20 December 2008

I’m now at Delhi airport, where I have 9 hours to wait before my next flight to Brussels. That leaves me plenty of time to tell you all about what happened in the last few days!

The 17th, which was my last day in Jhyanglang, was extremely busy and full of surprises. First, my students organised a little farewell ceremony after my morning class, offering me one by one “malas” (necklaces made of fresh flowers) or “khaddas” (scarves used in buddhist ceremonies), and greeting cards. For the first time in almost a month, I was smelling good! ;-)

On the way down from school, children were waiting for me to offer me more flowers. So sweet ?!

In the afternoon, the school teachers organised quite a big farewell party. First, the children sang and danced for me, accompagnied by a round drum, called “madal”. It was very nice (but unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me so I can’t show you any picture) and touching. And then, the teachers offered me gorgious “malas”, and covered my face with “simrik”, the red powder which is used in Hinduist rituals, to wish me good luck and all the best. Here is a picture back home, after my evening class, where I received some more flowers!

And then, after dinner, the villagers organised for me a cultural and festive event, in front of the house, with traditional dances and music! I had such a good time watching them and then taking part in the dance with everybody!

I really like the Nepalese traditions! :-)

The next morning (on the 18th) was rich in emotions. After breakfast, I got covered with jewellery from Hari’s family and neighbours: necklaces, bracelets, hair pins and a nice “tikka” (the ornament you wear on your forehead, between the eyebrows)! So sweet! Then I offered some presents in my turn, but once more, it was a bit disconcerting (like when I offered them the gifts after my arrival). Nepalese people never say ‘thank you’ when they receive something (I was fighting at school for my students to say ‘please’ when they were asking for a new pen or notebook and to say ‘thank you’ when they were receiving it) and don’t show much. So I have no idea whether they liked my presents or not. I just know that the blouse I had ordered for Januka is too big! ? I had unfortunately chosen one in her wardrobe which was too large. But while I don’t know whether they were happy with my presents or not, I do know that they were very sad because I was leaving, as they really considered me as part of their family, and that’s the most important thing. The rest is just cultural differences. When I get out of the house, many neighbours and children were there, waiting for me. Again, I got covered with amazingly beautiful “malas” (probably 5 kg of nice scented fresh flowers!) and everybody put red paint and rice on my forehead to wish me “Subha Yatra” (Good trip) and good luck. And then I cried, and so did Hari’s parents and wife!

I finally left, and 5 min later, another group of people were waiting with more “malas”! I could barely walk with all that weight around my neck plus my relatively heavy backpack! Luckily, one of Hari’s sister and a neighbour helped by carrying my two other bags to the bus stop in Kalikastan, which, I remind you, is 30 min walk from Jhyanglang.

The bus trip was much nicer than last time: I was quite confortably seated, and the weather was beautiful so we had nice views on a large range of the Himalayas, although it was quite misty. The high peaks covered by snow seemed to be floating in the sky ...

2 of my students were travelling with us, as I had decided to use some of your donations to help them see better. Their family can’t indeed afford to pay them a trip to Kathmandu to visit an eye specialist, and even less to pay for glasses. As they can barely see, and that makes it very difficult for them to study at school, I had offered them to pay for everything: the return bus ticket, the accommodation and food in KTM, the visit to the doctor and then the medicine and the glasses if needed.
Again, Hari used his influence and his network to get them an appointment for the next morning (ie yesterday, the 19th), as normally, one has to arrive the day before and queues all night! And on top of that, everything was sorted in 3 hours, which is apparently incredibly fast! However, the news were not very good. One student is an albino and has therefore a vision problem, which can not be treated nor helped with glasses. The only solution is to use a special magnifying glass (but this won’t help him to see the black board at school!). The good news are that his sight is stabilised, while the other student has a disease which will make his sight worse and worse, and we fear that he will be blind in a few years. However, for the moment, his sight can be improved by glasses (which will be ready tomorrow) and maybe by some medicine (he has to try a special treatment for one month ... but it is quite expensive, so I don’t think he will be able to pay for more treatment even if it works). And once more (the last time however), I was disconcerted by the fact that my students didn’t even say ‘thank you’ when they left me after the visit at the hospital! One actually didn’t even say ‘goodbye’! Fortunately, the other one told me that he was happy so I took that as a big ‘thank you’! I don’t think I will ever get used to this cultural difference!
The visit to the hospital was interesting. People are queuing everywhere, and not just in corridors. There are no private rooms but large rooms with 3 doctors in each, and people are queuing inside these rooms, while some others are examined just a few meters away! The equipment is not necessarily properly sterilised, and can be sometimes transported from one room to another, in the open air. So with so many people around, and the dust which is everywhere in KTM, I let you imagine how clean it arrives in the next room! But overall, what I saw was not as bad as I could have feared. It was not really clean, but not really dirty either. The fact that people have to queue for so long or can’t have access to treatment because of their poverty is probably a more serious problem.

Before the visit to the hospital, I had my last adventure in Nepal. Hari and I had decided to go very early in the morning to a view point, Kakani, one hour bus from KTM, so I could have a last view on the Himalayas. We woke up at 5am to get the 5.30 bus. But after 1 hour wait, we were told that buses were on strike, so the long distance buses which would stop at the viewpoint were not running. However, a local bus whose final destination was Kakani was leaving at 6.45am, and so we took this one, which actually left by 7am. We then got stopped half way by the Maoist army which told us that the bus couldn’t continue. However, after some discussion, they let us go and we finally arrived in Kakani just after 8am! We then walked for an hour to the viewpoint, and indeed, the view was amazing ?.
But then, there was no bus running back to KTM ?. We could have walked as it’s a 17km hike but we would have never made it for the appointment with the eye specialist at 11am! While we were considering the different options, a big pick-up passed (not even after 5 min) and we got a lift! And it was so much fun! I was sitting on milk jars, in the middle of goats which were peeing and poohing on my shoes, trying to hold tight a transversal bar in order to stay in the truck! We were indeed jumping every 2 min as the road was terrible. Hari was standing against the back of the truck, and the guy standing next to him seemed to be worried by Hari’s behavior (Hari had, according to himself, found a technique not to jump at each bump but it proved not to be that efficient!) as he was always putting his arm behind him to make sure that Hari wouldn’t fall over! It was hilarious! At least for us, as no one else was laughing ... but as far as we were concerned, we really did have a good time, although I have to confess that it was quite painful for my buttom, all the more that I was already in pain because of acute diarrhea!

After the hospital, Hari took me around KTM so I could see a bit more than Thamel which is the area where I had spent most of my time before, when I was staying in the luxuous hotel. We saw very interesting old buildings and temples, and I managed to finish my Xmas shopping.

We came back home very exhausted, and extremely dusty! Hari thought that I couldn’t leave the country in such a state, so he offered to heat some water in a bucket for me to take a kind of hot shower. You can imagine, I didn’t decline his offer, especially that the water in KTM is not cold like in Jhyanglang, it’s just purely freezing, so there was no way I would have washed myself with it (moreover that evenings are now quite cold in KTM). Oh my goodness, I can’t describe ... I felt so good after it! ;-) I had been waiting for that for one month ... and I’m even more looking forward to a proper shower in my bathroon in Paris tomorrow!

After a nice French breakfast with Nepalese pear jam, this morning was dedicated to packing. It took me a while as I bought many many things ... not just for me, but many presents too! Plus all the presents I have received as well. In particular, I got an extremely nice one from Hari this morning, that I’m very happy to bring back home, although he’s crazy to have bought such an expensive item (well, to have bought anything at all in fact!): a “tanka” which is a religious buddhist painting, very detailed, intricate and ornate. It’s expensive because it requires hours of work!
And then, just before leaving, I had my last Nepalese traditional meal “dahl-bhat-tarkari”, eating with my hands and seating on the floor! Ganu, Hari’s little sister, who shares his room in KTM, had spent 2 hours preparing it, and it was very delicious!

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