Winding down

Variable weather from very hot and sticky to cool and wet. Electricity comes and goes. Water reduced to a trickle some days, but the new pump is wonderfully efficient. Most of the schools have closed for the monsoon break, so David is busy preparing teaching schemes for when he returns in September.
The last week of ‘proper’ work before the summer break was busy and enjoyable for me – I completed the last week of the English training; a delightful group of teachers to work with, and of course very easy to work in English all the time. I also managed to spend some time with the primary teachers as they finished off their portfolios. They are still spending huge amounts of time and effort producing beautiful ‘artistic’ pictures (peacocks made from stuck on sequins, rabbits with cotton wool fur, glittering flowers) and look confused when I ask how they could be used for teaching and learning. The reality is that they will join the piles of decaying and dust covered efforts produced by previous generations of trainees. I attended the ‘closing ceremony’ after 2.5 months of training. 4 ½ hours of speeches, followed by singing and dancing and tearful farewells.
Yet more training started on Sunday – a 5 day workshop for science teachers organised by Nepali Academy of Science and Technology. The purpose is to help them make physics materials that they can take back to their schools for practical demonstrations. On the first day they attempted to make electric bells from a power pack and assorted metal strips. After 6 hours of concentrated work, some managed to produce a scratching vibration. They all have excellent scientific knowledge, but so little ‘hands on’ experience. Advice such as ‘try connecting the red wire to the red terminal’ was gratefully received. Day 2 was more hazardous as they attempted to demonstrate Ohm’s Law. The training room was festooned with pieces of wire at head, neck, knee and ankle height, as 30 participants attempted to use the single power socket in the training room. Amazing that we are all still alive.
Three months after the election has seen no change. PM Koirala continues to make all decisions; he announced his resignation 3 weeks ago, but is still PM because only the head of state can accept his resignation. Following the deposing of the king, there is no head of state until the new government elect or select one ….. they have not yet decided how the process should work. And if Koirala becomes the new president, as Nepali Congress want, will he accept his own resignation? The CA has attempted to meet every day, but have not yet managed to conduct a session as dissenting factions with conflicting and increasingly ridiculous demands disrupt proceedings by shouting and chanting. Daily newspaper reports fluctuate between ‘breakthrough imminent’ to ‘no breakthrough in talks’.
A boring last week of finishing off paper work and reports for NCED and VSO, enlivened by lots of people dropping in for a chat. We ate excellent daal bhat at Durga’s house on Tuesday, followed by surfing Nepali TV channels, featuring political news (no news) and Nepali love songs. At 7:30 he asked if we wanted to stay the night, so we realised we had overstayed our welcome. We have been laden with gifts to take to his daughter in London. As the moon was obscured by thunder clouds and there were no street lights we got lost on the way home and became entangled in a wedding procession and the usual Pamplona-like stampede of cows and bulls to feast on the day’s debris at the market.
Govind’s attempts to find a suitably educated match for his lovely daughter Deepti have at last been successful, although he is financially crippled by the 5 lakh dowry (more than 3 years salary). After a week of wedding events, we attended the party on Friday afternoon, panting after our colleagues on their motor bikes to a ‘party palace’. Deepti had disappeared to wash her hair. We sat in a line on plastic chairs for 10 minutes, waiting for the daal bhat to be ready. Before we had finished shovelling rice into our mouths we were summoned to deliver the ‘ETC present’ – yet another rice cooker. A wet haired and exhausted Deepti reappeared; we did not meet her new husband. Within 5 minutes we were back on the bikes and cycling home.
Karna is researching places for his +2 programme (equivalent of sixth form), with long discussions with us each evening and advice from my colleagues. He is taking entrance tests for several different colleges. Term starts next week and we want to get him ‘settled’ before we leave for Kathmandu.
To Kathmandu on July 14, where we will meet our landlord. We think he is trying to sell the house and will not return to Biratnagar. A few days of VSO work and meeting friends before flying to England. Blog will resume when we return at the end of August.