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.