(Picture - Ramdevi, Meena and I in the old house *the house I cant stand up straight in* having dinner)
Hi everyone,
So on Saturday it was the first day of the Dashain Festival. The festival lasts for 15 days and is pretty much the equivalent of Christmas but without giving out gifts. The children don't go to school, it's very family orientated (I woke up at 6 today and my family were outside playing badminton!) and the men have to buy a new item of clothing. We were meant to be off work from the 24th - 30th so we could celebrate with our family and have a break from work because we work Sunday - Friday, but Platform2/IDF decided to shorten our holiday from the 26th - 29th so not many of the volunteers are happy at the mo, especially considering we're already ahead of schedule on the project!
On Wednesday there were only 5 girls at the project site (the others were wheelbarrowing sand and rocks to site) which was really fun. We were only really making cement for the skilled man power but it was good. In one of our breaks this (very scary looking) priest walked past the project site and Bharat got his future read (in Nepali) not sure whether I believed him but it was fascinating to watch! Meena also got our future read, apparently she will be getting married in April next year! haha
On Thursday we worked until 11.30 and then had to walk to Lamatar for a talk from DFID. We all learnt alot about development in Nepal and it was really interesting.
Key facts -
Social exclusion - Muslims, women
Annual income - 250 pounds
14th poorest country in the world
Poorest in Asia
Girls are 1 and a half times more likely to die before they are 5 then boys
After the meeting me and Holly were talking to Susan Clapham about our experience - esp. from teaching. We've been teaching in both a government and a private school and we've noticed that a much higher number of boys attend private schools. Some families in my village will only send their sons to private school and possibly their daughters to government, or no school at all.
We then caught up with the Lamatar volunteers for a bit and then went back to Sirutar - we went via Lubhoo so we could buy the paint we're going to use to paint a classroom in the local school during our holiday. That evening I was a bit upset about some things and went home and straight to my room. Meena explained to our family what was wrong and that night they made me my favourite (Nepali) meal for dinner - very sweet!
The following day we had work in the morning and then at 12 we were getting the bus to Nagarkot for the sunrise/sunset! The journey took about an hour and a half and was rather bumpy! When we got to our hotel (7400ft high) our hotel was in a cloud! Me and Harriet were in the highest room and that was ABOVE the cloud! That afternoon/evening was very cloudy and so we didn't get to see the sunset :( However the following day we woke up at 5am and we got to see the sun rise above Mt Everest! It was beautiful; but very cold! It was my first experience of cold English type weather in just over 2 months! We then travelled back to the hotel for breakfast before being dropped back in Sirutar. That evening me and Ben 10 watched the Aston Villa match whilst my older sister randomly walked in and started putting my hair in a french plait - very strange.
On Sunday it was back to work and me and Meena were absolutely knackered because we'd got up on Saturday at 5 and then on Sunday morning our sisters woke us up at 5 to go for a walk! After work we had a venture meeting and then after seeing Holly & Annie's eyebrows after they had them threaded I decided to brave it! - for 25 rupees!
I've been learning lots of Nivari this week because my family are Nivari so speak more Nivari then Nepali, so I can now communicate with my brothers wife/bhauju who doesn't speak much English!
Hope everyone is well and happy! I'm a bit gutted because since Nagarkot my camera is playing up and the flash just won't flash :( Hopefully it will still take some ok pics in daylight!
See you all in just over 3 weeks!
Pheri betula,
Alyx
xxxx
