Hell's angels in woolly hats

Excitement at the ETC today as a fleet of motorcycles drove onto the field with blue flags waving. About 30 sturdy men in leather jackets and woolly hats with sprouting tops dismounted and headed towards the classrooms. Not menacing – just a delegation from the Teachers’ Union to announce a special meeting tomorrow. Schools will be closed of course. The government announced that all primary teachers who have finished 10 month training but only completed grade 10 at school (GCSE equivalent) must start grade 11-12 starting on Wednesday at 3 schools in Biratnagar. Sessions will run from 3-8pm. Most of the teachers are in rural schools. There has been no transport for over a week and no sign of an end to the dispute – and of course there is never electricity in the evenings.
Meanwhile, the whole of eastern Nepal has been at a standstill for the last two weeks because of protests by workers from the jute mills. Mill owners are unable to meet their wage demands as the mills have not been working properly for months because there is no electricity and no access to Kathmandu. No transport for days, and the border is also closed so no supplies can come from India. There is now no fuel, no gas and a shortage of food and huge losses in customs revenue. Today, according to the newspaper reports ”Agitators pelted themselves with stones”. Further power cuts have started; we are promised a daily ration of electricity from 10pm – 2am (asleep) and 2 – 4 pm (at work). The government maintain it is nothing to do with them and not their problem. We have friends in Kathmandu who live near a minister and have an uninterrupted power supply!
There are some bright spots. Rosie-the-dog is now encased in a cushion cover to protect her from the cold. We are gradually becoming immune to the gas fumes in the small back room. Work is enjoyable and productive for both of us. One highlight this week was while I was working with primary maths teachers, giving instructions in Nepali which Umapati translated into English. An interesting reversal!
Fog again on Sunday, but the afternoon was pleasant enough to tempt us out on our bikes. I have become adept at cycling wrapped in a blanket. We ventured south to the mills area, where we found a thriving community and silent mills. Wandered home through the villages with their collections of mud houses covered in drying dung patties for fuel, women sorting lentils and coming back from the fields with bundles of fodder for the cows outside every small dwelling clad in sacking to keep out the cold. The children are not so lucky, with ragged clothes and no shoes.
Teaching practice started on Tuesday with 93 teachers in 9 local schools. Several group returned to the ETC as the schools had decided to close ‘for the cold’. I visited 2 schools and sat in the sunshine with the teachers. At Balmandir there were 25 teachers and about 40 children present. No teaching occurred. On Magh 1, the second day of teaching practice we celebrated Maghi Parba, the official end of winter with another holiday and a return to glorious sunshine. We celebrated with our first swim for six weeks. Water very cold, but hot sun to dry off in. At Shankapur on Thursday, there were more goats than children in the classrooms.
On Saturday morning when I turned on my phone, there was a message from Umapati, informing me that I was expected at the primary teachers’ picnic, starting at 8am. I telephoned him; the teachers had been trying to contact me since 5am, knowing that I like advance warning of ‘events’. Plans for the morning put on hold and I arrived at the picnic site soon after 10, to find fires blazing, meat roasting, women chopping many kilos of vegetables and most of the men playing cards. The first round of snacks appeared at 11. Handfuls of beaten rice, puffed rice, spicy snacks, fiery vegetable stew, yogurt with a pile of sticky Indian sweets on the top. I managed a small portion, sitting cross legged on an old sack with the women. Lots of laughter and photographs, singing and dancing before the preparations for the main meal started. I escaped to go to market for Saturday shopping. Another adventure on Sunday as we went out for the day with Hanna, Luca (aged 3) and Uta, a young German eye specialist visiting the hospital here before she starts a one year placement in Lahan, 200 km west. We headed north to Dharan and then up to the hills to climb the observation tower on the hill at Bhedeta, where on a clear day there are fantastic views of the Everest range. It was not a clear day. Descended back to Dharan, where Hanna and family are planning to move in April, to look at some houses. One was on the massive site of the BP Koirala Hospital and Medical School. This was the former British Gorkha Military HQ, with large colonial houses, Capability Brown landscaping, a country club and a golf course. Nirvana Country Club had seen better days, but we had a pleasant lunch sitting in the sunshine behind a barbed wire fence looking over the golf course, where cows grazed on scrubby brown grass and a few stout Indian doctors on their afternoon off swung their clubs. Home via the ‘supermarket’ in Itahari.