Last week of year 1

During this last week of my first year (how fast it’s gone since 11/11/2010) things have continued to roll on in much the same way really ..... Cycling around and about Bhairawa but now the temperature is FAR more pleasant. Every now and again seeing sights like the sarus crane.

Attending meetings where I struggle to follow the conversation, but this time being amused to meet a fluent Nepali speaker who grew up in Aberystwyth – encouraging me to dig out of my brain my very few Welsh words in answer to his question Cymraeg.

(my ICT skills are not up to giving you the photo I planned here - sorry)

Visiting schools, but never knowing what the day will hold. These photos are taken in ECD classes because I was delivering ‘zines and photos to the teachers – who loved the ‘zine of their work put together over 2 training days in October.

This day, being really pleased to see a maths game that a VSO volunteer introduced to the teacher being used and enjoyed – not just as it was demonstrated in the training, but adapted with the teacher’s own ideas.

Trekking over the Daishan holiday

Wonderful mountain views and many steps up, up, up and down, down, down. Opportunities to see more of the life of Nepali people in other places and plenty of food for thought about development, tourism and the impact of it all. My nine days trekking to Khopra Ridge (out of Pokhara) with VSO volunteer friends was truly a great experience. Pity I couldn't go the extra 1100 metres up to the lake for the day, but hey I was happy to accept my limits!

Work

Seems that not many entries have had so much to do with work ....... and that is why I am in Bhairawa. Since leaving Melbourne last November I have of course, learned a great deal about how education and schools operate in Nepal. The fundamental starting point in order to make suggestions that will be even remotely useful in my role as an education management volunteer. Matters like timetables and calendars through expectations of teachers e.g. no desks and chairs to be provided for most teachers in class and on to how decisions in Kathmandu play out here in the district. The biggest challenge for any Head Teacher in Rupandehi is simply having ‘enough’ teachers and rooms. Arrangements vary from a class with 90+ students in it, to subject teaching in a school with more class groups than there are teachers. One of our 12 focus schools does not have any toilets; most schools lack adequate rooms in some way (number, dimensions, security, flooring and so on). School Management Committees are not able to meet the minimum standards written to guide them. The political landscape in Nepal in the relatively recent past means that there was a population shift to the capital – some teachers here talk of an oversupply of teachers there.

Everyone is very enthusiastic about VSO’s presence and works hard to find ways to make our time productive. Communication using my poor Nepali and teachers’ varying levels of English remains an ongoing challenge. I am able to impress in a random encounter in a shop but discussions with a Head Teacher about planning often relies on the English teacher being available to also join us.

The use of low/no cost materials is often raised as something teachers are keen to improve in their work. For our 12 schools their experience leading up to our involvement, has been varied. A few schools have relatively large collections of books and other teaching resources sometimes unused for years, with knowledge of what is in the collection, lost. Superficially at least, this could be a result of agencies giving boxes of material with little training and even less follow-up. VSO’s approach is very much about training and working alongside teachers and managers rather than providing resources. There is a budget for us to provide classroom items, but it is small and the focus is on the professional experience of the international volunteer working alongside Nepalis. Other schools have very little as they have only recently been established. Both Nepali and international organisations are numerous and provide all sorts of different support based on their view of the needs.

Enrolment of students has increased substantially in our district over recent years though there are still students to reach. Our project aims to enrol all children in the catchment of the chosen focus schools and to help staff improve the quality of education in order to increase retention.

One task I am working on is continuous assessment. Until this year, students from class 1 onwards have had exams three times a year to assess their learning. The district has introduced continuous assessment in classes 1, 2, 3, but as with any new policy, anywhere, there are many points to raise and implementation issues to understand and discuss. It is many faceted and is a very interesting issue for me to work with.



how to use ..........  in what subjects?



How far does the money go?

OR       What can I buy for an Australian dollar or two?

Today’s exchange rate as per Republica newspaper is 1AUD – R78/, more than it was when I arrived last November. I’ll let you do the calculations of dollar and cents.

Lunch at a cafe: a plate of veg momos R55/ or Masala Dhosa R50/

2-egg omelette and puffed rice at the DEO teashop R30/

Cup of black tea with lemon R5/

Small bottle of sprite etc R30/

Repairing the puncture on my bike R20/

Pumping up my tyres R5/ - actually my family told me it’s 2 each tyre, but I always offer a R5 note

Bus fare for the hour ride to Lumbini for me and my cycle R50/

English newspaper R3/ or R5/

Yak cheese 100g R55/

1 kg tomatoes R20/

1kg eggplant R10/

250g green capsicum R15/

300ml bag of milk R21/

Cup of yoghurt 200ml R20/

500ml bag of yoghurt R38/

Muesli 400g packet R85/

6 bananas R25/

2kg whole-wheat flour R74/

Butter 250 g R125/

Material to make a pair of plain pants, R165/ and to stitch them R100/

A suit – material for matching pants, top, scarf and then stitched for me approx R1000/

Electricity per month on average approx 300, but this month my bill was 408 – did I mention it’s hot here and so I like using the ceiling fan? Plus the power cuts are less than in the cold season.

A 5 day course of antihistamine tablets plus a small tube of eye cream to help a fellow volunteer recover from their effort to beautify themself with hair dye R48/ (It was me who went to the pharmacy to buy as their eye was so swollen, didn’t want to cycle, no problem to buy products clearly labelled ‘not without prescription’)

 

veg momos at Mokhan Bhog, a favourite lunch spot

This entry lacks the photos I anticipated, will aim to add some more over the coming days ......

Postal (mis)adventures

Many things could explain why you haven’t received my letter or card .... many things could explain why I haven’t got yours. I do know that one envelope leaving Bhairawa with stamps on the reverse side made it to the intended destination, clearly the PO worker here knew better than me that was going to be OK. However I’ve been emailed by two friends that they sent things I haven’t received (and it’s been a while). I haven’t kept a list of who I sent what to so sorry, can’t oblige with any questions on that front.

Some family and friends have been lucky enough to get evidence of what I sent but not actually the item ........ one got an envelope addressed by me, inside a card to and from complete unknowns! That led me to whack a staple mid envelope to keep the contents within. The others however received photocopies of my cards and messages along with a note from Australia Post ‘your mail did not meet Australian quarantine requirements’  – pay $42.50 to have the unidentified plant matter irradiated if you want the actual item. I’d thought the packet of cards was nicely decorated – no thoughts about AQIS whatsoever!

Meanwhile, please don’t let that deter you from mailing me if the mood strikes you – emails are great but so is snail mail – and things do arrive. I’ll continue too.



the rest of the pack that won't see Australia



July

Schools have been closed. I had a wonderful week in Bangkok, a couple of interesting days in Bhaktapur (near Kathmandu) and time here to work on planning and paperwork that you can do without needing to visit schools. Now that July is over I am crossing everything that the weather really is cooling down as I found June and July very difficult. It’s been consistently in the high 30s with some days low 40s. Load shedding is less now than in the cold months but every day there are at least 2 hours in the evening without power, another couple in the early hours of the morning and other times during the day too. The thing I miss at those times is the fan flapping over me as I try to sleep, or read by torchlight.

In Bangkok I met up with Chris, Anne, Lois and others in Chris’s family – and had a great time catching up with them and enjoying the sights (and food) of that city. Bhaktapur was a medieval city-state close to Kathmandu that’s very well preserved. Temples, narrow cobblestone streets, redbrick houses, pottery and woodcarving.

On the work front - schools are opening now after the rainy season holiday, and unlike Australia there is no set date so it varies by up to a month across our twelve schools. Rain makes it hard for some students and teachers to get there however, with swollen rivers and muddy journeys. An indicator of cooler days is that when they open, hours return to the 10am start unlike June when many schools worked from 6 or 7 am. Excellent!




Enjoying Bangkok

below: Bhaktapur



Rains

‘It comes from the east.’ I was glad to hear from Sandy that there was something I could observe to tell me when the monsoon had arrived as I’d been wondering how I was going to tell the difference between pre-monsoon and monsoon rain storms. On 1 June the prediction was that the monsoon would arrive in two weeks. Mid afternoon on 19 June the rain storm battered my bedroom window, forcing a rearrangement of the bedside ‘table’ and pile of novels. Until now it’s been the kitchen windows, with the occasional major event finding me sweeping water out of the drain while the rain coming down the drain from the roof adds to my challenge on the kitchen floor. Schools close for six weeks of rainy season holiday on 1 July, and this last week or so for many students is first term exams. This difference in the school year, with the long holiday not being the break between year levels is again one of the many differences for me to learn about.



So far a sunshade, but I expect I'll be caught in the rain soon.

 

Cooking

I’m the very happy owner of a miracle oven that was developed by the Peace Corps. It’s available at various spots in Kathmandu and I bought mine at a farmers’ market that happens every Saturday in the garden of a restaurant of the type frequented by expats. As you might expect, I think 1905 restaurant is a nice place to visit. The miracle oven looks like a ring cake tin (2 in fact that you put inside each other) and you sit it on another heavy ring that sits over the gas jet, lid over it all. Most odd contraption but it means I can bake some bread rolls. Bread is definitely the food item I miss so I’ve enjoyed experimenting. It’s also produced excellent chocolate & banana cake, passable scones and delicious baked veg. About two weeks ago I recalled the concept of savoury muffins – another success. At the volunteers conference the miracle oven cook-off produced sensational cakes and I was a proud member of the gold medal team. No credit to me I have to admit, as we had a very experienced miracle oven cake making team leader.

The miracle oven has added to my cooking options of the standard 2 burner gas stove and a rice cooker that I love – why did I never buy one before now!

Another element in the cooking experience is adapting to load shedding and the fact that something cold in the fridge has definitely not been continuously cold for the past 24 hours – how long am I prepared to stretch ‘it’ll still be OK to eat’ along with ..... ‘How much will I buy because how long will it be until I use it all’. It’s definitely a different version of a well stocked fridge.

There really is a great variety of foods available here in Bhairawa. No problem at all to have a good supply of fruit and vegetables and it’s interesting to see the new varieties arriving and disappearing in the market. Lychees have just been and gone. Plenty of new varieties to try and the occasional surprise – seems I bought 3 types of cucumber, not zucchinis. As long as you don’t feel obsessed about anything in particular there is no trouble at all. My corner shop provides the basics: milk, flour, potatoes, onions, rice, lentils and so on. Then there are 2 stores in town that offer imported items, my main purchase there is muesli / porridge and it’s where I buy yeast. Coffee - I need to buy in Kathmandu.

NB: book clubbers: the year’s program is posted there next to the stove – just above the gas cylinder.



Lumbini

I’ve enjoyed a few visits to Lumbini, Buddha’s birthplace, and also stayed overnight at the Korean Monastery. This week was a very big celebration for Buddha’s birthday with huge crowds. I missed the political leaders and the speeches only seeing the helicopter overhead.

Lumbini is a world heritage site and Buddhist communities around the world have built monasteries in the compound. All are interesting and the Korean one welcomes large numbers of guests from anywhere. It seems that others only take guests from their home nation. Lumbini is the only tourist spot around here, an hour on the bus for the 22 km. So peaceful inside the park and a great contrast to here in Bhairawa – there’s no doubt I’ll continue to visit.

At the Korean monastery you stay in a dormitory (single rooms are sometimes available), meet lots of international backpackers, as well as busloads of Buddhist visitors from nearby countries, enjoy delicious Korean food 3 times a day and are able to join the worship at 6.30pm (I‘ve been a few times) and 5 am (just once at that time).

One of our focus schools is in Lumbini which makes my visits to the Korean Monastery even more certain!

A few snaps around town

......... to try to show a little of Bhairawa.

My corner shop - open early, open late, and supplies just about everything.

At the Buddha Chowk roundabout. Straight ahead to Lumbini (Buddha’s birthplace), the arch in the background has been taking shape since I arrived.

Sandy showed me a community forest not far away. That’s her new alphabet poster rolled up on the ground, she didn’t want to risk it being nicked from her bike basket as we wandered off into the forest.

VSO’s office at the District Education Office.

School visits

VSO’s program has 12 focus schools that we work with through with the District Education Office here in Bhairawa. Most of them are 30 to 50 minutes cycling distance from home, with the furthest being an hour on the bus followed by 30 minutes cycling. (My bike needed the mechanic after its first ride on top of the bus!) A few are along busy roads but the ones along the quieter roads make a great start to the day when I’m out and about getting to know the teachers and students rather than sitting in the office. School enrolment size varies from about 190 to 610 students, (kindergarten to year 8) and staff numbers from 4 to 15. During the last couple of weeks our schools have been working on drama performances about child rights, discrimination and disabilities – some of the photos are taken at these performances. Now it’s exam time as the school year finishes, and around mid April the new year begins.

Reading

Numbers and letters are important, and there are some challenges for me in sorting those out here. So far it’s only a plan to be able to read words in Devanagari script but I can read numbers, a handy start. Recently, that’s been helpful to decipher telephone numbers on shop fronts when I’m trying to find a particular shop that I have been given a business card for in script that I cannot read. It would be useful to be able to read place names or bus destinations at the very least, and I’ll report in some time about how that’s going once I begin to make some progress. In Kathmandu it was no problem to only read and speak English, here in Bhairawa, English speakers are far fewer. Practising the Nepali I know however is always greeted so positively, everyone is really happy to work with me to have a conversation.

The Nepali text, dictionary and my exercise book were definitely the number 1 reading choice before Bhairawa and now it’s various work related things. Lonely Planet Nepal has had a good share of reading time and then there’s the time I’ve found to read novels. I have managed to read Stephen Fry’s ‘Moab is My Washpot’ a Kerry Greenwood novel (thanks team who provided the voucher for my kindle) a Jodi Picoult, and Carole Wilkinson’s ‘Sugar, Sugar’ (thanks Carole, really enjoyed it). A couple of random novels picked up along the way too, a pity the copy of ‘time traveller’s wife’ was not actually a complete copy when I chose it from the guest house shelf! Thanks to MaryAnne I’ve now got her selection of holiday reading, and to Jenny who included Clean Cut by Lynda La Plante in her mail to me which I’m racing through. I’m feeling well looked after.