless night in Nangi. There was also no moon out. The stars were incredible!

Click for the full 1500 x 1000 image.

The next morning I woke up at 6:00AM to leave Nangi. As the sun rose, I realized that there was frost on the ground! I got in the jeep and set off for Beni, where I hopped on the top of a bus headed for Pokhara.

Around this time, my MP3 player ran out of batteries. I looked down to wrap up the headphones and pack it up, and as I was putting it in my bag I saw a large brown object veering towards my face. Looking up, I saw a thick stone gate at eye level a few feet away, and I quickly bent over backwards. I stayed down until I saw it go over my head by a few inches, and when I looked up I saw a busload of wide-eyed Nepalis, unaware if I had been hit or if I was alright. I said “ram ro chha!” and they burst out with cheers and wild applause. Close one.

As we got closer to Pokhara, a few more tourists hopped on.

At the moment I am sitting in Jagan’s office installing Windows 7 on seven computers. They were meant to go out to schools today, but because of some setbacks with the installation process (how come the last time I made bootable USB drives, everything went fine, but this time it just doesn’t want to work?), it looks like that will have to wait until tomorrow.

That’s all for now.
Charles