Golphu Engels

hallo allemaal, omdat het anders zo lang gaat duren totdat jullie horen hoe het in Golphubhanjyang gaat, zetten we hier alvast de engelse versie van jenni hierop. Dit is haar dagboek van de belevenissen zover. Voor degene die Jenni kent... ZEER uitgebreid! Eind december komt er weer een nederlands verhaal. Alvast een fijne Sinterklaas en goede Kerst en ons schaatsabonnement nemen we volgend jaar wel weer.

SATURDAY 30 OCTOBER (last day of trek)
Woke up in Kutumsang to the most beautiful views of snow-capped mountains and a clear blue sky with no clouds – absolutely captivating! We both had the feeling that we wanted to stay here and not go to Golphu because of the wonderful views and the warm welcome we received from Biru’s mother-in-law Putali (which means butterfly in the Sherpa language). Biru is the father of Dawa, the 12 year old girl we sponsor. We had just visited him and his wife and youngest daughter Sangmo in Mangengoth, a village 2 hours walk away. We had stayed a day and half with Biru and his family and he then walked with us to Kutumsang, as his mother-in-law lived there. After a lovely luke-warm shower we lazed around talking to a Dutch couple and to Biru and enjoying the sunshine.
After lunch we said goodbye to Biru and his in-laws (after promising to visit them again soon!) and we left at about 13.00 hours and much to our surprise we arrived in Golphu at 15.00 hours - we had been told it would take us 3 hours. Very strange to see Golphu again from another direction and from a height, but with the aid of binoculars we recognized the village gompa (Buddhist momument) and knew that it was Golphu.
We half expected a grand welcome as we had told the Headmaster Julphe that we would arrive between 15.00 and 16.00 hours, but the grand welcome had been saved for the day after as the children do not go to school on Friday afternoon and Saturday. The headmaster Julphe Chandra Gurung had met us before the trek in Kathmandu and taken our large rucksacks with all our winter clothes. He had kindly offered to take the rucksacks back with him on the bus to the village Gyalthung and then arranged for porters to take them on the 3-4 hour trek to Golphu. We could then go off in the opposite direction to do the Gosainkunda trek! The owner of the Himalaya lodge didn’t seem to know who we were which worried us a little as Julphe had told us he had left our large rucksacks at the lodge. But as with most things in Nepal, everything turned out fine! Julphe was found and so, thankfully, were our rucksacks. They were packed in a large jute sack so relatively theft-proof we thought. But then Julphe told us that the bus from Kathmandu to Gyalthung was really full, so our rucksacks were put on the roof which was also overcrowded so despite Julphe’s pleas, people sat on our rucksacks. What we had not told Julphe was that there was a laptop in the rucksacks!!! But luckily the laptop was ok and after a few times of playing the I-pod – it also worked ok!!
After a cup of tea with Julphe and some of the School Management Committee members, they left us to unpack our bags and settle in. Julphe told us he would pick us at 11.00 o’clock the next day for a welcome ceremony!
SUNDAY 31 OCTOBER
As usual in Nepal, because most people go to bed early (at about 2100 hours), we woke up early at around 06.30! It’s impossible to sleep any longer, as the sound of everyone waking up, washing, cooking breakfast and calling loudly to each other, prevents otherwise!! Although some people have running water out of a hose in their homes (only in the bathroom and toilet), others have to use the 2 public washing places in the village. This is a social event, with people chatting to each other as they line up to wash their face and feet and to brush their teeth! The latter is done whilst walking round and talking to everyone even though their mouths are full of toothpaste! Another obligatory morning habit is clearing their throats very loudly and then spitting on the ground which I fear I will NEVER get used to !!
We were of course the main focus of attention that morning as the 486 children arrived from the 5 surrounding villages to attend school, which starts at 10.30 hours. They all gathered round us athe lodgeand watched our every move and we felt like we were the local zoo attraction!! There was also quite a scurry of movement as we saw garlands of flowers being brought from various homes to the school. By this time, we were very curious about the welcome we were about to receive.
As promised at about 11.00 hours Julphe arrived and escorted us to the school, which is only 2 minutes away from our lodge. WHAT A WELCOME – WE FELT LIKE ROYALTY!! Numerous garlands of flowers and welcome scarves were placed around our necks as all 486 students, the 12 teachers and Julphe clapped slowly to welcome us. Then we walked down 2 rows of students, Philip on the right-hand side, where all the boys were, and me on the left-hand side, where all the girls were, and nearly every student gave us a single flower and greeted us with the traditional “Namaste”. The teachers followed behind us and when our hands were too full of flowers, we passed them on to the teachers for safe-keeping!! The students continued to clap until we had received every single flower!! FANTASTIC !! Then we were led to a table with 2 bowls of flowers on them and we sat down, to listen to Julphe and the Chairman of the School Management Committee (SMC) give 2 very long speeches about who we were and what we had come to do. As with all schoolchildren, their attention faded after about 5 minutes, so there was a lot of fidgeting and whispering and throwing of pieces of paper! Whilst the chairman gave his speech, which must have been difficult to follow as he has now only about 3 teeth, Julphe cleared his throat extremely loudly and spat on the ground so we had great difficulty in withholding our laughter, as with 486 students looking at us, we had to act the part!
Then Julphe asked Philip and then me to give a speech which, considering the lack of preparation on our part, I think went rather well! By this time our egos were really inflated by the whole ceremony and the attention!! At last the ceremony was over and we were invited into the office where Julphe asked us to explain to the SMC members exactly what we were here for, so the speech-giving part was not yet over as everytime anyone spoke, they stood up! Then Julphe explained that the 12-strong SMC were not able to frequently meet as they also have to teach the children, so right then and there we had our first meeting! As most of the teachers speak little English, the meeting was held in Nepali, so our contribution was initially quite small. After a while, we realized we would have to be more bold and assertive if we were to play an active part in the meeting! It ended up being an introductory meeting in which we explained exactly what we wanted to do and most SMC members just agreeing with everything we said – despite our inviting the members to give their vision on how to spend the money. Luckily the English teacher Rajan suggested appointing a working committee of 4 of 5 members which we heartily agreed with. At this point, they suggested we have lunch, while they deliberated on the composition of this committee, and they asked us to come back in 1 hour.
The cook of the lodge, Purpa, seems to need an hour to prepare lunch and dinner, so after lunch we hurried back to the school as we were about 10 minutes late!! When we arrived at the school office, there was not a soul to be seen and this was of course another lesson for us to learn – promptness is not their strong point and agreements change constantly! After about 30 minutes Julphe appeared and then took us on a tour of the school while lessons were being given. As we entered each of the 12 classrooms, all the children rose dutifully to greet us with Namaste and then yet again Julphe explained briefly to the pupils who we were and what we were here to do! It also gave us the opportunity to examine the damp problem in each classroom and to discover just how full some of the classes were – class 5 for example had 73 students crammed into 1 classroom! The children all wear school uniform, light blue shirts and dark blue trousers or skirts, which the girls wear over different coloured trousers in Asian style! The classrooms are totally bare except for the school board and rows of benches and tables for the pupils. Having said that the brick walls, covered often in moss and suffering from damp, are hardly suitable for hanging up informative posters or work that the students have done. Part of the ceiling is not bricked in and a transparent hard plastic material is placed over this gap and this provides natural light. This is necessary in winter when the windows are shut . There is of course no heating, electricity or water in the school.
Then the remaining SMC members appeared and in the very short meeting that followed, they informed us who the 5 members of the working committee would be. Apart from Julphe, the other 4 members didn’t really speak English, so the English teacher Rajan and Pasang from the Gosaikund Lodge were also appointed to the committee to translate. They told us a meeting of the working committee would be held the next day at 15.30 hours and with that point decided we left the meeting.
We then finished unpacking and started making our room more cosy by putting hooks everywhere so we could hang stuff up . There are 3 beds in our room, so we put all our clothes and books on one bed and on the small table we put our computer and Ipod. Luckily there is also a window sill so we can put some stuff there as well – such as torches and my jewelry bag!! Apart from the 3 beds and table there is absolutely nothing else in the room, so the hooks we brought from Holland are essential!! We also decorated the room with the many garlands of flowers and scarves we had received this morning, so it eventually looked quite nice.
As usual, after dinner and talking to some trekkers, we went to bed at about 20.30 hours as do most people here in Nepal. Early to bed and early rising makes use of most of the daylight hours. Having said that we are very lucky as this village was connected to the electricity network last year, so between 18.00 and 21.00 hours we can recharge all our electrical appliances and we have light in our room.
MONDAY 1 NOVEMBER
In the morning we relaxed and walked round the village, observing village life. People are starting to get to know us and cheerily greet us with Namaste and a smile of recognition that is warmer than the smile given to most trekkers. Most of the villagers are farmers, so are out in the fields all day but some villagers stay in the village to tend to the 6 or 7 small teashops/shops and the 2 lodges and the very old and the very young stay also in the village. As soon as the children are old enough, about 7 years old or so they help out in the fields, lodges and tea shops before and after school and on free days (Friday afternoon and Saturday there is no school). The villagers grow corn which but takes about 9 months to harvest , and they grow millet, which is used to make the local whisky, Rakshi and to add to their champa porridge. They plant millet in the summer months and it takes about 5 months to harvest. They also grow a small amount of potatoes. Village life is very slow and relaxed and they always stop to have a chat with each other – it’s so different to our rushed and stressful lives!!
We also went to the school and took photos of each classroom, to show the extent of the damp problem in each individual class and to assess which 6 classrooms needed damp-proofing the most. Unfortunately we also noticed that the children just throw all their rubbish (sweet papers mostly) on the classroom floor so that will definitely be the subject of one of my classes!! But I did notice there was no rubbish bin anywhere on the school premises, so I will talk to Julphe about this and suggest that each classroom should have a cardboard box to put their rubbish in. We also need to talk to him about the local rubbish tip which is right near the school and everything is just thrown on the ground so it presents a health hazard as well as looking extremely unsightly!
At 15.30 hours, after school had finished, we attended the 2nd meeting and yet again this was held in Nepali! But this time we were more assertive and had written down beforehand the points we wanted to discuss. In short after 2 ½ hours we finally came to the decision that € 2000 would be spent on damp-proofing 6 classrooms and putting wood and then carpet on the floors of Grade 1, 2 and 3. We think this is a good idea as the children in the first 3 grades are aged between 4 and 6 and this sort of cosy setting with carpets is more suitable to their age than desks and benches. We also came to the decision that € 1000 would be spent on 2 septic tank toilets for the schoolchildren. There are now only 2 toilets for the 486 children! We decided to postpone making a decision on how to spend the last € 1000 on the villagers as we would like to discuss ideas with more representatives of the village about increasing the income of the villagers. Maya Sherpa who sits on the SMC is also a member of the women’s group WCDSS and their next meeting is 17 November, so we hope to attend this meeting with Pasang or Rajan as translator. Better to first tackle the problems with the school and then at a later stage discuss the money for the villagers when we have more time and have gained more knowledge about the villagers and their lives. By now it was nearly six o’clock and getting dark and as everyone started getting up and leaving we presumed the meeting was now over!
Some of the SMC members and Julphe came back to our lodge for a cup of tea as by now it was pouring with rain and that was a nice end to the meeting. The toothless chairman, who we later discovered was 64 years old and retired, decided tea wasn’t strong enough for him, so he ordered a small bottle of rum (it costs € 2,60 here!) and 2 omelets to go with the rum!! After chatting for a while everyone went home to have dinner. We spent the evening alone as there were no trekkers that night – that was quite a weird feeling sitting there on our own but we’ll have to get used to it as we suspect there won’t be many tourists in December, January and February!
TUESDAY 2 NOVEMBER
We arranged via Pasang to have our mound of washing done. A male friend of his eventually did it for € 3 but unfortunately I forgot to take out my underwear so the whole village probably knows what my underwear looks like as the washing was dried on the meadows for the whole village to see! My pink lacy knickers and tiger print knickers probably caused numerous heart attacks!!
I followed 2 English lessons from one of the English schoolteachers Rajan. After lunch walked 30 minutes to the village of Thodong which is also part of Golphu to see if we could internet. Luxury lodge + monastery – really beautiful. No internet! Still no trekkers – we missed chatting to them but in December, January and February this will be the norm I think. We also helped some villagers scrape the corn off the cob which really hurts your thumb after a while – good to have contact with the villagers and they enjoyed teaching us. We are getting to know the lodge owner and his family: Pasang Sherpa is the grandfather and owner of the lodge, Purpa Sherpa is the uncle and cook (worked for 25 years in Goa and Pune in India), Pemba Sherpa is the mother and Ang Babu Sherpa is the father, but he lives in the next village Thodong, Perma Dolma Sherpa is the eldest daughter, 11 years old and in class 5 and Purphi Janging Sherpa is 9 years old and in class 4 – lovely girl, who after her initial shyness has taken to us and we try to teach her some English as well.
WEDNESDAY 3 NOVEMBER
Philip wrote a contract for Julphe to sign and we bought some colourful scarves to decorate the walls in our room. In the morning Philip came with me to the school to film their morning exercises and the singing of the National Anthem before school starts at 10.45. I Followed 2 English lessons from the second English teacher Phool (which means flower in Nepali!). At 13.00 Julphe showed us where sand was being collected which is needed to mix with the cement. They need 600 bags of sand at 30 kg each so they hope to save money by getting it free from mother nature! It was a beautiful place with picturesque streams and boulders and we will certainly go there often! Julphe told us when we came to his house in Kathmandu before the trek, that he diidn’t know what it was that we had brought him as gift (pineapple!) and how to prepare it but once he succeeded the loved it !Talked to more trekkers from France and Belgium – really nice – our type of people. Showed Pasang that the ground against the schoolrooms has to be removed as this is the cause of the damp problem. Not sure they really understand this – so we have to keep repeating that the earth has to be removed every year after the monsoon. Also asked Julphe to arrange for a board for the school so that tourists know where it is. We feel this is really important as unless trekkers walk around the village, they will not see there is a school. We will of course hang our brochure under the board and so hopefully get more donations!! Also thought about giving trekkers who stay a night in the village a tour of the school, a few homes, the corn mills and river plus the fields where crops are grown as a sort of cultural tour and ask for maybe 200 NRS per person (€ 2). Sat in the sun with some villagers and tried to talk to them but difficult because of the language barrier – most of the villagers speak just a few words of English. We are gradually finding out the places where the sun shines, as it is quite cold if there is no sun!! Played with the children in the street until dark, leapfrog, blowing bubbles and running races – great fun – the children love it. Stayed up late, talking and smoking with trekkers and went to bed late – at about 21.30 hours.
THURSDAY 4 NOVEMBER
Found some old wood in the school (from broken school benches) and made a temporary sign to show where school is – hope Julphe doesn’t mind but there are no DIY shops here to buy wood, hammer or nails. Our lodge owner Pasang, helped us remove the nails from the wood and broke his hammer in the process – which he later repaired. The villagers loved the sign ! In the afternoon went to the fields to see millet being harvested – great fun and then relaxed by the river – such a peaceful and warm place. No trekkers tonight but very tired after playing with the kids till dinner time doing skipping and tug-of-war games with rope we borrowed from Pasang. Kids suddenly started clearing the streets of rubbish – have we had an influence already?! Went to bed at 8 o’clock!!
FRIDAY 5 NOVEMBER
After a hot bucket shower, washed some clothes and rinsed them at the village tap – felt very local!! Our washing line on the balcony doesn’t work as well as their method so like them, I spread the washing out on the bushes, the ground and even the local stupa (religious monument).Told cook about putting some rice in salt to prevent it clogging – he was really pleased as of course it worked!! Went to look for some twigs as Philip wanted to make a broom with handle (to sweep our room – no hoovers here of course!) – they use brooms without handle here which are killing for the back. Philip loved using his new Khukuri knife! Saw a crowd of villagers on the hill but unfortunately didn’t go and have a look – should have done as they had slaughtered a buffalo for the Tihar festival and were sharing the meat out – always a memorable experience! After lunch cleared all 12 classrooms of loads of rubbish on floor – local kids helped us so hopefully we are starting to influence them in a positive way Also picked some wild flowers, which they use to make garlands, and put flowers in the lodge – vases are cut–off water bottles!! Purphi and her sister Pemba made garlands of flowers and hung them in the doorway – looked lovely. Again wonder if this is our influence as no-one else did the same. Played with kids again who are really getting attached to us, especially Purphi the lodge owners youngest granddaughter. After dark kids started singing and dancing – fantastic – all for the hindu Tihar (festival of lights) – they sing at the houses lit by candles and say that the owner of the house very rich is and can surely spare some money for them. Sometimes one girl or boy sings and the children sing an answer back and sometimes they all sing in unison. At a certain moment the owner comes outside with a tray filled with rice, candles, flowers, sweets and most important – money. The children sing their hearts out and were accompanied by a lady playing the drum to keep the beat – they keep singing until the owner says they may now take the money. They then take the money and sing joyously for their good fortune! By giving the money the owner is also assured of good fortune. After singing with the children and dancing, we put some candles in front of our lodge and with the help of our lodge owner Pasang, we decorated a tray and put some money on it (€1,60) and loads of sweets. When the children saw the money, they were very happy and they must have sung for about 30 minutes! Eventually we told the lodge owner – please tell them they can take the money!! The singing carried on till about midnight so we didn’t get much sleep that night – but it was worth it!!
SATURDAY 6 NOVEMBER
Went to Thodong, a village about 20 minutes walk away, which is also part of Golphu, because we had heard that the lodge owners son had returned from Kathmandu and that we could now use Internet there. Purphi came with us as she wanted to see her father who lives in Thodong. Passed a gompa and she insisted on praying to it which took about 10 minutes but nice to see. We had decided to time our visit to this village to eat lunch there in case they had a different menu but they only had 2 different dishes – Helambu soup and the sweet Haluwah which I ordered. It was a lovely sweet rice pudding so I really enjoyed that!! After lunch, the lodge –owners son returned from Golphu and we discovered that he had internet on his computer which is why he has to be there if someone wants to use Internet!! Because reception is so bad, we had to sit on the edge of a hill and eventually after about 30 minutes managed to log in to our bank account and saw that €660 had been credited to our account since we last looked – so that was brilliant news!! Unfortunately the connection didn’t last long enough for us to see who had made the donations which was pretty frustrating but we were so cold by then (the weather had changed dramatically) that we decided to check our account again when we would be in Kathmandu in 2 days time. We walked back extremely quickly as we were so cold and immediately ordered a hot chocolate and changed into warmer clothes when we arrived back at the lodge.
Purphi had already returned back to Golphu as her father was not at home unfortunately. I gave a neighbour a necklace and some earrings as she had given me a necklace the day before. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it clear that she should choose between the necklace or the earrings!! She then gave me a box of tikka’s (the red dots on the forehead) and a skewer of dried, salted buffalo meat. Even though we knew the buffalo had only been killed the day before, we also knew it had been dried in the sun for all the flies to enjoy, so with a little trepidation we ate the meat and I have to admit after a month of eating no meat – IT WAS DELICIOUS!! There is basically no meat available in the mountains as it is too expensive – but we may splash out € 12- € 15 on a chicken at Christmas as our cook has offered to make us Tikka Masala or Tandori chicken!!
Chatted to a group of English trekkers with guides and porters who were staying in Golphu for the night. Casually told them about our charity and about my plan to charge tourists €1 or €2 for a tour of the village including the school, a couple of homes, seeing how the crops are harvested, the river and the corn mills. They didn’t take me up on my offer, which we were pleased about as otherwise we would not have witnessed a very impressive ceremony.
Pasang from the Gosaikund Lodge had told us he and his father had set up a simple temple in the hills above Golphu and 3 lama’s (local Buddhist religious leader) were going to meditate there for a month. We had intended to go there yesterday but didn’t because we were busy cleaning the school. So instead we went this afternoon and we couldn’t believe our luck when Pasang said, in about 10 minutes time the opening ceremony would begin and we were welcome to stay. A small building (probably originally a goth which is a shelter for the goat/buffafo herders) had been decorated as a temple with statues, candles, incense, flowers, bowls of rice and water, thanka’s (Tibetan paintings), 2 large drums and 2 beautiful Tibetan horns. Pasang is still learning to be a Lama from his father, so he sat cross-legged beside his father and the 3 lama’s sat cross-legged opposite them. In front of them was a little table on which they placed the book of mantra’s (chants) and they were constantly offered tea. About 10 local people were there to help with the cooking, cleaning and generally in any way they could.
Then the ceremony started with all the lama’s chanting the mantra’s, accompanied by the horns, drums, cymbals, bells and the occasional throwing of rice. Everyone knew their role and knew when to blow the horns or beat the drums and we sat there silently taking everything in, whilst drinking the tea they had offered us. We thought it was really delicious tea and the next day we asked Pasang what kind of tea it was. Much to our surprise he told us someone had mistakenly put red peppers in the tea and that was why it tasted different! We had to laugh as we found it really delicious!! The whole ceremony was very impressive and also very relaxed – people walked in and out of the room, offering tea to everyone and chatting and also sitting outside and talking to each other when they felt like it. We decided to leave at about 17.30 hours as it was getting dark and it would have been difficult to walk down the hill without torches!!
After dinner, the children sang songs again to earn some more money and we found it really surprising that the English group in the other lodge seemed to totally ignore their singing as did the people in our lodge. We couldn’t believe they weren’t interested in something cultural like this, especially as it was probably very different to how Tihar was celebrated in Kathmandu. I was itching to go and tell them but Philip said I shouldn’t presume that everyone was interested in the culture of Nepal. Finally the group in our lodge were told by their guide what was going on, and yet they still didn’t go outside to listen to the children until they came right outside our lodge. Finally they also donated some money and were treated to the children singing an endless number of Nepali songs and dancing – they even joined in. The group from the other lodge watched from a distance for 10 minutes, gave no money and went to bed early – unbelievable!!
After the children moved on to sing somewhere else, we started talking to the trekkers in our lodge, 3 from Denmark and a guy from Holland. We explained a lot of things to them as we have learnt so much in the last week and of course we didn’t miss the opportunity to tell them about H.A.N.D.S. The Danish couple expressed an interest in sponsoring a child to go to school in Golphu so we really hope they will contact us after they have returned home.
After a couple of rakshi’s and talking to the Dutch guy who had been working in Bolivia for 10 years for an NGO involved in irrigation, we decided to go to bed at 10 o’clock which was unbelievably late for us! This time the children stopped singing at about ten o’clock so we got a good nights sleep!!
Part 2 of my diary will follow when we are next in Kathmandu – probably at the end of December!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND LOTS OF LOVE FROM JENNI AND PHILIP !!