I remember many years ago watching the movie, “Holes”, with our kids – never thinking that I would one day be daily walking alternate routes from our house to avoid all the holes around us!
Several years ago, we started raising funds for a waste water project in order to help clean up the hill below the hospital where (due to overflow from the hospital septic tanks and from the surrounding houses and hotels) raw sewage is flowing down the gully. Slowly the plans came together, and the funds were all raised. The final part of the project was the need to get permission from the government ministry in Kathmandu to put the equipment (which is in a container like they use to carry things on ships) on a piece of forest land down near the bottom of the hill. All the hospital septic tanks, and all the pipes from the surrounding buildings would be linked to flow down into this container, where after treatment, the water would come out clear and odorless – and able to be used on crops and for washing, laundry, etc.
Just before we returned to Tansen in Oct, the digging began on the compound in order to connect pipes from all the houses and septic tanks to run down the hill. Since our house is at the top – the digging started there! We had to actually lay some planks over holes in order to get into our house when we first arrived. Almost 3 months later, the holes are still there – deeper and filled with rebar used to strengthen the cement which is being poured into these holes (by hand) to make “man holes” into which the pipes are being fed. The hardest part of all of this is that fact that the permission for the forest land has not yet been granted.
We are walking carefully – and just being reminded of how safety protocols are somewhat different in this country! Several of these holes are located right next to the school playground – where children continue to climb on the monkey bars and swing on the swings! Paths are dug up without much thought about how people living there will get in or out! :) I asked one day when another path became a long ditch, “How am I supposed to get from my house to my office?” One of the engineers responded, “Fly?”
So – please join us in praying for the land permission to be granted, and for safety for the workers and for the compound dwellers as this project continues. It will be so good for the environment and the community when it is complete!
Just so you don’t think we live only looking at holes and dirt – here are some of the lovelier views we are enjoying these days! We just have to make sure to stop and stand still to enjoy them – so we don’t fall into a hole! 🙂
Happy New Year!
Hope for the Hills 
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