Up, down, in and out

We're all looking forward to the weekend. Chris & Lisa were planning to walk over the hills in a sort of mini-trek, but the idea catches on quickly amongst Manjil & the volunteers and a group outing is planned. Manjil's village is at the top of “our” hill so it's decided that we will all go there on Friday as soon as school is finished. This makes the logisitics much easier, as Manjil has the keys to his uncle's house where there is enough space for everyone to sleep – no need to bring tents or cooking supplies!

Quite a few of our students live that way (two actually live at the top of the hill and walk over an hour each way to school!), so they wait for us after class and we all walk together. It makes the uphill climb much more fun, as the kids (and Manjil) are pointing out landmarks along the way (the tree where the goddess stepped; the elephant rock – with a handy hole to tie up your elephant; a small cave where you squeeze through the entrance and pop out a different exit...) and picking berries for us to eat. It's also the clearest day we've had since our arrival so the views over the valley & across the surrounding hills are spectacular! Still, even in late afternoon/early evening it is very hot for walking uphill so we are glad to reach the village, where Manjil buys us all a soft drink and we pick up some supplies for dinner. Then it's a long climb up a track which is more suitable for goats than people, and we arrive at the fanciest house we've seen since we arrived at the school – it even has it's own water, with an enclosed shower in the front yard (cold, of course, but that's usually welcome in this climate)!

Our Friday pm stroll
up the hill

These berries can be used to make ink

Delicious orange berries

The main component of dinner is a chicken which is purchased from the first shop in the village (there are two, side-by-side, and diplomatically we buy some items from each). This is different from our free-range chickens at the school, as it's a “broiler” - raised in a room with many other chickens and not much stimulation. The Nepalis in our group say that these chickens are bred especially for their meat and do not put up any fight when you kill them...but Lisa wonders how much of their docility can be attributed to their upbringing, rather than their DNA. Our chicken seems terrified to be in the open air and makes no attempt to escape even when we leave it alone, sitting on a table outside the house. It is certainly plumper & meatier than the village chickens (which are said to be “bones with a bit of meat”), but actually the flavour is not as nice and it seems easier to enjoy meat that had a happy life...

One of the students, Muskan, stays with us at the house and falls asleep on Erica's lap...until her family arrives and sends her on a few errands. A few of the women take over the kitchen for a hour or so – apparently they are preparing the sauce for our dinner with local raw ingredients! It is delicious – a lemony, spicy chicken dish with rice, washed down with the obligatory raksi, and we all enjoy the evening sitting around the fire & listening to the frogs in the nearby pond.

Unfortunately, something that we ate does not agree with Lisa and she feels sick all night. In the morning, we are all meant to be climbing to the old king's fort (at the “actual” top of the hill – maybe you never really reach the top, there seems to be more than one ;-) ) but there is no chance that she is going anywhere...and since no one else wakes up until 9am, it's too hot for them to go either. The others have a lazy breakfast while Lisa stays in bed. Erica also had a restless night – she slept in the kitchen and said that there are angry spirits in the house – maybe the boys made the right choice to sleep outside!

Eventually Lisa manages to struggle out of bed, mostly because she is sore from lying on the hard wooden boards (have we mentioned that Nepalis don't use mattresses?) and Yadin kindly lets her use his hammock, which Suman has set up in a lovely shady spot overlooking the valley. She dozes for a while, and then finally throws up next to a corn plant, which does make her feel better ;-)

We all end up sleeping the day away – a lovely lazy Saturday in a relaxing place. Around 3pm we are starting to make some noises about going home – Lisa reckons she can make it, if she goes slowly, since it's all downhill – but a sudden storm blows in and we are trapped for a while. The storm lasts quite a while and the rain is heavy enough that we realise we won't be able to walk back to the school today. This is bad news for our new German volunteer, Manu, who arrived that afternoon & is waiting for us at the school with Vishnu; and also for our stomachs, since we don't have any food for dinner that night. Suman & Erica volunteer to go to the shops to pick up supplies, including a cucumber for Lisa if they can find one. They come back almost an hour later, dripping wet (and without shoes, in Erica's case – she was sliding everywhere and took them off after the first 5 minutes) and laden with snacks & a chicken.

Everyone suddenly realises that they didn't have lunch, and dives into the snacks. There are even some “plain” biscuits for Lisa (the shops don't have cucumber) but the Nepali version of “plain” includes butter, sugar, and salt (it's called a “twin taste” biscuit, we're guessing that's salty & sweet?). She manages a few, with some sweet tea, while Chris slaughters his first chicken. Manjil also makes some “sick people food” for Lisa – rice & dahl with salt, kind of mashed together like baby food. It's boring and virtually tasteless, just what she needs. She dozes outside while the main dinner is prepared...but when the others start to eat, she heads off to bed – the smell of spicy food is definitely not helpful. Chris stays to chat about important things like what would be the most useless power for a superhero (growing hair, changing colour and being clean amongst others).

The next morning, Chris & Erica set out at 6:30am to climb the hill (the boys are still asleep, and Lisa is not up to climbing!). When they started out they were in the clouds, walking through a tropical half-light. Through minor cack-handedness they took the long way up, though the fields, only seeing the steps once at the top! What a sight from the top though, a sea of clouds with the tips of the tallest hills breaking through. The ruins of the fort were fenced off but made a nice breakfast stop for Chris, Erica and May the dog. Everyone else gets up about 8 and works through the remaining snacks for breakfast. We pack up and lock up the house – it's time to head home!

We trundle back down the hill, with a stop at the cave for Erica & Suman (Erica didn't visit it with the kids, and has decided that she wants to see it). Chris is also feeling a bit poorly now so it's slow going for the Streets – frankly, we can't wait to lay down on our relatively comfy bed in the hut (amazing how much padding a couple of blankets & the Thermarests can provide!) and eat some cucumber.

We meet Manu, who seems very easy-going. He met Manjil's brother when they were both in Costa Rica and tried to contact him when he popped over to Nepal during his current trip to India, but Manjil's brother is living in the USA at the moment so Manu somehow ended up as one of the school's volunteers instead! He will be placed in the new school west of Pokhara but Manjil wants to spend a few days getting to know him & seeing how he works with the kids first.

Yadin was meant to leave for the eastern school on Sunday morning, but of course we didn't come home because of the storm. He can't travel on Monday because there is a strike (“bandh”) in the eastern regions. Bandhs are unbelievably common in Nepal – they can be called by different castes or political groups for all sorts of reasons – and on bandh days, there is no transportation. Apparently people don't even drive private vehicles because they are likely to have bricks thrown at them or have their cars set on fire! (At least emergency vehicles are left alone.) There have already been 2 bandh days in the previous week, and rumours abound that this entire week could be a bandh – the government & the people are strongly divided on the issue of the constitution (which has already been delayed for a year) so the situation is not likely to improve anytime soon. This makes it impossible to transport the volunteers between the different schools – and also to do any day-to-day tasks such as buying food, visiting the internet cafe etc.

Some reflections on school life (Chris). I hadn't expected to be doing so much teaching here. I rather thought I'd be doing various admin or manual tasks. However, being short of teachers meant we all had to get stuck in. Most of the children are really outgoing and helpful, which I have found to be true of Nepalis in general. But, like young kids everywhere they are also inquisitive and adept at distraction to get out of doing 'boring work'. Every day is different and sometimes it is hard to keep them all engaged, especially if we are all struggling through a particularly hot an humid afternoon! But it is rewarding when you see the moment a child seems to understand a new concept or term. And, I've got to say that at their age (8-12) my French was nowhere near as good as their English.

The good news is that Monday is NOT a bandh in our region. Suman, Erika & Lisa jump on the bus to Damauli – Lisa to do the shopping & round up more volunteers, and Erica & Suman to go to the school west of Pokhara. Manjil has decided that Erica is a good fit for this school; she has settled in nicely as an art teacher at our school, and also she doesn't smoke or drink alcohol which makes her a perfect fit for the Brahman family who will host her.

Lisa enjoys a banana lassi & an omelette sandwich for breakfast (and her stomach is happy to have something hearty but not spicy for a change), and then heads to the shops. She picks up an English textbook for Goma, who doesn't have the same one that the rest of her classmates are using, and a spare “teacher's copy” for Chris. Then she spends a couple of hours catching up on personal emails (including one about Chris' Canadian visa application...the High Commission has finally started reading it!), responding to potential volunteers & posting about her experiences on the Lonely Planet forum, which seems like it could be a great place to find international volunteers. The guy sitting next to her says that he has applied for a Canadian visa, and wonders if she can help him to get it – ha ha! She finishes her day in Damauli by buying food for both people & pigs...and convincing nice young Nepali lads to cart her purchases to the bus (ahem, have you ever tried to carry a sack of pig food or a huge bag of rice?). The bus driver even waits for her before he leaves – amazing!

A new Nepali volunteer, Mahesh, was meant to be meeting Lisa in Damauli but doesn't show up. Happily he makes his own way to the school a few hours later. He is from Kathmandu and has just finished his Bachelor's degree in Electronic & Communication Engineering. He wants to go to the USA to do a Master's degree but in the meanwhile, he's just been sitting around his house feeling bored, so he's pretty excited to be at the school for his first ever volunteer experience!

Manu is a bit surprised when one of the kids brings a slingshot to class on his first day of teaching ;-) Actually, it's not unusual to see children here with short scythes or other sharp objects – many, if not all of them have work to do on their family's land when they are not in school, so they are accustomed to using tools from a really young age. They're also amazingly acrobatic and you can often find them hanging from the trees...or the rafters of the classrooms!

On Tuesday morning at breakfast, Manjil announces that he will leave with Yadin that day to head eastwards. Manjil has some important people to meet with in Kathmandu and he wants to take the opportunity while there is a Nepali volunteer to cover for him (it's vital that someone at the school can communicate with the villagers, teachers & parents). It'll be a big responsibility for Mahesh but he seems like a confident fellow, and he already has some teaching experience so this Is not all entirely new to him. There is still a bandh in the eastern regions, but Yadin will try to take a night bus to the other school as any other prospect seems unlikely in the near future, and the school really needs his help. So, Manjil creates a teaching schedule for the next week (normally he makes the schedule each morning, once he's sure which teachers & volunteers are available) and spends the morning with Mahesh. Manjil & Yadin leave after lunch and suddenly it seems very quiet – there are just 4 volunteers and Vishnu left to run the place, eek!

That night there is a big thunderstorm, and for once it is accompanied by a lot of rain. We decide to catch as much rainwater as possible – with our reduced numbers, it will be much more difficult for us to go to the spring for water. We find all the buckets and place them in strategic positions; also we discover that if we shift one of the large rainwater buckets slightly, it catches the flow from the guttering outside the kitchen area. The tarp over our dining area is the best source and we have a bit of a giggle trying to direct the cache of water into various buckets – we get it right about half the time, and the other half we get a good shower! After the storm we laugh at how easily entertained we are in the absence of TV. It's strange to imagine that many of the kids here have never seen a TV; in fact, most of them have little experience of life outside their own village.

Posing pigs

Rice fields

Classroom B

In other news from around our farm:  when we arrived there were 2 hens sitting on several eggs, safely nesting in the upstairs bedroom. The first hen now has her chicks – two black and two yellow. Unfortunately one of the yellow ones vanishes after a couple of days, probably the victim of a bird or a small animal. A few days later, the 2^nd hen hatches 3 chicks, a matching set of fuzzy black cuties. It's really sweet to see them all trailing around the yard with their constant clucking (mom) and peeping (chicks). It's also quite amazing to see how quickly our older chicks have grown up – in the space of a few days they have gone from fuzzy to feathered, and they can fly now which makes them much less prone to danger & hazards.