After a rain-soaked 10-hour trek through the middle mountains of Nepal about 80 miles south of world-renowned Mt. Everest a hearty but exhausted band of California Rotarians arrived in the tiny village of Chyangba, where 65 homes cling to steep hillsides.
The 21-member group of Rotary volunteers had flown halfway around the globe to Kathmandu, Nepals capital, and then took a bumpy, half-hour flight aboard Yeti Airlines (named after the reputed mountain creature) to Phaplu, a village in central-eastern Nepal that would serve as the groups trailhead.
There, they joined 75 Nepalese porters and 21 donkeys that would pack equipment and supplies deep into the mountains where no vehicle could travel.
When the Rotarians walked into Chyangba, they were greeted with welcome banners and smiling villagers, who helped them pitch tents in hillside cornfields and set up dental and medical treatment areas at the local school, which serves as the village center.
The September 2008 mission, organized by the 49er Breakfast Rotary Club of Nevada City and Rotary District 5190, brought dental and medical care as well as home and school improvements for the residents of Chyangba, a very remote village in a nation where the per capita income is less than $470 per year.
Multiple ethnic groups inhabit Chyangba (elev. 8,030 ft.), but the primary residents are Sherpa people, who are well known in the West for their mountain guiding expertise. It was a mountain guide connection that led to this Rotary project in Nepal.
Dental care, medical screenings
During a week in Chyangba, 325 local residents registered for dental and oral surgical services provided by volunteer Rotarian and non-Rotarian specialists. Four dentists and one oral surgeon performed 218 restorations and 312 tooth extractions, while a dental hygienist provided X-rays and oral hygiene.
Medical treatments were administered to more than 300 children and adults, and included antibiotics, vitamins, pain and anti-worm medications. Screenings helped a four-year-old boy, who was sent to Kathmandu for cleft palate correction, and a seven-year-old girl, who was referred for cardiac evaluation.
A vision evaluation clinic provided nearly 600 pairs of corrective glasses and sunglasses. Medical and first aid supplies also were distributed to representatives of neighboring villages.
Six volunteers built eight school desks, using hand-hewn lumber from the village. They also built book shelves and toilet seats and completed numerous building repairs.
In a region where many residents cook and heat with open fires inside their homes, the Rotarians packed in and installed two smokeless stoves, custom-made in Kathmandu for $500 each. The volunteers hoped the demonstration project would reduce respiratory ailments and irritated eyes among villagers.
A school exchange brought books, drawings and posters from sixth-graders at Seven Hills School, in Nevada City, to the children of Chyangba. More than 100 books were packed in.
Many hands
The Rotary International Service Project was organized by 49er Rotarians Barry Turner, a dentist; Hal DeGraw, a lawyer; and Larry Meek, a retired educator who spent three years as principal of an international school in Kathmandu. There, he was a member of the Kathmandu Mid-Town Rotary, one of 70 Rotary clubs in the mountainous Asian nation.
Additional participants included 49er Rotarians Harry Auld, Mike Ferguson, Steve Leighty and Pamela Yazell. Other volunteers were past district governor Bob Hartsfield and his wife, Marge; Dan and Patsy Bibelheimer, Chuck Franck, Karen Leighty, Ken Marti, Terry and Robin Prechter, Larry and Sue Sage, Sharyn Turner, and Ed and Barbara Weiss. All are from Nevada City and nearby towns.
Funded by 49er Rotary and District 5190, the International Service Project was budgeted at $10,000 and completed for $9,840 in supplies and equipment. Each volunteer covered his or her own airfare of about $2,000 and expenses in Nepal of another $1,500.
This was my fourth trip to Nepal, said Turner. Even though our connection with Rotary International adds a certain comfort level, traveling there is still an adventure.
It turned out to be a very interesting and rewarding project for each volunteer, said Meek, who has traveled to Nepal several times. Anyone who goes to that country leaves a little bit of their heart behind. The people are just wonderful.
Climbing Lobuche
Following the work, the group returned to Kathmandu, where some members returned home.
Others joined a 12-day guided trek through the Himalayas. A five-member group of climbers tackled an ascent of Lobuche, at 20,075 feet one of the highest peaks in the region.
Without exception, everyone in the group talked about going back, Meek added. It makes me really happy because there are more people to lend a helping hand.
Planning an international project
In celebration of Rotarys 100th anniversary in 2005, the Rotaract Club of Kathmandu, Nepal, sent Pem Dorjee Sherpa, a 23-year-old Everest guide and Chyangba resident, and Moni Mulepati of Kathmandu to plant the Rotary banner at the highest point on earth, the 29,035-foot summit of Sagarmatha, or Mt. Everest.
The world learned later that Pem and Moni planned to and were married on the top of Mt. Everest, the first such marriage ever. The young couple quickly became celebrities in their native land.
Nevada City 49er Rotarian Larry Meek, who had lived in Nepal, invited the couple to Nevada City, where they told their story to Rotary members and local students. Their visit inspired the formation of a local Rotaract Club, a Rotary organization for professionals ages 18 to 30.
While in Nevada City, Pem met dentist and former 49er Rotary president Barry Turner, an avid mountain climber who had been to Nepal and was anxious to return. Thus began two years of planning that resulted in the 2008 international project to take dental care and medical screening to the remote village of Chyangba.
Pem was in charge of all travel and outfitting arrangements in Nepal his first venture in establishing his own trekking company. He also organized the climb of Lobuche by a group of Rotarians after the Chyangba mission and the trek through the Lang Tang and Helambu regions.
