Getting down on the farm

It is a hard days work here. Manual labor from 8am to 4pm with two much needed 15 minute breaks and a very much anticipated hour for lunch. So much so that we don’t (at least not yet) even get tired of the daily plateful of gruel i.g. Dal Baht (lentils and rice) that is served up. It is really tasty in the way that a stale granola bar is the best meal ever after a 20 mile mountain hike.
The work is nothing but manual labor. Pushing wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow filled with, dirt, rocks or concrete. Mixing 100 bag after 100 bag of concrete for brick and stone work. Digging holes, filling holes. Just heavy back breaking work under the hot sun all day.
But when the clean up whistle blows, all thoughts turn to one of the ramshackle shops that have popped up since the All Hands volunteers showed up.
They all sell the same delicious junk food. Chips, mountain dew and coke. Some even keep a stash of Kitkat  bars and snickers in the fridge for a real treat.

The basecamp is rented space on a rice paddy field. Its terraced down the mountain.
The owner and his family lives next door in a ramshackle stable/barn. He has taken on the best of capitalism and makes a killing on selling crappy 650 ML beer bottles that have a published alcohol content of somewhere under 7.5% for $2.60. The most I have had in one sitting is 3 and woke up feeling fine. I think the ABV is way under 7.5. But the low low cost of cheap beer always adds 2 or 3 points to the taste scale. So I am happy.
Most of the staff and volunteers head over there after work. Some even shower first but it is a barn so really no need. I even think that getting some beer in you may help get through a shower better. Shower being a euphemism for a bucket of tap water and a ladle.
It is always a fun time drinking and chatting with the others surrounded by goats and cows and cats and stray dogs. It would go much later than it does but the mandatory 6pm meeting, dinner and 8pm curfew keep a lid on it all.
Beyond the aforementioned junk food shops, the barn owner serves up hand made Aloo Chop. They are Nepali tater tots with a bit of spice. Deeeeeeliscious!!!! Once you get past that they are made with his bare hands on a dirt floor.
On wednesday nights, we have all the neighbors and local hired hands come over for dinner and dancing around the campfire. It’s a Bollywood

soundtrack that does not sit well with cheap beer and spicey tater tots, at least for someone from the birth place of Rock and Roll so I retire early. Everyone has a good time from what I can hear, even with the 9pm quiet hours so that is all that matters.