After a wild several months since our last update, Indy and I have finally landed back in Taos to begin the development of our mostly vacant land. Last time I posted, we were heading down to Costa Rica to work at the Envision Festival, which was an amazing time. After our month in Costa Rica, we headed out to Taos to begin the long process of building a homestead. While we were in town in March, we got a driveway cleared, our new (to us) camper parked on the land, and a storage shed constructed before heading back to California for two months of festival work.
April and May consisted of festival gigs at Coachella, Stagecoach, and Lightning in a Bottle. We worked for the Perimeter team at Coachella and Stagecoach, which provided a great opportunity to see all of the characters that attend those events. Then at Lightning in a Bottle, Indy worked on fencing/site layout, while I worked as a builder/rigger on a main stage.
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Two months of work flew by, leaving us both exhausted physically but glad to have some money in the bank. After leaving Lightning in a Bottle, we did a family tour of California, visiting our relatives as a newly-engaged couple for the first time! (Oh yeah, we got engaged at Lightning in a Bottle ❤ ).
It helps to have friends who are phenomenal photographers when getting engaged. Thanks Andre LaBrune for capturing this moment!Would you believe this is a completely candid photo, taken moments after she said yes?
We just arrived back in Taos after our little family tour down the coast of California, and we are getting to work building a drainage culvert, a roof over our camper, and a solar-powered plumbing system. In the first few days of being on our land, we took the time to set up our yard a little bit to feel more at home. We now have a fire pit, a yoga/meditation space, and we’ll be setting up our outdoor shower in the coming days.
Such an amazing place to do some yoga and look out over the mountains in the morningOur little fire pit and gathering space. Perfect place for a night time beverage and star gazing.
One aspect of our build that sets us apart from other off-grid projects we’ve found online and through Instagram is that we are planning a zero waste build, meaning that we will send nothing from our land to the landfill. We’ll be using our bottles and cans inside our earthen walls, burning combustibles as kindling for fires to cook over, and we’ll be packing our landfill into tires to build a compost enclosure. Choosing to build an off-grid home was a way for us to focus on being more self-sufficient, consuming less, and producing less waste. This means we’ll be selecting products based on their packaging or lack thereof, and selecting materials that are produced locally. If you’ve got any suggestions of ethical companies that maintain a dedication to sustainability, we’re looking for people we can partner with! Leave us a suggestion in the comments, or in an email!
Out of the radio silence- I emerge. Some of you are up to date on my whereabouts and goings on, but I figure the majority of my friends don’t know what’s going on in my life currently.. so let’s get caught up right quick.
This has certainly been a season of change for me- I feel the pages turning as my life chapter transitions from the van-living gypsy kid with a guitar to a homesteading, natural building kid with a guitar. I’ll be spending all of February in Costa Rica working with the Envision Festival, and then when that wraps up, I head to Taos to start building our dream home. To say I’m eager for the next chapter would be a gross understatement, and yet it comes with some releasing of things I hold dear.
At the end of January I sold my beloved van, Tiny. I’d lived out of her full-time for just shy of 16 months and drove her over 26,000 miles around the US and Canada during those months. She was the first home that Indy and I shared- and the first vehicle we drove in, let alone road tripped in together for months on end. Countless nights spent cuddled close, so many creative meals made with love, and how could I leave out the nights spent laying quietly in Walmart parking lots? Tiny handled *most* everything I threw at her, but I do know that where we live in Taos was not kind to her during the month we were there. She’s a coastal cruising beauty- “the California Royal”, as self-proclaimed on the bumper. She does not belong on the mesa. She’s made for breezing down Highway 1.
The California Royal during her maiden voyage down Highway 1. This is where she belongs.
That car was my home physically, emotionally, and mentally. Coming to terms with the end of this chapter hasn’t been easy. Does it hurt to know that I’ve taken my last drive in my first home and favorite car? Absolutely. Do I find comfort in the fact that she belongs to a friend now? Somewhat- at least she’s staying in the family. Do I wish I could keep her forever? Oddly, no.. I don’t think that’s the right thing either. Tiny undoubtedly served her purpose for my life- she set me off on an epic course. I wouldn’t be here without her. Living in my van while I worked full-time allowed me to save $12,000 over the course of 8 months as compared to what I’d be spending in rent for an SF apartment.
I hit the road after those months of work with that money in my pocket, yet I would’ve never guessed where my adventures led me. Destination: solitude, backcountry, and then to Nepal in the Autumn. However, the universe had its own plans for me- that I would NOT be doing my summer road trip alone, that I would NOT be spending my summer exclusively in the backcountry of national parks, and that I would NOT be returning to Nepal in September 2017. Before my journey started, if you’d told me those things never came to fruition, I would’ve felt that my great adventure was a failure. However, Tiny and the universe had other plans. I met a beautiful, charismatic, handy builder goddess who was footloose and fancy free as well, who shared dreams of building an off-grid food-producing homestead. I offered her a ride North to Big Sur, hoping to get an extra day or two together out of the deal. Big Sur was shut due to road closures, so we made an impulse decision to go to Canada together less than two weeks into our new relationship. Never would I have guessed we’d still be traveling together., or that we’d be buying land in New Mexico to start the long-awaited process of building our own home, yet here we are. I have no doubt in my mind that I’m exactly where I am supposed to be in life these days.
I guess it’s fair to say that I didn’t suspect that a 22-year old van would have such an impact on my life. It ended up being a fundamental redefining of what home means, what is needed to be comfortable, and how little I need to feel happy. Beyond writing this as an update for friends, I suppose I’m writing this with the hopes that one person who’s on the fence about taking a leap of faith will be inspired to do so. That doesn’t necessarily translate as: ‘go buy a van.’ Nobody’s story is exactly the same. However, what I can speak to is that I made a plan to escape the rat race that I knew was no longer serving me. I didn’t have all the details sorted out, I spent every last dime on that van, and I could’ve easily regretted it. But that’s not what was in store for me. I took a huge leap of faith. And I flew. I flew to Canada, into love, property ownership, and into my very own path.
For those of you looking for the secret to life or the solve-all answer for your life problems- I’m not sure I can help you out. But if you’re feeling ready for adventure and are ready for whatever life throws at you, I suggest a leap of faith. You may just be surprised to see how far you can fly.
Heading out from Canada back to Oregon. Some eight months and 12,000 miles ago.
Our homes in Taos- the stationary home (not good in high winds) and the mobile home (not good in mud)
Tiny in Taos. Looks gorgeous, but she got beat up in New Mexico.
The sign of a gypsy couple growing up- both of them are selling their vehicle homes to save up for an off-grid homestead build.
What an incredible ride these past five months have been. Indy and I have put 9,000 miles on my poor van- from California up to Canada, then down to Oregon, Colorado, and finally to Taos, New Mexico for the Earthship Academy. She had been to Taos once before but it was my first time and I had no idea what to expect. In my mind, I was there to do a one-month course and then I’d hit the road and likely never return. Instead, I was instantly struck by the natural beauty and the abundant outdoor activities there. For years I’d thought excitedly about the Earthship Academy and all of the learning to take place, but oddly enough that seemed like an afterthought to my experience falling in love with a town I had no intention of liking. There’s a local folklore that the Taos mountains either accept or reject a person, and it appears that the mountains accepted us with open arms. I felt it calling to me, saying “Settle. Calm those wandering legs.”
A few days before the month was over, Indy and I signed on eight acres of land right by the Rio Grande and the gorge. Knowing that we’d want to build a house come spring made a lot of the information discussed in classes feel a lot more relevant and I think I was a better student because of that. A good deal of the information was review for me, since I’ve got a decent understanding of construction and building systems, but it was a great way to boost my confidence that building a home is within our reach.
During our time in Oregon for the eclipse festival build, we brainstormed several workshops that we could offer in natural building, organic agriculture, and plenty of other sustainable practices but we didn’t know where we could offer these courses. Little did we know that less than two months later, we’d be holding the deed to land in New Mexico. She and I will spend the winter working and saving up money, as well as planning out a workshop schedule for 2018. We plan to offer earthbag/superadobe workshops, one on Earthship-style building systems, some on growing food, and a handful of other topics that will be relevant to our projects on the land. If you’d like to stay updated on these courses, I encourage you to follow along with Build Good Things on Facebook and Instagram, as well as subscribing to this blog. We’ll be posting dates and details once we’ve got a better understanding of our timeline for the build.
I’m writing this post from a build site in a national forest outside Bend, Oregon. I’ve dropped roots here for the next two months, minus a week of family time in Calgary. My home for the next several weeks is a nice shady spot by a lake, an hour outside of the nearest town. The stars at night here are plentiful, the people are wonderful, and the project is something I’ll enjoy devoting my energy to.
Our little home in the woods, complete with a hammock, solar lighting, and a nature altar. Doesn’t take much to make us feel right at home.
My last post detailed my summer plans, which included a road trip and some time in New York. Unfortunately the project out in New York changed scope and I was no longer necessary, but fortunately I was contacted about coming to help put together a gathering to celebrate the solar eclipse in August. Festival crews from all over the world are coming together to collaborate on a massive festival and I’ve been brought on to help manage material purchasing. For me, this is a step in the right direction of merging my old career and my passion of building good things. The festival will have a permaculture garden to demonstrate sustainable living techniques, and the crew has already created a strong bond between ourselves and the native people whose land we are living on. We will work hard for the next two months, and once the work is all done, we have a week-long festival to enjoy!
Unfortunately I’m back on the office side of the build, working in a trailer ordering materials while crews get to build intricate stages, floating bridges, and large art installations. My role feels just a little too similar to the job I recently quit, but I am making the best of it. My heart is bummed to be missing out on the fun side of the project, but I know there’s a silver lining to me being stuck in a trailer. I was hoping to be working in the sun every day, using tools, making tangible progress, and instead I’m trying to guess what people will need for their projects, and track down random items that have slipped through the cracks. It’s definitely a position that hadn’t occurred to me as one of the crucial backbone roles, but I’m seeing its value. Like most of my jobs and roles in the past, I’m learning valuable information as to what I don’t want to do for the rest of my life, and I’ve reaffirmed my desire to be focused on the field side of projects. So far my favorite day in this role has been the Fourth of July, when all of my suppliers were closed. I got to be on the tools all day and we built a bunch of shop tables for crews to use while fabricating pieces for stages and art installations.
Where the magic happens! The Boneyard, and all of the work tables we made. Felt good to be using tools again, making things out of wood.
On the bright side, my partner Indy and I have begun coming up with some pretty amazing plans for the next several months, and my position in the work trailer allows me to use break time to research things that will help bring our plans to fruition. That’s certainly a nice silver lining for the next few months. Another bright side of the next few months is that we are in a beautiful part of a state I’ve been meaning to explore more of. Last Sunday on our day off, we went on a hike to a pristine blue lake deep in the forests, and later enjoyed some locally-brewed beer while we brainstormed ideas for the future. Certainly makes it tough to be upset about anything when you get to enjoy impeccable nature everyday in the best of company.
The lake where we get to swim most days before lunch. The cool water does wonders for morale, and the view ain’t bad either.
As the past few weeks have shown, plans change constantly and it’s hard to tell for sure where we will be in a few months, but I know for sure we are in Oregon through the end of August, and then heading to New Mexico for the Earthship Academy. Beyond that, who knows what the future holds!?! Some may hate this kind of uncertainty in their life, but I really love it. I find it exciting to have goals and plans, and know where I want to end up, but to be fluid with the path of how I get there. Many things are up in the air, but life is one hell of an adventure right now. That’s one thing I am certain about.
It’s been just over one month since my last day of work, and life has been grand so far. I’ve spent time in the backcountry of Yosemite, spent weeks volunteering in a tool shop helping to put together the Lightning in a Bottle music festival, met some incredible people, and my intentions for the approaching months are coming into clear focus. I’ve found a new love of putting together music festivals, and have made connections that I hope will allow me to continue doing that in the future. Something about the impermanence of the installations really appeals to me. Hundreds of builders and designers spend weeks building a beautiful environment for festival-goers to enjoy, and then tear it all down in one week. It reminds me of the practice of buddhist monks who spend weeks creating incredibly ornate mandalas using individual grains of sand, only to wash away the work of art once it is completed. The gratification and value is in the process of building and designing, not in the attachment to the finished product. For some stunning photos of the festival that continually inspires me, check out my good friend’s photo album here. All images in that album are the work of Bearlosophy.
The Boneyard Crew. Affectionately called “Shop Shop,” the crew I worked with is the supplier of all tools and materials needed on site for successful completion of all projects. So neat to see all of the logistics that go into the construction of a successful festival.
On the docket for the next few weeks is playing a rock show in San Francisco with some friends, then closing out my life in the bay and heading north to Calgary. From there I will fly to NYC to help some friends of mine convert a school bus into a mobile classroom for a tour across the states. I will be working on the bus conversion, as well as setting up for a gathering they are putting on in upstate New York over the Fourth of July weekend. I’m looking forward to the exchange of lots of ideas as well as being in the company of like-minded individuals. For those of you in the New York area, check out a glimpse of last year’s event here.
Once the bus build is complete, I’ll return to Calgary for some family time and then head onwards to Antelope, Oregon, where I plan to be a part of the build team for the Oregon Eclipse Gathering. This event promises to be one for the ages, with over 13 international festivals coming together to throw one heck of a party to celebrate the total solar eclipse. The festival spans one week, and features music, art installations, workshops, camping, and is a general celebration of life. I cannot wait to be there to witness all of the beauty that comes together for the week, and I’m hoping to find my way onto a build crew that allows me to contribute my time and skills.
From Oregon, I plan to head South to Taos, New Mexico to take a month long workshop with Earthship Biotecture. This summer holds promise of lots of adventure, creating, and learning. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
It’s Friday morning at 10am and I find myself sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco, eating avocado toast and planning out my next several months of adventure and learning. One week ago was my final day at work for the next few months, and so far funemployment has treated me impeccably. Waking up everyday with the option to do whatever I want is certainly something I could get used to. My first day of freedom started on Saturday at just before 5am, because my friend Brian and I ran a 5k over the Golden Gate Bridge to raise money for suicide prevention. Quite a way to start the next chapter of my life- watching the sun rise over the hills of the east bay, lighting the sky a deep gold behind the silhouette of Alcatraz. The rest of the weekend was filled with time outside in Dolores Park, surrounded by friends and loved ones who’ve made my time in the Bay so memorable. Following a weekend of visits with friends, it was off into nature to reset my soul and set some intentions for the coming months of freedom. Yosemite treated me well, as always, and I came away with a clear mind and a course of action for my summer.
Sunrise over Oakland, Alcatraz in silhouette. Not too shabby.
Now that I’ve put some money away, I am leaving the Bay to follow my hunger for knowledge and experience with sustainable construction and design. The first stop on my summer journey will be the Lightning in a Bottle festival down in Bradley, California. So far it’s my favorite celebration of the human spirit and I’m eager to be a part of the creation. I’ve been accepted onto the build team and will spend a few weeks before and after the festival helping to construct/deconstruct all of the stages and art installations. I’m hoping this will provide some good relationships with people who share similar passions and potentially even some further opportunities at other festivals. More than anything, I’m just excited to see how the festival all comes together, and all of the work that goes into creating such an immersive experience. My time at Lightning in a Bottle is what set me off on my path two years ago, when I first found out about Conscious Impact and decided I wanted to devote some time to helping rebuild Nepal.
Following my time on the LiB build team, I will head up to Calgary to see my parents for a few days before flying to New York. During my time there I will help some friends convert a short school bus into a home/classroom on wheels for a cross-country tour they are doing this summer and autumn. This amazing group of designers/builders/creators is planning a trip across the country and back to foster meaningful discussions and exchange knowledge, and I’m eager to be included in the preparation of their journey. They’ll be hitting the road in July, and I’ll head back up to Calgary for a month of family time enjoying the Calgary Stampede, a rodeo festival that’s been taking place annually for over a hundred years. While I’m there I plan to do some backpacking in Banff National Park, up in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I’ve been a few times in winter months when it’s all covered in snow, but I’m eager to experience it all with a pack on my back and no snow to stop my wandering.
August is looking like I will do an internship with Earthship Biotecture in New Mexico, working on sustainable construction projects for a few weeks. I’m eager to learn from a group that I consider to be among the premier sustainable designers/builders right now. I’m hoping to return to Nepal with some new knowledge and ideas that can contribute to the amazing work that is being done all over the country.
If anyone reading this knows of anybody looking for volunteers on their sustainable build project, please let me know in the comments below or shoot me an e-mail! I’m trying to learn as much as possible this summer. I’ve found a great resource similar to WWOOF, but just for sustainable build projects. It’s called The POOSH, and so far I’ve had great success getting in touch with some really neat projects. If you’re interested in working on this type of project, I highly recommend that website/community as a resource.
That’s all for now- I’ll write more later once I’ve been on the road for a bit! For now, I’m off to prepare for the summer of a lifetime!
Doing my best to make my story worth telling. Summer 2017, bring it on.
It was back in the spring 2015 when I first started considering downsizing my life and living in a van. My lease in San Francisco was ending and I was tired of paying an exorbitant amount of money every month for a place to sleep. Circumstances led to me leave the country just a few months after the thought first entered my head, but I wasn’t done with the idea. Upon my return to the states, I knew I wanted to save as much money as possible, as quickly as possible. San Francisco is not an easy city to save money in, so I knew I had to get creative.
My year in Nepal with Conscious Impact taught me that I was happiest living a stripped down, simple way of life, so I knew it was time for me to try out the van life when I got back. I found my van on Craigslist a week or so after I started looking, made the trek out that weekend to check it out, and bought it a few days after that. The woman who sold the van to me said that the van was a female, but wasn’t named yet. I figured of anyone who would disapprove of me living in a van, my Nana was the most likely candidate, so I decided to name the van after her. How could she hate her namesake van? Thus, Tiny the Van was born.
I spent three months living out of it in its original state as a basic conversion camper van, and now I am getting ready to build it out into a proper home on wheels, solar panels and everything. I’ve partnered with an awesome company called Tiny Life Supply, and they’ve been immensely helpful in selecting the right equipment for my build that suits my needs and budget. I’ll be building out a bed platform with storage, a small kitchen, and a solar electric power system to keep my gadgets full of juice while I’m on the road.
After months at a desk job, I’m excited to use my hands to build my little home, and to be free to roam and explore back country wherever I please. I plan to take it on the road for a few months this summer, during which time I will attend a month long workshop on sustainable construction and design with Earthship Biotecture in New Mexico, head up to Calgary for a few weeks with family, and visit several national parks. After my summer adventure, I’ll be packing up my belongings and heading back to Nepal to rejoin the amazing work that is going on with my family at Conscious Impact.
Stay tuned for further blog posts about construction progress and reports from my road trip!
I am beyond proud to announce that the construction of the Siddhartha Primary School is complete! After months of making bricks in Takure and months of construction at the school in Bimire, all of our buildings are complete, painted, and now in use. This has been a tremendous effort by volunteers from all over the world and an extremely dedicated team of Nepali employees, and ten months after beginning our work, we are all so pleased to see the classrooms in use.
Construction work at the school began March 1st, and we had our completion party with the village on June 29th. Twelve weeks to complete six classrooms, an office, and three toilets seemed like a lofty goal, but we were able to hit our target and finish our work right before monsoon began. We worked seven days a week with teams of between 7 and 14 local employees, made up of a few consistent lead masons and several different teams of supporting labor. The school was designed by our architect and good friend Fred, of GroundUP Architecture, and I managed onsite operations with the tremendous help from YUWA Unity project manager Dheeraj Mishra.
I was really impressed by how easy our CSEBs are to build with, and the local masons seemed to really enjoy working with them. The grooved bricks allowed for us to use vertical rebar reinforcement at all corners and on either side of doors and windows, and our U-shaped blocks allowed us to make sill and lintel beams below the windows and at the tops of walls, respectively. The bricks take a lot of energy to make, care for, and move to the site, but the finished product is a beautiful, strong building, that provides a space for learning to some 70 children in the village of Bimire.
It was such a neat experience to see each of the bricks going into the walls, and knowing just how much hard physical labor went into making each and every brick. Local soil was harvested by hand, then sieved by hand, the batches were mixed by hand, and then each brick was individually compressed manually using our brick press. Once the bricks were made, they were all watered for a month as the cement cured, and then dried in the sun for a month before being used in construction. After the bricks were all dried out, we moved them by hand into stacks at a new storage location near where they were produced, and then loaded truckload after truckload full of the bricks to be moved down to the school. When the trucks arrived at the school, we lined up and handed the bricks down the line one by one, until we had towering stacks of bricks ready to be built with. We spent several days of manpower just moving bricks from our production site down to the school. It was a massive effort by everyone involved, and took a lot of energy, but there was something oddly satisfying about being a part of the daisy chain passing bricks. It was rewarding knowing that we moved 150,000kg by hand over the course of a month. It was even more rewarding to know that that weight was comprised of some 15,000 blocks that hundreds of people put so much energy into. It was a true labor of love and compassion.
Overall, everyone is proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last ten months, and we are eager to return in September to pick up where we left off. We are all spread across the globe right now while monsoon makes brick production impossible. Some are in the states doing fundraising, others traveling before returning, and myself and a handful of others (including three of our Nepali employees) will be heading to Auroville Earth Institute in India to study CSEB theory, production, and masonry from the makers of our brick press. We hope to return to Takure with more knowledge and tools so that we are better equipped to make a positive impact on the village we’ve grown to love.
Now that our first project is complete, we are excited to announce that our next project is the second primary school in the village, and we are currently raising funds for this initiative! We have already completed production of the bricks for the school, and are eager to begin construction after monsoon. For those in a position to contribute monetarily towards this amazing project, please consider making a donation on our fundraising page. If you need convincing, take a look at the incredible video made by one of our amazing volunteers, Jonathan of Subtledream Photography (with soundtrack by yours truly).
Anyways, I could write thousands and thousands of words about our work and how much it means to me, but I will save that for another post. For those interested in being a part of our work, please check out our newly-designed website.
Without further ado, I am pleased to present photos of the finished product.
The view of the school on the walk down was my favorite part of most days. Such an awesome vantage point to track progress from.
Finished product. Taken on the morning of the completion party.
After demolition, preparing for the new foundations.
Three classrooms complete, with a bit of a view of the seating area.
Old toilets on the precarious edge
New seating area, hand washing station, and three toilets. Look at all the extra space that the retaining walls gave us!
Taken just before we started demolition.
Proud designer/ lead builder.
Foundation work on unit 2
Unit 2 complete, just waiting on some paint touch-up.
Our first project on site was to build a tool shed for all of our sacks of cement and equipment.
Teacher Ramesh and Headmaster Tej walking past their new office. (Yet to be painted at the time of this photo.)
The road to the school was impassable by truck that morning, so we had to carry our gabion cages down by hand. Thank goodness for eager volunteers!
We built 27 cubic meters of gabion retaining walls to fortify the hill that the school is built on. All of the stones used were from the walls of the old classrooms.
Beautiful details of Lord Ganesha on the doors of each classroom.
Three new toilets and a wonderful handwashing station. By building the retaining walls and extending the site, we opened up a whole area that was unused before.
Smiles all around! Our masons and one of the teachers at the school staying cool in the shade.
The teachers and children started using the classrooms before they were even halfway complete. All six classes shared two tiny rooms as their temporary learning center. They were eager to spread out and do separate lessons.
What an all-star team.
I will never forget the joy I felt working alongside parents of the school kids. Seeing their joy as the project neared completion was really moving for me, and a wonderful reminder of why I’m in Nepal.
One of the finished classrooms. It was temporarily used as the wood shop to cut the doors and windows to size.
Part of the seating area and two classrooms that I designed. The existing steel was right on the edge of the site, so we did what we could to fortify the wall, and we kept our structure as far from the edge as possible.
Rupak enjoying the view from the seating area. He is one of the backbones of our organization. Our work at the training center making bricks would be an uphill battle without his strength and leadership.
Exciting times here in Sindhupalchok!! After months of preparatory work, we have begun the construction of the new walls at the Siddhartha Primary School in Bimire. It has been an extremely long road to get here, and the success of our journey is due entirely to the hard work of our Nepali team and the hundreds of international volunteers that have come to volunteer with us. Eight months ago, we built the facility where we produce all of our earth blocks, five months ago we began making bricks everyday, two months ago we began demolishing the old walls of the school, and one month ago we finished production of our bricks. Ten days ago we placed our first bricks in the walls, and our masons are getting faster and more efficient with each day. It’s been such a long road to get to this point, and the school site looks different everyday, as we get closer to our completion date.
For those readers who don’t have the full background of our work down the hill, I will provide a bit of context. Several months ago Conscious Impact and YUWA got the permits to rebuild the Siddhartha Primary School, which serves about 75 kids in the village of Bimire. The old stone walls of the classrooms were badly damaged during the earthquake, while the steel structure survived virtually unharmed. Fortunately for the children, the earthquake occurred on a Saturday- the one day a week that kids don’t have school. In March we demolished the remains of the old classrooms and are now building new walls for the six classrooms and office. The stones from the old walls were used in an extensive span of retaining walls that spans three meters up from the terrace below to the largest structure and toilet area, and provides a nice new seating area. We will be building two new gathering and seating areas, redoing the toilets and adding a toilet for the teachers, and redoing the walkway on site to prevent flooding of classrooms during monsoon rains. All of the roofs have a shiny new coat of paint, and we have begun putting a new coat of paint on the steel. Our earth blocks are going in quickly, and I’m eager to see all of the progress continue to accelerate further.
So here we are now, over two and a half months into daily work at the school site, and we have just begun the final phase of our construction. Demolition and site retaining walls are complete, all of our foundation work is complete, and we’ve got four classrooms under progress while we wait for the rest of our bricks to cure and dry out. Our target completion date is approaching quickly, with about five weeks until monsoon rains are in full swing and construction becomes exponentially more difficult. At the rate the masons are working now, I don’t foresee us having any issues completing before the rains inhibit our ability to work.
The middle of three buildings. The bottom half of the walls survived the earthquake, but were damaged. Took us one day to demolish everything, partly because there was no mortar in the walls.
Building Two, just a few hours after demolition began.
Our site was built right on the edge of a pretty precarious hill, so we had to do extensive retaining wall work before beginning construction of the new walls.
One month after demolition was complete, we were finally ready to begin the work on the foundation for the walls. Three-meter tall walls now span a significant portion of our site.
These two cows graze through our site every day. Here they walk past one of our masons as he lays the rebar for the first of two reinforced concrete foundations in Building Two.
Building Two, with both foundation pours complete, stone sub-grade for the classroom flooring complete, and all ready for bricks!
Building One with foundation pours complete, stone sub-grade for flooring in progress. This building now has walls all the way up to the window sill, about halfway to completion!
Building Three after the plinth beam was poured. Bamboo scaffolding was built by the painters as they primed and re-painted the steel. This block now has stone flooring complete, and walls built up to the sill beam!
Masons working on the toilet building, laying out formwork and rebar for the structure.
Puja (blessing) ceremony as our masons lay the first blocks.
Four courses up on Building One. Now seven are complete, with windows waiting to go in.
Building Three with bricks going in finally. Now up to the sill beam, waiting on windows to go in!
The sill beam, poured with reinforced concrete. The blocks on this course are U-shaped and make a trough to allow for steel reinforcement to be placed inside the concrete.
It was sometime in late May 2015 that my life’s path was changed drastically. At the time, I was a year out of university and working for a general contractor building large projects around San Francisco. I loved the company I worked for and the people I worked with, yet I still felt driven to make a change and build things for people who needed help in different parts of the world. I was getting ready to apply for a master’s degree in Engineering for Developing Communities, and I was trying to find work with non-profits that would allow me to serve the global community. I was overwhelmed by the number of opportunities and didn’t feel qualified for many of the positions. What a strange feeling that was- feeling under qualified to make a difference in the world. Just a year prior I had traveled across the globe to Rwanda to build a water system that my good friend and I had designed for our senior design project, so I knew that it was possible to have an impact in the world.
Oddly enough, after all of my searching, I found my path while I was at a music festival. It started with a yoga class that wrapped up with an inspirational talk about how each one of us can make a difference. The teacher told in detail about her experience at an ashram in India where thousands of homeless were fed everyday. She told of the humble beginnings that such a huge movement had come from and explained, “You don’t need a college degree to change the world. You just need a heart full of grace and a soul made of love.” That statement really resonated with me because of the life changes I was considering at the time. I was determined to find a way to help those who need it. We were headed back to our camp site to prepare for our day, when I walked past a tent that was asking for volunteers to go help rebuild in Nepal with a new organization called Conscious Impact. I eagerly signed up and immediately began to think of the possibility of me going to Nepal a few months after the earthquake to begin the long process of rebuilding. That thought may have remained just a fantasy had it not been for an installation at the festival that I came across immediately after these other two events. It was essentially a circle of doors lined up side-by-side, and I curiously walked around until I found the door that I liked the best. Upon entering, I found that the insides of all the doors had a fortune associated with them. Mine resonated with me, to say the very least. The fortune was that of the Emperor and read:
Empower Your World.
Guiding principle: Construction.
Go for it. Make your plan and take action now. Inspire your team. Lead the way. Allow your passion to guide your steps. Commence and go forth.
What are you building? What are your goals? What is your plan of action? How does your enterprise serve the collective?
Affirmation: I am going for it. I am forging the way. My vision is taking off. I lead to serve. I serve to lead. I construct my world. The time for action is now.
I must’ve been visibly shaken because when my friend asked if everything was alright, I told him, “I think I’m moving to Nepal, dude.” It was then and there that I decided to take the leap of faith. The timing for everything was too perfect to ignore. My project at work would be wrapping up around the time I wanted to go. My lease was ending at the perfect time, and I would be at a point where there was nothing holding me in San Francisco. I decided that I would go across the globe to a place that would allow me to use my knowledge for the greater good.
I originally intended to go volunteer for two months, travel for two months, come home for the holidays, and then return to work in the Bay again. I truly planned to return to life as it was before my trip, but once I arrived at our land in the hills of Nepal, it didn’t take me long to realize that I would be gone for a while. The hills that we live in are magical, the people with whom I have the pleasure of working with everyday are truly inspirational, and the work that we are doing is benefiting the community that we are so privileged to live and work in. It is now almost eight months after I arrived in Nepal, and I still wake up with a smile on my face, eager to work everyday.
Build Good Things 