Monsoon blues

Sheila's not here, the rain it is pouring and the mozzies are a-biting, I got dem monsoon blues.

 

This evening I thought it would be a good idea to wait until the rain slowed a bit before leaving work. This did keep me reasonably dry from the knees up but I hadn't planned for the narrow back roads between the office and home being quite so flooded. In one place there was a raging torrent coming down a side road and water was spouting up from drain (or were they sewer?) covers leaving me no option but to roll up my trousers and wade through. It's still pouring and I expect we'll get a power cut soon as the local sub-station gets flooded and trips out. Still the hydro-electric reservoirs need this rain if we are to avoid load-shedding next spring. So far so good with the house, no sign of damp or leaks - having the landlord living above us gives me confidence that are no leaks in the flat roof and the 6 inch deep gully running round the house has coped with even in the worst downpour. Better than my house in Delhi where the roof turned into a swimming pool which then drained down the inside stairs!

 

The really annoying thing is that my washing is on the roof and there is no point trying to bring it in. If I leave it out it should dry tomorrow, the question is whether I get back in time to take it in before the evening "shower". If not I might be recycling today's shirt on Friday.

 

As some of you may know, Sheila is back in the UK for a couple of weeks. She's in Felpham this week and I think back up to London with Josie next week. Hopefully she will come back loaded with goodies (and a couple more shirts).

 

Right, I'm off to cook my left over mashed potatoes and tinned tomatoes before settling down with a warm (I'm not joking, the laptop almost glows) spreadsheet that needs sorting before tomorrow. Happy hols for those about to go and fair winds for those doing Cowes Week.

 

Cheers

Roshan 

An interesting exhibition in KTM

I'd seen a small flyer about this exhibition but arrived at this huge old building with no advertising anywhere or sign of life...



…but after wandering in the doorway and along corridor I knew I was in the right place as I found these great pictures on cloth doors by children decorating the staircase.





Earlier in the year, more than 200 kids - from street children to those from international schools - had worked alongside some of the most eminent artists in Nepal and interested people from a range of organisations.







Children who were visiting particularly loved this one as they could see through the work!



The exhibition was called Khulla dhoka. More info via:

www.britishcouncil.org/nepal-khulla-dhoka.pdf





Was so pleased I went to this exhibition as it meant I saw some work by of Ben's mate Dan Cartright (albeit by bizarre coincidence - it's a small world isn't it!) and also a couple done by people in Roshan’s organisation, BDS.

A glorious exit for England

NOT.  But commiserations to any of you who take these things seriously. We watched the England match last night with a crowd at the Pacific Guest House. A few non-English (2 Irish and a South Korean) volunteers and me cheering for Portugal and the rest including the Nepali (or maybe they're Tibetan) friends and family of the owner rooting for England. Noisy but no crowd trouble unlike last week when apparently a drunk English fan had a fight in one of the smartest hotels in town. Despite the late start (00:45 our time), 4 of our friends came back to our flat to watch Brazil on my laptop (I've got a TV tuner for it) and at least that was entertaining enough to keep us awake.

 

Even the most hardened England fan must be relieved that the wives and girlfriends will not now be recording "We are the Champions".

 

Have a good week and enjoy Wimbledon in the sunshine whilst we alternate between heat and monsoon rain.

 

Cheers

Roshan

Thoughts on a J cloth

After a tingle of excitement ran through me when doing the washing up with a brand new J cloth (admittedly cut in half on the grounds of economy but who needs them that big anyway) my first thought was "What a sad git you've become (or always were)". Rather than go down this masochistic path any further I reflected on how much we used to take for granted, now don't have and frankly don't feel any the worse for not having. Amongst other things, an endless supply of new (whole) J cloths, a dishwasher, washing machine, TV (OK, more than one TV), all 637 Sky channels, one and a half freezers.................  Life is so much simpler here.

 

This message will self destruct the minute I set foot in the UK again.

 

Cheers

Roshan

 

P.S. The last post with lots of photos is courtesy of Josie who (a) has an internet connection 100s of times faster than ours and (b) has more patience than I have to upload them from an e-mail Sheila.

Some tales from the teacher!

On my way to work

Some views could be anywhere, this big sister telling brother to hurry as they will be late!


...whilst other sights are special to Nepal









And on my way home, I walked past this little girl fast asleep sitting around a corner from where her mum and sibling were selling odd bits (the Nepali word for things is chiz bis) in the street.



At work

After spending time in the education office getting to know staff I have been going to visit schools. Working with a volunteer whose interest is with older children has given me time to explore Early Years settings.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) is still new to Nepal and training, resources and sometimes even nos of children are very limited.


When I first went to this class, there were only these 2 children although a few weeks later there are 6!

In government schools training and resources are very limited.

These children in grade 1 are mostly 5 and 6 but one or two younger ones joined before the ECD class had been formed.



Late morning on this day a student teacher was in the classroom, all the children’s bags were closed and on the desks and yes, 2 children had their heads on the desk and were asleep! All walls were bare and the student had no resources except herself.

Some schools are not easily accessible. There are some small ones on the other side of this hill approached by several hours walking and not at all in the rainy season.



This one is by the highway but all the children over 6 have moved to a new unfinished site.

There are now up to 35 children from 20 months to 5 yrs and three teachers/facilitators here all working on ground floor as the upper floor and walkway are unsafe.



ECD teachers have 8 days training. The staff here are keen for me to spend further time supporting them and help them build/make resources.





Once work is done

This weekend we have been to the reception of a large wedding. Unusually most of the ceremonies took part on the same day. At one point the bridegroom danced with mother and other members of the family whilst the bride stayed on the stage.



But the partying had been going for 12 hours and was far from finished!

Love Sheila