Two more volunteers have landed!

Two more volunteers have arrived, and they’ve had a fantastic first week in Nepal. Sarah and Delaine both arrived from London early on Monday morning. Sarah is English and Delaine (or ‘D’) is from New Zealand. They had spent the weekend in Delhi so Kathmandu seemed like a peaceful and less crowded place to be after the chaos and crush of India!

I spent the first 2 days giving them some orientation and doing a few tourist things such as Swayambunath (the monkey temple) and Patan. We were all ready to start work at the model school on Wednesday morning when we were greeted with the news that there was a strike. My heart sank. There had not been a strike for the past few months and I really felt that things had been improving since the election. It seems however that the Maoists have been up to their old tricks recently, abducting a businessman on some spurious charge and ‘questioning’ him to death. More disturbing for his family is that the Maoists have admitted to this but will not release his body or tell them where it is so that they can perform the proper funeral rites. So in an interesting turn of events it was those with anti-Maoist sentiment who called Wednesday’s strike, I think they were quite uncomfortable having a taste of their own medicine but it remains to be seen if that will change anything.

So Sarah and D were instantly introduced to the uncertainty of trying to get things done in Nepal! With a quick change of plans we instead made the day another tourist day and went on a rickshaw ride to Kathmandu Durbar Square. We followed this with a long walk through the back alleys and streets of the old part of Kathmandu, it was a lot of fun to see daily life here up close!

Thursday saw everything return to normal so we headed off to the model school in Maijubahal. After meeting the school’s principal, Madan, and having a quick tour of the school it was straight down to work for the girls. They had brought the entire set of Mr Men books with them to read to the children so first stop was UKG (Upper Kindergarten) and an entertaining rendition of Mr Nosey. I’m sure the kids had never seen anything like it and their enthusiasm for their new teachers was palpable! Once the story was finished the kids had to draw their own version of Mr Nosey and there was a flurry of activity as there was a prize for the best drawing.

Next stop was class 1 and they heard the tale of Mr Happy, again followed with a drawing contest. Before we knew it lunch time beckoned so after a quick break it was time for a different task. The Foundation has been working on setting up the library at the school and there were some books there but there was no catalogue or system for borrowing. We set to work recording the details of all the books and putting them into some kind of order. After about 4 hours doing this we realised it was going to be a much bigger task than first planned and exhausted, we decided to call it a day.

Friday morning saw us return to the model school and it was time for classes 2 and 3 to have their turn with a Mr Men story. Class 2 understandably enjoyed Mr Noisy whilst class 3 went crazy imitating Mr Tickle! After lunch it was a free afternoon for the kids to do any activities they wished but all the young kids wanted was more Mr Men stories. First was a visit to the Nursery kids to play a fishing game with them, followed by a sing-a-long of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Do Re Mi'. It was then back to reading for classes 1, 2 and 3 and the girls managed to get through quite a few more including Mr Good, Mr Chatterbox, Mr Snow and repeat performances of Mr Happy and of course Mr Tickle. All of the kids had an amazing time having stories read to them and they were chomping at the bit to get to the library to be able to read them themselves, which is a great sign. First, we just have to finish recording them in the new library catalogue system!

With some light left in the day we decided on a return visit to Swayambunath as the previous visit had been very crowded due to it being Buddha’s birthday. This time it was much quieter and Sarah and D were able to enjoy the serenity of the place, as well as seeing a few more monkeys. I hope the girls get a good night’s sleep tonight as tomorrow we are going to the school in Phulbari to have a picnic with 30 or so girls with scholarships from that area!

Lastly – thank you to those of you who have already offered support for Kalpana, the girl whose story I wrote about in the last entry. We still need more help though so if you are able to contribute something or know anyone who could, please get in touch – adam@mitrataa.org

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