A single grain of rice.

When rice is your staple diet, eaten twice a day 365 days a year then growing, caring, harvesting and storing are about the most important tasks your will do all year.

Planting in June involves the whole community of woman often for several days. Stepping back in a long line they plant one at a time the little shoots that have been nurtured nearby.

Then after several months of caring which includes the management of water to each of the terraces one at a time cutting takes place in October. This again is by hand, great bunches are left in the open ground to dry.

After a week of drying, in villages all around the country threshing takes place using whatever animals are available.

Then after further drying in the warm autumn sunshine
the rice is stored in the large hand made pots with secure lid. As the winter progresses a hole is made at the bottom of each pot in turn and rice retrieved for the family meal.

For most people in the villages all over Nepal the staple diet is rice and vegetables called Dal bhat. This is eaten twice a day, around 10am and 8pm. However if there is a stream running near your home there is the chance to vary your diet with a little fish.
The first picture shows a young woman in the early morning checking her net which has been out all night. You can see the straw box to carry the fish home.

She then sorts the fish into large and small squeezing out the guts of the bigger ones with her thumb and first finger.

They are then cooked over the slow fire, or dried and stored.

She is lucky, in several high parts of the country they cannot grow enough food or catch enough fish to last through the winter. Here people relay on helicopter flights to bring in bags of rice from other parts of the country.

When you sit down to eat today be thankful for all you have on your table.

Holy Men of Kathmandu.
A common sight around Temples and sometimes around homes and business begging with their little tins, mostly for some rice although money would not be refused.
They will also give a Tika blessing on the forehead if requested. In the picture they are sitting in the shade of one of the many temples. Sometimes caught off guard they have been seen talking on a mobile phone.Life is busy when you are a holy man.

At a recent candle lighting ceremony to mark International Peace Day in Kathmandu this young girl joined in. With the recent postponement of elections, and fractures opening between the political parties what future for the children of Nepal?

Joe Campbell

Conflict Transformation Advisor
United Mission to Nepal
Tel. 4228118

This is De Pak he is 15 years old and is on the staff of a small hostel over in the far west of Nepal.

He does all the shopping and cooking, carries water for guests to wash, and for his cooking on the wood stove from the nearby river. In addition to keeping the place clean and in good repair.

He has a wonderful smile and will always help with whatever a guest will need.

Sadly De Pak never had the opportunity to go to school.

Like many children and young people living in remote areas of the country he had to earn some money just to keep food in the pot and clothes on his back.

Soon there will be a road into his village and this will open up more opportunities for people to work but also to visit. But for the next year or more its still a walk for 2 hours at the end of a 12 hour drive over very rough but beautiful country.
Thanks De Pak

I stayed in Pragarti's home while I worked in the far west of Nepal last week.

Pragarti is 13 years old. She goes to school 6 days at 6am and is home at 12noon. Then some younger children attend the same school. Pragarti enjoys school and in two years time she will have to go to boarding school.

The first picture shows her helping to cook a chicken for last Saturdays dinner. She is holding the head over the wood fire to get all the blood out. Her dad is holding the plucked bird to dry it out before it is chopped up and put into a cooking pot with onions. This is a special treat as normally Pragarti eats rice and veg. twice a day, every day. No treats in-between.

She is carrying her brother outside and up the external stairs to bed.

Here she is in church. The verse behind is John 3 V16.

Last Saturday in her church as well as giving money I noticed some people were handing in little plastic bags of fruit, they had picked from the tree on their land. This was instead of money as an offering to God. They just did not have any money to give. The fruit was given to even poorer people in the village by the church leaders.

Another picture shows her sitting bare foot on the floor eating her rice with her hands, which is what happens in Nepal.

Toilet is outside, and because she lives way up a wooded hillside they have piped water into the bathroom. Cold water all the time, never hot water.

All the water in the house for cooking is carried into the house in buckets. Outside at the hose the dishes are washed.

Pragarti has not had electricity in her home since August, as the heavy rain caused a landslide and the electricity supply was knocked out. Last week it was almost repaired then two more days of heavy rain caused another break.

In her house there is no glass in the windows, just wooden shutters.

This is a happy and fairly rich home in her village.



The view from her house overlooking the village.

The plane lands on the grassy strip. 15 seats usually all taken. It can be a little wobbly but on the flight back to Kathmandu the views of the Himalayas were stunning.