Work and play

A warm welcome back at work, especially as I brought information about VSO Link Tour for selected education partners to spend a week in Laos, looking at developments in teacher training and primary education. Durga and I prepared an application for him. Lots of enthusiasm for a ‘Training of Trainers’ day, to prepare for the next batch of training that will start on November 2. Very good training day on Friday – like the first day of term, when everyone comes back together and exchanges news. Good session, mostly led by Durga and Umapati. On Monday we repeated the exercise for the primary trainers; 130 primary teachers will arrive on November 9. After 4 months with no real work, we are overstretched and will run 3 groups from 6 – 11am and 4 groups from 11-4, with no days off. Many trainers will work both shifts.
David had a wonderful week focusing on ECD, with lots of story telling and play. He has produced some lovely materials that Shova is now using effectively and producing materials of her own. The children are responding so well and making great progress. On his days off this week he has used the ETC’s projector to help him produce huge animal pictures on chart paper from VSO using images from the internet.
Holiday mood has overwhelmed us again with preparations for Tihar. The market on Sunday was full of brightly coloured decorations, people stocking up on dried fruit and nuts – dates, sultanas, coconut, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, and buying thousands of small clay pots to make oil lamps. Many of the stall holders were painting their stalls and plastic covers. I bought green splattered carrots and yellow spotted aubergines. . A sudden change in the weather on Monday when moist clouds arrived from the Bay of Bengal and the temperature plummeted to 26oC, and we got out our winter clothes! Tihar dawned chilly and grey, but by the time we went to the market to see the banana trees placed outside the shops and the decorations on the sides of the street, the sun was out. Dogs and cows were adorned with garlands and brightly coloured tikka powder – mostly fuschia pink and turquoise. Abi has given Rosie (the dog – now a firm friend – no more yipping) a hair cut. Rani is having garden makeover.
A rare social event in the afternoon – last week we met Josef, Hanna and their 3 boys, aged 7,5 and 3, at the pool. He is an Austrian architect and is here for 4 years as project manager of the new eye hospital, which will be the second largest in the world! We were invited for tea – a delightful family in a beautiful house to the south of the city. We have decided to have a social life at last. In the evening we went back to the market to see the lights – of course there was a power cut; the gaudy electric bulbs went off so it was lit by thousands of beautiful oil lamps. Great cheers when power restored and the loudspeakers could start blaring out music again. Arrived home to find the family about to start their fireworks. A lavish display was put on with life threating enthusiasm by Abi, Ram (the driver and odd job man),and Karna, who had the time of his life. The box of 100 Chinese bombs was particularly terrifying. Pyel and Rani provided delicious snacks. Loud bangs and a flashing sky persisted until after midnight. Like living in a war zone.
The landlord has sold the house with us in it and is moving out on Saturday. Apparently the new owners will arrive ‘soon’ and move into our flat when we leave in March. This leaves Karna homeless. We have been to look at a number of rat-infested rooms with him, and have found a clean room with small kitchen and access to bathroom with a nice family a few houses away. Good to have him nearby so he can continue to learn to use the computer and practice his English.
Swimming with our Austrian friends on Wednesday; we were joined by Iris, a German eye surgeon, who arrived about the same time as us. All have worked in Africa before (Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Kenya), and are finding Biratnagar much more challenging. Candlelit evening with Durga and his daughters, with a profusion of sticky sweets before the dal bhat, and invitation to stay the night. We braved the firecrackers in the streets on our bicycles – at least there was more light than usual.