Presents, parties & scheduling

We're starting to get into a routine of sorts. Chris' history class is enmeshed in World War I, and he can remember the names of at least half the children in the school ;-) Lisa has been negotiating with other local rice farmers about the use of the water (rice fields need to be constantly wet, but we are all using the same small stream for our water supply).

One of the farmers knows numbers in English, but nothing else; the other doesn't seem to know any English. Lisa's Nepali vocabulary so far consists of mati (up), pani (water), danyabat (thank you), meeto (delicious), and namaste (customary Nepali greeting). This isn't really sufficient for negotiating! So we draw timetables & the farmers write notes in Nepali for Manjil to translate. Unfortunately it seems that the Nepali way is to change one's mind every other day, so the scheduling is a bit of a challenge. At least Lisa's stubbornness is coming in handy – the rice is getting it's water every day (usually at 6AM ugh).

Our first weekend at the school is brilliant. There are no classes on Saturday or Sunday (normally the only “day off” from work or school is Saturday, but since the school doesn't take a summer break we can have 2-day weekends!). The farm chores, of course, are still necessary on the weekend but it's more relaxing without classes to teach.

Saturday is Manjil's “heritage day” in his mother's village at the top of our hill – basically lots of people from the same cultural background getting together to renew acquaintances & remind themselves of their heritage ;-) A jeep full of family members arrives bright & early to spirit him away. He has already explained to us that people who are NOT from that heritage can attend, but are not allowed to eat or drink, so we leave him to go on his own!

The school gets lots of visitors during the day – most for Manjil, of course, and we try to explain that he will be back later. One of our chicks falls in a bucket of water – luckily a chick in danger is pretty loud, so Lisa manages to rescue him. We wash him off and leave him in the sun to dry. One of the visitors drops off some Nepali roti, which is a fried pastry (shaped a bit like a pretzel) made with rice flour – it's nice to have something (a little bit) sweet for a change. Fanny goes to town for the day, and returns with pineapple juice (yay, fruit!) and some spray for the nest that giant wasps are trying to build in our hut.

One of our last visitors of the day is a local man, who drops in around dinnertime for some free food & raksi. He tries to convince Manjil to give him a free chicken or rooster as well, to no avail. Sometimes it's hard to work out if people are really so poor that they have nothing to eat, or whether they are just being cheeky. Unfortunately, the former is more likely to be correct here.

Lisa & Fanny go to the rice fields on Sunday morning at 6AM. On our way back, we meet one of the local farmers, who gives us a tour of his crops (including a vegetable that's new to both of us – karella (bitter gourd)) and some free cucumbers. He also offers us some good prices for veg to save us a trip to the market in Damauli (we later find out that we already have a similar deal set up with another local farmer).

Later that morning, Manjil's father arrives from Kathmandu with new textbooks for the youngest children, and some food for us – two kinds of pickle and some butter rice. Suman has been in Kathmandu for the weekend and comes back with Manjil's dad. He has a bag full of goodies including some soft drinks, and the remainder of a box of wine from a party at his parents' house. He also brings some woolly hats for the villagers to use during winter (it doesn't get too cold here, but even now the mornings can be quite fresh if there has been a storm the night before).

At the same time as Manjil's dad arrives, we have a visitor from the nearby village of Beltari. He is Lt. Deo Bahadur Ale, an 81-year-old ex-Gurkha soldier, who is the grandfather of one of our students. He is really happy to meet Chris and sing/hum some old British tunes, and they even do a little dance! Apparently he used to come regularly to do marching routines with the students, but he has problems with his blood pressure and finds it hard to walk up the hill to the school.

Then Manjil gets some great news...Enrique, the Dutch volunteer at the eastern school calls to say that his parents are donating some money. They'll use it to set up a chicken farming business, using some space which has been donated by the local village.

Most of the volunteers were planning to attend a Buddhist puja (ceremony) which Vishnu was going to officiate in his village. Today is the full moon, and the annual day for celebrating Buddha's enlightenment and ascension. But it is cancelled at the last minute due to some family issues, so we accept an invitation to the local village puja instead. This one is Hindu, not Buddhist, so maybe it's just a coincidence that it's held on the same day...? Although there is a lot of crossover between the two main Nepali religions...

Manjil explains that the elderly man who is officiating the village puja is a healer/medicine man; also, since our village population is largely from the “untouchable” caste, other Nepalis would not attend the puja even if invited. The caste system is so complex, and often seems to us to be very unfair – if people from different castes aren't allowed to socialise, how will the system ever change? It seems particularly harsh that “untouchables” are not even allowed to enter the homes of people from a higher caste – they actually risk getting killed if they do so.

We are the special guests at the puja – everyone is excited to see us and there is a rush to find chairs or baskets for us to sit on. The villagers seem torn whether to watch the ceremony or to watch us! Almost everyone is holding a chicken, and some of the children have two...we're pretty sure some sacrifice will be involved...

Sure enough, after a short ceremony where each chicken's head is anointed with water (with special attention for the big rooster), everyone motions us to move back. A minute later, the first headless chicken flaps, kicks & rolls it's way out of the ceremonial space, through a small fire, and down the hill into the field where we're standing. The kids are having a great time retrieving the chickens. We're not quite sure what to make of it – decide for yourself by watching the video:

It's important to note that the sacrifices aren't simply ceremonial – in a village this poor, there would never be such a waste of food. Every family will be having chicken for dinner tonight!

The puja finishes with everyone receiving a tika (rice and red paste applied in a giant dot on one's forehead) and a small handful of snacks – bits of roti & a giant sugar crystal. One of the villagers invites us to her home, where we enjoy some more roti (served with a small pot of curried vegetables – interesting combination of savoury & sweet!) and orange drink. We chat with her oldest daughter (I would guess she's about 13) who wants to be a doctor or veterinarian, then a “heroine” (movie star). The little daughter, Annu, is about 2 years old and really cute & smiley. There is a son as well – probably 8 or 9 - who passes through a couple of times, and we talk about why he doesn't attend our school. Apparently he did for a while but was put in the first grade class (Maya's classes are based on ability/knowledge rather than age) whereas in the “government school” he is in the 3^rd or 4^th grade. This is one of Manjil's biggest gripes – the government school continues to pass children to the next grade even if they are not ready, and tends to place new students according to age. The parents, of course, think it's better for their children to be in the higher grades so it's an ongoing argument.

Eventually we head back up the hill to the school, where we decide to do our laundry. Like everything else that involves water (including the water needed for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes), this means a 10-minute trek to the town's spring. That doesn't sound so bad but it's not that easy coming back with several full jugs of water, and the walk back also undoes the effects of having a “shower” (which is a fun process in itself, trying to wash yourself outside while remaining decently clothed, under a rather chilly tap!). We arrive at the spring to find that Sunday afternoon is the busiest time at the spring – a family is showering, doing a large load of laundry, and refilling water bottles; several other families & individuals arrive to have a wash & fill jugs. We're a bit too polite and therefore wait about half an hour before getting a turn at the taps. Fanny shows us how to wet our clothes without spraying the water everywhere, and then how to soap/scrub each item on the ledges beside the spring. We have brought our concentrated liquid travel wash, which is great for handwashing in a sink, but we soon discover that it doesn't go far without a container of water to work in. Next time we'll just use a bar of soap!

As we are finishing our laundry and loading up the “head basket” (a big basket with a strap that fits over the head – most of the weight is borne by the wearer's neck), one of our students (Goma) appears with her father. They insist that we come to their house for a drink. We are tired but it's Fanny's last day at the school, so we let ourselves be convinced to come for “just one drink”.

We discover that our cups “magically” refill when we are not looking, so one drink turns into two or maybe more. Goma's family is funny – she has been teaching them English as she learns it at school (she's very smart) so they are practicing on us. Goma's father takes a shine to Chris' watch and tries to buy it for 200 rupees (less than 2 pounds!) but he's out of luck – Chris needs the watch to keep track of the class schedule ;-)

As we are leaving, Goma presents us with a big white pumpkin, which we add to our basket. She takes another pumpkin and walks part-way with us – she is going to her grandmother's house to deliver it. The white is actually a coating which rubs off on her leg and skirt, and I tease her about becoming as white as me! Suman later tells us that these pumpkins are good for treating illnesses, especially in animals, so I suspect the white substance is a mold akin to penicillin.

After our busy weekend, we're back to our regular school schedule on Monday. There are a few changes – Fanny leaves on Monday morning (after morning assembly, where the children sing her a good-bye song), and a Lithuanian volunteer (Erika) arrives in the afternoon. Our local bus isn't running on Monday so Lisa offers to walk to Beltari to collect Erika from the jeep stop. It's pretty easy to find – just keep heading down the hill =) There is a small shop there, where we stop for a soft drink (which we are not allowed to take home, because the woman insists on the immediate return of the glass bottles). We meet a very philosophical guy who seems to have similar views to Manjil regarding community development & creating more opportunities for locals, but he doesn't seem to be offering anything concrete (or maybe we're not understanding everything!). Then we take the long walk up the hill to the school. We stop at the local water tap to refill our bottles, but there is just a trickle of water – a neighbour shouts “pani” at us and refills the bottles from her own water jugs. It seems that the local tap is only on in the evening...? We reach the school to receive the welcome message that we've all been invited to Goma's house for dinner, so we can relax with some raksi & have a night off from cooking & washing up.

It's a lucky break that Erika is an artistic sort, so she will take over the Arts & Crafts classes that Fanny was doing. She's even brought a big bag of art supplies! On Tuesday, another new volunteer arrives (Yadin from Singapore) but he will just stay with us for a few days & then head for the new school in eastern Nepal, to replace Enrique who will be leaving soon.

Chris' week gets off to a good start – he gives out his first “star” to a student (handily, it is Vishnu's brother, who is sometimes quite lazy about attending school & doing homework). He's also doing some intensive work with two of the new students to help them catch up in English. One of those students withdraws after a few days (her father doesn't want to do the two days of labour to “pay” for her education), but this is actually good news for the 2^nd student, Punina, because she immediately becomes best friends with another classmate and starts participating more. Chris also learns to feed the pigs & ducks, and helps to kill and pluck a chicken for dinner.

Lisa's keen to get in the kitchen and experiment with all the spices etc. She makes fried rice for lunch one day; cinnamon & ginger tea for breakfast; and a vegetable dish with a (sort of) satay sauce. The last one is a nice surprise for everyone because it's really different from our usual curry & spicy flavours.

Lisa spends the day in Damauli on Tuesday to start her work on recruiting volunteers. The bus is still not working (we think it's broken – all buses in Nepal are privately owned by “bus entrepreneurs” and in our area there is only one!), so she walks to Beltari to catch the jeep. It's already full by the time it arrives, but as usual everyone is very accommodating & shuffles around on the roof to make a space in a prime position, in the front, with a bit of a “seat” on the spare tire. At first it's a little scary – the jeep is pretty high, and the road is rough – but soon she realises that this is the best seat in the house. A great view, fresh air, no loud Nepali music, and no hitting one's head on the ceiling! The locals are chatty and one speaks English, so he is translating for the others – soon they all know where Lisa is from, what she is doing in the area, and that she's not scared to ride on top of the jeep ;-) We pass a big group of nicely-dressed people along the river near town - the English-speaking guy says it's a wedding.

After a long day on the internet, and some quick shopping (a notebook for one of the students, some fruit juice, and a big pack of toilet paper) she hops in the last jeep of the day. Fingers crossed that it is the right one, as the drivers will say just about anything to fill up the seats in their vehicles! It starts off in the wrong direction, and the fellow sharing the backseat with Lisa says it is going to Pokhara – but she soon works out that he is teasing her. He turns out to be an English student and uses the journey time to practise.

At some stage of the journey, he points out Beltari – which is now below us hmm – and says we won't stop there, but we are going to Chisopani which is the route normally taken by the bus. Lisa decides to get out when the jeep reaches our village, just in case it takes another random turn – besides, she is too tall for the back of the jeep and has been folded up long enough. She even manages to negotiate a 5 rupee discount on the price (well, it was 30 rupees to go down, but apparently 40 to go up – she DID say she was going to Beltari, and 10 seems a bit steep for the bit of extra distance to the village!). Unfortunately she forgets the toilet paper which was on top of the jeep...but the next morning, it appears in the schoolyard with the message that it isn't useful to anyone else (only us weird Westerners use toilet paper!) ;-)

Much of the rest of our time this week is spent retrieving water (there have been a couple of storms, but there is not nearly enough rainwater for our needs and everyone takes turns to trundle back & forth with bottles & jugs...water is such a huge issue here argh). Manjil has a plan to set up a water line for the school & some of the village farms from a source higher up the hill, but it will take time, manpower and of course money.

Wednesday is a huge day. At 7am (1 hour early!) a jeep arrives, with a group of people from a charity called the Underprivileged Girls Education Support Program who will sponsor all of the female students in our school. We are all on our best behaviour, despite the early hour, and the meeting goes really well (we hope!). The students also arrive early, with their parents in tow (they usually walk to school on their own), and everyone gathers in one of the classrooms to receive new schoolbags containing notebooks, pencils, and vitamin B syrup.

Luckily for the boys (or maybe it was planned), our Gurkha friend also drops in that morning and does some marching drills for the boys only. It helps to keep them busy while the girls are measured for new uniforms & shoes, but still it must be difficult for them to understand why the girls are getting so much attention & free stuff. Still, it's great news for the female students & the village to have this sponsorship, and we hope that someone will step up to do something similar for the boys soon.

Other bits & pieces from our week: Lisa sees a rather large snake in one of the local fields (but she likes snakes, so that's OK ;-) ); Chris is competing with our little rabbit, the caterpillars, and a host of other pests to save our cabbage crop; both of us try to sort out the “library” (which currently has no sense of order – but does have more than a dozen copies of Animal Farm!); the local leopard nabs one of our small pigs and possibly a chicken as well; and we all have dinner at Tilu Miss' house (one of our teachers). This meal is particularly delicious – starting with local “beer” (jaar) served with a soybean pickle, and then a main course made with pumpkin that is just the right level of spicy for our palates.

Next instalment: up the hill to Manjil's village.....