We had such an amazing time during our hike to ABC that we decided to do a lesser known trek called the Millennium Trek with Kumar, a guide that we had met while on our way to Annapurna Base Camp.
The Millennium Trek was a 5-day, 4-night trek through several villages. By staying in people's homes instead of guesthouses and traveling along local roads, it gave us a chance to see what life is like for so many Nepalese. This rang especially true on Day #4 . . .
On May 19, we had just arrived to the village after 5 hours of trekking and no lunch. While we took off our boots and started munching on the popcorn the family had cooked up for us, Kumar announced that a house in a neighboring village (Pyarsing) had caught on fire. We put our boots back on and went to see if we could help.
I don't know what we were expecting but I think it's safe to say we were all taken aback when we reached the fire. It wasn't just one house that was aflame, but the whole village. It was a chaotic scene. People were trying to tear down bamboo fences to get goats and buffaloes out of harm's way, pigs were squealing, ashes were raining down. In the minute that we stood there taking everything in, a house in the next village over also caught on fire. Suddenly we were rushing over to try to salvage what we could. Brian and the other guys in our group started hauling tables, chairs, beds, & sacks of food & clothes from the houses to the road. Baylie, the other lady in our group, and I herded animals and tried to keep them from running back into the fire to find their families. (At one point, I was carrying 3 kids/baby goats … I love baby goats.)
This all might sound crazy and dangerous, but it's important to keep in mind that we were in Nepal - not some developed country. These are terribly poor villages. Entire families (i.e. several generations) live in the village and often the same house. They don't have savings in the bank. There's no insurance. All their food to get through the monsoon season is kept in their homes, not grocery stores. Whatever perished in the fire wasn't just material stuff -- it's literally people's livelihood.
Along with a buffalo, seventeen buildings were lost that day -- one entire village of seven families and two families in the second village were affected. Another buffalo was badly burned, but thankfully not a single person lost their life and we were able to save the majority of the animals.
There's some adage that everything can be gone in a moment and to appreciate what you have. We definitely found that to be true on May 19. But for me the big take away from the day was that it also takes the same amount of time to take action and to help.
Our hostess making our popcorn before the craziness began.
Our first glimpse of the fire.
This is a picture of the first village on fire.
Here's what it looked like after.
It was sobering to realize that everything these people owned only took up a few yards on the road.
Some of the "ash" that fell from the sky.
The villagers' water supply was depleted putting out the fire so that night we all went to a well to fetch more agua.
Our host family blessed us before we left, hence the red dots on our foreheads and white sashes around our necks.
Our guide, Kumar (in the yellow shirt), and his son Nino also getting blessed.
The villagers came out en masse to thank us and see us off. They were so surprised by our willingness to help them in their moment of need, but every person we met during our trek had been so kind to us that there was no way we could sit back and watch.
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