The Nepalese Adventure: Days 24 & 25

Day 24 – Tuesday

The cockerel has been a bit quieter of late. Not to worry, the construction crew on the building next door now turn their radio on full blast shortly after 5:30 am. There is no winning. Perhaps I should have just started getting up at 5:30 every day. Problem is, dinner is around 8pm, sometimes 9pm, so it’s not like you can get an early night. At least I know when I get back and I can have long lies in and Karen and the kids will tiptoe around in the morning, quiet as .... No! Lets’ not have any more mice!

Last full day in Gorsyang today and therefore last day of school. After a breakfast of omelette and large sweet baps, Hindou and I went round to the school building lugging the new stools, vacuum cleaner and desktop computer, as well as our daily rucksacks.

No computer lessons until after lunch so divided the tasks to be done into Blue jobs and Pink jobs. Hindou vacuumed the Computer Lab whilst I fixed the computers.

Lunch: Dahl Bhat

After 2 days away, it is really really hard to go back to eating Dahl Bhat. I reduced my plate to the bare minimum and still struggled to eat what was left on it.

Computer lessons were good. 1^st one had a power cut half way through and the second one had no power at all - but I've become quite got good at improvising. Parshuram (teacher) told me that the 2^nd lesson would have to be cut short anyway (making it only 20 mins) due to a ceremony teachers were doing.

Principle Officiating

I didn’t realise the ceremony involved me (and Hindou). It was a thank you for our contribution to the school and the community. Messy old affair and didn’t they realise how much effort I’d put into cleaning that T shirt? Parshuram did most of the talking but there was sincere appreciation for my contribution from him, the Principle and, in fact, from all the teachers. Without the contributions from the outside world, the school would get nothing and would be nothing. They know that. I think I mentioned previously that the only government contribution is for teachers’ salaries. Not buildings, books, equipment, maintenance or anything else.

Parshuram in the middle

Bike mechanics crew

After school I went back to the homestay to find Milan and some of the other kids crowded round his bike trying to do repairs. Now this bike, still in active service, would have been consigned to the scrap heap by the western world long ago. The front tyre was flat and no sign of an inner tube in it. Running on rims is fine it seems. Back tyre might just have had a whisper of breath left in it. The chain was snapped in half and one of the pins/rivets was missing. Milan (who I might have mistakenly reported as 6 years old, but is in fact 5) had found a piece of stick to replace this. I produced some tools for them as repositioning the brake levers on the handlebars seemed to be a priority. Nothing on the other end of the brake cables that worked though….I helped for a while but my heart was not in it as there was never going to be positive outcome.

I went inside to start my blog but there were too many distraction and before I knew it I was pulled into a card game. That one of luck where you draw 3 cards. The only low denomination note I had was 50 Rupees. Once I’d lost all my money I tried to excuse myself from the game (no money left!) but they wouldn’t hear of it. Hindou “lent” me another 50 RS. The problem was that I only had 500 and 1000 RS notes in my wallet and felt really awkward about that. I was basically too rich to stay in the game! Game finished around 9pm (time for dinner). I had 35 Rupees left which I returned to Hindou. I’ll have to owe her the other 15 (11 Pence). Maybe she’ll let me off.

Prior to starting the game, a lady customer who was in the restaurant drank from my bottle of water. I’m not sure if she thought it was hers or thought it was just for random consumption. Anyway, I did point out it was mine (cost me 15 Pence so I wasn’t going to just let it pass was I?) She was mortified. Kept apologising over and over.  Took out money to offer to pay me which of course I declined and tried to explain that it was no problem. I had a second bottle beside me anyway (NB: I cut down on beer once I realised how expensive it was!) A short while later she was back, this time trying to force a cigarette on me until I finally persuaded her that there was no debt to be paid. For a while it was looking very like I was going to have to take up smoking!

Dinner: Dahl Bhat. Even harder to eat than at lunch time. I didn’t finish it, even with a “managed” plate.

I went to my room, lay down on top of my sleeping bag for just a moment and was out like a light. Unlike the actual light, which was still on. Woke some time later to a phone call. (KW x). Took the opportunity to get undressed, cleaned my teeth out of the bedroom window, and turned the light out before dropping into a deep, undisturbed sleep.

Day 25 – Wednesday

An early start as today is departure day. I can’t miss that bus otherwise I’ll be here for… Dahl Bhat and I just don’t think I can face that.

I was packed and ready for the 8:15 (ish) bus by 7:30am. That is way in advance for me. I bought my ticket from the shop next door last night. Luckily the teacher mentioned to me that I needed to do that. I think the ticket is effectively a seat reservation. You can get on without it but standing, for what turned out to be 7 hours, was not something I fancied! Even the romantic rooftop journey is exhausting for much more than an hour.

Breakfast: Pancakes (same as ours - with a little sugar) and curried chick peas.

Spent the next hour watching Milan terrorise a flying beetle. He had it captured in an empty plastic bottle. He tipped it out to show me, then putting it back in (by putting the bottle upside down on top of it) I could see it losing bits of its legs. I just wanted it to go free. There was a small one too but that was dead. Either way, into the bottle it went. I would hate to think it might have been a family member! Then he went over to the kitchen/restaurant counter and retrieved the one knife that Theresa uses for everything. Not quite the size of yesterday’s machete, but not far off. That I put a stop to. I took it off him and put it back where it came from. The very thoughts of a) the poor creature being dissected and b) the knife used for everything being used for the dissection and then just put back, were not good ones. I wondered how many times it has happened before. His next idea was a spoon from the cutlery pot. Ah, this was to ladle boiling hot tea over it. Nope! I put the spoon back. How to end this? I encouraged him to see if he could get the beetle to fly so we went to the balcony and he chucked it over. I like to think I did it some kindness there.

The Bus arrived! No big farewells or anything like that. I think they see so many volunteers come and go that I’m just one more in a long procession; and a month stay is one of the shorter stints out in the remote villages. Hindou didn’t get out of Bed. Bhim didn’t come home last night. Theresa looked up from the “washing up” outside to respond to my goodbye but then just went back to her washing up. Milan gave me a quick hug and onto the bus I went. A few calls from kids as we passed through the village but still early for them yet as school doesn’t start till 10:30. I’m still happy. I’m on my way!

If truth be told, I’m glad to be on the first leg of my journey home. I’m about at the end of my endurance; maybe in anticipation of the end drawing near anyway. That is to say, if I’d signed up for 2 months perhaps I’d still be going strong, but honestly, I’m about done in. Sleep deprivation. Lack of hygiene - not so much by way of facilities but the lack of recognition of what benefits good hygiene brings (and of course what the opposite brings) and finally, a lack of good company. It’s been very lonely here. The snatched conversations I’ve had with family have helped and the comments on the blog and various WhatsApp/Facebook/SMS messages have served as a lifeline so thank you to those who have contacted me at some point. But anyway – it’s not over yet – back to the journey home…:

A long bus ride. The seats were thickly and well upholstered. Once. I imagine. Now there was barely a scrap of cloth but at least there was a very supportive iron bar running across the back of my seat, just under my tailbone.  I was very glad of my neck cushion to give me some protection from it!

 
I was also glad of my seat reservation. However, I was still crammed because, despite paying good money for my reservation, a small child was deposited on my lap, his mum squeezed in beside me and shuffled over enough for one of her friends to also get on the edge of the seat. 7 hours! And after I paid £1.87 too!

Things got a bit easier after Battar when the friend got off and it was just the three of us. Mum asleep with her head on my shoulder, small (fidgety) son draped across us!  I tried to get a selfie as you can see.

The road was not in a great condition today as there was some rain last night. 3 times the road was so canted over that they had to unload all the people from the roof and a few from inside before attempting to pass. I wasnt sure if thet were concerned about the bus toppling over or peole simply falling off. We only got actually stuck in the mud once.

We made Kathmandu around 3:30pm and I was met by one of the Directors of Nepal Programs working for the NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) which is basically the organisation that arrange everything that I have just done. I asked him for a meeting regarding the logistics of a fundraising page as a number of people have suggested to me they would like to make a contribution towards the school where I was working and be assured that it is being put to effective use there. More about this below.

I arrived at the hotel, much as I arrived in Gorsyang on Day 3. Battered, bruised and knackered. In addition though, I was absolutely filthy. Not sure why it was so much worse than on the way out but I was covered head to toe in a thick yellow dust. Enough that I could write my name in it on my shorts!

After transfer to hotel I took a good long shower. Put on clean clothes and started to feel human again ready for my meeting!

The result of the meeting is that, whist Vol Nepal  (http://www.volnepal.np.org/) do have a fund raising page where you can make payments by Paypal, these cannot be identified and directed at a specific project. As an alternative I have created a Just Giving page where I can ensure the amount raised goes specifically to the school in the village where I volunteered. I will also be kept abreast of the developments and progress.

Page needs a little work yet but please visit it and make a donation  (and please nudge those you have shared the blog link with  to contribute tooJ).

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/chris-anders-nepal?utm_id=2&utm_term=E7dY7Jy7N

Now I need to get to bed as tomorrow I need to be at a meeting point at 5:30am before I go off to throw myself off a bridge on a 160 metre bungee jump – the highest in South Asia. I've not done a bungee jump before and I feel I need to do this quickly whilst I’m still in my mid 40’s! There’s other stuff too that I’ll be doing but (hopefully) I’ll be back to tell you about it!

Blog is suspended until I’m back in Kathmandu on Friday night as my phone is the only electronic device I’m taking!

And a few random photos for you:

Me and the kids

Me and the kids

Me and the kids

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/chris-anders-nepal?utm_id=2&utm_term=gwN3bdwdd

Last Visit? Not quite but not far off now!