A day in the new life ...

Tuesday 19 June 2007 (mangalbaar 5 asaar 2064)
Woken at 2am by torrential rain, thunder, lightning and bellowing frogs. A grey damp dawn breaks at 4:50. At 7 we are up and David sets off on his bicycle to collect some plants for the house and terrace from a nearby nursery. The plants and the gardener arrive on a handcart an hour later – beautiful, mature tropical plants, some several feet tall. Burnham Wood arrives at Tintolia. At 8:30 Joseph and Hanneke (visiting from Kathmandu for a HIV workshop) arrive for breakfast – mango and banana lassi, toast and Himalayan coffee. At 9:30 we leave for the ETC – David comes with me as the ETC is always busy, and I see more of his DEO colleagues than he does. We are the first to arrive, so open the windows and get the fans started. People start to come and go; David joins the secondary teachers’ refresher training.
At 11, I walk across the road to Balmandir Primary School, where I have been several times to meet and observe trainees (8 women in their late 20s, no English). Yesterday I attended the ‘exhibition’ of the resources they have made. The night rain has resulted in a small lake where the path used to be. I roll my trousers and try unsuccessfully to avoid the worst of the mud. It’s the trainees last day in school; they look cool and elegant in their saris. I look hot and muddy. I am greeted warmly, a bindi to match my kurta is stuck on my forehead, I’m hugged by the old lady (probably younger than me) who ‘rings the bell’ (bangs a metal plate); then she walks around menacingly with a big stick. Teachers are busy wrapping presents and prizes for the children. At 11:30, after the plate has been struck, 300 excited children arrive in the main room, dragging benches and chairs which are crammed at the back, while tables and chairs are set out for the ‘honourable guests’. The head of the ETC, headteacher, supervisor from the DEO and teacher trainers arrive. We are introduced; ‘Diborah madam’ gets up to say namaste. Then there are speeches interspersed with children singing, reciting poetry and dancing. While the speeches are going on, 300 children chatter, giggle, push each other off the ends of the benches and pull each others’ hair; some minor scuffles break out. The speakers carry on unperturbed. I am invited to present the prizes. Then it’s time for ‘break the pot’, a traditional Nepali game. There is an upturned clay pot in the yard. In turn, the teachers are blindfolded, twisted round and sent off vaguely in the direction of the pot. When they think they are near it, they hit out ferociously with the stick. Get the idea? Children yell encouragement and instructions, while teachers laugh hysterically. Of course I have to take my turn. I have no sense of direction even when sighted, so quickly left the paved yard and found myself in yet another swamp.
Next: khaana belaa bhayo (food). Children have small tiffin tins and sweets, teachers have snack boxes (samosa and gulab jamon). The trainees present me with a special necklace, married women’s glass bracelets, decorated bindis in many colours and some nail varnish (obviously an attempt to smarten me up).
After thank yous and goodbyes, I paddle back through the lake. As I arrive at the ETC, Rudra comes to tell me ‘now we are training’, and I have to co-teach a session on active learning to the secondary teachers, conscious that I am covered in mud from the knees downwards. The 2 hour session overruns, with lots of questions and laughter. He thinks it goes very well. I suggest it might have been better with some forward planning.
Cycle home at 5pm; wash clothes and self; cover ankles and arms in Mossbar (a brilliant kind of soap that deters mosquitoes). We have supper and watch episode 3 of The Barchester Chronicles to the comforting sound of the fan, the frogs, chirruping geckoes and pinging grasshoppers. I wonder what Trollope would make of it here. Read the Himalayan Post; the usual stories of political inertia, strikes and Maoist activities on the front page; lead story on page 3 ’20 faint after consuming mushroom’. Manage to complete the crossword before falling asleep.