Jenni's verslag
Door: handsnepal
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Jenni en Philip
10 Maart 2011 | Nepal, Kathmandu
Bijgaand deel 4 van Jenni's verslag (13 bladzijden en in het Engels). Alleen bijgewerkt tot eind februari want er was weer geen elektriciteit de laaste week in Golphu. De laaste paar dagen zal ik "doen" z.s.m. Wij gaan nu lekker naar Goa voor een week en weet je wat wij gaan doen .... HELEMAAL NIETS!!!
Part 4
TUESDAY 1 FEBRUARY
At Rajan’s request we went to visit the school at Chhachekdanda with him today. As the bus from Golphu to Kathmandu passes through Pipse we timed it so we could take the bus instead of walking 3 hours – very luxurious! But we still had a half an hour walk down from Pipse to the school. The primary school has 5 classes and 114 children in total. After Grade 5 the children go to the school in Gyalthum but they have to rent rooms there, as it is a 2 hour walk to Gyalthum. It still amazes us that it is quite common for children as young as 10 or 11 to rent rooms in a village where there is a school. It seems so young and yet they are completely independent as they cook their meals and wash their clothes quite happily and only go home to their families at the weekend or in the holidays if they live too far away. They could also go to the school in Golphu but rooms are cheaper to rent in Gyalthum and during the holidays the children can earn money by working on the farms and businesses in Gyalthum. There is no holiday work in Golphu as the village is too small.
This school has no damp problem, the classrooms are unusually spacious and the 4 septic tank toilets are sufficient for the 114 children and they look clean and well kept. What they do require is more desks for the 5 classes, 14 window shutters and 4 doors as there are simply no doors or windows at the moment – just a hole in the wall, so the classrooms must be freezing in winter! They also want to build 2 more classrooms, grade 6 and 7 and would of course also needs desk and a blackboard. Most schools in the mountains start with 3-5 classes and when they have saved enough money they gradually build more classes. A school with 10 classes is the ideal school as at the end of Class 10 they can take the all-important School Leaving Certificate.
We then worked up a healthy appetite by walking back up the mountain for an hour as we had been invited to attend the joint school picnic of the schools in Chitre and Chhachekdanda. The picnic was held on a lovely flat grass area beside the road with the snow-capped Himalayas in the background – beautiful. While the children were playing and dancing to traditional Nepali music, the teachers were preparing the meal which was of course dahl baht and goat meat. The goat was only able to enjoy the beginning of the day before being killed, chopped up and cooked in massive pans. Much to our amusement they used large pieces of wood to stir the meat, rice and vegetables with! It really was a lovely day for a picnic as the sun was shining and there was no wind.
At about 1500 hours we took the bus back to Golphu with Rajan and much to Philip’s dismay I insisted on sitting on top of the bus as the bus ride was only about half an hour and it’s such fun sitting on the roof! Just before the bus left, Philip climbed up and joined me and I think he quite enjoyed the rough but luckily short drive – it certainly is an experience trying to hold on for dear life, bouncing around as the bus negotiates the many hairpin bends and ducking to avoid being strangulated by the electricity wires which always hang very low over the road!
In the evening we had dinner again with Krishna and Marja as we wanted to ask Krishna to coordinate the building of both the toilets for the school as well as the toilets for the villagers. We think it is better to have one coordinator for all the toilets instead of one coordinator for the school toilets and one coordinator for the village toilets. Of course Krishna agreed and tomorrow we will discuss this with Mr. Julphe. We don’t want him to feel pushed out of the equation, but as he has already coordinated the work at the school, we thought it would be a good idea to let someone else coordinate the rest of the work, especially as recently Mr. Julphe is quite often in Kathmandu for 5 or 6 days and time is passing quickly.
WEDNESDAY 2 FEBRUARY
Didn’t do much today as it was very foggy and cold so we stayed indoors most of the day reading and writing up our diaries. We ordered Chinese food again tonight as we know we will be eating a lot of Nepali food over the next few days as we had been invited to celebrate the Sherpa Lhosar (New Year) with Biru’s in-laws at Kutumsang.
THURSDAY 3 FEBRUARY
Walked to Kutumsang in the morning which took a little longer than normal as the mountain range looked absolutely stunning as the sky was azure blue and there were absolutely no clouds. So of course we just had to take some more photo’s!
The whole family was there, Puttali, Lahkarl, Lahtuhl, Dawa, Biru, Ganga, Sangmo, Kenzi, Kalu and Kami so lovely to see everyone again, especially Kalu as we hadn’t seen him since the end of October when we stayed at his lodge in Tharepati. After a Nepali lunch of fried potatoes and Barbar/Brekura bread which is mad especially for the Sherpa Lhosar, we walked around looking at the different preparations going on. Kalu (who is a Lama – Buddhist religious leader) had just bought a camera in Darjeeling while visiting his “son” there who is of course studying to be a Lama. He asked us a few questions on how to use the camera, especially the remote control function so that the owner of the camera can also be in the photo. He then proudly showed us a new tent he had bought as he has the idea that some tourists might like to sleep in the tent especially if his lodge is full. He can obviously only do this in the high season when it is not so cold (his lodge is at 3800 metres). We told him he should put some sort of mattress in the tent as otherwise it will be too cold.
I then shamelessly fell asleep on the grass for a while as it was lovely and warm with no wind – luxury after yesterday when it was so cold.
Later on we watched his mother making an absolute heap of Barbar bread (about 100 at last count)! She sat in a shed, cross-legged on the floor in front of a log fire, and dropped a flat round piece of dough into boiling oil and cooked it for about 4 minutes and then put it on a plate to dry and cool off. She will do this all day Biru said, so they will have a supply for about the next month.
Meanwhile Kalu was overseeing the decorating of his wife’s mother’s house with Thanka’s (Buddhist silk wall hangings) and handmade ceremonial statues called Thorma (which are different for each ceremony) and of course the Tibetan horns etc. As a Lama he knows exactly what to do and directs everybody accordingly.
Outside Lahkarl and his daughter Ganga had taken down the old flag and pole and were cutting of the many pieces of material with prayers written on them so they can reuse the rope. The old prayer flags will be reused elsewhere in the garden. The old pole must also be renewed every year, so this morning Lahkarl had painted an iron pole white, which the Chinese workers on the Melamchi water works had given everyone in the area, so that the villagers would not cut down new trees for poles (10 points to the Chinese!). Tomorrow morning the new pole with a new prayer flag will be erected after having put some rice and a few coins for good luck in the hole in which the flagpole is put.
Puttali was also busy polishing all the brass pans and crockery but despite our asking several times, they would not let us help so we told them we would do the washing up after dinner!
In the evening we sat in the kitchen with the boys, and while they sang Sherpa songs, we attempted to help them make sjero bread which is pastry rolled into a sort of figure 8 form and then twisted round a few times (difficult to explain). We only made a few as we have difficulty enough sitting cross-legged on the floor for long periods of time, so bending over to roll the pastry into the desired shape proved nearly impossible for us! But the boys carried on and eventually made about 100 of these shapes, some of which will be given to the families they visit in the next few days and some they will keep as apparently they can be kept for at least a month!
FRIDAY 4 FEBRUARY
The next morning the family woke us up (at our request) bright and early at about 05.30 and as the sun rose, we watched them replace the old flag pole with the new one and the old flags with new brightly coloured silk prayer flags of very good quality which they had bought at Boudha. Tradition dictates that they also put 3 bits of yak butter on the pole for good luck. Kalu then chanted many mantra’s whilst ringing bells and blowing horns whilst the family walked round, attending to their daily chores. The informality of these ceremonies still amuses us!
After breakfast, Biru’s mother-in-law (Puttali) lent me some traditional Sherpa clothes to wear which was very kind of her but they certainly don’t make you look slim! Nevertheless for the next 2 days I walked around in Sherpa gear much to the amusement of the other villagers!
At about 12.00 o’clock we had lunch with the family which they called a Derka lunch. This consisted of a few pieces of Barbar bread (which Puttali had spent the whole day making yesterday, but which unfortunately tasted like rubber!), fried potatoes and sjero bread. After this meal of pure carbohydrates, we then went to their grandmother’s lodge at about 14.00 hours where the whole family was gathered to have yet another meal at about 16.00 hours, including of course the rubber Barbar bread which we couldn’t refuse!
Apart from the excess of food, the other difficulty with these kind of gatherings is the language, as only the family speak English. It really is very frustrating at times because we want to talk to people but can’t.
Before the meal the grandfather of the house, who hadn’t yet spoken a word (probably due to his rather overbearing wife who chatted away constantly), gave his blessing to everyone, including us, by smearing 3 large bits of yak butter on our head! As it was quite hot that day, anyone who went outside had to be careful that the butter didn’t start to melt and roll down their face! The only way to get rid of it was to wash our hair the next day which of course we did.
When we returned back to the lodge at about six o’clock, we couldn’t believe our ears when they told us that now we would eat dinner – our 4th meal that day and all of them full of carbohydrates! But somehow we managed to swallow a few bites while explaining to them that we Europeans simply don’t eat as much as Nepali’s in one day and if we do, we feel ill. They nod sympathetically in acknowledgement as if they understand, and then promptly ask if you’d like some more – aaargh! Sometimes their generosity is just too much and they simply will not take no for an answer!
SATURDAY 5 FEBRUARY
The plan today, they told us, was to go to the grandmother of Kalu’s wife at about 11.00 hours to celebrate Lhosar there. Somehow no-one thought to tell us later that the plans had been changed and we wouldn’t be going until about 16.00 hours! But we enjoyed relaxing in the sun and talking to a very interesting guy from Germany who has lived in Scotland with the findhorn community for about 30 years.
Of course the visit to the grandmother meant eating yet another meal and I must admit we were glad at the prospect of going back to Golphu the next day as we were getting a little tired of eating all day!
SUNDAY 6 FEBRUARY
After breakfast, we thanked the family for inviting us to spend Lhosar with them as this is a very special occasion and it was very interesting to see how they celebrate New Year. Unfortunately they simply wouldn’t let us pay for any of the food as they had invited us to their home as their guests. They would only let us pay for the cigarettes, water and toilet paper we had bought there, but somehow Philip managed to slip Biru some extra money, as although we understand we were invited there, we also wanted to contribute something more than rakshi to the numerous meals we had eaten there!
The funny thing was,that as Lhosar is celebrated over a 2 week period, during the next few days, we were offered the rubber bread on many occasions by the Sherpa people in Golphu, which included our lodge owner and the owners of the lodge where we have lunch. Believe you me my handbag was full of crumbs by the time we left for Kathmandu!
MONDAY 7 FEBRUARY
Today we went to Kathmandu and this time we both fancied walking there as we thought it would be nice to re-visit the places we had been to a year ago. So on Monday we set off on the 6 hour trek to Chisopani which we both thoroughly enjoyed especially as it was quite warm. We were amazed to meet schoolchildren along the way who apparently knew who we were, as we heard them giggling and whispering to each other “Golphu Bhanjyang” or “Golphu Miss”! Someone even told us that they had heard of us in the Everest region and although I don’t know the exact distance, I do know it’s a very long way from Golphu!
Much to our amazement we had our first really hot shower in 6 weeks at the lodge in Chisopani thanks to very large solar panels on the roof and afterwards we sat on our bed with a very comfortable mattress in our extremely sunny room enjoying wonderful views of the Himalayas topped off with a beautiful sunset – wonderful!
TUESDAY 8 FEBRUARY
As neither of us relished the thought of walking the 5,500 steps down to Sundarijal and I still am worried about the bears in the Shivapuri National Park that we would have to walk through, we decided to rent a jeep to Kathmandu, especially as it only cost NRS 1,000 / € 10 for the 2 of us. Wrong decision! The roof the jeep was so low that we had to stoop for 3 long hours to avoid banging our heads on the ceiling as the jeep slowly negotiated the extremely bumpy, wet and muddy dirt track through the National Park. But eventually after being thrown around the jeep for what seemed like an eternity and feeling like we’d been in a food processor (!), we reached the outskirts of Kathmandu and its relatively “good” roads!
After lunch at the Hotel, we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at and trying to answer as many e-mails as possible. In the evening we went to the Gaia restaurant which we now always go to on our first evening back in Kathmandu and enjoyed Chicken Sate washed down with Rum and Cola –delicious!
WEDNESDAY 9 – TUESDAY 15 FEBRUARY
Kathmandu with as usual loads to do including the following:
- Checking our bank account and thanking people for new donations and much to our surprise and great joy, 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!
- Visit the Garden of Dreams which someone we met in Kutumsang had told us about in glowing terms and it turned out it was literally 2 minutes away from our hotel. An absolute oasis right in the middle of Kathmandu with the most beautifully kept gardens, with a variety of colourful flowers, plants, ponds and numerous little hideaways where much to our surprise young Nepalese lovers come to kiss and cuddle with each other (in Nepal publicly showing affection is very much frowned upon). It was wonderfully warm as well so we spent the whole afternoon there “dealing” with our e-mails after having the most delicious lunch in the pavilion there which was very high-class with linen serviettes and flowers in bowls of water on the table and very well-mannered waiters – lovely!
- Arrange our visa for India which of course thanks to the legacy of British red tape, involved 3 separate visits to the Embassy! The first visit to fill in a form to apply for permission to enter India, after which they send a telex to the applicants Embassy to check you’re not an undesirable! The second visit, a week later, in the morning to fill in the visa application form and the third visit at 17.00 hours the same day to pick up your visa and pay the fees. It is still a mystery to us why the 2nd and 3rd visits cannot be combined in one visit but suffice it to stay we thankfully got our visas for India!
- Visit Dawa with Gautum from SVN It was nice to see Dawa again and Gautam came as well as he had never met Dawa before as Gautum has just started working as the Child Sponsorship Coordinator at SVN. He also asked the headmaster about the prices for Sangmo (the younger sister of Dawa) as much to our delight, we have found a sponsor for Sangmo so she will start attending the same school as her big sister next month!
- Visit Boudha again to buy a Tibetan horn and some souvenirs.
- Breakfast meeting with Rene Veldt, founder of SVN. Rene has lived and worked in Nepal for 10 years and gave us some very good tips on how best to help the Nepalese people in the future.
- Laminate photo of us standing in front of Golphu School . We will give this to Sir Julphe to hang in the school office. We also arranged for a short text to be added in brass letters under the photo: Philip Richter and Jenni Richardson of H.A.N.D.S. donated funds to damp- proof this school and to build two toilets. The work was coordinated by Mr. Julphe Chandra Gurung. February 2011.
- Laminate a photo of us to give to Meme (Pasang Sherpa) our lodge owner in which the following words were added under the photo: Thank you for making us feel so at home in your lodge. Jenni and Philip. October 2010 – March 2011. We also gave him a laminated photo of himself with his wife Ibi, son Purpha and granddaughter Purpi.
- Laminate some photos of the villagers themselves to give as a farewell present to our friends: Rajan, Krishna and Marja, Darcy and Ranju, Santi and Sam, Maya and the Lama with his family .
- Laminate colour brochure to hang under the school board in the village. Photo’s have to be laminated otherwise the weather and the smoke from the fires in their houses will ruin photos in a very short period of time.
- Print my working reports regarding our visits to the schools in Chitre, Pakhegaon and Chakheganda + the latest Excel sheet I made regarding our donors.
- Buy: some more fingerless gloves for Philip as old ones beyond repair, more toiletries, present for Purphi (ended up buying her a childrens watch which she loved!).
- Answer and send e-mails
- Pin lots of money! Apart from our living expenses for the next few weeks, we also needed to give money to the lama for the waterpipe, the shopkeeper (so that Munki can buy food there for the next year), and to a couple to pay for their child to go to a local school for the next year (which a Dutch couple are paying for), and money for my birthday picnic (cost € 120 in the end!) and € 160 extra for the school in Golphu as we had promised them Rs 400,000 (4 Lakh / € 4,000) and they received less due to the changing rates of exchange. We decided to advance the money to Munki and Deeplove (to attend local school) as if we transfer the money monthly, the bank costs are ridiculously high! We hope to return to Nepal next year in March and then we can either pay them another year in advance or we will have come to a better arrangement with the bank.
- Transfer RS 47,500 (about € 475) to the school in Neyemba for 6 benches, closing the wall between classrooms 1 and 2, and classrooms 3 and 4, new septic tank for the existing toilets + 4 blackboards. We have applied the same rule to Neyemba as we did for Solshing Gaon: we will pay for all materials required in advance but the remaining money we owe for salaries, we will not pay until we have received the final financial report including a copy of the receipts! In this way we know they will submit the report and receipts as quickly as they can!
- Ring Mum and Dad and my sisters + Philip rang his family.
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WEDNESDAY 16 FEBRUARY
Today we went back to Golphu and as usual our taxi driver turned up late, so we didn’t leave Kathmandu till 10.00 hours but luckily as a result we missed the rush hour traffic so got through the busy streets of Kathmandu and into the mountain foothills quite quickly. Unfortunately it rained the whole day so the last 2 hours were quite a challenge for our driver, as we travel on mountain dirt roads which of course get very muddy and slippery when it rains. He dropped us off as usual right where the Chinese are working on the Melamchi Water Works system as his taxi simply cannot negotiate the hills there. It was still pouring with rain and continued to do so for the 1½ hours walk up the mountain to Golphu. We had bought some Nepalese raincoats on the way from Kathmandu, as of course we had left our raincoats back in Golphu! (it has only rained for about 5 days during our 5 month stay in Nepal!). These raincoats are basically long, thick, black plastic bags which if you cut them down the middle, cover your head and most of your body. They helped to protect us from the rain a bit, but it was hard work climbing up a slippery wet mountain so we finally arrived in Golphu absolutely shattered and soaking wet from the rain and from perspiration – 2 ideal ingredients for getting a cold – which of course both of us developed in the next few days!
THURSDAY 17 FEBRUARY
Saw Sir Julphe this morning who told us he was going to Kathmandu today for 5 or 6 days . When he returns we will really push him to make the financial report for the work done on the school. We have of course already made our own report, but he needs to make it on School headed paper and to give us a copy of the receipts for the carpet, white cement and the wood for the toilet doors. We are waiting for so many reports at the moment and want to try to avoid everyone handing them to us on our last day in Golphu! In these last 2 weeks we hope to receive the following: the final financial report from the Golphu School and from the construction of the toilets (when they are finished), a revised application letter from Babu regarding building toilets in Thulo Syabru, application letters from the schools in Chitre, Pakhegaon and Chhachekdanda and an application letter from Krishna regarding re-opening the first aid centre in Golphu. We also hope to visit the schools in Solshing Gaon and Neyemba to film and photograph the work done so far and of course to say goodbye to Biru, Ganga and his family in Kutumsang. Phew – wonder if we’ll get it all done in time! Of course the application letters can be sent at a later date by e-mail, but it would be so much easier to receive them now as any comments or questions we have can be immediately answered and if necessary incorporated into a revised application letter.
We then went to look at the progress made on the toilets which much to our surprise was going well. Now finally we understand how a septic tank toilet is made. Basically after the site location has been chosen, the workers first look for sufficient stone in the nearby hills to construct the walls of the toilet and to line the inside of the septic tank. The septic tank is simply a very large deep hole in the ground where the waste material is stored until the hole is full. The hole needs to be lined with stone as otherwise the sides of the hole/tank will erode and maybe even collapse during the monsoon. The roof of the toilet is corrugated iron on which they put large stones to prevent the roof flying off! Then pipes are placed from the toilet to the septic tank with a separate pipe outside of the toilet to get rid of the initial “fumes”. The septic tank is then covered with a concrete slab and a pipe is installed from the inside of the tank to the outside, to get rid of the “fumes”. Finally another pipe leads from the septic tank down the mountain for a short distance. When the septic tank is full, the pipe is opened and the waste is distributed down the mountain! Not very ecological I know, but the best they can do due to the lack of a sewer system here. The village has already tried composting toilets but it simply doesn’t work, as there are always people (often from outside the village) who simply don’t throw ashes and leaves down the toilet which is necessary to separate the urine from the faeces.
Finally the wooden doors are placed, the outside walls are covered with cement leaving a hole which serves as a window and a hole is dug in the ground and lined with mud/cement with 2 footsteps on either side for people to stand on. We couldn’t believe it when Sir Julphe told us they had decided not to buy an enamel toilet pan because some people use stones which invariably blocks the toilet! To be honest we just didn’t understand what he meant when he said that some people “used” stones, so you can imagine our utter horror when he explained (with some embarrassment) that they used stones instead of toilet paper! We know that Asians use water and their left hand instead of toilet paper but never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that stones were also used – we can only hope they don’t use stones with sharp edges! Anyway enough of toilet talk – suffice it to say we’re eternally grateful that we can afford toilet paper!
The coordinator Krishna is visibly enjoying his work as coordinator as he strides purposefully between the two different toilet locations, helping and supervising the workers. It feels good to provide an unemployed person with work and specially someone like Krishna who can really use his skills now and the whole exercise must be a boost for his self-esteem.
Unfortunately Philip has now got a cold – probably as a result of walking in the rain for 2 hours, and I fear it won’t be long before I catch it off him.
FRIDAY 18 FEBRUARY
Gave my first lesson to Class 4 today at 12.30. Of course Purphi (from our lodge) and Barusa (from the opposite house) loved it that I was giving lessons in their class! I must admit the children were a lot less shy than Classes 8, 9 and 10. After about 10 minutes I already launched into my routine of asking volunteers to read the list of words I’d written on the board and much to my surprise someone always stood up! It was great fun teaching them and I wonder if, in the future, the teachers will also ask the children to stand up and individually answer questions. I know I’m not a professional teacher but I’m sure this method teaches the children more than if the whole class answers a question in unison.
After lunch Rajan went with us to the Lama to explain that he should buy the water pipe for the gompa before we leave Golphu in 2 weeks as we need the receipt. The Lama replied that as soon as the bus service to Kathmandu re-started he would go to Kathmandu to buy the pipe – the bus service had stopped for 2 days after the rain on Wednesday, as of course the road was now too wet and muddy for the bus to negotiate. After some discussion between Rajan and the Lama, he told us that he would ask some villagers to measure the distance between the source of the water and the gompa (using a piece of 50 meter rope) and Rajan would ring the Lama in Kathmandu to give him the measurements. Yet again it amazed us that the Lama had apparently done absolutely nothing since we had told him a couple of weeks ago that we now had the money to pay for the pipe. On the other hand I reckon he just thought next time I’m in Kathmandu I’ll buy 1 kilometer of pipe and we’ll take it from there! The fact that maybe 1 kilometer is too much or too little pipe doesn’t seem to occur to him. Yet again the Nepali’s inability to plan ahead is demonstrated and yet every time it happens, we’re still amazed!!
We then replaced the black and white H.A.N.D.S. brochure hanging underneath the School board with a colour brochure that we had had laminated in Kathmandu. We wanted to hang the black and white laminated brochure on a tree somewhere near Golphu, but there are simply no trees next to the trekking route that we could hang the brochure on – all the trees are too far away from the path! So we gave up looking and walked round the village trying to find a suitable place for my birthday picnic. Ideally it should be a large flat grassy area in the sun with no wind but we couldn’t really find a suitable place as it was very windy everywhere. So we decided to stop looking and see what the teacher Neopani would come up with on Sunday.
Talked to 2 trekkers from Sweden and Germany in the evening which was nice as we haven’t talked to trekkers for quite a time now as it really is low season at the moment. As the evening progressed I realized that I was probably getting a cold which is really annoying as it’s my 50th birthday on Tuesday and of course I don’t want to be sick on my birthday! Also it usually takes me weeks to get over a cold and I need all the energy I can muster for these final 2 weeks in Golphu as there are lots of things to finalize before we leave.
SATURDAY 19 FEBRUARY
Both of us now have colds and the wind was blowing quite hard today, so after washing some clothes we stayed indoors reading and catching up on our diaries.
SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY
After a horrendous night of coughing constantly and feeling very miserable that I should get a cold at this critical point in time, I decided not to give in to self pity so I still gave a lesson to Class 4 as I have only just started teaching them so I don’t want to call in sick after one day. I must say it went very well and it cheered me up immensely. I also decided to start taking antibiotics immediately as I simply don’t have the time or inclination to wait until I get better naturally, as I know from experience this can take up to 4 weeks.
After lunch, we dozed in the afternoon sun as luckily there was hardly any wind, and of course both of us were very tired as we’d had a sleepless night.
In the evening we went to dinner with Rajan, the 2 Nepalese teachers Neopani and his wife Kim Kumari and Gori Tamang (who teaches at the Pakhegaon School but stays in Golphu during the week). We have already been to dinner with them a couple of times and we wanted to ask them for dinner at our lodge. We know they don’t really feel at home eating at our lodge and it’s still very cold in the lodge in the evening, so we agreed with Rajan that we would have dinner at their home but we would pay for the food including chicken! That way everyone is happy! As usual it was a good evening and the hot rakshi with sugar, ghee and honey really helped our colds and we both slept very well that night. After we had all had a few drinks, I told Rajan I was still waiting for an answer to my question of a few weeks ago: what’s the strangest thing you find about foreigners! He laughed and then very cleverly turned to his friends and asked what they found strange about foreigners! They told us they found it very strange that so many young people live together without being married as that is simply NOT done in Nepal, and Kim couldn’t understand why the women cut their hair! We then had a very serious talk about our work here and about the habits and customs of both Europeans and Nepalis and yet again it was brought home to us that Nepalis think and act totally differently to us in so many ways! This might sound like I’m stating the obvious but with every week that passes, we discover yet another difference between us due to many factors, but the most important of all being the poverty, their religion (Hindu or Buddhist) and the lack of education which time and time again is the reason why they live and think totally differently than we do.
MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY
I really can’t remember what we did today so obviously nothing spectacular!
TUESDAY 22 FEBRUARY
50 today – wow! Philip showed me the video he had made in which all my family and friends wish me a happy 50th birthday. Wonderful to watch as it did feel a bit strange celebrating this landmark in a country which doesn’t celebrate birthdays and without my family and friends. So I must admit I shed a tear or two! Then Philip gave me a beautiful turquoise and red Nepalese necklace and earrings which I’ve been wearing ever since. Late afternoon I started to get some text messages from friends wishing me a happy birthday so that was also nice.
The rest of the day was spent as normal, giving Class 4 lessons and trying to arrange things including the picnic on Saturday. We told Rajan NOT to tell the villagers it is a birthday party, as otherwise they may feel obliged to give me a present which I know they cannot afford (and which we also simply don’t have the space to take with us!).
WEDNESDAY 23 FEBRUARY
Thank heavens – Mr. Julphe came back from Kathmandu today, so first thing tomorrow we will tell him that we want to make the financial report today! During the course of the last few months, he has told us the prices of all the things he has bought and the salary of the workers, but it wouldn’t surprise us if he didn’t tell us everything and we need to get it sorted out soon as we leave in less than a week. We have no idea what the toilets cost and they are still working on them, so it’s all a bit of a nail-biting experience as speed is definitely not one of the Nepali’s strong points!
THURSDAY 24 FEBRUARY
Today the Lama came back with the water pipe – 4 very large coils of pipe which he of course had to put on the roof of the bus. He was very happy and so were we, especially when he told us it had only cost about €80 instead of the €100 he anticipated! So now when someone dies they don’t have to run round the village trying to find long pieces of pipe to connect to each other. As I think I explained, when someone dies, they have 3 ceremonies and at every ceremony, all the villagers are “fed and watered” so to speak, so water is of course essential for preparing the meals and for the washing up afterwards!
Arranged with Mr. Julphe to come to the school at 15.30 hours to make the financial report. The whole School Management Committee was present and luckily one of their agenda points was apparently to make the financial report for us. They proudly told us that they had worked out all the costs including the costs for all 4 toilets (so luckily that problem was solved) and according to their calculations, they still had €290 over. Rajan went over all the costs with us and it took us 2 hours to get some clarity as several times they had put several things on one bill and just told us the total amount, whereas we of course needed to know how much each item cost separately. This sounds easy enough but with 10 people joining in the discussions, it becomes very difficult and longwinded! When we asked about the wages for the toilet workers, we were told they had already been included in the costs, and in the heat of the moment so to speak, we just believed him. But later that night, we wrote out my notes neatly and we came to the conclusion that that just couldn’t be the case, and if it wasn’t, then they had in fact spent all the budget (€ 4,000) and actually had no reserve! Luckily we had already arranged with Rajan to meet him tomorrow morning at 09.00 hours and if necessary we would spend the whole day working on the report until everything was crystal clear to us!
FRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY
The whole day long it was cloudy and cold which made us really worried what the weather will be like tomorrow when we have our picnic. We’ve tried hard to think of an alternative location if it’s cold and wet, but there simply isn’t anywhere, so we just have to be optimistic and if it is horrible weather tomorrow, we’ll deal with the problem then!
But we had other problems to deal with as we spent 5 hours today with Rajan making the financial report for the school and the village. It took a lot of work as we want to know the individual costs not only for the report, but to increase our knowledge of how much things like cement, sand, stone, porters, workers cost in Nepal (although the costs do vary per area in Nepal). This really is a different way of working than the Nepalis are used to, but Rajan enjoys learning and realizes that he can use this experience in the future, especially if we find funds to help the 3 schools we visited, as he will be the person who makes the financial report.
Rajan has been fantastic arranging everything we ask him to which included arranging our picnic, doing the financial report for Golphu, helping 3 schools to make an application for funds, copying the receipts the school in Golphu had made (as despite asking Mr. Julphe several times, he simply didn’t not do it!), right down to measuring exactly how much water pipe the Lama needs – which meant walking from the Gompa to the nearest water source with a piece of string which afterwards Philip measured with a tape measure to see how many meters it was!). When the applications come in from the 3 schools, Rajan will also be the coordinator and will ensure we receive the all-important receipts and the final financial report. As we simply could not have done so much without Rajan, we have decided to give him a one-off payment from H.A.N.D.S. for €100 for all the work he has done. As a teacher he earns about €150 a month, and we estimate he has already worked a full month for us, so we hope that donors agree with us that he deserves some reimbursement for all the time and energy he has spent (and will spend) on H.A.N.D.S. as without him, we simply could not have done so much.
In the evening we went to the wedding celebrations of one of the teachers which was celebrated literally in the house next to us. It was an arranged marriage, so the bride had to be carried from Chipling but this time we didn’t go with everyone to “collect” the bride as we were busy with the accounts all day. After joining in with the Sherpa dancing, we heard some “modern” music which the teenage kids were playing on a ghetto blaster nearby, so we joined them and much to their amusement showed them how we danced – including the bump (!) and of course Philip demonstrated his dancing skills to Michael Jackson which they loved! The rakshi was quite strong and we had a big day the next day so we left at about 22.00 hours and slept soundly despite the fact that the party went on till 06.00 hours the next day!
SATURDAY 26 FEBRUARY
Thank heavens – today is picnic today and we awoke to a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies! At about 10.00 hours we walked up to the picnic site (about 10 minutes away from the village) with Sir Julphe. Some villagers and teachers were already there and had started a few fires to cook everything on. They spread a large piece of canvas on the ground which they could sit on to prepare the numerous vegetables. Funnily enough we had used this very piece of canvas to hang above our bed in the house we had rented so we glad to see they hosed down the canvas first with water as we were afraid there might still be some rat droppings left on the canvas!
Philip and I both helped with the preparations and it felt good to sit with the teachers and some villagers to peel and slice potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and many spices (I peeled ginger for the first
time in my life with the end of a spoon as all the knives were in use!), and of course the chicken had to be prepared. In Nepal they cook every part of the chicken including the feet and head so we made it known we didn’t eat those parts in Holland, as for all we knew, they might consider these parts the most tasty and give us them to eat as a treat! There was a lot to prepare as we anticipated 100-150 people would come to the picnic! Everything was then put in a couple of massive pans and stirred with a long wooden branch from a nearby tree! These pans are expensive for the villagers (€ 50) so all the villagers had contributed to buying them and they are used on every occasion when the villagers get together. In fact they had been used the night before at the wedding, so we had to wait until they had been cleaned, before we could use them.
At about 12.00 hours all the villagers gradually turned up and as usual everyone helped with serving drinks, washing up, serving the food etc. They wouldn’t let us do anything so we had time to “talk” to the villagers. We all sat in a massive circle to eat our lunch and yet again we thanked our lucky stars that the weather was so good and that there wasn’t much wind. When we first arrived in Golphu, I read a description of Golphu somewhere as always being windy which we didn’t understand. Since December though, the wind has picked up and apparently it will remain windy until the monsoon comes in June/July, so you really have to pick your spot if you want to sit in the sunshine without any wind.
It was a lovely picnic and a very unique way of spending my 50th birthday – having a picnic with 120 villagers in the Himalayas! With so many people to help, it didn’t take long to clear up and wash all the plates and utensils. The big pots took some cleaning though and much to our amusement they threw sand in the pot and scrubbed away with a piece of fern (a Nepali scouring pad!) which was actually quite effective!
At about 16.00 hours just as the wind was picking up and the sun was losing its strength, we walked back to the lodge and divided the food that was left over amongst the villagers that had helped the most. We kept some of the beaten rice ourselves as we will give this to Munki tomorrow.
All in all a very special day!
SUNDAY 27 FEBRUARY
Today the Class 4 pupils wanted to learn English nursery rhymes so I tried to teach them Hickory dickory dock and Hands, shoulders, knees and toes which they loved! Afterwards they sang a few of the English songs they had learnt from their textbooks but the only one I recognized was Twinkle, twinkle little star!
After lunch Mr. Julphe helped us to reserve a jeep for Thursday to take us back to Kathmandu. It’s pretty expensive (€80) but we have so much luggage that it would be really difficult to walk down to where a taxi could pick us up and anyway we want to leave Golphu in style!
Afterwards we sat in the sun at the Action Aid building and finally I managed to contact Biru whom I’d been trying to contact for a few days. I told him we still had a cold and a cough so we had decided not to go to Kutumsang to photograph the progress made by the schools in Solshing Gaon and Neyemba and to say goodbye to him and his family. It is simply too far too walk in our state as we know we will sweat a lot and with the cold wind this will impede any improvement we’ve made the last 2 weeks. It really is a pity, but at the moment we are both feeling very tired and worn down and we want to enjoy our week’s holiday in Goa and come back to Holland refreshed! But Biru has promised to have a look when the work is finished, and send us photo’s. Luckily Biru was planning to go to Kathmandu soon to buy supplies for his lodge again, so we agreed to meet in Kathmandu. We will be seeing his father Babu anyway, to discuss his revised proposal so we can probably see them both at the same time. We can then also ask Biru if he had perhaps forgotten to ring the Headmaster of Neyemba to tell them we had some more money for them (€ 200) as the Headmaster turned up in Golphu a few days ago and as far as we could gather (he hardly speaks any English) he knew nothing about the extra money (sigh, sigh!).
At the end of the afternoon when it started getting colder we went to bring Munki some rice left over from the picnic yesterday, my turquoise ski jacket which will keep her very warm when it’s cold, some candles we had left over and a hat. Even though she doesn’t speak a word of English, it was obvious she was very happy as she put on the jacket and hat straight away and her smile spoke a thousand words!
MONDAY 28 FEBRUARY
The school had its annual picnic today as this is their last week at school before they get four weeks holiday. It was a beautiful sunny day and the picnic was held at a lodge about half an hours walk up from Golphu. We walked very slowly as we didn’t want to work up a sweat and arrived about midday. The lodge has flat grounds all around it, and a little stream and with the mountains in the background, it really was a very picturesque setting. Many of the girls were all dressed up in their Sunday best and a few Gurung girls (one of the many tribes in Nepal) wore their national Gurung dress of a long dark tunic and a maroon velvet shawl over their shoulders with a green bead necklace.
At about 12.30 we were served with fried potatoes, beaten rice, cauliflower curry and goat’s intestines which tasted like rubber – yuk! After the meal some of the pupils started dancing, first to traditional music but that soon changed to their version of pop music!
We took the opportunity to visit the nearby Gompa (Buddhist temple) in Gyang which we hadn’t yet visited. It only took about ten minutes to walk there and the wall and ceiling paintings, Thanka’s and wooden statues of Buddha were as usual beautiful in both their intricacy and colour.
When we returned to the picnic we chatted with Sir Julphe and asked him more about his life so far which actually is quite a sad story as his mother died when he was a baby and his stepmother totally ignored him, preferring his older brother.
Just as it started getting a little colder, they served up yet another meal consisting of course of dahl baht and goat. We managed to eat a little and then we excused ourselves as the wind was picking up and we are still nursing our colds. About an hour later everyone came back from the picnic and the kids had their own ‘afterparty’ dancing and singing round the village gompa and generally being teenagers! As the school term is nearly finished, this is also a chance for the children of Class 10 to say goodbye to each other, as invariably some of them will study on further in Kathmandu, returning to the village only on school holidays.
YET AGAIN WE HAD NO ELECTRICITY FOR OUR LAST WEEK IN GOLPHU, SO DESPITE MY BEST EFFORTS, I SIMPLY DID NOT HAVE TIME TO FINISH THE LAST FEW DAYS IN GOLPHU – I WILL DO THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE EITHER WHEN WE ARE IN GOA (although we had agreed with each other NOT to take the computer as we really need a few days rest) or after our return to Holland on 23rd March.
TUESDAY 1 MARCH
Teacher training course in Golphu for 3 days – bad timing as teachers and Sir Julphe busy with them + some teachers stayed in our lodge and chattered loudly until 22.30 at night and then again the next morning at 05.00 hours! Went to our old favourite place by the river for the last time!
WEDNESDAY 2 MARCH
Last day in Golphu. Packed + went to our other favourite place by the Action Aid building for the last time + finally received applications from the school in Chitre + from Krishna for re-opening the health centre in Golphu! Farewell dinner with Rajan, Krishna and Maya. Toilets nearly finished.
THURSDAY 3 MARCH
Farewell to school and villagers and travel back to Kathmandu.
FRIDAY 4 – WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH
Kathmandu!
Part 4
TUESDAY 1 FEBRUARY
At Rajan’s request we went to visit the school at Chhachekdanda with him today. As the bus from Golphu to Kathmandu passes through Pipse we timed it so we could take the bus instead of walking 3 hours – very luxurious! But we still had a half an hour walk down from Pipse to the school. The primary school has 5 classes and 114 children in total. After Grade 5 the children go to the school in Gyalthum but they have to rent rooms there, as it is a 2 hour walk to Gyalthum. It still amazes us that it is quite common for children as young as 10 or 11 to rent rooms in a village where there is a school. It seems so young and yet they are completely independent as they cook their meals and wash their clothes quite happily and only go home to their families at the weekend or in the holidays if they live too far away. They could also go to the school in Golphu but rooms are cheaper to rent in Gyalthum and during the holidays the children can earn money by working on the farms and businesses in Gyalthum. There is no holiday work in Golphu as the village is too small.
This school has no damp problem, the classrooms are unusually spacious and the 4 septic tank toilets are sufficient for the 114 children and they look clean and well kept. What they do require is more desks for the 5 classes, 14 window shutters and 4 doors as there are simply no doors or windows at the moment – just a hole in the wall, so the classrooms must be freezing in winter! They also want to build 2 more classrooms, grade 6 and 7 and would of course also needs desk and a blackboard. Most schools in the mountains start with 3-5 classes and when they have saved enough money they gradually build more classes. A school with 10 classes is the ideal school as at the end of Class 10 they can take the all-important School Leaving Certificate.
We then worked up a healthy appetite by walking back up the mountain for an hour as we had been invited to attend the joint school picnic of the schools in Chitre and Chhachekdanda. The picnic was held on a lovely flat grass area beside the road with the snow-capped Himalayas in the background – beautiful. While the children were playing and dancing to traditional Nepali music, the teachers were preparing the meal which was of course dahl baht and goat meat. The goat was only able to enjoy the beginning of the day before being killed, chopped up and cooked in massive pans. Much to our amusement they used large pieces of wood to stir the meat, rice and vegetables with! It really was a lovely day for a picnic as the sun was shining and there was no wind.
At about 1500 hours we took the bus back to Golphu with Rajan and much to Philip’s dismay I insisted on sitting on top of the bus as the bus ride was only about half an hour and it’s such fun sitting on the roof! Just before the bus left, Philip climbed up and joined me and I think he quite enjoyed the rough but luckily short drive – it certainly is an experience trying to hold on for dear life, bouncing around as the bus negotiates the many hairpin bends and ducking to avoid being strangulated by the electricity wires which always hang very low over the road!
In the evening we had dinner again with Krishna and Marja as we wanted to ask Krishna to coordinate the building of both the toilets for the school as well as the toilets for the villagers. We think it is better to have one coordinator for all the toilets instead of one coordinator for the school toilets and one coordinator for the village toilets. Of course Krishna agreed and tomorrow we will discuss this with Mr. Julphe. We don’t want him to feel pushed out of the equation, but as he has already coordinated the work at the school, we thought it would be a good idea to let someone else coordinate the rest of the work, especially as recently Mr. Julphe is quite often in Kathmandu for 5 or 6 days and time is passing quickly.
WEDNESDAY 2 FEBRUARY
Didn’t do much today as it was very foggy and cold so we stayed indoors most of the day reading and writing up our diaries. We ordered Chinese food again tonight as we know we will be eating a lot of Nepali food over the next few days as we had been invited to celebrate the Sherpa Lhosar (New Year) with Biru’s in-laws at Kutumsang.
THURSDAY 3 FEBRUARY
Walked to Kutumsang in the morning which took a little longer than normal as the mountain range looked absolutely stunning as the sky was azure blue and there were absolutely no clouds. So of course we just had to take some more photo’s!
The whole family was there, Puttali, Lahkarl, Lahtuhl, Dawa, Biru, Ganga, Sangmo, Kenzi, Kalu and Kami so lovely to see everyone again, especially Kalu as we hadn’t seen him since the end of October when we stayed at his lodge in Tharepati. After a Nepali lunch of fried potatoes and Barbar/Brekura bread which is mad especially for the Sherpa Lhosar, we walked around looking at the different preparations going on. Kalu (who is a Lama – Buddhist religious leader) had just bought a camera in Darjeeling while visiting his “son” there who is of course studying to be a Lama. He asked us a few questions on how to use the camera, especially the remote control function so that the owner of the camera can also be in the photo. He then proudly showed us a new tent he had bought as he has the idea that some tourists might like to sleep in the tent especially if his lodge is full. He can obviously only do this in the high season when it is not so cold (his lodge is at 3800 metres). We told him he should put some sort of mattress in the tent as otherwise it will be too cold.
I then shamelessly fell asleep on the grass for a while as it was lovely and warm with no wind – luxury after yesterday when it was so cold.
Later on we watched his mother making an absolute heap of Barbar bread (about 100 at last count)! She sat in a shed, cross-legged on the floor in front of a log fire, and dropped a flat round piece of dough into boiling oil and cooked it for about 4 minutes and then put it on a plate to dry and cool off. She will do this all day Biru said, so they will have a supply for about the next month.
Meanwhile Kalu was overseeing the decorating of his wife’s mother’s house with Thanka’s (Buddhist silk wall hangings) and handmade ceremonial statues called Thorma (which are different for each ceremony) and of course the Tibetan horns etc. As a Lama he knows exactly what to do and directs everybody accordingly.
Outside Lahkarl and his daughter Ganga had taken down the old flag and pole and were cutting of the many pieces of material with prayers written on them so they can reuse the rope. The old prayer flags will be reused elsewhere in the garden. The old pole must also be renewed every year, so this morning Lahkarl had painted an iron pole white, which the Chinese workers on the Melamchi water works had given everyone in the area, so that the villagers would not cut down new trees for poles (10 points to the Chinese!). Tomorrow morning the new pole with a new prayer flag will be erected after having put some rice and a few coins for good luck in the hole in which the flagpole is put.
Puttali was also busy polishing all the brass pans and crockery but despite our asking several times, they would not let us help so we told them we would do the washing up after dinner!
In the evening we sat in the kitchen with the boys, and while they sang Sherpa songs, we attempted to help them make sjero bread which is pastry rolled into a sort of figure 8 form and then twisted round a few times (difficult to explain). We only made a few as we have difficulty enough sitting cross-legged on the floor for long periods of time, so bending over to roll the pastry into the desired shape proved nearly impossible for us! But the boys carried on and eventually made about 100 of these shapes, some of which will be given to the families they visit in the next few days and some they will keep as apparently they can be kept for at least a month!
FRIDAY 4 FEBRUARY
The next morning the family woke us up (at our request) bright and early at about 05.30 and as the sun rose, we watched them replace the old flag pole with the new one and the old flags with new brightly coloured silk prayer flags of very good quality which they had bought at Boudha. Tradition dictates that they also put 3 bits of yak butter on the pole for good luck. Kalu then chanted many mantra’s whilst ringing bells and blowing horns whilst the family walked round, attending to their daily chores. The informality of these ceremonies still amuses us!
After breakfast, Biru’s mother-in-law (Puttali) lent me some traditional Sherpa clothes to wear which was very kind of her but they certainly don’t make you look slim! Nevertheless for the next 2 days I walked around in Sherpa gear much to the amusement of the other villagers!
At about 12.00 o’clock we had lunch with the family which they called a Derka lunch. This consisted of a few pieces of Barbar bread (which Puttali had spent the whole day making yesterday, but which unfortunately tasted like rubber!), fried potatoes and sjero bread. After this meal of pure carbohydrates, we then went to their grandmother’s lodge at about 14.00 hours where the whole family was gathered to have yet another meal at about 16.00 hours, including of course the rubber Barbar bread which we couldn’t refuse!
Apart from the excess of food, the other difficulty with these kind of gatherings is the language, as only the family speak English. It really is very frustrating at times because we want to talk to people but can’t.
Before the meal the grandfather of the house, who hadn’t yet spoken a word (probably due to his rather overbearing wife who chatted away constantly), gave his blessing to everyone, including us, by smearing 3 large bits of yak butter on our head! As it was quite hot that day, anyone who went outside had to be careful that the butter didn’t start to melt and roll down their face! The only way to get rid of it was to wash our hair the next day which of course we did.
When we returned back to the lodge at about six o’clock, we couldn’t believe our ears when they told us that now we would eat dinner – our 4th meal that day and all of them full of carbohydrates! But somehow we managed to swallow a few bites while explaining to them that we Europeans simply don’t eat as much as Nepali’s in one day and if we do, we feel ill. They nod sympathetically in acknowledgement as if they understand, and then promptly ask if you’d like some more – aaargh! Sometimes their generosity is just too much and they simply will not take no for an answer!
SATURDAY 5 FEBRUARY
The plan today, they told us, was to go to the grandmother of Kalu’s wife at about 11.00 hours to celebrate Lhosar there. Somehow no-one thought to tell us later that the plans had been changed and we wouldn’t be going until about 16.00 hours! But we enjoyed relaxing in the sun and talking to a very interesting guy from Germany who has lived in Scotland with the findhorn community for about 30 years.
Of course the visit to the grandmother meant eating yet another meal and I must admit we were glad at the prospect of going back to Golphu the next day as we were getting a little tired of eating all day!
SUNDAY 6 FEBRUARY
After breakfast, we thanked the family for inviting us to spend Lhosar with them as this is a very special occasion and it was very interesting to see how they celebrate New Year. Unfortunately they simply wouldn’t let us pay for any of the food as they had invited us to their home as their guests. They would only let us pay for the cigarettes, water and toilet paper we had bought there, but somehow Philip managed to slip Biru some extra money, as although we understand we were invited there, we also wanted to contribute something more than rakshi to the numerous meals we had eaten there!
The funny thing was,that as Lhosar is celebrated over a 2 week period, during the next few days, we were offered the rubber bread on many occasions by the Sherpa people in Golphu, which included our lodge owner and the owners of the lodge where we have lunch. Believe you me my handbag was full of crumbs by the time we left for Kathmandu!
MONDAY 7 FEBRUARY
Today we went to Kathmandu and this time we both fancied walking there as we thought it would be nice to re-visit the places we had been to a year ago. So on Monday we set off on the 6 hour trek to Chisopani which we both thoroughly enjoyed especially as it was quite warm. We were amazed to meet schoolchildren along the way who apparently knew who we were, as we heard them giggling and whispering to each other “Golphu Bhanjyang” or “Golphu Miss”! Someone even told us that they had heard of us in the Everest region and although I don’t know the exact distance, I do know it’s a very long way from Golphu!
Much to our amazement we had our first really hot shower in 6 weeks at the lodge in Chisopani thanks to very large solar panels on the roof and afterwards we sat on our bed with a very comfortable mattress in our extremely sunny room enjoying wonderful views of the Himalayas topped off with a beautiful sunset – wonderful!
TUESDAY 8 FEBRUARY
As neither of us relished the thought of walking the 5,500 steps down to Sundarijal and I still am worried about the bears in the Shivapuri National Park that we would have to walk through, we decided to rent a jeep to Kathmandu, especially as it only cost NRS 1,000 / € 10 for the 2 of us. Wrong decision! The roof the jeep was so low that we had to stoop for 3 long hours to avoid banging our heads on the ceiling as the jeep slowly negotiated the extremely bumpy, wet and muddy dirt track through the National Park. But eventually after being thrown around the jeep for what seemed like an eternity and feeling like we’d been in a food processor (!), we reached the outskirts of Kathmandu and its relatively “good” roads!
After lunch at the Hotel, we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at and trying to answer as many e-mails as possible. In the evening we went to the Gaia restaurant which we now always go to on our first evening back in Kathmandu and enjoyed Chicken Sate washed down with Rum and Cola –delicious!
WEDNESDAY 9 – TUESDAY 15 FEBRUARY
Kathmandu with as usual loads to do including the following:
- Checking our bank account and thanking people for new donations and much to our surprise and great joy, 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!
- Visit the Garden of Dreams which someone we met in Kutumsang had told us about in glowing terms and it turned out it was literally 2 minutes away from our hotel. An absolute oasis right in the middle of Kathmandu with the most beautifully kept gardens, with a variety of colourful flowers, plants, ponds and numerous little hideaways where much to our surprise young Nepalese lovers come to kiss and cuddle with each other (in Nepal publicly showing affection is very much frowned upon). It was wonderfully warm as well so we spent the whole afternoon there “dealing” with our e-mails after having the most delicious lunch in the pavilion there which was very high-class with linen serviettes and flowers in bowls of water on the table and very well-mannered waiters – lovely!
- Arrange our visa for India which of course thanks to the legacy of British red tape, involved 3 separate visits to the Embassy! The first visit to fill in a form to apply for permission to enter India, after which they send a telex to the applicants Embassy to check you’re not an undesirable! The second visit, a week later, in the morning to fill in the visa application form and the third visit at 17.00 hours the same day to pick up your visa and pay the fees. It is still a mystery to us why the 2nd and 3rd visits cannot be combined in one visit but suffice it to stay we thankfully got our visas for India!
- Visit Dawa with Gautum from SVN It was nice to see Dawa again and Gautam came as well as he had never met Dawa before as Gautum has just started working as the Child Sponsorship Coordinator at SVN. He also asked the headmaster about the prices for Sangmo (the younger sister of Dawa) as much to our delight, we have found a sponsor for Sangmo so she will start attending the same school as her big sister next month!
- Visit Boudha again to buy a Tibetan horn and some souvenirs.
- Breakfast meeting with Rene Veldt, founder of SVN. Rene has lived and worked in Nepal for 10 years and gave us some very good tips on how best to help the Nepalese people in the future.
- Laminate photo of us standing in front of Golphu School . We will give this to Sir Julphe to hang in the school office. We also arranged for a short text to be added in brass letters under the photo: Philip Richter and Jenni Richardson of H.A.N.D.S. donated funds to damp- proof this school and to build two toilets. The work was coordinated by Mr. Julphe Chandra Gurung. February 2011.
- Laminate a photo of us to give to Meme (Pasang Sherpa) our lodge owner in which the following words were added under the photo: Thank you for making us feel so at home in your lodge. Jenni and Philip. October 2010 – March 2011. We also gave him a laminated photo of himself with his wife Ibi, son Purpha and granddaughter Purpi.
- Laminate some photos of the villagers themselves to give as a farewell present to our friends: Rajan, Krishna and Marja, Darcy and Ranju, Santi and Sam, Maya and the Lama with his family .
- Laminate colour brochure to hang under the school board in the village. Photo’s have to be laminated otherwise the weather and the smoke from the fires in their houses will ruin photos in a very short period of time.
- Print my working reports regarding our visits to the schools in Chitre, Pakhegaon and Chakheganda + the latest Excel sheet I made regarding our donors.
- Buy: some more fingerless gloves for Philip as old ones beyond repair, more toiletries, present for Purphi (ended up buying her a childrens watch which she loved!).
- Answer and send e-mails
- Pin lots of money! Apart from our living expenses for the next few weeks, we also needed to give money to the lama for the waterpipe, the shopkeeper (so that Munki can buy food there for the next year), and to a couple to pay for their child to go to a local school for the next year (which a Dutch couple are paying for), and money for my birthday picnic (cost € 120 in the end!) and € 160 extra for the school in Golphu as we had promised them Rs 400,000 (4 Lakh / € 4,000) and they received less due to the changing rates of exchange. We decided to advance the money to Munki and Deeplove (to attend local school) as if we transfer the money monthly, the bank costs are ridiculously high! We hope to return to Nepal next year in March and then we can either pay them another year in advance or we will have come to a better arrangement with the bank.
- Transfer RS 47,500 (about € 475) to the school in Neyemba for 6 benches, closing the wall between classrooms 1 and 2, and classrooms 3 and 4, new septic tank for the existing toilets + 4 blackboards. We have applied the same rule to Neyemba as we did for Solshing Gaon: we will pay for all materials required in advance but the remaining money we owe for salaries, we will not pay until we have received the final financial report including a copy of the receipts! In this way we know they will submit the report and receipts as quickly as they can!
- Ring Mum and Dad and my sisters + Philip rang his family.
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WEDNESDAY 16 FEBRUARY
Today we went back to Golphu and as usual our taxi driver turned up late, so we didn’t leave Kathmandu till 10.00 hours but luckily as a result we missed the rush hour traffic so got through the busy streets of Kathmandu and into the mountain foothills quite quickly. Unfortunately it rained the whole day so the last 2 hours were quite a challenge for our driver, as we travel on mountain dirt roads which of course get very muddy and slippery when it rains. He dropped us off as usual right where the Chinese are working on the Melamchi Water Works system as his taxi simply cannot negotiate the hills there. It was still pouring with rain and continued to do so for the 1½ hours walk up the mountain to Golphu. We had bought some Nepalese raincoats on the way from Kathmandu, as of course we had left our raincoats back in Golphu! (it has only rained for about 5 days during our 5 month stay in Nepal!). These raincoats are basically long, thick, black plastic bags which if you cut them down the middle, cover your head and most of your body. They helped to protect us from the rain a bit, but it was hard work climbing up a slippery wet mountain so we finally arrived in Golphu absolutely shattered and soaking wet from the rain and from perspiration – 2 ideal ingredients for getting a cold – which of course both of us developed in the next few days!
THURSDAY 17 FEBRUARY
Saw Sir Julphe this morning who told us he was going to Kathmandu today for 5 or 6 days . When he returns we will really push him to make the financial report for the work done on the school. We have of course already made our own report, but he needs to make it on School headed paper and to give us a copy of the receipts for the carpet, white cement and the wood for the toilet doors. We are waiting for so many reports at the moment and want to try to avoid everyone handing them to us on our last day in Golphu! In these last 2 weeks we hope to receive the following: the final financial report from the Golphu School and from the construction of the toilets (when they are finished), a revised application letter from Babu regarding building toilets in Thulo Syabru, application letters from the schools in Chitre, Pakhegaon and Chhachekdanda and an application letter from Krishna regarding re-opening the first aid centre in Golphu. We also hope to visit the schools in Solshing Gaon and Neyemba to film and photograph the work done so far and of course to say goodbye to Biru, Ganga and his family in Kutumsang. Phew – wonder if we’ll get it all done in time! Of course the application letters can be sent at a later date by e-mail, but it would be so much easier to receive them now as any comments or questions we have can be immediately answered and if necessary incorporated into a revised application letter.
We then went to look at the progress made on the toilets which much to our surprise was going well. Now finally we understand how a septic tank toilet is made. Basically after the site location has been chosen, the workers first look for sufficient stone in the nearby hills to construct the walls of the toilet and to line the inside of the septic tank. The septic tank is simply a very large deep hole in the ground where the waste material is stored until the hole is full. The hole needs to be lined with stone as otherwise the sides of the hole/tank will erode and maybe even collapse during the monsoon. The roof of the toilet is corrugated iron on which they put large stones to prevent the roof flying off! Then pipes are placed from the toilet to the septic tank with a separate pipe outside of the toilet to get rid of the initial “fumes”. The septic tank is then covered with a concrete slab and a pipe is installed from the inside of the tank to the outside, to get rid of the “fumes”. Finally another pipe leads from the septic tank down the mountain for a short distance. When the septic tank is full, the pipe is opened and the waste is distributed down the mountain! Not very ecological I know, but the best they can do due to the lack of a sewer system here. The village has already tried composting toilets but it simply doesn’t work, as there are always people (often from outside the village) who simply don’t throw ashes and leaves down the toilet which is necessary to separate the urine from the faeces.
Finally the wooden doors are placed, the outside walls are covered with cement leaving a hole which serves as a window and a hole is dug in the ground and lined with mud/cement with 2 footsteps on either side for people to stand on. We couldn’t believe it when Sir Julphe told us they had decided not to buy an enamel toilet pan because some people use stones which invariably blocks the toilet! To be honest we just didn’t understand what he meant when he said that some people “used” stones, so you can imagine our utter horror when he explained (with some embarrassment) that they used stones instead of toilet paper! We know that Asians use water and their left hand instead of toilet paper but never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that stones were also used – we can only hope they don’t use stones with sharp edges! Anyway enough of toilet talk – suffice it to say we’re eternally grateful that we can afford toilet paper!
The coordinator Krishna is visibly enjoying his work as coordinator as he strides purposefully between the two different toilet locations, helping and supervising the workers. It feels good to provide an unemployed person with work and specially someone like Krishna who can really use his skills now and the whole exercise must be a boost for his self-esteem.
Unfortunately Philip has now got a cold – probably as a result of walking in the rain for 2 hours, and I fear it won’t be long before I catch it off him.
FRIDAY 18 FEBRUARY
Gave my first lesson to Class 4 today at 12.30. Of course Purphi (from our lodge) and Barusa (from the opposite house) loved it that I was giving lessons in their class! I must admit the children were a lot less shy than Classes 8, 9 and 10. After about 10 minutes I already launched into my routine of asking volunteers to read the list of words I’d written on the board and much to my surprise someone always stood up! It was great fun teaching them and I wonder if, in the future, the teachers will also ask the children to stand up and individually answer questions. I know I’m not a professional teacher but I’m sure this method teaches the children more than if the whole class answers a question in unison.
After lunch Rajan went with us to the Lama to explain that he should buy the water pipe for the gompa before we leave Golphu in 2 weeks as we need the receipt. The Lama replied that as soon as the bus service to Kathmandu re-started he would go to Kathmandu to buy the pipe – the bus service had stopped for 2 days after the rain on Wednesday, as of course the road was now too wet and muddy for the bus to negotiate. After some discussion between Rajan and the Lama, he told us that he would ask some villagers to measure the distance between the source of the water and the gompa (using a piece of 50 meter rope) and Rajan would ring the Lama in Kathmandu to give him the measurements. Yet again it amazed us that the Lama had apparently done absolutely nothing since we had told him a couple of weeks ago that we now had the money to pay for the pipe. On the other hand I reckon he just thought next time I’m in Kathmandu I’ll buy 1 kilometer of pipe and we’ll take it from there! The fact that maybe 1 kilometer is too much or too little pipe doesn’t seem to occur to him. Yet again the Nepali’s inability to plan ahead is demonstrated and yet every time it happens, we’re still amazed!!
We then replaced the black and white H.A.N.D.S. brochure hanging underneath the School board with a colour brochure that we had had laminated in Kathmandu. We wanted to hang the black and white laminated brochure on a tree somewhere near Golphu, but there are simply no trees next to the trekking route that we could hang the brochure on – all the trees are too far away from the path! So we gave up looking and walked round the village trying to find a suitable place for my birthday picnic. Ideally it should be a large flat grassy area in the sun with no wind but we couldn’t really find a suitable place as it was very windy everywhere. So we decided to stop looking and see what the teacher Neopani would come up with on Sunday.
Talked to 2 trekkers from Sweden and Germany in the evening which was nice as we haven’t talked to trekkers for quite a time now as it really is low season at the moment. As the evening progressed I realized that I was probably getting a cold which is really annoying as it’s my 50th birthday on Tuesday and of course I don’t want to be sick on my birthday! Also it usually takes me weeks to get over a cold and I need all the energy I can muster for these final 2 weeks in Golphu as there are lots of things to finalize before we leave.
SATURDAY 19 FEBRUARY
Both of us now have colds and the wind was blowing quite hard today, so after washing some clothes we stayed indoors reading and catching up on our diaries.
SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY
After a horrendous night of coughing constantly and feeling very miserable that I should get a cold at this critical point in time, I decided not to give in to self pity so I still gave a lesson to Class 4 as I have only just started teaching them so I don’t want to call in sick after one day. I must say it went very well and it cheered me up immensely. I also decided to start taking antibiotics immediately as I simply don’t have the time or inclination to wait until I get better naturally, as I know from experience this can take up to 4 weeks.
After lunch, we dozed in the afternoon sun as luckily there was hardly any wind, and of course both of us were very tired as we’d had a sleepless night.
In the evening we went to dinner with Rajan, the 2 Nepalese teachers Neopani and his wife Kim Kumari and Gori Tamang (who teaches at the Pakhegaon School but stays in Golphu during the week). We have already been to dinner with them a couple of times and we wanted to ask them for dinner at our lodge. We know they don’t really feel at home eating at our lodge and it’s still very cold in the lodge in the evening, so we agreed with Rajan that we would have dinner at their home but we would pay for the food including chicken! That way everyone is happy! As usual it was a good evening and the hot rakshi with sugar, ghee and honey really helped our colds and we both slept very well that night. After we had all had a few drinks, I told Rajan I was still waiting for an answer to my question of a few weeks ago: what’s the strangest thing you find about foreigners! He laughed and then very cleverly turned to his friends and asked what they found strange about foreigners! They told us they found it very strange that so many young people live together without being married as that is simply NOT done in Nepal, and Kim couldn’t understand why the women cut their hair! We then had a very serious talk about our work here and about the habits and customs of both Europeans and Nepalis and yet again it was brought home to us that Nepalis think and act totally differently to us in so many ways! This might sound like I’m stating the obvious but with every week that passes, we discover yet another difference between us due to many factors, but the most important of all being the poverty, their religion (Hindu or Buddhist) and the lack of education which time and time again is the reason why they live and think totally differently than we do.
MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY
I really can’t remember what we did today so obviously nothing spectacular!
TUESDAY 22 FEBRUARY
50 today – wow! Philip showed me the video he had made in which all my family and friends wish me a happy 50th birthday. Wonderful to watch as it did feel a bit strange celebrating this landmark in a country which doesn’t celebrate birthdays and without my family and friends. So I must admit I shed a tear or two! Then Philip gave me a beautiful turquoise and red Nepalese necklace and earrings which I’ve been wearing ever since. Late afternoon I started to get some text messages from friends wishing me a happy birthday so that was also nice.
The rest of the day was spent as normal, giving Class 4 lessons and trying to arrange things including the picnic on Saturday. We told Rajan NOT to tell the villagers it is a birthday party, as otherwise they may feel obliged to give me a present which I know they cannot afford (and which we also simply don’t have the space to take with us!).
WEDNESDAY 23 FEBRUARY
Thank heavens – Mr. Julphe came back from Kathmandu today, so first thing tomorrow we will tell him that we want to make the financial report today! During the course of the last few months, he has told us the prices of all the things he has bought and the salary of the workers, but it wouldn’t surprise us if he didn’t tell us everything and we need to get it sorted out soon as we leave in less than a week. We have no idea what the toilets cost and they are still working on them, so it’s all a bit of a nail-biting experience as speed is definitely not one of the Nepali’s strong points!
THURSDAY 24 FEBRUARY
Today the Lama came back with the water pipe – 4 very large coils of pipe which he of course had to put on the roof of the bus. He was very happy and so were we, especially when he told us it had only cost about €80 instead of the €100 he anticipated! So now when someone dies they don’t have to run round the village trying to find long pieces of pipe to connect to each other. As I think I explained, when someone dies, they have 3 ceremonies and at every ceremony, all the villagers are “fed and watered” so to speak, so water is of course essential for preparing the meals and for the washing up afterwards!
Arranged with Mr. Julphe to come to the school at 15.30 hours to make the financial report. The whole School Management Committee was present and luckily one of their agenda points was apparently to make the financial report for us. They proudly told us that they had worked out all the costs including the costs for all 4 toilets (so luckily that problem was solved) and according to their calculations, they still had €290 over. Rajan went over all the costs with us and it took us 2 hours to get some clarity as several times they had put several things on one bill and just told us the total amount, whereas we of course needed to know how much each item cost separately. This sounds easy enough but with 10 people joining in the discussions, it becomes very difficult and longwinded! When we asked about the wages for the toilet workers, we were told they had already been included in the costs, and in the heat of the moment so to speak, we just believed him. But later that night, we wrote out my notes neatly and we came to the conclusion that that just couldn’t be the case, and if it wasn’t, then they had in fact spent all the budget (€ 4,000) and actually had no reserve! Luckily we had already arranged with Rajan to meet him tomorrow morning at 09.00 hours and if necessary we would spend the whole day working on the report until everything was crystal clear to us!
FRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY
The whole day long it was cloudy and cold which made us really worried what the weather will be like tomorrow when we have our picnic. We’ve tried hard to think of an alternative location if it’s cold and wet, but there simply isn’t anywhere, so we just have to be optimistic and if it is horrible weather tomorrow, we’ll deal with the problem then!
But we had other problems to deal with as we spent 5 hours today with Rajan making the financial report for the school and the village. It took a lot of work as we want to know the individual costs not only for the report, but to increase our knowledge of how much things like cement, sand, stone, porters, workers cost in Nepal (although the costs do vary per area in Nepal). This really is a different way of working than the Nepalis are used to, but Rajan enjoys learning and realizes that he can use this experience in the future, especially if we find funds to help the 3 schools we visited, as he will be the person who makes the financial report.
Rajan has been fantastic arranging everything we ask him to which included arranging our picnic, doing the financial report for Golphu, helping 3 schools to make an application for funds, copying the receipts the school in Golphu had made (as despite asking Mr. Julphe several times, he simply didn’t not do it!), right down to measuring exactly how much water pipe the Lama needs – which meant walking from the Gompa to the nearest water source with a piece of string which afterwards Philip measured with a tape measure to see how many meters it was!). When the applications come in from the 3 schools, Rajan will also be the coordinator and will ensure we receive the all-important receipts and the final financial report. As we simply could not have done so much without Rajan, we have decided to give him a one-off payment from H.A.N.D.S. for €100 for all the work he has done. As a teacher he earns about €150 a month, and we estimate he has already worked a full month for us, so we hope that donors agree with us that he deserves some reimbursement for all the time and energy he has spent (and will spend) on H.A.N.D.S. as without him, we simply could not have done so much.
In the evening we went to the wedding celebrations of one of the teachers which was celebrated literally in the house next to us. It was an arranged marriage, so the bride had to be carried from Chipling but this time we didn’t go with everyone to “collect” the bride as we were busy with the accounts all day. After joining in with the Sherpa dancing, we heard some “modern” music which the teenage kids were playing on a ghetto blaster nearby, so we joined them and much to their amusement showed them how we danced – including the bump (!) and of course Philip demonstrated his dancing skills to Michael Jackson which they loved! The rakshi was quite strong and we had a big day the next day so we left at about 22.00 hours and slept soundly despite the fact that the party went on till 06.00 hours the next day!
SATURDAY 26 FEBRUARY
Thank heavens – today is picnic today and we awoke to a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies! At about 10.00 hours we walked up to the picnic site (about 10 minutes away from the village) with Sir Julphe. Some villagers and teachers were already there and had started a few fires to cook everything on. They spread a large piece of canvas on the ground which they could sit on to prepare the numerous vegetables. Funnily enough we had used this very piece of canvas to hang above our bed in the house we had rented so we glad to see they hosed down the canvas first with water as we were afraid there might still be some rat droppings left on the canvas!
Philip and I both helped with the preparations and it felt good to sit with the teachers and some villagers to peel and slice potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and many spices (I peeled ginger for the first
time in my life with the end of a spoon as all the knives were in use!), and of course the chicken had to be prepared. In Nepal they cook every part of the chicken including the feet and head so we made it known we didn’t eat those parts in Holland, as for all we knew, they might consider these parts the most tasty and give us them to eat as a treat! There was a lot to prepare as we anticipated 100-150 people would come to the picnic! Everything was then put in a couple of massive pans and stirred with a long wooden branch from a nearby tree! These pans are expensive for the villagers (€ 50) so all the villagers had contributed to buying them and they are used on every occasion when the villagers get together. In fact they had been used the night before at the wedding, so we had to wait until they had been cleaned, before we could use them.
At about 12.00 hours all the villagers gradually turned up and as usual everyone helped with serving drinks, washing up, serving the food etc. They wouldn’t let us do anything so we had time to “talk” to the villagers. We all sat in a massive circle to eat our lunch and yet again we thanked our lucky stars that the weather was so good and that there wasn’t much wind. When we first arrived in Golphu, I read a description of Golphu somewhere as always being windy which we didn’t understand. Since December though, the wind has picked up and apparently it will remain windy until the monsoon comes in June/July, so you really have to pick your spot if you want to sit in the sunshine without any wind.
It was a lovely picnic and a very unique way of spending my 50th birthday – having a picnic with 120 villagers in the Himalayas! With so many people to help, it didn’t take long to clear up and wash all the plates and utensils. The big pots took some cleaning though and much to our amusement they threw sand in the pot and scrubbed away with a piece of fern (a Nepali scouring pad!) which was actually quite effective!
At about 16.00 hours just as the wind was picking up and the sun was losing its strength, we walked back to the lodge and divided the food that was left over amongst the villagers that had helped the most. We kept some of the beaten rice ourselves as we will give this to Munki tomorrow.
All in all a very special day!
SUNDAY 27 FEBRUARY
Today the Class 4 pupils wanted to learn English nursery rhymes so I tried to teach them Hickory dickory dock and Hands, shoulders, knees and toes which they loved! Afterwards they sang a few of the English songs they had learnt from their textbooks but the only one I recognized was Twinkle, twinkle little star!
After lunch Mr. Julphe helped us to reserve a jeep for Thursday to take us back to Kathmandu. It’s pretty expensive (€80) but we have so much luggage that it would be really difficult to walk down to where a taxi could pick us up and anyway we want to leave Golphu in style!
Afterwards we sat in the sun at the Action Aid building and finally I managed to contact Biru whom I’d been trying to contact for a few days. I told him we still had a cold and a cough so we had decided not to go to Kutumsang to photograph the progress made by the schools in Solshing Gaon and Neyemba and to say goodbye to him and his family. It is simply too far too walk in our state as we know we will sweat a lot and with the cold wind this will impede any improvement we’ve made the last 2 weeks. It really is a pity, but at the moment we are both feeling very tired and worn down and we want to enjoy our week’s holiday in Goa and come back to Holland refreshed! But Biru has promised to have a look when the work is finished, and send us photo’s. Luckily Biru was planning to go to Kathmandu soon to buy supplies for his lodge again, so we agreed to meet in Kathmandu. We will be seeing his father Babu anyway, to discuss his revised proposal so we can probably see them both at the same time. We can then also ask Biru if he had perhaps forgotten to ring the Headmaster of Neyemba to tell them we had some more money for them (€ 200) as the Headmaster turned up in Golphu a few days ago and as far as we could gather (he hardly speaks any English) he knew nothing about the extra money (sigh, sigh!).
At the end of the afternoon when it started getting colder we went to bring Munki some rice left over from the picnic yesterday, my turquoise ski jacket which will keep her very warm when it’s cold, some candles we had left over and a hat. Even though she doesn’t speak a word of English, it was obvious she was very happy as she put on the jacket and hat straight away and her smile spoke a thousand words!
MONDAY 28 FEBRUARY
The school had its annual picnic today as this is their last week at school before they get four weeks holiday. It was a beautiful sunny day and the picnic was held at a lodge about half an hours walk up from Golphu. We walked very slowly as we didn’t want to work up a sweat and arrived about midday. The lodge has flat grounds all around it, and a little stream and with the mountains in the background, it really was a very picturesque setting. Many of the girls were all dressed up in their Sunday best and a few Gurung girls (one of the many tribes in Nepal) wore their national Gurung dress of a long dark tunic and a maroon velvet shawl over their shoulders with a green bead necklace.
At about 12.30 we were served with fried potatoes, beaten rice, cauliflower curry and goat’s intestines which tasted like rubber – yuk! After the meal some of the pupils started dancing, first to traditional music but that soon changed to their version of pop music!
We took the opportunity to visit the nearby Gompa (Buddhist temple) in Gyang which we hadn’t yet visited. It only took about ten minutes to walk there and the wall and ceiling paintings, Thanka’s and wooden statues of Buddha were as usual beautiful in both their intricacy and colour.
When we returned to the picnic we chatted with Sir Julphe and asked him more about his life so far which actually is quite a sad story as his mother died when he was a baby and his stepmother totally ignored him, preferring his older brother.
Just as it started getting a little colder, they served up yet another meal consisting of course of dahl baht and goat. We managed to eat a little and then we excused ourselves as the wind was picking up and we are still nursing our colds. About an hour later everyone came back from the picnic and the kids had their own ‘afterparty’ dancing and singing round the village gompa and generally being teenagers! As the school term is nearly finished, this is also a chance for the children of Class 10 to say goodbye to each other, as invariably some of them will study on further in Kathmandu, returning to the village only on school holidays.
YET AGAIN WE HAD NO ELECTRICITY FOR OUR LAST WEEK IN GOLPHU, SO DESPITE MY BEST EFFORTS, I SIMPLY DID NOT HAVE TIME TO FINISH THE LAST FEW DAYS IN GOLPHU – I WILL DO THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE EITHER WHEN WE ARE IN GOA (although we had agreed with each other NOT to take the computer as we really need a few days rest) or after our return to Holland on 23rd March.
TUESDAY 1 MARCH
Teacher training course in Golphu for 3 days – bad timing as teachers and Sir Julphe busy with them + some teachers stayed in our lodge and chattered loudly until 22.30 at night and then again the next morning at 05.00 hours! Went to our old favourite place by the river for the last time!
WEDNESDAY 2 MARCH
Last day in Golphu. Packed + went to our other favourite place by the Action Aid building for the last time + finally received applications from the school in Chitre + from Krishna for re-opening the health centre in Golphu! Farewell dinner with Rajan, Krishna and Maya. Toilets nearly finished.
THURSDAY 3 MARCH
Farewell to school and villagers and travel back to Kathmandu.
FRIDAY 4 – WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH
Kathmandu!
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10 Maart 2011 - 09:28
Desiree:
petje af voor alle verslagen hoor! dat hebben jullie toch maar mooi volgehouden... ongelooflijk dat het half jaar al weer om is. ben benieuwd hoe het aclimatiseren in Nederland gaat. zal ook niet meevallen! we zien/spreken elkaar nog wel. goeie reis! -
10 Maart 2011 - 13:03
Marja:
Ik voorzie dat jullie nog vaak terug gaan......... -
12 Maart 2011 - 10:39
Peter En Wil:
We hopen,dat jullie heerlijk uitrusten, en genieten van een heerlijke week, dat hebben jullie wel verdiend,groetjes, en een dikke knuffel. -
17 Maart 2011 - 18:11
Ynske:
ha Jenni,
het is bijna weer tijd om bij te kletsen in Nederland...... wat gaat de tijd hard!
en ondertussen ook nog ons op de hoogte houden van de reis, een hele klus! veel groeten
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