Dear All,
Finished the earlier blog without finishing the trek!
After spending the night at Ulleri we made the final 4 hour trek to Bukha. Trekkers do not go through Bukha so the paths were a bit rough in places and in other places we made our own path through the rocks and rivers.
Set up camp which was a 15 minute uphill, over fences, through fields and gardens to the school. We walked up to the school after lunch. The school caters for 350 students ranging from kinder to year 10, however when we visited it was the harvest so at least 100 students are pulled from school to help the family with the harvest. There are 4 stone buildings each 30m x 7m with windows and shutters, blackboards and desks and benches however no electricity. However the scenery was stunning, the school looked out onto the Himalayas, however for the students who have woken to that everyday it probably dosnt impress them everyday day like it did to us. The students can walk any where from 10 minutes to 1.5 hours to get to school. Subjects included English, nepali, geography, history, health, maths and science. The teachers were all Nepali and most were from the local area. The school was built 9 years ago by previous World Expedition projects. Our world expeditions group was the latest group to help out the school.
It was a lovely surprise to arrive at the school and see all the students, school council, teachers, local mothers group and locals all gathered to welcome us. The welcoming ceremony included several speeches by the teachers and local figures and then by us also. By this stage the kids were getting restless and were easily distracted and would suddenly crack in fits of giggles if any of us glanced at them. Murray was searching for something in a pocket and pulled out a dry chilli which then caused another wave of giggles..I’m still not sure what was so funny.
The ceremony finished and the principle walked along and gave each of us a white silk scarfe and then a student followed with a garland of marigolds and other pink flowers that went around our necks and then another student with another garland and then another garland and another, by the end of it I felt like a walking marigold bush. My neck had disappeared in flowers and I couldn’t walk properly as they were hanging near my knees. Then finally to top it off a lady from the mothers group walked along and gave each of us a red tikka (dot on our forehead) however she was very generous with the tikka powder and I ended up with tikka from my forehead down to my chin as she tried to smear me. And then we were expected to dance! The locals had gathered a band which included bongo type drums and symbols and huge trumpet like instruments. The music was all over the place and came in fits and starts depending on who yelled out songs for them to play. The students gathered and giggled and pointed as we tried to dance. It was a great welcoming to the school and village and it was still only the first day of the project!
World Expeditions has been running community projects for several years as a non for profit branch of the Australian company. We paid for the trek, however the money also covers all materials and local engineers or builders needed to complete the project. This year there were 4 projects involving schools and medical centres with work including anything from painting to earthmoving to bridge building. Our project was to build a small bridge across a stream so that the kids could safely reach school. The current bridge was 4 logs across and students were only allowed to cross one at a time. We used the bridge as we were building the new bridge and I stepped a little too close to the edge and nearly disappeared off the side of the bridge, oops. I can hear you laughing, however I wasn’t the only one!! Several of us appeared with mud patches and scrapes because we had slipped of the old bridge. Perfect reason for building the new bridge!!!Or maybe we were just the clumsy foreigners…
The first step was digging two 1.5m x 1.5m x 1.5m holes on each sides of the bank. Sounded simple enough until the tools were produced. 2 shovels, 3 crow bars and 2 picks. However after dan had a go at the tools and broke a shovel and pick our tools were further reduced. We had gloves however the locals were in there with sandals and shorts on digging with their hands..I think they were probably laughing and calling us pansies. The locals knew what they were doing though, we got stuck with a huge rock in the middle of the hole and a local jumped over bashed a chisel like tool in there and with a few swift hits broke the rock into chunks that could be moved. With such simple tools it was amazing the work that could be done, the locals knew what they were doing. However reading a tape measure was another story, several times things had to be cut twice because the tape measure had been read wrongly. Work continued daily on the bridge work..
Although the bridge was the main project there wasn’t always room for 10 of us to help out so there other jobs to be done. We spent a large part of each day chatting with the kids, helping out in classes and painting school furniture. For the first day we helped out in a few classes; reading and having discussions with the older kids. However most of the older kids were very shy and weren’t sure about approaching us as we were most likely the first foreigners that had spoken to. It didn’t bother the little ones though, they’d approach us with giggled good mornings and commence to watch us very carefully.
It wasn’t just the kids who watched us very closely though. Each day we were joined at the school by a local eldery lady we named ‘mama’. She spoke no English and we spoke no Nepali however she would sit next to us and yabber away for ages, telling jokes and then fall apart laughing at her own jokes, it was hilarious. She was tough though and would help us moving rocks and would make herself busy directing the locals and what they should be doing. In the end they all ignored her, I think she was a little bit of a local looney. The funniest thing was that she laughed the hardest at our misfortune. When I fell off the bridge she could hardly contain herself and then when warren got paint on his very expensive camera I think she nearly broke a rib she laughed so hard. It wasn’t just at the school we saw her, she would turn up randomly all over the village, jumping out and laughing at us. We were leaving and suddenly she turned up on a path just out of the village, dan ran up to her and picked her up and I think the entire village could hear her cackling. Definitely a character that will not be forgotten.
She wasn’t the only local watching us though, one afternoon the village elders turned up to watch us paint the benches. Actually when I saw watch I should really saw very closely scrutinized. The paint was thinned out with so much turps it was more of a wash anyway. But each elder took turns crouching behind me and staring at my painting…I felt very pressured and wandered if there was a right and wrong way to paint a bench brown. Luckily I think we passed because they left and were no longer hassled.
The kids turn up each morning around 9.30am and school starts at 10am. However one day the principle was out visiting another village so a few teachers didn’t turn up. Its normally the opposite and the kids don’t turn up, but that day a few teachers gave themselves a day off. So to cover the absent teachers we took a few classes, nothing too hard we played a few games and read a few stories, while some continued work on the bridge. We were about to leave for lunch when I realised that dan wasn’t working on the bridge and was nowhere to be seen. I started walking back towards to school and could laughing and then dans booming voice coming out a classroom window. Stuck my head in and he had the class enthralled with a numbers game. The kids adored him and he had to be peeled away for lunch.
The kids were the best part of the project and everyday they would arrive at school and watch us work. At the end of school around 15 or so would follow us back to camp and play ball games and pose for photos. One day early in the morning a small boy gave me a beautiful big pink flower that I stuck in my hat band, he giggled and I said thank you and then he ran off. 10 minutes later I was swamped with kids and flowers. In the end my hat was so full of flowers it only just sat on my head.
The school and village were very appreciative of our efforts and funds provided. 2 nights we had locals arrive at our camp and play drums while we danced around with the locals. We were presented with two alive chickens for dinner by the mothers group, and then we were given a plastic jerry can of rakshi (local home made spirit made of millet), however it smelt more like metho, and it definitely warmed us up that night. We visited a local womens house. Their house was 2 stories with a verandah and built of wood. The floors were covered with a smooth clay and cow poop mix. The bottom floor was separated in three rooms. One was a kitchen with fire pit, the second two were bedrooms one with another fire pit which made the room very very smokey. There was running water outside. The cows, chickens and goats were under a shelter at the end of the house, the veggie garden was at the other end while there was chilli and radishes drying on the slate roof, corn drying in bundles attached to the verandah, millet and rice in bags stored on the second floor. It was amazing to see how self sufficient they were, no running down to coles for them. The lady lived in the house was amazing. She had two boys aged 13 and 17 and had separated from her husband. However to support her boys education she was preparing to go and work as a house keeper in Lebanon for 3 years. The boys would stay in the same house with the grandparents. Apparently the middle east is a lot easier for visas and to find work then America, Australia or the UK. An amazing sacrifice to make for her kids though. She wasn’t the only one though her Aunties husband has been living and working in the UK for 10 years, which means for 10 years she hasn’t seen her husband! Tourism is the main industry in Nepal and that is primarily seasonal work and I suppose not everyone finds work in that industry. Witnessing it all first hand made me really appreciate how lucky we are in Australia (:
Wow, I hope I’m not boring anyone with this long blog..I’ve been saving it all up for days!
By day 4 our work was finished on the bridge. The bridge was not completed however the locals would finish it off themselves. The stone and concrete bases on each side were completed. Each stone was shaped perfectly for its spot by a local and then cemented in. The bases were linked by two steel enforced concrete columns and then on top was more concrete. The concrete for the top of the bridge was yet to be poured however all the boxing to keep it in place was there. We left the village with a final wave goodbye and another marigold garland.
There was a final 4 hour trek to a village with a road so the bus could pick us up and take us back to Pokhara. We arrived in Pokhara by early afternoon and spent the time floating in row boats on the lake, a very relaxing way to finish the trek. The night finished as we said our thank you’s to the porters and kitchen boys. One particular porter had the biggest grin, It felt like his whole face was smiling. However as he was hiking around all he wore were a pair of old black gumboots which had a huge hole that his big toe stuck out of. As he was leaving we presented him with a pair of second hand hiking shoes bert wasn’t taking home. His face lit up and even by the next day I don’t think the new shoes had left his feet! The porters are paid 300 rupees per day ($6 aus dollars), it may not seem much however World Expeditions is one of the top trekking organisations that pays its workers fairly. So for him to receive the shoes was more than he could afford himself. We also tipped the team for all their hard work.
It was an early flight back to Kathmandu and the only thing on my mind was a shower! We hadn’t showered since we had left Kathmandu 14 days earlier. I tell you the stink coming of dan and I wasn’t nice. We had a warm bowl of water each morning and night which served as a wipe down, but nothing compares to a full shower!! It was possibly the best shower ever. I felt like a human again. We rested for the day and had a last group dinner at a restaurant and then said our goodbyes to the group.
It was an amazing trip and very well organised by world expeditions. Not only was it great to see the bridge built and to help out the school and was very self satisfying at the end of the day when we had trekked all day and made it to camp. Overall and amazing trip that will hopefully not be our last visit to Nepal. When we looked at a map we had only trekked in a very small corner of the Annapurna region..theres still the rest of the Annapurnas and the rest of Nepal!
We have spent a few days in Kathmandu relaxing and wandering around. We are off on the train and bus to Varanasi early on Thursday morning and will arrive early Friday morning.
Hope all is well,
Lots of love, jess xoxo
