A lot of whinging from Nepal.

Hi!

I thought coming to Nepal again would give me a relaxing few weeks where I could catch up on the sleep I lost because of the rats having a nightly party in my bungalow in Indonesia...but I was wrong!
                 

Playing the local trumpet as a form of stress relief! Interestingly, only members of one of the lower casts can play this instrument. So, some of the teenagers at the school got into trouble with their mothers after they heard them playing around with it, because they are from a higher caste! 

 I came back into a storm of problems with the  volunteers up in the school. We had three volunteers  wanting to teach, but no-one had told them (or me) that the school holidays in Nepal don't really end when they're supposed to, and that it takes around 2 weeks for the parents to get themselves organized enough to send their kids back to school for the beginning of the school year.

So, we had volunteers stuck in Saping in the most miserable time of the year -- hot, dusty, flies and bugs everywhere, and a terrible water shortage -- with nothing to do!  It was so frustrating. Particularly so because one of the volunteers was well-connected with some foundations in the US who were looking to put money into an educational organisation in Nepal or India, and had asked her to scout around to find a good place. She told me that she just couldn't recommend the school, because it wasn't organized well enough. Argh! I couldn't disagree with her.

It's true that life in Nepal is disorganized chaos.  No-one thinks or plans ahead, which is why they didn't think to tell me of these 'unofficial' school holidays so that I could tell the volunteers.  But, the irony of this is that the terrible education system -- which doesn't enourage children to develop critical thinking, planning, or creative skills -- is the reason WHY pretty much no-one here can plan or think ahead. Everything just lurches from the chaos of today to the chaos of tomorrow with no big-picture thinking around how anything can be improved.

Chris painting some murals on the school wall...

...which were smashed a few days later in the earthquake repairs!

So, by improving the standard of education at the school, the capacity of the local population to effectively strategize and deal with problems will also improve. But, the education can't get without some money being put into it. Catch 22.

And, that well-connected volunteer was also told how fat she was over and over again by school teachers, who didn't realise that it wasn't a compliment in America. She told me that she knew it was cultural, and they didn't mean to hurt her, but that it just started to wear on her after a few days.  So, I had to ask Uttam if he could PLEASE ask the teachers never to comment on anyone's body size.  I told him that "beautiful" was the only safe word.

Some beautiful local ladies.

The earthquake seems to have moved the water table up in Saping, so now, on top of all the other normal problems in in Saping, now there is hardly any water.  We had a couple of hardy Canadian volunteers (who thankfully are into camping), who went up to Saping last week in the heat and dust and then had to wait FOUR days for enough water to shower with. The problem with this is that it's not just uncomfortable but really unhygienic, so Uttam and I have had to cancel a whole lot of volunteers coming in the next 2 months, because we just can't ask them to live in these conditions. Argh! Argh! Argh!

The Canadian volunteers - our first father/daughter volunteer team.

The good news is that the earthquake repairs are going quite well, and a new kitchen is also going to be built for volunteers, as well as three separate bedrooms. So living conditions should improve soon, especially as the monsooon is coming in July.

Two of the volunteers, Chris and Rachel, came down to the guesthouse where I'm at a few days ago, and it's been great to spend time with them. Somehow they managed to endure 6 weeks in Saping!

Rachel and me on a little day-trip to Panauti

We went on a little day-trip yesterday to a lovely town near here called Panauti. we were really lucky to arrive when there was a big celebration on at the temple. When girls are around 7 years old here, they have their first marriage...to a fruit!  The fruit  symbolize God. They then have a second marriage when they are around 12, to the sun. Then, when they are older they have their third (and final!) marriage to a man. So, we were there for the fruit marriage. We met these two gorgeous girls who had the most amazing hair-styles!

Check out that Elizabethan-style collar on the girl in the middle!

As part of the ceremony, some of the local men do a little ritual where they sacrifice a goat to the hindu Gods. You can see the goat's head in front of them in these photos and also the intestines strung out in front of them!

I've also been driving Uttam's car a little bit -- but only in a straight line down to the bus-stop. There are so many people, chickens and dogs on the road that I usually don't get out of first gear the whole way.