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

Terai Trip in May

After the Easter break and a hectic time of report writing and meetings I set off on my delayed field trip to Rupendehi district on the flat Southern border(the Terai) on 2nd may. This is not an ideal time to visit the flat, hot plains on the border with India but school holidays and political demonstrations meant that  this was my third attempt to get down there.

Usually this would mean a 6 hour drive but since the road was shut for most of every day due to road widening , I flew down on a little twin engined plane instead. As I waited at the airport for the project  vehicle to arrive there was a thundering crash behind me , I leapt up only to find it was just some workman chucking big concrete blocks from the flat roof down onto on to a trailer below, despite the passengers walking close by!

concrete and stones raining down onto this trailer at the airport

I stayed at the old umn guest house in the woods outside Butwal, a real time warp since much of the furniture was exactly the same as when we stayed there 20 years ago when the children were small. The guest house is now under Nepali management and the Dahl Bhat was delicious .It was good to hear the gheckoes at night. and the bird song at dawn ws lovely There is a big malaria risk there so it was back to the mosquito net but with a fan and the old aircon unit going all night I managed to sleep quite well.

well structured lesson

Our education officer and driver took me to visit four schools, they were a mixture of the very good and the poorly managed but all had road access, good quality buildings and friendly students. In one school (which has longstanding links with us) I observed a great lesson where students were actively engaged in a practical task.

 In another the government provided science labs had not been used for so long that cobwebs, insect nests and a thick layer of dust coated the benches. When a teacher emerged from the prep room he had a huge orange and black spider on his shoulder, obviously suprised to have its long term home invaded!

The teachers of this school asked for a photo

On my return to the office I will be writing reports and meeting with colleagues to decide how we can help these schools.
The heat was  intense, with a hot wind blowing and 42 degrees maximum temperature that day,

The next day we trained 16 teachers from 8 schools and a government official in the use of electronic learning materials which we provided on a hard drive. I got the teachers to use the resources to prepare a lesson and show it to the group and I was impressed with the results

training teachers

group work: What do you understand by a child friendly lesson?

Everyone was really engaged during the training

it was good to have several female teachers attending

. The feedback was very positive despite the heat and I plan to return after the monsoon when it is cooler. in the meantime I will be in touch with our field staff who will be helping the schools.

typical village cowshed

village grain stores

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!