After a bumpy ride of 11.5 hours, INRAA finally reached the village of Lamabager, which locates in Northeastern Nepal. It is the next stop after INRAA finished thereconstruction of the incineration kiln.

We learned about Lamabager in 2015. After the Nepal earthquake in 2015, INRAA gave its first ecological skills training in Nepal. Three participants came from Lamabager. In 2017, INRAA visited Lamabager and engaged in discussions with the head of the village and representatives of the villagers. After those discussions, INRAA and Lamabager agreed to collaborate. Initially, our plan was to build seniors’ a house so senior villagers who live alone can move to the house located in the center of the village with a monastery nearby that can offer assistance to them.

In this trip, our original plan was to host three workshops : 1) link up the earth bag building; 2) practice ecological farming; 3) build ecological toilets. However, after arriving at the village, we found out that there was a greater need to improve the public kitchen than building ecological toilets. We accordingly changed our plan. In the public kitchen construction workshop, we focused on enhancing wood stove efficiency and reducing smoke emissions.

In order to take advantage of the limited time and resources that INRAA has in Lamabager, all involved in these workshops demonstrated a high level of flexibility. We adjusted our plan based on the most pressing needs of the village and re-designed the workshop accordingly. We listened to each other’s ideas and transparently communicated on our disagreements. We also creatively utilized whatever local resources that were available to us.