.... Andy In Nepal ...: Kathmandu and meeting creepy crawlies at Okhaldunga

Hello everyone,

Now Rob is here we will be writing the blog together so will be referring to ourselves in the third person when talking about ourselves individually we will use ‘we’. Hopefully it still reads ok!!!

So here goes…

Andy made the long 10 hour plus bus drive to Kathmandu whilst Rob got ready to head out from England – the funny thing is it took us both about the same time to reach Kathmandu!

We met up easily enough at Kathmandu airport and headed straight back to our hotel for a couple for a welcome beer before heading out for some dinner and a fairly early night as we were both fairly tired from our respective journeys.

The following day we set out early to find a resources shop which had been recommended to Andy by Sagar, who had used it to buy resources for his Montessori school. After a bit of wandering around we found the shop which was a gold mine full of fantastic materials and books. It was really great to have found a new resource centre as it had started to come difficult to find new resources to give to the schools (the range of materials in Nepal is very limited compared to what we have back home). One of the great resources that we found was an activity book for making various models out of natural resources that could be easily found in and around our schools. We ended up carrying back 3 heavy boxes packed full of some really great materials and books. We also took the opportunity to take a tour around The Early Childhood Development Centre, attached to the shop, which was responsible for producing some of the resources we had bought. There were some great displays up and has hopefully given us some inspiration for the work in our schools. The centre is also a really good contact to have found for future Manisha volunteers to use.

The main stupa at Swayumbanath.

In the afternoon we visited Syayumbanath, the monkey temple, where Andy had previously visited just after New Year. One of the highlights for Rob was seeing Andy getting chased around by a monkey, who, thankfully, was interested only in the bottle he was carrying, rather than being attracted to his aftershave! The view at the top was a bit obscured by the smog of Kathmandu but even so it was an enjoyable trip. We decided to get a fairly early night before catching the bus to Tansen early the next day.

The trip to Tansen took even longer than normal, due to a 2 hour delay because of road works. This was further extended when we were unceremoniously shoved off the bus in Butwal, the driver having decided it wasn’t worth his effort taking only a few passengers to Tansen! In fairness, he did help us stop the next bus, which, despite being jam packed full of people, boxes of vegetables and sacks of rice, managed to accommodate us and all of our bags and boxes. Because of the delays we travelled the remaining 2 hours, along the windy and narrow road to Tansen (claimed to be one of the world’s most dangerous roads) in the dark.

On arriving in Tansen our luggage and boxes were swiftly piled off the bus before it sped off, just as we realised we were one box short (and typically the one with the most expensive books in!)! Rob’s first hour in Tansen was therefore spent in the bus park with Saran, who had met us off the bus, making lots of phone calls to try and track down the package, whilst we waited rather hopelessly. The situation was further complicated by the fact that we weren’t 100 percent sure if from our swift bus change that all our boxes had been transferred. It was not a good end to what had been a very long day. We trudged, despondently, up the steep hill to Homestay where we did at least receive a warm welcome from the family and reassurances that it should be possible to get the box back.

Rob en route to Rhani Ghat.

Early the next morning Andy set off down to the bus park to try and find the missing box, leaving Rob, not yet used to the early Nepalese starts, to sleep. Saran and Sagar were brilliant in tracking down the lost box and we were promised that it would be back in Tansen the next day. Much relieved we spent the afternoon taking a leisurely walk along the road to Bagnas, giving Rob his first breath-taking sights of the Himalayas. We met up with Rajin, a school teacher from Bagnas and walked up to one of the best view points in Palpa.

The following day we got up for sunrise and to walk to Rhani Ghat, the long walk Andy had done, shortly after arriving in Tansen, four months ago. The night before Andy had warned Rob that it was a long and hard walk that took him 9 hours. However, this time the walk took only 7 hours, partly, Andy realised, because last time he had inadvertently taken a massive detour! In the evening we went down to the bus park to collect the runaway box before enjoying a curry at Rock Regency.

Above: The beautiful though slightly decaying building of Rhani Mahal at Rhani Ghat. Below left: Paddi fields on the way back to Tansen. Below right: Looking down at the Khali Ghandaki river.

Our last day in Tansen before heading out to Okhaldunga was spent organising the resources in the office and planning some new lessons for the second round of school visits.

Both of us were pretty freaked out by this fellow!

Tuesday was yet another Government holiday, dedicated to the God of education. It occurred to both of us that a God of Education might have been rather more pleased had the schools stayed open! We used the day to travel out to Okhaldunga, a 2 hour jeep ride, along rough tracks, followed by an hour long walk. We took with us the whiteboards for the school but were rather surprised that no one was there to meet us at the jeep drop off point as had apparently been arranged. Unable to contact the village we stashed the whiteboards and, heavily laden (or so we thought – we were later put to shame by a group of women carrying 50KG sacks of rice) we made our way down the precarious path to the school. Halfway down we stopped off at the waterfall Andy had used as his shower on the previous visit. We were both startled to see a long green snake slithering through the waterfall. We were later assured it wasn’t a poisonous one but, needless to say, neither of us used it as a washing place again!

Free delivery included!

In stark contrast to Andy’s previous visit there was no real acknowledgment of our arrival, not that we minded, but we did start to worry that there had been some miscommunication about when we were meant to be coming. However we were given a cup of tea at the house Andy had stayed in previously and, an hour or so later, some boys we had passed on our way down, came back carrying whiteboard each over their heads. Manu, who was the English teacher at the school arrived later on that evening which made communication a bit easier. We were given their usual snacks, which in itself was enough to be counted as a meal, before being surprised with an enormous portion of Dal Baht, just as were about to get an early night.

If you look at the top right of this picture you see a line going diagonally along the hillside - that is the path we took - the edge of the picture is where we got dropped off and where we carried our heavy bags / resources and where these boys carried the whiteboards from!

Trying on Rob's sunnies!

In the morning we played some games with the children from the house we were staying at and by the time we were due to go to school we had drawn quite a crowd. The school day started with a brief ceremony to welcome us and we spent some time showing the teachers the resources we had brought and demonstrating how best to use them.

In order to combat the disappointing lack of display material in the classrooms, we first taught body parts to year 3 in a now, well-practised lesson. To be fair to the school the walls in the primary level classrooms are very poor, constructed from mud, making it very challenging to put anything up on display. With some perseverance and some drawing pins the classroom had it’s first bit of display work.

Afterwards we joined Manu for his English lesson. The children were learning about items that would be taken on a picnic, which they were basically reading from a very poorly written and rather dull, textbook. We decided to inject some interactivity into the lesson by drawing a picnic basket and getting the children to talk to each other and come up with ideas of things that they could put into the picnic basket. As they came up with their own ideas we made labels to put in our picnic basket, making a colourful display for the wall.

Okhaldunga is certainly one of our most beautifully situated schools.

Adding a bit of colour to the picnic lesson.

The afternoon was spent working in class 6, creating twinning dictionaries, which will be sent to their UK twinned school. This activity took rather longer than expected and with only 20 minutes of the day left we played a couple of games of hangman before introducing the children to the heads down thumbs up game, a popular game in UK primary schools. It took a while for them to get the idea of the game but we were pleased to later here they had requested another teacher to play the game with them.

That evening Rob got his first introduction to Nepali dancing and a chance to sample the local wine known as Roxy. He likened it to paint stripper though by now Andy has got quite used to it (in small doses!)!

Our second day teaching started in the nursery, where we took along some of the resources we had brought, and put up some of the display materials. The Nursery is by far the best room in the school which is pleasing to see but Andy had to repeat his plea from his last visit that when the Nursery children go home at lunchtime, they needed to start using this room for classes 1,2 and 3, who’s classrooms are dark and cramped.

Getting to grips with the hoops we brought.

Another picture showing just how much the children love to see some displays up!!!

A lot of guidance was needed for the cubes...

We spent the next period with year 4, where we did one of Andy’s favourite lessons, Alien Soup. Again the children really loved this lesson and all got involved. We then went into class 7 and used one of Rob’s new ideas, where the children created boxes from a net on coloured paper. Whilst we were expecting the children to find this difficult we were both amazed at the lack of ability to measure a straight line and cut accurately with a pair of scissors. This was particularly true of the girls and is not a criticism of them but just shows how little practical activities these children are exposed to. After almost two hours, numerous mistakes and a lot of guidance and support the finished boxes were actually rather pleasing. We hung the boxes up from the ceiling which made a colourful addition to the classroom. Due to the length of time of that lesson, we were only left with 15 minutes with year 2, but we made up for that playing with a bubble maker (class 1 and 3 suddenly joined in to!)

...but we got there in the end!!!

Year 2 were quickly joined by Years 1 and 3 when we brought the bubbles out - they really went crazy for these which was lovely to see.

Showing off the crystalised salt (and a little sand) from Alien soup.

Next we were invited to play volleyball with the head teacher, who turned out to be a rather good player, putting Andy and Rob to shame with some of his shots. Finally there was a short leaving ceremony were we had to make some brief speeches to the whole school. Andy felt very sad knowing that this was the first of the schools that he would not be visiting again on this trip.

After school Manu, Khum (another teacher) and the Headmaster took us for a walk to some of the local sites. Our favourite was a bat cave where we saw a poisonous spider and got a close up look at a few of the bats. The walking around Okhaldunga is simply stunning and we would love to visit again.

We spent the evening with the headteacher and Manu playing cards and getting further aquatinted with the Roxy. They also told us about their aim to attract a few tourists into the village as a way to raise money for the community and the school. Due to the remoteness of the school it would not likely be a big enterprise (which you wouldn't want), more likely to be a few families offering up rooms in their homes and locals taking tourists on guided walks. They asked if we would provide a few photo's and a short written piece about our experiences in the villages to add to a portfolio they have started to put together. We were more than happy to oblige them and were happy to see they are thinking about ways to raise money for the school. Early the next morning we headed up to the jeep accompanied by the head and Manu. It was sad to say goodbye to Manu, especially, who has been a great friend and a valuable translator. On the way home Andy thought he had inherited a baby after it was thrust upon him, before the door closed and the jeep carried on its way. He ended up carrying him all the way to the next town where thankfully his mother, who out of our view had squeezed into the back, reclaimed him!

Left to right: Rod, Manu and Andy after our leaving ceremony.

Despite a really great visit, it was nice to get back to Tansen for a hot shower, a nice cup of Nepalese tea and to see the Homestay family again. We will leave you with a few photo's from our walk round the sights of Okhaldunga.

Best wishes

Andy and Rob.x