We have traveled through Nepal for the last few weeks and have already seen, done and experienced quite a bit. During the first days after of our arrival in Nepal we explored the capital city Kathmandu. A city with about 1,000,000 inhabitants, where in many places the consequences of the earthquake of 2015 are still clearly visible.
Nepal has many festivals and we arrived at the start of the Dashain festival, the most important festival of the country. In all temples and in front of every front door, even on motorcycles, cars and scooters, big and small sacrifices are made. Ranging from a banana with flowers and rice to the sacrifice of thousands of ducks, chickens, goats and even hundreds of buffaloes.
Nepal is both Hindu and Buddhist. We think it’s important for us to deepen our understanding of these religions and visit a few temples, including the so-called Monkey temple, at the top of a mountain on the outskirts of the city – it provides a beautiful view over Kathmandu and we learn a lot.
This temple is a tourist trigger as hundreds of monkeys walk around here, making it a fun experience. Just keep an eye on your stuff because they can be thieves!
In the temples in the city center, people form huge lines to celebrate Dashain. Huge crowds group together at the temples to celebrate Dashain, pray to their gods and take part of the sacrifice rituals, before celebrating Dashain with their families. We estimate the 2 lines for the temple at Kathmandu Burban Square both are more than half a mile long. We hear that the day before, 108 buffaloes were slaughtered in this temple (which we are not able to enter today, we can only visit the squares around the temple) and we expect today more buffaloes will be slaughtered, today is the most important day of the festival.
On the second day in the city, we go to another Hindu temple. At the bank of the river next to the temple the dead bodies of the Hindu inhabitants are cremated and the ashes are scattered in the river.
The next day we take the early bus to the city of Pokhara, where our Dutch friends, Ben and Linda Kostwinder, have lived since 2016. In 2015, after the earthquake in Nepal, they were brought in to raise money for emergency relief and were touched by the country's need.
Many Nepalese people live in poverty and because of high unemployment, many men have started working in the Middle East (sometimes using human traffickers) to earn money and support their families in Nepal. This is how entire families are pulled apart and that is where Ben and Linda understood the need for jobs in Nepal. They both terminated their jobs in 2016 and are currently helping through their own company, Charge Nepal. Through fundraising, Charge Nepal helps a growing number of farmers to start their own coffee plantation. Charge Nepal aims to create employment in Nepal and to prevent young people from moving abroad for employment and income. The coffee beans that are produced are exported to the Netherlands and roasted and sold in the Netherlands. The coffee farmers get a fair price for their coffee!
We have been able to join Ben and Linda for 7 days on their trip to the coffee farmers and it was a very special experience!
Since coffee plants thrive best in the mountains, at an altitude between 2,500 and about 4,500 feet, we start our journey with a full day in the bus to a point where the road stops. On the way, 3 more people will join us, each with a different kind of skill set: a teacher who has several decades of experience in the coffee plantation business, a representative of a compost company and a Nepalese interpreter who will translate where needed.
The roads in Nepal are also of a different standard than our A2 in The Netherlands, so with sore limbs (and a bumped head for Albert) we arrived in the evening at a simple inn where we stayed one night. The beds in the inn were made of planks, with no mattresses, with our sleeping bags resting on top. The next day we got up early and we started the day tightly packed and took a 4-hour trip to the mountains.
A beautiful trip through forests, along steep precipices and amazing views on a wide river that meanders between the mountains. We climbed from 800 to 1250 meters. That does not look like much, but it is high!
We arrived at the top of a small mountain village, we were warmly welcomed by a couple and their two sons, one of whom runs one of the coffee plantations. As there are not enough sleeping places in the house, we slept in tents next to the goat stable behind the house.
The 12 coffee farmers come together in a building in the middle of the village and receive lessons from the coffee teacher -the teacher successfully runs a plantation elsewhere in the country and it shows he has decades of experience. Boy, we could not imagine what a process precedes before coffee is for sale in the supermarket – plants are grown in a ‘nursery’, then the young bushes must be planted in a special way, compost must be made, each plant needs about 15 liters of water per day, the soil and the environment must be kept clean to prevent diseases, it is necessary to prune and harvest and after the harvest it is still a whole process before the coffee beans can be roasted. Hard work for the farmers who get very little money for their coffee without Charge Nepal, fortunately due to this initiative they now receive a fair price and can stay with their families. We had no idea!
A day later, the teacher takes us through each of the plantations and show the farmers where things went wrong or how quality or coffee bean production can be improved, it is all new to them. He explains what they need to do to grow the plants well, how to make compost and what to do to prevent (or treat) diseases. The lessons continue for days, it’s intense for everybody.
In recent months, the farmers have worked very hard on their plantations and already a few thousand coffee plants have been planted. Because Ben and Linda, a few months ago, promised to throw a party when all the plants have been planted, that party is now coming – a huge picnic will be planned.
We laugh as the farmers group together in the evening, without us, to discuss the picnic which will happen after the last day of the training. No idea what they are planning, but they want to organize the picnic themselves. After the meeting, Ben and Linda are asked to pay for the goat – be honest, what is a picnic without a goat…!?
It will be a picnic with all coffee farmers and their families, 60 people in total. The next early morning, 2 farmers join us with a goat on a rope, bought for this occasion. The price is per kilogram and after weighing the goat shows to be 18 kg, sufficient for the whole group. Unsuspecting what awaits her, the poor animal walks for an hour and a half through the mountains to a beautiful spot, looking out over the rice fields, selected for the picnic. The goat is slaughtered and prepared on the spot. The team prepares several wood fires and in a set of huge pans, that are also taken up in the mountains, a delicious meal is prepared for everyone.
The men do the cooking and in the afternoon all the women, kids and elder people join; music is made and people dance, although the latter is not really a very serious event and we all have to join in. We have taught them the klompendans' and several children songs like 'head, shoulders, knees and toes', very hilarious. Our height also provides a lot of attention and fun. Everybody uses their phone to take pictures and probably we are on many Facebook pages before the end of the day! Everybody returns home, a one and a half hour walk again, just minutes before the sun is completely gone and the night is pitch dark.
The next day we say goodbye to all farmers and their family in this wonderful mountain village. We pick up our backpacks and go down the mountain again. Down goes a lot faster and we reach the inn in about 3 hours. It was a fantastic time with the coffee farmers and we met many beautiful, friendly and hard-working people! Setting up coffee plantations, and supporting coffee farmers, definitely is a business opportunity we are very interested in.
A few pictures ...
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