May 25, 2017.
Getting to Rachuli (pronounced RAH-chuli) took us 5 days. At the moment of writing this, I can’t imagine having to leave this place. The ways to get up here are mountain roads with very few paved parts. There are lots of rocks all around, landslides everywhere, heavy rocks in the middle of the way and fine sand in some areas. The rainy season is starting, we will see how it goes.
To begin with, since it is spring in Kathmandu and therefore very rainy, all my luggage containing the workshop materials has been water-proofed. In local buses luggage is stacked on top, so I wrapped it in plastic, just in case it rained.
On the fourth day of our journey, when we arrived to Manma (Kalikot), the bus stopped at a hostel by the bus station, and we were told to get out: we would stay there cause the night bus was not working. We checked the rooms and noticed they were horrible, but it was what was available. Staying there meant not having to unload all the stuff from the bus. We only took some personal items, the camera and the laptop.
At 5 am, when we woke up, there were 15 cm of water in the room. My backpack containing my camera and laptop was soaked. The nurses’ clothing too. My mind had warned me about water… but never did I think water would come from the ground and not from the ceiling. I could not kill the man form the hostel, he said the water was clean, it came from the deposit which had overflown… In this sort of situations I would like to take the way of doing things in Nepal and break it in a million pieces.
But I did not. I paid for my room and we went on to Rachuli: all soaked and amazed by the landscape. The name of Karnali Highway started to take a different dimension. These were incredible hills, framed with frightening sharp edges and heights which kept zig-zagging its way up and down.
When we finally got there and stepped out of the bus, there was nobody to be seen. We enquired about the house we were staying in and it was just there. An old man helped us carry our stuff and Didi cooked us lunch…
Written by Clara Go. Photos done with the phone © Clara Go Translated to English by Regla Maria López / Alba Miquel
West Nepal girls need this kind of program. And we need help to continue the project!
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