What a truly inspiring visit at Bhalebas.

So on the 22^nd I had to make my own way to Bhalebas. I’d had caught a few buses on long journeys which had always been fine, this time it was a short 20 minute ride and Saran met me at the other end to take me up the track to the school. I was, as always, greeted very warmly by all the staff and the children.

I couldn’t have been happier with the effort that Bhalebas have put in, not only in displaying and using the resources that we have brought previously; but also the ways that the teachers were so easily adopting our teaching approaches. 80% of the lessons I saw were brilliant with teachers using different resources and most of the children in the classes engaged.

I was only planning on staying in Bhalebas one night and going to Dumre the following day, but in true Nepali style the meeting was put off a day so I got to stay in Bhalebas another night, which I was more than happy about. So after breakfast at Saran’s house we chatted in the staff room about what I was going to do that day. I chose again to do another day of observing- making sure I saw the teachers that I had missed the day before.

The second day at Bhalebas was no disappointment either, the teachers here from what I can see don’t exactly write a lesson plan but they’re bringing resources to the lessons which means they’ve at least thought about what they’re going to do that lesson.

As I think I have said in previous blogs, Saran’s house was really badly damaged in the earthquake. He’s currently in the process of building his new home and I can’t believe how quickly the walls have gone up. With the current fuel shortage, getting materials has been a real struggle and has meant that there was a delay to the building. But, finally, things are looking really great. Three bedrooms a sitting room and a kitchen with a small balcony at the front too.

On the 24th, after my second breakfast at Saran's house, Saran

and I made our way, on his motorbike, to Dumre which is fairly close to Bhalebas. Again we were very warmly greeted by the head teacher and the members of staff. The meeting here was to discuss the building plans for the four new classrooms that we’re planning to fund. The school has agreed to supply the labour and Manisha UK will then supply the materials. It was a very positive meeting and it’s a big relief to know that we both have the same expectations.

As the school was so badly affected by the earthquake, with already very poor classrooms, the government along with a Korean charity are funding two classrooms. Which is good to see that Dumre are getting help from elsewhere too.

Unfortunately, after watching BBC news at Saran’s house the first morning I was there and talking to Saran it’s become very obvious that the trouble and the blockades at the boarders don’t seem to be getting any better. Two people were killed by police and an ambulance and a truck full of medical supplies have been torched. I’m constantly thinking how lucky we are in Tansen as the only effect we’re seeing at the moment is the rise in fuel prices as we’re having to buy it off of the black market.

My last week with Barbara and even less fuel and gas.

Barbara and I started our 6^th week by going to Butwal to go shopping for resources among other things. Butwal is a large town on the edge of the flat, hot, Teri region of Nepal. We were expecting it to a very hot trip but as winter has started to set in it was a lot cooler than both of us anticipated. We bought a good range of Science books and other books for older children including some biographies for the school libraries. We also bought some more essentials; laminating pouches and whiteboard markers as well as some Montessori type toys for younger children.

Barbara and I then worked through Thursday 12^th making and designing more resources to get made and put together for when I start visiting schools. I’ve spent a lot of time photocopying and laminating different resources for all ages so then I can work with the teachers and show them the learning that can happen through play.

Friday the 13^th (unlucky for some) was the main day of Tihar. Tihar is the Nepali equivalent to the Indian festival of Diwali. There are 5 days of Tihar; first is the day of the crow to celebrate their uses as a messenger, second is the day of the dog and they loyalty is celebrathed (even though most dogs are strays), the third was the day of the cow and the god of wealth Laxmi, the fourth is the day of the ox and is celebrated for their uses for farming and the fifth day is the main day of Tihar where brothers and sisters celebrate each other. Although this wasn’t the first time I have been in Nepal for Tihar it is the first time that I have experienced it in such an inclusive way. Dhanni and Abhi had been invited to the village for the main day so they left early in the morning. So at the homestay there was Barbara, me, Janaki, a French man and his Nepali friend and two guests from Belgium. We celebrated with Tika and as you can see, so much food. Janaki had spent the previous days cooking solidly for Tihar.When Dhani and Abhi returned from the village that evening, I gave Abhi a small gift that I had got for him when we were in Pokhara.

Wednesday was a very special day for two reasons. Sadly, it was the day that Barbara left us and travelled to Kathmandu; but is was also the day I was supposed to graduate. We said our goodbyes to Barbara and wished her well for her journey back to the UK. And then scrolling down my Facebook news feed later that day, there was a flood of the most beautiful pictures of everyone from my course graduating. So proud of my friends for working so hard- we definitely all deserved it! It was a tough gruelling three years but we can safely say that all of those assignments are nicely behind us.

Thursday was then a strange day looking out of my door for Barbara and her not being there! A very strange adjustment as we grew so close after an intense 2 months. I then met with Saran late morning to give him some money for the mini whiteboards that he’d ordered for the schools and 3 big ones to replace broken ones. I then spent some time labelling and stamping books so they are ready to be distributed to schools.

The following day I had a short meeting with Saran and Sargar to talk through the next steps that we need to take before building starts at Dumre and Mahachap. As I am not qualified in building and have very little experience in building I’m gathering all the advice I can get.

Then the next couple of days over the weekend have been quiet I’ve been making the most of the beautiful weather sat on the balcony making resources and designing new posters on my laptop to then go and get them printed soon and then distributed to the schools. I've also been dreading the day that the gas runs out for the kitchen and our hot shower. Such a privilege in Nepal, but once the gas has gone I'm sure that it will be missed! 

This coming week I’m hoping to visit, Bhalebas, Dumre and Okhaldunga. As there is only me and Saran now travelling is a little easier as we can go on the motorbike. Sargar went to a place near the boarder and bought 150L of fuel on the black market and we bought 20L off of him so that should keep us going for a while, fingers crossed. 

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. 

The main day of Dashian has arrived. 
So Thursday was the main day of Dashian. We were lucky enough to be invited to Dhanni’s village for the celebrations and blessings with lots of Tikka. There was a couple from Belgium staying at Horizon at the same time so Dhanni also invited them for the day trip. We left early morning and after about an hour in the jeep arrived at the village, after quite a pleasant journey- even though the jeep was packed with people all squeezed in and many people on the top of the jeep also.

We went to visit Dhanni’s old house that he used to live in, which is beautiful, however there is a little damage from the earthquakes earlier in the year. After the young children Barbra, the guests from Belgium and I were asked up to be blessed one by one by Danni’s mother and older brother and were given a blessing. The whole experience was very touching and I did feel very honoured to be part of such a special day. After some food we spent hours waiting for Dhanni’s sister to arrive. We could not leave until Dhanni had blessed her sister. I think Barbara and I worked out that there was over six hours of Tikka-ing. A very long and special day. Finally we all piled back into the jeep and headed back to Tansen.

Now the journey home was something else. First, we came head to head with a crowded bus on a part of the road that was wet and extremely muddy, shortly after we drove round a corner only to be met by two huge monkeys. And our driver, it seemed, was racing the light and was very heavy footed. But despite all the drama of people jumping on and off the roof, we made it safely back to our homestay.

We spent Friday the 23^rd working on more resources and laminating many sheets. Again, quite a slow day with the lack of open shops due to Dashian.

Saturday Barbara and I were invited to Bimala’s house for lunch, which was really lovely. I’m sure that I will never go hungry whilst in Nepal. Everyone is so kind and lovely and especially hospitable. It must be said that Barbara and I thought that the rice pudding Bimala cooked was the best rice pudding that either of us have ever tasted. Sunday evening a German couple arrived at Horizon who were travelling in Nepal for one month and both were really lovely.

Our plan for Sunday and Monday was to visit Bagnas School as it is only about an hour’s walk from Tansen- we had heard through other teachers that there was a local holiday then so the school would not be open. Barbara and I thought that it would be a good idea to walk into the village anyway just to see it so I could familiarise myself with the village. I also invited the German couple to come with us to Bagnas to visit the village. As soon as we arrived we were surrounded by children and were asked to join a member of the village’s management committee for some water at his house. Word soon spread that we had arrived and we were surrounded asking Barbra to sing and play and they were all very keen to drag all of us by the hand up to Devi temple. Luckily we didn’t see any sacrifices taking place, but we definitely saw the pools of blood from the previous ones.

After seeing the temple and laying offerings we made our way back down the hill to have a quick cup of chia before our hike back to Tansen. It was long and very hot but we made it and treated ourselves with some momo’s (steamed or fried, veg filled dumplings) and a banana lassi. We slowly then trudged back up the homestay over full and crashed for the rest of the afternoon.

We have lots planned for the next few days as Dashian is over so stay tuned :)