leaving Nepal

Things I will Miss About Nepal 

As I prepare to leave Nepal at the end of this 3 year contract, I tis a good opportunity to reflect on my three occasions living here and the many things I will miss.

The friendly people and the open, stoic attitude of the rural people, who retain their sense of humour even in the face of grinding poverty. I admire the strong sense of family that keeps the extended family in close contact with each other. Also the technical and linguistic ability of most nepalis who can repair or copy anything and, at least in the cities, usually speak at least two languages fluently. They value education so highly and parents make big sacrifices to enable their children to have a good quality education. I will miss my friends and colleagues here of course and I have really enjoyed being part of a team. The stunning scenery especially in the high hills here is breath-taking and I have bene privileged to see so much of the country, well away from the tourist trails. My interest in birds, plants and al wildlife has been rewards by some excellent sightings, recorded in my birds and mammals of Nepal books. It will be hard to leave but I have built capacity in my colleagues and they are now well able to carry on without me.

As I relocate to the UK in Spring 2019 I am looking forward to hot baths, clean air and being able to wash my clothes in clean water! Also the temperate seasons and especially the Devon primroses and the birdsong In Spring.

Science training and spiders

Last week I travelled to Mugu in the far west to monitor schools and to train Science teachers in practical Science techniques. The journey involved two flights, a nights stay in the searing heat of Nepalgung then a spectacular but alarming flight in a 15 seater plane to Mugu. As you approach the high airstrip the plane has to turn through nearly 90 degrees and goes so close to the mountains it seems likely to touch the rocky slopes before gliding onto the high airstrip without losing any more height

 After a few days in the main town we took a jeep out to the road head and then walked for 6 hours with a stop to monitor one of our partner schools before we reached  Mangri, a Tibetan style settlement with a school which has improved dramatically since our project started supporting it . It has a very committed school management committee and a well equipped science lab so it was chosen as the training venue for my first field based practical science training.
I had brought some equipment with me but strict weight restrictions meant that I had to wait and see what was available in the school before finalising my training. Also there was no internet, phone or mains electricity so I had to rely on a borrowed low voltage projector and posters in case the solar powered batteries failed.
When I arrived the lab had obviously not had classes in it although some science was being taught as demonstrations in  classrooms. My main objective was to teach Science practical and classroom management skills to teachers who had only learnt science theoretically themselves and so were ill equipped to teach practical science to their students.Firstly I opened the shutters to get some light in  and was inspecting the large range of unused chemicals and glassware when I noticed what I thought was  a large painted mural on the wall. I am somewhat arachnophobic but I was not frightened because my brain told me that such an enormous(at least 25cm leg span) black thing on the wall must be  a painting.I asked the member of staff who was helping me "yo ke ho"( anglised script) which means "what is that" and he replied calmly "tyo spider ho" meaning "that is a spider" at which point I left the lab very quickly and waited outside until it had been removed. On return I started to remove a poster from the wall to make a screen for the projector and there was another one almost as large behind the poster! Once again I fled and explained I was not going back in until the spider had been removes. It was carried out on a grass broom which it was trying to bite and I was told they are very dangerous since their bite is very nasty. Since the local health post had only a couple of health workers and no doctor , and we were nearly  a days walk from the nearest road I was right to be cautious!
Anyway I completed my preparations and the next day the training went really well. The best bit was when I was showing  the teachers how do make a practical lesson plan including identifying risks to students . Several of the teachers not only completed lesson plans but demonstrated the practicals to each other.

teachers demonstrating experiments to each other

preparing lesson plans

By the end of the training all the teachers had completed several simple experiments and they were given my student worksheets, lesson plan templates and lab rules all in both English and Nepali.  My two colleagues will be able to continue helping these teachers for sustainability in the future.

posters of key points 

In our feedback session afterwards we have agreed that I will extend the training in our other working areas to 2or 3 days so that teachers will hav emore tiem to paln their own practicals. I will then produce a practical handbook in English and Neplali) based on the Nepali curriculum to help many more schools introduce practical Science

the house where I stayed, note the solar panel providing light in one room

A chorton (sacred monument) on the outskirts of the village

The guest house owner preparing our meal  in her kitchen/sitting room

The trail out of the village

The mules and ponies carry 70 kg along the trails

They are not the only ones carrying loads!

Once we reacherd the road our vehicle stopped to let these buffalo enjoy a drink

Language Issues

Having just given a 30 minute presentation in Nepali to 200 teachers and headteachers at a conference here in Kathmandu,I have been reflecting on language learning.
When we first lived in Pokhara, when the children were small, it was a real struggle for me to to focus on studying Nepali when the children were settling in. Roger was way ahead of me but I persevered and after 3 years was reasonably proficient. Neplali is phonetic so once you know the devanagri script it is clear how to pronounce It.  Unfortunately, some if the sounds are very
unfamiliar especially the inherent vowel sounds and the aspirated and non-aspirated constanents. Even now I sometimes use signs to make sure that I am being understood when 2 words sound so similar but have very different meanings. Also the verbs are all conjugated on different levels depending on whether you are speaking to a respected person, a lower person/child or an animal. In a typical household , the husband would be addressed in a higher form than the wife- needless to say, in our office everyone is high form! I only use the mid form when I am speaking to children.
Anyway, after many years of speaking only English the amazing thing was that when I started language classes again in 2016 on arrival here, words I did not even remember learning popped up in my head. The brain is amazing when a language you learnt years ago can be retained and re-emerge once you start using that language again.
I wish I was as skilled as my Nepali colleagues in the office who effortlessly switch from typing English, to typing devanagri and are fluently bilingual and in most cases trilingual . For example, the Newaris are the dominant tribal group here and their language, Newari , is the first language of our neighnbours and several work colleagues.
The language to use is often triggered by the face of the audience and so it sometimes hard to speak English with a Nepali collaeague even if their English is better than my Nepali!
Usually if I am givein a presentation I will use English powerpoint slides, lots of pictures and speak in nepali. What I find really hard is switching from one ot the other during a presentation, as if my brain is switched on to nepali and it is an effort to switch back. Also I have concentrated on the vocabulary I need for work so I would find it much more difficult to speak about a completely new subject without detailed preparation.
 One thing I do find is that using another language is very tiring , especially at my age. If I get really tired I zone out and cannot speak well anymore but everyone here is very understanding.
In the rural areas Nepali is the common language but in the cities many young professional people whose parents could afford it went to English medium schools and so have very good English. In fact many people visit or work in Kathmandu with no Nepali at all which is fine unless you want to communicate with poorer, less well educated people and then , of course , you need to be able to speak their language. I am very grateful for the excellent 1:1 language classes provided by our office so I can always access help when preparing a presentation or training to make sure my meaning is clear and I am using the correct forms of address.

Unexpected hospitality

Now that my fractured elbow has healed, it is great  to be able to explore the valley on the back of Roger's motorbike again. last weekend  there was a surprising heavy rain storm , probably an indication of climate change and the following morning the dust had been washed out of the atmosphere so we decided to travel o the outlying hills to see some mountain views. We stopped to admire a snow capped peak and noticed lots of nesting house martins swooping around the village houses. A man came out of one of the houses and asked us what we were looking at and what we were doing in Nepal when we explained ( in Nepali) he invited us in to see their small dairy herd.
We spent a happy half hour drinking chya, (sweet spiced tea ) and admiring his three lovely fat milking buffalo and two milking cows. They were tied up outside as is usual here, with food and water brought to them every two hours and their milk sold locally. These water buffalo have very rich, creamy milk but they will only allow themselves to be milked when the calf is close by or suckling too.it was lovely to be sipping tea while stroking the little buffalo calves who were tied up nearby, stretching themselves out in the warm sun and enjoying having their heads scratched. I discussed childrens health and family issues  with the ladies while Roger gave helpful agricultural advice to the farmer.
The same day my Sikh watch mender had invited us to his temple (gaudwara) to see a Sikh service and then have lunch. We were welcomed and provided with headscarves and shown where t wash our hands and leave our shoes. The temple was a large room, largely unadorned with a shrine in the centre behind which the guru sits and people bring offerings and prostrate themselves on arrival. There was a traditional small orchestra a with singers who played continuously and people just came and  sat as long as they wished, it was very relaxed and calm.

Inside the godwara

After the service we all went downstairs to a large hall and sat on strips of carpet before being given a plate and cup each. Within 20 minutes the male servers had given rice, dahl (lentil soup) ,pickles and  a drink of water to each of the 150 or so people who were in the hall. Everyone was served as much as they could eat and this happens every Saturday, regardless of whether people attend the service or not. I was very impressed by the friendly welcome and the provision of hospitality to everyone, including some very poor barefoot landless poor people and several ragged street children who were also welcomed in. Many Christian churches also offer hospitality bu the model of a weekly free meal for everyone in the community whatever their economic or social status is an example to us all.

The womens area of the dining hall

Can you learn Science in theory only?

I wonder how you would feel if , as a budding young scientist, you went up to a community secondary school here in Nepal and found that the exciting science lab was always locked, or was non-existent and the only Science that you could learn was out of the pages of a well thumbed text book.
That is the reality for many government school students today, despite large amounts of money being poured into the community school system and clear curriculum for every subject.
Sometimes I go into the "Marie Celeste" of science labs, with much confusion before the key can be found and then the layer of dust and copious cobwebs and mice droppings belying the report that "oh yes, we do practical science here".
In other schools the science teacher is struggling with little equipment and no designated lab but manages to do some experiments as demonstrations. In the best schools I have seen the teachers have made some of their own equipment from locally available materials.
So why, when Science equipment is gradually being made available to schools, is practical work so rarely a reality?
There are several reasons for this and schools will always say they do not have enough money to equip a lab properly. However,after talking to other INGO and NGO colleagues and visiting many schools, I believe that the key issues are two fold.
Firstly, how can a teacher who has never done any practical Science him or herself know how ot approach teaching practical Science to students? If we can get some of the current generation of teachers to learn and then enjoy teaching practical skills, then the current generation of students, when some of them become teachers, will find it much easier to teach their students practically.
The second issue concerns the Nepali (and Asian) cultural issue of "not wanting to lose face". The fear of  failing  at an experiment in front of their students makes many teachers avaoiud practical work altogether.
So what can we do?  Firstly I have asked our field staff and school teachers whether this is an important issue for them and since they affirm that it is I have started to develop a training package using locally available materials  plus a minimum of science equipment from suppliers. I have started by training our field staff and teaching them a few simple experiments that they can share with schools.

Practical science introductory training for our field staff

I will develop a more technical training designed fro science teachers and deliver this in our differnt working areas with the help of two of my Nepali colleagues who also have a science background. If we can get teachers to confidently and safely deliver 4 or 5 experiments a year that will be a good start and something we can then build on as they and their pupils grow in skills and confidence. Teachers will also learn about hazard labels and simple risk assessments because the concept of keeping pupils safe during their science lessons by predicting possible risks is also a new one.

Monsoon Havoc

As I write the incessant rain over the last few days has stopped at last and the clouds are parting in place to reveal patches of blue sky. Here in the city the Bagmati river is very high and traffic is disrupted due to damaged roads, but there is no evidence of the severe flooding and landslides that are affecting many areas of the country.
I do not travel outside the valley during the monsoon , since I hate the thought of being stuck in a vehicle when a big landslide covers the road or a bridge suddenly washes away. So many of the roads here snake around towering hills, with the road little more than a narrow ledge with a rock cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other . Therefore it is not surprising that when a landslide crashes down the mountainside it sweeps away out sections of road .The tragedy is that, due to the spectacular mountainous terrain, many villages are built on the sides of the steep hills . This week  whole families have been swept to their deaths by landslides which have struck at night while they were sleeping.

remains of a house in the hills this week the morning after a landslide  

On a lighter note, tourists down south on the flat Terai bordering India gained some extra elephant rides for free when the safari elephants were used to rescue them from their flooded hotels .

Elephants being used to rescue tourists from the floods in Sauraha

The floods are the worst for 15 years and have killed 49 people so far, including 11 children with 17 missing and at least 13 injured. 305 houses are reported damaged so far but unfortunately these numbers are likely to rise . it sees as if just as the earthquake reconstruction is gathering pace, another natural disaster shakes the already fragile infrastructure here. I expected climate change to lead to unpredictable weather and here some areas of the country have had so little rainfall this month that they have been unable to plant their precious rice crops while other areas are being inundated.

footbridge swept away

A family leaving their  flooded home

Leading  precious buffaloes to safety

Many aid agencies are already on the scene but once again , Nepal 's development is on hold in these areas while everyone waits for the water to recede so repairs and rebuilding can start

Nepali weddings

Now that we have returned to Kathmandu after our leave the monsoon is in full swing with heavy rain most days and the humidity steadily rising .It is 70 % at present so things quickly go mouldy so when the sun shines I put all our bedding outside to air.Yesterday I was pruning our bougainvillea when I felt something crawling on my neck, it was a 6 cm long bright green praying mantis which I returned to its home among the leaves. it is good to see some diversity in insect life even here in the middle of the city.
We also a family of bamboo rats living in the drains under the house, they are beautifully adapted to living in tunnels and instead of having to make their own , they live happily in our concrete drain tunnels.Like the pigeons nesting on the roof, some animals seem able to adapt surprisingly well to urban life

bamboo rat, a kind of large vole about 10 cm long

Since the monsoon prevents me from travelling safely, I though I would write about weddings, since th edry months preceding the rains ar ethe auspicious ones for these happy occasions
It is hard to generalize about marriage customs since they vary greatly depending on the tribe and religion of the bride and groom and of course, their wedding budget. generally , however, a wedding is for the whole extended family, and arranged marriages are still the norm especially in rural areas. Most brides still move into the parents-in-law's home after marriage making the mother -in -law /daughter-in-law relationship crucial. Many daughters-in-law's are still worked really hard and are dependent on their husband and his family for everything. However, this is slowly changing and our project recently helped a married couple in rural Nepal to register their land in joint names which is really unusual here.

Typical hindu wedding ceremony in a booth with the sacred fire and the priest doing puja (worship ) The ceremony can last up to 4 hours

In the case of hindu weddings, astrologers choose the auspicious day for the marriage based on the horoscopes of the bride and groom which were prepared at their birth. Once the two families have agreed arrangements there is a large wedding party in the brides house for her extended family and friends. The groom with his firends and family then come to her house for the marriage ceremony and then she travels back to the grooms house. In some tribal groups she is carried through the streets, in the cities the decorated car idea has come from India and is very popular with families who can afford it.

wedding car

High caste family member sin their wedding finery

Red is the main colour of celebration for weddings, this one for a very wealthy family is in an international hotel. In the dry months many wedding celebrations are held outside

Once the bride reaches the grooms house there is another big party for all his extended family and friends. Usually the brides parents and family are not present at this one. If a honeymoon is taken , it will not be for a few days afterwards.

A high caste Hindu bride and groom, note the necklaces of sacred grass which are often dried and framed as wedding keepsakes

If the family is not as wealthy as the one pictured above the celebrations are still extensive and result in years of debt or valuable land being sold off. Both Hindu and Christian weddings can be arranged or love marriages, with the latter becoming more accepted especially if the bridal couple have worked abroad.

Christian weddings take place in a church with the bride often in white but there is still the huge post wedding party 

A post wedding feast in the church grounds for a middle income couple

All the church congregation as well as the wedding guests are invited to the feast