3 December 2008
Dear all,
Here are a few anecdotes. Some of them are funny, some others rather sad.
Yesterday, as I had to go to the next village (a 15 min steep walk from my house) where there are shops and THE internet point to buy some markers for the white board and to print some texts for my students, I took that opportunity to bring some “presents” for my family: necklaces with plastic bids for the two girls, a kg of oranges for everybody and cigarettes for the father -everything for about £1. They were all very happy but at the same time very worried for me ... because I spent SO MUCH money in one day! They are so cute and innocent! It’s beautiful.
I told you in my previous letter that I was suffering from a severe cold. Yesterday, it was worse than usual so I went back to bed in the morning, after my first class. The mother gave me then some disgusting herbs to masticate ... but believe it or not, when I woke up a few hours later, I was feeling better and my nose had almost stopped running!
Two days ago, I didn’t tell you all about my walk as I was too tired, and I prefered to tell you about the school. But now I have some time to give you more details. While walking, Hari explained me many things about plants, trees, agriculture, people of the area, and about what has been done in the past few years in the area thanks to western donations (schools, hospitals,...). As I haven't included any pic of Hari yet, here is a funny one of him, climbing on a tree to pick up a wild pear so I could taste it. Well it was not worth the effort ... as I found it disgusting ! ;-)
At about lunch time, Hari and me were feeling a bit hungry and of course there are no shops and no restaurants further in the hills, from my village. There is no high school either (which means that children would have to walk at least half a day for the closest of them to go to school, which is of course impossible!). So Hari asked a few villagers but most of them did not have enough food to feed us! We finally find a family living in a more than rustic shelter as you can see on the picture.
They prepared us boiled potatoes with some chili sauce. They
really have nothing, they are so poor that they can’t send their 4 children
to school, they earn less than 15 euros per month (the guy is a porter for a
few months per year) .... and guess what? They didn’t want us to pay for
the food!!! Of course, we didn’t accept and gave us all the change we
had, which was just less than 1 euro. A lot for them! And we told them: we ate
for 3 rupees of potatoes, here are 65 rupees so please, use the difference for
the children for school.
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Hari gave them as well three good advice to fructify their land and make a bit more money: to plant apples as the soil is very good for that, to make alcohol from the wild pears which are available all around and to keep his goats more efficiently. Hari really studied all aspects to get the trekking porters of this area out of poverty: agriculture, education, health and sanitization ... He is a saint for his village and the villages neareby. Most of the good things around (like schools, one little hospital) are his work: he is collecting money from all around the world and many volunteers (teachers, doctors, ...) come to help him each year. I will donate the money I’ve collected (thanks to all of you who donated!) to him for a school project: there was a big landslide last year, not far from my village, and as a consequence, many people died and many people lost their houses. So there are many orphans and many very poor families. The money will therefore be used to give scholarships to these children so they can go to school and to equip the school with a computer.
In one of the village we passed, we met a very old lady (more than 80 years old) who was blind. The government has finally decided recently to help elderly disabled people and to get this financial support, these people have to submit an application and proove their identity. Fair enough. But for that, they need an ID card, which means they need an ID photo. Or tell me, how does a blind old lady get an ID photo when the closest photo center is 3 hours walk away on dangerous mountain pathes? For once, my camera was not artistic but useful! I took her portrait, and then yesterday, I edited it and brought it to the photo center to have it printed. Her son is coming today to pick it up.
And here is the picture of a cute 15 year old girl. She’s never been sent to school as her parents are too poor to pay for her education and she’s had to help farming. And now her mother wants to marry her ASAP, but the girl doesn’t want, and she’s very sad. I felt very sad too ... definitely another world! ?
And to finish with something funny: everybody here wants to know my weight ... I know that I’m a giant here, but still, it’s quite surprising! And worst ... they often think that I’m about 100 kg!!!! Do I really look that big???!!! ;-)
Let me now answer a few of your questions.
About the weather: it’s rather nice. Quite warm during the day (even very
warm if it’s completely sunny), but cool at night. So I’m usually
wearing a T-shirt during the day plus a micro fleece if it’s overcast,
and I add a thick fleece in the evenings.
About my free time, and wether I don’t get bored: well I don’t have
much free time!!! My timetable is the following: I wake up at 5.30, eat an omelette
(yes, it was really hard for me to climb for 15 min and then teach for 2 hours
without eating anything! So now, Hari’s wife prepares me some eggs every
morning ?) and go to school where I teach for two hours. Then I go back home
and have a proper meal (as I told you, always the same: rice, curry of vegetables,
curd and milk). After that, either I prepare my lessons, or I go to internet
to print some texts for my students (and to send you some news at the same time),
or I go to the shop to buy notebooks and pens, or I type letters for you, or
I go to school to help the teachers. School finishes at 3.20 (with a lunch break
from 1 to 2 where I can get some light meal from the “canteen”,
that is to say a cook prepares the same meal everyday (but luckily, it’s
not the same as the one at home!) for the 5 teachers) and I usually start my
own classes at 3.30-3.45 until 6.30. Then I go back home in the dark (pitch
dark I should say!) where I have dinner. Then I stay a bit with the family,
around the fire, talking in English with Hari, and with some nepali words and
a lot of miming with the rest of the family, and helping with some housework
(like peeling the maize for instance). And then, dead tired, I go to bed aroung
8.30, a bit later if I’ve managed to talk to Pierrick on the phone. Oh
I forgot, I play as well with the two girls. They are really cute! Well, everybody
in the family is cute and lovely with me. They’ve already told me that
they want me to stay with them forever... well, I’m not sure I want to!!!
;-) But Friday, they will put their best clothes and I will take a picture of
all of them with me so they can hang it in their kitchen and thus have me with
them all the time ;-) Well, it’s their request, not my suggestion!!!
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