Khorbari, Palpa

Hi everyone! Sitting in a smelly little internet cafe with thumping music in Tansen, the capital of Palpa District and only place with internet! Thank you everyone for your emails, it was so nice to get them all just now! This computer won't let me reply but soon hopefully I will find one that will! Until then here's my news...
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Thursday:

At last we have power and I am writing from the only computer in all of Khorbari, the small village I have been staying in since Friday. It is dark and the cool of the evening is refreshing after a long day walking the sunbaked dirt tracks that weave their way between earth and wood homes, goats, chickens, pigs and buffalo all clucking and mooing and squealing happily, their owners tending to their vegetable patches, ploughing their rice terraces and maize fields with buffalo, carrying water, sweating under heavy loads of wood gathered from up the hill, chopping firewood, washing clothes and chatting, while groups of men gather to solve the community's problems. They have been very accepting of the white girl joining in!


Neighbours (and my students at the school) Susil (amazing volleyball player), Tiliti (who became firm friends and wouldn't leave my side after I taught her how to whistle with a blade of grass!) and Jewan (talented artist!).

Goma and her sweet babu! We always grin at each other and he grabs my finger like a vice and pulls it into his mouth...


My stomach has been fine since taking antibiotics and I was ready to leave Pokhara on friday... the taxi I had ordered to get me to the bus station early that morning did not arrive for nearly an hour... memories of Uganda.... but quickly forgave the driver (Susil, a friend of Krishna's) when he explained he had been taking Krishna's wife Bishnu to the hospital to have her baby!! All the journey I was kept in suspense to hear how it had all gone, and when at last I heard in the evening all was well and they had a healthy little boy! (Just as I has wished and hoped!) They haven't named him yet. Apparently the little outfit I brought from home looks very sweet. I can't wait to meet him!

All the community have been overwhelmingly welcoming, and did their best to make me feel at home right from the beginning. When I hopped off the bus the whole school were waiting by the roadside to welcome me with handfuls and garlands of flowers and red paint to streak on my forehead as a tika! After all the introductions about a dozen teachers and CCODER staff came down to the home where I am staying with Chander "Baba" who is chairman of the CCODER community school and his wife Rupa "Ama" (Mother). They are a lovely, contented couple, always teasing and joking with each other and I love to see how Chander is happy to cook and even serve food to his wife. They seem more than happy to have me here for however long it will be. I share their loft with a sweet little mouse and thankfully no giant spiders like the five that camp out in the toilet shed every night.

Chander and Rupa's home

Looking across to Khorbari (far left) from Tansen - about 3/4 hours bus ride away

The first couple of days were a little difficult not being able to communicate beyond a few words to anyone other than Tilak, one of the teachers at the community school - we get on really well and he was incredibly helpful even offering to take me into Tansen to arrange for a translator and to take an afternoon off teaching to translate in a women's meeting... I felt terrible taking up so much time and begged him not to - it has made such an incredible difference having a translator now to communicate three hours a day!

Women displaying some of their handicrafts at the women's meeting. (Rupa "Ama" in the middle)

So the first couple of days I spent being showed around the village by various neighbours - seeing many of the enterprises CCODER has helped establish - mainly agriculture (maize, rice, buffalo, hens, pigs, goats) and also handicrafts (woven bags, shawls, mats, incense sticks, candles). The grandson of Ama and Baba and a friend took me down to the temple and across to the next village where we joined in with a game of volley ball. I felt incredibly privileged to be the first ever girl to join them! This is one thing I am happy to challenge in their culture - I hate it how men and women mostly do not know how to interact naturally, and also how women have little to do apart from their daily chores and staying at home looking after children and expectant husbands. For me it helps that they do not expect western women to be the same and no one hasn't appreciated a chat/mime or a laugh. It is a little embarrassing how much respect they have.

Good Morning Miss! CCODER community school

CCODER supported health post - I hope to link it with the district hosp and arrange a discounted fee for hosp treatment and transportation for those investing in health insurance.

The last few days I have been working with CCODER staff and translator Dev to develop a baseline survey to gather info on all the enterprises in this area, how effective they are in increasing incomes and how they can be improved. Having seen what seems like a happy and contented community going about its daily business it was very eye opening to see the reality – many of the enterprises are actually not making a profit and some are even losing money – some lots – due to drought, lack of water facilities (in the summer the only water source is 1 ½ hours walk away) and disease wiping out whole chicken farms and litters of piglets. It is a huge privilege to be the first person to get data on this and I am excited to see what we can do… perhaps training on identifying the signs of disease and types of medicine and prevention, or even stopping the more risky enterprises and identifying more stable/profitable ones. It looks hopeful we can get govt funding to improve water access and irrigation systems and we will get some experts to assess the specific probs and discuss best ways to help – seems there are lots of opportunities and experts available – we just need to push a few doors! The villagers are so keen to be interviewed, news spread like bushfire and even before we were ready a small group were queuing up in the yard waiting for us! It’s also great how the staff have been so interested in helping develop and carry out the surveys and will implement them in all the other villages in the district if all goes well – so masses of scope!

Shanta and his dying hens - all their feathers are dropping out and apparently they are "filling with water..." I really feel for him - imagine having to rely on the health of your animals to be able to send your children to school and afford medical treatment...

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Here's friday's buffalo festival - all the local men hacking it into little pieces for everyone to enjoy on bananna leaves late into the night with drum and horn music and dancing.

On Saturday I joined 3 of the teachers and Tilaik's English tutor and fellow students for a "picnic" on a hill overlooking Tansen, down to India in the South and across to the Himalayas beyond Pokhara in the North. We cooked mounds of rice, mutton and spicy things over a fire on huge cauldrens they had carried up the hill! Someone plugged a huge amp into an overhead power line (!!!) and we had a mix of Nepali and English thumping to dance to and me to teach English dancing!

One of the many temples on the hill..

Goodbye everyone. "Big Man" tutor about to take the white girl back to her home on his motorbike.

I must print the final (hopefully!) version of the household survey before the power goes. Bye for now, and lots of love

Esther xxx

Holy men and hash

Up the hill at Sarangot we came across a Dutch man sipping tea and smoking hash as he watched and waited...

We got talking and he told us how he had been living with holy men at the burial site along Holy River in Kathmandu. They had covered him in ashes and he spent his days smoking with them and communicating with the spirits until he realised they expected him to be a "sponsor" to make them into "baba's" with a mobile phone, or even "big baba's" with several or "big, big, baba's" with a laptop too!

the man with one leg

"Hi sexy" a man calls from his bike. "Be happy! Live long life!" a doped up hippy calls. "Namaste Madam! Fruit?" calls an ever hopeful man with a bike laden with fresh fruit, conveniently ignoring the fact I am already carrying the stuff from another bike down the road. Honk, honk! "Namaste! Do you want something? Have a look inside!" from the pashmina stalls along the roadside.

All I can think of is finding a toilet. My tummy gurgles.

Then around the corner I see the man with one leg. Everything suddenly goes quiet. This is the moment I have been waiting for. He is clasping his hands together in front of a couple of white girls in a restaurant. They are not interested. I have done the same. But today is different. I take ten pounds from my wallet and hand the wad of notes to him. A grin envelopes his face as he looks up at me, and for the first time I see him for what he is, a human being and not a beggar. It is the equivalent to 2 days wages for a well paid Nepali. I wish I could explain that it is a present from my brother Jonti, who had seen him last year and had decided after passing him on the street that he wanted to help, and gave me he money to take out. I return his smile and carry on, happy to have lived this day to do this...

last few days in Pokhara

At last managed to meet up with Nina and her medic friends after days of all of us recovering from stomach bugs! We were all still a little week but managed to walk most of the way up the lake and catch up on all our news and horrific stories of what they are dealing with in the hospitals here, like the man who fell out of a tree and broke his back so that he was bent double and had been carried from his tree by friends who bundled him off to hospital in a taxi ...

We came across the snake charmers who were eager to play their little tune to the vipers (?) who came weaving their way out of their grass baskets, and brought the python along to be draped around our shoulders...

Tony (Australia) and Sally (Manchester)

Nina and I. I wish you were here Rosanne.... Krishna's German friend Florien made it safely all the way from Belgium and somehow managed to get the bus up from Kathmandu the same day! He looked totally alive and awake bright and early the next morning and spent the 2 days he was here making endless plans with Krishna and troops of guides, porters and expedition organisers for his crazy 2 week ice climbing expedition up to 6-7,000 metres! Half of it was trying to arrange helicopter rescue insurance with an agency in Kathmandu - yet it turns out the air is so thin at the height he will be at hellicopters wouldn't be able to make it... Lets hope he will be ok!

Krishna took us up Sarangot (hill overlooking Pokhara and Annapurna range) to see the sun rise one morning - although it was my fourth time I still enjoy walking up in the dark and seeing the incredible views slowly emerge as it gradually gets light. It was too cloudy to see much of the mountains or sunrise but an incredible red sun through the gaps and good views over the valleys and of small homesteads and people going about their daily village lives...

Waiting for sunrise - (nice height difference!)

Sunrise, joined by a little dog.

Krishna and Florien left for trekking yesterday and I was meant to leave for Palpa too to begin work with CCODER but that morning got another stomach bug... so decided to wait here until it is better and have enough energy to start somewhere new. Went to the hosp this morning and doc thinks it might be giadria - nasty parasite which comes back again and again until you sort it out so a course of antibiotics may be in order... about to return to the doc to hear the test results and we will decide from there.

It has been wet for the first time I have been here over the last couple of days and incredible thunder storm last night. The whole sky went yellow, with blinding lightening flickering every few seconds and thunder shaking the guesthouse like an earthquake as it boomed around the Himalayas and echoed across the lake. It was comforting listening to the rain drumming on the tin roof outside my room, and the smell of wet dust on the road, the clear damp air and sounds of splashes from the cars felt for the first time like home.

Looking forward to meeting up with Nina and friends again this afternoon.

Hope you're well,

Lots of love

Esther

Shangri-La

Greetings again from sunny Nepal.

All going well here at Shangri-La. I have been spending every day there so far. All the children are as full of life and fun and games as ever.

Some photos of our boat trip the other day... they all remembered their expedition last Christmas and very excited to hear we would do the same again!

We took lots of sweets brought from Europe (mainly Switzerland - thank you Peter and Caroline!), they got the hang of bubble gum very quickly!

...and stopped on the other side of the lake for a tiger hunt in the jungle and found some monkeys up a tree...

Here were some dancers being filmed in the park. The children were inspired after all their dancing classes!

Krishna's daughter Manasee, wearing her new pink top from UK.

In the park

Shangri-La dog Milo - with as much energy as all the children put together! He spent most of his time running around with a ball or shuttle cocks in his mouth and all the children chasing after...

Krishna's wife Bishnu, less than 2 weeks now until their second baby arrives! (I am cutting her hair... not sure why Benjamin looks so worried)

Sita sporting new kitchen in the extension. Looking hopeful we will be able to rent both floors and already making plans for the 2 children (currently living on street 2 hours drive from here) we hope to take on as soon as it is finished!

Micho! Fruit salad. The night before I bought ingredients for an "English" dinner but got too ill with some stomach bug (I'm not sure where it came from but has to be expected sometime and shouldn't last long) by the time it was time to cook I had to lie on a bench and try to explain to Krishna how to mash potato with boiled milk and yak cheese (and what we thought was butter but turned out to be something else), boil the peas alone (foreign concept) which somehow turned into a curry, and fry the (buffalow) sausages. The fatty smell made me feel even sicker and had to rush out several times to be sick in the garden but I hope the children enjoyed it...
Back to the fruit salad:

Pokhara market at night
All for now, looking forward to updating you on the next few days adventures!

Lots of love, and hope you are all well xxx

Photos from Pokhara!

The older childern have gone for dancing class and the little ones are sleeping out on the terrace in the sun, Krishna is off at some Hindu ceremony (he went to one last night and has two today and at least one every day for the next 2 weeks!) so I thought I would take the opportunity to put a few photos on here...

Sunset over Dhapsi (Kathmandu) from the rooftop of CCODER offices where I was staying

Office at the end of this street

Lunch on the roof with Joyti, Ratika and Tirtha

Govinda, always busy doing something, even at lunch...

My guesthouse in Pokhara - just a few metres from lake on one side and views over to the Annapurnas on the other - just fantastic, it couldn't be better! Friendly family running it, my room has a balcony with great views, hot shower (feel so lucky!), double bed, air con etc only 2 pounds 80 a night! About 5 mins walk from Shangri-La home and just on the edge of Lakeside...

View from the roof

Lakeside

Buying breakfast after bartering down to half price (he was trying to charge me a pound for 3 banannas and 2 oranges!) I think he got a good deal out of it..

Shangri-La with 2 new floors!! It looks very professional and well built and should be finished in the next couple of months. We are trying to decide whether to use some money that has been offered us for setting up another home for renting the whole thing (instead of it going to someone else) and filling it up with more children!

It's about time to meet everyone for games in the park. Here's a last picture of Benjamin when I left... (now go to sleep!)


Lots of love xx

highlight of this week:

introducing our lovely housekeeper Ratika to tuna fish.

I am preparing dinner when she walks in. I know she will probably never have seen tuna and hold the open tin out for her to see. Her eyes widen as she stares at the strange thing "OOh!"

I screw up my face trying so hard to remember the word for fish... "Matchu!"

"Ah." Her face softens as she understands. She inspects it a little longer and I put a little on a spoon. She carefully scoops it off onto her hand and eagerly throws it into her mouth.

"Micho!" (tasty!)

goodbye Kathmandu...

It has been a busy week reading endless project documents, editing and creating reports and proposals for donors (UN and USAID) while slowly recovering from jet lag! The staff have been incredibly helpful, explaining all their projects and the way things work and discussing endless ways I could spend the rest of my time here. We decided on me going to Palpa District about 4 hours bus journey south from Pokhara. I will be working with the coordinator to help develop their programmes in micro-enterprise/finance, healthcare and education and make sure everyone is benefiting. I will have to stay for years to get everything done! Very exciting to see where things go and what can be done.

Tomorrow I head up to Pokhara with colleague Binod who will be presenting a report to UN funders there. Looking forward to the tranquility and clean air (it will be nice not to wake up with itchy eyes and sore throat from dust and pollution) and having some good relaxing time with everyone at Shangri-La. Also looking forward to meeting up with Nina, a friend of a close friend and friend of hers who are on a medical placement and Florien, a friend of Krishna's who is coming for some extreme trekking...

Some photos soon I promise!

Lots of love xxx