Power cuts

The electricity is now off for 15 hours a day. At least at the moment it is predictable, so we can plan around it, and are able to cook and keep warm with our gas cylinders and read by candlelight. The walls of the back room are now covered in soot. The newspapers report that further increases are likely; there are also gas and petrol shortages, with huge queues at as soon as there is a delivery from India. We are watched over by a large gilt framed picture of a benevolent Jesus with a bleeding heart – a Christmas present from Narayan at the travel agency, partly to assuage his guilt at not getting our tickets to India after we had handed over several hundred dollars before Christmas. As he is a frequent visitor, the picture is prominently displayed.
Action packed day on Monday. I went to visit the trainees at Shankapur on Monday morning. When I arrived at 10am I was surprised and delighted to see Ram Narayan organising ‘physical activities’ for the children while he waited for other teachers to arrive. By 10:30, almost 50% of the children had arrived (very good for Shankapur), 8 of the 9 trainees, the head and 4 of the regular teachers were present and the children were marched into class. I was confused by grade 4 students joining grade 5 for period 1 with Panya, and alarmed when Shyam attempted to teach grade 2 Nepali and grade 3 maths in different rooms simultaneously. Meanwhile there were 14 teachers sitting out on the field in the sunshine. Govind convinced me that ‘multi-grade teaching’ was part of the assessment. I arrived at the ETC just in time for session 2 of primary English, and obliged with teaching them ‘head and shoulders, knees and toes’, and my Nepali version of ‘Old Macdonald’. We were interrupted by the arrival of an itinerant mushroom seller with large bags of oyster mushrooms. I was summoned home at 3pm by the arrival of Purna, our VSO programme manager, here for 3 days to do the annual partnership review. At 6pm Joseph arrived back after 3 months at home in Uganda to collect his keys. Unfortunately I had just emerged from the shower and was dressed in my usual evening ‘keep warm’ outfit of long nightdress, old sweatshirt and felt boots. David says I look like a bag lady (minus bag). At least there was no electricity. Garlic mushrooms and homemade bread for another candlelit supper.
Purna came to the ETC by rickshaw on Tuesday, met my colleagues, borrowed a bike and we went to Shankapur together so he could see what the school situation is like in the Terai. We arrived just as a bandh had been called, so the shutters were being closed and the children were streaming out onto the field. He had some good discussions with teachers and trainees – partly to help with his PhD research – before they all decided to go home. A dramatic Isadora moment on our return to the ETC; my scarf (Nepali long flowing type worn backwards) caught in the back wheel of my bicycle, pulling me by the throat over the back wheel and onto the road. Fortunately my head did not fall off. I was rescued by 2 young men who up righted me and upended my bicycle to extricate the scarf. The review meeting went well, and we have set some reasonably clear objectives for the coming year. David’s day was more challenging as he never works at the DEO and they have little interest in what he is doing. Purna enjoyed his rickshaw ride into the countryside to meet the teachers that David has been working with and has agreed to buy a white board and mats for the grade 1 classrooms.
On Wednesday evening my colleagues joined us at the Namaskar hotel for a celebration meal with the signing of formal partnership agreements. The DEO appeared briefly. We ate from metal trays of daal bhat in a gloomy dining room under flickering lights powered by a generator. Umapati tells us that our electricity comes from India and the Nepali government are trying to negotiate extension of credit. Our regular on / off cycle has broken down, and I had to get up in the middle of the night to do some urgent printing.
On Thursday Govind took me on the back of his motorbike to Panchakriya, a rural school 8km north of Biratnagar where 10 of our trainees are based. A delightful journey along dirt roads through the countryside at a steady pace, breaking down 4 times on the way. The 300 children had never seen a bideshi before and mass hysteria greeted my arrival. Tiny children crammed onto benches in grades 1 & 2, ranging from those in uniform to those in rags with tangled hair and no shoes. Trainees were working very hard engaging children in activities and shouting responses, but have not yet grappled with what children are actually learning. Grade 5 was smaller, with well motivated and well dressed children. So many of them drop out before they reach grade 5. On the way back we stopped at Govind’s house that he started building 7 years ago and still has some way to go to be completed. The original wooden house now shelters his cow. His wife, 2 daughters and grandson were sitting on the porch chatting and sorting lentils. I had met his youngest daughter, Deepti, before as I was able to give her some help with her masters dissertation in zoology. She tells me that her work ‘is going on’. He has a patch of vegetables and 3 mango trees and is looking forward to his retirement in 5 years, so he can sit on the porch, look after the cow and grow vegetables. Meanwhile my lettuces (Webb’s wonderful and Sangria), rocket and basil are thriving and a healthy crop of cannabis plants has sprung up amongst them.
Back to Kathmandu on Sunday for an action research workshop.