Volunteer Log Stardate 2005

A week is a long time

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:53:20 +0100

After a timely reminder from the blog site that I hadn't been on it for 30 days (more now)I realised I'd better finish the epic (at least this part of it - amazingly some people want to know what comes next - me for one!)I've just found this and realised I never published it - ah well, a never-ending story.

My last week in Kathmandu was full of all the things I like to remember about Nepal and it seemed to go on for ages.

On Monday morning, after seeing my trunk of souvenirs, clothes, cushion covers etc and a bag full of books and papers safely on its way to Newcastle airport (very efficiently dealt with all the way)I went to the VSO office for my exit interview with Purnaji. I'd written all the notes for this several weeks before and only glanced at them briefly, so as he started to read, I was surprised to hear him laughing and saying 'You're not going to retire' - apparently I'd written that my first task would be to find out what it was like to be retired - he then went on to read that I might re-volunteer for shorter placements after a year or so and told me there would be a job for me in the office at the beginning of 2009 - I did a Nepali waggle of the head (which can mean yes, but is usualy quickly forgotten) and was then stunned to hear Purna tell everyone at lunchtime that we weren't really saying goodbye because I was coming back! Through a process of Chinese whispers this eventually reached Clare in London - apparently I'm returning to Nepal,in March! No way - and I'm waiting to see what other doors open , though I'll definitely be back at some time.

On my way back from the office (walk and bus) I realised I had forgotten to see the finance officer to finalise my accounts, so the next morning I walked to Patan via Thamel and Durbar Square, just taking in the sights, sounds and smells again. Much as I dislike the effects of the traffic, the inefficient waste collection service and trying to walk on pavements covered with merchandise, I do enjoy the city and feel comfortable in the areas I know well.

I spent the return journey doing shopping - pashmina jumpers and scarves were on the list plus a turquoise treat for myself.

That evening I had a meal in the guest house with my replacement, Doreen. While trying to keep a balance between realism and optimism about the situation she would face, I realised again how much I would like to be in her shoes, but with two years experience behind me.

It was always a Kathmandu treat to visit the hairdresser at the Shangri-la Hotel, so off I went early on Wednesday morning. There was another British woman in the salon, but being spectacle-less, I couldn't take much notice of her. When she left, the hairdresser said 'Did you recognise the lady?' It turned out to be the Ambassador's wife! I should have said 'See you tonight'.

That evening many volunteers gathered with other ex-pats for the British Embassy carol service. Although we say we go for the rum punch, mince pies and sausage rolls, the service itself has been a reminder of home for the last two Christmases and now reminded me again what I had missed about Christmas Eve. This year the Ambassador had decided to hold the service under a brightly coloured tent in the garden. The hedges twinkled with fairy lights as we were serenaded (?) into another section of the garden by a young bagpiper. To the 2007 volunteers this was surreal, to the old hands it was something we had come to expect - and would be something to miss.

On Thursday I felt I needed a walk, so I set off for Swayambuth - the monkey temple. As a landmark from many parts of the city, including the roof of the PGH, it seems to be ever present, the four pairs of eyes overseeing all that the city has to offer.

The walk brought back memories - my first visit with Roz, just ten days after arriving (I was scared of the steps-but they are steep!), taking both sons during their visits, floodlit views at night. As I crossed over the river a funeral party was approaching one of the ghats, then looking along the garbage strewn banks, past the egrets and up to the level of the kites, I could see the white mountains and remembered that on that first visit this bridge had offered us our first view of what everyone associates with Nepal, but which for so much of the year keeps itself hidden from anyone who doesn't venture right into its territory.
There was however a 'first' on this occasion - I'd never seen the Himalaya from the temple, so the view of the valley had added value this time.

On Thursday evening I met up with a group of volunteers for a final Roadhouse pizza. Although I associate so many places with daal bhaat of varying quality, Kathmandu was certainly the place for top-class pizza!
There was one thing on my 'to do' list which I thought would make a great final day - a trip up the Manakamana cable car, on the Pokhara Road. I'd first heard about it on my village stay in Dhapakhel, when I'd been given a souvenir ring and told this was one place all Nepalis wanted to go. Newly weds go to pray for sons, goats are sacrificed regularly (30rupees for a goat to travel up, but no price advertised to travel down) and it's a place to be avoided on Saturdays.
So early on Friday morning I set off for Kantirajpath (now known as the Kings Way) where I'd been told I would find the bus opposite the Nabil Bank. When no bus had appeared opposite the bank, but several had parked and left from the other side of the road, I decided to investigate more closely and found my bus just in time - this was going to be a typical Nepali day - I could feel it!
Arriving at the entrance to the cable car about 11am, I was horrified to see a very long queue snaking down the approach road. I'd heard that the cable car operators stopped for lunch at 12 o'clock and I could see I wasn't going to reach the front of the queue by then - but word quickly spread that the cars would continue working as there were so many people (a local festival whose significance I never fully understood was the cause).

Eventually I reached the top and made my way through crowded stalls selling every kind of souvenir to the temple square. As it was impossible to get near, I followed my nose up some steps, past the seemingly endless queue to present sacrifices at the temple and eventually came out on a hillside with stunning views towards the mountains. I was trying to take it all in when a young man (one of only a handful of white faces) I'd seen in the cable car queue came up to me and thanked me for leading him up here. He was with a group of Nepalis who had never been before and seemed to think I knew where I was going! They took my photo and I exchanged e-mail addresses with Joseph who was a British student working in a human rights organisation in Kathmandu. It was a very happy chance meeting as the information the organisation publishes is unbiased and very informative.

As I really wanted to make sure I was back in Kathmandu by early evening I set off down the hill again and afgter watching the local band in action I took the cable car down and soon caught a Kathmandu-bound bus. The journey was uneventful with some splendid views of the mountains in the sunset glow until we reached the city. Knowing that the terminus was nearer than the first main stop in Kalanki, I stayed on the bus - big mistake. If I had taken a taxi I'd have been back at PGH before I eventually got off the bus - what a reminder of the traffic situation in KTM - all or nothing.

I had arranged to eat with Doreen and we were joined by other new volunteers, sharing experiences, hopes and fears. As we were finishing, Geraldine rang to ask me to go for a drink with her and Karen - in no other place than the Malla Hotel (5 stars - the only time I had been in was briefly when the students from Farnborough had been dropped off there). Another farewell to contend with, but a pleasant and surprising ending to a typically surprising Nepali day.

And so to Saturday. I'd arranged to have a Mike's breakfast with a group of volunteers and that took most of the morning. By coincidence Jo had also arranged to meet friends there, so more hugs all round. I then wandered through Thamel and spent an hour or so reading in the calm of the Garden of Dreams - what a haven.

I was pleased that noone was around when I went back to PGH for my bags, but Bram managed to bring tears by presenting me with a khaadaa scarf. This was just as much leaving home as leaving Hetauda had been the previous week.

After the airport formalities and a fairly comfortable wait, my last memories as we crossed the tarmac to the plane was of flaming mountains in a dark blue sky. Life hadn't always been so peaceful, but the memory of such sights had often kept me going.

Au revoir Nepal - I wish you well.

Comments

Fond farewell

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:27:40 +0100

Happy New Year! Yes it's already 2008, but I've only just started thinking about finishing this part of my blog. Considering the last two weeks in Nepal is creating a range of emotions, but with fingers crossed that my newly acquired laptop (with-allegedly- a memory large enough to accommodate all the photos)will behave and my new broadband connection will react a little quicker than good old NTC, I'll start with the last week in Hetauda.

The office was very quiet, but on Tuesday I received a call from Krishna at Adhunik school to say a representative from the British Council was going to the school to check up on the Global Link with Oak farm School in Farnborough - would I go along? I met a very lively young woman (no sign of a kurta or sari)who is really trying to solve many of the problems being encountered by schools involved in links. She has talked to many teachers who say they are unable to fit in work for the link because of the constraints of teaching an exam-based curriculum. This was repeated by Krishna who said that the pupils had to use their own time and money (both in short supply) to contact the English pupils (they were delighted when I said I would take letters to post once I was back in the UK). If the opportunity arises for me to work with the Global Link in the UK, this is something which must be explained to schools over here before they consider setting up a link. These are some of the young people who were the partners of the Farnborough students sitting in front of a very impressive poster advertising their college.

The next day I visited Shree Devi to show the teachers the presentation I'd created and to share my reports. I was given another armful of bangles and a Buddha staue as a leaving present - a lovely reminder of a school with great potential and a female head who deserves respect.
I also spent time walking round the bazaar saying goodbye to some of the traders who have become friends and taking final photos. There are many changes taking place in Hetauda, including building for people who have chosen to move north from the uncertainty in the Terai and pink and purple railings on Main Road courtesy of Berger paints - the day I left, the newspaper was proclaiming that land prices have doubled in the town - my thoughts about goddess Laxmi being welcomed during Tihar seem to have been correct.

On Thursday I spent a happy couple of hours with Purnam, the new tenant of my first house and her friend. Sitting in the sun by Urmila's house, I commented on the vivid red nail polish Purnam was wearing. Within seconds I was being painted - hands and feet - armed with bangles, then whisked inside to be dressed in a wedding sari, encouraged to have a dance and then taken outside again for photos. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the camera batteries were on the blink so there isn't too much evidence, but I was left wishing I'd met these people earlier.

On Friday afternoon the office staff who were present (including the DEO and Mahendra - returned from sick leave, but still looking decidedly unwell) and some of my RP colleagues, plus Shrawan and Ram Chandra my office buddies all gathered in the DEO's office. After a discussion about the order of speeches and an agreement that we all knew each other, therefore didn't need intoductions, Himsharma the other section officer opened the proceedings by reminding everyone while we were there and invited Uma to make the first speech. When she'd finished, she presented me with a puja vessel and still more bangles and gave me the first red tika on my forehead. This was the sign for each person present to add a tika and to present me with red flowers. Some of the comments were very thoughtful and I really did appreciate the effort that some of the guys had made to be there for me. Mahendra then made a speech (unlike everyone else he spoke in English)and explained that there had been many problems but he thought we had done some good work, then I had to respond ( well practised Neplai!) and told them that I thought the most important change at the office was that they were beginning to share their experiences and this was the way forward, then the proceedings were closed by the DEO, who referred to the changes that needed to take place and the role of international organisations like VSO before presenting me with the traditional gift of a water jug. Having entrusted my camera to an RP, it didn't really surprise me that I again appeared headless - a pity as my forehead and nose were completely red.

I needn't have worried about going home in this embarrassing state-after eating a delicious dessert called dudh malai(milk and cream)I was offered the office vehicle and accompanied by Uma and Padma off went. Arriving at my house we were met by my landlord who had been holding a puja for the new house that day and were immediately offered puja food. It was a very good ending to my relationship with the DEO - the two people who were to work with the new volunteer both saying how much they had learnt (from VSO rather than me, I think, but at least I was there to make it possible)and I was actually quite glad when Jo sent a text to say she was still in Daman and wouldn't be at the Avocado, as I had time for reflection.
The following morning I went to church and was overwhelmed by gifts (a traditional shawl, more bangles and beads and a very handy purse) and messages of good will. My memories of Hetauda will always be bound with these people, particularly at Christmas. My new connection has made it possible to upload this clip of the service - very typical singing and clapping-men and women on separate sides of the room and little Sumit very interested as he peers round his dad's legs.

After the service, Urmila and Maile came round to help me move my furniture. The previous week, Purna had arranged with my landlord that I could keep all my furniture in one room until Doreen came to hetauda and needed it in her home. When I had asked about a lock for the door of the designated room I'd been fobbed off and when I asked again on the Saturday morning I was told the furniture had to go in the little room on the roof - fine, but annoying as I'd started storing things in my room and the bed had to be dismantled to get it up the stairs. Thanks to Maile everything fitted in, except for the large kitchen table which went under the stairs. We found out later that the family is not going to live upstairs now, but is going to let the first floor to an organisation - so all the rooms are needed - and they'll make a fortune!
The rest of the day passed quickly as I went round to Urmila's and met her sister, her niece and the niece's eighteen-month old twin sons. What a handful!

Later Jo and I went to Pradipta's for an excellent daal bhaat and I gratefully took advantage of Jo's spare room for the night.
On Sunday morning I'd been invited for food at Urmila's before I left on the jeep at 9am. I'd said I didn't want much, but of course rice,daal, veg and egg all appeared and I managed to clear my plate - remembering how I struggled with daal bhaat at 9am during my family stay on in-country training, this was quite amazing before 8am. When I got back to my flat (my only tears were when I left Urmila-Sumit was too busy eating sel roti, thank goodness) Pradipta had arrived to collect some curtains (which I'd left with Jo) and to help with the luggage. Maile came along to help too and the two of them struck up a relationship which led to Pradipta employing Urmila as his cleaner! The picture shows that help was needed to load the luggage on the vehicle.

The journey to Kathmandu turned out to be such a wonderful experience that by the time I arrived the sadness of leaving had been overtaken by the wonder of the views I'd seen - a real example of sukhadukha (happy-sad) which I had been elling everyone I was feeling.
My driver had told me that we were going on the Daman road, but after a stop at his office this changed to 'a new route' from Kulekhani. It turned out to be up and over the reservoir, then along the road round the reservoir, which I'd last travelled on a motorbike six months earlier, to my favourite village - Markhu. After having not had time to make a final visit there, this was a wonderful surprise. What was even more amazing was the amount of water which was now covering the one-time football pitch(the photo was taken in June 2006) and the stretch of water under the bridge(the earlier photo was taken from the bridge). Comparison with December 2005, when I first saw these views, makes me wonder again about the management of the Nepal Electricity Authority - load-shedding will not be missed.

Soon after leaving Markhu, we met a group of people walking towards us. I spotted a young man I recognised and he spotted me - Deepak,one of the teachers from the training at Markhu - there was only time for surprised looks and waves, but a memory remained of when he recited 'One potato, two potato' for us and dressed up a Red Riding Hood - a real hope for the future of teaching in that part of the country.

After one missed turning, we finally turned onto a track which led up the hills to a village called Chitlang, then over the top and with spectacular views of the mountains all the way down we entered the Valley for the last time (or so I thought).

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Devi, Daman and Doreen

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:35:20 +0100

It's now 3rd December. The last two weeks have been busy and the next two weeks will be the last two weeks.

Back on the 18th November, (Mangsir 2 in the Nepali calendar) it was time for the monthly RPs' and supervisors' meeting. I was really pleased to hear the RPs making their reports and even more pleased when one of the women RPs told me 'we (I think she meant the two women) asked for more sharing' - at last! At the end of the meeting Mahendraji asked if I would like to say anything and I shocked him by saying 'yes' - well I wasn't going to pass on my last opportunity. Having thanked them and wished them well I told them I was going to take their photos to give to the new volunteer, so that she didn't spend two years trying to match names,faces and resource centres. I haven't attached the rogues' gallery.

When I read the newspaper the next day, I learnt that Maoists had reclaimed land near Bhutandevi school belonging to 'an Indian citizen'. It was only when I went down the road to buy vegetables that I noticed the red flag flying in the field next to my house (it's between the two trees in the photo) - I'm not sure what they plan to do with it, but it was a sign of things to come. Later in the week the newspaper reported that land attached to two properties belonging to former Home Minister and my old neighbour Kamal Thapa, had been seized - I take it VSO aren't going to tell me to move again!
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The next day I finally went to Shree Devi School - despite being told the schools would be open the previous Wednesday, they had all stayed closed until after the Chaatt festival. I had a long talk with the head madam about what she saw as the value in having grade teaching and discovered that she could understand that teachers could get to know their pupils better, that time could be managed more effectively without breaks and that reference could be made to learning from other subject lessons because teachers would know what had been taught. When I asked if she found it difficult knowing all the curriculum subjects (the complaint of the grade teacher at another school a few months ago)I discovered that in fact two teachers shared each class, so they only had to learn about three subjects - oh well. I did observe her deliver a model lesson to class 1, though. It was full of warmth, encouragement and short breaks for a number song and a bit of 'Brain Gym' and the steps to addition of tens and units (without carrying figures!)were very clear.

When I said I would return the next day I was told the school would be closed - yes, another local festival - when people celebrate and worship the tulsi (basil)plants they have in their gardens by decorating them.

However parsi (the day after next)I returned and spent a whole day observing and taking photos. The school is very fortunate to have whiteboards in the classrooms and although there were no materials in the ECD room there was a teacher who knew how to teach using games.

This is a picture of a poster I used in many training sessions until one school took a real liking to it and it disappeared. Obviously someone else has been training here as the poster was displayed on a classroom wall. The scene causes great hilarity and the participants can always talk about the issues which need improvement. Unfortunately, in some schools many of these issues are all too real - but definitely not at Shree Devi.

The next day I was off to another school, this time out in Hatiya, where Richard (having cycled up from Birgunj the previous day)wanted to take photos of children using the natural materials on display in the ECD class. Although we were given a display rather than a normal morning (at least we hoped it was), we did see a range of activities. Here children are being given grains of salt and sugar(eyes closed) before having to describe the taste - salty and sweet!

I took this photo simply for the bag - will this little girl ever enjoy the new Nepal?

That evening Pradipta treated us to a genuine Indian fish curry. He'd promised no bones 'or only the big one' and it was in a very tasty sauce, but we left the head to him!

On the Friday of this week I'd been in the office less than half an hour when the Hetauda RP came in and asked me to go to a higher secondary school out to the west, where there was going to be an interaction of the school's stakeholders, which had been called by the PTA. I was asked to give a short talk about how parents, teachers and the SMC (governing body) work together in the UK and how the local authority and government are involved. The headmaster was under considerable attack about standards of behaviour, uniform and teaching (particularly of English) and after collecting everyone's comments and complaints he began a long series of excuses. He was interrupted at one point by a management committee member who said he thought the programme had been advertised as an 'interaction' but it didn't seem to be interactive. I don't know what the outcome will be for this particular school which has 'namuna' in its name - a 'model' school - but if there is so much interest (50+ people at the meeting)I hope the pupils eventually get the quality of education they deserve.

At the weekend I joined the Birgunj boys (Richard and Kors) for a trip up to Daman to see the view (Himalayas east to west)and a walk down through the jungle to the valley, as described to me by Sandy when she was living up there. After a 7am start and a three hour bus journey with amazingly clear views down to the Rapti valley, Hetauda and the hills to the south, and glimpses of white mountains to the north, we were ready for tarkari, chick peas, sel roti and beaten rice (and chiyaa of course) before heading up the viewing tower for a better view of 500 miles of the Himalayan range. (Trivia: Himalaya means 'abode of the snow' from the Sanskrit hima - snow and alaya - abode) My previous views had been from a bus and a jeep, so it was good to be able to take time to try to realise what exactly I could see - 9 of the 14 highest mountains in the world, with an average height of 15000ft. The nearest mountains are about 50 miles away and we were already at a height of nearly 7500ft - I still can't comprehend the scale.

We weren't the only ones heading for the tower - these sacks of wood and leaves were heading in that direction too!

We headed back up the hill and into the jungle along a paved path to a temple site for Buddhists and Hindus. My information was that the path then continued down to the valley.We couldn't see anything until a barefoot man carrying a sack of wood appeared through the trees. We followed him down a steep, slippy,narrow, winding path (where was the trusty Rotary walking pole?)until we came to a stream which flowed and fell over and between large boulders and needed jumping and crossing on stepping stones. There were many pools with flowers and the occasional fish - a real secret valley.

We were occasionally overtaken by friendly groups of men and women carrying large sacks of wood but otherwise had the place to ourselves. After 3 hours or so we reached ploughed fields and then the road and headed for a chiyaa pasal at the bottom of the hill in Shikarkot. Having found the lodge where I stayed when I visited Sandy, we set off to find a route the guys could run the following morning (they are now in serious training for the Delhi (half)marathon). As we headed back up the hill into the sunset, the full moon rose behind one of the surrounding hills - a lovely end to a very enjoyable day.

After a good daal bhaat we were playing cards when Sandy's colleague Pemba from Global Action came in for his evening meal. There's something about being greeted as a friend by a Nepali that still makes me feel good (and it impressed the locals). The fresh air had its effect and I was asleep before 8.30.
The next day saw us take the 9.30 bus back. This time the journey took 4 hours, including a food break at Daman and a roadside toilet stop durng which Kors was asked all the usual questions about his origins, what he was doing in Nepal, where he lived etc and when he said 'Birgunj' he was told there was a bandh - which after his story of tyre-burning as he came up on Friday could have been true, but fortunately wasn't.

Having passed the planned election date (22nd November) there was always a fear that demonstrations may escalate. In fact the country is at a standstill - the new parliamentary session was postponed while the parties 'continued their homework' and then when it did meet on Thursday there was hardly anyone there. It's now been put off until Wednesday.

Prachanda contradicts himself every time he opens his mouth - he wants to find a way to support the government but he wants his members to demonstrate for his parties new demands and says they'll fight for forty years if necessary. They are still causing misery by demanding contributions and carrying out abductions. The Prime Minister is ill again, many ministers are talking about each other and we are going nowhere. And to think we could have been a republic by now if only they had held the elections. Letters in the paper today were saying how everyone,even in rural areas is just tired of the ineffectual government

The good news is that the country has risen in the UN's Human Development list by two places (still 142 out of 177). The enrolment rate across all levels of education has gone up 2% to 58% and life expectancy is now 62.6 years (up 4 years for women in the last two years and due to the decrease in infant mortality).

The rest of last week I spent writing and sorting and preparing a display for the office for World AIDS Day. On Friday afternoon I waited for the phone call that would tell me Purna and Doreen had arrived. It didn't come until after 6pm - there had been brake problems in the hills and they had a 2 hour delay. Better late than never I met my replacement at the Avocado and heard about the new intake, language training and Doreen's life in international schools in Singapore and Africa, her search for a home in Portugal and her 21/2 years researching for a master's degree in Nepal.

Saturday morning was spent at a meeting at Uma madam's resource centre where Purna gave a spirited description of VSO's work and talked to the heads about Doreen working in their schools. They had to decide the criteria for choosing which schools would benefit from a volunteer. Also at the meeting (for gender balance) were the women from the SMC training course. I really hadn't thought they would come on Saturday morning, but I was so pleased when some of them answered questions and made comments. At least they know someone respects them.

We repeated the exercise with another group of heads on Sunday morning, before having daal bhaat and the VSO jeep set off back to Kathmandu. Purna has agreed a price with my landlord for storing the furniture in one room until Doreen returns and needs it - that saves me a lot of hassle, but I am dreading taking down my pictures and taking off the cushion covers.

I've just got an e-mail to say Pradipta is back from another visit to India and has invited himself round here tomorrow - with Indian snacks. Jo is back from a field visit on Wednesday and I want to see Jose before I leave, so hopefully the week will be busy (I understand we're having a ceremony at the DEO on Friday).

What shall I miss? The weather - most of the year and just now in particular. The colours - the blue and white of the mountains, the brown and green of the hills and the paddies, the multi coloured bustle of the bazaars. The pace of life - I enjoy walking everywhere. The fresh vegetables and fruit and the way they are cooked. Music on the buses. The local Imam - my personal alarm clock. Festivals almost every month. The friendliness and generosity of many people. And what won't I miss? Spitting. Cheeky schoolboys (and girls sometimes). Load -shedding - particularly when the fans are off in the heat of summer. Cold water showers in the winter. Roads in need of repair. The habit of serving or speaking to each person who comes into a shop or office without finishing the business you are involved in. Mobile phone ring tones (Auld Lang Syne has a new meaning!)- I think they are used more sensitively in England. Strikes and road blocks. And what am I looking forward to? Hot baths and fish and chips.

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Tihar in Hetauda

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:32:14 +0100

My decision to stay in Hetauda for this holiday (Friday to Sunday) was justified. As I stood on my roof on Friday I could see coloured lights in every direction. Last year was good, but it seems that this year everyone has joined in the celebrations with fairy lights and / or candles, fireworks (mostly ones that sound like machine guns or bombs, but also some rockets and Roman candles and plenty of sparklers)and plenty of traditional singers. The nursery next door did everything - the 'We wish you a merry Christmas' playing lights, fireworks every night and then the singing and dancing on the lawn. My house was lit up, including flashing lights on my balcony, and when I came in on Friday evening from a walk in the bazaar, there were even candles on my steps and later on the steps up to the roof, though the candles out on the roof wouldn't stay alight. It looks as though Hetauda is going to be very prosperous next year if Laxmi, the goddess of wealth visited every house with lights on!

The festival was almost spoilt by another day of unseasonal weather. It wasn't very bright on Friday morning, then about 11am thunder started rumbling round the hills and by 1.30 the wind was blowing leaves off the trees and there was a short hailstorm followed by 90 minutes of very heavy rain.The electricity was on and off until after 7pm. As most of the roads in Hetauda have been 'under the digger' this summer, walking up to the bazaar in semi-darkness was a muddy affair, but it was worth it.

In the market

Laxmi puja evening

On Saturday afternoon I went round to Urmila's only to find I'd been asked to help make sel roti.

As I left she invited me to go for daal bhaat the next morning. After I came back,Sanu arrived with a plateful of Bhai Tika food (for Sunday) - sel roti, ladoo (rice sweet), sweet cake, fruit.

She had only just left when the Hetauda RP, Drubha, rang - he'd promised to invite me to his house over Tihar, but I was more than honoured when he invited me for Bhai Tika, a family celebration between brothers and sisters. I wasn't going to need to cook on Sunday (or for a few days!)

This morning Urmila gave me fish with my daal bhaat (I still don't cope well with the bones), but as I told her I was going to Drubha's afterwards, it was a manageable amount. I made my way south out of Hetauda by tempo, having been told to get off at the interestingly named 'FM Road' (there is a big sign which announces national FM radio). Drubhasir was waiting and took me to a lovely house in a small rural community five minutes from the main road. Here I met his wife,younger brother and his two children, younger sister, two daughters, son, two granddaughters and five year old grandson. All these people have a special name in Nepali depending on whose child they are (brother's, sister's, older, younger etc).It's something I've never come to terms with - I'd rather learn people's names.

The ceremony took two hours. I finally came home about 3.30 after another daal bhaat. Tempos are few and far between today, it's the one day when people really do take a holiday and I thought a walk would have done me good after all the food. I brought with me a big bag of foodstuff (a gift from my 'sister') and I have a very colourful tika on my forehead and a mala of everlasting flowers to hang in my room. I also have a series of photos which make sense of the whole day.

I thought it would be a solemn occasion, but this family at least, had a lot of fun and were happy to include a foreigner as their 'sister' for the day (I got my tika along with Drubha's wife, so I was clearly 'related' to him).

And by the way - happy 1128 (Nepali Sambhat) - it's the new year we celebrated with Purna last year - where has the time gone?

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5 weeks to go

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:33:10 +0100

If anyone can remember, that was the title of my very first post when I set up the blog while I was training in Birmingham in August 2005. When I started writing this post it was 5 weeks to go before I leave Nepal -it's now only 4 because I got sidetracked by Tihar, so I've removed what I had written and started again.

The two weeks between Dashain and Tihar, which last year were very quiet at work as the new DEO took over and the RPs were all hiding in their resource centres wondering whether their jobs were safe, were very busy and I began to feel envious of Doreen having the opportunity to see some of the new initiatives through - though I feel some success in that they ever got off the ground in the first place.

The first programme was supposed to be a refresher course for the women who attended the women SMC members' training out in Hatiya back in March. As only 5 of the original participants were there (with 8 others) it was more of a repeat than a review,but it was good to hear one young woman say that after the first programme, she had felt able to tell the other members of her management committee (the men)what she saw as her role. The highlight for me was one of the women showing us how the men react when she speaks - the body language was so expressive- she is obviously very perceptive but very frustrated. I think we have realised that while courses to support the women are important as they give them an opportunity to say things they would not say in front of the men, training involving them as well is necessary.

The following day I had been invited to be the 'special guest' at a musical chairs event at the resource centre at Mayurdhap. The journey out there is always enoyable - tempo ride, wade across the channels in the gravel beds then walk up the Nepali equivalent of a country lane.This time it was made more interesting by the company of the RP's daughter - an articulate young lady in grade 7 at Hetauda's Christian run English medium academy. The private schools did not go back between the two holidays, so she was having a day out to with her mother and she was also going to meet her aunt, another teacher who was taking part in the musical chairs game.

I learnt that the event was to recognise the contribution of female teachers (patronising or what?)and there was one teacher from each of the schools in the resource centre area (had they had a run off to see who was going to take part? - I didn't ask). I soon realised this was going to be very competitive - there were prizes of 200, 150 and 100 rupees for the winners.

On the first circuit I took what I thought would be a short piece of video. It turned out to be nearly a minute before the 'music' (a blindfolded pupil sitting in the centre of the circle with the school 'bell' - an oblong piece of metal and a hammer) stopped.
On watching it afterwards, one teacher is seen very cleverly hurryng between the chairs and then slowing down so that she will have a chair in front of her (no going backwards). She turned out to be the eventual winner, though not without jutting elbows, a couple of stewards' enqiries and a reinstatement. There was a good lunch afterwards!

After the weekend I had the pleasure of an hour's bus ride out to the east, a delicious daalbhaat at the headmadam's husband's shop (it really was like being in the zoo with children coming and peering over the counter at us) then a 11/2 hour walk with Umamadam (the RP) and headmadam to another mothers' meeting. The way took us through jungle, across countless streams (we had waited to hold this programe as the way had been flooded for several weeks)and finally along a gravel bed with tall cliffs - the scenery of the road south.

The school had been built by the community several years ago, but had only come under the DEO's authority two years ago, when the head had been appointed. There is one other teacher (the wife of the SMC chair). There are 52 children in grades 1-3, but only two classrooms, though a new Japanese-funded building is under construction. A group of women and children was waiting for us and over the next hour they were joined by many more until there were 43 women and at least as many children, some perched on the planks which made up the walls of the classroom, their heads almost touching the tin roof.

Four women admitted to being able to read and write and two of them were chosen to record the 'group' discussions (there wasn't room to make four groups). There was obviously a good awareness of the value of sending children to school and of the need for them to have equipment and uniform and it was also clear that this would be a struggle for most of the families.I would love to see the school in operation, but when the RP wrote in the school record book, she showed me that she had been there twice in the previous year at 6 monthly intervals, so we shalln't be going again in the next month - but headmadam does the walk twice a day!

The next day I was back in Hetauda for a long-awaited training session for PTA chairs. This had been suggested when we did the original women's training at the beginning of the year and although I had been frustrated that it had never happened because the RP was absent, I had to admire him for finally insisting that we do it before I leave. I had to leave before the last session as there was still planning to be done for the following day's big network meeting with all the (I)NGOs working in the education sector in Makawanpur district.

This was a really big event which had been suggested by the DEO after seeing one that had been run in Parsa when Shannon was there (talking of whom, she was involved with bombs and bus accidents in Nepal and now in less than 6 months in Bangladesh she has encountered a possible tsunami and a cyclone).

As there is no record of which organisations are working in which schools or resource centre areas, it is quite possible that some schools are receiving support from several donors, while others are going without. Monitoring the effectiveness of scholarships and retention programmes is also going to be easier if communcation channels are set up. The DEO was present for some of the day and also took the opportunity to launch a newsletter from the resource centre in the far east (where I haven't been) which just happens to contain an article by yours truly. He is really a great guy, not a faceless character at all!

The meeting gave me an opportunity to meet some of the people I've met along the way - Prem from PLAN (now promoted to a post in Kathmandu), Pemba from GAN (saying Sandy may be coming back in the new year and asking me to go to Palung before I leave),Purna's brother Ganesh representing their organisation NEST and gave Mahendraji a chance to ask me to say a few words at my last programme - no need to remind me!

The network meeting was also an opportunity for Laura, a volunteer who works on advocacy and networking projects in Kathmandu, to come out to the country and I spent a couple of evenings with her at the Avocado. The staff up there were beginning to think I'd moved in as I was there almost every night the previous week.

The first of my visitors was Richard, on his way back from the Annapurna Circuit with tales of crossing the high pass after the snow that we had experienced in Muktinath and hearing of the death of a young Frenchwoman from altitude sickness. While we were at the Avocado, we met Duane (ex International Red Cross, now UNDP)and I spent the next night with him and Jo. The following day there was a meeting of programme office staff and one of the new partner organisations, so I was invited for daalbhaat. Just like buses - three nights out came along at once!

I think that's just about caught me up to this week, when I've spent time in the office writing up all my reports. The RP told me schools would be open from Wednesday, but in fact they are closed until tomorrow, so next week I'm going to spend some time in the school round the corner from the office observing (and hopefully supporting) their initiative to introduce grade teaching ie not a separate teacher for each subject, but like our primary school system. I've also promised to take Richard to video the nursery we visited when the volunteers came to Hetauda as he wants an example of good practice to show his RPs and I want to squeeze in a visit to Jose's village - yes he's back again.

Yesterday was Chhatt, a terai festival which is gaining popularity across the country. After presenting large amounts of food at specially erected puja places along river banks women worship the setting sun, standing in the river often with lamps. They then stay awake all night in order to worship the rising sun the next morning (and if last night was anything to go by use a lot of firecrackers to keep themselves awake!). There is a great belief that after doing this wishes will be granted - perhaps that's the reason people other than the madeshi are celebrating - they've tried everything else and there is a great desire for a settled nation. The new session of parliament starts on Sunday, lets hope Prachanda and Koirala lit a few lamps yeterday!

And I've started packing.

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Star Trek

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:07:44 +0100

My Dashain holiday began with a bus journey from the smart newly concreted bus park in Hetauda to Pokhara. There I met Val and Mick and because of a late cancellation of our flight we had a whole day to wait before we could fly off to Jomsom for the start of our trek. It was very good just to sit by the lake and wind down after the activity of the previous week - conserving energy for what was to come!

On Sunday morning we flew off into a cloudy sky which occasionally revealed a mountain top and 25 minutes later approached Jomsom down the Kali Gandaki valley.
After a wait for porters and bureaucracy (which gave us time to have a piece of the most delicious chocolatey apple crumble) we finally set off along a track which took us through the village with the first of many animal jams were were to meet on the way, then over the river bed which might have revealed ammonites if we had had time and a hammer and after about 21/2 hours to Kagbeni and a familiar sign at our hotel.

After a walk round the village - the most atmospheric of the trip - with a monastery, narrow alleys, animals living under the houses, buckwheat harvesting and a young Dutch juggler entertaining children and parents (and us)without a word being spoken, we enjoyed a tasty meal, apple brandy, a game of cards and conversation with interesting people, including a Dane from Norway looking for forestry projects for his Nepali post-graduate students.

The next morning I peered out of the window about 5.30 and saw a large dark shape - I was straight up on the roof to watch the sun rise on Nilgiri then back down for a trekker's breakfast - porridge (which I've never previously enjoyed!)
Day 2 was hard work, but provided some spectacular scenery - very bare (like being back in Tibet) with occasional wooded areas with autumnal colours. Nilgiri kept us company as we headed to the holy Hindu and Buddhist town of Muktinath. The way was often steep as we climbed to almost 13000feet and the weather grew colder.Our guide, Surya, was very encouraging and even had us singing as he played Nepali songs on a leaf.

Having checked in to the Hotel North Pole we walked up to the temple with 108 water spouts which pour cold water on pilgroms who run under them before plunging into an equally cold pool.

(Wealthy Indian pilgrims drop in by helicopter, bathe, then are flown out again!) The reason for this place being so special is an eternal flame which burns at the Buddhist Nunnery near the temple. There is also a water spring. The elements fire, water and earth are represented in the three statues in the temple.
Talking to other trekkers at the North Pole, we heard that conditions on the pass above Muktinath, where trekkers walking the whole Annapurna Circuit came 'over the top' were very difficult and there had been snow. Our thoughts were with our five friends who were somewhere on the other side of the hill. More so the next morning, when we woke to snow.The hotel did a good trade in scarves that morning.

We set off back down the way we had come, heading for Jomsom then a further couple of hours walk to Marpha, the 'Apple Capital of Nepal'. The views were very different from the previous day.

Looking at the village of Jharkot on Monday and Tuesday

Although we had expected the snow to stop as we descended, when it did stop, it turned to rain. As we passed one moorland looking hill with the sound of sheep echoing through the mist, we could have been in the Lake District. By the time we reached Jomsom we were very wet and quite easily persuaded our guide that we should continue to Marpha by jeep. The road from the main road to Pokhara to Jomsom is due to be completed next month. Trekking as this area knows it is going to be transformed. I certainly prefer dodging mule trains to dodging jeeps.

Marpha turned out to be a whitewashed village with two roads(one for the jeeps, which went through the fields and one for tourists, paved and filled with Tibetan handicraft shops), a monastery and apple trees. I enjoyed talking to the women in the shops, most of whom were the children of families who had fled from Tibet in 1959. Talking quite often led to making a purchase, and my excuse of not wanting to carry things on the trek was no good, because as one woman said 'You have a porter!'

That evening some of the guides and porters at the Sunrise Hotel got together for a singing and dancing session - very entertaining - and the apple brandy was excellent!

A walk the next morning revealed we would be heading towards more mountains and our way was along the river again then through the forest. The day also included our first suspension bridges - something I hadn't been looking forward to, but after watching donkeys going across, I thought 'anything they can do..'. I should say though, that the physical evidence left at each end of the bridges made me think the donkeys and ponies were also scared.

I started wishing I had some geological knowledge when the rocks became sparkly and for this and the next day the path glinted with shiny stones. There was definitely iron in the rocks and it struck me that the rocks may be similar to those at home. At one point the river widened out and because of how it curved it seemed that we were in the centre of a huge arena surrounded by hills in place of the stands.

We reached the Angel Hotel at Kalopani (run by the family of one of Surya's college friends)in time for a late lunch. The courtyard garden in the centre revealed the friend's sister, an English teacher at the local primary school, sorting mushrooms of all varieties and colours, a freshly removed sheepskin drying on the roof and warm solar heated showers. After relaxing with a cup of tea it began to drop colder as the mist came down and we sat in the dining room drinking paint stripper from an apple brandy bottle (big disappointment) and playing cards. Mick spotted something on the menu which rivalled our Chinese examples: Under SOUPS everything was listed as SOAP. There were two varieties of chicken soap - chicken soap-100rupees and chicken soap (powder)80rupees - flavoured washing - is this the next big thing? Perhaps it was the apple brandy, but it was funny at the time.

At 5.30 the next morning I spotted stars through the window and realised the sky had cleared. From the balcony along the front of the rooms I could see mountains on three sides - all hidden the previous day by fluffy white clouds. To the northwest was the 8000+m mass of Dhaulagiri with the other peaks in the range. To the east with the sun slowly climbng behind it was Nilgiri (it has three peaks, this was the southern one) and behind the hotel the green fields led up to the snowline. By 7.15 the sun was appearing as it did on old Cornflake packets, with broad rays stretching out in every direction.

Oh what a beautiful morning for a song and a walk!It was a hard day's walk. On a long downhill flight of steps the ponies which overtook us showed an amazing degree of training. As each experienced pony (big bell)reached the corner of a zig-zag, it stopped and waited for the next one, then set off again. The less experienced ponies (small or no bell)were not so cautious and caused us a few heart in mouth moments, but the driver simply aimed a stone at them and they got back into line.

Leaving the mountains behind, we crossed and re-crossed the river in what is said to be the deepest river gorge on earth (because there are 8000m mountain ranges on each side, even though they can't be seen).

We had lunch at the foot of a spectacular waterfall where we were reminded that Christmas is on the way - the first poinsettia! Soon afterwards we were faced with a real problem as the path seemed to disappear completely where there had been a landslide. Many men were working there and they kept asking the guides why they had brought tourists that way, when there was another route, but there had been no signs at all, so we all put our trust in Surya and edged our way round moving shale. A bit of Bible knowldege is a helpful thing - I'd been thinking about Psalm 121 (sung almost daily when I was at school)'I to the hills will lift mine eyes', when stuck with one foot covered in shale , my trusty Rotary pole sinking rapidly and some irresponsible person trying to run across the hillside above us, I suddenly remembered 'Thy foot He'll not let slide' - and he didn't!

In a village a little further on we saw many ponies and donkeys which were obviously unable to continue on their way because of the landslide. It was sad to see the marks on their skin left by their straps and loads. I wonder if they will be retired when the road is open-for financial reasons, probably not.

After the pine forests and the flower-filled banks by the path, we realised how far we had come down when we saw the first banana plants as we entered the tourist hot-spot of Tatopani. Tato means hot and there are hot springs here (reportedly very comforting, but I didn't try them).

Val's ankle had been causing her pain for the last two days and at this point she and Mick decided they would prefer to continue back to Pokhara via Beni, rather than risking the steep steps to and from Ghorepani. As this was my last chance to see the famed sunrise view from Poon Hill, we agreed with the guide and the porters that I should continue with Iman, the more experienced porter who knew the way well, while Surya, Arjun, Mick and Val would have a day's rest in Tatopani before setting off again.

Day 6 was literally an uphill struggle. After the initial climb on to the ridge (I thought prayer flags meant you'd reached the top,but not here)there were many steps through woodland and then an open view of terraces and barley fields. A sudden heavy shower meant that we arrived at the Moonlight Guest House in Sikha, cold and wet, but a comfortable room with an attached warmish shower soon improved that situation. One question: this was the second time on the trek I had bee given Room 101 - was somebody telling me something?

The guest house had a dining room with a view down the valley, to Dhaulagiri on the skyline and about 5pm the clouds rolled away to reveal that view. Today was the eighth day of Dashain, when animals are sacrificed and celebration feasts are accompanied by music and dancing. Our evening was very lively, the crowd in the guest house, including two fun-loving Serbian South Africans we'd met earlier on the trek, joined in enthusiastically trying to copy dance moves and my porter turned out to be an excellent madal player.

The next morning there was time for a quick walk round the small village, which was the first place I had stayed which was not a tourist village- no shops, animals and corn around the houses, only two guest houses - then onwards and upwards.

The steps today led through a rhododendron forest, which must have looked amazing in April. We passed a group of children playing on a large Dashain ping (swing) - I'm not sure where the bamboo had come and a little further on I stopped to talk to two men sitting on the wall by a half-built school, one of very few I had seen during the trek.

The next person I met asked if my guide was coming and when I said no, I was just with my porter explained he was Maobaddi and wanted a donation. I explained in my best Nepali that I was a volunteer who had come to work in Nepal for all the people and my organisation worked within the basic operating guidelines (I said that in English)which meant I would not support any political party. 'Show me your card' he said - so I did and he waved me on after giving me a handout which explained he was collecting for the Magarat Autonomous Region. Since I came back,there has been a lot in the press about the Maoists collecting 'taxes' from tourists - just another black mark against them.

After only a morning's walking we arrived at the Snowland Hotel in Ghorepani. Reaching the hotel situated on the hill leading out of the village was a challenge, but I was pleased we were up there next morning when shortly before 5am we set out to watch the sun rise on Dhaulagiri, the Annapurna range and Machapuchchre from the viewpoint at the top of Poon Hill. In the first few minutes, I saw the sight which gave this post its title - more stars than I have ever seen before and could ever imagine there might be. Despite all the mountain views, this was the ultimate moment - and it was all too brief as we were quickly into the mist. We were soon on the main track and just had to fall in behind a line of moving lights and put one foot in front of the other, quite slowly, until we came to a flat space with a wooden viewing tower (no more steps,thank you). In the company of between three and four hundred people all oohing and aahing as the sun appeared between the clouds I watched another wonderful natural spectacle.

Back at the hotel there was porridge and Tibetan bread waiting then off we went for day 8 - the hardest yet, as the path led down, up, down and finally up again through wooded valleys with autumnal colours, waterfalls and more steps, to Tadopani.

The Himalaya Tourist Hotel outdid the Snowland's woodburning stove for comfort - here the heaters were under the table, which was covered with a thick tablecloth which also kept the legs warm. As there was little to see in the mist, most of the guests sat around the table until we had all eaten, then, as there were no lights in the rooms, we all retired to bed. I didn't know then that this was to be my last night on the trek.

Up at 6am in case there was a view worth seeing, I was in time to hear one of the guides tell the hotel owner that he wasn't paying if his trekkers didn't see Machapuchchre. On cue, the mist blew away and faintly,but clearly enough the fishtail appeared and aamaa namasted the mountain!

The plan for day 9 was to head down to Gandruck (famed for its views) then down to Syauli Bazaar, stay there for the night, then only two hours the next morning to the main road and a car ride back to Pokhara. The downhill path (very unkind to the knees) led us through Gandruck,where there were no views at all,and down to Syauli Bazaar by 12o'clock. I asked Iman if it would be possible to do the last two hours that day. He said it was an easy track - and so it proved - I was back in Pokhara by 4pm.

My motivation was that Rob and Emma had been due to arrive in Kathmandu the previous Saturday and were due to be waiting for me in Pokhara. I had not been able to contact them, so it was amazing that everything worked out and we were able to share a meal with a traditional music and dancing show before I fell asleep totally contented.

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On the go

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:37:57 +0200

Saturday 6th October. The date had been marked on the calendar for weeks. 5.30am, outside Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu, about 5000 people of all ages - school children to 52 year-olds (when you filled in the entry form you had to show your date of birth, but it only went back to 1955!)- were gathering for the marathon,half-marathon, 5km or in my case the 10km race. Most of us weren't racing, just taking part - to say we'd been there and literally 'got the t-shirt'. The marathon runners set off at 7am (in true Nepali style,only an hour late, but what a difference that was going to make later in the day when the temperature was over 30 degrees). They were followed by the biggest group - the 5km runners, then the half marathoners and then us!

After the first 100 yards a group of us slowed to a fast walk and were soon mis-directed by a policeman and ended up going round the wrong two sides of the large grass area in central Kathmandu. No real problem, as we were soon back on track, having passed the 5km runners going the other way. For us it didn't matter, but there were very few directions and stewarding was at a mnimum. The winner of the women's marathon, who finished over half an hour ahead of the second placed girl, was disqualified because it was discovered she had been misdirected on the route and had missed 500metres. She was so far ahead, she had time to go out of the stadium and re-run the bit she had accidentally missed and still be back before the second girl. After a lot of discussion it was agreed to give her a consolation prize! The men's marathon was a lot closer - two runners from the army came in almost together and the second man overtook the first on his lap round the stadium.

Having walked at a cracking pace, most of the way with our administrator Gopal, I reached the stadium in exactly 2 hours -my target time- and sprinted to the finishing line with Peter standing by the track with his phone saying 'You're on TV, Rosemary's watching you!'

Some special mentions - Simon completed the full marathon in 41/2 hours, Peter's son Michael completed a different marathon - half marathon in the Great North Run the previous weekend and half marathon in Kathmandu, our country director and several volunteers did the half marathon and most of the office staff covered 5km.
Forgetting the lack of organisation, the lack of water on the route or at the stadium (it didn't get the same publicity as Chicago) and the bad timing, it was an experience I would repeat. Perhaps next time they will show pictures of the London marathon so that Kathmanduites know to go out and cheer on the competitors. The guy at our paper shop near PGH didn't even know it was happening!

Saturday afternoon was spent at a VSO picnic (daal bhaat of course)to celebrate Prem's 25 years at VSO (he's officially an admin assistant but really Mr Fixit- if it needs doing, Prem's the man) and to say farewell to Elena who was a volunteer but who has been working as Programme Support Officer for the last year - a thankless task sorting out all our problems - but with the understanding only a former volunteer could have.

On Saturday evening I went for what may be the last time, to the British Embassy. The excuse was the rugby match and I did watch the last few minutes but spent most of the time chatting.

On Sunday I came back to Hetauda with six education volunteers who were here for a fact-finding visit - either experiencing education in a different district or out of the Valley. The first shock for them was the journey - the shortest, but bumpiest route! At a stop on the way we met this interesting form of transport.

Monday morning was spent visiting schools to the east of Hetauda. We saw surprisingly good computer provision; an agricultural training centre; ECD (nursery) provision which ranged from a bare room with an enthusiastic and understanding, but barely trained teacher (sorry, facilitator) to a room filled with home-made materials by an experienced woman who is passing on her skills (the same woman who served me freshly picked fruit and gave me goats to hold a few months ago;a grade 1 English lesson - lots of oral repetitionof these words, then copying them.

After daal bhaat and a quick visit to the DEO we went round the corner to a local school where we were treated to the singing of the new Nepali national anthem - a lively Nepali sounding tune.
This was followed by a display of kabadi and a chasing game they call squirrel (which Val said she had seen children playing in Sussex).
The next day there was an early start as we went to Padhampokhari to join the housewives' school. We were welcomed with kadaa scarves and flowers by the armful (there was even a girl ready to take them from us,just like a lady-in-waiting from the Queen). The women were keen to tell us how much they had learnt and out on the field the female SMC member (in grade 8) gave a rousing speech on women's rights and the importance of educating women.

Our final school was the Mayurdhap resource centre where we observed lessons and had a wide ranging discussion with teachers and SMC members.
There was further time for discussion in the afternoon with another RP.
The whole visit caused a lot of comment - particularly from volunteers who were amazed at the resources in some of the schools, but I tried to point out that had we had time to go to the hills, the jungle areas in the west of the district or out in the far east, we would have seen the expected deprivation, but why shouldn't the RPs be proud of what's good and surely the differences point to a great need for improvement in the system as a whole and at district level, where we are working.
The week was not only a busy one workwise, but also socially, as our HIV and AIDS colleagues were also on tour. The Avocado was so packed one night that one of the waiters apologised he didn't have time to take me home on his bike.
Then it was time for the Dashain holiday. Sorry for the delay in finishing this, but the next blog will show what I've been doing in the meantime.

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How wrong can you be?

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:15:49 +0200

Quote from the last post: I'm beginning to think the elections will take place. They may - but not on 22nd November.

Having arranged to fly to Kathmandu on Tuesday (2nd October) to avoid the banda, it was called off as the government agreed to discuss the Maoists' issues (declare a republic before the elections to remove the King and have elections based only on proportional representation). The Election Committee also agreed to extend the deadline for parties to enter their lists of names for the proportional representation part of the election, because the Maoists were not ready. The following day the parties met, but could not come to any agreement. By Thursday it was clear there would be no agreement and the Election Committee was saying that Friday was 'the last chance'.

Friday was also the day of our annual security conference. Last year the meeting was interrupted when a sudden banda was called and people had to leave early so that they could get home. This year we were to be given a briefing on security during the election period, but this was replaced by a review of possible outcomes if the elections didn't take place
- at least everyone would be happy because they would be keeping their seats in parliamentary seats
- everyone outside KTM would continue to despise the government because they had worked for a change away from this closed little group in the capital
- supporters of the monarchy, such as high caste Hindus, may take a stand
- the army may join in
- there could be trouble if either the Nepal army or the PLA came out of barracks or cantonments as this would break the peace agreement
- the Maoists may go to the urban areas
- ethnic groups,particularly in the east may take the opportunity to continue pressing for an autonomous region

Saturday morning's paper said it all: Polls put off, blame game, speculation on The Election Committee had cancelled all programmes related to the election after receiving a letter from the government asking them to do so. Several of the seven parties disassociated themselves from a desire to call off the elections, the Nepali Congress (prime minister's party)blamed the Maoists and Prachanda said the elections could still go ahead if the Maoist proposals were accepted. At the moment (4 days later) it's still a question of wait and see. There is to be a special meeting of parliament on Thursday to discuss the Maoists' proposals, but for some reason they have said they will picket the parliament building. Dashain begins on Friday, so it is likely that everything will be on hold again, but then - how wrong can you be?

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Toilets, tributes and Tamangs

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:29:50 +0200

After last week's hectic lifestyle, the most exciting thing that has happened this week is that workmen have started creating new toilets at the office. Since my office door is exactly opposite the ladies' (rarely used), with the gents next door, the aroma is often less than pleasant, but now the loos are going to be in the room which opens onto the roof terrace at the end of the corridor. The picture on the left shows the ladies' cubicle (toilet and sink -no water- next to each other and just about enough room to sit down - about 6'x3')and I now know that the gents was a large L-shaped room. Equality may be about to be seen in action! My friend Shrawan, usually known for his obscure rather than pertinent comments said 'They say we have to have 33% for women (referring to the constiuent assembly), so the new one may be bigger'. The roof terrace is covered in bricks - I keep thinking they have numbered them all and are just going to rebuild.

Back to the end of last week.
On Friday I had another chance to watch an RP at work. Uma madam, who came to the workshop in Kathmandu, had asked me to go to her headteachers' meeting to share in reporting on the workshop. We travelled a bit further east in the Hatiya area than I'd been before and then walked for about 15 minutes back towards the hills. This really was a rural school.

We were at this small -unsuccessful, according to the headmaster ('we're 14th out of 17 for academic standards')- primary school for the opening of a new classroom. It has been funded by a donation from a local couple,the parents of a headteacher who was killed by the Madeshi Forum in a Terai district.

I was asked to take photos and here the couple are looking quite proud, I think, but the mother broke down when she went inside and saw a photo of her son. Despite this, they then had to sit through speeches and be presented with a certificate and a shawl. Before the ceremony started, the younger children had been sent home, but the older ones packed into the classroom and then went out with the headmaster, lined up as if for assembly and after a short speech from the head they respected a long period of silence immaculately. I tried to say to the headmaster that there is more to a school than run down buildings and less than perfect test scores, but he wasn't convinced.

I've tried (unsuccessfully)to find information about the killing, but my web search led me to www.nepalmonitor.com/2007/04/violence_against_edu.html where I found the following information:
Nepal stands fourth on the list of countries suffering the highest number of attacks on educational institutions since 1998, following Iraq, Thailand (we were shocked by the number of reported bombings in the south of the country durng the two weeks we were there last year) and Afghanistan.
Between February 1996 and December 2006
145 teachers and 344 students were killed
Between January 2002 and December 2006
79 schools, 1 university and 13 District Education offices were destroyed
10621 teachers were abducted
29 'disappeared'
734 were arrested or tortured
320 were beaten
356 were threatened and 41 were injured
In the same period
21998 students were abducted
126 'disappeared'
1730 were arrested or tortured
368 were beaten
1264 received threats and 323 were injured
This was all as a result of Maoist activity. The Madeshi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF)has been behind much of the unrest which has happened this year in the Terai -let's hope the statistics don't continue to read so badly.

As part of the headteachers' meeting the RP wanted them to watch a DVD entitled 'My School' which UNESCO have produced to show examples of good inclusive practice in Nepali schools. She had seen the film at the workshop. I was a bit surprised - DVDs out here? - but sure enough, the headmaster went off on his motor bike and produced a TV and a DVD player (which his son had to work). The only downside was that we had to wait until 4pm -the electricity came back on then!

Here we are, squashed into a very stuffy room (the hottest day for months) - teachers, headteachers, SMC members and a few local children who had been playing on the field.I was interested to see their reaction to the narrator of the film - an articulate boy with no eyes- everyone looked at each other and there were also lots of looks when teachers were being shown learning sign language. Unfortunately disability is still treated with some superstition, but hopefully experiences like this will help raise awareness of what is possible.

This theme was continued over the last couple of days when Laura, a Spanish volunteer who is working with a COSAN, a Nepali NGO,called in to the Hetauda branch on a tour of the organisations projects. She came via Rautahat, one of the more dangerous districts (but fortunately the only disturbance she experienced was the noise of the fire crackers in the early hours of Mnday morning -of which more later)where she had visited a hospital and schools, but in Hetauda she made home visits with the disability outreach worker.When I met this lady a few months ago she said one of the most important parts of her job was to make parents understand that with support and encouragement their children can make progress even if only at a slow pace.She is also trying to integrate some of the children into local schools, but this is very difficult because there is no wheelchair access in most places and there is no extra classroom support. Disabled children who are fortunate attend special units, but this means living away from home and newspaper reports show that even these schools struggle for specialist resources.

On Wednesday Laura, Kors (who was working in town for the day as well) and I spent a fascinating evening at the Avocado with one of the COSAN workers. He told us about his childhood in a Tamang family in Nagarkot (on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley), how he joined a school (Grade 4) at the age of 13, how he suffered bullying because he was overweight,and how he eventually passed SLC at the age of 20. All this was told in fluent English and the conversation then went on to politics (the Nepali Congress had just announced that it is going to the polls on a federal democratic republic platform). He was equally interested in us- representing three European countries. In a week when I had been thinking 'Nepalis!' and trying to remember my VSO training to never say 'They do this that and the other' it was a great help to meet somene who didn't fit the mould.

And so to another Tamang - yes Prashant is the Indian Idol! As we had load shedding on Sunday evening, I took the opportunity of having a nap while the lights were out and I was glad I did. The show started at 9.15 and the result was announced just after 12.30. There were performances by all the other competitors, some famous Indian musicians, the judges and Prashant and Amit. Prashant looked very confident and happy all night, while Amit looked decidedly nervous. Perhaps they had heard whispers that Prashant received 70% of the 70+million votes received. Anyway, as John Abraham (very nice Bollywood star) held his arm up like a boxer, his mum came and put a Nepali cap on (the photo was taken during hs visit to Darjeeling the previous week, not on the night). If I had been asleep I would then have been woken up by the fire crackers which were set off immediately (and been really scared). Fifteen minutes later there was shouting from the bazaar area and then a procession, presumably of the same students who had been canvassing all week, came down the road past my house and the noise eventually began to die down about 2am. Laura said it was exactly the same down in Rautahat - and there was I asking if the Madeshis would vote for a Tamang - and Kathmandu Durbar Square had a big screen up, so there was great excitement there. Kors said it happened in Birgunj and then continued when India won the 20/20 World Cup.

There has been a lot written this week about the passion of Nepalis for their country wherever they live and how it is possible for them to be united. There was one article in the Kathmandu Post (Prashant, Prachanda-path and polls) which linked the idea of voting for Prashant to the Nepalis' great desire to be able to vote in the upcoming elections. It also said that the Nepali nationals are desperate to see and hear good things - they want a Nepali Idol - the elections offer a 'rare and historic opportunity to elect a whole new Assembly of the writers of a whole new Nepal'.

Next week I have to go to Kathmandu on Tuesday, because a 3-day banda is planned to start on Thursday, when I had intended to leae for the security conference. Our colleagues who live in Patan will have to walk or cycle to the conference on Friday and while the marathon will go ahead on Saturday morning, the picnic afterwards may be cancelled. This is the Maoists' latest idea for losing votes. I'm beginning to think the elections will happen,but there's still 'afterwards'.

The next few weeks are very busy - KTM next week, educational volunteers visit to Hetauda straight afterwards (if it's ever organised, but that's another story), then off to Jomsom for a 10-day trek and back to Pokhara to meet Rob and Emma on a flying visit during half-term (nearly not flying, as they were booked on a Nepal Air Corporation flight - the airline that sacrifices goats because the management thinks the sky god is angry and causing the planes to break down - honest!) So Dashainko subhakaamana (Happy Dashain).

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What a week!

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:57:11 +0200

It's 10.30am on Tuesday morning. I should be up in the bazaar meeting Drubha sir, the Hetauda RP, for the second of this week's follow-up visits to schools to see how the female SMC members who attended our training in January are getting on. At 9am he rang to say he would phone the school and cancel for today. The reason? As you can see - it's raining!

It has been very dark all morning and just after 8.30 the wind got stronger and there was a real downpour. I'd just got the iron out to make sure my kurta was ready, in case the power went off when the phone rang. I know Drubha lives out at Nawalpur, so he has to come into Hetauda by tempo, but if this is what RPs say when it rains, is there any wonder teachers and pupils don't turn up? Or did he say it because there may not have been many people at the school? (On Thursday he told me that whenever it rains, there is always tension -'tension bhayo' is a very common expression when things aren't going right - so it's not worth causing the headmasters more tension by going!)

I'm going to write up yesterday's visits and then continue sorting out the stuff I've started taking to the office for Doreen - it's all over the spare room floor at the moment and Kors is staying tomorrow (bandas, bombs and the Ms permitting). So here is a diary of what one way or the other will be an interesting week.

Because I'm adding this later, I can report that Kors is not coming - VSO have reported the Maoists have called a 3-day banda. I have to say I've found no mention on the web-site of a banda tomorrow - the Ms are going to hold funeral processions for 'monarchy' all over tomorrow and they are threatening a banda 4th - 6th October to coincide with the date for nominations for the elections (and my flight to KTM, the security conference and the marathon). They are also going to hold door-to-door prorammes to explain their cause - no violence - the People's Liberation Army will stay in the camps (no mention of where the Young Communist league are!) There are 10s of thousands of Ms in KTM today, so I'm glad I'm here. Pradipta told me there was a rally in support of the elections in Hetauda today. While that's good, it's possibly also the recipe for disaster if there is opposition to rather than support for the Ms. (It's now Sunday and there was no banda, there have been reports of people being threatened in various places, but not round here, and my DEO has told me not to worry about the banda in October - for what that's worth).

On the other campaign front, when I went up to the bazaar about 5.30 tonight there was a great crowd at the top of School Road - was this the election rally - no just the college students holding a Vote for Prachant march!

So, here is my school diary

Monday

Today's school was a 20 minute tempo ride away through the Hetauda Industrial District - an area I've never been to before - it must have been worth a visit (as it says on the Hetauda Municipality web site) when it was first created - factories in a rural setting with smooth roads-but now most of the units are empty, the grounds overgrown and the roads cracked.

Just before we reached the school the SMC member, Kumari, was waiting for the tempo, so we all got off together and crossed a large football field (with goal posts, cows and goats)bounded by trees. She told us that several years ago she had collected some money and gone to buy several hundred saplings, but the forestry committee had given her more than twice the number. She used her considerable powers of persuasion to muster a group of helpers and the result is a testimony to her commitment.

This woman works for a NGO which supports female victims of violence. She is a political activist (CPN-UML) - but she wants politics to end at the school gate. She has not suffered, but in the past the School Management Committee chairman has been imprisoned by the army and at a recent school meeting,the headmaster was unable to give his report because of interruptions by Maoists. This is no illiterate stay-at-home Nepal mother, but she told me how difficult the role of SMC member is.

She is very aware of what needs to be done and supports some projects financially. She speaks highly of the headteacher and critically of teachers who do not come to meetings (and classes). She is aware of family difficulties and does what she can to mediate in problematic situations.

But how can she get the computers provided by the District development Committee out of their boxes and into a classroom - and when they are there who will teach the students how to use them? How can she find out (except at a very extraordinary meeting like the one we were having)what is going to happen to the underspend this year (an underspend? - exactly).

I had always said that we shouldn't be offering training without knowing all the problems and this was such an eye-opener. If this woman finds the role of SMC member difficult, others must find it impossible. I also began to understand the overriding role of politics, and why, when we held the training, this participant had said 'How can we keep politics out of schools?' - the only question we had not been able to tackle. Labour v Conservative on Redcar and Cleveland Council? - that's nothing!

Unfortunately, by the time we had finished our discussion with the SMC
member and the headmaster, the children were going home - there were less than 50% of them at school - probably some mothers were still celebrating Teej!- so they were dismissed at lunchtime. It gave us time to meet the staff, who were very friendly, and to have a look at the ECD class which is being refurbished. The painting on the walls has been done by the Grade 10 students - what an excellent opportunity for them to show their skills and have a stake in their own school buildings.

After a roti tarkaari lunch we walked ten minutes down the road to another secondary school. This was not one of the schools the RP had chosen to visit, but someone had informed the head that the RP was in the area and he rang during the morning and asked him to call - too good a chance to miss such a rare oportunity.

We observed an enthusiastic teacher at work with his Grade 10 English class - his reason for the students not answering was that they weren't used to speaking English (Grade 10!) My reason was that he never gave them chance to speak - he never stopped! That's really unfair because it certainly wasn't the least effective lesson I've seen, but it included all the things we had been working on with the teachers at Markhu in the summer and just reminded me how much work there actually is to do in classrooms.

The teachers took the opportunity of talking to the RP on a range of subjects and then we were shown the new rooms provided by the German equivalent of DfID and the computer room. This school has 2 computer teachers and offers computer studies as an extra activity to Grades 5 - 9.

Two secondary schools so near to each other - both running with primary staff teaching in secondary classes, one greatly overstaffed in primary level, one with only two female staff (primary).

The RP apologised in both schools that I would not have time to support them (he's just cottoned on that I'm here to support quality education) and as ever I left feeling frustrated for the heads and teachers who know they are doing the best they can for their children, but also know that they would like to do more. I'm also gaining more sympathy for RPs -even ones who don't visit schools when it rains!

Wednesday

Not a school visit today, but the monthly RPs' meeting. I was asked to make a report with Uma and Padma about the workshop in Kathmandu. They are so enthusiastic about what they experienced and keen to carry out the plans they made, I feel as though the opportunity to share with people from other districts has really kick-started opportunities in Makawanpur - hope I'm right, for Doreen's sake.

Thursday

Off to Tuesday's school - right next door to the cement factory. The aerial ropeway to the quarry at Bhaise and to Kathmandu passes directly above the school. The wildly overgrown field in front of the school was a building site - a block has been knocked down and is being rebuilt and a new block containing the ECD (nursery) class has been built.

The ECD facilitator was taking a college exam, so the teacher taking grade 1 had all the childen in the spacious, brightly painted but totally empty room. The little ones were just lying around while some of the slightly older children seeme to be writing and the teacher was checking books. I just wanted get them all up for a song and dance session. I talked to the SMC chair about natural materials for counting etc and he said he had asked the facilitator to give him a list of materials she needed, but I don't know who would advise her and they are so poorly trained (12 days if the money doesn't run out after 8 as it did last year!)

The main purpose of the visit was to talk to the female SMC members - 2 at this school, one a teacher. She was less willing to talk about the school, but she did say the only person who did any work was the SMC chair. The other woman, whose children attend the private school up the road, said she often looks into the school, but she rarely comes in, so the RP encouraged her to take her responsibilities seriously and find out what was happening. This was just the situation I had imagined being able to follow up on a regular basis - at least the RP apologised at every school, saying that it was his fault we hadn't made these visits earlier, but at least they were made and he was able to get a different insight into each school. He knows it's important, but as he pointed out after the umpteenth call to his mobile (ring tone 'Auld Lang Syne'), if he is at schol he isn't in the resource center to see the people who come to see him there - you don't really make appointments in Nepal.

The last school was just round the corner from the office. We arrived later than expected and the SMC member had left to go to a Women's Development Group meeting, but had said she would come back. We spent the time doing observations. We watched an English lesson where the children were learning right, left and straight. The teacher said the children had been out at the front of the class, but they wer just repeating when we were there and the teacher was pointing facing them - confusion or what? We had a good feedback session with her. We also talked to the ECD facilitator who was minding about ten children in the ECD room - because they have to wait for their older brothers and sisters. It's the first time I've seen this happening - usually the little ones just run in and out of classes or go and sit with their siblings - I hope the facilitator was rewarded (unlikely). We also talked to the teacher who used to be the head - I met him when I did a one day training there last year (the other two days were cancelled after jana aandolan). This is a community run school and the SMC had decided they needed a new head (no reasons given and the RP wouldn't say). The new head is a woman ('I'm janajati, I'm Magar')and clearly knows what she wants. The former head showed us all the target figures for test results displayed on the staff room wall and how every child has an individual progress record (all based on test scores, but more than I've seen elsewhere). A school that's making good progress!

When the SMC member returned we had a very good talk with her - she knows about the school, has a good relationship with the staff and is a regular visitor. We asked her about the Development Group and she's obviously very keen to help, but when the RP asked her about her family she was really embarrassed. She said she belongs to a development group, but she has 6 children and she doesn't think that's good. She had only wanted 2 children, but since her husband is an only son, they thought it was important to have a son - he arrived after 5 daughters! All the children are still in education -the eldest is in 10+2 (about 18 years old).

I've just noticed how long this post is, so I'll put the photos in and be done. It is a week later, but I'll catch up with news of visitors and the latest politics over the weekend.

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Festival time returns

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:22:39 +0200

At the end of August the education programme organised a 'learning and sharing' workshop in Kathmandu. The main objective was to include some of the people that we actually work with - not the DEOs and section officers who usually get to enjoy a visit to the capital at VSO's expense. Despite having talked about this event at the office for several weeks before I went on holiday, it was only after I returned that I was told the two female RPs would be coming (which was exactly what I wanted). We had three very good days of exactly what it said on the label - learning and sharing.

One session involved volunteers and partners 'presenting' why they liked working in their district. The objectives were to have fun and work cooperatively. I know Padma has very creative skills - she made an acrostic for a training session I did with her and she reproduced it, then made up a song about VSO,the conference and working with me - it's a Nepali tradition - like calypso I suppose - but she's very good at it. Uma encouraged everyone to join in with a children's song. My contribution was an acrostic about Makawanpur - a mix of Nepali and English initial letters, pointing out that one good thing was working with these two RPs. A good time was had by all.

(The picture will open if you click here - sorry about the extra white sheet - you're not missing anything. The first line says I like working with the women, the next one says Parent Teacher Associations)
I got to know Padma madam and Uma madam better and they planned some interesting initiatives for my final weeks here - and have promised to help my successor, Doreen, settle in. Although they are both experienced RPs, they had both been sent back to the ranks during the King's rule time, so I didn't get to meet them until last year - how different things could have been.

Uma, whose husband is also an RP, invited me to her 'dar khaane' on Thursday evening. This is a special daal bhaat meal to start off the celebration of the women's festival Teej.It's called the women's festival, but the purpose is for the women to fast and offer puja at Pashpati temples for the health and wellbeing of their husbands.Unmarried girls offer puja in the hope they will have a happy marriage. On the first evening women come together and enjoy pulau rice (with sultanas, coconut, dates and cashew nuts) with vegetables, achaar, and anything else they fancy. I was able to sit in Uma's kitchen and help peel potatoes while her granddaughter (age 7) chatted away and a group of girls and women arrived and we had a very pleasant evening - I left before the singing and dancing started, but that went on throughout the following day, except for the visit to the temple. Most women do not take any food or drink during the day, though some take fruit and water.The next day they have another feast to break their fast and even today there were still women dressed in their best red saris.

The lovely thing about these days, something I noticed last year as well,when I walked down to see what was happening at the temple, the women do enjoy this time when they can go out, not just to the bazaar - they were taking rikshaws, walking in big groups and laughing. As I went into the office (not for long-women are allowed a day off today and the schools won't reopen until Monday) groups were sitting on doorsteps braiding each other's hair and I hardly recognised the lady at my newspaper stall, she looked so glamorous.

Now that monsoon is coming to an end (going out with a very big bang if Wednesday night's thunderstorm was anything to go by)it is festival time again. Somebody said the other day that the only good thing about King Gyanendra was that he gave us a holiday in July (his birthday)when there are usually no holidays at that time of year - we haven't celebrated since the beginning of May!

The day before the conference at the end of August there was a Valley celebration (we don't do it here, it's a Newari festival, I was told last year) called Gai Jatra - the cow festival. Since cows are sacred, they help people, who have died, get to heaven. At this festival the families of people who have died during the previous year celebrate that person's life and in Kathmandu dress up and paint the faces of young members of the family in cow masks. The other aim of the day is to have fun - the story goes that in years gone by a child of the royal family had died and the Queen could not stop grieving. As a last resort the King said he would reward anyone who could help the Queen see that she was not the only one who had lost a relative and make her smile.

In Bhaktapur however,they carry round poles on bamboo frames with photos of the deceased and many other decorations. Everything is accompanied by music and young people doing a kind of stick dance (morris dancing Nepali style).

There is a very happy atmosphere, and the normally quiet streets of Bhaktapur are crowded.

Sheila, a volunteer who works part-time in Bhaktapur DEO had been invited to Bhaktapur for the festival by one of the RPs and with his permission she invited me along. The bus was even more packed than usual, so as we walked to the main square we weren't surprised to be in a great crowd, but then up ahead we saw the procession emerging from a side road and joined in as the quickest way to reach where we were going.

After explaining what was happening, the friendly RP (who also happened to be attending the workshop the next day)led us to his house, where we ate the traditional Newari 9-bean soup (kwaarti)and then he took us to his sister's house where we had an excellent view from the fourth or fifth floor balcony down on to the processions which he said would keep coming all day.

We left in the middle of the afternoon and it took an hour to reach the bus. The celebrating would go on for a week, because at this time plays and other comic activities are put on to keep up the happy atmosphere.The pictures capture something of the colour and the crowds, but the sounds were also exciting - and I can do the stick dance - click, click, click, click, click click, click - interesting because we usually count in eights.

When the conference was over I had to wait for my passport to be returned with my final work visa. This meant I was in town for Krishna Jayanti - the celebration of Krishna's birthday. Krishna is a very popular Hindu god - chants of 'hari Krishna hari Ram' are often heard, recalling the later days of the Beatles to some (if you can remember, you weren't there as they say). Many legends of his eventful life are described in the Hindu classic 'Mahabharata' -from babyhood (he's often portrayed as a chubby baby extravagantly dressed in golden robes and jewels) through his youthful adventures with a group of female cowherds to performing miracles as an adult.

The Krishna mandir (temple) in Patan Durbar Square is the centre for the celebrations. Devotees stay up all night in and around the temple,then in the morning they offer puja and receive tika from the yellow robed priests. In past years it has been customary for the King to attend the ceremony. This year the chief guest was GP Koirala, the Prime Minister. There were several articles in the papers the following day asking whether by relpacing the King with the Prime Minister, Nepal wasn't just continuing its hierarchical society.There were also comments that the King, recognised as a reincarnation of Vishnu, like Krishna, had a special reason for attending the ceremony, but the Prime Minister was simply making himself out to be more important than he is. Oh what a long way to go!

Since I a)had no desire to get up very early b)didn't want to be in what I had heard was certain to be a very big crowd, I didn't go to Patan, but wandered down to Kathmandu Durbar Square. I wasn't disappointed. Loud speakers were broadcasting chants, brightly dressed women were offering puja, a crowd several deep were watching dancing and flower sellers had filled the ground with puja offerings. I have to point out the female APF officers in the first picture, who were on duty - one has her baby and the other is sitting looking very bored - I'm glad they weren't needed!

As I left the square I noticed a large poster advertising the upcoming Indra Jatra festival, a week of celebrations, dancing and finally the procession of the Kumari.

The words 'sponsored by Tibet Guest House, Thamel' made me wonder if the Nepal Tourist Board is finally waking up to the commercial potential of all the Valley's festivals. They certainly have a growing audience as the tourists have returned in droves this summer and the main trekking season is still to come. Fingers crossed that the political parties manage to keep the peace which has resulted in the increase in visitors - there are warnings from Prachanda that a new movement could start from Tuesday if the Maoists' 22 demands are not satisfied by tomorrow.

To try to end on a positive note - I'm going to schools four days this week - please let there be no banda!

Comments

Nepalis rush to vote

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:40:15 +0200

Any comments made in this blog are my personal opinions and do not necessarily represent those of my organisation - particularly when I'm talking about political issues!

Yes it's time for the big vote. There have been demonstrations and speeches from prominent people, the papers have been full of it and posters of the most important candidate plastered on billboards.

I wish I were writing about the Constituent Assembly elections (due on 22nd November), that there was great enthusiasm and a positive attitude to those polls, but no.
If the seven parties do not agree to their new (?) 22 point plan by next week, the Maoists have threatened they will leave the interim government and start the third people's movement.
One of the Terai parties has said the government has no right to hold the elections in the terai and has threatened a four -day banda to start on 20th November.
In Sarlahi district in the south east, a headteacher was killed for publicising the elections in his village.
While I was in Kathmandu last week, three bombs went off on Sunday afternoon - at a bus stop outside a college, killing two teenage girl students, on a microbus, killing a 56 year old grandmother and near a famous Kathmandu landmark,where a soldier was badly injured - was he holding the bomb? Some factions would have us believe that. Was it a royalist plot to disturb the elections? Two unknown terai groups have claimed responsibility - are they a cover? or was it the Maoists?

For those of us who have been here for a whle it was a flashback to the bad old days. For the group from Birgunj, where bombs explode regularly, it was a shock because they thought they had escaped the danger zone. For newcomers, there was disbelief.

On 5th October we have our annual security conference - reminders about our earthquake kit, reports from the embassy - but this time, most importantly, our options for November. Our Country director told me last week that the new volunteers are still scheduled to arrive on 15th November, the Birgunj group are thinking they will be in Kathmandu during the election, my Indian visa runs out on 21st November, so I shalln't be going south. If there is to be any forward movement towards democracy, these elections must go ahead, but the increase in tension among educated and knowledgable people is tangible - there must be many people in distant rural areas who still don't know the elections are planned.

I leave my job on 7th December, then a week in Kathmandu tying up loose ends (exit interview, final reports, final handover to my replacement, shopping?) and I'll be on my way home the following weekend - that's the plan. Prachanda and friends may change this - but after two years (anniversary this weekend)of VSO adaptability and Nepali changeability I'm nearly ready for anything. Not likely!
I want to go trekking at Dashain (probably will, as it would be disastrous for any party to spoil peoples' celebrations during the biggest holiday of the year).
I need the next three months to sort everything into keep, throw, give away.
I've just been asked to start a new project and my RP says he'll keep me busy til I leave (do I believe him?)

SO what was I writing about at the top of the page?

The final of 'Indian Idol' - think of Pop Idol or any of those Simon Cowell spin offs - same music, same format, same mix of nice and nasty judges (not as nasty, but the woman cried when her favourite was voted off). The twist is that one of the two finalists is a Nepali. Sheer numbers of votes have kept him in - every Nepali in India (particularly the Darjeeling area, where Prashant comes from,), plus all the Indian police force, non-resident Nepalis in the middle east and Singapore (they take the programme there), plus anyone near enough the Indian border to be able to send a text or phone(there's no internet voting), plus Prashant's famly who are being sponsored to send texts by various businesses in Kathmandu and elsewhere and now lots of people in Hetauda. This was the scene at the top of my road this morning - what was everyone looking at - it was a Prashant music stall with a box for donations for SMS votes. The crowd was as big at 4pm as it was before 10am,so there is clearly a great deal of interest.

I chose the other contestant (Amit) as the probable winner months ago, but they are both winners and Prashant won't be going back to his police post in Kolkata, whatever the outcome, if his welcome in Darjeeling last week was anything to go by.

Of course, this enthusiasm only reaches TV viewers and newspaper and magazine readers, again many rural Nepalis will have no interest - but this guy is Tamang - an ethnic Nepali and yet the Brahmins,Chhetris, Rais, Limbhus and goodness knows who else are voting for him. To be Nepali on the international stage means something, why does being Tamang,Tharu or Gurung suddenly mean so much within the country? And where do the madeshi stand in this? They are the 'Indians' as far as some castes round here think. If they know what is happening, would they vote Nepali? The newspapers are suggesting there has been trouble between gangs supporting each of the contestants, as Amit also comes from north-eastern India. I thought the final was this weekend, but apparently we have to live through a week of 'specials' until 23rd September - at least it's on at 9.15pm, after load-shedding.

I need to go and buy food now. It's a beautiful morning - the last few evenings we have had thunderstorms, so I haven't gone out when the temperature has dropped around 6pm, but normal service will be resumed soon with stories of the cow festival, an enjoyable education workshop and an appreciation of communication technology.

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Goddess Mother of the Universe

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:37:27 +0200

The high rising triangle snow-capped mountain stands high in the sky. Its roc-like head is decorated with crystal ornaments, glittering like the sun and moon, in the lower part of the peak, colourful rainbows are inlaid, while the jade-like eyebrows are swaying in the central part of the mountain. Climbing up this worldis highest peak is the ultimate goal of mountaineering expeditions and adventurers all over the world. To see its majestic appearance is the lifelong wish of tourists both at home and abroad.

So reads the brochure of the Qomolangma National Nataure Preserve (or the State Nature Reserve depending on which page you read). I wouldn't say it was a lifelong wish - certainly I'd been interested - I can remember Coronation Day 1953 and I once attended a presentation by Chris Bonnington, but Mt Everest (or Sagarmatha as the Nepalis call it)was somewhere other people went. But here I was, 60 miles away and yet still not sure whether I was going to reach Base Camp.

Tenzing (how appropriate) had driven us through the check point (please show your passports - only three more checks to go)and had parked up at a guest house on the highway waiting for other vehicles to set off in the same direction - safety in numbers if we were going to get stuck.

While we were waiting there was time to photograph the view across the road - from right to left, Cho Oyu (6th highest) Lhotse(4th highest) Everest (highest) floating in the clouds.

Oh well, if this was going to be the nearest we got, it would have been worth it.

Suddenly two Land Cruisers swept out of the courtyard and Pinsok shouted 'Get in'. We were soon on a thrill a minute off-road ride which took us along river valleys, above gorges, through small mud-brick villages, to more checkpoints, up 1 in 3 grassy slopes (to escape the mud), through the mud where it couldn't be avoided, into hairy situations when we met a truck coming the other way and just to prove that we were in another world, past a nomad village complete with yak hair tents and yaks.

After three hours we came across one of the highest traffic jams on earth - the tourists had stopped to take photos - yes we could see a white rocky triangle - just.

Just a little further on we stopped at the village (a monastery, the monastery guest house and a few houses)of Rongphu. We were shown to our room, shown the loo with a view to end all views (over the top of the plastic sheet round the oblong hole)and welcomed into the very cosy dining room with Tibetan sofas lining the walls and a dung fired stove in the centre. The wind had blown up as it does most afternoons in those parts and it was the coldest weather we had experience - we were after all at 5000metre.

This is Rongphu from the monastery - the guest house is on the right round the courtyard.

After a wander round the monastery we escaped to the warmth and a bowl of noodles. The room filled up with a band of international travellers and the conversation flowed (not the beer - not going to risk dehydration at ths height). We retired quite early, hoping for a sunrise to remember the next day.

It was a vain hope, wrong time of year, but by 9 o'clock we were ready for a lift to the tented village a couple of kilometres up the road from where we would walk the last three kilometres to Base Camp. We hadn't walked very far when Pinsok approached - he'd borrowed a bike and was coming to check up on us. He actually cycled the 3km, waited a while and when we didn't turn up,cycled back and met us taking photos. We carried on, sometimes in shade, sometimes in bright sunshine as the road twisted from side to side of the valley over the glacial moraine (I tried to think what I'd learnt about glaciers in geography - Miss Cartledge would have been very disappointed at the little I'd retained, but she might have enjoyed this blog - she told us great stories after her summer holiday travels).

Although several pony carts passed us with waving passengers, we were quite happy stopping to take photos and make the most of the 3 kilometre walk. After about an hour, the cloud ahead started to part and bit by bit the highest land on earth began to appear.

We couldn't believe how fortunate we had been with the weather (this is supposed to be the 'wet and cloudy' season in Tibet) and this was unbelievable.(Until the next day when Pinsok told us the clouds lifted every day about 11!)

We strode down the slope to the last checkpoint (patrolled by the Frontier Defence Guard) and showed our passports - only people with another permit and a guide are allowed further.

After the inevitable picture with the sign - I had to keep my promise that I would wear my Boro t-shirt - and Roz even made me take off my jacket to prove it (it wasn't cold) we walked up a small shale hill covered in prayer flags and took 'close-ups' (well,as near as we were going to get).

We then set off back and with the cloud slowly closing in behind us we finally, exhausted, reached the tented street, where we were to meet Pinsok and Tenzing, who were - not around, though the car was still there. Tenzing was helping another driver with a mechanical problem and Pinsok seemed to have been checking out places for lunch - he took us to a comfortable tent with Tibetan sofas, where the menu was noodles or noodles and the sign outside said 'Hotel Everest' or 'Snowland Summit' or 'Sherpa Lodge' or something similar - it wasn't the 'Hotel California', but that was there as well!

After lunch we staggered to the car, out of the car and into the room and fell fast asleep. Later, comfortable in the cosy dining room, we started a discussion with Pintok about Buddhist philosophy. Having thought I'd understood quite a bit, I'd become befuddled by deities (but they don't have a god)and praying pilgrims (they don't pray to the Buddha). I'm still confused, but Pintok spoke very earnestly (and attracted attention from other tourists).

The next morning we set off for our last day in Tibet. Returning over the by now even muddier road, with one stop for a last look (around 11am and two hours away from Rongphu)at the 'mother goddess of the universe' we had a short lunch stop then began the long gradual drive over another 5000m pass

followed by a sudden drop off the plateau, down a road twisting through a gorge covered in green. At one point it looked as though a line had been drawn with a ruler to show the rain where to start and stop-dry to the north, wet to the south.

The Chinese are doing a lot of construction work on this part of the 'Friendship Highway' - creating ducts for the waterfalls and supporting walls for the embankments. There is so much work that the road is closed for most daylight hours. At 4.30 we reached the one-street town of Nyalam where we joined with the passengers of many other Land Cruisers to fill the coffers of the town's restaurants (particularly the one with an English menu) for three hours while we waited for permisson to pass. By the time we left - almost a grand prix style start and Tenzing was very clever - he was ready while many drivers were still at their tea - it was pouring and for most of the way we could not appreciate the steepness of the gorge or the raging river at the bottom (probably a good thing).

We were glad to arrive at the customs town of Zhangmu - very Chinese, but clinging to the hillside for all the world like Runswick Bay - and the drop in height made for a very good night's sleep.

Next morning we were queuing in the rain for Chinese customs by 9am. Safely through,we met up with Tenzing again and having negotiated a very difficult situation with a truck coming the other way, made our way down to the border. The weather was clearing, but we still couldn't see to the bottom of the gorge until almost at the point at which it is the border, crossed by the Chinese built 'Friendship Bridge'. (Tibet is on the right, Nepal on the left bank).

As the Tibetan Land Cruisers have to stop here, we piled out into the waiting arms of many would-be porters, but our own travel company rep was there waiting and steered us over the bridge, through immigration and into another vehicle for the four hour trip back to Kathmandu, reminding us on the way that the time in Nepal was 9am!

By the time we stopped for daal bhaat at a restaurant overlooking the paddy fields and the river, it felt very good to be back on the 'wet side'. The monsoon had made everything fresh and green as the brightest paint in the paintbox; waterfalls were cascading down the gorge, mostly safely channelled under the road;and the colours of the women's clothes as they went about their business in the villages by the side of river were a stark contrast to the more sombre dresses of their Tibetan sisters.

Next year the world will be invited to China for the Olympics. I don't know whether Tibet will remain 'traditional' for the tourists or whether the 21st century will take over completely, but I'm glad I went this year before the secret is out!

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Onwards and Upwards

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:41:16 +0200

Leaving Lhasa behind us, hoping to find more of the atmosphere of the Tibetan quarter and less of the plastic palm trees and fluorescent lights of the Chinese sector, we set out west along the southern bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo river (it's more commonly known as the Bramhaputra).

After a short stop for Tensing to buy his breakfast (chappati with yak meat)we were soon driving through a variety of landscapes - the 2km wide river (oh how I've missed proper water), snow-topped mountains, sandstone cliffs eroding into sand dunes and desert and smooth green hills that reminded me of driving up the A74 to Scotland.

Although we passed our destination,Samye, on the other side of the river, we weren't going across in the little rowing boat ferry, but over an hour further on to the bridge and then back along the other bank.
On this part of the journey we crossed our first pass (fairly low for starters, but still decorated with prayer flags), met our first herd of yaks

and had our first puncture, though we didn't know that until the next morning.
Once we had found our room in the monastery guest house, been given our thermos of hot water and discovered that the loos on the roof were the best bet, Pinsok took us round the monastery and we discovered how much he knew about the many statues which were beginning to befuddle us.

We also took a couple of turns round the kora - cloisters with prayer wheels all the way round. Afterwards we wandered round the extensive grounds of the monastery, going in many small, lovingly tended chapels. We found the student monks debating in a quiet walled garden - definitely not for the tourists!-and I was amazed by the wildlife - I somehow hadn't expected so many birds, and they were very tame - and a hoopoe posed especially for me.
The following morning (once the puncture was fixed) we set off in the car up a hair-pin road through the sand until we reached a hidden oasis - a meadow with cows, sheep and goats, a stream driving water-prayerwheels, boulders carved with mantras and a view right back down to the river and beyond.

We climbed further up and reached a nunnery, where nuns were playing instruments and chanting, while others were preparing food and one elderly nun was supervising some reconstruction work. Some of the mud built houses of the nuns were equipped with solar panels and a satellite dish. Pinsok took some prayer flags further up the hill and added them to the mass of colours. After we made our way back down to the car and enjoyed freshly cooked noodles, we set off back to Tsetang the town by the bridge, where we were going to spend two nights.
Although we drove through the Tibetan quarter, it seemed it was more like a tenth - the town was new, Chinese and intent on spreading up the valley. While there was some confusion at our hotel-Yarlung, Yalong- it turned out to be the same-we were sitting in a driverless car, when we were approached by the PSB (Peoples' Security Bureau) - four of them - fortunately Tensing spotted them and we were saved from having to make explanations. One (the only?) good thing about the town was the Nepali restaurant - we had excellent daal bhaat for one meal. Outside our hotel were green plastic palm trees with red coconuts - obviously a new strain of the blue ones in Lhasa-but we really did wonder if we were in Blackpool when the street light columns began flashing rhythmically once it grew dark. The town was surrounded by flag-decked hills in a complete contrast to the man-made structures, but this scene from our hotel window summed everything up.

The next day (Tuesday by now) we travelled down the valley to see one of Tibet's first buildings, originally a castle, but now a small temple mostly dating from 1982. The three monks spent much of the time we were there trying out new ring-tones on their mobiles. As it perches, Rhine-like, on a rock, there is the option of a ride up the hill - on a pony, a yak or a camel! (We walked).

There were several commercial ventures on the way and at the top - crystals, rattling rocks and fossils, bunches of juniper to put in the incense burner, prayer flags and small paper mantras to fling over the edge of the hill. Pinsok was very good at this, but we started talking about pollution and he turned out to have very strong views about conservation and talked about the deforestation in his home area.

The other sights for the day were a monastery destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, but now being restored and the tombs of the early kings of Tibet - now mounds surrounded by runs and one temple on the tomb of King Songsten Gampo - a name I learnt (his statue was also in the Tandruk monastery we'd seen earlier and it was his castle we'd been to)together those of his two wives - one Chinese - Wencheng -and one Nepali-Brikhuti.

After a busy day there was only one thing to do - back to the hotel to enjoy our space age shower (I am missing hot water more than ever after a week of luxury!)
Wednesday was a travelling day. All the way back along the river valley towards Lhasa, then up a 4800m pass for a view of what might have been a turquoise lake (it was blue) called Yamdrok Tso, all the way back down(the same way, through a quite dramatic gorge,across a desert and then back west again to Gyantse. Yes it was a convoluted route, because the road round the lake, which would have led us to Gyantse without going round the other three sides of the oblong was 'under construction'. It was 'under construction' three years ago when Roz was in Tibet-conspiracy theory - is there something that someone doesn't want us to see?-like a lake that is being destroyed as its waters are drained for power? (only a guess - probably way off the mark).
The road up to the viewing point was spectacular but slow. We followed a caravan, just about overtok several cyclists and waited for a sheep-jam. We also had plenty of time to admire the view on the way up as we had a puncture,

but arriving safely, we joined a whole carpark full of tourists. And the view was worth Tensing's hard work.

The way back down was simpler.

When we reached the valley again we stopped at a workshop to check the tyres. We were very near the bridge over the river, so Roz and I wandered over to admire the view. 'Lonely Planet' warns against taking photos of bridges - now we know why! We walked past the first guard, who actually moved back a pace to let us pass, then we stopped to look upstream. The guard from the other side of the bridge came across and started saying how welcome we were on his bridge and how he was sure the large camera round Roz's neck was really only a toy -well he could have been saying anything - we took no chances, just walked back to the car.

After passing through the steep sided gorge with cliffs displaying all their rock strata in multicoloured diagonal stripes, we turned left past a hill which we were told was used for sky burials (no vultures to be seen)and found ourselves in a mini-Sahara.

The patterns of the dunes and the occasional straggling hardy plant were very interesting as was Pinsok's repetition of his fears for the future of the land. Just a thougt - he always chose places away from the crowd to air his views - probably sensible. When a pony cart filled with juniper branches and carrying a family of three trotted past we wondered how far they had to travel to find this fuel/food and how often they made the journey. As we continued through several small villages, we were met by several groups of children all holding out their hands and shouting 'Money' - these were clearly the most disadvantaged people we had seen so far. We had heard that some Tibetans had been moved from their homes to less favourable agricultural areas for the development of towns, but moving these people anywhere would have been an improvement.

By early evening we arrived at Gyantse and just had time to settle in to another very comfortable room before it was time to find another Nepali restaurant - noodles? fried rice? sweet and sour? - Tibetans are big meat eaters, largely because of the shortage of agricultural land (the staple food is tsampa - roasted barley flour mixed with water or yak milk)so there wasn't always a great deal of choice, but it was always tasty.

This town was smaller than Lhasa and Tsetang and although there were still Chinese signs above the shops, they were more reminiscent of Nepali open-fronted shops and there was a more provincial feel to the place. The purpose of the visit was for us to see the monastery (what else?) and the Kumbum - a wedding cake of a building with (if its name is to be believed)1000 images. It certainly took us a long time to spiral round the seven floors as the rooms grew smaller, and the statues seemed to grow bigger.

Eventually we had had our fill of images and it was time to set off for the relatively short journey to Tibet's second city, Shigatse. Although there were still signs of continued development, the city looked rather run down and tired when compared to the Chinese parts ofLhasa and Tsetang. However, we found a lively and colourful vegetable market (plenty of plastic covered market gardens in the valleys) and a cyber cafe where cigarettes were handed out to those who wanted them (everyone except us, it seemed).

At the hotel we were tempted by the sign for the health spa and massage parlour,

but I didn't fancy having my ear pulled out and we were rather a long way from the sea for seafood putty. (These seemed quite harmless though when we saw a 'foot bottom massage' advertised in Zhangmu a few days later)

I've made fun of Nepali English on several occasions, but Chinese English has had us rolling round our rooms in each hotel. Looking in the hotel handbooks, we discovered inventories and price lists of compensation for damage to the various articles. Fair enough, but we just had to hope we didn't damage the prinking table in Tsetang or the peep in Gyantse, because we didn't know what they were. We were fine about 'no birds, domestic animals....are allowed to be brought into the rooms' but the bit missing in the middle is 'or other insanity articles' and we were a bit concerned somone might include us in that category. We were also suspicious that our hosts knew more about us than was necessary because in one room we read 'Drinking excessively, making great noise or playing recorder loudly in the hotel is forbidden'. How did they know we both play the recorder?

Back to Shigatse. Roz had been to the Tashilhunpo monastery before and knew there was a lot to see, so we had aranged to spend two nights here, giving us a break on the first afternoon and a whole day to explore. On the first evenng we went to a Tibetan restaurant where we met an American couple we'd aready spoken to at lunch (as there is basically one tourist route, we kept meeting different groups all along the way - very few Brits, many French, a sprinkling from every other European nation and a few Americans). We spent a very pleasant mealtime with them and now we are able to say we had dinner with Father Christmas's brother. I can't remember the guy's name,but his wife is Chrissie and she told us that his bushy white beard and eyebrows and snowy hair make many children (including in Mongolia, where they had just been to a water resources conference)ask if he is 'the Christmas man'. She never says 'yes' but admits it's his brother! Even more impressive was the fact that back at home in Indiana, where they work at the university, the couple know the Dalai Lama's brother and Chrissie worked with his sister-in-law on community legal projects.

It may seem strange that in a travelogue about Tibet I haven't mentioned the Dalai Lama except to say that we went to his summer palace, but that's how it is - he isn't mentioned! It's appropriate to raise this issue now because Tashilhunpo monastery is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the 'second -in-command' and while we saw no photos of the 14th Dalai Lama, we did see many photos of the 10th Panchen Lama who died in 1989. His picture was often accompanied by that of a youg boy - his reincarnation, the 11th Panchen Lama (as chosen by the Chinese - the original choice is somewhere in China - allegedly). In the monastery in Shigatse we saw the photos that we had seen before but also photos of the 11th Panchen Lama as he will be now - a teenager.

There were several temples and assembly halls within the monastery - the winding lanes and passages making it difficlt to follow the arrows accurately - but in the centre there was a large courtyard where tourist, monks and pilgrims mixed. This Tibetan group were pleased to have a rest - it was very hot.

In the afternoon we walked round the outside of the monastery along the prayerwheel lined kora. It took us up the hilside behind the monastery and past groups of mani stones and yak skulls - a reminder that Tibetan Buddhism is still linked to the ancient Bon religion.

Day 11 (Sunday)found us leaving Shigatse for Shergar (yes, alive and well and living in Tibet!) via another monastery in Sakya. My greatest memory of Sakya was not the temple, but the large yak hair coats hanging for sale on the street corner - I'm glad I didn't meet anyone wearing one!

Having entered the Chomolongma (Quomolongma in Chinese) National Preserve at the top of another high pass, we felt we were gradually acclimatising for the final frontier.

Shergar turned out to be a one-street town with a surprisingly comfortable hotel just off the main road. We weren't the only guests that night - the London - Kuala Lumpur Expedition 2007 (celebrating the 50th anniversary of Malaysian Independence)stopped off with more than a dozen cars and many drivers and supporters from a host of different countries.

We went to bed that night with the knowledge that the road to Everest was 'under construction' - in readiness for taking the Olympic flame there next year, we're told. (Point of information: This week Nepal has reduced the cost of permits to climb Everest in the low season by 75% -anything to do with the fear that more and more people - like us-will travel to the mountan from the 'easier' northern side, especially when they can drive all the way?)The alternative was a 'short cut' - translate as 3 hours of off road driving - but it was very muddy and we would have to wait until the next day to see if we could go - would it be a case of so near and yet so far?

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Aliens land in Tibet - or was it China?

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:15:53 +0200

Any comments expressed in this blog are definitely my own - I've no idea what VSO thinks about the Tibet/China situation, but I certainly wouldn't like to get them into trouble!

As I was writing the last blog, the longest spell of continuous rain since I have been here was just starting. I know Nepal's floods have been mentioned on British news broadcasts and there have been many homes destroyed, people killed in landslides or by swollen rivers and crops devastated. I spent two days in Pokhara where it had been raining for five days (but with less tragic results because of its situation)and when I met Roz the following weekend she was really leased to escape as the rain still hadn't stopped. Unfortunately during the four days we waited for our Chinese visas, the weather turned very wet in Kathmandu and we spent quite alot of time with our noses in our holiday reading.

One of our Kathmandu based education volunteers works for an NGO that operates in the terai. Against VSO wishes he went down there with some coleagues at the time the floods were hitting hardest. These are just two of the photos he posted for us to try to appreciate the real situation.

The situation is improving in some areas but other areas are just getting their heaviest rainfall. Last Thursday Simara airport was closed for several hours because of flooding and the area was the hardest hit that day, though the gravel beds don't look as though they running with water now. I came back by road,a journey that was made more interesting by the numerous waterfalls that have appeared.

To link the wet season in Nepal with the wet season in Tibet now seems ridiculous. We were advised that August was 'the wet season' but the amount expected is so small, in comparison with monsoon and we had heavy rain one night in Lhasa and a quick shower one morning when we were on the road. The contrast was brought home very sharply as we came down from the plateau on our last day. Within a few minutes we had driven from dry, brown, rocky scenery to a lush green gorge with a thundering river (we couldn't see it properly that night because of very heavy mist, but the following morning it was revealed in all its beauty.

But back to the beginning of the holiday. After an amazing flight over the Himalayas,again showing the change between the 'wet' and 'dry' sides, we landed at Lhasa airport. Not for the last time, Roz said 'This has changed in three years'. Unfortunately our driver had been delayed and for the first time we met with Chinese officialdom - our names weren't on the list! He eventually arrived with apologies, silk 'kata' scarves of welcome and the news that cars hadn't been able to reach Everest Base Camp because of the road conditions - oh well, we had almost two weeks to go before then!

After settling into our Nepali run hotel ('The Tibet Gorkha')with a very Tibetan feel, we set off to join the pilgrims and tourists making their way round the Barkhor - a circuit of the most important temple in Lhasa, the Jokhang. Many of the Tibetans were older women dressed in traditional dresses with aprons and hats, spinning their prayer wheels and muttering prayers as they walked, but there were also younger people - young men from the eastern part of Tibet with their hair in a traditional red braid and families with children wanting to reach the square where they could fly their kites.

The following morning our guide took us into the Jokhang -the first leg of monastery marathon. While the Tibetans were all lined up patiently to go round the building and its many chapels in a clockwise direction, tourists ('foreigners'as the guides called us, though many tourists are Chinese)were sent in a different door. I felt very uncomfortable and could understand the impatient pushing as the pilgrims tried to reach the statues or butter lamps. I was pleased when we reached the roof and could take a good look at the town and its most famous landmark,the Potala Palace.

After lunch (noodles and fried rice were the staple diet,with an occasional pancake and chips if they were on the menu!)we went to another monastery where the highlight is to watch the monks debating after their morning studies. There are many hand gestures that mean somone agrees or disagrees and plenty of swinging of prayer beads. We got the feeling that this debating was playing to the crowd (unlike what I had seen a couple of months ago in KTM and what we saw a few days later in Samye, where noone was watching).

Next day was monastery number three. The highlights for me here were the fabulous hangings. You had to pay to take photos inside the chapels (anything from 10 to 150 yuan)but here we were able to go on the roof and take photos through the open windows.

We had a new guide this day- we weren't impressed when she gave us a photo copy of the relevant page in the Lonely Planet guide (we had two copies with us)and pointed out where we were - it wouldn't work at Ormesby Hall!
In the afternoon we visited the summer palace of the Dalai Lama. The buildings were set in pleasant woodland and the outsides were beautifully decorated with familiar flowers. (We avoided the zoo).

We had read that English speaking monks were not always what they seemed and we began to wonder how strong the surveillance was when while we were in the Dalai Lama's private quarters Roz commented 'I wonder what would happen if I took a photo?' The words weren't out of her mouth when a 'monk?'from the next room appeared - were there hidden microphones?
Until then I had tried to ignore Roz's cynicism and conspiracy theories(she has been involved in Free Tibet activities for years), but I had to admit she might have a point.
That evening we walked in the opposite direction from our hotel and explored the local Muslim area, where there was a lively market around the main mosque. Among the interesting shops was this butter seller.

Yak butter is not only used with bread (in fact hardly ever) but for tea (I tried it but didn't like it-I stuck with the ever present jasmine tea) and even more importantly for the lamps which are kept burning in the temples. We saw many people walking round with Thermos flasks-they are filed with melted butter so that the lamps can be filled up. In the temples monks have the job of scraping out the hardened butter, which can then be re-used.
Other interesting shops we saw were the sewing shops where traditional headdresses and temple hangings were being made, a shop making prayer flags, a fair trade craft shop (I resisted the carpets this year), a monks' clothing shop (all maroon and orange), yak butchers, woolshops(every other business was run by a woman sitting in the doorway knitting)and vegetable stores spreading over the pavements. The most interesting store for many people seemed to be where a crowd had gathered round a window to watch what looked like a soap opera on a TV inside.
As it grew dark (after 9pm - 21/4 hours ahead of Nepal, so dark mornings and long evenings)the communication mast turned red and gold, the street lights came on (flashing neon colours up and down the columns)and the blue and yellow plastic coconut trees were illuminated. Roz again -'It wasn't like this three years ago'. We really didn't go into the internationally flashy high streets which could have been anywhere in the world unless we were on our way somewhere else, or in the car, but it was a completely different world and our experience after we left Lhasa showed it was definitely the shape of things to come.

On Sunday morning, we were hoping to visit the Potala palace, but we had been advised that Chinese visitors got the first pick of limited number of ticket each day. We knew from other volunteers that there was a complicated procedure of lining up at two different places the day before you wanted to visit, but our travel agent had said he would organise everything. Our guide redeemed herself by liaising with someone 'inside' and despite having to explain to the ticket collector that we had no tickets but had already been allowed so far into the palace ('Get your ticket the day before, next time!')we were able to wander round at our leisure (we took 2 hours,unlike the tour groups who were hustled round by Chinese speaking guides in 45 minutes). Our guides all explained to us that only Chinese speaking guides are allowed to guide round the Potala. One said that the guiding exam consisted of 20% describing a building and 80% the 'politics' - what guides could/should say/not say.

Despite the fact that most Tibetans don't go into the Potala, and it is no longer used as a temple (we were only allowed in a very small part of its 13 storeys-much less than on Roz's last visit)many pilgrims do walk round the complex on the 'kora' (the religious path like the one round the Jokhang) and prostrate themselves on the pavement in front of the building.

A longer 'kora' goes all the way round the central part of the city, linking several holy sites. On our last morning in Lhasa we finally managed to get up early(sleeplessness was the only symptom of acute mountain sickness (Lhasa is 3600metres asl)I suffered - and even then when I was really tired I could sleep)and left our hotel at 6am to join people passing the door on their way to the kora route.Unlike Nepal, most of Tibet does not wake up until 8 or 9 o'clock, so the main roads were very quiet. Eventually the woman we were following turned right down a lane which began to rise over the side of the hill where we knew the communcation tower was situated. The path was lit by butter lamps and led to one of the highlights of the visit. The cliff wall of the hill was covered in Buddhist paintings-Buddhas, signs and symbols,deities, mantras and about twenty people were prostrating in front of the wall.A notice told us that the paintings were kept fresh because families who could not afford all the death rituals of their relatives, gave money or paint for the upkeep of the wall and in return the worshippers offered prayers. It was too dark for photographs and it would have been intrusive to take pictures, but the sight and sound are locked into my video memory.

Further round the path we heard the morning devotions at a monastery (deep horn sounds, conch shells, drums and tinkling bells). Then we skirted the Potala palace and caught a glimpse of its reflection in the lake in the park where citizens were using modern plastic keep-fit equipment (none of the rustic wooden poles we have in England). We made our way back on a shortened route via the Barkhor and were very ready for breakfast just after 8am.

At 9am we met our guide for the rest of the trip. Pinsok -not sure how to spell it, but that's how we pronounced it and it means 'good faculties'- Tashi (good luck) -"all together it means 'may your dreams come true'" - was an interesting young man who added greatly to our tour with his insight into Buddhist philosophy (he'd studied in India), his political awareness (his home area was one of the first to be invaded and is now part of China rather than the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), his education in Nepal(he speaks fluent Nepali, but very little Chinese - he's just gone back to language school and says he has reached Grade 3 and his humour and singing (George Michael and the inevitable John Denver were in his repetoire as well as duets with our driver (Tensing).

We were delighted to meet Pinsok because he brought back our passports whch had been retained for the permits for the rest of our visit. He shared our amusement at our 'Aliens' Travel Permit' and regularly referred to our 'planet'. When we had a space-age shower with music, lights and too many knobs and switches, in our hotel room in Tsetang, it became our vehicle and when we reached the top of a 5000+ pass, he suggested we were nearer home.

One friend had told us 'Tibet's all brown', Roz said she wondered if other places would have changed as much as Lhasa, another volunteer had raved about particular monasteries and there were still concerns about acute mountain sickness as we headed for Chomolungma (Everest to you), so as we set off in our personal Land Cruiser, I didn't know what to expect (to be continued)

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No phenomenological grounds

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:30:52 +0200

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!

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Kathmandu - full stop

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 08:01:30 +0200

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).

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Happy Birthday - or not

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:32:31 +0200

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?

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DEO (i) he Does Exist OK? (ii) Did the Earthquake Occur? (iii)Date Of Election (spot the deliberate mistake)

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:48:38 +0200

This is a personal blog and does not necessarily reflect the views of the writer's organisation

Yes, Cholendra Pandit, last seen (by me) in the Pacific Guest House in February, and at that time DEO for Parsa (Richard's boss)has appeared in the flesh in the office in Hetauda. (I'm being unfair, because he first arrived while I was in Kathmandu in May). I met him by chance as I was leaving and he was arriving (it was after 4pm). He was very friendly, asked me if I was doing anything special the next day (no!) and told me to be at the office at 7am for a programme in Manahari (half an hour west on the highway in the office jeep).

We set off about 7.20 and stopped before we were out of Hetauda at the Red Cross offices, next door to the hospital. It turned out the DEO had to put in an appearance at a special meeting the Red Cross was holding to discuss their budget, the upcoming monsoon and a possible earthquake (more of which later).They were also welcoming him and the new CDO. We had to go round all the introductions, but then our party made a very obvious exit shortly before 8.30.

We travelled along by the river, which is looking more full, and the tributary at Manohari was very fast flowing, and arrived in the village about 9am. It's one of those places on the main road that looks like a one-street town, but in fact the bazaar up some of the little side streets was very colourful and it was a shame we didn't have time to spend there. After tea and spicy peanuts, we went to the programme, which was a presentation of uniforms and school materials (bags with pens and notebooks)to a group of Chepang girls who had reached class 7 and 8. It was partly to congrtulate them on getting so far with their schooling and partly to encourage them to continue into the SLC classes. The main part of this resource centre's district is up in the hills where the Chepang villages are situated, so it had been a long hike for them to come down and this is a journey they will have to make if they are to continue to SLC, unless they come to the hostel in Hetauda, where there are only 20 places.

(If the picture's not there-it wasn't on the preview-it appears if you click the little square)

I'm usually unhappy about being taken along just for the ride on DEO jollies, but this time the DEO used the presence of two foreigners (Anu, the Korean volunteer was there too)to say to us how proud he was of the girls and to ask us to tell people in our countries how much the girls valued their education and how hard they had to work for it (and pat the DEO on the back for their support as well I think,but he didn't say that). There were nearly 100 girls in the room, I hope the occasion helped at least some of them.

After daal bhaat we set off for Hetauda and drove through a tremendous thunderstorm which was all finished by the time we left the jeep in the bazaar. I was going home to collect my laptop before I went to the office and as I walked up to Loktantra Chowk (Democracy Square, formerly known as Mahendra Chowk)I was surprised to see the plinth, which formerly held King Mahendra's statue, until it was so rudely removed last January. It now had a new monument on top.

So far I haven't found anyone who knows why it's there. The poster wrapped round the plinth has photos of recent martyrs on - if there's a connection it's not very clear.

The rest of that week passed quite quickly and quietly. I managed to give a list of all the matters we needed to discuss to the DEO and on Friday morning we had a meeting with Mahendraji. One of the issues was to check with the DEO that he did actually want to replace me, because that had only been discussed with his predecessor. He said of course - good thing as I understand they have someone lined up. I then presented my report to be sent to the Ministry to prove that I'm needed to complete my placement (lot of fuss for 2 extra months on the visa) and the appropriate form was signed. I won't go into what's happened to those forms since then, but it's a good thing they don't have to be submitted before August! At this meeting, which was the most positive thing that had happened at the office for ages, I was also promised a discussion with a cup of tea the following week (that's this week,it's the following Friday now).

This week the DEO has been in KTM and the section officers have been - absent. No cup of tea. No discussion. Purna came down on Wednesday and rang to check if it was worth him coming into the office - we just met for snacks at the Avocado!

However - because there was no sign of my action plan being completed, when I was offered a day at ECD (nursery) training, I said OK. 26 young facilitators (not teachers!), 4 of them men, were discussing how to teach physical education. After each group had fed back its ideas (you couldn't hear them because the rain was hammering on the metal roof) the supervisor running the session took out the official curriculum and demonstrated standing on one leg and jumping from foot to foot. I feel so sorry for these young people, who have only their own experience of school to guide them. Anu is working with some ECD centres, but there is so much expansion in this area now, that this is the only trainng some facilitators get.It's national training, so anything I say is not personal. In the afternoon, they make materials and I've have my say on several occasions about how suitable are the things they make. This time's grumble was that the height chart (excellent idea, because there is a health content in the curriculum and healthy food is encouraged)was in the shape of a giraffe. Relevant?

I've suggested to Sheila the vol who's working at ECD policy level in the Department of Education and currently working on a training manual that a tall thin sal tree (found in thousands in the jungle) may be more understandable to the children - I don't even know if there's a giraffe in Kathmandu zoo.

While wondering what I was going to do next week (would the wall newspaper finally materialise? would the RP reappear?) I was asked if I'd like to go to Markhu for this year's English teacher training - you bet I would. What was even better was that this morning the teacher who is leading the sessions (met him last year in Palung)came and we discussed the format of the week. I get to sing my rhymes and chants again! It might rain, but it won't be so hot up by the reservoir and I was told today there's a new micro bus service - it means we don't take 7 hours to get there - only 3, via Bhimphedi.

A weekend to turn my self round next week and then off to KTM for a 2 day workshop on funding the education programme. Two days travelling, two days workshop, a day's holiday and a weekend means quite a long stay away from the heat again.

I think that's all for that DEO. What about Did the Earthquake Occur? as predicted by various gurus, weeping trees (monsoon?)and sweating statues(a soaked handkerchief was sent to the Prime Minister - don't quite understand why - but previously it would have been sent to the King). Well, not on the predicted date, but there was a 4.something tremor in the hills to the west of Kathmandu. One guru was arrested because he was causing a disturbance as peoplewere attacking him (there is a logic somewhere in Nepali law and order).

The rain is coming though - every day. It's not too bad though when it brings rainbows into the garden next door.

To the east there have been floods. I know we're not the only people suffering from floods - having seen BBC news talking about Sheffield and the dam near Rotherham, I was amazed to see it on the NTV English language news. Ulley Reservoir is just down the road from the first school I taught in, the children from the village were bussed up - and there was a good pub in the village too. What with that and twisters in Guisborough, my stories don't stand up well this week.

One thing that is annoying when it rains is that the trenches dug for all the new drains being laid in Hetauda fill up with water, then work has to stop and some roads have been functioning at half width for weeks. This is the road where my newsagent is - I come to the end and go back rather than being adventurous like the chldren who find the pipes a great playground.

Talking of adventurous-that's the middle name of our colleague Richard. Last month he cycled from Birgunj to buy muesli, this week he took the bus to Daman (but put the bike on the roof) and then cycled down the 6000+ feet of hillside hugging hairpins. They say it's one of the best mountain biking experiences and I wouldn't argue, but I don't think I'd want to find out for myself.

And so to the Elections - yes the date has been announced - 22nd November. There are still party leaders who say the Young Communist League must stop their violence or there won't be a suitable climate for elections, but Prachanda and the PM have said they will hold eight party mass meetings and they will work together for fair elections. Next week the budget will be announced and the finance minister has already said the elections will take a large chunk. There will only be 'peanuts for the palace' as the paper said, so I can't see much being left for education or the hospitals. There are very adventurous plans for communication links in the next 20 years (that female Maoist planning minister again)including the Hetauda -Kathmandu tunnel and railways, so I think they will be going cap in hand to the donors again - what will the new British International Development minister have to say I wonder?

News will be a premium commodity next week, with no TV, internet or phone, but I'm sure there'll be plenty to write about next time.

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Tippex, teaching and terrorists

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 10:39:44 +0200

Another week gone and it's Saturday again. The sky is heavy with dark grey clouds, but so far no rain today (apparently it's all dropped on Kathmandu overnight). The temperature has dropped (below 30 yesterday) and the leaves are curling in quite a stiff breeze.

The good news is that the DEO was unlocked yesterday - a few people went to work, including Mahendraji who was besieged by people wanting this, that and the other signed. I was told the DEO was at a meeting, probably at the District Development Office - we have a new Chief District Officer too, in the mass shake up, intended to sort out law and order.Two RPs told me they are heading off to Kathmandu for different training sessions (secondary education and local curriculum). This should be busy training time,when everyone is tryng tospend up their allowances before the year end in July, so I doubt if there will be much activity at the office.

If there is nothing exciting happening next week,I'm off to Saraswati primary school, in Jose's village, where they are trying out grade teaching with class one. I found out about this at one of the training sessions I attended this week (four in all). They were organised for the Hetauda SMC chairs and teacher representives on the SLCs - an interesting mix. As I know the teachers at the school, I discussed with the RP if it would be helful to visit (if the DEO was locked this week)- he jumped at the idea (he'd already identified this school as one of the 'follow-up' schools (though I'm not convinced that will get done in the next six weeks - hope I'm wrong). It must be daunting to a Nepali teacher to be asked to teach everything, instead of just their tried and tested lessons for each year group. I hope they are involving the children too, but I'll have to wait and see.

I did an input with the two groups at last week's training about the different stakeholders who should be involved in offering support and advice to the School Management Committee. They had to put the different sarakaarawaalaa (Nepali for stakeholders)in concentric circles with the most important in the centre. Amazingly, the students weren't immediately recognised as being at the heart of things - some thought the SMC was central and some the community. A good discussion (led by the RP-my Nepali didn't stretch that far)soon put things right - on paper anyway. The DEO's and RP's roles were under discussion too - always a good thing.

During the training I managed to prove once again that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. When feedback is written up on the board, I can usually manage to get the sense by reading the words and checking with my Roman script dictionary. I was really puzzled when feedback on the points for development of a particular school's improvement plan included something about them using 'tipeksa' - at least that's how I translated it from the Devanagari script to Roman script. When I couldn't find it I asked the RP - no wonder he laughed - the point was the school had used too much Tippex on their document! Trying to make sense of Nepali script when it turns out to be an English word is very annoying, but we had a good laugh.

Apart from the training it's been a quiet week. Jo has been up in Kathmandu, Clare eventually got sorted out and spent several days in the Annapurna area (out of the heat)before flying to Britain today and Pradipta has yet to return - he responded to my 'when are you coming back?' e-mail from Bangladesh, where he's gone to visit his wife.

I had a couple of evenings at the Avocado with Arthur, the Dutch forester and his Japanese colleague, who turned out to be the wife of the head of Save the Children Japan. Her husband was one of our speakers at the conference and we found we had a lot to talk about.

Big decision tonight - do I sit on a cushion under the fan and watch Star Wars 1, 2 and 3 one after the other? Last night I watched 'Goal' - all filmed around Newcastle - oh the sight of Tynemouth Beach- I don't know if the Indians (it was on an Indian channel) would have got some of the language and the jokes, but I enjoyed it.

I see that Bollywood has come to Yorkshire too - there was a cricket match on BBC World and lots of people I now recognise as film stars in Castleford. The newsreader on BBC kept saying this and that town in 'northern England' as though it were distant as Kanchenjunga.

I wrote all that a week ago - I only watched some Star Wars and this week they have three James Bond films on - 'Live and Let Die' has just started and the alterntive is 'Miss Congeniality 2'. Guess why I'm writing this.

Well, as expected the office has been very quiet, so, as promised, I set off bright and early at 5.30am(school starts at 6am!)to walk to the tempo stop for the 10 minute journey down the highway to Saraswati school at Nawalpur. It was not my fault that I arrived just before 6.30 - tempos leave when they are full! Anyway, I was warmly welcomed and expected (the teacher at the training had told them I was coming). What noone had told me was that there were 11 (eleven, not one accidentally written twice) teachers doing an inservice training course all doing teaching practice in the school (there are only 5 classes). I went to two lessons with the teacher, who is trying hard to learn about all the subjects,but this wasn't the time to start turning her into a real class teacher.

Although there had been some improvements to the school - a boundary wall and ornate gate had been added, the brick building had been plastered and a sheltering roof had been added- thre was also a great deal of 'wall writing' supporting the PLA - presumably from jana aandolan times. I didn't like to ask why it hadn't been removed.

Is this a typical Nepali teacher? Some would say 'No because he is using his stick for pointing to the words, not for hitting pupils'.

The classroom has been reorganised to make room for movement and to give every child a good view, but a bit of white paint would still be welcome.

On Wednesday I went to another school I hadn't visited for 18 months-the one up the hill near our temple. The head came into the office on Tuesday and said 'When are you coming?' - at the moment I don't need asking twice. I didn't take the track the head took me last time,but used the new roadway - longer, but easier and even at 8am it was very hot.

As I expected, I was asked to take some lessons. The first one went so well, the head brought three female teachers to watch the second (I don't now what their classes were doing). The head asked me to 'teach that lesson' - the first page of the grade 4 text book. The words to learn were 'That is a big snake. Be careful. That is a big elephant. Stop! Don't go near.' We managed snake and elephant OK (though there was some confusion over my wavy arm for a snake and my wavy arm for an elephant's trunk)- I excelled myself with the drawings! Stop was easy - loads of children coming to the front to walk up and down while another told them when to stop. 'Be careful' they just had to repeat (they love repeating) and then 'near' was putting things together and over the other side of the room. having used up almost every method of word introduction I coud think of, I looked to see how the lesson continued and told the head I was not prepared to use the next part. The children were supposed to use the same sentence format but replacing 'big snake' and 'big elephant' with dirty fellow and naughty boy. Who writes these books?

Also watching the lesson was the chair of the school management committee, there on official business. When I left the school he caught me up and invited me to his house for daal bhaat. I met him last year and his wife is the ECD (nursery) facilitator (teacher, but not qualified). As usual with these surprise meals, it was delicious, the family were very friendly and since a sudden downpour started while we were eating I spent over an hour talking with them and the chairman told them about my lessons - at least someone had remembered something.

On the social scene, this week has been another Dutch treat. Volunteers Kors and Esmeralda came to stay for a couple of nights while they were at their organisation's quarterly meeting in Hetauda and this afternoon I met Kristina and Silke who are treating themselves to a weekend away from Birgunj (staying in a suite at the Avocado). Although they say it is OK down there, they also painted a picture of armed police on every corner, regular bombings and shootings and electricity that is more off than on. A very telling comment was that people in Hetauda looked happier than in Birgunj.

Another event has been Pradipta's arrival. Having been AWOL for a few days (VSO thought he was here when he was in Calcutta)he's now moved into his apartment and yesterday morning we (Kors, Esmeralda, Jo, me and some of the women from Makwanpur Women's Group)went along at 7.30 to the puja for his birthday and his new house. Here he is carrying out the puja while the guru blows his conch shell.

On the political front, the latest news is that the PM has suggested 26th November for the elections. Former President Jimmy Carter has been in KTM talking to everyone (Prachanda asked him to put a good word in for the Ms with the US government, who still think they are terrorists - on the same day that the second in command said if the Nepali government doesn't show they are dealing with the murderers of some Maoists in the Terai this week, the Ms will take action themselves and another leader said they would be prepared to take their weapons out of the arms stores). The parliament has also decided that if the King tries to interfere with the elections, he can be removed by a two-thirds majority of the parliament. Members of the King's parliament from before jana aandolaan ar being targetted with bombs. My old friend Kamal Thapa found a bomb at his Kathmandu house on Thursday (that's the house he shares with his brother who is the big boss of Nepali soccer and his brother who is a big boss in the army!)- at least it wasn't his Hetauda house.

Cloudy skies and cooling rain are here at last (only 33 degrees yesterday)and there is a big rumour (stemming from some inauspicious event) in KTM that there will be an earthquake next week (completely denied by the earthquake measuring people).

All being well, I'll write soon.

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Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to work.....or hey ho, hey ho work's off

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:24:14 +0200

So, after the last informative post, back to ramblings about the every day life of Nepali folk.

When I came back from Kathmandu (almost two weeks ago)I went into the office looking forward to meeting the new DEO and prepared for a long discussion with Mahendraji about all the issues that had been brought up at the conference and the work I had done before leaving Hetauda,which I hadn't had time to comment on.

I arrived spot on 10 o'clock - just in case the new guy was keen - but there was noone upstairs except a teacher in my room, still marking SLC papers. I couldn't believe the state of the room - all the paper was off the notice board (including the new VSO wall calendar) and posters of my training sessions last year were nowhere to be seen - ripped to shreds under the seat that had been moved to make room for a new table and several chairs. The floor was covered with used ballpoint pens, screwed up exam papers and a thck layer of dust. Very soon, the teacher left, with a big sigh of relief - that must have been the end because noone has been back. I went and fetched the broom, filled the waste paper basket, moved the furniture and put up a new calendar. All ready for - what?

The schools had been closed for almost a week at this point, but I hadn't expected that to mean everyone in the DEO would be 'away'. That was the case though and although Ram Chandra came and checked the computers for a short while, I left at 1pm when I was the only person upstairs. The same thing happened on Thursday, but as I left I met Drubhasir (RP for Hetauda) and after the usual how are you, when did you return conversation he said he would come to meet me the next day at 12.

Things seemed the same on Friday, but there were a few more people downstairs (still no 'high-ups'). At 11 o'clock I heard clapping and chering, and looking out of the window I saw a procession of familiar faces, led by banner-carrying teachers. This was the Teachers' Union of Nepal, the federation of unions I thought weren't involved in the strike. There was a lot of laughter and more clapping, a photographer was very busy (I stuck my camera through the grill) and Him Sah (the other section officer) appeared - he'd stayed well hidden!- and received a petition. I tried to find out why these teachers were involved and got no real response, but when I met the RP (after I phoned him at 1.30)he explained that they were in sympathy with the striking teachers but were not supporting the strike - strange,therefore that they were all on strike. The RP was also feeling very frustrated - since the schools had been closed he had not been able to give out all the FLASH 1 forms (no comment on the length of time available before the schools closed)so knowing many teachers and heads were coming to the office, he had asked them to go to the resource centre to collect their forms. They had told him they couldn't because they were on strike!

Now this is why some of the education volunteers are concerned about our education programme's involvement with the unions. While I understand the need to work on advocacy strategies with the unions, I find it difficult to be in the DEO while teachers I know well are demonstrating against the DEO. But, I also understand and sympathise completely with the teachers need for respect and appropriate pay, which would help with the motivation of the teachers - an objective of our work. If DEO staff and teachers put the children first we mght get somewhere. (Any comments made are the author's personal opinions and do not necesarily reflect those of her organisation - thought I'd better say it!)

Friday night was our final meal in Hetauda with Clare. She should have been in Delhi by then, but on Thursday, as she ordered some photos for the women in her organisation, her bag was snatched and with it her passport (including the vital visas). A local reporter who is a friend of Clare's Nepali teacher happened to be passing and before long the theft was reported on Hetauda FM (and the following morning in the local paper). Fortunately, Sanjay, the programme manager was still in Hetauda and he contacted VSO and got things organised. The good news is that Clare now has an emergency passport from the British embassy and also a Nepali tourist visa. She decided against doing the Indian visa process and has gone up to Jomsom for a bit of cool weather, before flying out from Delhi on time next week.

Friday evening was also memorable, because while we were in one of the thatched huts in the garden at the Avocado,we were joined by geckos on each of the window panels. We hadn't realised it was the love-shack, but at risk of this blog being condemned for pornographc material - this is what the geckos were doing!

So Saturday morning saw Jo and I in Clare's flat about 6.45 am. Amazingly she was just about ready by 7 when her private jeep arived and we went our separate ways - Clare to KTM and Jo and I up to the temple.

On Sunday, I took the 8am bus up to Palung to see Sandy, who had just returned from the mountains where she had been deliering some training for her organisation. As her visa ran out at the end of May, she was leaving on Monday. I'm sure she will be back in the new year when she can get another visa. (Jose's wish to marry a Nepali begins to make sense when you realise how much time is spent on visa renewal).

I spent a lovely day meeting the family Sandy has lived with, going for a walk up above the valley with her (seeing some of the paths she travelled to the far flung schools in this area,that I've never been to) and gate-crashing her leaving party (I know some of her colleagues)- lots of food at her house and singing and dancing outside, which attracted a large audience looking over the hedge. I stayed in a lodge which Sandy had recommended - the most Persil white sheets and pillow I've seen in Nepal and a great night's sleep because the temperature was just right.

Setting off on the 7.30 bus on Monday morning, I expected to be in the office just after 10.30, but at that time our bus was stopping about 2kms outside town - there was a big road block (because of an accident in Chitwan I was told). Anyway I walked to the office, arriving just after 11, only to find the gate locked and a group of teachers sitting on the lawn. I didn't understand this as the last thing I heard before leaving Palung was that the schools were open again.

When I got back to the flat, I tried to ring the office, but no response, so I e-mailed Purna and eventually got a phone call to say he had tried the mobiles of both the DEO and Mahendraji (both switched off)and then had rung the TUN rep, who explained that the DEOs were being kept locked to remind the government that although the schools were open, they still needed action.

On Tuesday I made sure I was at the office by 9.45, so that I would be inside when the gates were closed at 10. I waited until 9.55, but as noone else had arrived, I left. On Wednesday, the gates were already locked (perhaps never opened) at 9.45. I didn't bother going on Thursday and on Friday they were still locked, but there was a partial Nepal banda anyway.

I've done quite a lot of writing (see previous post), quite a lot of reading (official and unofficial)and a lot of cutting and sticking for my education scrapbook (volume 2). The weather is too hot to go out during the day (hottest June 1st ever in KTM) without an umbrella and unscheduled power cuts are inconvenient because the fans go off.

So we're round to Saturday again. Jo's gone up to KTM today and I'm expecting Pradipta to arrive tomorrow (he had to go back for some Indian registration). I went to church this morning and had the boys round this afternoon. I took the photo of the flame trees that shade the local public convenience at the top of our road. I'm becoming addicted to Coca-cola and strawberry icecream and reading avidly about Tibet - we're definitely on the way (I think - Roz has taken over the route planning via e-mail with the travel agent in KTM).

A week when nothing happened and my computer tells me I've written 7590 letters and spaces - hey ho.

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To be or not to be - that is the question in all areas of Nepali life just now.

Wed, 30 May 2007 10:29:38 +0200

Please don't take any of what follows to be completely accurate,unbiased or any of the other things BBC World keeps telling me its good at being, but it's a picture of how thngs seem to be in Nepal at the moment. Everything seems to be in the balance (at times toppling over rather dangerously).

POLITICS
After jana aandolaan II last year, the previously elected parliament was reopened and agreed that an interim government would be formed, the Maoists would be part of that government and then there would be elections to a constituent assembly(CA)by May this year. At the first meeting of the CA there would be a vote on whether or not the country should retain its king (already stripped of his powers by the interim government). The elections would mean there would be a true representation of all castes, ethnic groups and regions of Nepal in the assembly.

By November, the interim government was sworn in and eventually, earlier this year our revered 85-year-old, 5 times Prime Minister (leader of the Nepali Congress Party, Minister for Defence, one time friend of kings and princes, several times suspected of corruption, possible Nobel Peace Prize nominee ?!)announced his new cabinet - complete with Maoist members (not Pushpa Kamal Dahal or the awesome one as his nom de guerre'Prachanda' is translated or his trusty side-kick Dr Batterai-but Dr Batterai's wife is there!)

Unfortunately, apart from the various new ministers learning their jobs, undoing things that were done etc, little seems to have happened since, largely because there have been very few meetings of the parliament - when it does meet, the Madeshi members from the south of the country start complaining that their demands are receiving no response, the former 'king's party (not a member of the government) wants its say and the Speaker abandons business. I read today that he says things will be better after 30th May (it must be in the stars). The unrest in the terai region earlier in the year brought back many earlier disagreements and this time the Maoists were also on the opposite side to the Madeshi groups, who had previously been Maoist supporters, but now saw the Maoists as having sold out, once they were 'in the government' if not in power.

So - no date has been set for the CA elections - the election committee had postponed the date from may to June,but then said it was impossible, because the voting system has not been agreed (proportional representation, first past the post or a combination) and that can't be done until the 8 parties cometo an agreement and put something to parliament if/when it meets. With monsoon coming, followed by the big autumn festivals and holidays, the next appropriate date will be late November.

A few weeks ago, Prachanda said if the date was not declared soon, the Maoists would return to action (not go back to war - that would be difficult as (allegedly) their soldiers are now all in camps and their weapons locked away - the UN has done one check and will start verifying ages and competency of the soldiers in a couple of weeks). It seems as though many young people were put into the camps while the real soldiers turned themselves into the Young Communist League- gangs of thugs who are terrorising some parts of the country and don't seem to take any notice of what the leaders say). Tonight there is to be a big Maoist rally in KTM in support of the ethnic minoritiy groups who have called a national banda for tomorrow. Jana aandolan III? To be or not to be.

FUEL
When I was in KTM in February, the taxi drivers were pleading hardship because petrol prices had gone up. There was a scarcity and there were long queues at the pumps.The problem then was that the oil could not be transported to Kathmandu, because it comes in through Birgunj and up the highway -which was blocked by demonstrators for the better part of two months.

When I was in KTM a couple of weeks ago, the situation was worse(three days supply left, we kept hearing), the queues were much longer and there was a feeling of inevitability that things would grind to a halt. The probem again is Nepal's dependency on India for its oil supply. The Nepal Oil Company has not paid its bills to the India Oil Company, so the latter has reduced the amount of oil it is providing.

Businesses have pulled out of the country, the black market is thriving (even more than usual), the government seems to be doing nothing and soon we may not need a banda to stop the traffic. A bigger fuel crisis? To be or not to be.

WATER
For two consecutive years there was a light monsoon, leaving the country very short of water and leading to up to 6 hours a day of load shedding.Then there was a warm spell which melted the winter snow and caused us all much happiness because now we only have 4 hours load shedding a week (6pm-8pm, Sunday and Monday down here).
However,the warm spell has gone on and on. There has been a lot of rain in the spring, but the heat has dried it up before it's had chance to get anywhere. Kulikhani reservoir is therefore dangerously low and may soon not be able to drive its hydro electric plants. (I don't understand why loadshedding hasn't increased, but thank goodness it hasnt, or I'd have melted without the fans).

Recognising that the Kathmandu valley gets less than half the drinking water it now needs, a plan was made several years ago for a new water plant - the Melamchi Project. The Asian Development Bank (ADwas putting up a large amount of the money and one of its conditions was that Kathmandu City Council bring in some organisation to manage its water situation. There was only one bidder for the job - a British concern, whose reputation in its own country was not too good- Severn-Trent water. They were awarded the contract. Nepal Water Authority workers were not happy about this and held several demonstrations and strikes, but the situation continued until the new Minister for Physical Planning and Works was appointed (the previously mentioned Mrs Batterai, otherwise known as Hisila Yami). She was against having Severn-Trent because of their poor record and asked the ADB to reconsider its conditions. They refused, Severn Trent backed out anyway but the ADB has withdrawn its financial support completely. Clean water for the valley? To be or not to be.

EDUCATION

Last year there were protests, demonstrations, strikes and lock-outs because the temporary teachers wanted permanent positions. When this was granted, the students complained they would not be able to get jobs because they would be up against the temporary teachers. I thnk it was sorted - at least we could go to work.

This year, just after the start of the new academic year in April, the private school teachers decided to protest that they do not earn as much as the government school teachers, but their schools are charging high fees in many cases. They also wanted proper contracts. They were strongly supported by a newly formed union,the Nepal Educational Republican Forum -NERF-(no guessing who they are affiliated to) which is not part of the Teachers' Union of Nepal (TUN not NUT)-a federation of other teachers' unions). While I was in KTM I saw a demonstration outside the Ministry of Education. The secretary of state called the teachers to talk,but they wouldn't go because the Minister was in the Maldives (he's also Minister of Sort and ws at an olympic meeting). At a later demo the APF charged with their batons and some people were injured - this made the teachers even more determined.

Eventually last weekend, there were meetings, though the NERF didn't go. There was an agreement to open the schools from Monday, but the finance offices of the schools (particularly important in private schols)and the Distgrict Education Offices (who also have financial dealings)were to be locked. As of today (Wednesday) the schools are open and most teachers seem to have returned (many had gone to their distant homes during the strike). From today the school finance offices are open but the DEOs are still locked. Yesterday I went to work before 10am,because that is the locking hour. By 9.55 there was noone upstairs and just someone downstairs dealing with the last of the SLC papers which were being marked (results will be late again this year because some of the markers went on strike). I went today and the doors had never been opened - no windows open in the building. Today the paper says all the agitating parties have signed an agreement - the private schools will give proper salaries, they will not force students to buy books from the school (the cause behind the stationery shops closing a couple of weeks ago, so we got no newspapers)and they will employ at least 40% female teachers in primary level. However, there is trouble ahead, because some schools will not be able to afford the extra money and may go out of business,meaning teachers without jobs. Also, the teachers have been promsed pay for banda days, but the parents have refused to pay for banda days. My RP has said we will start our school visits in a few days when the schools are 'settled in'. Quality education? To be or not to be.

How can things improve? The 8 parties can start thnking about the country, not their political clout and personal power. The Maoists can get their troops in order and stop the brutality which was suposed to stop with entry to the government. The government can start taking the ethnic groups' (and womens') case seriously - they were told they would have a say, not be told what to do by the 3Hs (high caste, hill people 'hes').The Nepalis can stop expecting everything to be right over night - how long did it take to stop slavery, get the vote for women, get free education and so on. Unfortunaely they are a responsive, not proactive people on the whole and many don't really know that half of this is happening - they just know what affects them - and once again there are many rural folk who will decide that this education lark is a waste of time.

Eric, one of my volunteer colleagues, wrote a piece in our newsletter and I'm sure he wouldn't mind me paraphrasing the gist of it. We look at this country with western eyes, we see strange, annoying and frustrating people and events, but we have not come here to westernise at the cost of destroying everything that makes Nepal special.

If we can help Nepal on its way, we will, but Nepal needs to know where it wants to go and that's not a one year process. Let's hope the people can decide who they want to lead them and how. Kingdom of Nepal? Democratic Nepal? Republican Nepal? To be or not to be.

Update 1st June

I'll have to do this more often - it seems to have results! Headlines on www.nepalnews.com and in the Kathmandu Post over the last 24 hours:
HOUSE DEADLOCK ENDS - yes, the parliament met!

EIGHT PARTIES AGREE TO HOLD CA BY NOVEMBER THIRD WEEK - just up to the PM to decide the date

AGITATING TEACHERS, MINISTRY HOLD TALKS -but the DEO is still locked

IOC GETS RUPEES 1 BILLION,NORMAL SUPPLIES FROM TUESDAY - will taxi fares be cheaper?

The only fly (or mozzy) in the ointment is:
NEPAL BANDH AFFECTS NORMAL LIFE - but the sun's shining and the monsoon's reached India!

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Where did the time go?

Sat, 26 May 2007 11:59:47 +0200

Monday 28th May - what happened to May? Over the last two weeks people have been asking where the time has gone, as they have been recounting that it's a year since most of the intake after ours finally got to their placements, it's been time for a host of volunteers to leave Nepal, saying how quickly their time here had passed and I'm once again bemoaning the fact that I've so much to write about (and in truth, I've only just finished the previous blog, having forgotten to add the photos and make it public!)

Rewind two weeks: after writing the previous post, I went with a group of volunteers to the Hotel Vajra, where we had enjoyed our winter conference. The hotel has its own theatre and company of amateur actors who were presenting an Indian folk tale 'The honest thief'. A mix of pantomime, musical comedy and Shakespearian soliloquys, the English/Nepali language and music, girls playing boys and simple setting made the evening very enjoyable. Until about 2.30am when something I'd had to eat at the hotel decided to spoil my night.

Having promised Roz I'd collect some books from the PGH and take them to Programme Office for her, I took a very expensive taxi, asked the driver to wait and went in to ask for Roz.'Oh, she's been really ill, it was something she ate' said Mary - the only thing we both ate was rice, but with John and Peter also reporting stomach upsets possibly linked, there must have been something in the kitchen. That was the first time I had succumbed to food poisoning - not bad going for 19 months and I was fine by Tuesday.

I spent the morning preparing handouts for a session at the conference then returned to sit in peace and quiet at PGH. When Roz returned, we made our way to the Park Village Resort, the base for our annual conference (only 6 months after the last one, but they've decided to change the date). The site of the hotel is about three miles outside the ringroad at the foot of the Shivapuri national park. Very western looking houses are built in a garden environment with information about birds and plants, there is a swimming pool and a lovely terrace restaurant. Despite being only a few metres off the busy main road, it is really tranquil. The noisiest thing was the cuckoo!

The first morning dawned damp and misty, but we went for a short walk up the main road to the local famous temple of the sleeping Vishnu. I'd been here once before, but managed to erase all my photos. This time it wasn't so busy, but people were still paying their respects, sadhus were sitting around and the stallholders were selling beautiful flower arrangements.

Despite the weather, the conference speakers brightened us up. The session was opened by the British Ambassador - a bit of a Nepal anorak, having backpacked here in the 60s, worked as an anthropologist in the 70s and on and off as a diplomat since then. He was followed by CK Lal, who writes most irreverently in the weekly Nepali Times and gave us some insight into what lies behind some of the headlines in the recent press, and Eiichi Somebody, the head of Save the Children Japan, who told us about the role of INGOs in the current situation.

In the afternoon,we had concurrent sessions and I was supporting Roz and Clare at a session on inclusion (speaking about the education programme's HIV and AIDS mainstreaming programme, which had eventually led to my exerience the previous week with the supervisor and the heads). I think our role is to open the eyes of Nepalis to the need for consideration for the disadvantaged and disabled and point to the fact that they may have just as much to offer, given the opportunity. Considering how recently disabled acts have been introduced in our country, it seems a long way off that people in wheel chairs will be able to enjoy the facilities of Park Village and visually or hearing impaired children can fully take part in mainstream classrooms, but making sure that noone is excluded simply because someone thinks they shouldn't be there needs less material input and should therefore be more reachable as an objective.

Our last session of the day was a photocall.

In the evening we had the first and last meeting of the enlarged Central Terai Cluster. 'Experienced'(otherwise known as 'old') and new volunteers discussed the pros and cons of basing our future allowance on a shopping basket of basic goods. (At the moment there is a fixed amount which is raised annually in line with inflation). The Birgunj group argued for more soap and deodorants for the hot season and all the girls agreed that one work outfit a year just wasn't enough. We discussed the comparative price of cauliflowers and mangos and agreed that while we spent less than our valley colleagues in every day terms, when we came to KTM we tended to spend more, catching up on what we had missed. When all this was discussed by the volunteers liason group later in the week, we found our valley friends were in agreement with us on all points.

The second day of the conference was programme day and in education we certainly packed in a great deal, showing how our programme is broadening in its approaches at different levels. There is now an advocacy volunteer working in programme office and a researcher working in an NGO which concentrates on getting children into schools in a small area in the terai (though he's based in KTM).Rohini and Chris's replacements are an English retired primary head and a lively Irish-Australian, while the volunteers in the new placements in Biratnagar (troubles permitting) are experienced VSO volunteers (just returned from Ethiopia), Dave and Deb. The two Dutch girls going to Birgunj are high on qualifications and style and will add to the interest in the small but now doubled number of bideshi down there.

That evening we were joined by programme office staff for the conference party organised by Richard on a nautical theme - what the Nepalis made of the team name 'Carry on up the Funnel'can only be guessed, since it had to be explained to American, Dutch and African volunteers as well. A series of games involving firing tea bags, hauling in anchors (people sitting on plastic sacks)and creating a relevant dance to the tune of Captain Pugwash (we won that with some genuine shanty type moves linked to African stomping)was fuelled by a selection of fruit and rum punches and followed by dancing - Nepali man variety - Purna was back and had to compete with our new star from Christmas, Support Manager Khadaga.

Although we were tired on Thursday we had planned swimming,but the rain was a bit too hard (it cleared up in the afternoon thank goodness-if I could wish one thng to improve Hetauda it would be a pool - they even have a public one in Birgunj as well as a hotel pool). The day had been planned to be more relaxed and we had a volunteers market place where people traded ideas about good shopping, walks, treks, what to do when there isn't much work and so on.

This was followed by a walk round event - All you wanted to know about VSO... Each programme area had put up displays (including programme office and two of the office initiatives)and gave a short presentation. The afternoon flew by with presentations from each programme area (Governance's beauty competition, with all the 'Misses' explaining their role in the programme definitely being the most original)and at last it was time to get in the pool. Unfortunately the rain came down again,but we must not complain as it is so desperately needed.

On Friday Tracey had organised a programme about non-violent communication. It was to be used in conflict resolution for everything from family misunderstandings, to group disagreements, to party-political stalemate. I recognised it as the'no blame' approach from our anti-bullying package back in England. Unfortunately the day dragged a little, but there were bright spots, such as recognising that our group of ten was made up of 3 Brits, 2 Nepalis,2 Ugandans and one each from the Phillipines, the Netherlands and Spain. The conversation veered from thinking about whether we were introspective giraffes or outspoken jackals (relevant glove puppets provided) to the culture of different countries in relation to how they were able to express their feelings.

Returning to KTM, Roz, Richie and I joined the Birgunj crew for a final meal with Jocelyn and Eric and also it was Richie's farewell as he will be leaving in July/August, and probably will not see us again in Nepal. His decision to do a master's degree in development studies is definitely a bonus for the development world.

Saturday morning was taken up with the volunteer-office liaison group meeting (another breakfast at Mike's, but no rodents this week) and shopping (the zip on my holdall gave way the previous day). In the afternoon I went to the Kathmandu Chorale's summer concert. It was the first time I had been in town for this event,though I have been to a couple of rehearsals with Rosemary. The hall was packed (about 400) and the choir numbers about 80. The choice of music was wide ranging, from a favourite Nepali folk song to Pie Jesu and Phantom of the Opera, with some Bach thrown in. I had forgotten (since my music choice has remained with the selection I brought with me)how music can set off all sorts of memories and trains of thought. It's almost 20 years since I went to see Phantom - where has the time gone? In the evening, there was a very low-key football match on the big screen at PGH. Some volunteers had gone to the British Embassy, including Eric and Jocelyn, so the Man U/Chelsea rivalry was muted and we were all glad it didn't go to extra time.

So we were back to Sunday and another walk. During the volunteers' market place someone had been saying how many walks there were from the hotel, so we headed back up to Budhanilkantha and set off in the direction of Kopan. This is the site of the monastery we visited on our very first weekend in Nepal and here I was again with Peter and Rosemary (Roz had flown to Pokhara that morning), Hazel and John from the intake after ours and Spanish Laura (as opposed to English Laura)from the new intake. Peter asked me what was different now - where to start? So much to tell and yet it seems like yesterday.

The path took us through paddies, over rocky outcrops, past farms with goats and buffalo and eventually to a new monastery with gleaming white chorten, many maroon-robed monks practising their discussion techniques with much hand-slapping and one of the cleanest, most modern kitchens to serve snacks you will find in Nepal. Our destination lay a little further and as we enjoyed our lunch from a terrace with a view out towards the airport, with buildings now so familiar to us, the rain started and we were delighted to find a bus leaving from just down the road.

Getting back to my hotel room, I realised it was the first time I'd really had time to myself and had a restful evening of television.

At 7am on Monday morning I was on my way to the Indian Embassy. Expecting the new 5-star treatment of the previous week, I was very disappointed when 8am came and went with no invitation to sit down (apart from the kerb, once all the chiyaa pasal chairs were taken). I had been no. 15 on the list but with people arriving in taxis and some accompanied by Nepali guides, by the time we went in I was 20something. This meant a wait at the first counter of an hour (to give in the form, photo and telex receipt) then a wait of 90 minutes at the next counter to pay and leave my passport.

The counters usually close promptly at 12 noon, but our man took pity on us because of two long delays (two Americans with none of the right paperwork - they should have been in the other queue first, but spun a tale about needing the visa that day-and a young Spanish girl, whose copy of her Australian boyfriend's ticket was not good enough - she needed her own, even though they said they were on the same flight). I was at the Embassy for 5 hours and still had to return at 4.30 to collect my passport with the new visa.

I pointed out some of the different nationalities in the queue, not to complain about them delaying us (I was guilty one time when I forgot the telex receipt)but because this is what makes this process so facinating. In the past I've written about meeting a former Peace Corps volunteer and Mother Theresa's nuns, but this queue also provided an interesting encounter. Igor is Latvian. I was next to him in the queue when he asked me to confirm that Latvia did exist - he was trying to convince a French-Canadian that Latvia is a real country. He lives in England for six months and then travels for six months. When he is in London, he works as a toy demonstrator in Hambleys store. You couldn't make it up.

The first flight on Tuesday morning got me back to Hetauda by 10am and I spent the rest of the day catching up - going to the bank to pay the rent, shopping, washing and then in the evening catching up with Clare and Jo, Rutti and new volunteers Esmerelda and Pradipta and Sanjay the HIV programme manager at the Avocado.

I was looking forward to going back to work, to meeting the new DEO and starting on the school visits Drubhasir had promised - but this is Nepal and once again politics got in the way, so the next blog will be a state of the nation address - I may just have time to write it!

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From Hetauda to KTM (via Palung and Bungamati)

Sun, 13 May 2007 11:05:50 +0200

It's two weeks since I wrote anything and since this week is going to be very busy, I thought I'd better get a bit down on screen before I forget.

The last post stopped as we were going to have two days holiday.I was up bright and early on the 1st May thinking that I would have a leisurely morning then do some of the charts Mahendra had asked for, as I was determined they were going to be finished by the weekend. I was just mixing muesli and fruit when a voice shouted 'Hello' at the door and in came Richard. He must have smelled the muesli as that was what he had cycled from Birgunj to buy (3 hours journey including a big hill and a stop for chiyaa).

After we'd had breakfast and put the Nepali education world to right we set off for a walk up the hill. The day was rounded off by dinner at the Avocado with Clare and two colleagues from the HIV programme who were doing training with her group.

After an energetic day, I decided not to go in search of Buddha's birthday celebrations and spent most of the next day practising my best Key Stage 1 printing to complete some of the pupil profile charts. In England they would have been printed off the computer, probably enlarged on the photocopier and filed - here they will be displayed on the wall of the DEO with my signature, the DEO's (if he ever returns from KTM)and Mahendra's - so it had to be right!

Everything was duly finished in time,but no Mahendra to receive them, so I don't know what he thought.No DEO either, but the VSO grapevine (Purna!) says we are to have a new DEO who is the one Shannon worked with successfully, but Shirley did not engage with - we'll see.

At the beginning od the week I'd been asked by the RP and supervisor from Palung to go to their SMC chairs and heads meeting. The only fact I understood was that they wanted to do something about HIV and AIDS, but it wasn't until Friday afternoon that I discoverd they wanted me to do it. That was also when I discovered that I was going on Sunday with the supervisor, while the RP got the programme underway and I was to stay with a local headmistress.

After a frantic Saturday preparing charts and games (I left the charts on the bus and had to do them again on Monday morning)the journey over the hills came as a pleasant (if slow) relief. We arrived at the training hall while a feedback session was in progress and it seemed everyone was working well. I recognised my hostess for the visit (she was the only other woman there).

After a daal bhaat with the RP and supervisor (slightly drunk and asking how they could get to England - or America, or Japan- on a tourist visa and then stay) and a comfortable night's sleep, we walked down to the school where the hall is.

Last year I went to the opening of this resource centre at the invitation of my friends in Global Action Nepal and it was nice to see some of them at the training (they informed me I'd missed Sandy by a day, but she would be back briefly before she leaves for England).

The supervisor informed everyone that the DEO and DA(Administration)O wanted Makawanpur to be a healthy district and had therefore arranged for everyone to be informed about HIV and AIDS (not sure if anyone else is gong to ask me to do the same presentation). I had pinched all the information and activities from what GWP had done for the sensitisation meeting and amazingly the supervisor thought this was great and just took over once I'd told himwhat was comng next.

He remembered the games and the purpose behind them and I couldn't help thinking that this was one of the few occasions I've felt really useful. They wanted me to go on to the next training and repeat the exercise, but as I was going to KTM on Thursday and had to do e-mail work for the conference I had to say no - the supervisor did take all the materials though, so I'm hopeful that he did another information session.

I enjoyed the evening with headmiss and her family and friends and then on Tuesday morning we set off for Hetauda. As the bus passes the house, she had arranged for us to be picked up there, but unfortunately the bus drove straight past. A large truck was parked outside the house and the driver (a relative)was called upon to 'Follow that bus!' up the hairpin bends on the road to Daman. I was rather hoping he wouldn't catch the bus as the cab was very comfortable and gave an excellent view, but almost at the top our driver managed to use his horn so effectively that the bus stopped on the next straight between hairpins and waited for us.

There then followed two days of e-mailing and conference preparations, but eventually on Thursday afternoon I set off for KTM - by plane, for the first time this year. In the morning this had seemed unlikely as a thunderstorm started about 5am and restarted after a short break around 9am. I thought the planes might not have taken off/landed and there would therefore be a backlog, but for once everything went to plan and I was in KTM by 4.30. My taxi driver was an interesting man - an ex-Gurkha who had never been to England (he served in Brunei)but who loves Tony Blair, because he is now going to get British citizenship. The man's English was perfect - it was really moving to hear him speak with such patriotism for Britain, but also with such pride in his sons who had been born in Brunei - one is now a film maker and the other is a financier in Singapore.

I was up early on Friday morning for a visit to the Indian Embassy (I can hear the comments - 'we've heard this story before'). This episode, however, is not a tale of woe.Having put my name on the list (no 7), had tea and toast for breakfast, had an interesting converstion with a young Israeli, at 8am the gates opened and we were ushered inside to go and sit in the visa area. Someone took the list in and people kept arriving until about 9.15 when we got in line. Since the first three people were together and quickly dealt with, four and five didn't have the right paperwork and were sent to get it and six hadn't reappeared, I was out by 9.40.

On Friday evening I rang Geraldine to find out where people were meeting, as they usually do on Fridays - there was goig to be a showing of the film about the Himalayas, 'Caravan' at the Lazimpat Gallery - great, I've only seen bits. When we arrived, it turned out to be 'Letters from Iwo Jma' which I would not have chosen to see, but which I found very watchable and it was good to catch up with Gerry and Nancy and to meet David and Deb - two new education volunteers.

Yesterday (Saturday) started with a breakfast meeting at Mike's (best breakfast in town)about the conference. The highlight was Peter spotting an animal in the border alongside the garden where we were eating-was it a cat? No, the biggest rat I've ever seen-shows that even Mike's scraps are good. Roz and I had agreed to meet Rosemary afterwards, so off we went with Peter. The highlight of the afternoon was a visit to the photo journalists' exhibition, which brought back so many memories of the past year, but besides news pictures there were also sport, environment and personal interest sections. It made us feel very much like natives when we could talk about incidents and places we had experienced or visited.

In the evening Roz had an appointment with two of her office staff who were in KTM, but I carried on with Peter and Rosemary to a Thai restaurant which definitely matched Baan Thai and outdid anything I enjoyed in Thailand.

So we're up to today and I've fitted this in between a walk with Roz and Rosemary this morning and going to the theatre tonight. Having breakfasted in style at the Reids, we took a taxi out to the village of Chapagaun in the south west of the valley. As the road was being resurfaced, there was a diversion along a very rough road which was designed to take the lorries going to the quarry, but not for our taxi, which probably suffered serious damage underneath, but the driver would not let us get out to lighten the load.

We walked through fields where the barley was being harvested and long plastic tunnels hid mushroom cultivation, down through a wood and then across a suspension bridge to the other side of the valley. Threading our way through a sring of small communities, we finally arrived at our destination, Bungamati, a village best known as the home of the Rato Machendranath, when it isn't being pulled round Patan on its tall chariot.

On this day, though, it was the barley harvest which provided the focal point. In every square and down every alley, women were threshing the grain while men carried bundles attached to two ends of a pole and children jumped around in the straw. In every corner of the square, dominated by a large white temple, there were little scenes being acted out as people went about their daily work totally unaware that they were part of what to us was a beautiful picture.

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Work, rest and the guide to safe travelling

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:55:36 +0200

On New Year's Eve (Nepali version)my gas cylinder had run out. As I was down Birgunj on Saturday I didn't go to the suppliers until early evening. As it was Saturday (and a holiday) the first shop was closed. The second shop said they should have a supply the following day (there have been big delivery problems because of the transport difficulties in the Terai). After work on Sunday I went to see if there was any gas (I had boiled water, but I was really looking forward to a cup of tea!)Yes, it would be delivered.

Unfortunately, however, on Sunday morning there had been an incident in Hetauda when a rickshaw had overturned. A man riding in the rickshaw, concerned about his pregnant wife, who was travelling with him, had attacked the rickshaw driver, who had been taken to the police station. As a result, there was no gas delivery because the rickshaw drivers staged a road block and strike (the gas bottle is delivered by rickshaw).

Fortunately I did receive my gas the following morning, and if I'd really had a problem I could have bought bottled water or gone out to eat, but the lack of systems to deal with events such as traffic accidents has such wide-ranging effects. Taken in a wider perspective, the lack of workable systems throughout Nepali society is responsible for so much wastage of time and manpower.

I suppose I'm thinking of how the following four days worked out. Having been told I was needed for the month of Chaitra, I thought the new month may offer a chance to take a few days off. When I asked the section officer about this he said fine, but we had to finish the wall newspaper before I left - the newspaper I had written an article for the previous week (a piece of advocacy on the value of helping female School Management Committee members understand their role - less genderr-bashing in the Nepali version) while waiting for the other section officer to return from SLC monitoring or wherever. It seems the newspaper had to be prepared for the 1st of the month, but systems being as they are, the 'team' were all involved in other matters, so now it depended on my presence.

To cut four long, boring days short, on Wednesday I was finally asked for advice on the size of the board (I thought we were getting a new one, but no, it was taken down from the SO's office); I suggested a coat of paint - there was no time. I found out my piece had to be put back into the computer to be cut down to the same size as every other piece - our typist, Ram Chandra was tearing his hair out - then I suggested borders - then the SO decided there was too much material and the font size had to be changed. With a 'thank goodness the display isn't at school' I showed them how to arrange the pieces which are now there to be read in the entrance to the DEO. Apparently this is to be a monthly occurrence - instructions from the D of E, who also want copies of the material. I pointed out that now that I knew what was expected, I'd make a much better job of it next time - colour, headings, less writing, eye-catching etc - except that next month I'll be in KTM for the VSO conference - but I still have to write something. With all the people who had written anythng coming to look at the printing process, advise on whether the board was straight, admire the fact that I ordered the pieces before we got to the board and hold the glue stick it took seven or eight people most of a day - we finished at 5.15pm. In the morning I had been told to go to a training for RPs about health (the SO had to put in an appearance, but I said we should concentrate on getting one job finished and he said OK) - planning and systems - don't happen.

Enlarge this to the country again - why not just concentrate on law and order to ensure elections before being sidetracked by education, forest management, road construction etc - these will all continue from day to day - just get the job in hand finished. (Comments on the political parties intentions later).

So on Thursday morning bright and early (not bright, it rained all the way to Bharatur)I set off for a couple of days r and r. I'd had a runny nose for a week - more annoying than anything, but comments on my red nose and the fact that a supervisor told everyone he caught me with my head on the desk made me feel it was a good job I was going to be out of the office for several days, or in an under-the -weather state I may say something I would regret. Leaving the bus at Dumre, along the road to Pokhara, (people assumed I was going to Besishar, the start of the Annapurna trail - not this time)I got into a jeep for the 20 rupee trip up the hill.

The village of Bandipur was once the district capital, but as with Bimphedi, the coming of a good road meant the village lost its significance. Two years ago, with various grants, the village set out to attract tourists with an eco-tourism scheme. Peter heard about it first at a Rotary meeting, but it was Clare who discovered it last autumn. Sitting along a ridge is a traffic free,largely paved, incredibly clean, well signposted village of Newari houses surrounded by terraces, forest and numerous interconnecting walks. The largest cave in Nepal is down the hill (I didn't go, but I understand that with a good torch it looks amazing). The people have set out to be friendly and accommodating - the children all namaste, occasionally ask for pens, talk endlessly and love having their photo taken (school was still out).

I stayed in a cell-sized room at the Bandipur Guest House with a Romeo and Juliet balcony (very fragile)and a view south over the valley. The food was served on a terrace two floors down by a family who all worked well together. These photos show the view from the balcony and the view from one of the highest points of the village looking east towards the Masyangdi river which flows along beside the KTM-Pokhara road.

I spent the first afternoon wandering and the second day, having missed sunrise, but seen the mountains, I walked down the old track to the valley before catching the jeep back up. That walk took me through forest (crunching autumn leaves), through farms, orchards, past ox ploughs, down zig-zag paths, past a monkey colony and finally on to the road after I was redirected by an elderly woman bathing under a pump.

Having had a rest (the cold was catching up with me), I asked about a silk farm which was sign-posted outside the guest house. I'd set off down the road the previous day, but seen no sign of it. It's about 25minutes walk they said - follow the 'motor road'. I guessed that was the wider track I had seen descending into the valley, ut it was growing a bit cooler, so off I went, accompanied by a few children, including two girls I'd met the previous day - 'we have a club, we collect money for all those little children - like that one - who don't have handkerchiefs!' They obviously haven't collected much yet. After a while they pointed out a man who was walking in the same direction and said he was going to the silk farm. They called him and he said I could go along with him. There were no more signs and I wouldn't have found the place, but it was just off the 'motor road'. Having seen the mulberry bushes, containers with silk worms at various stages and the cocoon spinning sheds, I was just in time for the bus (very welcome, but I couldn't believe the bus would get up the road we had just walked down). There was only one passenger, a teacher going home to Bandipur (private schools are open). He was very friendly, as were the two lads who were working as conductor and conductor's mate. As we reached a hairpin bend, the driver stopped, one of the lads jumped off and started whistling for the driver to back (I knew it). When this happened for the third time, the teacher suggested we got off and walked - he took me the short way (cutting off the hairpins by scrambling up the paths between) and although the bus did overtake us once, we left it stuck again. He said this happened nearly every day.

Next morning I was up with the sun (but not the heat) and off to the view point, where there was not very much to see, but the changing colours are still magical and the peace and quiet of the village was hardly disturbed.

After breakfast down to the valley on the first jeep at 8am. Thinking it might be busy, I was there by 7.40 - only 9 adults, several sacks and a little boy sitting on them (by the time we set off he was asleep,propped up by the sacks and prevented from falling by the sheer numbers in the vehicle).As young men arrived,they were directed to the roof - four pairs of legs swung over the windscreen and goodness know how many were round the sides- the only man inside was a delightful old(?) man who travelled on to KTM with me-the young women stood on the tail gate (four when we started and others joined on the way down), there were six of us sitting on each of the seats along the side and to complete the group was the young woman sitting on the floor with a baby and two cockerels. The birds were remarkably quiet until the baby started pulling their feathers, but we did all arrive in one piece.

Very quickly finding a bus going to KTM, I was given a front seat with the old man from Bandipur. At 9am as we were ready to set off, we were told to get on another bus - still a front seat which meant I could take a few photos along this well travelled road - this is approaching the bridge across the Trisuli river where the road to the Terai turns south.

Shortly after arriving at Manakaamana (Nepal's only cable car - up to a temple) a person I recognised from Dumre got on and had words with the driver. Several women on the bus started arguing (I was getting the message -we had to change buses). It was obviously somethng to do with the original change, which maybe shouldn't have happened (bus company competition!)for the driver of bus no 3 was our original driver. The main complaint was altough the bus was larger, there were not enough seats - being the foreigner, though, I was squashed into the front, where a cheerful Tamang woman made a bit of room for me and told me she was getting off next stop. When the next stop came, other people left the bus and there was a seat in the main body of the bus. But the fun wasn't over.

A white micro bus tried to overtake on several occasions and when it eventually succeeded, almost caused a pile up by cutting in very sharply in front of our bus. The horn was played long and hard and a couple of very smart young men from the back of the bus came down and spoke to the conductor. Mobile phones appeared, there was a piece of paper with numbers on and it turned out there had been some sort of incident before the microbus overtook us, which these young men had seen and they had noted the number, which they were now relaying to the police.

At a police post just before we started climbing up to the valley rim, the bus was flagged down and there was the microbus - under arrest. Our driver, the conductor, the two young men and half the passengers got off and there were some arms waving threateningly before the main players disappeared inside.

It was a very long, hot, eventful journey and I was so pleased to collapse on the bed at PGH. The cold was now in control and except for the conference meeting and a visit to the new VSO office in Patan (very smart)I spent most of the time on the bed, drinking endless bottles of water and beginning to rattle with medication.
While I was in Patan, though, I did have a wander round Durbar Square and spotted a crowd dancing to a traditional band - further investigation showed it was the procession of Rato Machchendrenath (a red image brought out for a month-long journey round Patan to encourage the monsoon to come). The idol rides around on a very tall chariot covered in branches and hauled by teams of men. Last year I saw the seto (white) version in Kathmandu, but that was static. This was leaning precariously to the right and men were pulling on ropes from the rooftops at the other side of the road, to try to return it to ann upright position.

I didn't stay around to see the outcome, but I read in the paper yesterday that the journey has been postponed because there have been found to be faults in the construction of the chariot, causing it to list to the right! This is considered very inauspicious - last year the Kathmandu version was held up because of the curfews, now Patan's talisman is having problems.

I had a very quick journey back to Hetauda (3 hours 15 minutes)via the reservoir road, on Tuesday, but it could have been much slower as traffic out of the valley along that road was held up while the King (the PM says we should just call him Gyanendra)went to give a sacrifice at the temple at Dakshinkali. Everyone else was celebrating the first new Democracy Day, but the date was right for the royal couple to go to the temple, so off they went with an armed escort and police and soldiers lining the road (we saw them, but noone knew why, possibly thinking there may be many people (Maoists) coming into the valley for the celebrations)and an army band which played the (banned) national Anthem and fired a 21 gun salute. Who gave the army permission? It seems it was the person in charge of the army - Defence Minister (and PM) GP Koirala! There's no wonder the parties are falling out - it really is an inauspicious time.

Althogh I missed it completely because there's no point in going to the bazaar when it's closed on Saturday, there was a chakkajam and transport strike in Hetauda yesterday-Maoists stopping Nepali Congress members going to a big meeting in Birgunj. The PM was supposed to be going, but decided against it.

This seems to be where we came in - blocked roads in town. The Maoist second-in-command has said today that if a republic hasn't been declared by the third week in May, indefinite peaceful agitation will begin again. That's the week after the conerence - I don't fancy being stuck in KTM again, but it would be better than being stuck in the office - I went back to work today (flu like symptoms just about disappeared, nose still running-it may soon be the only thing that is!)and there was noone there - I'll try again tomorrow, but the next two days are holidays, so they aren't likely to return for one day. I was going to the Resource Centre this afternoon to see if the RP was there, but it seems there's a national volleyball tournament being held at the school and had I been able to get through the demonstrators outside the Municipal Buildings (don't know what their grumble was) I would have had to fight my way through spectators - I don't think I would have been there if I was the RP!

Since we have so many holidays over here, I can understand why some Nepalis expect the UK to celebrate at every possible excuse too. This banner was stretched across the road near the PGH and the British Embassy last weekend -it says it's from 'the cleaner of Nepal' so I hope you enjoyed the national day last Saturday, even if you didn't know it.

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Visitors, visas and voting?

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:48:17 +0200

Returning to work after Ram's Wedding Day (which I spent with Urmila and the boys-and it seems I'm helping someone's literacy improve-Sumit loves finding pictures of cars in my paper)

I found a small group of APF personnel sitting outside the compound gate, another group at the chyaa pasal in the garden and a small group of office staff sitting outside the office building. The door was open at that point but 'the door is going to be locked' said Mahendra. Several people did go inside and I followed because I wanted to check that everything was organised for Friday's workshop, particularly if the office was to be closed. Having been assured the office would be open at 10am and there would be food, I was told to leave. There were several teachers outside talking to the APF and I understand that they walked in and locked the office door at 11am. The few people who were there stayed for an hour or so, clearing up the garden, then they too left.

That afternoon I received a phone call from Dil who was facilitating the workshop for me - was there an LCD projector at the resource centre? A what? They've only just discovered OHPs!I agreed to see what I could do, even though I was stunned that a Nepali organisation was so geared up to depend on technology (and I had advised Dil that there was load shedding on Friday morning - though that all changed with the news that we are now down to 4 hours a week only - 2 hours on Sunday and Monday evening-all thanks to the heavy snow, sudden warm spell-we're well over 30degrees-and factory closures because of the strikes). I contacted PLAN - they wanted 2000rupees to loan us their machine - 'helping each other out isn't Nepali culture' explained an RP 'Nepalis need money'. All was well in the end as Dil's machine lasted out by being switched off regularly.
The HIV and AIDS workshop was quite well received. There were many informative games and the men enjoyed joining in, though the two women were less sure. Something of an argument started when a representative from the teachers' union said he thought all HIV infected children should be taught together in one place away from the others. One of the supervisors took him on with a not so gentle reminder that Education for All is an inclusive programme. Dil didn't let the issue take over but chose the two participants to illustrate the point that someone with knowledge can lead those without it thtough all the problems and pitfalls - I hope the point was made with them as well as it was with the rest of us.
The following week I went to a meeting for the chairs of ECD (nursery)management committees. As I was busy(?-well trying to be busy, but the figures just weren't there)with FLASH report figures for ECDs it was quite interesting to hear the complaints and commendations for the DEO and PLAN centres. The best part of the day was lunch on the roof of the Seema hotel - giving the opportunity for a new view of Main Road.
Another good meal that week was morning daal bhaat with Jose's family out in the village.
Jose did the washing up but wants it made plain that this isn't the behaviour of a Nepali man!
Colin had come up for a farewell visit (he left Birgunj yesterday -it's now 14th April)and we had met him the previous day. He stayed the night with Jose and the pair of them were coming back into Hetauda the next morning - to watch the Champions League fixture replays!Jose has started many initiatives since his return in November and I expect we'll see him again before the end of the year. Colin is looking forward to some tree felling in Devon before he embarks on his next venture, whereever that might be.
The office was very quiet at the end of that week as the SLC exams had started and everyone was out monitoring them. The news of leaked papers in Bakhtapur on the second day made everyone more cautious.
Another DEO in the news was in Saptari. I had met the DE Officer at the UNESCO workshop in Kathmandu last month. He was abducted by a Madeshi group and kept hostage for over a week while they demanded 5 million rupees and the removal of all hill people from government posts in the terai. He was rescued eventually by police, but our own DEO now has an armed guard in his quarters and the APF sit and drink tea in the garden every day.
So we came to the weekend and it was Easter. I went to church on Saturday thinking this would be the Easter service, but no they were going to hold a special one on Easter Sunday at 6am. I actually made it and we had tea and biscuts afterwards. I tried to explain about eggs, but that was one step too far. I did have some Cadbury's mini eggs which Rohini had brought back from the UK a few weeks ago and so I shared them with Urmila's boys and Gorab downstairs. Gorab's mum, Sanu, was fascinated - she was all ready to start taking the shells off until I told her to taste one.
There has been training for HIV and AIDS organisations in Makwanpur this week, so Jocelyn and Hanneke (a bright young Dutch volunteer) have been staying with me, while Rutti stayed at Clare's. It's made for some interesting evenings (particularly when Eric arrived as well to watch the footie -he's Man U Jocelyn's Chelsea and Clare's Liverpool - great week all round- no it's not, I just heard Boro lost 3-1).
During the week there has been much talk of 'leaving' and 'going home' as Eric,Jocelyn and Clare are all leaving in May and Rutti in June. Clare is going out through India, as are Eric and Jocelyn, so this morning we set off at 7am to go down to Birgunj for Clare to check the Indian rail timetables and buy a ticket to travel to Delhi with the others and for me to get a stamp on my Indian visa to make renewal easier next month.
Trying to persuade the Nepali customs men that we really did need a stamp on our visas took quite a while, but we did get it, though we then had to explain to the Indians why we had one (for same day returns they don't usually bother). We had taken a rickhaw to the border and then asked the driver to take us on to the station. There was a big jam of trucks, so he said he would take us another route, which ended with us walking along by the rail track to the longest level crossing I've ever seen. We also had Richard with us, who thought he should know about the station for when his new colleagues arrive next month (5 newcomers in Birgunj - 3 Dutch, 1 Ugandan and a Phillipino). He managed to show us a good fabric shop, but Raxaul doesn't have a great deal to commend it, so we were quite glad to see the welcome arch which combines Indian and Nepali designs.

As the schools are still closed until the 22nd April, next week may also be quiet and I'm hoping to get a few days away next weekend - including a meeting in KTM for the organisation of our annual conference which has been moved from December to May. The following Tuesday is Democracy Day, so another holiday. We've already had the old version of Democracy Day, but 24th April, the day which marked the King's back down at the end of Janaandolan last year is to be the new date,and since today is New Year's Day (2064)we shall have it again ths year. I hope it's marked sensibly, because today we had the news that it is very unlikely elections will take place in June. The communists blame the Prime Minister, the Maoists say they wil decare a republic and the Madeshis have already declared a banda whnever the elections take place - hey ho - new year, but not much changes.

Comments

RPs, Rautahat and the Rally

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:48:38 +0100

Resource persons (otherwise known as RPs) come in all shapes and sizes. I still can't match all the RPs to their areas (or indeed match all the names to the right faces) but they could be very influential people in Nepali education, if they were able to fulfil their job description.Two of Makwanpur's 16 RPs are women and since I last wrote I have worked with both of them, with varying degrees of success.

The second day of training for the women out in Hatiya started with another early morning thunderstorm and there were some absentees. As we walked up to the school,the RP (Uma madam)told me that she would have to leave after the first session as her brother -in-law was getting married. Great! she was supposed to be taking the second session - 'I'll take my session first' she said - fine, but there was a reason the programme had been arranged the other way round. Everything worked out quite well though, because the women were so keen to learn anything (even how to draw 'Oh no we can't' - but even the unsure ones were soon colouring in the drawings of their more confident colleagues).

One of the participants, an ECD (nursery) facilitator at one of the schools, invited me to her school and her house. When I met the RP a couple of days later, I asked her about visiting the school as a follow up to the training. She thought it was a good idea, took out her monthly schedule (not a Nepali thing to do)and arranged for us to go the following Thursday.

Last Thursday morning was one of the most enjoyable times I have experienced. After a 15 rupee bus ride (even further east than last week), we walked up a dusty track until we reached a flat grassy field with the school in two blocks at right angles to each other in one corner of the field. The school's name was displayed on a board fixed above the toilet block. Many of the classroms were locked (including the ECD centre) as exams were happening and at this time of the term, children only go to school when they have an exam. In one room there were about 40 Grade 10 students taking a population exam, in three other rooms there were grade 1,2 and 3 children taking their English exams. The six-year-olds were working very hard - many had filled in most of their answer sheet - writing out the whole alphabet in capital and lowercase letters (in the right order), completing sentences 'My name is....' 'I read in class ....' 'My school is.......'. At the end there were five oral questions, including 'Touch your mouth' 'Stand up' 'How are you?'. Uma looked at the paper, chose a child who wasn't writing and said 'Touch your mouth'. Assessment? Further oral work needed! Obviously the 20% of time which should be given to reading and writing was either very well used or the 80% of time spent on oral work was under-used. The picture shows the children waiting to answer madam's questions.

While madam was talking to the headteacher, the ECD facilitator(Manju)had been called from her house and she took me the short wak there to spend a fascinating hour eating freshly picked papaya,
.
watching oxen threshing corn by walking round and round in circles on it

and enjoying the company of Manju's son Jyoti, who loved taking photos.

While we were waiting for the bus back to Hetauda, we were told there was a traffic banda in town. Because our bus was coming from the east and stopped before it reached the bazaar I never saw any problems and everything was running after work. Unfortunately the banda prevented Richard and Colin from getting up to Hetauda to begin their long awaited walk to Kathmandu.

The reason for the banda was that the previous day there had been a violent incident in the town of Gaur, the headquarters of Rautahat district (south on the highway, turn east then south again - three to four hours away from here). Until just after our group arrived in Nepal, VSO had volunters based at the DEO there (a Dutch couple, Rik and Peggy). They were withdrawn for security reasons, when it became impossible for them to travel safely on any road, as the area was a Maoist hot-bed. This time the Maoists were on the receiving end of a viscious attack by a group (Maadeshi Peoples' Rights Forum or MPRF) who do not beieve enough is being done for the Maeshi people, ut who have become increasingly dangerous since the 'Lahan' incident back in january, when some of their suporters were fired at by (allegedly) the Maoists. Descriptions of what happened to innocent towns people (28 were killed and some are still missing)are horrific and it is clear that there was armed support from over the border in India. The local police and district administration knew there wwas going to be trouble between the two groups and did nothing. While the terai is tryng to get back to normal after he strikes, this has shaken everyone's confidence that there will be an 8 party government and elections soon. Talks on forming the government seemed to be getting somewhere (the main parties had almost agreed who should have which ministry (remember this is only until the elections!)but the 'final' meeting was postponed today because of the prime Minister's 'busy schedule'-the same prime Minister who last week was reported to have missed a meeting because of his ill health and next to the report in the paper was seen arriving at a big valley celebration where he was chief guest (a position usually held by the King). The same 85 year old is going to delhi next weekend for an international conference - he's going two days early 'because of his health'. Will there be a government by then? Who knows what may happen in his absence.

Back to RPs. The other female RP (Padma madam)had asked me to take a couple of sessions at the training for heads and SMC chairs at her Resource Centre at Mayurdhap, as I did before Christmas. One of the other sessions during the two days was about school mapping. I had heard so much about the importance of this happening, but I really hadn't appreciated the significance. Apparently the Ministry of Education and Sport doesn't know where all its schools are, so the districts have been commissioned to mark all their schools on copies of (the equivalent of) Ordnance Survey maps.

There is an excellent map shop in Kathmandu where I bought some of these maps, but they are very out of date (there is no road beyond Bhimphedi until you reach Kulkhani according to one map), so having been given a geography lesson about what the various symbols on the map meant, the heads had to find their own school, or mark it on. They also marked on roads and changes in river courses. The purpose of the activity is to rationalise the system - giving schools sensible catchment areas and appropriate staffing, so somemay lose out, now that the Ministry knows they are there, but there will also be winners who may be given a qualified, funded teacher.

And so to the Rally. Several weeks ago I read in the paper that the government had requested that the strikes in the Terai should not interfere with the SAARC Car Rally which was to pass through Nepal. I guessed it might be something like the Monte Carlo rally, but it's not a race, just a demonstration of friendly cooperation. SAARC (the south Asian equivalent of the EU, but only 7 countries strong) is holding its assembly in Delhi (where the PM is going next week). As part of the event, more than 20 identical cars bearng the national flags of the seven countries, are travelling through all of them (except Sri Lanka)for a month, spreading peace and goodwill. This weekend the rally reached Nepal, having left Dakha, travelled through Bhutan and crossed the border from India. The cars were travelling on the Mahendra Highway to Pokhara, then on to Kathmandu and from ther to Lumbini, before crossing back into India, going to Pakistan and then all the way down India and crossing to the Maldives.

One day last week I saw one of the signwriters busy outside his shop on the way home from work. I realised the Rally must be coming to Hetauda.On Friday the guys at the office were out even faster than they usually are on a Friday at 3pm. I was even gven the key to Ybaraj's office so I could lock up when I'd finished on the computer (I left at 3.15). I'd been told the cars were expectted at 2pm, but this is nepal, so I was sure I'd be intime to see them. Along with at least half the inhabitants of the town, I stood and waited until 4.30 and was rewarded with a half hour procession of cars crawling through a very narrow gap as the crowds pushed closer together on both sides of the road. The waiting was great fun - school students, mums and toddlers, people trying to do their shopping, everyone was friendly and chatting. Once an official looking car had gone by there were cheers for every vehicle, rickshaw, police van or micro bus. The enormous truck that was caught under one of the banners had a special cheer.

I now know what the flags of Bangadesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives look like (as well as being waved from the cars they were displayed round Loktantra Chowk (the kingless plinth even had the SAARC flag on it instead of the usual red one), smaller versions were strung along the side of the road and schoolchldren were given welcome to Nepal flags with them on (a nice young man from Makwanpur Campus kindly gave me his). It was wonderful to see such a good natured and happy crowd after all the bad news this week. One of the rally participants, sitting on the roof of his car brought a tremendous cheer when he shouted 'Loktantrik Nepal'(Democratic Nepal) and another puzzled me to begin with by shouting 'We low' and then everyone shouted 'Nepal'and I nrealised he meant 'love'. I wathced the procession standing on an upturned plastic crate offered by Retka, the girl who runs a fruit stall. The pictures don't capture the excitement and noise or the frustration of the miles of drivers who were caught up behind the procession, but at least the traffic was moving.

So it was weekend again and it could have been a good long one as today (Monday) and tomorrow are holidays. Unfortunately, but for a good reason, I had to work yesterday ( a meeting with the facilitator of the HIV and AIDS sensitisation meeting for the DEO, which is finaly going ahead, after another postponement, next Friday).

On Saturday afternoon, I was sitting on the roof with my headphones when I thought I heard someone shout 'hello' at the second time of asking I went and looked over the edge of tghe roof to see Jose shouting an waving - he'd been there 5 minutes, but couldn't make me hear. He was full of his plans for his organisation and how he is trying to make sure everything is handed over to his Nepali contacts before he leaves for home next month ('I've got to go back,because I haven't got married'). He thinks next time he comes he might build a house instead of staying with 'his' family out at Saraswati.

Today, a festival when people worship goddess Durga, as they do at Dashain ( conversation with Shrawan at the office -what will happen then? - oh people will be slating goats. what? you know slating - penny dropped - oh, slaughtering - how do you spell it ? s-l-a-u-g-h-t - yes I said slating, oh your English language!), I have been totally lazy and enjoyed fresh air on the balcony and done some work for VSO-making observations about the placement description and how it should be changed for my successor - yes it's that time already! Two years ago this week I went to London for my assessment day and sometime soon someone else will be doing the same, or maybe in Amsterdam or Toronto, and they will match up to the job description. There is a caveat on the bottom of the placement dscription form tht says things may have changed by the time you get to post. It should say that things will change daily, but if anyone asked me now about coming I'd still say yes. I've kept saying I'd find out why I was here and maybe I've found the answer. On Thursday afternoon, Mahendraji asked me if I was here for the whole month (he meant the Nepali month Chaitra, which goes up to the nepali new year on 14th April)when I said 'Yes, if you need me' he said 'We need you!'

Tomorrow is the celebration of Ram's wedding to Sita, a festival greatly celebrated in Janakpur, where Sita was born. Unfortunately Janakur is totally out of bounds at the moment. I have been puzzled all week as to why I can't remember these holidays from last year, then on the news they said that Seto Machendrath would be pulled round Kathmandu today and I realised it was the festival which was held on the very first day of the banda which led to jana aandolan last year, when I walked round Kathmandu on deserted streets except for when the procession came by and I saw the Living Goddess Kumari being carried round. Memories.

Comments

Spring has sprung

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 14:28:57 +0100

Yes, all the signs were there last week and with the return of mozzies at the office today I think we can say that spring is here.

After all the rain last week, the sky was very clear last Monday morning as I set off in the jeep for Kathmandu. After climbing the hills out of Bhimphedi we turned the corner at the top, ready to go back down into the valley and there were the mountains - I've been that way several times before and never realised that there would be a view there, but it disappeared very quickly as we descended through the red rhododendron forest (now in full bloom, to the delight of the Nepalis on board, who persuaded the driver to stop so they could buy flowers from the young children standing by the road, for 5 rupees a bunch - lalli gurans is the national flower of Nepal and I haven't heard of any plans to change that).

The next surprise was that we went up and over the Kulikhani reservoir road. We had heard that there were roadworks and sure enough we had a short wait for a road roller, but it does look as though they are seriously attempting to make this route a really viable alternative to the highway.

With no punctures or other holdups I was in VSO 4 and a half hours after leaving Hetauda. After some discussion I found out I wasn't staying at the Pacfic but at the Orchid Hotel where the UNESCO workshop was to be held. The taxi driver didn't know where it was on the long busy road, but eventually I spotted a small sign. It really was a case of not judging a hotel by it's front door - my room was big and bright with contant hot water and a view across to the hills in the west. Downstairs was a lovely garden with a covered eating area and a big comfortable meeting hall.

Just down the road from the hotel was a building I'd heard about but never visited - the Bluebird Mall. What a revelation - western shopping comes to Kathmandu-there's even a food court. I didn't spend, though some of the clothes were very nice.

The two-day workshop was very interesting - new people to meet, different perspectives to hear about, but I'm a bit concerned that all the information UNESCO are suggesting should be given to school teachers a) will never reach them (it's too expensive to go to every school and will probably be watered down if it only gets to the RPs) and b)they will not find an opportunity to use it unless they are health and population teachers in secondary schools (where it's supposed to be in the curriculum). 'Class' teachers who know all their children well and year tutors with pastoral responsibiity in big secondary schools are an unknown here. The big boss from UNESCO Bangkok who had devised the original information tool kit to be used in policy making (Ministry level)for teaching about the prevention of HIV and AIDS was also surprised when I explained that this wasn't the scenario in Nepal c) The Nepalis' biggest concern in my group was that the transpaltion from the original English was not good and wouldn't be understood - I really couldn't help with that. (It was around this time that one of the group - from an NGO - decided to do some origami and showed me how to make a paper shirt).

On Wednesday after the closing of the workshop, the hall was rarranged for the 'launch' of the Ministry toolkit. Rohini and Christopher (an Indian HIV and AIDS VSO volunteer-not Chris, as in Rohini's husband) had worked on trialling ths and they were also at the launch. Many people were saying farewells to Chris and Rohini, including the DG of the Department of Education, who was very friendly when he knew I was working in Makwanpur - apparently he was DEO here once upon a time and worked with Mahendraji. (Talking of which, I got an e-mail from poor Richard today - he's back in Birgunj, but the schools are closed, though the DEO is open and he has a new DEO - number 12 since November 2004).

Thursday was International Women's Day. I missed a large district gathering in Hetauda (Clare's photos show dozens of women climbing out of trucks arriving from all over the district)and didn't make it to the procession in Kathmandu, but as Rosemary said - one of the aims is to give women time to think about themselves - and that was what we were doing.

After a meeting with Purna at VSO (and the chance to collect the funding for my next two training sessions)and a look round the office - where noone had started packing, though the move was to take place the next day, but the VSO NEPAL box hedge had disappeared - I went to meet Rohini for a pizza lunch and a long natter and later went over to Patan to meet up with Geraldine and Judith at Rosemary's. She took us for the short walk to the new VSO office - Prem was just arriving with another load in one of the vehicles, so they had started - and we were able to walk through all three floors (education is on the top floor)and get a feel for the place - it's great for all the vols in Patan, but the journey from the Pacific is more complicated. (The VSO NEPAL box hedge had already been transplanted!)

So it was time to come back. My alarm was set for 6am but I woke up at 5.20. Thinking that I'd read until it was time to get up, I was disappointed when the lights went out at 5.30, so there was a bit of washing by head torch before it as properly light. After a quick (no, service isn't quick at the Pacific) breakfast I set off in a taxi to the bus park (well it's really a busy road with spare land on either side). Unfortunately, before we had gone too far there was a big hold up as power lines, which had come down, were being removed to safety. I eventually reached the buses and found a microbus which was going to Hetauda 'at 9 o'clock'. It left its parking space at 9am and drove up and down the road trying unsuccessfully to find an extra passenger to fill the one remaining space. We eventually left Kathmandu at 10 - with plenty of space on my row of seats - so much, in fact, that my neighbour sat cross-legged on the seat (reading a Maoist pamphlet, which he'd bought from a seller at the window, singing along with the inevitable music and finally falling asleep).

We travelled the more bumpy road and it looked even more scary going in this direction,

but on the lower slopes there was a mass of white cherry blossom, the yellow mustard was out and as we climbed higher we came to the rhododendrons again - no flower sellers, but passengers asked the driver to stop so they could pick their own.

The journey was going smoothly (well, bumpily really)until we reached a narrow bend near the junction with the highway. As another microbus was coming the other, we reversed to let it through - bang, straight into a metal post behind us. Fortunately the noise was the worst thing about it, but there were plenty of people sitting out in the sun to enjoy the driver's embarrassment and annoyance with his (very) young helper.

Saturday came and went with a walk up to the temple, washing and tidying, and no football since load shedding was from 10pm.It was the second birthday of Gorab who lives downstairs.There was a big family party in the evening with delicious smells wafting up all day (yes I did get a plateful when his mum came to borrow four plates)and she also asked if I'd take a photo of the birthday boy in his new t-shirt.

Then back to work. It seems that I'm flavour of the month - another RP asking me to provide training for her heads and SMC chairs (at least I don't have to reinvent the wheel - it's just a pity that these RPs weren't around last year, then the word might have spread more quickly).

I wrote all that on Sunday - it's now Tuesday. Forget spring - we had a howling gale and tremendous downpour yesterday afternoon, (Clare and I both put shawls away and took out summer kurtas on Sunday)but there was a spectacular rainbow right across our part of town at the end of it.

The earlier warmth has also woken the geckos (obviously they know there are mozzies about) and a new visitor is a splendid brown and cream spider who has made his mark on the outside of my living room window.

Another first in my education of the wildlife of Nepal came this morning. Rain at 5am, thunder and lightning before 6 then the lights went out (not load shedding - we had that unexpectedly tonight!)and as I went to draw the curtains there were 5 large swallow shaped birds with graceful forked tails all balancing on my telphone wire, sheltering under the roof of my balcony. The sound of the door opening as I went to take a photo was enough to scare them off, but I'd love to know what they were.

As I was taking training for another group of women SMC members today, out in the rural area to the east, I was on the bus with Uma, the RP, at 10 o'clock. There was great hilarity just before we set off, when a woman threw a large sack under a seat and told the driver it would be picked up.The sack began moving, squealing and making everyone sitting near it move to the back of the bus. Just before departure, the conductor decided the sack was a liability and might roll down the steps, so he picked it up and returned it to the woman who was in a nearby shop. What was in the sack? A pig.

On that typical Nepali story I'll close - another day with the women tomorrow - why don't they let the women run this country - the ones who have made it as far as being involved in school management are so committed and enthusiastic (and in one case, today, very politicaly aware).They would certainly do as good a job as the men, who are descending to the level of a group of schoolboys -'My party's better than your party' (the latest accusation is that the Crown Prince is plotting to kill Americans and Nepali party leaders - and they have a CD to prove it). Now that is a typical Nepali story.

Comments

Happy Holi

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:30:33 +0100

This week has flown by and I'm taking advantage of the fact that we haven't had load-shedding today (probably a reflection on the amount of rain that's fallen each evening)to catch up on my writing before leaving the laptop for a few days while I attend training in Kathmandu (of which more later).

Back to last weekend. If you remember I'd left the office on Friday lunchtime as it was about to be locked by the 'revolutionary' students. As I walked to the office on Sunday morning, I met Mahendraji, newly returned from Chitwan. As we turned in through the gates we were met by two peons and the chiyaa pasal owner - the main gates were now open, but the gate to the building was locked. As I walked back home I had to smile - I moan about the lack of communication at the office, but I realised that noone had thought to inform Mahendraji of what was happening (he's only second in command).

Monday 10am - I'm at the office and so are several other people, but we can't get in. There are to be negotiations - I don't understand this because in the paper it says the students have agreed to unlock all the DEOs after talks. Anyway my RP (Drubhasir) had come to meet me so he suggested we move across to the Resource Centre. A good job he had a chair - shock - me at a meeting 1-1 with a RP - and very useful it was too - he's choosing the four schools we're going to follow up -and he talked about the problems of running a resource centre on 10000 rupees a year (which he says doesn't cover the phone bill), so he's going to approach the municipality for financial support.

There was still no action at the office when we finished the meeting just before 12, but I was told the next day that it had opened in the afternoon - I spent the afternoon at home writing proposals for further training sessions.

Wednesday, the office was open and in the afternoon the DEO held a very stormy-sounding meeting with the students' leaders. It wasn't the only stormy sound that day - during load-shedding (6pm-9pm)there was thunder and lightning suitable for a special effects Oscar - the colours of the sky were incredible, especially as everythng else was pitch black.

Although the office was open, the shops in the bazaar were closed that day because of a Nepal banda called by the ethnic peoples' groups. There was also no transport. Clare had to go to Kathmandu with the representatives from her organisation for her review workshop (like the one we had a couple of weeks ago)a day early and a visit down here by other volunteers from her programme was cancelled because of the risk of getting stuck. VSO concerns also put off Chris and Rohini from coming for the weekend. While we are being mildly inconvenienced, people in the east of Nepal have ben having a really bad time for weeks. The latest action is for the planes to stop flying to Biratnagar, because staff were harrassed by party workers trying to stop people travelling. Poor Joseph went to Kathmandu at he end of January to see his wife and little daughter off when they returned to Uganda and hasn't been able to return yet. The new volunteers who are coming out at the end of the month to placements in Birgunj,hetauda and Biratnagar have been told their placements are in doubt.

It's so hard to believe that the disadvantaged people who were all set to benefit from last year's movement are now causing as much trouble. The situation with constant bandas goes back to the time before we came out, before the King took direct control.

The good news is that the banda was called off for three days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so that people could enjoy the Holi holiday which fell on Saturday, and in the Terai they also have a second day of playing colours. It seems that people just wanted to forget that they are waiting to find out about elections, that there is widespread concern about the small number of weapons registered by the Maoists,that the madeshi organisations have promised further violence if their demands are not met ths week - they just went out and had fun.

I went to church on Saturday morning, quite safely - still clean and smart when I got there, but I'd only come a few yards on the way home when a large family group with faces covered in purple, red, yellow and green powder shouted 'happy Holi' and the father came and carefully put a large blob of red tika on my forehead. Once it looked as though I was up for playing Holi every group of children I passed as I came down the road added a bit more.

Last year I stayed in the house on the first day,because we'd been told how unpleasant it could be if water bombs were thrown or if wet powder was squirted, but the good will of everyone here made it a much more fun day.

In the afternoon the lawn at the nursery over the wall, which usually hosts a ladies' gathering on Saturdays, was crowded with people - it looked as though the women had all brought along their other halves - and what a group they were. Once they were all thorougly coloured and clouds of yellow dust were hanging around in the air, the music started and they danced, ate, sang and laughed their way through until dark.

The second day of Holi was not one for celebrating this year - last year our madeshi DEO and RPs played Holi with us - but this year there was training for all the RPs and I'd been enlisted to take a session. I enjoyed it and they seemed to - especially the part where one group won a race to complete a jigsaw and won a bar of chocolate.

So now it's time to start packing again as I'm off on the 7.30 jeep to Kathmandu. Purnaji has asked me to attend a 2-day workshop run by UNESCO which is going to consider a tool kit for treachers to help them deliver lessons about HIV prevention. As part of VSO's programme we are all involved in mainstreaming the subject with our organisations - not the easiest thing in the world as I found out on World AIDS Day - but the DEO has asked me to facilitate a sensitisation workshop (to be done in conjunction with one of our artner organisations) for the DEO staff plus some of the top brass from the District and the Municipality at the end of the month. As I feel I'm just getting things together at the office, it's not good timing, but I do think I shall learn a lot. Another good thing is that I shall get to see Chris and Rohini before they leave for England next week and I shall be able to pay a last visit to the VSO office in Baluwatar as it is beeing moved to Patan (very convenient for all the vols who chose to live tht side of the river) on Friday (for anyone sending post, you just leave Baluwatwar off the address). All we need is for an emergency to happen over next weekend when all the phones and computers will be out of order - no don't think about it!

It looked very cold at the football in Bolton tonight, so to end on a positive note, Holi is another 'beginning of spring' celebration - let's hope this one is the real one - the temperatures in KTM are hitting 20 and my towels dried on the balcony today.

Comments

Son, snow, more strikes and students

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:04:54 +0100

Three weeks since I last wrote - so you know you're in for a long read!

On Saturday 3rd February Clare and I went to Kathmandu with Purna in the VSO jeep. We waited until after 11.30 to check that our four friends from Birgunj were safely on board a flight to KTM, having cycled to Simra airport early in the morning before the banda started in Birgunj.

For Shannon it was her farewell to her placement and she had to leave some of her luggage behind; for Richard it was a quick return to Kathmandu, and he's still there, having had the Education workshop, a language refresher course and now being advised to stay because there is a new traffic strike starting from the weekend; Eric and Jocelyn managed to return, but have now been summoned again. With new volunteers arriving next month to replace Eric, Jcelyn and Colin (who's travelling round India)I hope they will be able to take up their placements unlike Geraldine and Nancy who had to stay in Kathmandu last year.

Well,we travelled over a new route-below the reservoir, bouncing along sandy and rocky roads high above a deep gorge, then dropping down to the valley. A completely different landscape from the jungle and paddy fields-bare in places - scenery for a western comes to mind,but all the time a great reminder about how hard life can be, not really very far from the capital. As we came into proper habitation at Pharping, our driver Panna pulled over at a motor repair centre (garage it wasn't). We had two punctures. Having changed the front wheel and pumped the rear one 'to last' we continued to the Ring Road, where I took a taxi to the airport - Stephen's plane should already have landed. (The puncture had delayed us, but the journey had taken less than four hours). Thanks to the fact that we had forgotten to tell Ste he needed photos for his visa, he didn't come out until just before 5pm, so all was well.

Having met up with the Gunj group at the Pacific, we spent the evening having pizza at the Roadhouse before watching football until the power went off - a sure sign it was time for bed.

Stephen and I then had two days in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur (cold and very dirty - the garbage problem was starting again and has only just been resolved -for the time being), two days in Pokhara (thick cloud hiding even the green hills and making Fishtail as much a myth as the yeti), 24 hours at Sauraha in the Chitwan National Park (encountering a traffic strike on the way from Pokhara, but meeting an enterprising hotel owner who organised us very well - no tigers, but many birds, two crocodiles, lots of monkeys, a snake that could have been a cobra and a rhino), two days in Hetauda (including a walk up to the temple and a home cooked meal at Urmila's)and another jeep ride back to Kathmandu, where we spent his last morning in Nepal visiting Pashpathinath temple to see the sadhus who were arriving for the big Shiva festival later in the week. Ste refused two offers of a 'smoke' but the sadhus certainly hadn't refused! The ten days went very quickly, but despite having had only the faintest glimpse of a mountain from the roof of the Pacific on the last day, I think we had a good time with plenty of sights, sounds and smells to remember.

The only mountain we saw, and the only yak I've seen so far, at the Mountaineering Museum in Pokhara

An evening view from our riverside guesthouse in Chitwan (we'd just returned from a 'cruise' on one of these)

Hindu holy men gathering for their day of legal pot smoking and incredible physical feats

At the Pacific, our home from home in Kathmandu

The morning after Stephen left, the education volunteers were bussed out to a very comfortable resort hotel on the edge of the valley for our programme review/planning workshop. I was very sorry that when we went into our third floor conference room, there was a stunning view of the Himalaya and I felt much better when it disappeared quite quickly into the clouds.

Our programme that day was disrupted because Purna (who was already suffering from a very sore throat and couldn't talk - very unusual) had to leave us because he'd received news that his brother had had a motor bike accident in Hetauda and was having a scan in Bharatpur hospital. Our Country Director, Tracey, stepped in to help out and the next day a very quiet Purna was able to rejoin us with good news about his brother's condition. He'd flown both ways and only been able to return so quickly because the American Ambassador (a very controversal figure here, because of his regular 'interfering' statements)had been visiting the area, so there was a plane available.

That evening it began raining and it rained all night (we were quite pleased - perhaps it would ease the electricity situation, and as someone in Pokhara had said,"If it rains down here, it snows up there and people don't come to see grey mountains")and all the next morning. As we were having lunch, we noticed the rain had turned to sleet. Once back in the conference (having been joined for days 2 and 3 by our partners - in my case Mahendraji, the section officer and the DEO himself!) proceedings were held up when our Programme Development Officer,Rima, suddenly stopped translating for Tracey, and said "It's snowing". We were as bad as the children at school - just gazing out of the window instead of concentrating. The Nepalis were as bad as us and were all saying that they hadn't seen snow falling before. We realised why, when we saw the papers the next day - it was the first time snow had fallen in the valley for 62 years.

The caption reads 'After 62 years snow in the capital'
The conference hit another problem when it was announced that on the following day there would be a Valley bandh (called by the indigenous groups who want increased recognition, representation in government and a federated nation based on ethnic groups - a further development after the demands of the people of the Terai). It was agreed that some of the partners who lived in Kathmandu would return home, but would come back very early in the morning before the bandh took hold (our DEO was back at 5am!). At the end of the final day those of us staying at the hotel were promised either a ride back to Kathmandu on the hotel bus (TOURIST ONLY notices clearly displayed) or an extra night's accommodation. It turned out to be a delayed departure on the bus. There was very little traffic - only cycles and motor bikes-but literally hundreds of people walking back to the city. When we asked why, we were told they had all been up to Pulchowki, the highest hill on the Valley rim, to enjoy the snow. People hadn't walked to work during the bandh, but had used the day to enjoy an unexpected treat.

As the next day, Friday and the following Monday were both Government holidays (Shivaratri and Democracy day), it meant I could enjoy a long weekend away and I'd agreed to meet Roz half way between Pokhara and Kathmandu at Gorkha, the capital of the small state which had been the home of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the leader who united Nepal back in the 18th century and who was an ancestor of the current royal family. There is an old palace/temple complex right at the top of the ridge above the village with excellent mountain views when the weather is right.

The climb is about 1200 feet and we did it three times over the weekend (twice a long way round and then the 'straight' route up the steps. We were rewarded with quite a clear view on Sunday morning.

On the way back down (it was only 8.30) we stopped for breakfast at a chiyaa pasal where we had curried potatoes and soya beans, lemon tea and fresh sel roti cooked over the outdoor stove.

I had an even better view of the mountains as my bus back to Hetauda went down into the valley at 7am on Monday morning. The sunrise colours on the snow was something I thought only happened in Joe Cornish photographs, but they are only stuck in my memory.

For once, the bus journey through Narayanghat was unhindered by road blocks and I was back home before 11am. After doing a load of washing (which was dry in no time - it must be getting warmer)I went up to the market to stock up on veg and go to the dairy. As I crossed the road to the fruit stall, I realised there was a gathering round the statue in the centre of the main crossroads (where I saw the King lose the peacock feathers from his crown a few months ago). Each of the four roads was blocked by rickshaws and there was a fire burning. Many people were standing watching and waiting. At exactly 4pm two young men climbed onto the statue, removed the black hood and proceeded to remove the King's sword, his glasses and his crown and then hack at hs knees until the whole statue toppled on to the road to loud cheers. I left then, as one young man made a speech and the other tried to fix a Maoist flag on to the empty plinth.

I knew it was Democracy Day and obviously many people don't welcome the King in the new Nepal, but I didn't realise, until I saw the news that evening, that similar events had been happening all over the country as a reaction to a statement made (illegally, according to the interim government)by the King the previous night. The plinth now displays it's flag and a large democracy banner (unfortunately I didn't take the camera when I went shopping, so I didn't capture the moment of downfall)

And so back to work. I was really encouraged by the positive atitude of Mahendraji at the conference - he'd come with an action plan all worked out, lots of interesting activities including school monitoring and support with RPs (which I'd been waiting to do since I came), so imagine my disappointment when I found out that he wouldn't be at the office all week, so we couldn't finalse the details, as he hadn't named specific RPs and noone else knew about exact dates. The DEO did return to Hetauda on Tuesday afternoon but was involved in metings elsewher until Friday lunchtime when he was summoned to the office by a concerned section officer. The concern was a report in the newspaper that the National Students' Union (Revolutionary) had been demonstrating in Kathmandu because, despite the peaceful situation, SLC (GCSE equivalent)exams were still scheduled to take place only in district centres and they had threatened to lock all DEO offices. Sure enough, as school ended (Friday is half day)a chanting group of 15-16 year olds from the secondary school down the road approached the DEO gates. Armed (with large sticks)police were in place and let in a small delegation of students - some older ones were clearly the leaders. After a short discussion with the DEO, we were all told to leave and then the gates were locked by the students.
It's hard to know what to think. Nepalis want democracy and free speech and the right to demonstrate are all part of that, but so are upholding the law and allowing people to carry on their occupation. The younger generation is only copying their teachers and other activists, but this week has left me wondering about the future and whether we shall ever have the chance to make even a small difference. It's hard to find starfish in this land locked country!

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