Mountains, No Fuel, Teacher training and Dhal Baht.

So after a long holiday for Dashian we did two teacher training sessions on ICT and computer skills. We had asked previously what training the teachers would like in the future and it was unanimous that ICT was the next obvious step in our teacher training journey.

We collected all of the laptops that the schools could bring and the ones that we had brought over from the UK. We had about eight laptops in total, although a couple had been brought back to us needed repair. But the initial numbers were good. Two teachers from Bhalebas Shiva and Sipi gave a lot of input into the sessions as they are both very computer literate and also have the English and Nepali needed to hit the aims that we had set.

All the teachers that came over the two days were very enthusiastic and willing to learn which was really great. Some teachers arrived not being able to turn on a laptop but left being able to put together posters and simple spreadsheets, which neither Barbara or I envisaged happening. We had simple aims of teachers being able to turn on the laptops creating and saving a word document and then creating and sending emails, and as I have said already the teachers completely excelled and worked really hard. We also gave every teacher that came a memory stick for the school, which they were all very pleased with.

We have a school in Gorkha which was 30km from the epicentre of the earthquake so there was a lot of damage to the school buildings as well as 60 homes in the village that were destroyed. We wanted to get Saran to the village so he could take pictures and report back what the damage was and how the government were helping to help fix it. We had the intention of Barbara, Saran and I all travelling to Pokhara and Saran going on to Gorkha. The journey to Gorkha is a very difficult one without the extra strains of earthquake damage and the complete lack of fuel in rural areas. After Saran had spoken to the teachers in Gorkha it became apparent that it was going to be impossible for him to get there. Barbara and I weren’t going to go as we did not want to put extra strain on the community with finding us places to stay and feeding us.

So all three of us arrived in Pokhara in the afternoon of the 29^th of October. The bus ride there was fine for me, as usual I slept most of the six hour journey. Barbara and Saran had a very different experience, the bus was extremely crowded and there were many women who were not well, and neither the sounds nor smells were very pleasant!

The first day we spent in Pokhara we went shopping for resources; coloured paper and books. We found some really great games and Barbara and I are both looking forward to using them in the schools. We also did some personal shopping but it was really noticeable that there were barely any taxi’s and bikes on the road and there was a real lack of tourists. Everyone we spoke to had a story to tell about how the fuel crisis and the lack of tourists had impacted their lives in some way. We spoke to a jeweller on lakeside who very matterafactly explained that he was not able to feed his family three meals a day anymore. He was not being emotive but was just honest. His honesty was really refreshing as he was not using his situation to try and make a sale he was just talking to us as people (I ended up buying a ring anyway).

The morning of the 31^st of October, we headed to Bandipur and Saran headed back to Tansen. At this point I was convinced that I had never been to Bandipur before. We got a tourist bus to Dumre then got a taxi 8km up the hill to Bandipur. We were planning to stay here one night and then head back to Pokhara the following day. I had spoken to my Dad in Pokhara and he had said that when we came to Nepal as a family in 2002 we ended the trek in Bandipur so I was looking for bits of recognition. From that trip I didn’t recognise anything but then I realised that I had been to Bandipur on two separate occasions in 2011. So a place that I thought I had never been two, it turns out I had been three times previous, and God did I feel stupid after this!

We had paid for a bus ticket to get us back to Pokhara on another tourist bus that was coming from Kathmandu, but this was three hours late due to fuel issues. So we luckily found two seats in a little minivan.

We made it back to Tansen on Monday the 2^nd of November. We had planned to go to Pipaldanda School the following day in a jeep, but Saran contacted the person for the jeep and the price had doubled to 8,000 rupees which was just too much to justify us going. So instead we spent the day doing more resources and other things. We managed to scrape together 5L of fuel for Saran and Sargar’s bikes. We then headed to Pipaldanda the following day on the 4^th. The journey was a long one. The road part was okay and quite relaxing but when we got off of the main highway and got onto the dirt track it turned into a white knuckle ride. Our bike slipped a little on a part of the track that was known for being wet and slippy.

When we finally got to the school we were very happy with the standard of teaching that was going on. The teachers weren't standing at the front of the class they were helping and working with individual children and the nursery class weren’t chanting they were all huddled around a poster of the alphabet on the floor, all really engaged.

Thursday the 5^th I got sick. I woke up with one of the worst colds I have ever had. I got up and dressed and thought I could battle through it to walk to Bagnas School with Barbara. But by the time it was time to leave I felt even worse and she told me to go back to bed.

The next day we had a short meeting with Saran and Sargar to talk about the engineers reports about Dumre and Mahachap. We came up with a short term plan about what our next steps would be. We are still a long way from being able to start the repair and building work on those two school sites.

Luckily we spent the Saturday just relaxing and reading and going out for a nice lunch at a local restaurant and I was able to recover.

Nearly back to health it was time for another teacher training session. This time it was definitely more in Barbara’s field of expertise being about learning techniques for older children. We invited 2/3 teachers from all 5 of the secondary schools. We were very lucky that we had 10 teachers attend. Some teachers live miles away from Tansen and the task of getting here is even more difficult with the fuel crisis.

I have mentioned a few times in my blog so far about the fuel crisis, but not explained what is actually going on. Basically, and as I understand it; Nepal introduced a new constitution about 2 months ago. There are some minority groups in the India boarder side of the country that started protesting and there were violent incidents. The boarders to India were then blockaded by these groups and importing of goods and fuels have nearly stopped completely. The Nepali government were denying that it was happening and India denying any responsibility. There were talks about getting the boarders reopened but an Indian man was shot by Nepali police in the protests and the boarders have been shut again. Fuel used to be 105 rupees per L but now people are being forced to buy fuel on the black market for, sometimes more than, 400 rupees. Even onions have tripled in price, and what is happening is affecting everyone in some way. It’s making it really difficult for Barbara and I to get to any of the schools for a reasonable and justifiable price. Therefore, we are walking or taking motorbikes where possible.