Nepal is amazing. The people are friendly, it is calm and it is so very green. Unfortunately it is also monsoon, so my dream of being able to see the mountain range regularly has been postponed for now, but we did catch a glimpse the other night and although the peaks of the range almost looked like the clouds, it was incredible and we couldn't stop smiling. It just means we will have to come back in trekking season (March, October or November) one year and that doesn't bother us one bit!
Thankfully Nepal has not nearly been as hot as India. The day we landed it was only 23 degrees and Beeds and I high fived upon hearing this. Since then it has been high 20s to low 30s, with a lot of sun then sudden bursts of crazy heavy rain. It is cool. And it is due to this rain that the landscape is lush and just beautiful.
India certainly prepared us for Kathmandu. Since being here we have spoken to a lot of tourists who think Kathmandu is crazy, but it isn't a patch on Delhi. The litter is minimal in comparison, although still evident and unfortunately piles in certain areas of the river, there are no cows and the people don't harass you as much. However, this doesn't include the teenage boys trying to sell you marijuana every time you walk down the main bazaar. It is hilarious, as they come right up to you, put on a deep voice and ask 'you smoke, weed, hash, it's all good', me 'no', them 'why not, ok (head shake side to side) maybe in next life'.
On the first day of being in Kathmandu we met a friend of the charity we are volunteering at out here. His name, Bhim. He is fab and gave us a tour of the city, taking us to the many temples, pagodas and stupas. Demonstrating the peaceful attitude of the Nepalese people, these religious places are shared by both Buddhists and Hindus, with statues of both Gods represented in most. Quite incredible really when you compare this is a Rangers and Celtic match! Anyways, he also told us the second child in every Buddhist family is sent to school to train as a Monk or a Nun. They leave home aged 5 and cannot marry devoting their life to their religion. The Nepalese people are very poor so I am not sure in reality how many actually can afford this, but the things we are learning out here and the drastic contrast to our way of life, never ceases to amaze us.
All the temples are beautiful and the Buddha prayer flags stunning, but we have had a good time looking out for the many, slightly comical, karma sutra carvings on the buildings. Some are really outrageous, involving human and animal sex, threesomes, all sorts of positions and of course men with huge 'boners' and the below...!
We visited the school we are volunteering at in Kathmandu on our second day to plan when and what we are going to be teaching. The lady who coordinates this school is incredible. Her name is Prabha and she coordinates a project called 'Can Help Nepal' aiming to empower women and children in Nepal. For my work colleagues, you know this is right up my street! Being a Nepalese isn't easy full stop, life expectancy averages 60, 70% of the population are farmers involving long labouring days, carrying heavy loads and completing work by hand. But being female in Nepal is much much harder. Women have little rights here, run the family and are the ones who are, in the large majority, completing this labour intensive work outside (whilst from what we can see, then men sit and watch) are paid less, and we have been told often fed less at mealtimes. Prabha has set up social enterprise projects to help women escape this fate and she works intensely with schools to set curriculums, improve facilities and provide schools and their local communities with access to computers.
She has been overseeing the Snowland school in Kathmandu for three years. It was set up by a monk 13 years ago for children from a very remote area in the west upper Himalayas. The school is a charity and is free for these children. What we learned demonstrates just how deeply the Nepalese people appreciate and believe in education to develop their country and improve the chances for their children. The children leave their village aged 4/5 and don't return until they are 17. They don't go home for holidays, their parents don't visit, there are no phones and certainly not the internet. This isn't out of choice but simply because they are too poor. Upon hearing this it actually made me feel very guilty for sitting there and knowing how easy, in relative terms, we have it. However, ironically giving them an education in this way may actually deplete their villages. Prabha is well aware of this plight and that it will be very difficult to encourage these children to return to their villages after school. Recently money was provided by Australian charity to pay for some of the kids to be able to spend their summer there. Prabha told us that when this happened she found one of the girls crying and when she asked her what was wrong she said she didn't know how to use an airport so wouldn't be able to go home. They of course support the children with everything so this didn't turn out to be a problem!
On Tuesday we set off on a six day trek into the Kathmandu valley. The first day was really hard- straight up for four hours and carrying our stuff! It was amazing though. Walking through the rice paddies and saying 'Namaste' to the local villagers. Unfortunately we really are here In the wrong season for trekking so our summit views were non-existent. Even more unfortunately Beedie succumbed to another attack of weak westerners tummy syndrome!
However this time he had a high fever and we were just short of the height of Ben Nevis, with no car access. After antibiotics not having any impact, I found a motorbike and rider the following day to take him down to civilisation. Unfortunately the said rider reeked of alcohol, had no helmet (for himself or Beedie), the back tyre was worn out to the casing with no tread and massively overcharged us for the privilege. I've never seen Beedie look so ill and he said he hadn't felt as bad since he had meningitis, so what were we to do? At least he was chatty and friendly and dropped Beedie in roughly the right place! I walked down the hill with an American couple and when I found Beedie he was asleep on the ground next to a shop with about 10 Nepalese people staring at him and three chicks pecking the ground around him. Even although I was very concerned about him it was slightly comical, so I took a picture.
A visit to the 'nice hospital,' $100 bill and two days rest in Kathmandu Beedie was back to himself, so we set of for another 2 day trek in the nearby area. This time was more of a success. The scenery was beautiful we caught a glimpse of the spectacular Himalaya mountain range and we found an idyllic home stay run by a lovely family. We loved it so much we ended up staying an extra night.
We then thought we were going to have to stay a third night when the local police came to say that there was a bhandi (strike) planned for the area. We were shocked to hear this as although we knew that they were rife during the civil war we didn't appreciate that they still went on. During these strikes no one crosses the picket line, no one can work, drive or live their daily lives without fear of their possessions being burnt. Bhim told us how debilitating these are as people cannot earn money and on one occasion one lasted 13 days.
With all this fear in mind and the need to get back to Kathmandu for the start of our volunteering we decided to get up at 6.30 am to start a 10 hour walk back. Fortunately, after finishing a cup of tea we heard about a bus leaving for Kathmandu at 7 15 am. We quickly grabbed our stuff and got on it. Another scary bus journey rallying down dirt tracks we quickly realised that the strike hadn't materialised as everyone one was going about their lives as normal. Apparently talk of the bhandis are frequent but Bhim told us they in reality only occur about 7days a year!
That's us now packed up for the next stage of our adventure. 20 days in a remote village volunteering with the Future Village Foundation. I am hoping to do some sports development work. We have been scrubbing up on our knowledge of nouns, verbs and adjectives for teaching English. We have download plenty of Scottish Country dance music as we aim to hold a ceilidh at the end of our stay.
Namaste for now my friends.
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Another great post Jenny, it sounds a very interesting and definitely makes me want to visit Nepal!
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