A quiet Christmas

After parties on Friday and Sunday, Sheila resisted the temptation of going to work and we had a quiet Christmas Day at home. However she did spend all day reading some thrilling looking reports and preparing notes ready for a summary presentation of them she has to give on Friday. To make it feel a bit more Christmassy I did scoff a whole bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk (small bar and we are talking Indian Cadbury's which doesn't taste quite the same) before we had dinner of mushroom soup, some left over lamb mince followed by........ 2 mini Christmas puds that Josie & Ben brought us the other month.

Back at work today (Boxing Day), hopefully Sheila made it past the burning tyres that were blocking her normal bus route. Not sure what they were for, the students seem to be protesting against anything and everything lately.

Hope you are all well stuffed from eating and drinking too much - maybe that's the England cricket team's excuse, I didn't manage to watch any of the match but from the score they're certainly looking stuffed.

Cheers

Roshan

P.S. Finally, a picture of my bike.

The last month or so Sheila-style

Looking back to my last entry I realise lots has been happening since then. At the educationdepartment I have twice been part of the training team, admittedly with help from another colleague for some translation, for Early Years facilitators and for trainers of trainers - two busy eight day schedules!




Somewhere in between running these, Roshan and I went out of the valley to Birgunj, taking a 12 minute flight rather than 6 hour drive, where as well as great hospitality and a Friday night in the Kailash.




I went with another vol. to see real community ECD. This meant a 40min public mini bus ride and then a 30min walk out along a rough sandy road, past small mud or bamboo dwellings and an occasional goat, to a centre run by the NGO Seto Gurans. This NGO has been the pioneer in early childhood provision in Nepal since the 80's and for those who are interested in such things, at the end of the 90's it's founder was asked to present at Reggio! The centre uses low cost/no cost locally made materials wherever possible, including some dried maize cobs painted assorted colours.




There are 25, 3-5 yr olds on the role and the day I went all were there. After group time, lots of singing games and stories, the children all went out to a pump to wash before going into the back room for a plate of warm citrus yellow dahl. Mmmmmm!


We then walked less than 1 km to the nearest school. Here there was no ECD class but more than 100 children in the Grade 1 class, some by the size of them as young as 3 and some maybe 9 or even 10. The resources, for these pupils, seemed to be 1 male teacher with a stick and 2 blackboards. In Nepal until this year, pupils in government schools had to pass an "exam" to be able to move up to the next class, thus many pupils will repeat Grade 1 maybe several times. This past year LPP (liberal promotion policy) has been introduced to prevent this glut of pupils staying in the first class but if all are shunted up into class 2 maybe the problem has not been solved just moved - there is a big problem of retention in government schools.


There were 100 children in Grade I, a large number in Grade 2 but by class 5 in this school there were less than 20 and in classes 6 and 7. I saw only 9 pupils in each class. These were almost even numbers of girls and boys in the older classes which would be unusual in KTM but in this small village no money or private schools to send the boys to. Although there is a government policy to have at least one female member of staff in every school (and a toilet specifically for girls) this school seemed to have no female teachers.

The following day I went to another ECD centre run by the same NGO in the town. This one had far more resources and the staff were involved in training although I just missed some resource making workshops. I did see the beginnings of some individual learning profiles and have since shared information and some photos of learning journals from the UK. Thank you staff at Boundstone!


Back in KTM valley the following week - with another vol, another school visit. But first 45mins detour around KTM on the bus (due to traffic blockades…again!) and then the 45min ride out to a village. Then after TWO hours very hard uphill walking, on a rough road and track, we finally reached the school, had some water and just as we expected to see the classes, the headmaster said "look up to the top in the dip that is where we go now to the community ECD!"


And I made it! Certainly the longest uphill I have done since I've been here and not sure that trekking is for me!


Once up there the headmaster proudly showed us a hut, a drum, 2 benches, a young girl teacher with no training, 6 children and a lovely swing made by the local community. No other resources - although I did talk with him recollecting and using some of the fir cones we had passed on our walk.




Since then work for me has been disrupted regularly with students demonstrating and taking over the Department of Education and loudly, firmly encouraging all staff to evacuate and locking the doors behind us! Further disruptions have gone on for the past week and today although the office was meant to open there was a bus bandh (strike). Hopefully the office and buses will be alright tomorrow as lots to do in next week whilst you all you lot are enjoying all that booze and food…and before we fly to meet Josie in Thailand at New Year!

Roshan has already mentioned the food and rum punch on the Embassy lawn after the carol service, and yes, guessing that they could be my only mince pies this Christmas, I made sure I had enough to last me to 2008! So thanks to all who made and paid!

And of course Happy Christmas to all of you too!

More tales of education Nepali-style and what we’re up to in KTM from me soon, love Sheila x

Grovel

Just before you all switch off your computers for Christmas, a short message to all our friends and relatives who have sent e-mails (and a couple of real cards!) with news and Christmas greetings. Please accept our grovelling apologies for being so bad at replying, maybe we'll improve in the New Year but I never make resolutions I can't keep (which generally means I don't make resolutions).

 

In case you're feeling guilty that you didn't send us personal greetings - I know how you feel but don't let it spoil your Christmas.

 

Seasons greetings

Roshan & Sheila

Bah humbug

I'm guessing from the increase in e-mails we are getting that Christmas is in full swing beyond the Himalayas. Not much sign of it here which is no great disappointment for me. My excuses for the lack of postings for ages are (a) Sheila has been promising to do a more interesting one complete with pictures of her training sessions and (b) I've been a tad busy. We (Blue Diamond Society) finally got funding through about 9 weeks after the 52 week project was meant to start which brings on a whole load of number crunching work plus it was the VSO Nepal Annual Conference last week. "Facilitating a workshop" was not in my vocabulary 12 months ago but I was press-ganged into doing one at the Conference. If nothing else, my use of musical chairs to pick sub-groups seemed to go down well. I also gave my overloaded VSO Programme Manager a hand by helping to arrange for 3 staff from local organisations to visit Uganda and look at the HIV & AIDS care and support they have there. My planning was rather thrown into chaos when first we found out that Uganda is runner-up to Zimbabwe in the dodgy places to visit if you are gay (my transgender colleague from BDS decided she would not risk Ugandan immigration with a passport that said she was male) and then, once in Uganda, when they tried to reconfirm their flights home the airline told them they'd been cancelled! A few days of worry before I heard today that they managed to get flights confirmed and should be back tomorrow (3 days later than planned) . Fingers crossed. We did have a bit of light relief at the Conference with a party (yes, I got drunk and danced) and the British Embassy Carol Service. Urgent phone calls to Uganda were my excuse for missing the service however I got back just in time for hot rum punch, sausage rolls and mince pies (surprisingly the Ambassador did not have any Ferrero Rochas chocolates). Thanks Your Excellency and all you British taxpayers.

 

It has got pretty cold here, outside temperature not as low as the UK but with no heating in the house (on the grounds of fire hazard and smell we decided not to experiment with the paraffin heater we inherited) or office it does get a little chilly indoors. I'm very happy I brought my 25 year old down jacket which I wrap round my legs when in the office. Still, probably only a month or so before it starts to warm up again. Don't feel too sorry for us as over New Year we are off to meet Josie for a sunny beach holiday in Thailand (any Kathmandu burglars reading this, please note that our landlord and his extremely fierce dog will still be here). Can't wait although now I realise that there are only 7 working days left before we go I am slightly worried. Christmas Day is a public holiday here, not sure what we'll do apart from eat the mini Xmas puds the kids brought us. Although we could probably get a full Christmas dinner there, one place to avoid is Thamel where all the tourists will be gorging themselves, getting pissed and wandering around in stupid hats.

 

Right ho, enough rambling, I'm off to bed with a warm laptop and a DVD of Cold Feet series one.

 

In case I don't post before we depart for our sunny beach, hope you all have a lovely Christmas and best wishes for 2007.

 

Cheers

Roshan

 

P.S. The official pub quiz answer to the melting Arctic pack ice question posed last time is that water levels will not rise at all. Pack ice floats and therefore displaces its own weight in water so when it melts it just fills the gap it left. Having recently seen some headlines about melting Arctic ice, I'm sure there is a flaw in this theory in which case I guess Culver Road and most of Felpham will be under water - a cheery note to end on!

Yummeee..

....dinner on Friday night at the British Embassy - I suppose that makes you think it was some grand diplomatic banquet. But no, to encourage attendance at the club AGM the excellent committee offered free dinner followed by a pub quiz, sitting through 26 mins of AGM was a price we were willing to pay for a free meal. Chicken & mushroom pie, chips, beans, peas and carrots followed by apple crumble - my kind of banquet and boy, did I pig out on it. Things got better when our team managed to come a close third (we did lead until a round near the end with lots of song lyrics to complete) in the quiz - the prize, a free meal at the Embassy club!

 

Today (what would the NUT say about working on Saturday and Sunday) was the last day of the ECD core training workshop Sheila was helping to run which sounded like a great success for her and the participants. She promises to write something about it for the blog and to post some pictures so bombard her with with e-mails if nothing appears soon.

 

Prob won't post next week as we are going for a long weekend to visit a cluster of volunteers and the organisations they work for in the south. These are mainly Education and of interest to Sheila and the 2 friends we are going with - if I can find somewhere with satellite TV showing the 1st Ashes Test, I plan to spend my weekend watching that. After my comment the other week I suppose I should acknowledge that England did manage to just beat South Africa at rugby.

 

Cheers

Roshan

 

A global warming question from the quiz: If all the pack ice of the North Pole melted, by how many metres would sea levels rise by?  

SPAM

No this is not junk mail, it is my favourite new acronym. You may have read that talks between the government and Maoists ended succesfully last week with the announcement that, amongst other positive steps towards democracy, an interim government was going to be formed which would include Maoists representatives. Now the current government is made up of a coalition of 7 parties referred to as the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) so when joined by the Maoists they obviously become SPAM!

Apart from that little gem, not much to add. Sheila has had a fluey bug for the last couple of days but is battling through this to produce training materials and plans for an ECD workshop next week. She has been heartened by a UNESCO report last week which highlighted the importance of ECD in the global Education For All programme - it's not just playing with toddlers! New volunteers arrived last week so we are no longer the newbies. After a period of progressively reducing rural placements due to security situation it is good that most of the new batch will be heading out of Kathmandu once they have finished their in-country training. The volunteers living and working in rural areas help remind us what a spoilt life we have in Kathmandu.

Finally I've been told to add this great picture of Ben to show that it wasn't just sadhus he made friends with when he was here.


Other news from last week - I collected my new (used) ladies bike (thanks Rohini and Migyoung) last weekend. Will try to remember to take a photo to post next week.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. England v Argentina - what can I say?!

Back to work after Josie & Ben's visit

They left last Saturday :-( and we are back to our normal routine albeit with the luxury of the goodies (parmesan cheese and fruit & nut chocolate being the favourites) they left us with. They also left us with a large supply of DVDs, kindly recorded by brother-in-law Reg, so we have been enjoying Celebrity Masterchef - how sad are we! When I've finished this, I hope to have a lazy afternoon watching the Champion Trophy 1-day cricket final on laptop TV. Would prefer to watch England v All Blacks but rugby doesn't quite have the following in South Asia to warrant any channel showing it.

Sheila's busy at home preparing training materials for a workshop she's due to help with so I guess the place will be covered in finger puppets, zig-zag books etc. I'll leave her to tell you more about this another time.

Finally a picture from our Chitwan trip dedicated to Martin & Gina - one of Ginge's Nepali relatives came to sit with us. Slightly more scabby than Ginge and a wider range of pest infestations. Although not obvious from this picture he also had a serious ear control problem, couldn't make up his mind whether they were pricky up or floppy down so most of the time he did one of each. Thinking of Ginge (and therefore Dando), I heard that the British Embassy is having a new bore well dug so if they are using a drilling rig I will try to get a picture. I bet you can't wait!

Cheers for now
Roshan

P.S. Congrats to Team Felpham on their result in the Sunsail qualifier. Good luck in the final - no pressure just remember we won last year.

Temples

In Josie & Ben's last 3 days in Kathmandu, they managed a bit of sightseeing.

We visited Bouddha, a big Buddhist temple in the eastern outskirts of Ktm and watched the sun go down.

Sheila, Josie and I walked through the tourist shopping area of Thamel down to Durbar Square. Everyone was fascinated by Josie's wheelchair - an electric rickshaw!



More evidence of Derek Rowe's global business empire


And Ben went off to visit Swyambu (commonly known as Monkey Temple), another Buddhist temple the other side of town....

...and made friends with some saddhus (Hindhu holy men). Yes, I know I said it was a Buddhist temple but Hindu and Buddhist religions intermingle a lot here - a lesson for other religions perhaps?


...followed by a visit to Pashupati, a Hindu temple, where he made friends with a designer sadhu (yes, those are his legs behind his head)...


....who invited him back to his room.


(I tried to keep the mystic touch by cropping out the TV and hi-fi speaker that were originally in this photo)

Thanks to Josie and Ben for their photos on these last 2 posts. A shame their stay was so short but I'm sure they'll be back before we leave here.


Just a final note to the British Airways baggage handler who smashed Josie's battery box - thanks mate.

Cheers
Roshan

Chitwan

Josie and Ben arrived on Saturday afternoon after a long stop-over in Delhi. No major problems at Kathmandu Airport although they are not the most wheelchair accessible place.

On Sunday we set off in a hired minivan to Royal Chitwan National Park which is about 200km SW of Ktm. There are 2 routes down, over the hills (Mahabharat Range) or the highway which runs along a river valley. For maximum sightseeing we decided to go down over the hills and return via the highway. So the trip there was on windy, occassionally broken up, roads climbing up to almost 3,000 metres (Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK is about 1,400m) and took 8 hours. On clear days the view of the Himalayas is meant to be spectacular but we were in cloud at the top which meant there was little to see and it got quite chilly.

Royal Chitwan National Park used to be the hunting playground of the Nepali rulers and their special guests such as Indian Maharajahs and British sahibs. How times have changed, in the 1920's George V and the then Prince of Wales visited and slaughtered 39 tigers and 18 rhinos in 11days, it is now a sanctuary with protection for most animals.

Ben and I took a canoe trip - good thing Sheila didn't come, the canoe was a very wobbly dugout - where the guide pointed out lots of birds and crocodiles. Some of the crocodile sightings could have been anything as only snout or tail was showing but there was no doubt what this was.

The canoe dropped us off and after a short walk through a field of cows - tikka'd (decorated with coloured paste) from the previous days festival, Gai (means cow and pronounced "Guy") Tihar, which celebrated cows - ..........

..... we arrived at the Elephant Breeding Centre

Meanwhile, Sheila & Josie had been enjoying the glorious sunshine at the river front, just like a Caribbean beach but with the added scenery of the Himalayas in the background. Behind the dark hills in this picture are the snow covered peaks of the Annapurna range which is about 150 km away - a bit like seeing the coast of France from Bognor.


Having got a taste for the sunny beach, Josie declined the elephant safari....

.... which took us through a wide variety of terrain before getting to the jungle. Sheila's imagination of what might emerge ran riot as we went through long grass and rushes so I didn't take much notice when she said the mahout (driver) had spotted a rhino. She was right! Elephant and rhino seemed to ignore each other so we were able to get within 5 metres of it.

The next (and last day), we opted for a lazy morning by the river before Ben and I joined in with elephant bathing.
The trip back along the valley turned out to be more spectacular than the trip down. For much of the route the highway is carved into the side of the river gorge with amazing views of hills all around and glimpses of Annapurna towards the end.

The highway route is probably longer in distance but as it involves considerably less hill climbs and almost no broken sections, our trip back was only 6 hours.

Its Christmas!

Forget Diwali, its Christmas here. Josie & Ben arrived today laden with goodies. Thanks to them, Reg, Gill, Mary, Kate, Annie and anyone else who sent bits for us. Unfortunately the weather has been ungrateful and the kids were greeted by drizzle and the coldest day since February. Off to Chitwan tomorrow which is further south and lower altitude so hopefully Josie will get the warmth she is desparate for.

 

Will post pics when we get back.

Cheers

Roshan

Festival time for rats

Life must be pretty good for rats in Kathmandu at the moment. Garbage collection has stopped for the last week or so as the landfill sites the city council uses have been closed by local residents protesting against them. As a result there are piles of rubbish in the streets and the oil drum at the end of our path is overflowing from the bags all the households in our little cluster have dumped. These mounds of rotting garbage are giving the rats a feast to celebrate the Tihar (Divali / Deepawali) festival, although from the squashed carcasses in the street some have have put food before road safety.

 

From what I've seen in the papers, landfill site is a bit of a grand title for what looks like a field where all the rubbish is dumped before being raked over by rag (plastic or any other recyclable item) pickers. Apparently the local residents are demanding some local infrastructure investment in exchange for using their districts as a dumping ground. Good to see local communities taking on the government, however, according to today's paper, the protest may have been brought to a halt by the Ministry of Local Development sacking the district committee and appointing their own nominees. Not sure this is quite in the new spirit of people's democracy but I guess old habits die hard.

 

In a weeks time we have another (yes, I know the last one only finished a week ago) festival called Tihar. This is what in India is celebrated as Divali, the festival of light. More exciting for us is that Josie and Ben are arriving next Saturday - just a week but it will be great to see them and for them to see our life here. We plan to have a couple of days down in Chitwan National Park so we'll all get to see a bit more of rural Nepal and I think elephant rides are on the itinerary.

 

I've just re-started this after a 2.5 hour break for our weekly load shedding (power cut) - on a Sunday night these are not a major aggravation, Sheila quite enjoys working by candle light and we have one rechargeable lantern + head torches to read by.

 

On the political front, the summit talks continue with mainly positive noises being made by both sides so hopefully we will have a quiet October. Just to be contrary, the Nepalese Chambers of Commerce have called a general strike for Tuesday to protest against lack of government support for entrepreneurs. Unless the buses and taxis join in, I'm not convinced this will have much impact on day to day life.

 

If I can think of anything interesting to write before next week, I'll do another blog, otherwise it will have to wait until after the kids have been and gone - should have some touristy photos then.

 

Cheers

Roshan

 

P.S. As I write this I think John Breach is in Amsterdam slogging his way round a marathon. John - if you read this, well done and I promise the cheque is the post.

Green fingers

For any VSO vols who were on SKWID course with us and talked about taking basil seeds with them...can you beat our basil crop? We can also get pasta and olive oil (at a price!) to go with it but recognise that we are very spoilt in KTM unlike many of the rest of you.

Mary, Gill and Heather - I hope I'm doing your green fingers proud!

Best wishes all, Sheila

Nagarkot this weekend

Blimey, 7 months without venturing outside the valley for R & R then we do 2 trips in 2 weeks. This w/e we went to Nagarkot, a hill resort about 30km to the NE of Kathmandu, which at about 2,000 metres is meant to be one of the best viewpoints close to Ktm.

 

Before leaving on Saturday, we had a minor crisis when we couldn't switch the gas on at the bottle. After investigating I decided that bodge mending a gas regulator would not be very clever so nipped down to the back chowk to get a new one - at the cost of a day's wages for me! Sheila had booked a package deal with a posh-ish hotel which ran a shuttle bus from Kathmandu but as this didn't leave until 3pm, we decided to take public buses via Bhaktapur.This involved 4 separate buses and me standing for the last 1 hour but did get us to Nagarkot about 3 hours earlier than the shuttle would have. Given how hard the seats were, standing was not a great sacrifice and Sheila enjoyed having a granny with little boy talking to her most of the way. The disadvantage was that it was not easy to take pictures of the spectacular journey up the winding road but if Sheila did manage to get some I'll leave her or Josie to add them.

 

Although the views from the hotel were impressive, they were limited by cloud so no sign of the mountains - we'll see them eventually!


The height was noticeable by the lower temperature, apparently Nagarkot is generally 5' colder than Ktm and it was definitely chilly in the evening. Having chosen the hotel for the luxury of an indoor swimming pool and jacuzzi, neither were warm enough to be spend much time in. Waking early to see the sunrise was foiled by more clouds.


However I did enjoy a long soak in a hot bath, my first in 7 months and very enjoyable. As a resort, Nagarkot can really only offer views and the starting point for treks of at least 4 hours (far too long for us even if they are mainly downhill!) so this morning, after Sheila had another short walk to explore, we took the hotel shuttle bus back to Ktm. Much quicker and more comfortable but the trip up on the public buses was an experience not to miss.

 

Back to work tomorrow for both of us. I'm expecting an interesting week - we are due to negotiate the Blue Diamond Society's funding for the next year. Thereby lies a whole story worthy of its own blog but I'll wait for it to end before doing it!

 

Cheers

Roshan

 

P.S. For the Rowe family, who I hope are still reading this, and those who know Derek. I saw a little cart with the sign "Gaylord Ice Creams" - crikey, he's everywhere! I was not quick enough with the camera but will look out for it so I can get photographic evidence.

Dashain last week

Weds, 4 October (i.e last week - apologies for delay in posting)

With government offices closed for 10 days, although BDS was only shut from Friday to Tuesday, many of the volunteers have gone trekking for most of the festival time. For us, a local bus to Dhulikhel out in the KTM valley where we could expect comforts of a hotel with good views and perhaps glimpses of mountains seemed a good and much cheaper option. The 2 hour bus ride was more comfortable than that to Bhaktapur and was not, by Nepali standards, vastly overcrowded. Due to the festival having already started, the roads were very clear and with seats we were able to enjoy the journey. The hotel is built into the hillside and views from almost every room superb. There were even glimpses of snow capped mountains early one morning.






We had the luxury of a TV with clear picture and sound and were able to follow the exciting Chinese Grand Prix. We had been lent a book of walks, published 6 years earlier, many of which seem to be far beyond any stamina we wished to employ so we tailored our own, spending time in the Newari town, venturing down only part way towards the valley. We found some lovely small temples including this Shiva temple at the bottom of a gorge. To quote Lonely Planet "this is a temple with everything, images of Hanuman, Saraswati, Shiva and Pravati, lingams, tridents, snake deities and a fine image of Ganesh".


Dashain is such a happy, family occasion with most peopletravelingg back to their family home to celebrate for 7-10 or more days, often travelling for very long distances on overcrowded buses. During the fifteen days of celebration that together make the originally Hindu festival of Dashain, now celebrated by all religions here in Nepal, even the vehicles are given Puja, decorated with the pieces of the sacred plant, sprinkled and splodged with blood from the sacrificed animals and tied with strips of red cloth. Buses, taxis, tractors, like this one we walked past in the village, and even the VSO jeeps are not neglected in having this blessing for the following year.


As we left Dhulikhel on our decorated bus, almost all the passengers had the traditional red tika, large and prominent on their forehead. Small pieces of barley planted on the first day of the festival and grown through the past week are harvested on the 10th day were tied in hair or tucked behind an ear.

Kite flying is a major part of life at this time of year and the children (almost all boys) are amazing clever at flying them. Everywhere high in the sky there are tiny dots which could be birds but are very basic kites like this flying from the sides of roads, rooftops and every bit of wasteland. As we watched from our room at Dhulikhel we saw kites from the valley, way, way up above the hills sadly far too high to show on any of our pictures.


Having brought it down on the wires by the major road, this boy sat on the pavement to mend and within seconds of using his teeth to repair the string, he had this one flying brilliantly.

Most villages set up a ping (a swing normally made from 4 bamboo poles but if a convenient tree branch is available....). On our venture from the hotel towards the valley we watched the children on this ping, horrific when you could see the height and the sheer drop and the size of some of those queuing.




Surprisingly Roshan declined when all tried to encourage him to try. I suggested he might make comparisons with looking down from the top of a 60 ft mast but was reminded that on a mast one has a harness and halyards for security! As the gradient of the path past the children was mentioned in the guide book as 1 in 1, those who know us well would understand that we realised down would mean clambering up so hence we did not venture that much further.

On our return to KTM, with most shops, cafes etc closed we spent much of the next day in the garden of the Manaslu hotel next door, with me yet again enjoying the pool.

Today Roshan has spent the morning at work whilst I revisited the Bodnath Stupa. Last time I went the sky was grey and all was wet but today was just right for photos.


Hopefully when Josie and Ben come to see us in a few weeks there should be a full moon and we will try and visit as the sunsets and moon rises.

Now back to thinking about ECD core teacher training that I need to plan for work next week and resources like story-sacks and persona dolls that need making if I want to use or hopefully get someone else who speaks Nepali to demonstrate... The trouble is that I still have no translation of the new curriculum document or training manual. As I struggle with spoken Nepali, I know I will never manage to crack the script so I am meant to be meeting with an unemployed MA graduate who might support me, He, yes he as those with ECD degrees are more likely to be male here, is out of KTM for festival and does not seem to be able to access his email....

More re: work later....

Love Sheila

Not a bad view!

My role has changed a bit in the last month or so and so instead of working in the District Education Office (DEO) in historic city of Bhaktapur I am now working in the Department Of Education (DoE) for the under secretary for Early Childhood Development (ECD).

This is slightly nearer the flat and I can get a staff bus, which makes the journey quicker - although not so good for people watching!

And the office is much more grand!

The department building is probably only about three years old and no broken windows or furniture. I have a new desk and comfy new chair, can share a computer (with flat screen!) and phone, and I’m making some sort of pinboard with photos (good early years practice etc). It even has a canteen on site and lovely view from the balcony on the roof…


Not a bad view is it!


But, more importantly, I am involved in really interesting work, in a team which I was asked to join, planning for early childhood at national level. Early childhood development was one of the Millennium Goals and is the first goal in Nepal's strategic plan. There are strategy documents from 2004 for provision for early childhood education and care but not all has been implemented as yet. Sometimes I help write concept papers to donors, e.g. the production of a piece of film to help with training or, as I am now, helping to prepare training for the core trainers who will then train other early childhood teachers across the country - so It is useful that when back in the UK in July, I was able to bring back here some materials/books to help with this!

I still do not want to get detached from working with children and staff so will also have opportunities to go to settings/centres to monitor and support, hopefully across the country.

However, this week has been a bit on/off workwise as Wednesday was a public holiday this time in respect for those, many of whom were eminent in the conservation field, killed in the helicopter crash in the far east of Nepal over the weekend and now it is the festival of Dashain (the biggest festival here, a bit like Christmas at home when most people return to their families for the week long celebrations) so we’re making the most of a few days off and going on our hols…sort of!

Many of the volunteers are going trekking over the holiday period but Roshan and I plan to just spend a couple of nights over the weekend at a hotel up on the ridge of hills (near to those in the picture above) in a place called Dhulikhel, about an hour and a half bus ride from here (presuming I can work out where we get the right bus from that is!)

So, bye for now and photos and more news on our return to KTM,

Sheila

Forgotten when I posted last so a quick update

The official security line here is that things are a bit tense, we've got a whole load of political rallies coming up which are a bit livelier than the Lib Dem conference. They are mostly held at Ratna Park which is the centre of town so when they overflow or get a bit boisterous, it brings traffic to a halt for hours. No problem for us at the north end of town  but it does disrupt Sheila's commute to Bhaktapur (east via the bus park which is next to aforesaid Ratna Park). She had to take an expensive (about a quid) taxi ride back the last bit today when her bus was turned back on the outskirts. The main problems is for the volunteers who live in Patan, south of the Ktm. Unfortunately I have a 9am meeting down there on Weds and might get stuck trying to get back and have to walk it.

Power not too bad. We had our regular 1900 - 2130hrs  load shedding last night which we wile away cooking and eating by candle light. Nepal Electricity says no cuts during the Dashain and Tihar festivals coming up and the water level is high enough that we might escape without too much in winter/spring. This reverses what they said a couple of weeks ago and they claim this is due to recent heavy rain which seems pretty unlikely so I'm assuming this advice could well change again in a couple of months time.

Had our annual security conference last week with a briefing by our man from the Embassy (good to see someone in a suit once every six months or so). They think things could hot up in October (probably round about when the kids come over) but likely to be limited to peaceful street demos. They confirm there have been more burglaries since the ceasefire but no sign of foreigners being targetted. Maybe I should report the theft of my very old and tired bike from outside the house on Sat night. Shame, I kept meaning to take a photo to show you and now never will. Still, hope to get a slightly newer version from someone who's leaving next week and will take a photo immediately.

Cheers

Roshan

Back to normal?

Started this just after the lights came back on after they'd been off for 2.5 hours of load shedding which we now have once a week until the power shortage gets worse and they make it longer. A couple of hours is no big deal and as it only constitutes 1.5% of weekly usage, I wonder whether it will make any difference or if its just to gently prepare us for much worse to come. A busy week for demonstrations which brought traffic to a halt for most of 1 day and bits of another 2. The Armed Police (who look like Army but wear blue camo instead of green - presumably so they merge in with the diesel fumes) are back on the streets apparently after a tip off that a Maoist Special Unit was in Kathmandu. So what if they were, the Maoist leader now attends public gatherings here and peace talks are vaguely under way. Putting men with guns back on the streets hardly demonstrates trust in the peace process. Anyway, after 4 months or so of having things pretty easy these two factors explain the heading and give me an excuse for getting back to presenting this as being a hardship posting. Not true of course but like the tabloids (in fact, all papers apart from the good 'ol FT) I  know that sensationalism gets readers. By the way, did I mention that Elvis is alive and well in a remote village in Nepal. OK, that's a lie but you might have seen that we do have the smallest man in the world, unfortunately the Guinness Book of Records won't ratify this for another 4 years just in case he shoots up (in height not the other sort) in the meantime.

 

Aside from the above, its been a busy but stimulating week. Sheila's really got herself stuck into the heart of Early Childhood Development planning which means she is writing notes, concept papers etc late into the night. At Blue Diamond, my Admin & Finance colleague and I are busy trying to do day to day accounting whilst re-working budgets for UNDP (UN Development Programme) who manage the funding provided by DFID (keep up, I've mentioned this one before, it's the UK's Dept for International Development) and chasing them for money to pay August's salaries which we finally got last Thursday. Tomorrow we start chasing all over again in the hope that we can finally catch up and pay September's salaries on time which is all the more important because it's the Dasain festival at the end of the month which is an expensive time for everyone. Last Thursday, there was meant to be a beauty contest "Miss Queen 2006" organised by the Care & Support team (who run a hospice and care centre for people living with HIV & AIDS) at BDS. Following demonstrations on Wednesday near where it was to to be held and warnings that there might be more on Thursday it sadly was postponed. Shame but hopefully it will be rearranged although it might not be for 6 months. Volunteer meeting on Friday evening, out to visit Bouddha (30 min microbus/tuk-tuk ride away - both forgot cameras so no pictures of the Buddhist stupa) yesterday and both of us working today (Sheila, almost a full day in the office for an important meeting and me just an hour or so largely to give moral support to my colleague who was in for most of the day) rounded off the week. As I said, stimulating and we are both buzzing if a little tired. This week should be a bit more relaxing as we have a variety of VSO workshops on Weds/Thurs/Fri which hopefully won't be too participatory.

 

This was intended to be a very quick note which has taken longer than planned and it's after 11pm so time for bed.

 

Cheers

Roshan

 

P.S. Apologies to  Simon, Heather and Richard who I did not mention in my last P.S. but have written with their news and to say they read the blog. If I've forgotten anyone else, send me a nice gossipy e-mail to let me know.

 

P.P.S. Big news of the week is that Josie and Ben haved booked to come and see us at the end of next month. Only a week but it will be great to see them and for them to see where we live, work and play.

A weekend wander out of a town

I've been told I'm slacking on the blog front and so here's a quick overview of a trip out of town Roshan and I took last weekend...

Roshan and I had decided, well I decided and he agreed, that we needed to go out of KTM for a walk where the air was cleaner. So we took what we had expected to be two buses, but which was actually four because one driver said yes when the answer should had been no, the bus wasn't going to Changu Narayan Temple (all great amusement for everyone on bus no.3....and I thought my Nepali was getting a little better!).

The bus winds up the hill, frequently on single track. Lonely Planet advice to bikers is "it is a wonderful downhill run on the way back (30 mins) but quite a steep climb on way there!" Yes quite! But worth viewing another world heritage site in the KTM valley - Changu's history is said to date back to 3rd century AD. Hard to comprehend!


I knew from my list that there were schools in this area and the biggest, a government one, was in the buildings around the main temple, with classrooms above sheds of carts and furniture. On this occasion, as I had not made prior contact, I didn't investigate inside the school so I'm unsure whether students calling to us were standing by the windows for air, through boredom or because of shortage of desks. I suspect all three. Certainly with a metal roof, as many schools here have, there are problems with heat. I will return another cooler day to spend some time in Grade 1 and the ECD class, perhaps with my colleague spending time with the older children.


As we returned to the bus we spotted children in this brown and white uniform and all with shoes and socks. It would be a private school and from the board outside likely that most of the teaching would be in English medium. The Department of Education Office (DEO) has responsibility for monitoring government and private schools so am likely to return to both.


Oh and just to confuse you, I am now working for the Department of Education as well as the DEO. I am working in the ECD section at the DoE and am likely to much more busy! It is really exciting to see the national plans for Early Years, community based and school based, and these are to include training for facilitators, consideration of young children's holistic development, well equipped centres, inclusion and parental education...and the implementation will be the fun part - I'll keep you posted!

Sheila x