Jenni's Diary deel 3

Hi everyone,

We're back in Kathmandu until Tuesday 15 February so please find enclosed part 3 of my diary - not quite so long as last time as we had no electricty in Golphu for a week so I got a bit behind with my diary as we couldn't charge up the computer batteries.

On Tuesday we go back to Golphu for 2 1/2 weeks and then the adventure is over!! But a lot more could happen before we leave Nepal!

I'm not sure if I sent the link to see photo's last time we were in KTM but see link below for 101 photo's !!!

Unfortunately the link doesn't work, so you have to type it in your browser!!! http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=VBWUFZDO

When we arrived in Kathmandu this time, we had a fantastic surprise: 2 different people we had met in Golphu (and had given a tour of the school and our brochure) had done some fundraising for H.A.N.D.S. without us knowing about it, and a businessman from Belgium had donated € 500 and a couple from Holland had raised € 760!!!! Absolutely fantastic! Since we have been in Nepal, we have received an extra €3000 so we've nearly hit the € 10,000 mark- absolutely incredible if you consider that in the beginning we said that we would be extremely happy if we raised € 1000!

Anyway lots of love to all to you and looking forward to seeing my family in 5 weeks time !!!!

Jenni and Philip xxxx

Part 3

WEDNESDAY 22 DECEMBER – THURSDAY 30 DECEMBER
Went to Kathmandu this week and as usual had loads to do:

- Send UK and Dutch mailing list
- Check H.A.N.D.S. account if any more donations received
- Answer and send lots of e-mails
- Transfer donation to Solshing Gaon School (€ 816), remaining 25% will be transferred when work completed and detailed financial report supplied by School.
- Skype with Philip’s mother
- Ring my parents and sisters
- Visit Dawa (the girl we sponsor) with her father Biru who was also in Kathmandu. She really has changed from a shy girl living in the mountains, into a young, modern teenager (dressed in Western clothes) but still very shy with us, as of course she doesn’t really know us. We were very impressed with the Boarding School and the Headmaster showed us all over the school and the dormitory section. There were 4 bunkbeds in Dawa’s room and a lovely little lounge area just outside the room. The classrooms of course look far better than those in Golphu as this is a private boarding school. Essays and pictures from many students hang on the wall as well as numerous informative posters. The students are divided into 4 houses so that they get a sense of belonging somewhere. There is also a computer room with about 7 computers so that’s really good. Every morning each house has to select a news story and tell the rest of the students about the story which really impressed us as “my” Golphu students are painfully shy as they rarely are asked to address other students. Two of Dawa’s nieces also go to this school, so they have shown her the ropes so that also makes the transition from mountain life to city life much easier.
- Extend Nepalese visa which luckily went fairly easily and we got an extension till we leave Nepal (10 March)
- Buy a Nepalese telephone card + internet card which took nearly the whole day due to long waiting lines and lots of forms to fill in etc. Unfortunately it takes literally an hour to access Internet from Golphu, and another 30 minutes to open 1 e-mail, and then only if you stand on the right hill at the right time and point the USB stick in the right direction!
- Visit AMEX to pick up the letter my parents had written a month ago!
- Photocopy 100 more brochures
- Go to hairdresser for haircut and colouring. He cut it really short and the colouring didn’t last long as I think he only used half the packet, but otherwise the visit was successful!
- Print wedding photos for Meme (our lodge owner’s brother’s son got married) + photo’s of villagers to give to them as a present
¬- Arrange for rubber soles to be put onto my Nepalese knitwear slippers
- Visit Boudha – the largest Stupa (Buddhist temple) in Asia and the most sacred Buddhist place in Nepal. It really was very impressive and very relaxing to watch everyone walk round the monument clockwise whilst turning the 180 prayer bells. After 7 o’clock in the evening, the streets round Boudha are really quiet especially as no traffic is allowed there, so we may well stay here a night or two the next time we visit Kathmandu.
-Buy: Reading book for both of us, wintersocks, Nepali grammar and exercise book, plastic mat to sit on outside + typical circular rushmat to sit on, scrubbing brush, ducktape and new supply of toiletries, 2 very warm fleece jackets and a blanket for Jenni, jumper for Philip + 1 shirt.


FRIDAY 31 DECEMBER
Great to be back in Golphu again! During our absence, all 10 classes had already been damp-proofed with cement much to our amazement! The classrooms looked really good although it will take some time before the cement dries. Luckily, there was enough cement to do all 10 classrooms as it is hard to estimate exactly how much cement is required for each classroom and they had sufficient cement over to do the remaining 4 classrooms. So we were really pleased about that!

Today was also very exciting as the bulldozer finally arrived today to finish repairing the road from Kathmandu to Golphu Bhanjyang. Repairing a road in Nepal which has been ruined by the monsoon rains, means simply hiring a bulldozer to push aside the earth and sand and to fill in the deep grooves caused by the monsoon rains! Amazingly enough on that very day, the last stretch of road starting from the beginning of the village couldn’t be done as, as precisely on that day, a temporary shelter had been built across the road as a Gouwa (funeral ceremony) was being performed that day! Could only happen in Nepal! But the bulldozer simply did a 45 degrees turn and literally ploughed a new stretch of road, destroying all vegetation in its path! Wonderful to watch and I ran around with the children trying to find the best place to watch (and of course film and photograph) the best action. We also had to keep an eye out on the first test bus which was literally following the bulldozer in its footsteps. So all together a very chaotic but great fun afternoon! Meanwhile the wind was really picking up and then it started raining, which are apparently the 2 signs that snow is coming, but unfortunately for Philip it didn’t snow. The next day though you could see that snow had fallen on the nearby mountains and on villages very close to Golphu.

Eventually at about 1700 hours the bus arrived preceded by a few motorbike riders and the whole village went wild, cheering and yelling and the bus driver kept hooting his horn! Finally Golphu was connected again to the outside world and most importantly to Kathmandu! The road was made last year, but of course after the monsoon in June/July the road was too badly damaged for a bus to negotiate, and then the villagers had to save money to pay for repairing the road. But now that a test drive has been successfully accomplished doesn’t mean that buses will start running immediately. Don’t forget this is Nepal! Now the decision has to be made which bus company will ply the route and what time it will leave Kathmandu and Golphu and that could take weeks. (It took a month until the first scheduled bus arrived in Golphu on 30th January!).

After all that excitement, we had our favourite drink, hot chocolate with Nepalese Khukuri rum, and went to bed at 10 o’clock as 31 December is not a special day in Nepal as the Nepali New Year starts in March/April !

SATURDAY 1 JANUARY 2011
Went to pay our respects at the Gouwa (funeral ceremony) but only got 10 houses further than our lodge before we were dragged inside someone’s house and given lunch (at 11.30 hours!) but we managed to successfully refuse the rakshi!

This second funeral ceremony should take place 3 weeks after the cremation but the family needed more time to raise the €1000 or so it costs to give all the visitors a meal and drinks (in this case about 150-200 people). In this ceremony, a photo of the deceased is burned, and the deceased is told that he is dead and is not welcome any more in his home, and that he/she should stop carrying on his life as if he were alive. The local lama chants his way through all the Mantra’s accompanied of course by conch shells, cymbals, bells and the Tibetan horn. People mill around in a very relaxed way talking to each other and drinking Tibetan Tea or milk tea or rakshi and yet again lovely to see how relaxed the ceremony is (we had already been to a funeral ceremony in Thulo Shyabru).


SUNDAY 2 JANUARY
Today was THE day to go to the Gouwa so at about 1600 hours we went and it seemed as if all the villagers were there as well. Rajan explained that everyone is expected to come, even if they only stay for 30 minutes. We of course stayed till 2200 hours! The boys from Kutumsang were there (Lahtuhl and Dawa and their friends) so nice to see them again. There was only a bit of dancing which stopped after a while, maybe as it was not appropriate to dance at a Gouwa, but we both really enjoyed the atmosphere and spent quite a bit of time just sitting cross legged near the Lama, listening to his chanting and the music and thinking how lucky we were to be able to see such things, which a “normal” tourist probably never gets the opportunity to see.

We asked Pasang how much one of these wonderful Tibetan horns would cost and he reckoned about €50 so we might well buy one when we are next in Kathmandu as they fold up to quite a small size. He asked someone to give us a demonstration of the horn and he proceeded to give a very jazzy rendition of one of their folk songs! It sounded really good and everyone was laughing and clapping – the fact that we were at a funeral ceremony didn’t seem to matter!

MONDAY 3 JANUARY
Started giving lessons again today and had a long meeting with Sir Julphe to itemize the costs made so far. We also told him about a very poor lady in the village that we thought should receive the money a sponsor wanted to donate monthly to someone. He then told us about a much poorer lady than the one we had chosen (but luckily had not told yet). Straight away he took us to see this lady and we were surprised to see that there were a few more houses in Golphu – we thought we had seen them all. But these 2 houses are hidden away behind a hill and we had never been there before. He also showed us the old Action Aid building which, if repaired, would make a great house and office for us!

When we entered the old lady’s house, we were absolutely devastated. An old lady of about 80 years old, lay in bed, nearly naked as she had hardly any clothes, covered by a very thin sheet of cotton which was full of large holes and she was shivering. As our eyes got accustomed to the dark, we realized she shared this room with her goat and 2 chickens. Usually there are shelves full of pots, pans, utensils, crockery and cooking utensils, but her shelves were nearly bare and there wasn’t a morsel of food to be seen, apart from a few old yams drying over the fire. It was absolutely heartbreaking and it reduced us both to tears. Sir Julphe told us she had no family to care for her as her husband and only son had died. She didn’t have money for warm clothing or blankets and hardly enough money to buy food. Suffice it to say, we immediately changed our decision regarding who should receive the sponsor’s money. Sir Julphe also had some old clothing for her, so he told her to come to the village the next day and he would give her this. We asked Sir Julphe to alert us when she arrived as we intended to immediately buy her some warm clothes, blankets and food. We have seen a lot of poverty in Nepal but this was really shocking and it felt good that we were in a position to help her on a regular monthly basis. Later on Sir Julphe told us not to give her money as being an elderly woman living alone on the outskirts of the village, she may get robbed or unscrupulous people might borrow money from her, never intending to pay it back. So we will buy her clothes and food and later on we will buy her another goat so when the 2 goats mate, she can sell the baby goats for a good profit (mostly 2 baby goats are born).

We didn’t sleep very well that night as the picture of this half naked lady shivering in bed, alone in the world with no family and hardly any money, kept coming back into our minds – really heartbreaking.


TUESDAY 4 JANUARY
After lessons in the morning, the lady (Munki Tamang)) came to the village and we took her to the Gosaikund Lodge as this is the only shop that sells clothes. We bought her some sandals, a warm pair of jogging trousers (to wear under her long skirt), a warm cardigan, a top and some material to make a long skirt. I don’t think she knew what hit her, but she was visibly very happy. In our experience, Nepalese people do not go overboard to thank you. I have obviously never asked anyone, but I think they believe that it is our choice to give them money or clothes and that it will be good for our “karma” and as we are bideshi (foreigners) we simply do have more money than them, so they consider it nothing more than normal that we help people less fortunate than ourselves. The Nepalese people likewise always help people less fortunate than themselves and their hospitality and generosity has been enjoyed by many foreigners.

We then relaxed in the sun in our new secret private place (next to the old Action Aid building) for a few hours and did our first Nepali lessons from a very good book I’d bought in Kathmandu (used a lot by the Peace Corps volunteers in Nepal).

After school we met Sir Julphe again to buy some food for the lady: 15 kg of rice, ½ kilo oil and some dahl . Philip put everything in a doko (carrying basket worn on the back and supported by a band round the carriers head) and carried it to the lady, much to the amusement of the villagers! We also borrowed a blanket from the lodge and told them to buy a new one which we would then pay for. The lady was so happy and very grateful and yet again we felt so privileged to be in a position to help her.

After the visit we asked Sir Julphe about renting a house in Golphu. He tried to put us off saying the houses were dirty and too low for Philip to stand in but we told him we knew this but still we wanted to rent somewhere as we wanted to experience real Nepali life just a bit more. Even though we still intend to eat at the Lodge, we want to go just one step further to try to experience for ourselves how Nepali’s live. Philip and I had agreed that if one or both of us really didn’t like living in a house, we would move back to the lodge again. In the end he agreed to walk round the village with us the next day to show us what houses were available.

In the evening Purpha the cook surprised us with some buffalo meat which was nice but a bit tough!

WEDNESDAY 5 JANUARY
Put together the 2 prints I’d made in Kathmandu of all our donors and our current financial position + the village survey, so that we can hang these summaries on the wall in our room. I must admit I do miss having a printer here as I always like to see everything on paper right in front of me (as some of my colleagues already know!). Afterwards we went to our secret place again and did an hour of Nepali lessons.

When we came back the bulldozer was back demolishing the hill right behind our lodge – the next door neighbour is going to build a house or shop there we learned, so he took advantage of the fact that the bulldozer was in the area. So as usual with anything special the whole village, including us, stood and watched and enjoyed the spectacle of machine against nature!

Then we looked round some houses with Sir Julphe and there was actually only 1 suitable house with 2 rooms and most important of all, a fireplace! Unfortunately Philip cannot stand up straight in the house so that is really annoying for him, but he is prepared to give it a go. Sir Julphe rang the owner of the house, who now lives in Kathmandu and he agreed to rent it to us for € 5.00 a month! Yippee! Sir Julphe explained the situation to Meme (our lodge owner) and told him we would still eat our meals at the lodge. Meme also agreed to loan us 2 mattresses and pillows for a month at no cost. Luckily the owners left 3 beds in the house. There are hardly any trekkers at the moment so that won’t cause him much of a problem, although having said that, at the moment quite often Nepali’s stay at the lodge, on their way to visiting relatives, Kathmandu or yet another festival or funeral ceremony. Sir Julphe also asked Santi Gurung, our opposite neighbour to clean the house. Much to our surprise, he explained she would smear cowdung over the walls and floors to clean the house! Apparently cowdung is used in houses to minimize dust and to kill insects and bacteria!

THURSDAY 6 JANUARY
Santi “cleaned” our new home today with cowdung and also repaired the fireplace. Yet again, patience is a virtue as apparently we now have to wait 2 days for the cowdung to dry before we can start decorating our new home. Nevertheless it gave us time to buy 2 bits of material to cover one wall and to hang over the bedroom doors as curtains to keep out the draught. We also went on a borrowing spree as apart from food, you can’t really buy anything else in Golphu. The Lama from the other lodge very kindly lent us 2 cups, 2 spoons, a small saucepan (for making tea and coffee), 1 small bucket for fetching water and a Nepalese hoover - a brush made of thin grasses and strangely enough with no long pole attached to it, so you have to use it bending down! We also went to a few shops and managed to scrounge a few old cardboard boxes which we will use as carpet until the carpet we have ordered from Sir Julphe arrives. He has to order carpet for classes 1 and 2 so we asked him to order a bit more for us as well (cost about € 30).

FRIDAY 7 JANUARY
The English teacher Rajan invited us to dinner tonight and as we expected it was a nice small room with a bed, small table with lots of study books, another bed for people to sit on, and - very luxurious for Nepali’s - a carpet on the floor! Rajan is from the highest Hindu caste (Brahmin) and always looks very neat and tidy and doesn’t have any of the “habits” that most Nepali’s have such as clearing their throats very loudly and then spitting on the ground, or blowing their noses by pressing one nostril shut and blowing the contents of the other nostril onto the ground – 2 habits which unfortunately most Nepali’s do in the morning, typically just as we are eating breakfast! Although there were some posters on the walls, there was also the typical Nepali wall decoration of old newspapers, which Rajan told us he renewed every now and again!

We were given yams, followed by pouri bread which is a kind of delicious fried bread. Rajan’s niece Bowhani and another schoolteacher were kind enough to cook the meal so that Rajan had time to entertain his guests. It really makes us laugh as we reckon that because they live in the same house as Rajan, these 2 female teachers cook for Rajan nearly every night! But that is what makes Nepalese family life so special as each family member helps other family members as much as they can and by family I mean the whole extended family: mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, daughters, sons plus their husbands and children and the whole family of the husband or wife. The whole family frequently live in one home and if one of the sons and maybe even his wife finds work abroad (which happens quite often), the children are looked after by aunts and uncles or the grandparents.

Anyway we had a really nice evening and enjoyed talking to Rajan and the 2 schoolteachers but we left about ten o’clock as by then we were really tired and anyway we have discovered this is an acceptable time to leave when visiting friends here in Golphu.

SATURDAY 8 JANUARY
The day started on a wonderful note as right in front of our eyes we saw 2 goats being born! Philip noticed something hanging from a goat and then realized it was a urine bag! So we watched carefully and it was wonderful to see the goats being born, licked clean and then pretty well straight away trying to stand on their shaky legs! Within a few days, they were frolicking around, leaping up into the air every now and again which is really funny to watch.

As there was no school today we decided to go for a walk and discover more of the area around Golphu. Of course a walk in the Himalayas is quite different to a leisurely Sunday afternoon walk in Europe! We visited the village of Chitre and also the primary school there (about an hours walk). There was a massive crack in the toilet wall and it looked like it could come crashing down at any minute, so we will definitely visit this school again when it is open to see if we can give any financial assistance to them, especially as this village is not on a trekking route so is probably is very poor.

We also visited the village of Pipse which lies in a beautiful valley with a breathtaking view of the snow-capped Himalayas as a backdrop. We visited the Gompa there (temple) and tried to talk to the Lama there who chatted on happily in Nepali, even though we told him we only spoke a little Nepali!

All in all a lovely day despite some hard walking up and down the mountains!

SUNDAY 9 JANUARY – THURSDAY 13 JANUARY
The whole week we were mostly busy decorating our new home! Unfortunately there was no electricity for 5 days so we couldn’t text or ring our families as our mobile batteries were empty and of course we couldn’t recharge. This also meant I couldn’t keep up my diary on the computer as the batteries from the computer were of course also empty! I got quite behind with keeping up my diary, so this probably explains why my diary is a bit shorter this time! We have to charge the batteries for our mobiles, camera, video camera and computer about once every 3 days. Apart from that no real inconvenience for us as luckily the lodge has solar panels but we need to buy candles as next time there’s no power we’ll be in our new home which doesn’t have solar panels. Rang Mum and Dad on Thursday when the electricity was restored so nice to talk to them. Later we heard that the electricity had been cut off due to a dispute between 2 groups of people about water. The water from the nearby river is used to generate electricity by using hydro power. We weren’t able to find out anymore as even though people tell us things, it is sometimes really difficult to understand what they are saying, as their English is not very good!

All week everyone kept popping into our new home to see what we had done and they kept exclaiming “ramro cha” which means wonderful! I don’t think they really understand why we decorated our home so much, as they just don’t do that here but they appreciated looking at what we had done.

FRIDAY 14 JANUARY
Today we moved into our new house. I think the villagers were amazed to see how much stuff we had and to be honest so were we! Even though we intend to leave a lot of stuff behind with the villagers as a sort of donation, there’s still a lot we want to take with us. We’ll probably end up sending some things home by courier I reckon.

We had a wonderful first fire tonight and really enjoyed the warmth of our new home. At night though we heard a rat scampering over the canvas that the Headmaster had leant us to put over the bed. We didn’t sleep that well as we weren’t sure if the rat might nibble its way through the canvas and drop onto our bed in the middle of the night! We wanted to see how Nepali’s lived and we do know that they have to put up with rats in their homes!

SATURDAY 15 JANUARY
Despite half the village still coming to have a look at our new home, we managed to do some small jobs to make the house more to our liking! After lunch, Pasang’s younger brother Sange asked if we wanted to go with him and some other people to collect wood in the jungle- what an experience!

First we walked for about an hour into the jungle and then straight away everyone went their own way cutting and gathering old wood. They do their best to collect old wood to preserve the forests. The trees were on about a 75% gradient, so it was very difficult to get to the wood as the soil was also very loose and we kept slipping down the hill. After enough wood has been gathered, it then has to be chopped into smaller pieces to fit into the Doko (bamboo carrying basket). I helped Philip chop the wood as well with the Kukuri knife that Biru had given Philip, so he was pleased he could use his knife finally! After we had put all the wood in the doko , Sange looked at what we had done and immediately threw all the wood out the basket and started re-loading the basket but this time in Nepali fashion! He reckoned we had about 25 kg and everyone including me, was very impressed that Philip carried the whole load home, which took about an hour and went along narrow paths where sometimes you had to walk sideways otherwise the basket would brush against the growth and probably topple you over the path. Philip has a new name now bulijo,bideshi bahjee which means strong, foreign grandfather! It was a good afternoon though and really impressed upon us the difficult life these mountain people lead, as they have to collect firewood at least once a week, and when it’s tourist time and busy, the lodge owners sometimes have to go every day to collect firewood to cook our meals! Later on we still had to buy wood from the neighbours as it takes about a week before the wood is dry enough to use!

SUNDAY 16 JANUARY
This morning we were invited to morning tea at 08.00 hours at the house where the Gouwa (funeral ceremony) would be held for the next three days. Again it was nice to be invited and we tried our best to make conversation with our limited Nepali and their non-existent English! We were glad they didn’t offer us breakfast though, as we would have had great difficulty eating Dahl Baht at 08.00 in the morning!

The rest of the day it was really misty so we spent quite a bit of time inside by the fire. The wood we were given was not yet dry we reckon, because every 5 minutes we had to attend to the fire which was rather frustrating!

MONDAY 17 JANUARY
After morning lessons, we went to our secret place to do our Nepali lessons, check internet (which takes hours!) and to enjoy the sun without being disturbed. The whole village especially the children have of course understandably been really curious to see how we have decorated our new home. It’s such a novelty for them, as they simply don’t decorate their homes, due to lack of money and the fact that the log fires turn everything black within a short length of time. We of course have the money and don’t mind the few things we have bought being ruined (3 posters and 2 large pieces of brightly coloured material to hang on the walls) as we’re only staying in Nepal for another few months.

Although the Action Aid building has been stripped of everything useful, we still found a few planks of wood lying on the floor which we took so Philip can make a bedside table (!) and a typical Nepali chair which is basically a piece of wood to sit on and on both sides another piece of wood about 3 inches high. These chairs are especially handy to sit on beside the fire, as the fire needs constant attention here. The only problem is getting up again which the Nepali’s have no problem with, but we of course do!

In the evening we tried another of Purpha’s Chinese dishes, Singapore fried rice and chop suey in a sweet sauce – it was really delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed it! We heard the rats again tonight so Philip will go to the Action Aid building tomorrow again and see if he can “borrow” some more wood to plug up the numerous holes in the walls!

We really hope Sir Julphe comes back from Kathmandu soon with the carpet for the school and for our house as both of us need to go to the toilet constantly, as we are basically sitting on a cold mud floor which is only covered with a few cardboard boxes and our pillows on top. This is obviously not enough but we can’t do anything about it as you simply can’t buy much stuff here in Golphu apart from food, cigarettes, drink and a few basic necessities and that’s it. The nearest large village is a one hour walk down and a 2 hour walk up, so we’ll wait for Sir Julphe and if he doesn’t bring the carpet for whatever reason, we’ll have to walk down to Gyalthum.


TUESDAY 18 JANUARY
Philip made the bedside table and the Nepali chair which is already the most popular chair in our new home! After lessons we asked Rajan if he could ask Santi to put more clay on our fire as it’s cracking, and to put some cowdung on the other wall in our “fireroom” as we call it. Initially we told her we only need 2 walls done but we changed our minds and decided to have the third one done as well, as strangely enough if the walls are covered with cowdung, that looks better than just leaving them dirty and smoke-blackened! She came over straight away and threw our cosy little fireroom into utter chaos!!! But she lent us an iron tripod to put our borrowed pan on and built this into the fire, so it’s much easier now to boil water for a cup of coffee or tea.

After she had finished we asked how long it would take before we could walk on that part of the floor again, and before we could stop her she threw our precious cardboard boxes onto the wet mud floor, indicating we could use the floor and fire immediately. But now all the boxes were wet, and we had to use a lot of charm to get these boxes as Nepali’s save and consequently use pretty well everything! But her heart was in the right place and she refused money, asking only for a small bottle of rum which cost 50 pence!! She also lent us a long rush mat (gundri) which really helps as we put this on top of a long piece of wood and then sit on it, meaning we are no longer sitting on the floor on cardboard boxes, so hopefully our visits to the toilet will decrease.

Rajan came to check Santi’s work and we gave him a cup of tea in the middle of all this chaos but he has helped us so much, we told him that he absolutely had to be our first guest!

Later that evening sitting on the cardboard boxes on the wet mud, we both admitted we weren’t enjoying our new home as much as we expected. Although it’s lovely to sit round a fire at night and to have somewhere to retreat to when we need our privacy there are also numerous disadvantages:

The ceiling is too low for Philip so he walks round the house constantly with bent head and shoulders which makes his back hurt and he has bumped his head numerous times so his head looks like a battlefield!

It’s difficult to see anything in the “fireroom” during the day as the window is very small so it doesn’t give much light and the electricity doesn’t come on until 1700 hours, so we still can’t really retreat to work on the computer, read a book or just get some quiet! Numerous candles and torches don’t work by the way – they just don’t give enough light.

If we sit in the bedroom, it’s freezing cold because there’s no fire in that room and if we open the bedroom doors to get some light (there are only 2 wooden doors and no window in the bedroom), that makes the room even more cold, and also half the village stop as they pass by to have yet another look at our home or the children want to play with us – so it’s not very restful.

At night we hear the rats scampering around over our heads in the bedroom and although we have a canvas sheet fixed over the bed, it’s still quite nerve racking as we’re not sure they’ll bite right through the canvas and fall onto our bed!

Lastly because it’s so cold and we don’t have sufficient carpeting, we both need to go to the toilet at least 10 ten times a day, and the toilet we are now using which belongs to a group of villagers REALLY smells of rotten eggs!

We decided give it a chance for a few more weeks before making the decision whether or not to move back to the lodge, but it is a great disappointment to realize that we DO like some basic amenities such as lighting, heating and a toilet which doesn’t smell! Although when I read this back, I’m sure most of you are saying, well of course you want these things! You’re right, but I always thought I could do without them!! The real difficulty is the cold and the lack of light. I’m sure if we were in a hot country, we’d put up with some of the difficulties but the cold just makes everything else that much worse!!

WEDNESDAY 19 JANUARY
Today as I only had one lesson in the morning, we decided to visit the school in Chitre which we had seen a while ago. Rajan’s “sister” is Head Teacher there and he said we could just go along without an appointment, but we would have to see for ourselves what needed to be done as she hardly speaks any English.

We arrived just as the kids were having their lunch outside. We found out later that a Japanese NGO JICA pays for a cooked lunch for about 70 schools in the area, which is a great idea as otherwise the kids would probably just eat sweets for lunch as they do in Golphu! We had a look at the school and as expected they could do with our help with a new roof as the current roof leaks very badly, a water trench to contain the monsoon water and cement on the walls as the mud and brick walls are crumbling very badly. Also one of the toilets has a massive crack in the wall due to part of the building subsiding, so if possible this should be repaired as in our opinion, it presents a dangerous risk for the kids, as the concrete beam above the door rests on just a tiny piece of wooden beam, and the whole ceiling could come crashing down at any moment.

The lady who makes the lunch insisted we have some rakshi and in Sherpa culture, one cup is just not enough – so we had 2 cups of rakshi on an empty stomach. They had offered us lunch but we didn’t want to eat the kids lunch so we told them we had eaten already. Afterwards the lunch lady insisted we come to her house and there again we were offered another 2 rakshi’s. Suffice it to say, the walk home was really funny as we had both had too much to drink, and the 1 ½ hour trip home was on an uneven mountainous road!

THURSDAY 20 JANUARY
Today we heard that nearly all the men from the village were going to repair a section of the road between Pipse and Golphu as the new bus route to Golphu would soon be opened. That part of the road is very slippery due to water from the mountain continuously running over the road. So all day long Philip helped the men make a rock trail for the bus to drive over to give it more grip. This involved cutting out rocks from the mountain, breaking them into smaller pieces of about 10-15 kilos and then half burying them in the road. This was obviously hard work, and the men really appreciated Philip helping, especially as he volunteered to help.

In the meantime after my 2 morning lessons, I went to the Gosaikund lodge to have lunch and met Maya Sherpa there. We were intending to ring her soon to arrange a trip to the school in Pakhegaon which she had asked us to help. So with the help of the other English teacher Mr. Poul, I asked her if we could visit the school next Wednesday. She agreed and also asked if we wanted to go with her the next day to see the women of the WCDCSS women’s group cultivating their yellow bitterwort plants which are used to make paracetemol – which I agreed to.

I then made a few minor improvements to our home, put in 2 doormats (2 cardboard boxes!) and a line to hang our towels on in the hope they will get a bit drier than now. I also rang Biru and checked exactly when we should go to Kutumsang for Lhosar (Sherpa New Year) and to ask for the last time where the Nyemba bill is! We have been waiting for a month for the Headmaster to give us the bill for the 6 benches. We told him we could only transfer the money for the benches and an advance for the cement work, after we had received the bill and we could only transfer the money when we were in Kathmandu. We really don’t understand why we haven’t received the bill, and Biru has also chased them a few times but we have decided not to chase them any more – we’ll just have to wait patiently, like so many other things in Nepal!

After another lovely Chinese meal, we went home and admitted to each other that we aren’t really enjoying the house at all but we’re still not quite ready to give in and move back to the lodge – but we’re very close to making that decision. What really brought it home was when we tried to summarise the benefits of living here and we couldn’t think of one reason!

FRIDAY 21 JANUARY
Went to see the women tending to their yellow bitterwort plants which was nice to see but not that spectacular. We had an idea we were near Pakheagon and when we asked Maya she said the school was a 10 minute walk away. So I suggested that maybe it was a good idea to visit the school now instead of next Wednesday as planned! That would save us walking down again for one hour and more importantly the 2 hour trip back up the mountain! We still can’t work out why she didn’t say beforehand that the school was in the area of the bitterwort plants and that it would be better to combine the 2 visits in one go! I’m sure there’s a logical reason but like so many other matters in Nepal, we can’t work it out.

The school was built by Leah from OUEST (who also worked in the Golphu area until last year) but this school also definitely needs help including new panes of glass in some windows, repair of the toilet, wall plaster and some of the floors also need cementing as they are currently made of just soil, so very uneven and very prone to damp.

In the afternoon after we had returned to Golphu, Lahtul from Kutumsang came round with the Neyemba bill (finally!) and the letter of application from Babu regarding building toilets in his home town Thulo Shyabru.

While we were having tea in one of the teashops, we told Lahtul about Philip banging his head on the same place about 10 times due to the low ceilings in our home. Latuhl immediately offered to send us down some disinfectant cream from Kutumsang (there’s a health centre there) for the wound as it was starting to go septic. Someone must have overheard our conversation, as suddenly one of the teachers came in and said Krishna still had some supplies left in the Health Centre in Golphu (which shut down this year as the financing from OUEST stopped) and that Philip should go there immediately to be treated! Much to Philip’s dismay Krishna had to cut away some of Philips hair to get to the wound and to disinfect it. Now he’s walking round with a dressing on his head and of course a hat to hide the dressing!

Went back to the house for some quiet time, but as usual the kids and villagers kept on stopping to have a chat or to see what we were doing – it really is very frustrating! Even at the lodge it’s difficult to get privacy as Purpha the cook has taken to sitting with us each night at dinner so he can practice his English and of course Purphi (the 9 year old granddaughter of the lodge owner) demands attention as well. We are getting really desperate for some privacy and are both quite low in spirits at the moment. This has definitely not been a good week !

SATURDAY 22 JANUARY
We decided this morning to move back to the lodge after trying it for a week! Strangely enough it felt good to admit defeat and to admit that we do need a few basic amenities such as heat, light, privacy and a place where Philip can walk upright!! So we spent all today gathering up our things and moving back to the lodge but this time we took a larger room in the lodge which is normally used for large parties of people. Meme didn’t really want to rent this room to us but in the end we agreed to pay RS 150 a night for this room (€1,50) and we are all happy with this arrangement. I must admit it feels good to be back in the lodge!! I keep telling myself it takes a strong person to admit defeat!!

SUNDAY 23 JANUARY

MONDAY 24 JANUARY
Class 10 started their mock exams today in preparation for the S.L.C. (School Leaving Certificate). One exam of 2 hours for eight days long. If they fail the exam, they cannot take the S.L.C. so the teachers are giving the pupils lots of extra lessons before school. This means I have stopped taking my early morning lessons before school with Class 10 which is a pity because I really enjoyed teaching them. In the beginning they were really shy and had great difficulty standing up and individually pronouncing the words I wrote on the board. But after a few weeks of me giving them daily lessons, they soon got over their shyness and in the end if I asked who would like to pronounce the 10 words or so I’d written on the board, quite often 2 or 3 kids would stand up together, all wanting to demonstrate to their “teacher” how good their pronunciation was – wonderful!!

Decided that time was getting short before we leave Nepal (less than 6 weeks to go), so we had a 2 hour meeting with Julphe, asking all sorts of questions, but most importantly we discussed the location of the school toilets again as while Sir Julphe had been in Kathmandu for a week, the Chairman had decided on another location for the toilets which we strongly disagreed with as the soil was far too loose! Luckily Julphe agreed with us so the location will be as originally planned.

We told Sir Julphe we thought that Krishna would be a suitable coordinator for the village toilets as he is currently unemployed and as he used to be the First Aid Coordinator and followed a training for this, we presume he is fairly intelligent, and lastly we have lately discovered that Krishna does in fact speak a little English- he was just too shy to use it when we first met him! We immediately went with Sir Julphe to ask Krishna if he agreed to be the coordinator and of course he agreed. We then all went to find a suitable location for the village toilets and finally agreed on a location just outside the school grounds and right next to where the bus from Kathmandu will stop! This is a great place as otherwise people from the bus will use and probably “foul” the school toilets as many people do not use water in the toilets, simply because they have no idea how to use a toilet as they do not have one themselves. Felt good to have arranged so much in one morning!

Also told Sir Julphe I wanted to now focus my attention on teaching the younger kids which he agreed with. So I will observe a few classes first and then I can choose which class I want to teach.

WEDNESDAY 26 JANUARY
After my morning lesson with Class 9, I sat in on a Class 1 lesson – hmm I don’t think teaching kids of 5 years old is my thing! It’s just a little bit too informal and relaxed for me and it seemed like you have to constantly “babysit” the kids which I’m not really into – I just want to stand in front of a blackboard and teach and not wipe dirty noses and bottoms!! So in the next few days I’ll observe class 3 and 4 and see if that’s more my thing!

In the afternoon went up to the Gompa near Thodong to write 2 example application letters for the schools in Chitre and Packhegaon as they have no idea how to write an application letter and their English is not very good. We also wanted to check if Internet worked any better from this place as it is slightly higher than Golphu. It still didn’t work any quicker so basically Internet is no good here as it takes so long but sometimes when Philip is patient enough, he does manage to send an e-mail or 2 and even look into our bank account, but I’m afraid I just don’t have the patience!

Went to Rajan’s house to bring him the coffee, tea, sugar and milk powder we had left over from our home and we were immediately invited to dinner that night by Bowani and the other teacher, who live in the same house as Rajan. Very glad we had been invited as when we got back to the lodge, there was a group of about 10 Korean schoolkids with about 6 teachers and 10 porters with a zero intelligence level and a maximum noise level!! So we gladly escaped the lodge to eat some lovely puri bread (deep-fried) with a bowl full of fried potatoes washed down by hot rakshi – mmm!.

THURSDAY 27 JANUARY
School day today, which had been badly prepared as Sir Julphe had been in Kathmandu for a week and only returned 3 days ago and the S.M.C. (School Management Committee) had also not prepared a programme for today. Every year on the same day, they celebrate the anniversary of the day the school was founded – this year, 34 years ago. The kids were just milling around school (the teachers had locked the gates so the children couldn’t “escape” !) and we kept waiting to be summoned as guests of honour so to speak. In the meantime, the teachers were doing their best to put together some sort of programme for the afternoon! Eventually at 13.00 hours the programme started, which was not very good timing as our lunch was nearly ready (takes about 45 minutes for the lodge to prepare a meal as they use wood fires or kerosene fuelled burners). So we stayed for about 10 minutes and then were called to lunch by the worried lodge owner who had looked everywhere for us as our lunch was getting cold!!

First of all 5 teams answered 50 general knowledge questions and then about 5 boys and 2 girls had to give a speech on why education for girls is so important! They were obviously very nervous about giving a speech but in as much as we could understand (not a lot!) they did very well. It was in fact I think a very educational day for the kids but like so many events in Nepal, very informal with the kids milling around, playing on the school grounds or in the classrooms and the group of children who actually did watch the quiz and the speeches declined noticeably as time passed by! We even slipped away during the 3 hour programme to sneak a quick cigarette behind the school (felt like old times again!).

After the day ended, I rang my parents, and then we had of tea with all the teachers in our lodge. In the evening we were invited to dinner again by Krishna and Maya. They really are very kind as they don’t have much money, but still this is the third time they have invited us to dinner and often they give us a few oranges or some grapes and they gave us some firewood for our new home as in the beginning we obviously didn’t have our own supply. Rajan came as well as course and we had an enjoyable evening although Rajan said we are a bad influence on him, as since we have arrived he drinks more rakshi! We had to laugh at that as he is the one who accepts more rakshi when it is offered under the pretext of just to melt the ghee (yak butter which when the rakshi gets cold floats on top!).

FRIDAY 28 JANUARY
Today we went to Kutumsang again (a 2 hour walk) so that the Headmasters of the Schools in Neyemba and Solshing Gaon can sign our “letter of agreement”. In this letter we state how much we will donate to the school , what the money can be spent on and that the Headmaster agrees to provide us with receipts and a detailed financial report after the work has been completed. Communication here is really difficult as no one speaks very good English, so misunderstandings often arise. This was also the case with Solshing Gaon. We agreed to pay for 20 schoolbenches and for a new cement floor, damp-proofing of the classrooms and some blackboards. Lahtul came to Golphu last week with the first of the receipts for the benches, cement, blackboards but also a receipt for a large metal storage cupboard with a lock which they needed for the office. But we had told them we had no money for the cupboard with a lock (€100) this year and that we hoped we could pay for that and for the maintenance of the existing toilet next year. So we decided to visit the schools again and get them to sign a Letter of Agreement, just as the Headmaster of Golphu did. If they then spend the money on other things, we can refer them to this letter. Although we do now have the money for the cupboard, we need to be strict and tell them they must stick to the Agreement. Unfortunately it is sometimes necessary to play the “boss” as otherwise Nepali’s go their own way, without consulting us first!

It was nice to see Biru again (who is the coordinator of the work on these 2 schools along with his father-in-law Lahkarl) and this time he had taken Sangmo with him which was a nice surprise (she is the 4 year old sister of Dawa the girl we sponsor). She really is a lovely, lively and extremely chatty little girl and because our Nepali vocabulary is gradually increasing, we were able to talk to her a little bit more than the last time.

We went first to the school in Negemba with Biru and the Headmaster showed us the desk frames they had bought. The wood for the frames still has to be bought from the Forest Department as the school is situated in a National Park. We went over the Letter to Agreement and we all signed it, so if they do something else than agreed, we can refuse to pay. There was not enough time to go to Solshing Gaon so we decided to stay the night and go the next day.

Lovely to sit in the warm kitchen and have dinner with the family, even though we both still find it difficult to stay cross legged for very long, so we are constantly wiggling about trying to get comfortable!

SATURDAY 29 JANUARY
This morning we went to the school in Solshing Gaon with Biru and Lahkarl and explained the situation about the cupboard to them and the need for accurate and detailed financial accounts. They really gave him a headache as we insisted that all costs are itemized separately and of course he had forgotten to ask for some receipts and hadn’t written anything down. We understand that they have never worked with a Charity before, so we are also learning that we have to teach them how to do things the European way: account for all costs made separately with receipts (in English). After a few hours of heated discussions with Biru and Lahkarl, he finally produced a list in which the purchase of the benches (just the frames), transport from Kathmandu by lorry, sawing of the wood and food for the porters were separately accounted for. They had already a small supply of wood so they only need to buy 20 more pieces of wood to make the drawers, but of course the existing wood had to be sawed to fit the metal frames. The porters worked voluntarily to walk the 3-4 hours to where the bus route stops and bring the metal frames back to Golphu, but then of course they were given lunch free of charge. We have decided that in future, we will demand that the school or village provide some services free of charge as their contribution to the project. This helps them realize that we are not made of money and that we expect them to contribute something to the project as well – in that way they value more what we do.

After lunch and a bit of a laze in the sun, we went back to Golphu at about 1600 hours. We slept well that night as today we had walked about 5 hours in total and had had a long meeting!!

SUNDAY 30 JANUARY
The first scheduled bus arrived in Golphu today so a very exciting day! The 78 km trip took 7 ½ hours with a 1 hour lunch stop! Everyone was very excited and came to meet the bus. The Lama from Thodong took the short trip from his village (15 minutes away) to Golphu and was the first person off the bus and much to our surprise we were the first people he greeted. Krishna insisted on giving us a Khata (silk scarf of honour) as well as all the other important people, which we felt a little funny about as we had nothing to do with the bus and also hadn’t ridden on the bus. But we accepted it gratefully as we did the tea invitation later with some important people from the bus company who had driven along on the maiden trip. The tea party became a heated discussion about where the bus driver would eat and sleep every night, so after a while we politely made our excuses and left. It’s very difficult to look interested when a discussion in Nepali is going on, as we understand about one word in every sentence!


MONDAY 31 JANUARY
Today we had a long meeting with Sir Julphe to discuss costs made so far and to request receipts for the purchase of cement, carpet, and lorry hire. We also really impressed upon Sir Julphe that we wanted all the work finished before we left and we are leaving in five weeks time! I don’t think he realized how quickly the time was passing and I must admit, now we’re on the countdown, we are very busy pushing everybody and doing the last of our work visits to schools we hope to help next year so the time is really flying.

THAT’S IT FOR NOW – I’M A BIT BEHIND ON MY DIARY AS THERE WAS NO ELECTRICITY FOR A WEEK A WHILE AGO! I WILL SEND PART 4 WHEN WE ARE NEXT IN KATHMANDU 4 – 9 MARCH. THE ADVENTURE IS NEARLY OVER AS ON 10 MARCH WE LEAVE NEPAL – WEIRD! BUT BEFORE WE GO HOME TO HOLLAND WE HAVE A WEEK IN GOA, INDIA (11-17 MARCH) AND THEN WE GO TO ENGLAND TO SEE MY FAMILY (18-23 MARCH). 1ST APRIL WE START WORK AGAIN. IT HAS BEEN A FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE SO FAR AND WE HAVE LEARNED AND SEEN AND EXPERIENCED SO MUCH – BUT WE HAVEN’T LEFT NEPAL YET SO MORE COULD HAPPEN ……

LOTS OF LOVE JENNI AND PHILIP