I had one week in Kathmandu before heading out to Gumda. Life in Papa's House follows a daily routine that's easy enough to slip into or opt out of. I had three meals a day - almost always daahl baat and vegetables - with the everyone else living in the house. I'd been living on pasta and toast for a while before that, so rice was a nice change for the most part. It did get a tad repetitive, but it was being cooked for me so that pretty much evened things out. The bathrooms contain 'Western'-style toilets and showers, but no hot water. Still, the shower water was cold but bearably cold; think swimming in an english river or sea in late spring. It's not the kind of shower you enjoy, but you get used to the temperature and you get clean. We sat around drinking tea a lot. We walked down to the shop at the end of the road to stock up on essential supplies, like candles, toilet roll and food that isn't daahl baat. The walk takes you past a goat pen, which is next to a wooden platform where a man slaughters and sells said goats.
Shova, the language coach, gives the volunteers Nepali lessons and takes them out on sightseeing trips, so I got to do some exploring. We went to Jamal to buy some warm clothes for my trip into the mountains. It's a big area where the cheapest shops are concentrated. There's a few main throughfares but mostly it's all twisting back streets. We visited Durbar Square and saw a collection of interesting, old architecture. I bought a postcard and a funky hat; it was that sort of place. We also visited Pashupatinath, one of the most important Hindu temples in Nepal, although non-Hindu's can't get into the main temple. However, there is still plenty of interesting things to see. There's a lot of religious architecture - which you'll see once I get some photos uploaded - and lots of monkeys. Also, there are many cremations taking place by the banks of the holy river Bagmati. There's a lot going on. There's so much noise and colour and, well, smells to take in.
A lot of the volunteering is centered around teaching english but while I was around, there wasn't a great deal of teaching going on. There have been a number of teaching strikes recently, plus there was a celebration of the Goddess of Education. Personally I would have thought that you'd get some extra education rather than a day off, but apparently not. On the other hand, the weekend consists only of Saturday, Sunday being the first day of the week. I was rather hoping to spend a few days getting some teaching practice before heading out to Gumda but, due to several days of striking plus one day celebrating education, I only actually managed one day in a school.
The school in question was in the squatters camp near the airport. It is, to all intents and purposes, a slum. It's mostly filled with people who've fled the villages because of the violence, but haven't enough money to actually move to Kathmandu. They've set up temporary houses on some empty government land, although the government periodically knock everything down and they have to rebuild. There's no water supply except for the river, so they wash there as well as get water for cooking and drinking. There was a dead cow in the river. That, boys and girls, is one way to make a lot of people very, very sick. Cholera epidemics at the squatters camp happen at least annually, by all accounts. Once inside the 'camp', however, and it's actually okay. It's pretty clean and the houses are well constructed. There are shops, a health clinic and even the odd solar panel providing a little electricity. The school was a modest building, somewhat reminiscent of a stable. The classrooms are all in a row along one corridor, although the dividing walls are only about shoulder height. The nursery class is packed, while classes 1-4 vary wildly in ability and enthusiasm with no correlation to age. Only two of the oldest kids (class 5, so about ten or eleven years old) turn up so they don't even have a classroom, they're taught in the yard outside. Some of the kids are well-presented, clean and eager to learn. Others are dirty, noisy and naughty. Most of the teachers keep order by beating the kids with sticks. The volunteer I accompanied, Alexia, bribes the kids with Power Rangers stickers. Her lessons interested most of the kids and no stick beatings were required.
The next day was supposed to be my Getting Everything Ready day, as I was to leave for Gumda the day after that. Unfortunately I was struck down with a lovely bout of food poisoning and did nothing more than lie in bed and feel sorry for myself. Still, it's the first time I've been really sick since I've been travelling and I was recovered enough the following day to leave Kathmandu as planned. But that's another story...
