Day 68 - Chovar, Nepal

Day 68 – Hers.

I was nervous this morning about giving my Class 10 maths lesson – but it went really well....However, the maths teacher who had asked me to do the lesson so that he could observe me wasn’t there. (Sanju laughed when I told him later. ‘That is typical Nepal,’ he said.)  The head teacher had not realised that it had been arranged for me to take the class and came in a few minutes after the bell – presumably to take the class himself.  He watched for a while and then left to do something else, so I must have passed muster.  Hopefully the maths teacher won’t insist I take another lesson for him to observe – I really don’t need the stress....

My English lessons went well, too.  Class 9 loved their assignment to describe the ‘perfect’ wife or husband.  Their responses were quite interesting – most marriages in Nepal are arranged marriages, but they nearly all mentioned that a husband or wife should love his/her partner and most mentioned the idea of respect. (Of course, all the husbands had to be handsome and the wives beautiful.)

The children at the school are very well disciplined.  They stand as I enter the room, say ‘good morning, ma’am’ and wait for me to ask them to sit.  They stand if I ask them to read or answer a question.  At the end of the lesson, they say ‘thank you’ and wait for me to leave the room before they leave.  It feels quite Victorian – but makes classroom management a doddle....

I wore my tikka spot to school today – I checked with one of the English-speaking teachers that it only means that I am married.  One of the female teachers commented on it and said it made me look beautiful.  A quite different idea to me – that a bright red spot on my forehead would make me look beautiful.....

Steve, Rob and I had a traditional milky tea at breaktime at a little tea shop down from the school.  When we had finished for the day, we had a soft drink at another tea shop (that belongs to Sanju’s brother) in the village square.  People recognise us now – we are beginning to feel like locals.  It is quite strange, but nice, they way that we are accepted within the community.  One of the teachers has invited us for dinner on Thursday – I think Camala will be upset as it is our last night here, but we have accepted as it adds to our experience to eat in someone else’s home – and Robin is a really nice guy.

 

Day 68 – His.

 

Well, today I actually started to do some work on the school – or at least that’s the way Patti puts it. I guess all the co-ordination and planning and getting people to change their minds about demolishing the school isn’t really work – it sure felt like it at the time. But, even so I know what she means. So today I started with one of the upper classrooms. I have no idea how long it has been since that particular classroom has been opened let alone cleaned. We removed 27 25kg bags of bird poop from the floor. I say we because someone had thoughtfully arranged for one of the builders from the new building they are constructing to help me – Which is just as well as it would have taken me two days by myself to scrape up that much poop. We stacked it all along one wall of the school and one of the teachers asked if we could use it as fertilizer. Of course there are whole mountains of guano in southern America and fertilizer is exactly what they use it for – so  I said yes. He went away looking most thoughtful.

The original plan had been to remove a section of the roof but when we finally got up to it the thing proved so hard to remove, I figured – what the hell leave it there and just repair the holes – which my helper and I did.

I find that doing such work – which is the work of untouchables here has greatly confused the locals. On the one had because I am old – ish, European and knowledgeable – they think of me as upper caste – but when I was lugging bricks about covered in bird poop, that is, I was covered in bird poop, not the bricks – I was the lowest caste possible – consequently they really weren’t sure how they should address me.

I went for a tea with Patti and Steve and the old guy who owned the tea shop just kept glowering at me – clearly having the same problems and most unhappy about it. I saw him relax a little as I left. The caste system is something they still take quite seriously here – particularly the older generation.

Along with the broken detritus of a running school and a small mountain of poop, we had to remove five pigeon nests – in itself not a problem but these were occupied by birds ranging from tiny squabs to almost fledglings. We carried them carefully into the nearby forest and can only hope their parents find them. I sort of doubt they will but what can you do – I wasn’t going to foster them. Dinner was a much quieter affair than last night – i think people are settling into a routine – which, of course, will end in a few days as we are due to leave. But a little routine has formed none the less and things are not quite as exciting for the host family as they once were. In addition, Steve has been feeling a little poorly and he certainly seemed to be struggling through dinner. Oh incidentally – it seems Steve has found himself a Nepali girl – well at least he has been out for coffee with a village girl and he plans to meet her again. Is this wedding bells I hear – certainly not in Steve’s mind – but I do wonder about the Nepali girl. Ah well, time will tell and tomorrow is another day.