I don’t think anyone who met Deki and Ugyen in the village of Dorikha would say that this is not an extremely good life.  It is built on human labor and wisdom and part of why it is a good life is because the level of human effort in this case is extremely high.  It’s pretty obvious that Deki and Ugyen are happy.  Not necessarily dancing with joy -- at least the evening I’ve spent with them so far, but happy at the level of the smile or chuckle.  There is an ease about their movements.

There have been three changes here in the past two years:  cell phones, electricity, and the road.  Prior to this, the carbon footprint of this household was zero and it’s still so close as not to matter.

Cell phones came first.  Even in Eastern Bhutan (the least developed area; we’re in the west), you see farmers in their fields talking on cell phones who are otherwise completely isolated.  In our village of Dorikha, Deki and Ugyen and most of their neighbors do not read or write.  They did not attend school, though all four of their children do.  So using a cellphone can be a challenge, if you think about it.  However it is a challenge met on a regular basis by everybody.  They just play with the buttons and figure it out.

The road they look on as a clear blessing.  The lumber trucks which use it have beaten it up to the point where getting here is an exercise in trying not to get your back thrown out.  Previously, however, getting potatoes to market meant carrying them on your back over the mountain, a good two hour hike.  Now, as Deki says, they can use a car.  They don’t own one, but Deki’s sister has a job in Haa Village (center of the valley) as a forest ranger.  She lives there and she has a car.  There are a few other vehicles in the community.

Electricity thus far is used for a light in each room, one outside and in the cowshed, and a two burner cooker.  The car also means propane, so there’s now a choice of cooking surfaces.  Most of the cooking is done on a wood stove in the middle of the kitchen and there’s usually water simmering there.

Dinner last night, by the way, was absolutely delicious -- Alice Waters” Chez Panisse where I started this journey, cannot match this experience for taste and authenticity, although the variety and presentation were certainly more developed there.  We had an egg curry in a little bowl, a pot of a sweet kind of turnip (I happen to already be very fond of turnips but anyone would have liked these, they were so sweet.)  They were topped with butter hand churned yesterday here (eat your heart out Alice Waters) from cows that forage at will on the Himalayan slopes.  We had late spinach greens, washed and simmered in a slow cooker, and we had rice.  I don’t remember a meat dish but I certainly didn’t miss it, and meat is a regular part of the diet here.

Electricity has brought only minor changes in lifestyle as far as I can tell.  The family stays up slightly later, especially if they have guests.  Last night since they wouldn’t let me help even with dishes, I sang several old folk songs as we finished supper, which everyone was very sweet about.

We were all in bed by 8:30.