Author: Derek

Thursday, 25 March 2010

Birkdale school provided financial support to Peace Garden from 10 years ago. The current site raised from a paddy field to a three floors school. From 1 classroom to 13 classrooms and 1 science lab. From no hygienic facilities to tiled toilet with running water. The bi-annual medical check up by british doctors and dentist was really beneficial for the well being of the kids.

Anyway, the principle ordered a Royal welcome for Birkdale. So we lined the road to the school with kids. The atmosphere erupted when the Birkdale crew finally arrived. It was pretty surreal. As I high-fived every kid on my way back up to the school. The party started. There were traditional dances etc, the school anthem (with encore).

Then there was a dude called Keith. He met Arjun 10 years ago and Arjun told him that he wanted to build a school on his paddy field. The what happened next as they say were history. This guy was revered. There was another guy key to the whole thing. He kept things ticking in the background. He was the Tycoon.

The Birkdale crew took over from the local teachers, and including mine when I realised my class wasn’t as cool as theirs. Let’s be honest, the kids have plenty of time for maths practice, so they should do something different. I did however tried to teach them origami and drawing in perspective. I was ambitious. In the end, we just played football. First there was a riot and eventually there were some sort of organised games. Half of my class was happy now. I failed to get in touch with my feminine side to think of ‘fun’ things for the girls to do.  umm Maths practice? Any ideas? Hence I merged the girls with another class taught by a proper teacher. What an amateur…..

They were teaching for 4 days. To be honest, the difference made to the Birkdale crew is probably bigger than to the education of the kids. However the Birkdale crew were able to appreciate the money raised by themselves actually become something you can touch and see in Nepal. My old school was prolific in charity events but at the end of each year a larger sum of money is handed over to some charities. Little is known what the money was used for and who benefited. The Birkdale crew were able to meet and greet everyone who’s education have improved as a direct result of their hard work. I was clearly impressed by that hence I had to do a good job.

Saturday, 20 March 2010

In Nepal, free-time was actually really free. There was little power, i.e. 6hrs of power a day, and 3 hours of power is in the early morning or other equally unsuitable time. Although, my Ipod was not affected due to more time spent at the Tycoon’s, where it was is charged at his power station. I should explain the Tycoon was a friendly British businessman who has been in Nepal for 30+ years. However, my Ipod was mainly used in the evenings when, there was no light, and my head torch was lent to Prem so he could continue his studies. In the day time, I read my books.

A Confederacy of dunces was a really interesting book with a sad story about the author. It was about a fat american guy, educated, hopelessly looking for a job. How fitting it seemed for me, apart from me not being fat or american. It was full of humor and side plots. The characters were really well defined as if they were believable with unbelievable behaviours.

At first reading books were really difficult for me. I was just used to reading textbooks and technical papers knowing the key words to spot   on each page and skipped pages in order to cover as much material as soon as possible. It was a complete contrast to reading a novel, a welcomed contrast. At first, I struggled to string 4 pages together. Eventually, it all just clicked and I finished the book in a complete manner.

‘After Dark’ by Haruki Murakumi is another book I had with me. It was pleasant read afterall. The author is very aware of the surroundings. Again, the descriptive, inspiring stuff.

Tried to teach the dog english, he was having none of it. He responds to Nepali though.

I also read ‘Into Thin Air’ by John Krakauer. It was about the 1996 Everest ‘Disaster’. It was a truly thrilling read, since it was about a real event. I was not interested in who was responsible for the failures that lead to a lot of people dying on that mountain. It was the experience and the limit that really left an impression on me. The writing might have been emotive but it really explained what people would die for. I actually read it after my trek which is a good thing. It would have made me more nervous if I read it before the trek. I was really far away from death even with my almost 2000m in 2 days ascend. There was some distance between me and hospiltalisation as well. A mountain is an unforgiving place. The death zone, 6000m+ should not be messed with. The weather was so unstable up there at about 5500m, (I would have been much better equipped if I tackled the trek in season time). It is scary stuff, maybe mankind liked to be scared. I enjoyed it. 

In the news a few days after my return from Nepal, a young british mountaineer reached the Everest Summit, but he was unable to return. ‘Getting to the top is the easy part’. Amazing what people would do to chase their dreams.

Saturday, 13 March 2010

I bazinga-ed my host family with my mo-mo folding skills. They did not see that coming. My folding style is Nanjing. I learnt it from a master (of interior design) from Nanjing. However, the difference in texture in the dough slowed me down. I think it was because they don’t add any egg to the dough, it was very….. Cannot find the right word there. Engineeringly speaking, the dough was really plastic with a really high surface tension. (Hence I am trying to get out more)

Obviously surprised and shocked that a foreigner can fold consistent mos, she then knocked off 3 different techniques. I was like wow, and she was like, ‘that is how you do it’. So I tried to learn but it takes years of practice so I stuck with my Nanjing moves.

Eventually after numerous momo meals, I learnt Nepal style (not very well though). It used the unique properties of the Nepali dough. The action of folding stretched the dough over the meat uniformly and resulting in a thin layer of dough covering the meat. I might be looking too deep into this but basically, momo is awesome.

This is my host family’s house, the Lama’s. The Lama’s being reasonably well off has good facilities. First of all, it offers me enough headroom to prevent excessive head banging. The tradition houses were so small. I cannot stand straight nor lay down straight in one room. It would have been pretty uncomfortable. The nepalis tend to be shorter. This must gave them better stability at climbing and running down hills. I was a bit like Bambi on ice. Keeping up with Prem (the mountain goat) was pretty tough at the start. They did grow up in these terrain. Eventually, I could make any jump he did.

Bungamati and Khokana were the more famous villages around KTM. I would not recommend others mainly because I hadn’t been to those places. There were actually historical places and places of interests in these two villages. Also the sizes of the houses found on the way to these villages are ridiculous. There are some rich folks living here. You might ask why I am volunteering here when there are more needy people out there. I would answer by, it was just happened by chance. I was lucky that I found somewhere to start. Hopefully, I made a difference and that might last.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Another day out with the boyfriend. He showed me his university. He was very proud of going to uni and rightly so with the amount of knowledge amassed in him. The Changdu Temple (another world heritage site) was a couple of clicks away. We hiked the Kathmandu countryside which was wonderful. The Changdu Temple was famous for it’s wood carving.

We took a bus from Changdu Temple to Bhaktapur. Bhaktapur is pretty much linked to KTM now. In the olden days, there used to the three kingdoms, Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. Therefore each place had it’s own royal square. Bhaktapur one was the largest but widely spread out. Prem and I took the back entrance naturally (apologise for the pun) to avoid the 10 USD entrance fee. Out of the three kingdoms, Patan is the must go area then Bhaktapur then KTM.

When I eat out, I always ordered something which was not Dhal Bhat. I think Dhal Bhat would always taste better at home because of the fresher ingredients and more attention to cooking. Sometimes, it is the simple ingredients that is hard to cook well. Chow mein was my favourite thing to order because it tasted like the english takeaway and reminded me of  chinese food hence double homey feeling effect. I normally go for chicken because they were plentiful around the place so the meat should be reasonably fresh. Mutton was the tastiest and duck was probably poisonous. 

Prem was a vegetarian (hence it will never work out anyway). And he didn’t drink alcohol either, not through religious reasons. As time went on, I became an absolute light weight. Very easy to get drunk. I didn’t get wasted due to, I needed to find my way home in Nepal, best to be sober.

Bhaktapur was pretty enjoyable but would have been costly with the 10 USD entrance fee. I wasn’t spending money like a tourist because I had a limit and 100USD was enough for the first 40 days. That was due to having food mainly at home.

Sunday, 7 March 2010

In Nepal, good friends behaved unexpectedly. A dude holds hands with another dude in public. So after the third day (‘date?’) Prem grabbed my hand. I am not against man loving but I never wished it to happen on me. Either way we were moving too fast. “Dude, what?”, then he explained that in Nepal manloving was actually what good friends do. He said with a genuinely non homo seriousness. Your country, your rules. Personally holding a dude’s hand is generally uncomfortable. It was really hard to reject because it was like rejecting a friendly hand shake. It was a definite culture shock. I lived with 60 boys in a house for 4 years, thought I seen it all. It is a whole new world out there.

Prem is an electrical engineering student. He works so hard that he is a really good example for me. His knowledge is pretty impressive. However, I am slightly ahead with all things computer related because Nepal simply do not have enough power time for them to practice on the computers.

We got on really well and became really ‘good’ friends. Unaware of what was happening around me, I was about to get the first genuine culture shock ever in my life. 

Hence, I became more aware of what ‘good nepali friends’ would do in public in order to prepare mentally for the next base should we potentially get there. I was shocked by the explicit nature of what was supposed to be a conservative culture. We progressed another 2 stages. The leg rubbing was not cool and as John rightly pointed out, ‘It’s just gay’. However due to exceptional circumstances, We skipped another two stages. I had to man up and forget about all the inappropriateness and dealt with it. I think the precise details are best to remain classified. (The gayist thing I have done for a long time). What was important was that when a friend was in need of help, I would step up and be counted. Obviously, after that I had to go and spit and fart to accurately reflect my more masculine side. Nepal never failed to surprise me.

This distracted the wonderful tourist sites when we went to visit. Patan was a really good place. We arrived early in the morning before the ticket booth was opened. The visibility in the morning was much better, due to less smog. I woke up pretty early anyway in Nepal anyway.

Jawalakhel was a pretty good centre. And I learnt to take the bus to town and back. It had a blend of Ex-pat and locals instead of the tourists overload Thamel thus it was much friendlier.  You could also find the Road House Cafe, which was ‘where the good times roll’. Italian style pizzas at 3 pounds each. In a place like Nepal, one needs to know where good quality fat can be found.

Saturday, 6 March 2010

So bad I don’t want to talk about it. Expensive (£5) lesson learnt. Thamel is a shit hole. It is full of tourists hence it attracted opportunists and pricks to the area. I went to check out some souvenirs and the prices were generally bad. Thus I rather I get ripped off at my own village than there. The other annoying thing was the background chorus of ‘Hash??’, ‘Want Hash??’. And they didn’t mean hash browns. I did tell one hash whisperer that drugs are really bad but he really did not give a monkey’s bum about that. So that was that, I tried to change their ways but failed. Granted I did not try very hard, but the thoughts were there. 

There were some pretty harsh places in KTM. The river smelt foul and generally nasty. Water problems were deep in KTM. There are a lot of water except they were not safe.

Friday, 5 March 2010

Life in Nepal is basic to say the least. Food was plentiful but water was horrendously hazardous. My host claimed that the water was very good. And I agree to a certain extent because their house was built on a water line, thus they had running water for 2 hours a day. However, I would not drink that water though because it does not take much crap to contaminate the water. I had my treatment filter which was really good. I didn’t fancy the living stuff nor the dead stuff in the water.

Initially deep in the dry season (March) Electricity was available for 8 out of the 24 hours. 2 hours in the morning, afternoon, evening and late night. This was called load sharing where different regions in Kathmandu would share the power. Nepal relied on hydro power, and the dry season did not provide enough water for the power plants to work. 

Everyday I wake up at about 7am and get up at about 7:30am where I will have my morning tea and biscuits. Normally Nepali only have tea. Then I sort out my laundry if it was the weekend, or I read my book and listening to music on my Ipod. My Ipod always had charge because it was cool and I go to an office which has generator power to charge it. On the remote chance when there is electricity, I go to a cyber for internet. In late May, the power was pretty reliable. 

At 0900, I have my morning Dhal Bhat, with lots of rice otherwise I run low on power at about 3pm. Nepalis have 2 meals a day, one Dhal Bhat at 9am and one at 6pm. I struggled at first due to the vegetarian nature and also used to have 3 meals a day. Vegetarian meant I had to each much more.

At 0930 was my health check time. My host family had a western toilet which was cool, but I also ‘practised’ on the squatter in preparation for the trek. So I am cool with either now.

I go to school in time for the 10am assembly time. where all the children gather in the courtyard for the morning assembly. I take three science classes and then 1 year 6 maths class. Year 6 was about my level. Teaching them was very fun. School finishes at 3pm then I head back home for a break before heading to the hostel at about 4. I spend about 2 hours there going through some maths question particularly with some of the older girls because their maths are hard. They were looking at trigonometry identities. I return home at about 6pm and dinner is at about 630. Dhal Bhat again but it’s all good. It would become dark then and without electricity everything was dark. I lent my head-torch to Prem so he can study through the night, and so I pretty much go to sleep at about 8pm. I had lots of sleep which was good.

The food that my host family gave me was excellent, there was still variety in the Dhal Bhat. The main problem was actually the limited amount herbs hence the flavours were pretty much the same. When I cooked for them, I added sugar which shocked them. I went for a chilli and salt flavour. I still did the usual Dhal Bhat just in case my food was not to their liking.  I think they genuine liked it, obviously since I am a pretty good cook.

The kids in this school were great. They were generally willing and keen to learn. In one class, a little girl lost her tooth!!!! Ahhhh.. It caught me completely by surprise. She put her hand up and I said ‘yes?’ but she did not say anything because she had her hand over her mouth. It took her friends to explain the situation. My voice went a little bit high when I panicked. She went to the toilet to sort herself out. I was relieved that I didn’t really need to do anything, phew…. I would be a bad teacher.

This school in my opinion was relatively representative in the relatively well off villages around the Kathmandu Valley. The fee for this school was about £6-7 or 10USD a month, which was actually quite high. However to put this into perspective, it was the same as just the school bus fare for a city school.  However, expats would not even touch those city schools, the British School had western rates, however, everything about it was a western school. There were locals rich enough to afford that school.

Thursday, 4 March 2010

Peace Garden School and Little Gems Girls Hostel

Day 3 I woke up early at 630 am. Had a cup of tea and biscuits. My breakfast is at 9:15 which consisted of Dhal Bhat. Nothing better than some spicy curry to encourage regular bowel movement in the morning. The local culture is to have two meals a day one in the morning at about 9am and one in the evening at about 6pm. At first I was not too used to this. Hence I had to have another meal at about 1pm, unsurprisingly it was another Dhal Bhat. I loved a vegetarian organic curry three times a day but it was a little bit repetitive, Eventually, I switched to 2 meals a day to follow their routine and less repetitive in a different way.

Teaching in Nepal is quite different compared to what I was used it. Although I compared it from a pupil’s point of view. I was educated partly by a combination of the Hong Kong and British system. The teacher required zero preparation for each class. I could do that too. But then, they taught as they go, which was the more difficult part. I could do the class 6 or 7 maths because generally I did not have to think about the questions. For the higher class, there was already a teacher doing a great job.

My main difference compared to the local teachers is that I didn’t apply any physical punishment. Otherwise, I tried to mimic their style of teaching because the results they were getting were pretty reasonable. The kids were getting educated. I added my own style by trying to get everyone involved. With hindsight, I was at a really good school compared to some rural village school. Each class has about 20 kids which was really manageable. There were schools with 80 kids to a class. It would be a different world. In the end, they would all take the same examination, hence the city boys are at a serious advantage. Even though the village (Rural village not my village) boys were more in need. I guess I had to start somewhere.

The teaching process involved walking into the classroom with a board marker. Then do the thing for 45 mins. This systems works well for maths. Not so sure about english, or science. Art or other creative subjects are non-existent. Although I put that all to rest by showing how to draw in perspective, ambitious I know. It took about 30 mins to get across that it was unnecessary to put all their strength into the pencil and kill the paper.

The kids here have 6 days a week. with few holidays. Although the regular occurrences of general strikes, school strikes, recreational striking compensates the latter and give the kids plenty of breaks from school.

After school, I volunteered at a local hostel, sponsored by ‘help 2 educate’. The girls here were former child labourers. Their level of english is amazing considering that they started education very late. Being a girl is harsh, their combination of poverty, feminine, lower caste and starting late at education meant it was difficult for them in some subjects especially maths. Hence I tried to make them to focus on the basics of mathematics, similar to how I learnt my maths.

John was a biology teacher from Birkdale School (a school in Britain) was already there to make use of the new science lab which was completed a month ago. I identified that I could make bigger contribution to the science lab compared to any other area of the school. Therefore I decided to think of some experiments which can be done in Nepal.

This science project was to become the focus of my efforts to make an improvement to the school.

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

Temples x 3, Dhal Bhat x 4, life’s good.

I realised I forgot to exchange any Rupees at the airport, amateur traveller mistake. Unable to afford the bus (10 rupees/10p), I walked into the town (10 clicks) and eventually exchanged my USDs for 7300NRs.  I was able to absorb the Kathmandu atmosphere and pollution on the way.

I met up with Robbie again. We met at Ratna Park which is one of the two main bus station in Kathmandu. Starting to find my feet in Kathmandu.  We sat off on his motorbike to the various tourist sites.

Swaynbuuuu (monkey temple) was the first one. It is on the North east of on the ring road of KTM. The monkey temple was under-restoration thus the scaffolding kinda disrupted the picture. Nonetheless, the culture or religion atmosphere was intense. Since I was not a religious person, it was simply a grand structure to me. However, I always respect other people’s religion and culture, I kept the walk clockwise.

After this one, I jumped onto Robbie’s bike, and we rode to Boudath. This is the best Stupa for sure. This must be one the must see places on Earth. 

After Boudath, Pashepati (the Hindu only) temple was next on the list. It was only for Hindu. As they immediately charged me the entrance fee without letting me inside, it just reinforced my dislike of religions. Immediately I was distinguished and treated differently. Religion gives preference to a group of people without the consideration of their character, morals, or values. Ironically, I landed in just about the most religious country I have ever visited. Hence, it was important for me to be culturally sensitive. i.e. didn’t point out that a buffalo is like a cow. I guess the caste system is also applicable to the cow family.   

When I returned to my host family, there was a meal of Dhal Bhat waiting for me. Dhal Bhat is a green bean type soup, lots of rice and a vegetable curry. The family was very generous and it took me a while to remember the magic word which stops food appearing on my plate continuously, ‘puyo’.

My host family were lovely and I had my fourth consecutive Dhal Bhat. No bad reaction from my bowel which was really important. The fact was that I was going to be here for 3 months, which the sooner my stomach realise that the better. I was in Nepal so I wasn’t going to ask my host family to provide me fish and chips. They provided a good food source and I was glad to stick with it.

 Tuesday, 2 March 2010

I was not sure what to expect.

I woke up early today. Little sleep on the previous evening because my mind was focused on today which is going to be the start of something different. Anyway I figured by being tired, sleeping on the plane will be easier. So I just needed enough energy to get from Paddington to Heathrow and onto the right plane.

My preparation has been thorough. Although, I had no idea then. But no issues came out to bite me in the behind. It was so thorough that my disciplined approach of getting up at 1pm for 2 weeks in order to minimise jet lag was genius because I expected to wake up in Nepal at 7am. That was not because I was lazy in any way or form. Therefore the time difference between the UK and Nepal meant my body didn’t know a thing. And I was ready to roll on day 1.

The duration of the flight was taken up by Bollywood movies and curried flavoured mango juice. Babies were left, right, in front and behind. That was a slight exaggeration but certainly feels that way with one baby behind and one in front. So many babies. Stop-over at Delhi (the new one), and a few hours later arrived at KTM. The hour wait for the VISA was pretty annoying, but it meant I didn’t need to wait for my luggage.

At the arrivals, I was greeted with numerous strangers and Rabindra. Rabindra was my local first contact, met through the charity. My personal experience that arriving in a strange airport is often the worst experience of a trip, possibly trumped only by food poisoning, rabies, and other exotic diseases. Rabindra saved me the gang of taxi drivers and denied one of them a chunk of foreign money. Robbie as he is commonly known to foreigners was great and took me to all the major tourist sites in Kathmandu. I was dropped off at my lovely host family, the Lamas. Their youngest son, Prem was pretty much my local guide to Nepal. He studied engineering at university.