Author: Derek

Tuesday, 4 May 2010

The Maoists postponed my trip. They called a general strike and the country grinded to a halt. The political situation is quite complex. My understanding was that some people were really unhappy and needed a holiday. 

The buses were stopped and anyone who opened their shop would get beats. The Maoist had this much power because they had the support of the poor people and there were a lot of them. The latest strike was about Prime Minister holding onto power and the refusal of drafting the Maoist militias into the national army.

7 days of hardcore boredom. Did I beat it?! umm read on. 

Another water problem. Nothing a 6.5 kg watermelon cannot solve.  It’s pretty good. The water problem eased because I had treated water from my friend’s so it’s all cool!! I only required 2L a day. My activity level was reduced so I sweated less. I never drank too much water at once. It was not ideal but I didn’t need to turn to alcohol. I was cool about it. 

Suddenly I had so much freetime. I avoided attending the violent protests. Arjun offered me a front row experience though, but no thanks. I thought I would improve the experiments. The mechanics experiment was further improved to obtain the speeds at different point on the track hence the acceleration (One should prove the acceleration as constant).  By using the camera phone to take the video. I could analyse each frame to see the relative position of the block in its time history. But I didn’t, because it was obvious (like duh) from the stiction that the acceleration was not going to be uniform.

I finished all my reading books and after reading them again. I turned my attention to my remaining 10 pieces of origami folding paper. Which I also actually worked out that it was not very square. They were supposed to be square dammit. There was only two options. One of them was to build an army of Kangaroos or something else. I did the something else which I last attempted since Primary school. The origami style was much more japanese. The kangaroo can sourced to a book printed in china. 

I guess boredom won. 

Sunday, 2 May 2010

Guide, got. Big hat, got, Scarf, got. Ready to roll.

Most of the items are from the beginning of my Nepal. However some medicines and toiletries had to be topped up. My health until the start of the trek has been well. And it was actually my host family who used up some of my medicines / first aid. Crazy! Next time I must get a better pair of sunglasses. Not much snow up there in this season so I managed without a good pair.  

It was proved to be sufficient until food poisoning. I had to buy any hygienic product I could. There were loads available on the trek and they were not as expensive as I thought it would be. 

Other critical items:-

Antihistamines x 15 (one for each day)

Suncream, MUST

DEET, MUST unless one have a fetish with bedbugs

Energy Drink x 4 tablets red fluorescent stuff Awesome stuff!

Chocolates x 8 (bought) 

Immodium x 6 (bought) 

Paracetamol x 12 (bought), local Nepali quality medicin

Diarrhea Juice packets  x 4, In case of food poisoning. Typically lasts 2-3 days max. Any longer, hospitalisation is a clear probability. Dose is 1 a day so four was plentiful. 

Plastic water bottle 1L 

Toilet Roll 1 x roll (bought) Quality Nepali paper, soft but firm fit for my bum

Dettol x 100ml (bought), lost on the first day.  

Soap bar (bought) used for washing clothes as well

First Aid kit (Bandage, plasters and antiseptic cream) would be useful for blisters etc. But my boots were worn in/out with 2 months of Nepal under my belt!

Saturday, 1 May 2010

Prem and I visited the hostel. I decided to return before it got dark. So I asked him, ‘I am going to head home, are you coming?’, ‘No, Later’ was the answer. I got home, and waited patiently for my Dhal Bhat.

The dogs started to bark uncontrollably. A local woman came and informed my host family that Prem was hit by a motorcycle. He was injured and unconscious. Taken to hospital, ironically next to the man who hit him. 

Needless to say, I was very worried because Prem was unconscious. After an operation on his ankle. Remarkably, the only major damage was breaking his ankle among numerous cuts on his back, arm, head and torso. Movement on the toes was good news too. The only help I was able to give, was 10000Nrs (90 pounds). I guessed it would have been handy to ensure hospital treatment. It was good that I was there, I am sure the Lama’s could find that money elsewhere, most importantly was Prem recovers and it seemed he has. 

Going to a hospital in Nepal also meant that one would be stripped of pretty much all possessions. Prem lost his glasses, wallet, mobile phone and one flip flop. I guessed someone just fancied his right flop.   

Next time, I should have picked the little guy up and took him home. The geography of Nepal was not friendly for people who are disabled due to the inclines, potholes. Hence I had to step up and help him out beyond the call of duty of being a good friend. (Not my fondest memory of Nepal)

It just shows that life can be fragile but strong at the same time. He broke the bike more than the bike broke him. I am sure I would have sustained a lot more than a broken ankle. Everything in life has risks attached to it. The way I see things now, it is all probabilities, I just have to maximise my chances of staying safe and hope that unfortunate events do not occur.    

Thursday, 22 April 2010

So on this Saturday I was woken up at about 6am by a monk band, similar to a buddhist boy band. The band began their chorus. I used my experience from sleeping through artillery fire during my time at boarding school to get back into sleep. They clearly wanted to wake me up. They brought on the trumpet solo which was pretty sharp and a drum roll to complete the job. My host family was pretty sure that I was up.  It continued for the next three days.  

It was the nepali new year, so naturally we went to get a new bamboo for the new flag. The specification were straight and old. I spotted the perfect one and pointed out to the crew. But being nepali and local, they could not possibly let a foreigner choose with no previous experience of bamboo shopping. They spent ages looking at every single bamboo. Eventually settled on the one I pointed out ages ago. The kitchen kukri (an inward curved nepali blade) was used to hack down the bamboo. 

I was honoured when they offered me the buffalo eyeball, (one of the more expensive parts) because I was the honoured guest. As Kaptan showed me the raw eyeball enthusiastically, Prem explained that it was difficult to buy an eyeball. Cheers Guys.

I think it is quite an asian to take pictures of the meal but in this case it was a good thing that I didn’t. Presentation for this dish was really not particularly good. But then, is it possible to present a dish with a squash ball sized eyeball beautifully? The eyeball was clearly looking at me. It was surrounded by three meaty bits, which I assumed was the muscle which controlled the eyeball movement. I only had a fork, I hadn’t progress to eat with my hand like a true local yet. I did eat with my hand in my last week in Nepal. So I decided to take the whole ball in one. The taste was buffalo-y. The eyeball bursted with jelly like texture, the taste was ok. But the meaty bit was insanely chewing. So I had an eyeball flavoured chewy meat in my mouth. I really had to focus and concentrate to make sure I did not vom in front of them. 

Buddhism books are insane. There were really thick. I think this one book out of 7 or something and they were studying it. The whole ritual lasted 4 days. The locals would come in to sit and listen to their teachings. It would be the normal stuff like, do not kill people and do not steal, standard code of conduct. Unfortunately I don’t really understand Tibetan but I did the ritual anyway. But I was a bit pi**ed off when they offered me untreated holy water. The fact that it was untreated meant I didn’t fancy it. If there is one about religion that I hate, it is this holy water stuff. It is such an unnecessary and overrated drink. I respect most religions but if each one offered me holy water. It is not like drinking Ribena. I am sure these guys put standard stuff in but some religions do put something weird… No means no…    

In Nepal is officially a Hindu country however a lot of the population follows Buddhism. There are also increasing amount of Christians and Muslims. It is then surprisingly safe considering the diversity in caste, culture and religion. 

Saturday, 10 April 2010

The next step was to show the local teachers how to run a lab and experiments for the kids. The teachers seemed to struggle because they did not understand why a kid could not do the experiment. Thus they barged in and performed the experiment for them. The kids seemed to just watched and were not active enough because they all relied on learning from a text book, not through trying or experimentation. Hence I simply needed to make a textbook specifically for each experiments so the local teachers can follow it. Problem solved. :D.

I had plenty of problems in making this ‘textbook’. First it was the three hours of electricity a day meant computer time was limited. The tycoon kindly lend me his office to work in and with generator electricity I had enough computer time. Then there was the sheer boringness in the job of performing all the experiments to identify everything and transfer that information into a computer. Luckily I spent a lot of my uni life perfecting my MS Paint skills hence I was pretty proud of the clarity of the drawings.  

In the end, I pulled off a 35 pages document with a complete experiment report on each of the 15 experiments with 3D drawings and clear basic instructions for the teachers. Finger crossed it might work. It was done probably. Since I did tell the Tycoon, I am not going to leave anything to chance. I had been in Nepal long enough and understood the second law of thermodynamics to know what needed to be done. 

The correct technique (according to John) in making a wet slide for the microscope. Explained using MS paint.

Below shows a simple magnetic experiment to show field lines. 

This whole task took me a lot of time, but with hindsight, it was all worth it as it gave the project better odds at surviving the test of time. Nepalis had a different way of approaching education. The teachers’ strength was to follow textbooks rigidly. The kids’ strength was the discipline in learning and willing to copy / learning by repetition. Hence the science report which gave the teacher something to follow, and the kids something to copy and eventually they might learn from it through repetition. I wanted to change their learning style, but that was not going to happen in three months.  

I think the teachers raised their game as well because they did command respect in a class room. Physical punishment might have helped in that case but the kids were very willing to learn as well. Therefore it was very rewarding to add something more to this school.   

Saturday, 3 April 2010

This was the driest place I went to. You could feel the air sucking water out. It was a pretty tough place to live. People would have to spend half a day to walk and carry water back to their homes. 

My host family had deep family connections to a German family, Kaptan (the father)’s old boss. He was the connection. They raised money to build a chorten (temple thing tibetan style) for their village in memory of his grandfather which was a really nice gesture. Prem actually designed and managed the building of the chorten. The proportion of each part is representative of the Buddha in a meditation position. 

It was the eye opening ceremony which I witnessed first hand. The all seeing eye of lord Buddha is watching you. Kind of like the religious and low cost version of the CCTV in the UK. To be fair to a lot of Nepali, they were actually really honest because they respected Buddha and believed Karma. 

I took part in the ritual, sprinkled some rice over it. It was really good event for the locals. His grandfather was the leader of the village. It was pretty incredible story. First it was just Kaptan working in KTM for the Germans, and the Germans made him move his family to live in KTM with Kaptan. The family of 6 then lived in the guardhouse. The German couple made sure the kids were educated and the girls were treated with equality. That was the short version.

It was well worth the 7 hours round trip. I promised Prem that we would ride to his village from KTM in the future, like his father and his friend. So I need to learn to ride a motor bike. I might have said that I rode a motorbike. Let me clarify that there were no hard evidence that I rode a motorbike in Nepal since I wiped my fingerprints off the handle bar. It would have been a bit illegal but no-one remember anything. 

I could never survived out here. So much of the year with so little water. Nepal is one of the countries with the most amount of fresh water. Spare a thought for those developing country without a huge source of water. The world is a bit crap really. 

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

I used all my physics knowhow to plan some possible experiments. My pedigree in physics is that I was taught by the best in Mr P K Wheatley. You can learn the physics well from most teachers, but what was different was the no-nonsense BS approach, cheap and cheerful experimental physics.     

There were 11 experiments which I planned with reasonable amount of confidence that they will work, 3 did not :(. So now, it was about where to find the kit. I went to a science lab shop in Kathmandu. Interesting location down a back alley. Their inventory was outstanding. I got some sewage pipe from a hardware store. (Ironically the quality of the shit pipe was really good). Took me ages to saw with my blade. Stationaries for paper, Cloth factory for Cloth, Machine Shop for clamps. The tycoon gave me one of his employee for a few days. Karma, he was cool. He rode the motorbike, while I focused on holding on the all the stuff we bought through Kathmandu. Holding 10 kg of stuff with both hands on the back of the bike  weaving through KTM was quite relaxing. 

Then it was a matter who was going to pay for it. It wasn’t going to be me. No problem. My cheap and cheerful style made it’s all cool with whoever was picking up the tab. I think Birkdale picked up most of it. I did buy some strings out of my own pocket. 😀

300 pounds was the final amount. Birkdale school bought 5 microscopes for that amount but that was a challenging, risky investment whereas mine was pretty safe and robust. I.e. lots of experiments can be performed.

Salt and Sand, for separation of mixture, to highlight the properties of different solids. Also to teach them filtration to separate solids from liquids. I took advantage of the insane number of petri dishes the lab have. Another easy experiment in the bag. 

The problem in Nepal is that everything I wanted was always not quite what I wanted. If I ordered something which was not quite what I wanted, it would be not actually be what I ordered. This was Nepal, it kept me on my toes. Therefore it was important to check everything to make it safe for the kids. This one had a bonus rusty half nail. Sand paper was used to take out excessive splinters. The cuts on the PVC pip was terrible. So I used a hacksaw blade. My right index finger ensured a straight cut. A pair of gloves was really useful in protecting my hand. However, I managed to lose a few percentage of my index finger by slicing it on a metal cap in the shower so accidents do happen. However, if you look at the bigger picture, 10 fingers, 1 cm cut on one finger was not a very big deal. 

Other surprises offered was equipment that looked good but was actually really crap (indian made). Made in China goods were actually a sign of genuine quality in Nepal. A bit of a lesson learnt there. 

I chose the powerful alloy as supposed to umm… not so powerful alloy. They really won me that label. Somethings were insanely cheap. 45p test tube rack. Top quality racks there. Somethings were insanely exp. 50p for a single test tube bung. “I know exactly where you should shove that” I said to the Shopkeeper, in my mind. 

First I bought one set of equipment to make sure it works. This was the prototype pinhole camera aka ‘The Bazooka’, Variable zoom (perfect demonstration of the inverse square law, (private message me for more information on this), basic construction, very durable. But It was about 3 times longer than it needs to be. The next batch was more sensibly sized. Hence it was important to get one set of equipment working first. 

I knew the experiments would work, however, I needed to perform them myself to make sure the results that the kids would get are consistent. And what they can learn from each experiment. The sizes of the readings and timings were actually pretty important if you want to help a bunch of kids who has never done any experiments. 

Monday, 29 March 2010

When the class finished their syllabus and I ran out of monkey tricks to keep them entertained. I did try and teach them to juggle but it got a bit chaotic with hindsight, it was not the best idea.  A better idea was to get them to teach me everyday nepali phrases. It was quite good in the end I managed to get them into groups and acted different scenes such as shopping for dairy products. 

It was an opportunity to add to the three words in my nepali vocabulary. ‘Nameste’, ‘Hoina’, and ‘Puyo’. So I learnt how to buy milk from a shop. 

‘Dai, Malai Dude Chihiyo!’ = Dude, I want to buy some milk. Jagada Nagara (stop fighting) and a few other classroom words. To be honest though, I thought I could learn more but their english was too good hence I did not really need to learn. 

We went on couple of field trips to the local villages which were great! Bungamati and Khokana were traditional Newari villages. It was nice to see all the kids were very local and the whole community was very polite and well mannered. 

Sunday, 28 March 2010

A kind fellow traveller demonstrated the various stages of epic food poisoning. First, there is a sense of denial but when the bug takes control. The sense of denial only ends when the floodgates are literally open. It was so bad. The medical services in Nepal is about as good as a Lonely Planet guide book. It was pretty unfortunate. But I found out the taste of the rehydrating salt solution from Boots tastes so bad that it made me want to vomit. Hence I resorted to by ‘not quite for diarrhoea but still does similar thing berry juice’ for my spell of dia-ing.

It was obviously only funny once she was fully recovered. I was pretty serious before then but I might have made a couple of ‘ill-advised’ jokes. So unsurprisingly, perhaps fittingly in Nepal,’ Karma gave my own encounter with food poisoning at 3300m in the Himalayas 2 months later. In possibly the worst place, where I needed to be at my strongest to ascend the pass at 5416m. I was so lucky to see a doctor there. My symptoms was in Nepali but he drew the two circles representing 2 pills after meals, genius, I understood fully what I had to do, turd hard and trek hard.

Saturday, 27 March 2010

Just awesome. My holiday within a holiday started!! Tongba (tibetan alcholic drink) was good. A place in Muktinath had better Tongba though. Maybe because water there was better.

Checked out the Nepali interpretation of western culture and embarrassed myself with snooker. I was totally over the optimum beer level for enhanced accuracy.