Kash is restless for development

A few photos from this week just gone. I’ve got one more...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 01:41:00 -0400

Not impressed

I want to be this man when I get old!

Best feeling ever, looking up at this

Statler and waldorf turned up

This wasn't acting. This was real!

You'll see this on catwalks v.soon...

1st place! What? Say something?!

obligatory photo of a child from school

Teacher's training day for 10 schools.

Who want's to sing some more songs?

A few photos from this week just gone. I’ve got one more week left and then it’s all over!

You Oughta Know

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:35:00 -0400

I asked my mate Dora to do her best Alanis Morissette impression, and She didn’t disappoint. I was going to post this up tomorrow, but it couldn’t wait till then. This is absoloutely hilarious and depressing at the same time. Tell ‘em Dora!…

Dora ponders the role of women in Nepal….

So what’s it like being a woman in Nepal? Bloody awful in short, but best delve a bit deeper… My observations lead me to believe a woman is valued as much as the family buffalo. Both are milked until they are raw, tend to the grass and are only allowed out with the husband’s permission, granted a woman is not put on a leech, but you can imagine she has never strayed further than the local market. A domestic affection is felt for both woman and buffalo that cannot be denied, but if either of these species misbehaves the consequence can be fatal. Although I doubt they serve up ‘stewed wife in masala spices with roti’ probably because if she’s for dinner then whose going to make it? A final similarity between a Nepali wife and a buffalo is a man can own not one, but as many as he can handle and it is generally perceived the more the better…….. Think of all that milk! Naturally one cannot rely on observation alone, so I decided to do some research, with no library I thought I best dive in and ask the host dad his views on women, “so what do you think of women then uncle?” kindly translated by my Nepali friend Monita he replied “women do not have the thinking capacity of men, and think about domestic duties, it is scientifically proven” naturally I did not expect him to start reeling off case studies but I was skeptical where he got his ‘science’ from. Essentially I had opened up a big fat misogynistic can of worms and was on the verge of ruining our Nepali version of ‘The Walton’s’ dinner scene. We were all huddled round by candle light in the kitchen making aloo paratha which is bread stuffed with potato fried, there is enough complex carbohydrate in this particular dish to fuel an army up Everest. Nerves got the better of me in my new role as Jeremy Paxman and I ate 5 pieces. Then lay on my bed unable to move for half an hour filled with regret. But back to the point, Monita a very intelligent modern sort of woman was offended by his prehistoric views, I however unfortunately had dangled the carrot and he had eaten it, I pretty much expected him to say something along those lines, although I didn’t expect him to bring ‘science’ into it! I mean it’s pretty bloomin obvious; he’s not going to start talking about his days as a student when he burned his bra. I have to quickly add that he is a very nice man and I fancy him a bit in an older Michael Douglas sort of way before he got cancer.

The family I stay with have a daughter whom they spend a considerable amount of money on each month to send too private school. I have noticed that the daughter is not informed on how to grow a pineapple, does not spend her free time milking goats or at a 90 degree angle cutting grass to feed the numerous livestock that share the family household. So I asked ‘do you think your daughter has lower thinking capacity to men and just thinks about domestic duties?’ I started to fear that tomorrow’s chiya would have a ‘special’ ingredient. The host mother looked up from massaging the doughy carbs and said ‘ask my husband’ well this speaks volumes, but she did say modern women are ‘too sexy’, flattered I thought well I am a bit of a dish, she continued to say modern women do not know how to look after the home and do not make good wives, I interpret her understanding of a modern woman as a sexy cat, she calls the shots wiggles her tail purrs rubbing up against her owner/ boyfriend/dad when she wants money or some whiskers, but is out the door whenever she pleases to meet her other sexy cat pals and as she leaves the catflap says ‘don’t wait up’. Ultimately that evening we didn’t put the world to rights and I was far more concerned about how much I had eaten than ranting on to some caveman about how men and women should be equal, so conversation lead to far safer territory about how many mountains were in England less Paxman, more Titchmarsh.

As a volunteer I have been in Nepal 10 weeks, now for those mathematicians out there, you would know that nature comes knocking every 4 weeks or so, when I feel a desire to eat 10 packets of coconut crunchies a Nepali delicacy with enough E numbers to get you through a night out and still be bouncing around in the morning all for 3p a packet. I also find hurling abuse at loved ones helps me during the difficult days of menstruation, but as they are all back in blighty the local shopkeeper will do. So what’s it like being on your period in Nepal? Again bloody awful. In any culture it’s not very ladylike to talk about being on your period, for good reason yet we still do, to mothers, friends, uninterested boyfriends who see this as a warning to give her a wide birth til she ‘calms down a bit’. In fact I used to tell my dad I was on my period every week, when I was teen so he would give me money which I desperately needed for ‘jumbo tampons’ and then go and buy 10 Mayfair. Poor dad he must have known something was up, but a man should never question a woman’s need for ‘jumbo tampons’ and he never did. But yes a period should be a private affair but in Nepal it is a MI5 mission not to be leaked (scuse the pun) women in Nepal on their period are DIRTY not in the Christina Aguleria sense, more like infected with a deadly disease….I won’t name any names. In Nepal when a woman is on her period she should not be touched, touch someone, prepare food, be near where food is prepared and in some parts of Nepal sleep outside with the dogs. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the dogs from outside hop into the marital bed and a little trade occurs (please note this is just speculation) although I’m certain this happens. CERTAIN. On a serious note women in Nepal are dying in the winter due to freezing to death sleeping outside. So when a woman is on her period in Nepal the ranking scale changes a bit and it goes man, buffalo, flea ridden dog, then wifey. Being in Nepal has put things in perspective and perhaps when I’m at home and it’s that time of the month I may try and be a bit less aggressive, but I’m still going to consume a kilo of dairy milk. I also may thank my dad for being a nice uncomfortable English man that doesn’t question his daughters need for jumbo tampons.

Homo Alone

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 06:55:01 -0400

Did you enjoy the last couple of entries from Abbas and Nat? Of course you did! I asked my pal James to do a piece on being the only gay in the village. It’s superb!

I didn’t have the heart to tell James that this puppy was homophobic…

Nepal like many Asian countries is still in the closet. Though the gaydar has spotted quite a few potential benders. Let’s be honest if you like it or not there’s gay people all over the world it’s quite a shame they have not got the freedom to be who they are but Nepal is a long way off forming any gay rights, forming a government would be a good start.

I’ve spent 10 weeks pretending to be of the hetro sort, which hasn’t been too difficult, the “I’m too young to have a wife” excuse has been great but I don’t think I’ll be having a wife at any age. You can spot a gayer a mile off, and there’s quite a few in Nepal which leads to the question where are they gettin it on?! I’m pretty sure there must be an underground gay scene, I mean look at the U.K, it hasn’t been that long since it was exactly the same as here, and we still don’t have the right to marriage.

Nepal still doesn’t have gender equality so they have a long way to go before they get round to the homo’s, yenno the women are usually in favour of the homo, GBF and that (gay beat friend) so once they get a voice were on the right track. I just find it absolutely crazy that homosexuals are being tied into arranged marriages and living a double life, I don’t think I could do that but then if your whole family, community and livelihood will be ruined if anyone was to find out I think you’ve got no choice. I mean I’ve spent 10 weeks here so far and I assume that the relationships and mutual respect that have been built means something, people here know me, would that tiny part of who I am really change their whole opinion? Who knows but I’m not gunna be the one to stick round and find out haha!

There is a lack of education about many things, I don’t think some of the Nepalli people have even heard of homosexuality but it’s always going to be an uphill battle with a place which is so religious, as we all know being homo is a sin but Jesus had two dads.. The culture here is quite strange as well, when I first arrived in Nepal I thought it was the gayest country I have ever seen, every man walks down the street hand in hand, lots of touchy feely business, sit with each other between ones legs, now if you were doing that in the U.K everyone is deffo gunna think you’re about as straight as a hulahoop but here gay doesn’t exist so it’s just friendship. I wonder whether the U.K was like this at one time? But now we’ve all come out and left narnia behind, men are to scared to show affection to each other. In the U.K we take for granted the Human rights we have, I don’t think it’s right for anyone to be discriminated against for the way they where born but the human race fears the unknown and if we’re not educated properly, well you do the math…

I’ve come to encounter one particular man who is probably up there with one of the campiest men I’ve ever met and has just turned down a marriage his parents had arranged which is not the done thing. My heart pours out to him as I know the awful time I had whilst coming out and he is stuck in a country where he will never be able to be who he is and be accepted for who he is, I asked one of the Nepali volunteers if they thought he was and there immediate response was “no, it’s not possible”.

When we first arrived in Nepal I couldn’t help but ask our language trainer what the gay sitch was, he said there are a small organisation in katmandu called Blue Diamond fighting for the rights of “these third gender people”. I couldn’t help but laugh and look at the other volunteers faces, I’m certainly not a third gender, not the last time I checked anyway. Living with 2 heterosexual Nepali males was interesting, not a clue in the world about me, the gay jokes where flowing and I was laughing, they where quite funny to be fair. I said my uncles gay, you know to test the water (he actually is) and who said it’s not genetics . Anyway there was a look of shock then a bit of an awkward silence followed by a change of subject. I’d like to visit the organisation before I leave it’s called Blue Diamond just to see what there doing, apparently they’ve met up with politicians a lot it became legal here just 4 years ago but at least there getting Somewhere.

My experience here as a young homosexual adult, well to be fair hasn’t been any different to any of my hetro volunteer friends, but I don’t really introduce myself and follow it with who I’m attracted to, I mean it has been annoying sometimes because people here are so curious about everything you get the same questions “how many girlfriends have you had?”, “when will you get married?” all that jazz. I would like to just be truthful but don’t think it would go down too well. On top of being appreciative of back home in terms of electric, water, luxuries, good food I will also take back how amazingly lucky I have been to be born in England and have the right to lead a life being who I am, and can not begin to comprehend the pain and suffering people must go through here.

Shit happens...

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:32:00 -0400

I’m quite enjoying my break from blogging, Here’s Nat chatting shit…

To be fair to Nat you’d never smile too, if you were from Nottingham…

I’m out here a thousand miles from my home…

Long way from home, long long way. We took an airplane against my better instincts. Hellish journey. Couldn’t sleep a wink, not even complimentary whiskey could soothe my fear, diazepam neither. Awake for uncountable hours across numerous time zones left me confused how to feel but I, us, we…we made it! Onwards into the land of green verdant valleys, of sky-piercing peaks, of Gurkha warriors and of plentiful amounts of the sumptuous Dhal Bhat.

The Western land, nervous under the beginning change…

Arrival into the Dhading was simply extraordinary; a bus full of twentysomethings meandering through the snaking highway, the scenery punctuated by better views than Wales and the Lake District combined. I remained awestruck throughout. A quick pitstop to empty ourselves (diarrhea having already got me in it’s dastardly clutches thus far) and drink cheap red bull, then further westwards we rolled till we reached Dhading Bhesi, home of the famed Jana Jibika Hotel.

Making our way to placement we met our family. Initially I was skeptical of how things were to be; our family weren’t talkative and didn’t seem at all bothered by mine or my fellow compatriots presence. We soon realised however that this was simply shyness on the families part and despite the language barrier for myself, the family have made me feel truly welcomed in the home and part of the pariwaar.

It’s a mighty hard row that my poor hands’ve hoed…

The hardest part of being here can be perfectly encapsulated in one word: health. This can cover a variety of things, including much that we take for granted in our wonderfully safe bubble of the U.K. I could talk of a few things the U.K. and Nepali volunteers have suffered from over here, but my own personal experience has been a battle with diarrhea.

di·ar·rhe·a/ˌdīəˈrēə/
Noun: A condition in which feces are discharged from the bowels frequently and in a liquid form.

People die from it here and I can see why. During our mid-way training we were holed up in a hotel in Kathmandu, waiting for this whole constitution malarkey to blow over. We had a couple of days of down time before two days of training. The first day of training was fine, however on the morning of the second day of training was when the bugs inside my body decided to go into overload. I was vomiting heavily whilst literally diarrheaing my second-best pair of boxer shorts at the same time. I decided to give training a miss for the day and lay in bed, in an attempt at recovery. Not that I spent much time in bed as every 15 minutes I would be rushing back to the toilet to spew evermore, whilst adding further brown stripes to that silver medal winning underwear. It got the the point where all solids had escaped my system. I could only pass liquids at both ends at an increasingly alarming rate. I was dizzy, felt too weak to stand. I could not hold water, let alone summon up the energy to go downstairs and fetch more water once my bottle had been emptied. Basically I was in a terrible state, completely dehydrated with no credit to ring for help, in an empty hotel, with no water and with pins and needles rushing through my entire body like a poisonous tide. Never before in my life had I felt like I could have actually died, until this point. With seemingly no hope of rescue, the mountain was simply not coming to Mohammed, but bless Allah for one of his followers did indeed come and he guided me on my way to the great mountain named ‘Norvic Hospital’. With help getting into and out of the jeep and through to the hospital, I felt near the point of collapse. I found myself lying down on a hospital bed in the emergency room where all manner of people came rushing to me, all wanting samples of my blood, stool and urine for their personal collections. All intent on forcing ever more needles in to me body.

The rest of my stay in hospital was largely uneventful, I was pumped full of 10 litres of saline solution and some other drips of antibiotics. The finance man of the hospital (it being private) kept barging into my room demanding to know how I expect to pay:

I don’t know how I expect to pay, leave me alone, I’m really ill. The charity will get in touch, just please stop hassling me for money. - Nathaniel Mason - 31/05/2012

Plenty of pretty nurses (all mid-twenties, in a heavily stylised uniform which had something of the naughty nurse about it…like I said private hospital, lots of wealthy male patients…) kept checking on me to see if I was fine and the rest of the time I spent watching wrestling and farting. I woke up the next day feeling 50 times better, admittedly still under the influence of the brown demon, and demanded I be discharged lest I sit through another interminable hour of the same new stories repeated on BBC Worldwide.

Stately plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead…

Considering what I’d been through and still feeling some pain in the old gulliver, I opted to stay for a few days with the other sickies of our group in Kathmandu to recuperate, whilst the rest of our group returned to the Dhading. This period gave me ample time for reflection.

Just how lucky was I? I got ill and because of this I got a very expensive trip to an excellent private hospital paid for me, Wonderful food was cooked for me in the hotel, a plush room with TV. But what about the people of the Dhading? What about those that can’t afford to pay for expensive healthcare… that have to visit hospitals where doctors don’t sterilise their hands after seeing each patient (based on conversations had with two British med students we me in the Dhading), that have to walk far to simply get clean water… what if the water runs out?

The monsoon still hasn’t arrived…

A simple, easily curable, condition such as diarrhea can prove to be a massive problem here in Nepal for many people:

Six people in one village of the Doti district died in one week from diarrhea recently.

16,000 Nepalis die each year from diarrhea… many of them children.

The hot summer months here may have taken their toll on my feeble Western body, unused as it is to the bacteria and climate of Nepal. But the fact is clean water is hard to come by, at least I know that for sure in the village of Sasaha. One source of water has dried up recently that many people in the village used. I can see rivers shrinking over the hot summer says. Combine this with the pollution of the main river of Dhading Bhesi (which we are further downstream from) and you are literally up shit-creek without a water filter. The stench of the river is unbearable (much like the famous Bagmati of Kathmandu), human feces float casually amongst the brownyellow water, past the mounds of rubbish. When there is no water we can’t drink, we can’t bathe and even brushing your teeth can be a problem.

As mentioned previously, I’ve been lucky that I’ve had access to excellent healthcare. I’m also lucky that I can afford treated drinking water whenever I want. For many people of Nepal this simply isn’t the case. Aamaa has to walk for twenty minutes to fetch water, but that source has nearly dried up; same problem at the school I am working at. Until universal access to clean drinking and bathing water is available we are unfortunately going to keep seeing more children dying from such simple infections as diarrhea.

Conclusions? Thoughts???!?

So the next time you complain about the chalky corporation pop you get from your tap in London, the next time you have that nice hot bath rather than a shower… just spare a thought for how lucky you are that you can drink water freely and easily. Be thankful that you don’t have to use a congested communal tap, or walk to the nearest polluted river to bathe and wash your clothes. Be thankful because we take this things as a given, a human right. Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, this is the situation for too many people in Nepal.

Allah Who?

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 08:37:00 -0400

I thought you all might be getting a bit bored of hearing me talk endlessly about my time in Nepal, So I’ve got someone else to do it instead…No come back! My mate Abbas has written a fantastic piece on his experience of volunteering in Nepal as a Muslim. Over to you Abbas…

Abbas went a bit overboard when he found a place that did halal meat.

So, I’ve been asked to write a guest blog entry and feel like I’ve got a lot to live up to judging by previous entries. My style might be somewhat unfamiliar to you but that’s because I myself am unfamiliar to you. A brief introduction would include my name; Abbas khan, my age; 23 and it would also say that I was born and live in Sheffield, England (the place where they used to do the steel thing). Finally, it would say that I’m a member of the oft maligned group known as the young British Muslims. This final point is principally why I’ve been told to write this; to give the Muslim perspective of our experience in Nepal.

I had to address various issues on arrival in Nepal; food (namely halal meat), the five daily prayers (the direction of Makkah, the prayer times etc.) and Jummuah prayer (on the holy day of Friday). Whilst out here, I wasn’t expecting to have any halal meat, any contact with other Muslims or being able to visit mosques. My principal concern was the Nepali perception of Muslims and their attitude towards us. I call this a concern due to the vast Hindu population in Nepal. Anyone who knows the storied (and somewhat violent) history between Hindus and Muslims would acknowledge this as a concern for the lone Muslim on a trip hundreds of kilometers from home (that for the first time away from family). Not being one to shy away from asking questions, I dove straight in on the first day and asked Abhishek (the Restless Development Nepal guy) about Muslims and Nepal. It helped that Abhishek is big and cuddly and had done nothing but smile all day. He told me that the Muslim population in Nepal is tiny and even more so in Kathmandu and Dhading (the two places we’d be staying in, in Nepal). Beyond this, I was told that there is rarely trouble between religious groups (most recently when Nepalis were killed in Iraq some years ago there had been clashes.) Abhishek told me that he did not know where the mosques were, where I would be able to get halal meat or even where I could buy a compass. This purely strengthened my resolve to find mosques, Muslims and MEAT!!! Without trying to sound cheesy or anything, I didn’t find the mosques or Muslims, the seemed to be laid out in my path. As if I was meant to find them.

My first encounter happened a few days in too our trip. We were on the coach on our way to Bistachap (the village for our first homestay) and from the coach I saw the unmistakable green and white minarets of a mosque. From then on all I could think of was going to this mosque, being able to pray with a congregation and finding out the direction of Makkah. I pestered Abhishek to take me but he wouldn’t listen. On our second to last day there the mosque was on our way home from a walk we had just been on. Abhishek was still reluctant for us to go but luckily for me the other ICS volunteers were supportive of my quest to go to the mosque (most of them hadn’t even been to a mosque in the UK). We arrived at the mosque just before dusk. On the way there, there hadn’t been anything that stood out as being Muslim. No women wearing headscarves or mean with mosque hats or beards etc. I asked Abhishek about the local Muslim community and he said there was none. This confused me somewhat but we continued nonetheless. Our knock on the gate was greeted by a scared looking boy of about 11 or 12 years. Initially he plain refused us entry; refusing to have the guard dogs tied up (there ain’t no way I would’ve gone in the mosque had the dogs in the court yard not been tied up.) Abhishek worked some of his magic and the boy pointed to the Moulanna (leader of the mosque) and Abhishek gestured me to go forwards, alone. This was somewhat daunting; my level of Nepali was none existent so I had to talk to him the only way I knew how; through Islam. Happily such heroics were unnecessary as the Moulanna knew Urdu. This should have been obvious for me as most of the Islamic literature in the Indian subcontinent was from Pakistan. Despite this I was given a grilling from a row of bearded men looking at me with suspicion. Soon those looks turned into smiles as they realized I was genuine. They allowed me to make ablution (wash for prayer) and pray Maghrib (the dusk prayer) with their congregation. It turned out that the mosque was in fact a Deobandi madrasah (a place of worship and a boarding school for boys). The Muslims in Nepal had sent their sons from far and wide to learn their religion and for some to even learn the Qur’an by heart. The men that had been grilling me were in fact teachers in the school; the English teacher came and practiced his English, the Urdu teacher his Urdu and so on. After prayer the teachers did not want me to leave pleading for me to stay the night or at least have some food before I had to go. This level of brotherhood reminded me of the UK and experiences in mosques that I have back home. The other ICS volunteers were also made to feel welcome. They were quickly brought out chairs for them to sit on and they too were asked questions out of curiosity. At the time of leaving I asked the Moulanna if he had a compass or knew where I could purchase one. He had no idea and simply said ask any true Muslim and they will tell you the direction of prayer. I think he forgot that we were in Nepal and true Muslims were hard to come by.

My next run in with the Muslims of Nepal came sooner than I had even expected. When bartering with the owner of a bookshop, I was handed a business card. On it the name read ‘Zahed shah’. I asked the inevitable question. “Alhamdulillah” (praise/thanks be to Allah) was his reply. What followed was an easing of the fierce bartering process and the development of a friendship (oh, and a heavy discount on a dozen books). He also told me of the dire circumstances of Nepali Muslims; the latest official statistics showed that they were second from bottom in terms of social stature (looking at things like wealth and education). Second only to the dalits or untouchable caste (see previous post “Is it cos I’m Brahmin”) Zahed also took me to the big Kashmiri mosque in Kathmandu. The mosque is home to the graves of two saintly people (NAMES) who originally heralded from Kashmir (hence the name of the mosque). He told me not to go the other mosque as it was Deobandi – despite being a tiny minority in a non-Muslim country sectarian tension was still present. Once again I was left wanting when it came to finding a compass for the direction of prayer.

Before I left Kathmandu for Dhading I felt that there had to be a Halal restaurant; there was only one way of finding out for certain – Google. Lo and behold the search bore fruit and I managed to get the address of Anatolia (Turkish/Indian/Nepali/Oriental food). It had been 3 maybe 4 weeks since I’d eaten meat. If there was no halal meat in Dhading the opportunity to go to Anatolia was something that I was not going to pass up easily. The rest of the ICS volunteers were desperate for something western and ended up having pizza. This left me and Jivan to go find this halal place. We found it. We ate. To say the food was delicious doesn’t do it justice (blame any exaggeration on the weeks of dhal bhat that we had eaten).

On moving to Dhading, Abhishek gave me his all too reliable information about the local area. No mosques. No Muslims. No halal meat. For one reason or another I accepted what he told me. On our first day in Dhading besi (the main town in Dhading) we were given time to check out the market and main road. Ten minutes on the main road and I saw a shop sign with a crescent moon and the number 786 written on it. The name “Asim Gift Shop”. Abhishek is either clueless or just too lazy to ask about local Muslims for me. A few days later I came across the Dhading mosque; essentially one room with little decoration. When I introduced myself I was again greeted with suspicion. In hindsight I think any stranger would’ve been greeted in a similar manner. After praying Zuhr (the prayer after midday) the elders of the mosque sat me down with the imam and we all conversed in Urdu. This conversation could’ve been taking place in my mosque in Sheffield. The banter amongst them; the jokes about different sects and even the milk tea, everything was done just like it would be done back home.

On finding the mosque, I’ve found somewhere to offer my Friday prayer every week. If I’m close to the mosque at prayer time I make ready and go to the mosque. I now also know the direction to pray whilst I’m at home. On top of that when I walk down the high street I’m recognized by all my Muslim brothers; they ask me in to their shops or homes. At times I find myself wanting to go find out more about their situation. Recently I was invited to the opening to a new shop, opened by one of the brothers from the mosque. I was given laddoo and a free mango drink. They were insistent that I didn’t pay and were really sad to see me leave. This wasn’t just hospitality; this was the love of brotherhood borne through religion. With regards to halal meat, I slaughter chickens myself to ‘halalify’ them. My first time slaughtering a chicken was at my homestay in Dhading. For this reason alone this trip has been a truly spiritual and somewhat unforgettable one so far.

Shut up and play the hits

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:28:04 -0400

Good news. The Heart Connection Tour touched down in Mahendra Mavi school, Nilkantha yesterday!

Below is a play by play account of the day with some photos.

7AM: Rock up to the school.

7:30AM: The sweat is now wiped off from our faces, so we can start decorating the school. Each year group made welcome signs.

Class - 9 could sense the tension…

8AM: All systems go! The principal said we could only do the event if we started school 2 hours early. Out of the 12 school’s we’re working at, ours was the only one to lay down the law. I was worried the kids wouldn’t turn up.

8:01AM: Loads of kids turn up!

8:30AM: The children made garlands, picked flowers and got tikka (red powder paint) to welcome the dancers to the school. Here’s our principal perfecting his ‘DO NOT FUCK WITH ME FACE!’

8:35AM: The Principal does a speech.

8:50AM: The speech finishes. Apparently he said he loves the work Kshitij and I are doing in the school and wants us to stay. Such a good liar!

9AM: Class - 7 girls wanted to do a dance to welcome the Heart Connection Tour. So damn cute! Class 8 and 9 also did dances.

This is the song. It’s so bad it’s good!

10AM: The kids danced and learned about HIV/AIDS! And they fucking loved it! Yeah!

10:45AM: We were told that if any child fainted, it would be our fault, so we got the children plenty of biscuits and juice.

11AM: The day ends. And the Principal gave us the go ahead to host an inter-school talent show next week. Things are going great again!

Mango Cornflakes and other stuff....

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:38:08 -0400

Earlier this week I got delivery of some mango Cornflakes thanks to my pal Abbas. They are possibly the best cereal ever created and I hope we have it in the U.K? Please say we have them in the U.K?! But sadly this exciting news was overshadowed by the sad fact that our buffalo has stopped giving us milk. Damn!

I didn’t stay sad for too long though, as yesterday out school took part in an inter-school non smoking event. It was fantastic and the best day of my time in Nepal by far! The school was transformed from a building site to one that had paintings on walls and loads of character. Hundreds of kids turned up from the local area and the atmosphere was incredible.There was lots of singing, I managed to get the Principal to dance, and there was even a drama about heroin abuse…

We sang a song and came second! We caused a little controversy as our team had 5 kids and were only supposed to have 4. But you can’t win em’ all.

Below is a picture of children dancing in Nalang village school. They were learning a dance as part of the HIV and Aids programme ‘Dance4Life’. It was loads of fun, even in the sweltering heat. The ‘Heart Connection Tour’ (I know…) is working it’s way across the district at the moment. As I type the event is supposed to be happening in our school this Friday, but It might not happen as the local NGO wants to pull the plug on working with our school completely, because our principal is being a dickhead AGAIN.

We’ve been trying to arrange our date for the event for about a month now, our Principal and the local NGO have some issues and I’ve somehow found myself in the middle.

Things aren’t going so well, teachers who were once friendly with us are now keeping a distance. We’ve been told by some teachers that our classes are putting pressure on them to do similar classes, so we’ve stopped singing.

The only thing we didn’t compromise was getting rid of the position of Female President of our Green Club. We’ve been told by our committee that other teachers object to the idea. Our Female President is a fantastic leader who’s really confident. She was a bit miffed at being told she should step down. As it’s a children’s club, run by children I asked them what they wanted to do. They’ve agreed they’ll stick by their Female President despite pressure from the teachers. This sounds ridiculous I know…

Without naming names, some people thought it would be a good idea to meet with the Principal and offer the school a computer or some more books. The whole thing just seemed like an empty gesture and ill thought out. The school needs computers, but it also needs people to be trained in using them. The school has lots of books in English, but doesn’t teach the kids English. Thankfully the meeting never happened as the Principal was not at home.

Although it’s really stressful, I’ve got to be honest and say this has been a fantastic learning experience in how not to do development work.

The event has been on and off and on again and off again. At the moment it looks like it’s happening, provided both camps keep their pride to one side and mouths shut. We are doing it for the kids!

We’re also organising our own inter-school talent competition next week, a district teachers training day for green clubs the day after, and the week after a women’s conference for the district….AND a campaign to get proper sanitation in the district. Awww sheeet!…

A Long Week

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 05:44:00 -0400

It’s been a really long week, but not a very productive one.

On the 26th of May we were bussed back to Kathmandu for our safety and incase we needed to leave the country quickly.

In the build up to Nepal finalising it’s constitution they’d been lot’s of strikes in Kathmandu, so it felt a bit weird to be heading there and leaving Dhading, where the locals were putting finishing touches to the weekly tumbleweed parade.

To keep it short, the constitution didn’t happen, fresh elections were announced by the Prime Minister and a top judge was assassinated.

All of that hasn’t changed the political situation and we’re now back in Dhading!

We’ve just spent the day with our local partner NGO discussing our plans. And they’ve agreed to fund everything! I was honestly hoping they would have said no to some of the things.

it’s promising to be a really exciting and frantic month, and I can’t wait to update you with the progress.

Oh and have a look at the video and pictures below.

Our brand new Green Club Executive Committee!

Just chillin’ with the local barber

They’re singing about riding ponies this week, but next...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:15:00 -0400

They’re singing about riding ponies this week, but next week they’ll be singing Radiohead’s ‘Lotus Flower’. Watch this space!

The Master Plan

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:34:45 -0400

I’ve told you a lot about all the taking I’ve been doing over the last few weeks. Below is a plan of action Kshitij and I have made. We have about 4ish weeks to get this all done. Yeah it’s a bit ambitious, but you’ve gotta dream big to win big, or something like that. The only thing that could slow things down is a national constitution being finished this week, strikes, national holidays, school exams, and the monsoon. Wish us luck.

Green Club 
Green clubs are after school activities clubs. Activities include drama, dancing signing, playing silly games, sports, drawing, poetry, looking after the environment and anything else the children would like to do. Ideally the club will be run by children who’ve been elected as part of a committee. They should also have the support of a teacher or teachers. The current club has been inactive since November 2011.  

Establish a committee and hold elections
- Focus on female participation.
- Raise the profile of the committee with posters and special badges.
- Give the committee leadership, public speaking, and other life skills training.

Motivate and train teachers to support the club X3
-Train the teachers whilst training the committee.
-Towards the 2nd half of programme, give full responsibility to teachers.
-Prepare a brief manual/how-to guide for running the club for teachers.

Involve Parents
- Organise a talent show and invite parents and the community. Use this as an opportunity to show off the school and what goes on there.  

Convert empty room into a space for the Green Club
- Need to establish a good relationship with Principal first. Ask on day of the talent show.

School
Our school is a government school. We’ve been asked to deliver HIV & AIDS awareness classes to years 7-9 (11-15).

Deliver Dance4Life - HIV&AIDS sessions
- Need to simplify curriculum & convert to Nepali language.
- Ask if we can deliver to Class 10 and 11 (16/17 Year olds) as classes 7-9 are perhaps a bit too young and the information might not go in.  

Remove old and offensive signs and replace with better ones
- Hold a school-wide competition where students can research favourite quotes or create their own.  

Wash your hands campaign
- Need to get a tap in school that works first
- Encourage children to was their hands, need to make up a song/dance
- If possible get cleaning materials and clean up school.

Community
Anything to do with the village or district falls under community work.

Nutrition/healthy lifestyles training for womens’ group.
- Speak with President to find out when, where and for how many people
 - Plan session(s) with emphasis on how to spread the message.

Fundraising training for womens’ group
- Need help from Prayas (Local NGO)

Lobby VDC/DDC about lack of sanitation
There is nowhere to dispose of rubbish. People either burn rubbish or throw it in the river or anywhere. This not only looks bad, but as people get their water from the same river and wash themselves and their clothes there, it’s hardly ideal. We’ve already talked to the person in-charge of sanitation and waste management for the district, who doesn’t think the current situation is that bad.  
- Work with local NGOs to plan steps/how we can win.
- Create a petition to share with volunteers in other villages.
- Plan campaign stunt outside government offices (collect lots of rubbish in advance).
- Prepare a proposal for proper sanitation/recycling to VDCs and DDC.
- Street plays in villages and schools.

Didis are doin’ it for themselves!

Thu, 24 May 2012 05:07:38 -0400

It’s been nearly six weeks now that I swapped drinking stupid amounts of alcohol, for eating endless amounts of dahl and rice. It’s been worth it for lots of reasons, but meeting the local womens’ rights group, has been a definite highlight. It lasted five hours. I’ll repeat that again, five hours! but it was great (honestly!) I wanted to know lots of things, like the issues they currently face, how the discrimination they face is similar/different to women in the U.K, how we could possibly help and if any of them were fans of Destiny’s Child.

Nothing starts on time, this is something I’ve still got to get used to. Our meeting was due to start at 12pm, but it’s not until 12.50 that we actually got going. My Nepal sister, who’s a member of the group, joked about ‘Nepali time’ I didn’t find this funny.

The group meet once a month, though meetings can be more frequent if and when an urgent issue arrises. They all have mobiles so can easily contact each other outside of meetings too. The main purpose for the meeting was to reform the committee for the new year. There are 15 different positions in the committee. Women are selected by performance and commitment they’ve shown in the previous year, rather than being elected. Those that have helped are encouraged to do more. Around 25 women turned up for the meeting, on the same day as a national strike. It’s worth mentioning that during strike days everything else get’s cancelled, I think the fact that the attendance is so good, and the fact that the meeting is even taking place demonstrates just how committed these women are to the issues they care about.

Kshitij and I introduced ourselves and said that we’d like to speak less and listen more. we stressed that as men we were just grateful of being allowed to attend. Of-course it didn’t work out like that, and we were told to ask our questions right away, we weren’t going to argue.

To give you some history, the group formed five years ago with the help of the NGO Focus Nepal. Focus Nepal have been working with 15 Villages in Dhading and are due to finish their project In Nilkantha by June 2012. It’ll now be up to the women of Nilkantha to sustain their group. Sustainable is a word that gets used lots and it’s sort of become meaningless. But I can say with confidence that I think Focus Nepal’s efforts with this group is both sustainable and worth it. it’s clear to see that people have been trained well. The secretary is really organised, the group have minutes of previous meetings, attendance lists, their objectives are listed and they have an agenda. They’re also really keen to show us their accounts to prove their transparency and efficiency. But I kindly tell them it’s none of our business. They have a clear structure with a committee and a charismatic leader who’s keen to tell us lots. But empowerment runs deeper, it’s not just a few people speaking to us, most of the room have something valuable to say. Most importantly they all know how a meeting should be run, it’s really interactive, everyone is really polite and the atmosphere is really friendly. everyone listens to each other when they speak. I promise I’m not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best meetings I’ve ever attended.

The last group of volunteers from Restless Development left two years ago. They took the women on a visit to learn about water purification. They also visited the district’s hospital where they learned about nutrition and healthy lifestyles as well as about the medicine that’s available for free. They’ve also been out of Dhading to learn about reproductive health. The group have used this knowledge to educate people in the community including those from lower castes.

When I asked the women of their proudest achievement, they said it was when they visited the District Development Committee (DDC) and got to learn about the budget set aside for women. The DDC are basically like a county council, they sort out roads, education, health and so on. The group have managed to get 75,000 rupees from the DDC for Nilkantha women.They’ve used the money in the community for projects like pond irrigation for the village.

They’re also proud of when they’ve been able to help women who’ve been victims of domestic violence. They’ve also tried to help women who’s husbands are in polygamous marriages. However the local police have not been supportive by telling the women that polygamy was not a serious crime.

As well as helping women, the group also help the community They’ve intervened in local disputes between communities in the village. they’ve helped the district administration office stop a village feud which included the vandalisation of a school where doors where broken and exam papers were torn up.

Mithu Bohora, the group’s President has also learned about the importance of educating girls. The group now reward people in the community who are sending girls to school.

AND after attending meetings about the importance of promoting and protecting forests, they now teach this to other women in the village.

There are 90 members of the group in Nilkanha, but the women would like to have more members. Those in attendance are allowed to attend by their family members. The women believe they have the support of people in the community, however they say males from marginalised communities are stopping women from those communities attending. They claim obstacles have come from uneducated men and they’ve faced threats from some of the community when solving domestic violence issues. They face a constant challenge of educating people and raising awareness in the community. Those that don’t understand don’t support them. With this is mind they’re currently focused on strengthening the current committee and making their membership more active.

The group say that the biggest issue for them is reproductive health. The room got quiet when we started talking about reproductive health, it’s clearly a taboo subject for some women in the group, or maybe just in the presence of men. A lot of the women in our village work in the fields for long hours, even if they have other jobs like teaching in schools, when pregnant this doesn’t change and some women are having miscarriages. Another issue is teenage pregnancy as child marriage is still and issue in our village.

we were told that there’s still a difference in the pass rates for girls and boys. We didn’t get an understanding of adult female illiteracy levels in our village. We’re also told there are no issues with child trafficking or rape in the village, judging by the atmosphere in the room, I’m not sure this is an issue that even gets talked about.

At the moment they feel women are still servants to men, as property ownership and status is with men and not women. They say men are becoming more supportive with household work, however I’m not so sure how true that is. Just to give you a flavour of this, men eat first in our family, and the women start to eat only when the men have finished, the men also leave their dishes for the women to clean. Me and Kshitij have been cleaning our own dishes, and i’d be lying if I said this is having any impact on the attitude of the men in our family. Women also perform all the intensive farm work in our family, and the men tend to do more skilled work like working in the family mill and furniture shop. I’ve been told by other volunteers staying with other families that the situation is similar with them.

When it comes to politics, the women don’t believe they have the full support of the Village Development Committee or the District Development Committee. I’m not sure of the stats for female representation in Nepali politics, but Kshitij tells me it’s unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly dominated by men. The group would like women to be in the higher positions of society and be represented in government. They laughed when I said the President should enter politics with her other sisters supporting her campaign, Mithu quickly changed the subject.

There was lots of discussion when we asked about how we could help. I felt a bit silly asking as I think they’re doing a fantastic job on their own. They said they don’t know what to do when they meet different people in different places. I’m thinking a ‘Come Dine With Me’ style activity with various folks from the village might be on the cards….

The main organisational challenge is sustaining the group’s finances. In order to run campaigns, learn more and other do other activities as well as reach out to more women, they need funding. They’re unsure how they’re going to be able to do this. I’m also going to have to get my thinking cap on for this one.

I thought it would be best to end our meeting with an inappropriate joke about hoping the women still loved their husbands. They laughed and said they love their husbands, but won’t let the men dominate them.

Oh and whilst we’re on the subject of women being awesome, I thought it might be nice to give you a quick school update. We’re helping re-start our school’s Green Club. This is not a front for the Green Party, but an after school activities club. My aim is to make this activities club more political too, so that they can challenge the Principal (evil laugh)

Our club’s been running for 5 years, and have had 5 male presidents. There’s also never been any elections. Kshitij and I thought it would be a good idea to create the position of Female President, just so we could get one girl in a leadership position. What was awesome is that 3 girls will be contesting the election for Female President. We have 1 Vice President Position that will be contested by 4 people all of them girls. So our leadership will be 2 girls and 1 boy. We’ll also be electing a Treasurer and Secretary. In total we have 12 girls and 9 boys running for the leadership of the club. Other than the Male President we could be on the verge of an all female committee which is pretty exciting ey?! One girl laughed at us and said we were trying to make her Prime Minister. In time, in time…

Other things…

- Our Principal finally agreed to give us some class time, 2 days a week and we start at 2pm each day, LAD!

- Our family pigeon was not ill, just pregnant, I now eat my food with a family of pigeons over my head.

- We’ve tried to meet the local mothers’ group on two occasions, it’s not happening, and their meeting house has been demolished, so not looking good.

- On my first day at school, I kept three rows of boys back and told them off, I then said sorry and high-fived them saying I want to be their bro and not their teacher. This teaching lark is easy!

- The only Hotel in town, know me by name and know my order. This is both amazing and embarrassing.

- The same hotel let us watch the Champions League Final, it ended at 4am, and we woke up to the news of 3 days of no transport due to national strikes.

- It’s nice when it rains, not so nice is living in a mud hut and watching it dissolve.

All Smiles

Mothers’ Group - Under construction?

Green Club today, political Union tomorrow…

Footie with the fellas

Is it ‘cause I’m brahmin?

Tue, 15 May 2012 03:12:00 -0400

You could easily google ‘caste system in Nepal’ and find more accurate information, or you could humour yourselves as I try and explain something I barely understand myself.

I thought it might be a good idea to mention the caste system, as it gets talked about daily here.

The following was explained to me by my language teacher Money. Together we were Kash-Money. We’re working on an album together, working title is ‘Kash-Money & Momos’ (dumplings) so watch this space! And also take the following with a massive pinch of salt as it’s just one person’s opinion and could differ if you speak to someone else.

Okay, so in 1990 the caste system was abolished and made illegal in Nepal. This should mean that discrimination based on your caste should not occur in education, employment etc, etc. however It’s practice it’s still found everywhere.

I was asked about my caste by my Nepali family on day one. Yesterday at school the man making me noodles asked which caste I was. Neighbours that come and visit our family say hello and then follow it up with a question about caste. It’s been frequently mentioned in meetings I’ve gone to in the village as one of the main issues that needs to be dealt with.

So where does the caste system come from? well In Nepal it’s roots are from Hinduism.

what’s that I hear? You want me to tell you about the caste system and a little bit about some of the gods too? well okay then!

Right so it starts with Shiva, he’s basically the mightiest of all, the top dog, the Notorious B.I.G of the god world. Parvati is his wife, she also happens to be the goddess of power, a bit like Mel B from the Spice Girls.

Then you’ve got Brahma who Shiva created (I think Shiva did this so that he could have some time off on the weekends and stuff) Brahma is a creator (not like Santigold) His wife is Saraswati who’s also the goddess of learning.

Next up you have Vishnu and Laxmi. Vishnu is basically the caretaker for what Brahma created (yeah! A bit like groundskeeper Willy from the Simpsons) and Laxmi is the goddess of wealth (Missy Elliot obviously)

You might be wondering who Krishna and Rama are? Well friends, they are reincarnations of Vishnu.

Some of you may be familiar with Sai Baba? He died last year and was considered a living god. Some people believed he was also a reincarnation of Vishnu. He was also a bit controversial and had numerous allegations of people claiming he was a pedophile.

So where does the caste system come in?

Well as Brahma is the creator, he created all humankind.

He created Brahmins from his head. These people are considered intellectuals.
He created Khastriyas or Chhetris from his arms. These people are considered warriors.
He created Vaishya from his stomach and hips. These people are considered workers.
He created Shurdra or Dallits from his feet. These people are also called the untouchables who were created to perform menial work such as cleaners/servants/shoe menders.

Non-Hindus might be wondering where they come in? well they’re either not part of the system, so some people might not judge them. But some might consider non-Hindus to be part of the Vaishya caste.

Money my teacher isn’t bang up to date with his stats, but one stat in particular was interesting. In the 1991 census, 96.4% of bureaucrats were from the brahmin caste. There should be a 2001 and 2011 census for Nepal too, but I can’t find this info at the moment. If you can, let me know, it should be interesting to see if that figure has significant;y changed.

I asked my colleague Kshitij what the caste system means for him and other Nepalis today. Kshitij lives in a village within the Kathmandu Valley, he says young people from Kathmandu don’t believe in the caste system. He says, generally people who are educated don’t believe in the caste system, but there are exceptions.

When we’ve been asked about our caste in the village, Kshitij tells people that he’s brahmin, I asked him why he tells people he’s brahmin if he doesn’t believe in the caste system, he says he does this to be polite as it’s rude not to answer a question. I asked him if he is proud to be a brahmin, he says he isn’t and that he doesn’t believe in the system.

When I’ve been asked what caste I am, I just tell people it doesn’t matter which caste I am. It’s not as awkward as I thought it would be, I say way more awkward things when I meet people anyway, so it seems fine. My family back home happen to be brahmins, but my mum has always said the caste system is a load of bullshit, so it’s not really been part of our lives. Having said that in the U.K, being working class is a label I’d not shy away from, in-fact I actively embrace it and wear it as a badge of honour. Our society has a awful way of treating people they don’t understand too. From labeling young people from troubled backgrounds as chavs, to evicting harmless people from Dale Farm for no other reason as they were troubling the house prices of some posh wankers, things are fucked up in the U.K too.

Back to Nepal, Kshitij says people from lower castes might be turned away from certain restaurants/hotels. If they are allowed in to those places, sometimes people from lower castes will be asked to wash their own plates and glasses.

But how can you tell what caste people are from? Well in a village or town, people will know what caste you are part of, they will know quite allot about you and therefore it’s easy to discriminate.

Restless Development have requested we record data based on castes in order to monitor if our programmes are reaching all of society. Apparently you can tell by the surname.

So why don’t people just move to another town or village? Well some people have moved, changed their name and upgraded their caste in order not to be discriminated against.

Kshitij says that in the past, your caste could mean you were denied certain jobs or guided away from and towards certain professions. But he says positive discrimination is now happening in government positions and there are quotas for jobs to make society more balanced and equal.

Although according to Kshitij, things appear to be changing for the better, things have a long way to go. The poor in Nepal are predominantly from the dallit caste. According to Kshitij, alcoholism and gambling are a big problem for the poor. He believes it’s harder for children to break out of this too and they have pressure of juggling paid work with their education. Although dallits may own their own home, most people of the dallit caste will have to work in other peoples farms or businesses and the pay isn’t great.

Last Thursday and Friday strikes were held by the brahmins and chhetris. This has been in response to other ethnic groups (not castes now, yeah I know, it’s long) wanting self-determination. From what’s been explained to me the ethnic groups such as the Newari, Tamang, Magar and Madeshi all want self-determination. They claim that the brahmins and chhetris hold too much of the power in Nepal. Brahmins and chhetris have been striking saying that Nepal can not be divided. The two days of striking were pretty successful. roads were blocked and everything apart from fruit and veg shops were shut. There are rumours in our village that brahmins and chhetris want to continue with the strikes for another 2 weeks. The deadline for the completion of Nepal’s constitution is also in a couple of weeks. Many think further disruptions will occur amongst ethnic groups. Many don’t believe the constitution will be completed for the deadline.

The most comforting when talking with Kshitij, is how many times he couldn’t answer questions about the caste system. you might know someone’s caste, but that information is sort of meaningless. On the surface it just seems like an instant way to judge someone without making a comprehensive judgement. I’m not so sure, it’s pretty hard to gauge what the caste system is in a month of being here, I suspect discrimination probably happening right in front of me, but just goes under the radar. Kshitij seemed confident that in his lifetime the caste system would be redundant.

Kash-Money & Momos - Album expected late 2012

We don’t need no HIV & AIDS education

Sat, 12 May 2012 05:11:00 -0400

From the main town, my house is an hour’s hike up some hill, to get to the school I’m working at I need to hike another 30 minutes uphill. On Monday morning I headed there for the first time. By the time I arrived, not only was I wearing the same blue shirt as the children, but I also had massive sweat patches everywhere, lovely!

After wiping the sweat off my face, all I could see was rubbish everywhere, not surprising as there aren’t any dustbins, because there isn’t any waste management in the entire district (county) (I’ll get onto this issue in future posts) some children were dressed immaculately and others looked really scruffy and were covered in dust. The toilets are filthy as well…So not that different to the high school I studied at.

This is a government school for boys and girls. There are lots of quotes around the school, most refer to or are about men. The buildings that these quotes are stuck to aren’t in great condition. Some are mud huts, and others are caked in mud. Some doors are broken and have whole chunks and panels missing, it baffles me why they have padlocks on them, not only is it pointless, but there is nothing inside the classroom to steal.

Our Nepali mum Sita, works in the Library. We were told that this library was created by the volunteers before us. It’s quite nice and varied. There’s fiction, geography, history, science and loads of books about America? Our mum doesn’t speak any English, so probably can’t read any of the books, but she’s not alone, as most of the children can’t speak English either. Speaking English isn’t the issue, but because nearly all the books are in English, I’m not sure what the purpose of the library is yet.

Sita was dressed in a lovely sari, when she took us into the staff room, it’s apparent the women wear uniform, but the men it seems can wear what they like, one teacher was wearing a t-shirt and baseball cap.

All the staff made an effort to introduce themselves and what they teach. Only one person stayed silent. The children were all curious to know why we were here and who we are, many were peeping through the window and ran away and giggled when I gave them an exaggerated namaste.

I’m getting used to lots of things in Nepal, like squat toilets, cockroaches and eating my dinner with the family pigeon perched next to me. Because everyone is so friendly and helpful, it’s a bit of a shock to meet a moron. Remember that one person that didn’t introduce themselves? Well that person was the principal. He goes by the name of Narayan Singh Bandari. He looks to be in his late 30s. He’s stick thin and well presented. He went into his office after the introductions. The other teachers started talking to us after he left, they all seemed in good spirits and eager to hear about why we are here.They seemed really excited to have us here, especially the economics teacher, who fondly told us about the previous times volunteers have come to the school. Staff that were vocal were summoned into the principal’s office, one by one, when they returned, they sat in silence. I wanted to ask the Principal what was up and why he was being a massive bell-end, but my colleague Kshitij thought this would be a bad idea for our first day.

The caretaker, rang the school bell, but the teachers didn’t leave the staff room till about 5/7 minutes after. The staff room was now empty, and I could see the principal in his office from where I was sitting, he was pretty much twiddling his thumbs. I asked the caretaker if we could meet the principal, he went into ask and came back with no reply. It was another 40 minutes before we were eventually summoned to the principal’s office.

I said hello and asked if he could speak english, he said no, although I’m pretty sure he was lying. I then introduced myself in Nepali, and because I don’t know any other Nepali, I handed over to my colleague Kshitij.

The principal didn’t say much or make much eye contact. When he did speak, he said raising awareness about HIV & AIDS was ineffective and that the programme which delivers this was boring and monotonous. Charming right? But to be honest I appreciated the Principal’s honesty. And he might have a point, way more people die from diarrhea in Nepal than HIV/Aids. When we spoke with other teachers, they too said that they didn’t understand why we were raising awareness about HIV and AIDS in particular. When probing them about other issues we could focus on there wasn’t a reply.

So back to the principal. We asked if we could be given some lesson time (just to be polite, he was well aware we were coming for some time), he replied by saying he’d think about giving us time to do the HIV & AIDS classes. And that was it, our first meeting with the principal, which lasted all of 5 minutes, was over. I think he’s going to be an obstacle rather than an ally for us. Maybe there was a massive misunderstanding, maybe he’s just wary of outsiders and fearful of our thought control over the children, maybe he’s worried there’d be dark sarcasm in the classroom, either way I just wish he’d say something like, “Hey, leave those kids alone!” I’m sure eventually he’ll realise we don’t want any child to be another brick in the wall….Alright I’ll stop.

The principal did let us stay to watch the kids play, and we did get a chance to talk to more staff. We found out that the principal’s wife has a shop not far from the school, so I decided to go visit it with the hope of making a new ally. The principal is probably unaware that we’ve been going to the wife’s shop regularly to buy snacks all this week, and we’ve become good friends with her. When she doesn’t run the shop, she works as a health professional in the main town. She’s keen to help us with a healthy lifestyles campaign in the community. RESULT!   He’s also unaware of our secret meeting with the economics teacher, Mr Arjun Karki. We met him in the main town where he lives. He was smiley and friendly as before, but he seemed a little nervous and anxious about saying too much. When probed about the principal he was quick to change the subject. After a few Cokes he filled us in on everything we needed to know.

In Arjun’s opinion the school’s main issue is the lack of infrastructure. He told us that the average class size is 60 and that it’s hard to make sure all the kids understand what he’s teaching. In his opinion the school’s a good one when compared to others in the district, but when probed he admitted that only one student achieved a distinction in their SLC;(GCSEs) 90% passed, but a pass rate is only 32%. We’ve been told by Restless that there is an active culture of cheating in school exams.

He spoke frankly, he’d really like to see an improvement with the library and thinks the school would benefit from having just 1 computer, as there isn’t a single computer in the school at present. He says he needs better teaching materials in general too. Sadly we’ve not come with a magic pot of money, so can’t help him with this.

He’d like the students and parents to be more involved with education, at present he feels nobody knows what’s going on in the school. Hopefully this is something we can help with.

He feels some students at the school do have the potential to study further and even reach higher education. But he didn’t sound too confident when he said that. When we probed him further, he said marginalised people are living in quite depressing circumstances and that health, hygiene and nutrition remain the key issues.

He also finished by saying that HIV & AIDS are not the biggest priority for the school or the Nilkantha community. He didn’t have answers for a substitute campaign, but said he’d think about this with other members of staff and get back to us. He agreed to help us, and also promised he’d be attending our Green Club meetings (extra curricular club).

So we’ve now got a better of things we could change in the school
-Focus on the caste system (sort of like social class) and find out ways to break down barriers and support children from lower castes.
- Involve students and parents with education
- See if we can focus on a health and hygiene campaign in school
- And replace those awful signs with more pleasant ones

Other things I’ve learned this week
- Don’t take public transport off-road.
- Don’t ride in trucks either.
- Strikes in Nepal are way more effective, the whole country stops.
- Eating out of leaves is better than plates.
- Sacrificing goats and chickens so that it rains is weird and weirder when it suddenly does rain.
- The person in-charge of sanitation and waste management in the district is a massive fan of solitaire during work time.
- Our local women’s group are really rad (my next blog post will be about them, they are awesome!)
- Our family pigeon really needs to see a vet.

Shame the sign isn’t perfect…

Strike!

Poor chicken…

Welcome to 2069!

Sun, 06 May 2012 05:25:06 -0400

When I left for Nepal, about 3 weeks ago now (sorry for not posting sooner), It appears I also time traveled, not just the 4 and a half hours as I originally expected, but to the year 2069. The future is one of many power cuts, cold showers, water-shortages and wifi unavailability. People eat dahl and rice thrice a day, everyday. You’ll find areas of outstanding natural beauty, and you’ll also find lots of rivers which smell of shit. But it’s also home to some truly incredible people, who are really kind, helpful and have the right attitude. I’m yet to meet a dickhead here.

I’m here with 20 other lovely young people from the U.K, who I’ll be supporting and mentoring (god help them). The last 3 weeks has been a brilliant opportunity to get to know them. We’re a pretty diverse bunch, from PPE at Oxford University to working at Primark. I’m really keen to document why they volunteered, what they want to achieve and share some of their experiences of Nepal and working in development generally. So watch this space!   So what the hell have I been up to?

Restless Development decided to ease us into village life, by errrrm, throwing us right into village life. We stayed at Bistachhap, which is on the very outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley. The accommodation was primitive, but the hospitality was excellent. I stayed with a small family, Kidhar my new dad, Laxmi my new mum and Prathiva my new sister. Laxmi is an amazing cook and I was told before that it’s polite to ask for more food, as it lets the family know you like the food. One night I asked her for more, and then more again. The 3rd time, she was about to take the food out of her plate and put it in mine which was very awkward. I also kept calling my dad ‘Kira’. It turns out I’d been calling him Mr insect the whole time. I suspected then, that he’d probably done bad things to my tea.

learning Nepali was actually easier than I thought it would be. My broken hindi courtesy of the dodgy Bollywood movies my mum made me see in my youth, has helped me to understand the language. with the help of my sister Prathiva, I asked my Nepali teacher Angeela, if she would “do wedding to me”, sadly she never got back to me. Our Nepalli classes are now over, we have enough basic knowledge to get us by, and we also know ‘7 Days’ by Craig David in Nepali.

After the village, we made it back to Kathmandu. Apparently Mother’s Day is quite big in Nepal, bizarrely there was a rock concert happening in the middle of town in celebration of mums. There were huge crowds, and by some miracle I managed to blag my way to the VIP section at the front. I high-fived someone onstage, and was later told, he was the biggest rock star in Nepal. Later a group of us started dancing, as no-one else was, we then got some much wanted attention, and created a bit of a mini street party. It was incredible and we laughed all the way back to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, we were still in the dancing mood, so we asked the hotel staff to teach us some Nepali dance moves, they kindly obliged, so we partied all the way to 9.30pm!!!!

Not all my time has been spent partying at festivals (I’ve only been to two) or offending the locals. we actually came here with a purpose to learn about development and help and inspire young people. I’ve spent the last 2 weeks in a town called ‘Beautiful Waterfall’. We’ve been training and learning about what we’ll be doing and who we’ll be working with. It’s been an interesting, hilarious, as well a frustrating experience.

Things have often not gone to plan, been poorly thought out and just lacking in common sense. I’ve found myself having to intervene in bad decisions all day and every day. it’s been quite exhausting and it’s really tested my patience. I pride myself on being easy going and not shouting at people, but I’ve found myself getting very angry at the organisers and snapping on occasion. It’s been difficult to weigh up what’s cultural and what’s plain slack and badly managed. Lots of things get lost in translation, people seem to like talking more than doing which is really annoying. And at times it seems like nobody listens unless you shout or repeat the same information at least 2/3 times.

We also met out Nepali counterparts. the training was a great way to get used to and overcome some of the cultural and language barriers. the time allowed us to properly bond, from chilling out near waterfalls, hiking up hills, and dancing and singing together, it’s been a lot of fun.

It’s been interesting to observe the behavior of the U.K volunteers. I wouldn’t necessarily describe the U.K bunch as ignorant or imperialistic, but during training it’s really shocking to have witnessed the attitude and behavior we’ve shown. It’s been difficult for some to appreciate that we’re in a different country with a very different culture. I’m also proud that people are principled and genuinely want to do the right thing. It’s difficult, and I’ll talk more about this in future entries.

There’s been a lot of confusion and frustration about our purpose here. Things are still quite vague and some of our hopes of doing amazing work are being hit by the reality that in two months, we can’t really make that much of a difference. Personally I’ve always felt that our impact wouldn’t be with the people of Nepal, but to government and society when we return, even more passionate about creating a fairer world.

I’m now in the Dhading District, about 3 hours away from Kathmandu. I’m staying in a village called Nilkantha. The family I’m staying with are called the Nepals (not making that up). after we unpacked our bags, we went on a walk, we’ve already set up a meeting with the local mothers group and have already met two of the after school extra curricular activities Presidents. Not bad for our first day.

Hopefully the time for talking is now over, and when I next blog, I’ll be telling you more about the action that’s been delivered.   Wish me luck!

My Ama Laxmi

Sun, 06 May 2012 05:08:00 -0400

My Ama Laxmi

It's D-Day

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:29:40 -0400

D for Dhading District!

My bags are packed and I’m bursting with excitement. I’m looking forward to spending the rest of the day watching Man Utd beat Aston Villa. Not so much looking forward to my Mum crying on cue as I say my goodbyes.

This will be the best place to come for updates of my trip. I’m hoping to make them regular, but can’t promise anything until I get to Nepal.

Unfortunately I’ll be traveling by plane and not train, so don’t get to recreate this famous Bollywood moment.

Stay classy
Kash