Quite used to 'Nepali time' now, our jeep transport to take us to Katunge village left three hours late and the drive was an experience I am not sure either of us will forget or want to experience again.
Our old rusty Mahindra jeep, designed for 10 people (at the most) carried 18 passengers. There were three passengers, and the driver, in the front seats. The driver was wedged against the front door, with his left hand on the right hand side of the steering wheel. The passenger next to him had her feet in the drivers footwell and the gear stick on the outside of her left leg. Also joined in the front on one ladies lap was a box of chickens and unsurprisingly one died during the journey. In our row there were four of us...and a baby. Beeds and I had to hold up the front rows back rest which was broken. In the back there were five people, one sitting on the knees of the others and three boxes of chickens. This was one hot, sweaty journey and made even more uncomfortable with 60kg of rice at my feet. We have never shared so much sweat with strangers! However, at least we were not sitting on the roof, like six others, with all the luggage and cargo. At several points we asked to get out and walk as the going was so slow, bumpy and scary. This 'normal' journey for locals was proper off roading with eighteen passengers and a baby and of course no baby seat in sight!
After three hours we arrived in Katunge and immediately realised the journey had been more than worth it. We stayed at the Future Village Centre which is best described as a youth centre with local children attending each evening for two hours. Future Village sits on the hill side at 1500m with spectacular views of the valley and three mountains; two over 8000m! This has been a wonderful addition after initially being so disappointed to not see the mountains in the way we thought we would from the Kathmandu valley.
Our contact in Kathmandu who had set up our stay was not arriving until the following day. Therefore we arrived with no one able to let us know what was happening through language barriers. We got up at 5.15am and went to a government school on our first morning, finding a real third world school and building. No one spoke English apart from a few words, not even the English teacher. Oh dear. We went to our first class, the teacher handed us their 'Easy English' book to teach some twelve years olds, said 'teach' and walked out. Lets just say the Easy English books are not easy or at all suitable. The children unfortunately seem to spend their time copying out the questions and repeating things in English the teacher says with no comprehension of meaning. It took them a few days to stop repeating me saying 'listen' and shouting 'ear' when I held my ear obviously trying to get their attention. It was actually quite amusing! After the first class we abandoned these books and did not pick up another during our teaching. Instead we played games with the 3-8 year olds to develop basic speaking skills and attempted things like directions with the older ones!
On our first day at the school we were shocked by the lack of teaching staff in the classrooms, seeming to be on perpetual breaks and leaving the children unsupervised. This led to a lot of the children, particularly the younger ones, wondering into our lessons and climbing the window bars when we shooed them out. We dispared as we asked the teachers to stay in the room but after five mins they would leave! That evening, our contact from Kathmandu arrived. His name is Dambar and he is also responsible along with a Hong Kong lady for setting up the project. We raised our concerns with him about the school. Dambar somewhat put some concerns at ease and certainly raised our understanding of the incredible Future Village project and local government schools.
His own story is incredible. Now 37 years old, He himself grew up in Katunge and was very lucky to have attended school. His parents and grandparents discouraged him from attending, but he was determined so walked, bare foot, for four hours everyday. At the age of 12 he got his first pair of flip flops. At the age of 17 he had only been to the local town once (a 4 hour walk away) and left to go to Kathmandu aged 18 and with £1.60 to his name. Occasionally sleeping rough he managed to get a job as a porter, carrying tourists heavy bags on long treks in the Himalayas. Because he is from a high Cast he was able to progress to a guide relatively quickly. He has been to 6000m on Everest and now runs his own successful trekking company in Kathmandu as well as coordinating the Future Village project here.
Dambar met a lady from Hong Kong, Christie, during one of his treks in 2004. Studying for a Phd at the time she asked if she could visit his home village for research and that is how Future Village began. Christie noticed the children were doing adult jobs in the fields or hanging around not doing anything, as although there were already government schools here no one really attended. At that point and still to this day, rural education is not regarded as essential to families as they have never been educated, they have no income and they grow their own food, so why is an education needed? Furthermore, although there are government schools the children still need to buy their own jotters, pencils and pay nominal fees for exams. These only cost 15p and exams 50p, but parents just do not have the money to provide these for their children, so before Future Village, most did not go to school. Future Village centre was built (the land bought for $400) and Dambar worked hard to persuade parents that education is essential and the charity provides the children with pens, jotters, pays for exams and school uniform. Below is a picture of the children receiving their monthly jotter and pencil in the rain!
The project has also evolved to fill the gap of teachers to working in government schools (our eight class school has 5 government teachers) and built sanitation provision in the nearby area. It is clear it is now a well respected and important part of the Katunge community.
On hearing these stories we were shocked to realise just how poor rural Nepal is. Of course the poverty is evident in the children's dirty and ripped clothes, the fact we are on a mountainside and most wear flip flops, with some older adults still in bare feet, but for parents to not be able to pay 15p for a pen and paper so their child can go to school really made it hit home and what we were working with. Although the school was very hard work and teachers work ethic frustrating, with a terrible principle teacher, we were just glad the children were actually at school, being allowed to be children, getting some education and structure. Over our eight days there we tried to instill non violent discipline which the children positively responded to and managed to decorate some of the rooms with their artwork. The children were so cute and we think enjoyed our teaching games and style as shouted out their classroom 'teacher, teacher , come teach' at every opportunity. We were also pleased that over the week two older teachers watched parts of our lessons and asked us to come every year for two months...!
Before going to our second school in Katunge we had resigned ourselves to the fact that all rural schools must be this standard. However, we were very pleasantly surprised when we were warmly welcomed by principle and teachers, who could understand and speak English (a key part of their curriculum with a fifth of their time dedicated to our language) and found a newly built school which looked and felt like a primary school (built by a German rotary club three years ago). Don't get me wrong, although far better, the teachers still liked to leave class early and start late, but the children's behaviour was good, we didn't have an audience of tiny faces gazing through the bars and shouting answers and the teachers did not hit the children. They also sat in on our lessons and were appreciative of our efforts.
Physical Education isn't a part of the curriculum here, partly because the schools are on a steep hill, partly because of lack of money and resources, so sports equipment is not a priority and because there is certainly not an obesity problem here! Below is a pic of our walk to school!
However, knowing the value of what physical education can provide out with physical fitness I was determined to spend some time teaching basic games, which require little equipment with both children and teachers. It was truly amazing that neither teachers nor children had even heard of rounders and of course watching the teachers getting as excited and competitive over the game as the children. They insisted they were going to play many of the games again and hope I have left them with some ideas and inspiration to do so.
We also managed to squeeze in some lessons about Scotland and found ourselves dancing the Gay Gordon's and singing Flower of Scotland in front of 40 pupils and teachers. They probably don't think much of our anthem due to our singing abilities but they clapped and sang their own back before two girls were coerced into showing us some traditional Nepali dancing!
In the evenings the children arrived at Future Village for class at 4.30pm, although as Dambar told us, if we play games, they will come and over our three weeks they started to arrive at 3.30pm with more and more each day! Future Village is a great facility, but it is tiny. The outside is maybe the size of two squashed badminton courts and the two classrooms each 4x3ms. Just two nights ago one had 44 3-7 year olds in it and the other 34 8-15 year olds in it!
Again we have been teaching English, but with a lot of emphasis on phonetics. The children cannot pronounce words starting with 'S', always adding an 'E' first and instead of 'F' they say 'P' which has lead to a lot of animals in the sea being called 'pish'! We also taught lots of playground games and skipping with the ropes we bought from fundraising (thanks everyone). It has been very rewarding watching them practice and if children in the UK were as enthusiastic about being active as they are here I would be out of a job! We also did ceilidh dancing which was carnage, but loved by the children!
Between finishing school (11am- starts at 6am) and starting Future Village we spent time exploring the local hills and villages, with long walks in the heat. The place is just beautiful and although everyone says to avoid Nepal during monsoon, we are actually so glad to have experienced it. All the men and women are harvesting and replanting their rice. Of course all by hand and using ox's to plough the fields.
We were lucky enough to have a shot of planting rice with one of the teacher's families. They all own some land and work in teams of about twenty to help harvest each over the month so they have enough rice for the year. In bare feet we walked down across the steep paddy fields whilst the locals threw the large sods of rice seedlings down trying to splash us. We realised when they all laughed a lot and gave us a shot this is part of the game. It was hard work in the heat and we only did it for one hour, they then invited us to have lunch with them and after we left, leaving them to carry on their eight hour shift! It is near impossible to get Nepali people to smile for photos, so I was delighted to capture the farmer's smile in this picture during lunch!
We haven't stopped being amazed at the weight of the baskets full of corn, animal feed etc these older teenagers to men and women carry, I genuinely don't think I could lift them, never mind carry them up a hill and of course in flip flops! We were also amazed to see the number of older people here after reading the life expectancy in Nepal is 66. Dambar informed us they only conduct this census in Kathmandu and it is not unusual for people here to live until they are between 80 and 90. Quite amazing really as medical supplies are very expensive for the people here. One of the little girl's from Future Village broke her arm and to cast it cost 200 rupees, around £1.70, which the brother told us was very expensive!
However, despite the poverty here, the people couldn't be more generous. They share everything. The locals have welcomed us and are genuinely delighted to see us. White people only came here for the first time in around 2006 and the children would run scared! Although they do have volunteers, there are no tourists. Therefore outside of Future Village, us Westerners are still a novelty and few adults speak any English. On one occasion we were caught in a very heavy monsoon and four old ladies gave us a seat, tea and offered us food. In return we showed off our ability to count to ten in Nepali, said a few basic words, which they laughed at, and showed pictures of Scotland on our phone. We also played Highland Cathedral. The whole thing was pretty surreal and I am quite sure they think the screech of the bagpipes is as bad as we think the sound of their music!
Thankfully we did not need to experience another jeep journey down the hill as the dirt roads became impassible with the full force of the monsoon. We were more than happy to walk!
The people and children in Katunge are amazing and beautiful. Although we are looking forward to getting back to some home comforts in Kathmandu we will miss the beautiful mountain views in the mornings, the torrential rain in the afternoons, the cuddles from the younger children, high fives and calls of 'teacher, teacher'. We will remember this for a long time and really do hope to return one day.
As you can tell there are just so many differences to how we live our life and I wanted to include a few more things which just amazed us and a few things which we will not miss so much!
1. Everyday at the second school we worked at there was a 1 year old baby seated on the window sill in the Grade 4 lesson. When I asked the teacher why, he said the parents had to go to farm everyday, there are no grandparents and if the 9 year old girl couldn't bring her baby sister to school then she wouldn't come either. The baby did not cry once.
2. Being able to walk in flip flops carrying around 60kg (men) and 40kg (women). They put the basket strap round their head and rest the weight on their back. No wonder they are all so short, it must inhibit their spinal growth somewhat!
3. That four teachers had to carry a lady for four hours down the hill in the dark and pouring rain who needed urgent medical attention. We were told they made it ok and she is fine.
4. Three year olds being given 'Easy English textbooks' the picture below is of a girl who became my favourite. I saw her eating hers one day.
5. In Nepal people only have Saturdays off. One of the teacher's family and wife live a six hour walk away. He leaves after school on a Friday, walks the six hours, then returns the following day for starting school on Sunday. Another teacher can only return to his family home and wife twice a year during longer holidays, as he lives two days away.
6. How the boys and girls, up to at least around age twenty sit and link arms, cuddle to squeeze together and have absolutely no inhibitions about doing this, unless of course it is with the opposite sex.
7. How it can go from being 30 degrees to torrential rain in the matter of minutes and then back again.
8. Teachers are one of few jobs with salaries here and they earn £200 a year. Families without salaries (most) rely on a family member working elsewhere and sending money home.
Will not miss so much...
1. Eating rice everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
2. Having to wipe my bed clear of tiny ants every night.
3. Stray dogs in classrooms. Only ever one at a time but still!
4. Beeds will not miss being called 'sister' by the children.
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Location:Katunge
