Canadian team heads to Nepal for Earth Quake Rebuild

It's that time of year in the Himalayas when weather allows mountains to be moved. Tourist flock to the Everest and Annapurna region for trekking and climbing,  providing income to everyone working in the industry. Rebuilds and an array of volunteer projects also get underway this time of year.  There is a lot of activity in the hills getting in as much work as possible before the small weather window closes bringing winter chill and snow.

Durga has been in Sangachock since September initiating autumn rebuild projects. His assessment for our team will be completing the earth bag project shown.  Touch ups on the round earth bag classroom, and finishing a recycled brick classroom plastering, painting and so on. There will be a lot of jobs going on at the same time, so much to do to get the educational training facilities ready for local kids and teachers.

Our team will arrive on site early November. We've formed a great bunch of friends to help. Here's some names:

1. Owen Thurston- Nelson, B.C.
2. Christine Bialkowski - Nelson, B.C
3. Taylor Pritchard - Nelson, B.C.
4. Gill Brown- Summerland, B.C.
5. Mandy Brown- B.C.
6. Dan Brown - B.C.
7. Gerry Harmon - Rossland, B.C.
8. Derrick Felkar- St. Thomas, Ontario
9. John Wall- Comox, B.C.
10. Jeff Karry-Carlisle, Ontario
11. Tim Rippel- Nelson, B.C.
12. Becky Rippel- Nelson, B.C.

This team will be gathering in Kathmandu the end of October and are looking forward to getting on with helping out.

Anyone wanting to donate to an excellent organization, First Steps Himalayas are doing just a fantastic job in the name of education in Nepal. We feel that investing in quality education for an entire village is better than the individual education sponsorships that have become a booming business in Nepal the past couple of years. The government schools have failed their children, but taking them away from their homes and families to sponsor organized orphanages is not a good solution, instead providing it for the children at home is a much better way. Pooling the funds to benefit "all" children and to teach Nepalese men and women to become teachers makes sense and is working.



We will update here when we can on our progress. Communications are limited but we'll try our best.


Becky Rippel

http://peakfreaks.com
http://peakfreaks.com/everest_mountaineering_course.htm  Tim Rippel is currently in Nepal leading the program. He's been sending photos and updates on this link.