Village visit

Namaste.
Some people following this blog have commented that I don't seem to be doing any work and that I'm having a great holiday!  Let me assure you that I am working hard too. In Lamjung District I am working with 12 rural schools, and to visit each of these for just one day takes a month of work.  The closest school is one hours walk to reach from Besisahar where I live. Quite a few involve a bus ride and then a long walk and some of the schools are more difficult to reach and so involve one or two nights staying in the village nearby. The furthest involves a five hour bus ride and then three hours walking.
This post describes my visit to one of the more remote schools.

The village concerned is perched on a ridge high above Besisahar. There is a bus there once each day, travelling up a steep narrow bumpy track, but on this occasion we actually took a jeep ride there and then walked back after work the following day - downhill, with interesting views.

The road snaking up the steep hillside. Besisahar is just in view in
the valley bottom.

Looking over the village with the Annapurna Mountains in the distance.

Our overnight accommodation was quite basic, we slept in the female room containing just beds. We ate at the lodge too, daal bhat (rice and lentils with vegetable curry) for breakfast and supper.









The next morning before school, we took a walk with the Headteacher to visit the next village, where many of the school's pupils live. Useful, as part of my work involves putting together a profile of each school community, e.g. Does the community have a health centre, electricity, running water, what type of houses are there, are there shops etc.
As school doesn't start until 10am many pupils were outside doing chores or just playing. 

However we found one group sat with their school books in the sun, revising for one of the end of year exams that they would sit later that morning. These exams are very important - if the pupil does not pass, he or she must remain in the class for another year and not move up to the next one.

Revision in the sunshine

We visited the house of one of the teachers, where we drank tea and had a long talk about the crops they were growing and the bees they kept. We were treated to a saucer of new honey, just taken from the comb, with small pieces of wax in it.  The kitchen had shelves full of gleaming metal pots and plates on display. Notice too the small stools.

There were several interesting things that we saw around the village;

Corn cobs stored above ground in a circular stack.
Bunches of herbs tied to the side posts, and firewood bundles
nearby to be stored for later use. They will have been brought
down from the hillside, carried on someones back.
These bundles are heavy!

Young buffalo calf in the shed

Firewood stacked in bundles at the side of the track,
to be transported to Besisahar, perhaps on the top of
the next bus.

Woman weaving a straw mat outside her house. She was surprised that
 I wanted to photograph her working.

Later in the morning at the school, I worked in the library with the Headteacher, discussing how I would help the teachers at the school to adopt more child-friendly methods of teaching.

Meanwhile, friend Helen sat under a tree talking to a group of girls who were waiting to take their exams. They were very pleased to have a chance to practice their spoken English.







This school is better resourced than many that I am working with.  It was interesting to see Nepali books and jigsaw puzzles in the library, similar to some of the resources found in schools in the UK.

Wooden puzzle of Nepali letters

World atlas

Abacus for maths work

One of the mottos painted on the school wall inspired me. "World change starts with educated children."

I hope that during my time in Nepal I can help bring change through education to a few children in the Lamjung District.

There and back again.

Namaste!
My friend Helen and I had 10 days of hard walking, leading us right up into the Annapurna Sanctuary and then back.  We had about 8 days when we were too remote and high for wheeled vehicles, so unusually quiet. This blog page gives a small taste of some of the sights we experienced during our fabulous trek.

The first day was very steeply uphill, out of the valley pictured
above. Hard work and hot, and I had a stomach upset too!

Breakfast with a view, day 2

Didi's shop in Landruck, which sold almost everything a
trekker could want; beer, coke, toilet rolls, snickers bars etc.

Our lovely guide and porter, Bhima and Kalpana outside Captain
Laliguran's guest house in Landruck. Early morning day 3

Homework time - English homework being done in the early morning before school.

Would you trust this bridge?? We did!

Lodges for trekkers at Bamboo. It snowed heavily during
the night whilst we stayed here on day 5.

Chomrong village where we stayed on day 3 and 9, perched above the cliff.
This was the area featured in the documentary film
"The Honey Hunters of Nepal"

Steps - over 3000 from the valley bottom to our lodge in Chomrong!

This dog adopted us for three days,
sleeping on our doorstep and following us right
 up to Annapurna Base Camp. We did feed it!

Washing on the line at Annapurna Base Camp.

Traditional beehives fascinated Helen, a bee keeper herself

The lush Bamboo forest, with the path winding through it.

One of the frequent buffalo we met on the path.

Beautiful orchids growing on a rock face.

Ghandruk, a traditional Gurung village where
we stayed on day 10.

Looking back up at the peak of Machhepulchhre from lower down the valley, on the way back.

Annapurna Base Camp

Namaste!

My friend Helen, who is visiting Nepal, and I trekked for 6 days, up the steep valley to reach this spectacular place. It had snowed the night before we climbed up into the Annapurna Sanctuary, so the path was slippery and hard work. Avalanches had blocked the original path and so a new one had been established, crossing the river and then walking through a boulderfield.

We stayed two nights at Machhapulchhre Base Camp and walked up to Annapurna Base Camp on the day in between.  On that morning the sun shone and the mountains in the snow looked sparkling.

Looking down the path that we had climbed from Machhapulchhre Base
Camp to Annapurna Base Camp in the deep snow.

Looking up, with Annapurna South and Baraha Chuli (Twelve Peaks) in bright early
morning sunshine

Huin Chuli (6434 metres) with Annapurna South (7219 metres) behind

One of the other big mountains that surround the Annapurna Sanctuary.

The sky was not quite as deep blue as this. It is the effect of
the contrast of the snow.

Machhapulchhre, Fish-tail mountain (69997 metres) is a holy mountain and
no-one is allowed to climb to the top of it.

We could hear the glaciers rumbling and cracking loudly
all around us.

Helen feeling happy despite the altitude.

Snow had blown onto the roof at Annapurn Base Camp,
but the windows had been dug out.

At 4130 metres, this was the highest I have ever been on earth.  No need for many words on this page - I think the photos say it all.

The chorten above Annapurna Base Camp decked in prayer flags. What a
special place. You can see ABC buildings in the background

Mountains in the sun

Namaste!

After three failed attempts to visit, (no bus, jeep full, jeep broke down on way), our fourth attempt to get to the school was successful.  We travelled by jeep, 12 people squashed in like sardines, for two hours up a steep unmade mountain track. At times the track was very exposed, with a huge drop down the mountainside; if the vehicle skidded there was no barrier to stop us rolling down the steep slope. I couldn't stop myself from watching the road and the verge in horror.

Classrooms with the mountains as a backdrop.

This was another school perched on a ridge; I have yet to discover why the schools are so sited, often with only a very small village around them.  It was a clear day so the views were immediately apparent.  Mountains reared up beyond the nearby hills to both the north, the Annapurna range and east, the Manuslu Mountains.   

There were other western visitors at the school that day; some teachers and pupils from the British partner school had arrived and a special welcome ceremony had been prepared for us all. 

Firstly speeches and flower garlands; then beautiful young girls dressed in the clothes of their local ethnic group, performed traditional dances of greeting.  They danced barefoot on the hard earth in front of the classrooms, with the school pupils and some women from the community sitting on the ground watching the performance. We, as visitors sat on chairs.

As we needed to stay in the village overnight, and catch the early morning bus back to Besisahar, I was able to explore after school finished. Lots of traditionally designed houses, many painted blue and a terracotta colour made from the local clay. Interestingly, many roofs had small solar panels to supply electricity. The street through the village was laid with stone cobbles, and was narrow so no motorised traffic could pass through. 

 This village was tidy and well ordered, with toilets and washing area for all to use.  That afternoon there had been a mother and baby health clinic in the village, and it was very encouraging to listen to some of the young mums and hear how important they considered education will be to their growing children.

The small hill, just above the village gave the most splendid views of the mountains, so I loitered around there watching, as the sun set.  The photos I have included don’t really do justice to the breath taking panorama of the mountains and the sky as the sun dropped below the horizon.  It was a “good to be alive" moment!!

Early the following morning I was again to be found climbing the hill, determined to watch the sun rise.  I wasn’t disappointed!  How exciting to witness such a beautiful start to the day from this place.

Annapurna catching the rising sun.

The school has a hostel attached, so that students living a long way away can board there on a weekly basis, returning home at weekends. At 6.30am I was surprised to see a stream of teenagers leaving the hostel and arriving at school for the coaching session, taught by the Headteacher, which started at 7am.  The date of the School Leaving Certificate is approaching, a government test taken by all, and these young people need to pass this exam in order to continue their education.

I paused to wonder how many teenagers from the UK would get up so early for coaching.