The maize in the fields has ripened and is ready for harvest. The sub-tropical location is full of greenery and wild lush green grass and dense trees around. It's not the place where these Gochhiwang family members or their ancestors had lived, it's not the place that imbibes the symbols of their community, which tell their or their loved one's love, hate or struggle stories. It's a complete new place, but they are happy in building it, in owning it and in making it their new home.Ista Bahadur, Matiram, Lok Bahadur, Som Bahadur and Tika Bahadur Bika are raising the pillars of their new houses on the outskirts of Jutpani, some miles away from the erstwhile Shaktikhor cantonment of the Maoist guerillas. Ram Maya, Man Kumari, Amrita, Gyan Maya and other women are lending hands here and there in building the structure that will be their and their children's new home.
Following the devastating April 25 Gorkha earthquake, Gochhiwang was one of the many villages across the nation, to be severely destroyed. The hill on which the village was cracked and realizing that its residents were in danger of landslides from the hills at whose bottom the village was located, the Disaster Management Committee had decided to relocate the whole village to safer location. Ultimately, Shaktikhor was chosen as their new home.
However, their plans remained on the back burner due to friction with the locals and other stakeholders. Alternatives were tabled and discussed but none was agreed upon by the different parties involved. Even after a month, the discussion did not distill down to a conclusion, leaving the Gochhiwang residents uncertain of their future. But the issue could not hang on for long, these villagers took the initiative and started building 24 homes for themselves, brushing the dispute to its own.
Their lost Gochhiwang was three hour drive through graveled road and a days trek from Dhading's Hugdi. A settlement of total 150 members, the village was in the middle of a tall mountain and always carried landslide threat for its residents during monsoon rainfall.
Today men and women alike are putting their best foot forward to build their home as soon as possible. Some are splitting bamboos, some are collecting sand and some are bringing the stones together. Each of the 24 families has sent at least one of its members for constructing the house. However, none of them yet know which will be their house. They are collectively building Gochhiwang again in Shaktikhor and will own the house that the lottery tickets choose from them when the construction completes.
Though they have always lived together in unison in Gochhiwang, the earthquake has reignited in them a whole new level of belongingness to each other. Their decision to choose their house using lottery was devised to ensure that the renewed spirit of brotherhood remains intact. "Lottery system will be used to determine who will get which of the home," said Ista Bahadur, wiping the sweat beading on his forehead.
Human civilization is marked with struggle. And the struggle of Gochhiwang residents is one of these struggles- the struggle to survive and to thrive. They spend their whole day in the scorching monsoon heat and rain, building their new world. "You end up doing all sorts of things to survive", spoke Ista Bahadur who is hopeful to lead a bit better life once the settlement is established but is remains scared of uncertainty. The uncertainty creeped in some days back when thunder lightening stuck one of the nearby trees where the new Gochhiwang is coming into being. It was a terrifying experience for them which they sometimes correlate to their bad luck. "It is chasing us on our heels where ever we go" a shaken Som Bahadur said, "The lightning nearly killed us".
The task of erecting the pillars has almost been completed for their 16x16 home that has been partially funded by Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN). The organization pays each of these contributing family members with daily stipend for their labor in constructing these nine pillar homes. With the homes nearly coming to being, concerns for earning a living loom in the monsoon mist that sometimes surrounding this settlement.
"Shelters have been nearly constructed and we are happy for it, but how are we going to do for earning bread for our families" asked Matiram while stating that returning back to village and working in his farms is unthinkable under the present circumstances. The concerns are the same for all of them. Lok Bahadur Bika, a recent +2 graduate, who also works with other villagers, expressed similar concerns and opined that the government should provide employment to the villagers.
Tika Bahadur Bika who lost his grandmother in the quake and who comes to work everyday leaving his recently born baby and wife at home, said, "Till date RRN has been providing us means to earn a living along with helping us make a home for us. But someday the house will be completed and this assistance will stop. What are we going to do then?"
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