Mugu field trip to the far north -west

It took me two flights and nearly two days to reach our working area in Mugu and three days to get a return flight back out. This because the airstrip at Talcha, in Mugu district, is little more than a runway built into the side of a mountain. As the little twin engine plane comes in to land there, it banks and turns so I was sure one wing would hit one of the steep, high  hills ( in the UK we would call them mountains. As the plane lands it has no need to lose height, it just glides onto the runway which is at the same altitude of 8,920 feet or 2,719 metres. Everyone clapped on landing!
The journey from Kathmandu takes 4 full days by vehicle so I was glad to be able to fly to Napalgunj, in the hot and completely flat terai region bordering India, and then
 on to Mugu the next day when the weather cleared enough for a plane land there.
There is extreme contrast between the flat , fertile terai and the extremes of  dizzyingly high hills and deep river gorges found in Mugu. The district includes both the high hills and the Himalaya mountains and includes the ancient trading paths up to Tibet. The extremes of terrain , altitude and climate make Nepal so rich in biodiversity and so wherever I go I take my birds of nepal book and binoculars and am always on the lookout for interesting mammals , reptiles, insects and plants.

The  Himalalyas seen from the  plane

On arrival at Talcha airport my Nepali colleague and I trekked 4 hours up steep tracks to reach Rara lake, the largest in Nepal at nearly 11 square kilometers and one of the highest at 3,000 meters.It is surrounded by the Rara national park which is heavily forested. As we walked through the woods we could see that much of the soil had been uprooted by wild pigs ( we would call them wild boars. There are also leopards and jackals so the forest paths are closed after 6 at night.We were just enjoying the flat terrain as we walked around the lake when a great squealing and grunting was heard behind us and my colleague said "go,go fast!"running at that altitude was a real effort and eventually I thought "well, they can eat me but I really am going to have to stop and get my breath now! Apparently wild boars had attacked some wild ponies who had come down to drink form te lake. fortunately for us they went in the opposite direction , but it was quite alarming. eventually we reached the guesthouse which was basic but clean and I managed to keep warm by wearing all my clothes, including hat and gloves at night!

Rara Lake

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The next day we left before 7 and trekked another 4 hours to reach our first school for monitoring .The children here are so dirty, especially this time of year because water is scarce except close to rivers, and it is too cold to wash properly.Also people here are so poor that they have few spare clothes to wear.

primary class 1 at village primary school

older primary students

village lady preparing our lunch

It was good to see that our partner schools are now using learning materials like flash cards and also that more young girls are attending school. However, child labour is still endemic in the economy here and we saw several children carrying heavy loads on the trail, or doing tasks at home when they should have been at home. We had conversations with them and whenever possible with their parents but the school teachers confirmed that attendance is still an issue

a well resourced primary class

helping to feed the family buffalo instead of studying in school

We then walked back to the main town of Gamghadi for a well earned rest in the guest house.The next day was spent at the office preparing for my training and also visiting a large secondary school close by. it was great to see that one of the teachers was a low caste lady who had been givne a scholarship by our project to study at a good school as a child. She is now a teacher (despite being disabled )and had a great relationship with the children in her class.

This teacher was herself a previous scholarship pupil 

The next day we walked 6 hours along a mule trail to reach a remote primary school and then anther 2 hours to reach a secondary school close to the river. 

Primary school students-this school has several issues

An easy part of the trail

A remote secondary school

A difficult part of the trail!



we spent the night in a village and then it took 8 hours to trek back up the steep trail to Gamghadi. the next day my colleague and I gave a days  training to 12 teachers from  8 schools about how to use electronic learning materials to enhance teaching . I showed them how to plan an effective lesson and also how to use the materials which had been donated on a hard drive so internet was not needed. most rural schools have at best one computer, very like the situation in the UK 25 years ago. However, the road building programme in Mugu wlll soon bring greater accessibility and therefore development . I have written a report about this situation and it will be interesting to see how much the schools will have improved when we next visit them.

I also enjoyed walking along the mule trail to a local church where i was welcomed warmly

my guides to help me find the church

Church



It then took me three days to fly out because there was four inches of snow at the airstrip but eventually I made it . it was a fascinating trip and I am full of ideas for school improvement  in the area. However, after 10 days with only a bucket of water to wash with , it was lovely to get back to a hot shower!