Volunteer Log Stardate 2005

This blog starts on Saturday afternoon last week (it's now Friday 20th - there are even posters up in Pilgrim's Bookshop that tomorrow is Harry Potter Day!)

After writing the previous blog, I went into the Garden of Dreams and just sat reading and enjoying the difference the new season made to the flowers and the colours in the garden. There were quite a few Nepali families there - children enjoying the chipmunks, others watching the fish -and some professional-looking photographers.

I could see why they were there.

The following day I managed to get a taxi to the airport before the drivers started demonstrating again and at 8.30 we set off into thick cloud. After a bumpy flight over the hills, we started to descend out of the cloud and I was rather puzzled by what I could see, until I realised we had flown past Simra and were heading towards Birgunj. The landscape below was flooded paddy fields.

A smart 180 degree turn and we came in to land on time. On the way back to Hetauda(no Terai banda for once) the taxi driver told me there had been a lot of rain during the past week, but not enough to make the gravel beds wet.

I spent the rest of the day unpacking, cleaning and washing and was all ready for work on Monday. What work? Yes, the RPs are on holiday-no meeting this 3rd of the Nepali month! However there have been some interesting times between the hours of watching two days of real monsoon rain - I now know why people say 'It's raining stair rods'.

On Wednesday I was called almost as soon as I arrived to help with the next edition of the wall newspaper (at last -only 2 months late). Having said last time, that a bit of colour would make a lot of difference, I was asked to draw marker pen lines round the pieces. Of course I was unprepared, so it had to be either red or blue, but they seemed happy. They even suggested that next time I can colour in the title page (Ram Chandra had done it in colour on the computer but of course they only have a black and white printer). I was thinking that I could give them my colour printer, when I leave, but they wouldn't use it as the inks are expensive. At the moment we have no photo copier again - well we have, but there is no money for toner. (The recent budget has given more money for the education system and 12000 more teachers - but practical materials?)

After finishing the task of sticking the items on the board (2 section officers organising one typist, while I drew the lines) we all went for chiyaa! In the afternoon, the DEO arrived and invited Anu and me to drink chiyaa with him (twice in one day - this was the best day at the office ever).

He was very pleasant and talked about his work with Shannon and how eventually she left feeling she had done some work,but had previously found people didn't respond. I know there isn't long left, but I do hope things are looking up for my replacement - even if the DEO leaves. He also invited Anu and me to another presentation - "Be at the office at 7.30 on Friday morning".

The rain had just about stopped by the time the DEO came out of his quarters and he said that our driver was ill (there is a fever going round the office - three away yesterday) so we were going with the Chief District Officer(CDO). I had understood that we were going to Padampokhari, but I hadn't appreciated that Padampokhari is not near Mayurdhap school where the resource centre is, but 15 minutes further on past the cement factory, across the river bed (quite wet), through jungle and paddy fields and eventually to a small community with the local higher secondary school. This was an area which was out of bounds before jana aandolan, a Maoist stronghold. I don't know how much that contributes to what we saw this morning, but it was a real privilege to see what the people have asked for, organised and are now enjoying.

Over 300 Tamang women (I managed to use the two words of Tamang I learned at Markhu and learned two more)are now attending school every day, from classes 2 to 8. They are crammed into the classrooms, but really seemed pleased to be there.

The programme was to present text books to the women (donated by the District Development Committee - the chairman proved to be very knowledgeable - his speech was peppered with English words and he actually said 'Education for All' which I'd been listening for throughout the previous ten speeches!).They had already been given saris for a uniform and also umbrellas and other materials.

Although we, as guests were sitting in the shade of the school building, the women were facing into the sun and by 9.30 many had put up their umbrellas.

How I wish I could report more success stories like this! It isn't just money that's needed - there has to be an initial understanding of the value of education (that's why we're trying to inform and support the female SMC members)and then the willingness at the school to change things around a bit and cooperation from husbands and children.

After daal bhaat we came back and I've spent most of the time since then writing this blog. The part of this week I haven't written about is having Kors to stay since Tuesday. He's been working at GWP's office and has been excellent company. As he is in training for the Kathmandu marathon (encouraged, no shamed, into it by Richard - he couldn't keep up with the 'older man' when they first started running) he went for a run on Wednesday, but yesterday he agreed to walk up to the temple with me - I think I acquitted myself fairly well (there's still a possibility of walking ten kms of the marathon course - watch out for sponsorship details!)as it's the first time I've been up there since the end of May.

I thought I'd be signing off saying two weeks to Tibet, but I've got another trip before then - an inclusion forum meeting in Pokhara on Tuesday. The Governance programme have invited me to represent the education programme at the meeting and Mahendraji thought it was 'a good opportunity' - yes - to have two nights in a hotel with a swimming pool! I'm looking forward to talking about the work our programme has done in mainstreaming HIV and AIDS and to talk about events like todays, which demonstrate inclusion in practice.

And finally - did you notice the title of this blog? What does it mean? It was the headline for an article in the Kathmandu Post about a speech made by one of the party leaders. He was talking about the violence in the Terai. I felt like writing to the paper and asking how well educated its readers had to be. After Zidane's 'ignominy notwithstanding' at the World Cup last year, this has to be headline number 1. But I have no phenomenonological grounds for saying that!

After four days hard work and a day to get shopping and other bits and pieces sorted, I thought I'd be a tourist today (Saturday) and go to Changu Narayan, the only World Heritage site in the Valley I haven't been to. Breakfast finished, I strode down the road looking forward to my day out. When I reached the Bhaktapur bus stop there was no bus,but there were quite a few people waiting. Half an hour later people were beginning to drift away and I realised I hadn't seen any buses go past the end of the road - was there a chakkaajaam? I walked down to the bus station, where there were only two overfull Dhulikel bound buses going nowhere. There were quite a few police around and people obviously waiting and wondering. I thought I'd take a taxi to Bhaktapur and spend time there if I couldn't get up the hill to Changu Narayan, but then I changed my mind.

I saw a crowd of 20-30 people (quite a few street children) led by a red banner and a tough looking man with a Maoist flag tied round his arm (unfortunately, a stereo-type hooligan, thug or terrorist, as Mr Moriarty, the departing American ambassador would call him). I remembered seeing him earlier waving a stick at some APF officers near the King's statue on Durbar Marg, but hadn't really thought anything of it. Suddenly they all broke into a run and surrounded a taxi coming towards them. The small boys scuttled to the tyres and opened the valves while others ordered the female passengers to get out. Then another vehicle came along (after looking at the photo, I realise it was an ambulance, not a bus) and they left the taxi to surround that. I decided my day out was over.

I walked along New Road to Durbar Square (chocolate doughnut and lassi on the way) and then wandered up through the markets and stalls of Ason, to Kantipath and through Thamel to this air conditioned cyber cafe.

This was something I'd heard about but never seen until today - a sugar cane liquidiser. People were buying the liquid sugar straight after the man had put the canes into the machine. Sometimes they let the molasses harden and sell it in lumps - you only need a little!
I've been in KTM since Monday. An early morning flight gave an excellent view of Hetauda and the valley plus the briefest of glimpses of himal peaking above the cloud.

After dropping off my bags at PGH,(and finding the open space in front being neatly paved-pavement cafes here we come)I was in the VSO office by 10.15 (all traffic running surprisingly smoothly that day)delivering re-written visa renewal papers to Gopalji ('we know you're only staying until December, but the Ministry will only give a three month extension, so you have to put January!')and bemoaning the fact that some haven't arrived from the DEO(they arrived on Tuesday, thank goodness). After choosing some new reading material from the library and using the super fast internet connection in the volunteers' resource centre (excellent facilities in our new office)I called in a very pleasant cafe in Patan for a cup of real coffee and then headed for Royal Mount Treks and Tours to deliver a photocopy of my passport for my Tibet visa.

I felt that was enough 'work' for one day and headed to the Shangri-la Hotel for a bit of pampering at the hairdressers. My last trim was in Hetauda (the 'boy cut'). 'Where you have cut?' demanded my regular hairdresser - yes well.

On the way back I met Spanish Laura on her way home. I stopped for a cup of tea and a chat about an organisation we have both been asked to check out for a new volunteer placement (there is a small office in Hetauda). As I left, Laura called upstairs, where Val and Mick, two of the new education volunteers are living. By the time that conversation was over, I was running back to PGH to get ready to meet Peter, Rosemary and Claire for what turned out to be a delicious meal with wideranging conversation and the opportunity to talk about Tibet (they have all been in the last couple of months).

I should have slept well, but a mosquito, determined to beat the electronic zapper, was very annoying and my room was on the first floor at the front - well in earshot of the dogs!

Nevertheless I didn't fall asleep during the next day's workshop (or Wednesday's)as we discussed the education programme's current status and the way ahead. The workshop had been planned as a funding proposal workshop, but as news had arrived that the corporate VSO bid to BLF had been turned down (not corporate enough)it was an opportunity to evaluate our programmes in the light of the demands put on VSO. Like any organisation, things seem easy from the outside, but once you become more involved, you see the difficulties. I've been lucky to be involved in several office based initiatives, so I'm learning the job from the inside and gaining an insight into the problems of managing development. We want to offer needs based support, but there are also demands on the organisation in its role as part of DfID's development programme - and I thought I'd left target-setting, outcomes and success criteria behind! (just a reminder that this a personal view, not necessarily VSO's)

Wednesday was also the first of several days of traffic strikes in the Valley.The previous day, a young man who lectured at several colleges in Kathmandu and Patan had been attacked and killed - apparently without motive, so students saw this as an excuse to demonstrate and stop the traffic. Several volunteers had difficult or impossible journeys to work. On Thursday it was the turn of taxi drivers at the airport to bring things to a halt (I can't remember why).

This did not prevent me going to visit my landlord on Thursday morning - I found out the previous weekend that he is selling the house and the famly downstairs are moving out. I've been given the green light to stay on until my placement finishes and the caretaker will come and keep an eye on things. I understand the new landlord is a friend of Ganshyam's (Clare's landlord) and he has been involved in making sure I don't have to leave. After a pleasant half hour with him, I set off for the VSO office again (I'd left my umbrella there the previous day). By the time I had walked part of the way there I thought I'd might as well continue, so an hour and the unpleasant experience of crossing one of Kathmandu's rivers later I arrived.

I was really on my way to Patan Durbar Square to meet Rosemary. It was very warm and I wished I could take advantage of the water spouts, like these locals were doing - though water is in desperately short supply in the valey.

Rosemary was taking me to visit Kathmandu University where she is involved in a research project about improving schools through supporting teachers, the SMC and parents. She had recognised that I'd been working on similar projects (without the baseline assessment and follow-up monitoring!)and had suggested I give some practical advice instead of the project remaining on paper only. I don't know how useful the Master's degree student thought my input was, but it was interesting to see the newly (partially) built university building in the middle of paddy fields, but very near the centre of Patan.

While we were there, Rosemary received a phone call from the office to say there may be travel problems the following day because students would be demonstrating again. Noone at the university knew why! It turned out to be temporary university and college teachers, many of whom are also post-graduate students. After the teacher's death, they were pointing out their situation with reduced rights. In the event, their protest did not take place, but the taxis caused a problem again!

Yesterday was last minute shopping (a trip to the supermarket/department store!)and the travel agent. On Thursday evening, I discovered over a meal with Val and Mick that they are going trekking from Jomsom in the Annapurna area at Dassain. I had said I must find a trekking partner for the Jomsom trail at Dassain and was promptly invited - they are bird watchers and casual ramblers back home, so I think the pace will suit me.

And so to today. More next week when I've returned home (bandas permitting).

Comments made in this blog are personal and do not necessarily represent the views of my organisation

I said there would be news this week - this morning Nepal made the headlines on World Service news. Why? The King is 60 today(they say it's his 61st birthday because the day you are born is your first birthday) and he's holding three days of celebrations - he hopes! No Nepali monarch has reached the age of 60 since some inauspicious occasion years ago, so he invited hundreds to a series of parties, but all the foreign dignitaries made their excuses and the Young Communist League decided to block the roads leading to the palace this morning. BBC World is just showing pictures of thousands demonstrating, but they were not allowed near the palace and hundreds of people have gone to the palace to wish the King 'happy birthday' and to pray to him (devout Hindus think the king is a reincarnation of the god Vishnu). There are many who think the royalists wil try to cause problems during the run-up to the elections, because afterwards, the constituent assembly will have the power to remove the monarchy altogether. Most of the madeshis are also devout Hindus, so there are still many problems to overcome if they are to accept the removal of the king.
This is what some people in Kathmandu think of King Gyanendra - he should be prisoner no. 1!

To increase the anti-royal feeling, the Rato Machendranath (the tall chariot with a statue on that is driven round Patan)reaches its destination this weekend and usually (even last year) the King goes and agrees that the statue's diamond studded vest can be shown to the crowd. This year they have invited the Prime Minister to be the chief guest. He would probably have liked to go to see the king,because he has said the royal family can stay if the King and Crown Prince abdicate - leaving the six-year-old Hriendendra (I know the first two letters are right, not sure about the rest)but of course that's not politically possible. Anyway, at least we know the political road will be bumpy for the next few months. (More of bumpy roads later)

I know all about this because I'm back in Hetauda earlier than expected after a very interesting few days up in the hills. Although I forecast there would be no communcation up there it's amazing what a difference a year has made. There was a TV in the lodge (Nepali channels only-and I still don't get the humour in Nepali comedy programmes), there is a telephone service (no mobile access though)and there has been quite a bit of new building. One new building is at the school, where they were adding on a new classroom last year. It's not the only thing that's been added at the school - there is a lot of wall-writing by the Republican Teachers' Forum (who forced the strike and closure of the DEO earlier this year). What sort of impact is this having on the students?

However, the biggest change I saw was in the state of the river and the reservoir. Although we are a month into monsoon, the lake is the lowest I have seen it. These three photos, all taken from the bridge across the river, show why we need rain.

July 2007

June 2006

December 2005

Even before we reached Markhu there was excitement. When I arrived at the office on Sunday, I was told there was a banda (main road only) so we weren't going until Monday-by motor bike. We (supervisor, English teacher/trainer, an RP and me) set off on two bikes just before 7.30 and the breeze was so pleasant I could almost forget the uncomfortable metal bar that was sticking in my backside (cured at our first stop by wrapping my raincoat round it). After an hour we stopped in Bhimphedi for chiyaa and then tackled the steep twisty road to the highest point. We stopped at the top to cool the bike down and for some food and Surya, the teacher, discovered he had a leaking petrol tank. Nepali ingenuity never fails to amaze me - with the help of other bikers there, they sealed the crack with a bar of soap and off we went down the hill before the final climb up to the reservoir and the last half hour over very bumpy unmade roads.I was looking forward to staying here again, but I hadn't realised I would be quite so pleased to get off the transport!

The view of the village coming from the reservoir.

The purpose of the week was to give training to primary teachers on delivering effective English lessons. As I'd been here last year (unlike the other guys from the office)it was good to meet several teachers recognised. Remembering how the young ones enjoyed the freedom of being together at the lodge last year, it wasn't surprising that again there were some entertaining evenings of singing. One young teacher, Kusalya, came up to me and started saying 'My love is like a red, red, rose' - she'd asked me to tell her a love song last year - and I think I don't have any effect! It got worse when the trainer, Surya, asked if anyone knew a chidren's rhyme and Deepak, another livewire from last year, stood up and said 'One potato, two potato,three potato, four...'

Some of the participants have very little English, but they were willing to have a go. They let their frustrations out when the topic was pronunciation. Nepalis (and the trainer!) always pick on the difficulties of the English language (Nepali is strictly phonetic)and Surya managed to confuse matters even more by talking about American English (it was 4th July). Apparently 'bedding' and 'betting' are written the same phonetically in American English - well then speak English! I began to despair when the supervisor (who I don't know very well, but who does speak good English)wrote the word 'junior' on the board as an example of Americans leaving out the 'u' (as in 'colour'). He would not have it that I had written junior (as in school) more times than I've drunk chiyaa, but one of the teachers finally said that perhaps I did know as I was English!

At the end of the first day ( we started two hours late) the teachers asked if the course could be shortened, because the final day (Friday) was the last day of the school session before the monsoon holiday (I thought it was next week-wrong again). They wanted three days, but by negotiation it was stretched to a session on the Thursday - all to do with explaining at the office how a five day course could be delivered in 3 days and about finance. The first was easy to exlain - we cut out some of the teachers practical time - as it turned out, not a big loss, since demonstration lessons we presented were not copied very well (though some people did make an effort, as Deepak demonstrating 'Little Red Riding Hood' shows),

but I still don't understand how the finance worked, except that my fee for taking sessions (which I don't get)was transferred to pay for my food and lodging. The difference between this year's course and last year's, which was funded by PLAN International, was striking - this was definitely done on a Government shoe string.

On Thursday morning, after a session about reading and a final daal bhaat (all very tasty with different pickles and excellent omelettes every day)the micro bus (another new facility for the village)arrived. It was already crammed to overflowing, but a quiet word with the conductor got the men from the office and myself a seat right at the front (standing wouldn't have been a problem as we'd have been firmly wedged). 3 hours later we were back in Hetauda, where the office guys said they were too tired to go to the DEO (well it was 1pm) so I agreed and we all met up yesterday for a short evaluation session (wonder of wonders).

I also had a session with the DEO and various other top people about the future role of the VSO volunteer in Makawanpur - feedback they were supposed to have sent to the VSO office last week, ready for our workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday when we are planning our funding proposals.I said their plans were so good, if they had offered that work to me I'd have wanted to stay! We'll have to wait and see, but I think I have made the point that we are here to help in what they want to do, not to invent programmes. Of course it all comes down to the people a volunteer is working with - I think I've found the most positive ones now - perhaps we could change the placement to Palung and Markhu!

So, a day of washing and not doing much, a quick trip to the office in the morning to see what's happening then off to the big city for a week. I'm looking forward to catching up with Peter and Rosemary after their visit to Tibet (just over three weeks to go), to saying farewell to Richie again and also to a few more good nights sleep in a cool climate.

I'm on the 8.50am flight on Monday morning - bandas permitting, but in the current climate (political not meteorological)who knows?