The end

Although we will miss the colours of Nepal, from the brilliant reds, purples, oranges, pinks, yellows and electric blues of the women’s saris, to the fuchsia pink and turquoise stripes on the goats and the bright green rice paddy, we will not miss the Holi festival. This has become an excuse for riotous young men to cover themselves and everyone they meet in brilliantly coloured powder, followed by squirting of water to ensure that the colour sticks fast. I have just returned from a quick outing to the shops – which of course were all shut tight to avoid the coloured assault, and managed to escape unscathed by cheerily waving and shouting “Holi shubhakamana” as I sped past on my bike. I did allow the little girl next door to daub a little colour on ‘auntie’s’ face when I returned home.

I will be sad to leave the English teachers a week before their training is complete, and David has already said a last goodbye to his teachers and children. The flat is gradually being emptied, as friends come to collect items of furniture. Durga arrived with two handcarts yesterday morning and carted off the big furniture, so we are reverting to camping out as we did at the beginning. We have had many invitations to farewell daal bhats; impossible to attend them all. The main farewell events were on Thursday. David arrived as Bal Rani at 9.30am as requested. Preparations were underway and the proceedings started an hour later. Many speeches were made, including one by David in Nepali, followed by presentation of gifts – a beautifully written and framed certificate extolling the virtues of Sir David Spinney, and a huge box wrapped in Barbie doll paper that he was instructed not to open until he got home. He was then anointed with a tikka by everyone (stripe of brilliant red powder on the forehead), covering head, hair, nose and shirt. Worse than Holi. He arrived at the ETC in the afternoon looking as if he had a nasty head injury. The trainers, head of Adarsha school and all my English teachers were formally arranged for speeches. We performed dutifully, but then in the interests of active learning, taught them a song with actions. We were given beautiful shawls, topi (Nepali cap) for David and bag for me. Then tikkas from 37 people. When we arrived colourfully home, we found there was no water, so continued to Hanna’s for a shower. When we opened David’s gift box, it contained a Nepali ‘harvest festival’ collection of fruit and vegetables – some of which we’ve enjoyed this evening but will not be able to transport home! The last of the furniture and household goods will disappear on tomorrow, and we leave for the airport on Saturday morning, much lighter both in body and in luggage than when we arrived.

There is so much we will missas well as Nepali friends: being woken by early morning temple music and the wailing of the imam, sunlight through the palm trees as we eat breakfast on the terrace each morning, children shouting ‘hello didi’ in the mornings as I cycle to work along potholed roads, the always fascinating and changing pattern of street life, ox carts patiently hauling huge loads along the road, watching the cows and goats amongst the children on the school field, the ragged boy who brings me tea in the afternoons, being given a sweet from ‘Mr India’s’ big jar, like a small child every time I buy anything, the mango season, chaat stalls wheeling through the streets in the afternoon, grazing water buffalo outside the gate when I arrive home, negotiating the cows in Main Road market in the evenings, masala dosas and chocolate ice cream on Fridays, chirruping geckoes, the daily evening challenge of the Himalayan Times crossword … and writing this blog.

We will be back in England on March 26.

Beginning of the end

Our all too brief idyll in India – a repeat of last year’s holiday, was followed by a week of workshops in Kathmandu. While volunteers from the Governance and HIV/AIDS programmes were residential in expensive hotels in the valley, impoverished educationists were billeted at the Pacific Guest House and walked to Thamel for breakfast each morning with our Nepali partners. Good to meet the new volunteers, and an excellent opportunity to share experience and successes and help shape the strategic plan for the next 4 years.

There had been few changes in Nepal during our break, but the newspaper announces load shedding to increase by 50%. 50% of 16 = 8. 16 + 8 = 24! Opportunities to watch our newly acquired DVDs will obviously be limited. The former King’s Palace has been opened at last as a museum, prompting the headline ’Narayanhiti open to hoi poloi’. Unfortunately the king took many van loads of potential exhibits with him when he left last year.

Attempts to keep us in Kathmandu until the strikes and problems in the eastern Terai are over failed; we would never have been able to come back, as the eastern Terai has been effectively ‘closed’ for 27 of the last 30 days. Lovely early morning flight in Buddha’s new big plane (48 seats); at home everything was fine but covered in a thick layer of dust. The big house opposite has been painted strawberry icecream pink, but nothing else haschanged. On our first night back, our evening was enlivened by gaudily decorated floats blaring out the soundtrack from Slumdog Millionaire followed by dancing youngsters. How dull England will seem!

Part of the new landlord’s family moved in upstairs on Wednesday. The priest came to do puja, with dramatic blowing on a conch shell all the way up the stairs and prasad (blessed food) for all of us. The plates, paper cups and other debris have been dumped outside the front gate. Chhatra and Tara have been here for a wedding so we have negotiated the removal of their and many of our belongings during next week. Durga has also been to select some furniture for his family and Karna will take everything else.

English training for a group of secondary teachers from the hills had started when I went back to work on Monday, and we now know each other well after a series of introductory games. I try to enliven some of the dire theory in the trainer’s guide with activities each day. Our rounds of saying goodbye have already started. Balkumari waited outside the training room on Thursday to ‘kidnap’ me and take me to her home – a long trek out into the countryside, where her son was waiting to show off his excellent English. I resisted her attempts to make me stay the night and eventually cycled home as the sun set, full of noodles and laden down with vegetables from her garden. David has been transporting boxes of resources to primary schools each day and enjoying his last few days in the classroom.

It’s the best time of year – warm (30^oC) days and cool evenings, but we have already shed the blanket. We are between the mosquito season and the ant season so we are relatively insect free. Fruit and vegetables still plentiful. More holidays in prospect – International Women’s Day on Sunday, Holi Tuesday and Wednesday.

Saraswati

The very hungry caterpillar has been a great success with ECD at two schools. The children love the story and all have made a caterpillar segment with their names, weight, favourite things. Its been a brilliant way of getting them to talk individually.

Primary and secondary training programmes have finished, with great celebrations, and we have started workshops for school based training. Some secondary teachers have done some interesting action research projects, with enticing titles like ‘stopping students fleeing after tiffin’. Many children do not reappear after the break, as they often work in the fields. One ingenious solution was setting up a committee to fine students 5 rupees (stick not carrot) – but it worked and over 200 rupees was collected and spent on a rubbish bin and broom to keep the classroom clean. Not very Nepali. I watched a group of 100 on Friday eating their tiffin – samosa, gulab jamon and banana – then tossing the cardboard plate, banana skin and other debris over the balcony, out of the window or onto the grass. This was followed by a hearty bout of throat clearing and spitting.

I have been visiting rural schools on the back of Durga’s motorbike. Several days were foggy and damp and we slid along buffalo tracks through fields of rice stubble to rural schools where teachers muffled up in scarves, jackets and woolly hats taught chilly students with ragged shirts and bare feet as water dripped from the tin roof. Poverty seems so much worse in the cold. On the way back from one school, we went to his parents, who have recently sold their land in the village and have bought land and are in the process of having a new house constructed on the outskirts of the city. The ground floor is completed; we found his elderly parents sitting on a pile of rubble on the roof, watching as women toiled up the rudimentary concrete stairs balancing piles of bricks on their heads, while men with makeshift plumblines assembled the bricks for the upstairs walls. Outside were the 2 family cows and a well planted vegetable garden.

By Friday, the sunshine had returned and we had a glorious day in the countryside. We sped along the highway past silent factories and busy brick kilns. The mustard fields are brilliant yellow, amongst wheat, maize and sugarcane. Kingfishers wait patiently on the bamboo overhanging the river. Oxen are ploughing the rice stubble and. women are threshing rice and drying pulses. Every house has its own Monet-like haystack. Eventually we nearly reached Rangeli, where Durga wanted to show me his old wooden house and former school, but there was a banda, with the road blocked by burning tyres, so we walked the last kilometer. We met many teachers from the training programmes, but no teaching was happening as the students were preparing for Saraswati the goddess of education) puja on Saturday. Brightly coloured flags were being strung across the school compound and a ‘temple’ prepared for a clay statue of the goddess. We had passed many of these on the road, being transported by rickshaw and buffalo.

Saturday morning – misty again as we cycled to Bokhari school with Hanna and the boys for their celebration. All the children and staff were there, with many ex-students and people from the local community. Two village bands were playing and local men had brought 3 goats for ritual slaughter by the Hindu priest in banana yellow robes. A classroom had been made into a Saraswati temple and we paraded through to do puja and receive our tikkas. Huge vats of food were being cooked for a village feast, followed by singing and dancing. Tomorrow we will follow the processions to the river where the stautes will be cast into the water. Lovely for all of us to enjoy the festivals while there is no improvement in the political situation. This week even the smugglers have gone on strike and there is no improvement in the power situation, inspite of the PM’s promises.

Next week to Kathmandu and then to India for a long overdue break in Kerala.

Hell's angels in woolly hats

Excitement at the ETC today as a fleet of motorcycles drove onto the field with blue flags waving. About 30 sturdy men in leather jackets and woolly hats with sprouting tops dismounted and headed towards the classrooms. Not menacing – just a delegation from the Teachers’ Union to announce a special meeting tomorrow. Schools will be closed of course. The government announced that all primary teachers who have finished 10 month training but only completed grade 10 at school (GCSE equivalent) must start grade 11-12 starting on Wednesday at 3 schools in Biratnagar. Sessions will run from 3-8pm. Most of the teachers are in rural schools. There has been no transport for over a week and no sign of an end to the dispute – and of course there is never electricity in the evenings.
Meanwhile, the whole of eastern Nepal has been at a standstill for the last two weeks because of protests by workers from the jute mills. Mill owners are unable to meet their wage demands as the mills have not been working properly for months because there is no electricity and no access to Kathmandu. No transport for days, and the border is also closed so no supplies can come from India. There is now no fuel, no gas and a shortage of food and huge losses in customs revenue. Today, according to the newspaper reports ”Agitators pelted themselves with stones”. Further power cuts have started; we are promised a daily ration of electricity from 10pm – 2am (asleep) and 2 – 4 pm (at work). The government maintain it is nothing to do with them and not their problem. We have friends in Kathmandu who live near a minister and have an uninterrupted power supply!
There are some bright spots. Rosie-the-dog is now encased in a cushion cover to protect her from the cold. We are gradually becoming immune to the gas fumes in the small back room. Work is enjoyable and productive for both of us. One highlight this week was while I was working with primary maths teachers, giving instructions in Nepali which Umapati translated into English. An interesting reversal!
Fog again on Sunday, but the afternoon was pleasant enough to tempt us out on our bikes. I have become adept at cycling wrapped in a blanket. We ventured south to the mills area, where we found a thriving community and silent mills. Wandered home through the villages with their collections of mud houses covered in drying dung patties for fuel, women sorting lentils and coming back from the fields with bundles of fodder for the cows outside every small dwelling clad in sacking to keep out the cold. The children are not so lucky, with ragged clothes and no shoes.
Teaching practice started on Tuesday with 93 teachers in 9 local schools. Several group returned to the ETC as the schools had decided to close ‘for the cold’. I visited 2 schools and sat in the sunshine with the teachers. At Balmandir there were 25 teachers and about 40 children present. No teaching occurred. On Magh 1, the second day of teaching practice we celebrated Maghi Parba, the official end of winter with another holiday and a return to glorious sunshine. We celebrated with our first swim for six weeks. Water very cold, but hot sun to dry off in. At Shankapur on Thursday, there were more goats than children in the classrooms.
On Saturday morning when I turned on my phone, there was a message from Umapati, informing me that I was expected at the primary teachers’ picnic, starting at 8am. I telephoned him; the teachers had been trying to contact me since 5am, knowing that I like advance warning of ‘events’. Plans for the morning put on hold and I arrived at the picnic site soon after 10, to find fires blazing, meat roasting, women chopping many kilos of vegetables and most of the men playing cards. The first round of snacks appeared at 11. Handfuls of beaten rice, puffed rice, spicy snacks, fiery vegetable stew, yogurt with a pile of sticky Indian sweets on the top. I managed a small portion, sitting cross legged on an old sack with the women. Lots of laughter and photographs, singing and dancing before the preparations for the main meal started. I escaped to go to market for Saturday shopping. Another adventure on Sunday as we went out for the day with Hanna, Luca (aged 3) and Uta, a young German eye specialist visiting the hospital here before she starts a one year placement in Lahan, 200 km west. We headed north to Dharan and then up to the hills to climb the observation tower on the hill at Bhedeta, where on a clear day there are fantastic views of the Everest range. It was not a clear day. Descended back to Dharan, where Hanna and family are planning to move in April, to look at some houses. One was on the massive site of the BP Koirala Hospital and Medical School. This was the former British Gorkha Military HQ, with large colonial houses, Capability Brown landscaping, a country club and a golf course. Nirvana Country Club had seen better days, but we had a pleasant lunch sitting in the sunshine behind a barbed wire fence looking over the golf course, where cows grazed on scrubby brown grass and a few stout Indian doctors on their afternoon off swung their clubs. Home via the ‘supermarket’ in Itahari.

Christmas and new year

The festive season has been marked here by another increase in load shedding and a lack of water, apart from a flood through the roof in the spare room. The upstairs door has been securely padlocked by the new landlord, so we had no access to find out what was happening. After a frantic hour trying to contact him, he appeared with our friend Dinesh and a plumber, who mended a burst pipe in the upstairs bathroom. Fortunately, there was little damage and David managed to dry out all his carefully prepared teaching materials that are laid out in ordered piles on the spare bed. This was shortly followed by the demise of our gas ring. Ravi’s brother, who spent an hour sitting on our kitchen floor dismantling and reassembling it, covering the marble with a lethal carbon and kerosene mixture, has repaired it.
Christmas Day started foggy and chilly, but a pale sun came through in time for breakfast on the terrace with our splendid dahlias. Schools were closed but I had a busy day training for primary English. ‘Learning English through activities’ is our theme, not without hazards, as most of the group are stout and in their fifties. Chhabilal pulled a muscle as he was ‘running to the board’ to find his word; Laxmi started to have palpitations and refused to ‘jump and down’ any more because of her heart condition. Manju wants to be my best friend. She is the most colourful, with her scarlet polo-necked sweater under a swirly orange and yellow sari, topped off with a fluorescent pink cardigan and an electric blue bobble hat.
Our best present was an invitation to Hanna and Josef’s for a hot bath / shower. Bliss; I had not had a bath since England and our last hot shower was in Kathmandu almost 3 months ago. After a traditional Austrian Christmas Day supper, we sang carols round the tree and exchanged small presents. An enjoyable evening and very dark cycle ride home. Back to Hanna and Josef’s for new year and games and fireworks with the boys. It is difficult for us to reciprocate their hospitality, as we are now confined to the candlelit small backroom to keep warm. The gas fire is working again, but the fumes are so noxious we have to turn it off before we pass out.
We have just embarked on the BBC War and Peace series from the 1970s. The sound and movement are not synchronised, its in a strange sepia tint and has Dutch subtitles. It is so dated – very stagy and overacted. The wigs are extraordinary and resemble the hairstyles of 70s football players. My hair does too, after 3 months without a visit to a hairdresser. We should manage to make the DVDs last until we go to India, as the laptop battery is very tired so we have to watch half an episode at a time.
Further increases in load shedding have started this week. On a good day we have 6 hours of electricity. Government administrative expenditure has increased 8 times since April – mostly on overseas travel for the new regime. The press has become more critical of the new government, and newspapers were interrupted for a few days this week after Maoists smashed newspaper offices and beat up editors. Headlines now focus on the power crisis and government plans to generate more electricity. The latest features plans for wind farms; however ‘the inaccessibility to identified project areas is a major stumbling block’.
Its now the beginning of the kite flying season. Small boys perch precariously on the rooftops with home made kites on the end of huge spools of string. A consignment of cheap badminton rackets has appeared in the market, so children are lashing ‘shuttlecocks’ made from rubber bands around on pieces of waste ground. More dangerously, they are using the railings of the central reservation on the highway coming from the airport as badminton net!

Cold, dry and dark

At 7am on Saturday morning, Babaram sent a text message to David to ask him to do training for ECD facilitators on Monday at the DEO. Text is their primary method of communication, as Babaram refuses to speak English and does not understand David’s Nepali. So on Sunday we set off through the harvested paddy fields and wandering buffalo to Bokari to collect materials. We found the teachers sitting on benches on the field surrounded by children playing. A group of men were standing on the path having a heated discussion. They had brought huge padlocks and secured all the classrooms. An effective lock out. None of the teachers knew why or how long it was likely to continue. A pleasant cycle ride across country took us to Bal Rani, which was open and we were able to borrow Manu the bear, the butterflies and a play box. Other materials David managed to replicate during the afternoon. The government has suddenly changed the visa process and all David’s paperwork has to be redone. The chief of the DEO has been transferred, so there is no-one to sign the new forms. There seems to be the start of removal of pahadis (hill people) from senior government appointments in the Terai, and replacement with madhesi. Two additional days of school closure later in the week for Bakar Id on Tuesday and a local festival on Friday, but the ETC remained open and busy. ETC is devoid of permanent staff; Tulsi has gone to Dhankuta, Umapati is doing Life Skills training in Bangalore and Durga has gone to Laos on a VSO study tour.
Having enjoyed a lovely day on Saturday, with an afternoon at the pool, the fog descended on Sunday and we had our first cold day. It’s the season of goats-in-cardigans and cows covered in old sacks in the mornings. Rani’s milkman, who arrives on his bicycle each morning with fresh milk in old plastic water bottles in a jute bag suspended from his handlebars, now has his head wrapped in a scarf and scarlet leggings under his lungi. Thermals and blankets out from under the bed. A new power station, the second largest in the country, has just been completed; only 4 years behind schedule and at double the projected cost. Local people have prevented it opening because it was behind schedule……. Meanwhile load shedding has increased in length, so it is now 10 to 19 hours a day. Trying to keep computers, phones and emergency lights charged and water pumped is a real challenge, especially as we are usually at work or asleep when the electricity is on. Bread and ice cream making a real problem, and we rarely have an internet connection.
Colin and Ellen, friends from Ethiopia eventually arrived for a few days on Monday, having spent the morning fog-bound at a chilly Kathmandu airport. They are working in an international school in Kathmandu for 6 months and wanted to see a different face of Nepal. When they eventually arrived, we had a wonderful, if cold and foggy, few days. It helped that they had previously lived in Debre Berhan, a small hill town in Ethiopia. We breakfasted and dined by candlelight, survived low pressure cold showers, coped without our usual cheese supply and had a very flexible itinerary caused by transport strikes. We visited the ETC and David’s schools and eventually got to Dharan where the sun was shining and we found roast chestnuts and mushrooms in the market. Women in colourful clothes and elaborate nose jewellery congregate in Dharan from the hills to sell local produce.
On Wednesday we spent the day with Josef and Hanna, who had invited us to visit the eye hospital and see the plans for the new building. The current hospital, which was set up 2 years ago to assess need, is dealing with more than 500 people a day in an old hotel building. Families with bundles of belongings and many blankets were camped out on the grass. There was a steady procession through the different stages of assessment, consultation and treatment, with a sense of calm resignation from the many people waiting patiently. A basic cataract operation with a 2 night stay costs £7, but people who have no money are treated free of charge. After a vision check, patients are referred to technicians who make a preliminary diagnosis; some are referred to opticians and are fitted with glasses for about 50p; others require minor surgery; many have cataracts- one doctor carries out 150 cataract operations in a day; the hospital also does corneal grafts and retinal surgery. What to western eyes looked at first like a refugee camp, provided a highly organised and professional service, with literally hundreds of people having their vision restored each day. Josef has just leased some old portacabins that he is converting into basic dormitories with a toilet block and cooking shelter where families can stay. The wall surrounding the new site has been completed; the plans are ambitious and there are many political challenges ahead.

Winter approaches

The festival season has been replaced by the wedding season. Temple music starts at 4am, well before the imam at 5, often followed by a strident wedding band of drums and trumpets waking the bridegroom in a neighbouring house. The weather is beautiful, with warm sunny days and cool nights. Because it is officially winter, woolly hats, scarves and cardigans are worn by the men and blankets by the women. The air is full of dust; a combination of no rain since we returned in August and the beginnings of road repairs. Huge piles of sand and gravel have been dumped at the sides of the roads, so they now resemble a slalom course. There is room to manoeuvre a bicycle down the road to the ETC, but frequent diversions have to be made for motorcycles and rickshaws.
My month with secondary English teachers has just ended. The group is only 13, so I have got to know them well. Balkumari and Yasoda, the two women have become my special friends; their English is limited to grade 7 level, so they rattle on in Nepali. They are both in their mid thirties; Balkumari has two sons, and Yasoda one daughter. While Yasoda is slim and elegant Balkumari is large and jolly. I have been treated to several views of her Caesarean scars (horrendous). Last week she told me I had very nice teeth and asked me where I had got them! Rama, a retired head who has studied in Leeds and at the Bell language school in Saffron Walden worked with me for a week, which we all enjoyed. She now does community work, watches TV and eats!
Secondary training finished on Monday, with the usual examination, written in incomprehensible English. The paper featured multiple choice questions, very short answer questions, short answer questions and long answer questions. The following question only works for Hindus. ‘How do you convince people who say that English is cow slaughters’ [sic] language?’
I have spent the rest of the week doing primary English with Durga. He has surpassed himself, and we have run an activity based week. Having watched the groups sitting writing for the first 3 weeks, it’s a delight to watch them running around (they are mostly stout and elderly) and giggling. The ‘make a hat for your friend’ activity which teaches reading writing speaking AND listening skills in English reduced me to hysteria, as they wore their new hats over their already eccentric headgear.
The most dramatic incident of the week occurred at tiffin time on Thursday. I was standing on the school field in the sun eating an apple. Gita came over for a chat, leading her young heifer. As we were talking, the heifer mounted her shoulders, cannoning her into me and pinning us both against the wall. We were helpless with laughter and were stuck fast until some excited young schoolboys came to drag the cow off.
Two enjoyable evenings with the Schneiders. The first time we were welcomed by Josef and the boys standing in the road shining torches so we could find the house in the inevitable power cut. Having spent 2 years in a large house with pool in Zimbabwe, they are used to a more typical expat lifestyle, with ‘staff’. Hanna has taught Apsara to make European food as a change from dal bhat, so much to the boys’ delight we had an Austrian meal. They have decided to move to Dharan, near to the hills and forest, where there is a larger expat community, a better school for the boys and Hanna can start an MSc at the medical school. They expect to stay here until March. We were invited again for St Nikolaus Eve, which coincided with my birthday. St Nikolaus arrived laden with presents for the boys, a beautiful winter kurta for me and a chocolate cake from David. The latter caused some problems; he ordered it from the bakery early in the week. On Friday there was fighting between YCL and the youth group of the Marxists, so the whole town was closed. Karna phoned the bakery and David crawled in under the shutters to retrieve the cake.
We are still swimming in the afternoons at weekends, and have started cycle rides out into the countryside on Sundays. Last weekend we discovered a wonderful old Shiva temple in a village near to the Indian border. The entire village assembled to find out who we were and what we were doing; boys stopped flying their kites, girls with smaller siblings on their hips hovered shyly and the women brought their new baby goats to show us. The priest and the head man told us about the temple which is reputedly 2000 years old and the oldest in the area. There is a huge Nandi (Shiva’s bull) and several smaller Nandi shrines, where women were burning incense and anointing him with milk and marigold petals. There’s a large pond in front of the temple for ritual bathing and fishing, as well as for children to play. A gentle pace of rural life, with animals grazing, rice straw being brought in for the winter, new rice being threshed, and all the family working together. We spoke to several young people who dream of getting away for a better education and a different way of life.