Monsoon Summer

Summer in Nepal hasn't really been so sunny as this is the Monsoon season here, so we've had a lot of grey cloudy skies and showers with some sunny days and it has really been a time of finding out more about my work and getting used to life here and getting some sort of routine. I've also continued to explore and many weekends trips have included visits to the countryside, which is super lush and bright green at the moment, to do something active.

So first my New apartment -Early June I eventually moved into my new apartment, after nearly 3 months in the Pacific Guest House. I have a nice ground floor two bed apartment in a compound with a couple of Nepali families and two dogs Diamond the old time guard dog and Simba the pup. I have hot water and a pump outside for doing my washing at and filling up water supplies when the taps run low.

Yes I do my washing at the pump by hand apart from the days when I feel too lazy (then I pay somebody else to do it!) Kathmandu might be teaming with motorbikes and flashy mobiles for men but the 20th centuary invention of the washing machine, along with other labour saving devices for women has bypassed Nepal - even in middleclass households and women are left to do the washing by hand- and clean the carpets and house with little more than a hand held brush!!!!! OK labour is cheap and women generally still look after the home but there could still be a few more appliances adopted in Nepal to make life easier for women!

My landlady's sister here also has her beauty salon in the barn in the compound - so i've treated my self to haircuts and head massage, a facial, a back massage and a pedicure - she's very good.

I don't have Himalayan views with my apartment but I can sit outside and look at the vegtable garden as well as watch the chickens and other feathered visitors to the garden.

Work - There are some days in Nepal when this doesn't seem to happen for one reason or another, a bandah - public strike in protest against something such as rising fuel and food prices or because a new vice president has made his opening speech in a language other than Nepali, a last minute bank holiday called by the same government announced late afternoon the day before, or when you do get to work there is no electricity. Fortunately we haven't had many of those days for a while! However I have been off work recently for a few days with a heavy cold instead - probably caused by the pollution and multitude of Monsoon bugs!

At work I feel like we have made a fair bit of progress the last few months - we have now worked out a clear plan of what I am to be helping the organisation with whilst I am here to improve the running of the NGO I work for - The 'Dalit NGO federation' (DNF) an umberalla organisation that fights against caste based discrimination.

Work will vary from looking at ways to strengthen the movement fighting against untouchability, to improving internal working systems centrally and in the regional and district offices, for example clear communication and reporting systems, Human Resource policies etc. We will also be looking at building the capacity of smaller community groups in the regions who are members of DNF in areas such as making them aware of their rights and how to apply for funding to run their own projects. So a lot of varied work to do! A lot of which I will do with my colleagues and some of the jobs I will work with other VSO volunteers on -where they have specialist expertise and skills for example last week my IT colleague Neil came in and did a training session at DNF.

My Neplai colleagues also seem generally very motivated by the work to do to improve the running of the organisation - but they also have a lot of work to do already and meeting donor deadlines takes priority - however a lot of the work we will be doing will also fall into this category too.

With DNF we are also involved in some interesting projects including the production of a documentary highlighting what it means to live as a Dalit in Nepal - which was launched last week and the production of the Dalit agenda for the new government to name a few. There are quite a few National level Dalit organisations doing similar work so we (other VSO volunteers and I) are getting the Dalit leaders together for them to determine if and how they can work together.

As an organisation fighting to secure the rights of dalits and their representation we also get involved in responsive advocacy for example - there is no Dalit represntation amongst the newly selected government ministers - so it is likely that in the near future we will be organising some campaigns.

I am lucky to be working with some lovely well educated conscientious and quite passionate people in my organisation and my counterpart Suman is very hard working.

Also being in Kathamndu I regularly meet up with other volunteers on various work related issues to develop training and share ideas for events.

Free time - So weekends and and evening times I've continued to entertain myself in a variety of ways....

Birdwatching Sanku

At the end of June I met up with Gopi and Deepak at some rediculously early time 5.15 am at the central bus park - where life was already in full swing - to head out to the edge of the Kathmandu valley to the small Newari town of Sanku in order to see some birds - still if you want to go bird waching that's the time you need to go! Sanku is a small Newari town of red brick and mud houses huddled together in a sea of green paddy fileds and forest on the valley floor. After snacks on arrival we headed out over towards the Sanku ghats (cremation place by the river) and then did an adventurous loop through the paddy fields and over streams and up through the forest to the temple on the hillside. Going through lots of different terrain enabled us to see lots of different types of birds. We saw:

White throated kingfisher

cuckoo - common and black wing

lots of jungle and common myna

a pair of golden oreoles

long tailed shriek

green rose ringed parrot

rusty cheek simiter

Babler

bulbuls - red bottomed and himalayan ones

Orientel Magpie Robins - also I have a lot of these in my back garden

Black drongos

Barbets - blue throated

Warblers

Flower Peckers

Weaver birds

Fly catcher

Minevets

And an owlet in the woods

And out on the edge of the paddy fields a Shikra - a kestral like bird of prey

lots of cattle egrets

black kites circling over head - which is all they ever seem to do!

And as are always common in Nepal large numbers of swallows and sparrows, pigeons and crows

Hiking and leeches

Another way I have been out and about exploring the valley has been on foot with some of my VSO collegeues. Gordon and Miranda and I did a day trip through part of the Shivapuri national park from Sundarijal - the starting point for treks off to the Langtang and Helambu region back to Budinkakantil - the nearest forest entry point from North Kathmandu. After heading up a steep path and steps along the side of the Bagmati river- where it is a tumbling mountain river (it turns into a polluted stinky dump in KTM), after about a 400 metre climb you join a path that traverses round the mountain side just short of 2000m high through thick forests, past villages and the path provides long sweeping views over the Kathmandu valley. The walk was about 14km in all with about 500m of ascent and descent. We saw lots of frogs, great tree pies (magpie like birds not apple pies)were deafened by buzzing sikardas and I had my first encounter with the dreaded 'juga!' - the leech! This was my first time I got 'jugad' - I felt something nibbling my ankle and I looked down inside my sock - and saw a black pulsating thing sucking away! I tried to flick it off but it clung on sucking and pulsating even more enjoying its fill- so Gordon had to come along and assist - and with a stronger flick it fell off. Actually the leaches here are quite dissappointingly small after watching the African Queen where they were the size of giant slugs - so they are not really worth making a big fuss over (However I still do!).

On another weekend Anne and I headed back up to Shivapuri park from Budanilkanta - up to the monastrty at Nagi Gomba and then followed the ridge line back towards Kathmandu and the Kopan Monastry - the map said that this route was mountain bikable - however at times when we required all fours we thought otherwise. The ridge way provided a beautiful walk all the same through pine trees with beautiful views on either side.. At the end of the ridge it started to rain - well bucket down solidly for some time as it does in monsoon season - and so we spent some time sheltering in a temple with some sweaty loggers a sweet shivvery baby buffalo and lots of strange insects that enjoyed climbing all over us and then when the rain eased off we found a tea shop to warm up and revive our spirits for the final part of the journey - where some friendly young Nepalis were also sheltering from the rain after their picnic had been interupted - they were celebrating their friend going to Dubai to work and shared their spicy tasty picnic with us.

Last weekend a group us us went for a more leisurely walk through the villages and round the paddy fields on the edge of Kathmandu and up to Kopan Monastry for the views and a spot of lunch and met a Norwegian speaking ski jumping monk. But we were still out all day and covered about 10 miles.

Hashing

I've also joined in with the Himalayan hash house harriers - 'the drinking group with a running problem' a few times on a saturday afternoon - we meet up at various rural venues outside of town - or up in the hills at Nargokot where we stayed overnight at the Nargokot Farmhouse- and then follow a shredded paper trail round the paddy fields - through maize fields and usually up and down scree slopes and through rivers and straems- whoever sets the trail usually wants to make it quite exciting! We run in a group and en-route there are about 8 junctions from which various false trails are set - so the faster ones can check out the right way - and the slower ones - can catch their breath - as we run for about 2 - 3 hours - I'm usually one of the ones catching my breath! After our run we then have 'the circle' where people have penalties to pay for their actions that day and have to down lots of beer or fizzy drinks!

Mountain Biking

I've also got out for a few more bike rides around the Kathmandu valley and beyond- they include:

South down to the hills in Pharphing and Dashinkali a temple in the woods where many people go on a pilgrimage to sacrifice animals in order to bless their cars!!!!-You can buy goats and chickens at the entrance - you can also buy things like cocnuts too ifyou want to make a less bloody offering. The lonely planet describes it as a 25km up hill slog to get to the site but actually its quite a pleasant bike ride- with nice views, and the road is tarmaced.

Out south west along trails through small villages from the Kirtipur ridge town to Thankot

Out west in to Dharding district - once over the ridge of the Kathmandu valley - the valley floor drops below for miles - you can watch black kites flying below - you are far away from the bustle and development of the Katmandu valley and into real back country - I'd like to explore further this way

Out east to Nargokot via the UNESCO heritage site of Changunayran where there is a 14th centuary temple on the hill - along the ridge to Nargokot and back to Kathmandu via Sanku in the valley to the North and then via Kopan Monastry and some tranquil muddy paddy fields (actually rather lovely)so that I could by pass the choc-a -bloc roads of Kathmandu. This was about 75 km with 800 m of ascent

I've also been back up to Kelkani a view point on the edge of the katmandu valley on the way to langtang - armed with binoculars to check out the birds - bright blue and green barbets, red and yellow minevets, golden oreoles and red billed kingfishers to name a few

I can also get a decent bike ride in the countryside from my house in a couple of hours taking in Tokha - villages to the north and traversing east along a mountain trail to budanilkanta - the first time I did this though - I ended up coming back home on a knee deep muddy trail, falling in a paddy field and getting back to kathmandu after dark to a part I didn't know! It takes about 20 mins to get to proper open countryside from my house.

International Youth Day for climate change - environmental day cycle ride

So a few of us from VSO - Purna, Nick and I (Neil after recruiting us on Purna's behalf never joined us as he had man flu!) joined in the efforts of the International Youth Day for climate change - environmental day cycle ride - Purna a programme manager from VSO who is very environmentally minded got a group of us together sporting his campaign T shirts encouraging people to cycle. We were also joined by Adrian an Oz volunteer from Engineers without boarders We met at 7 am sharp - and I was expecting a brisk bike ride round KTM before the heat of the day and before the roads got busy - however I should have realised that this would not be the case - ministers turned up to talk and start the campaign - and they do like to talk - so after all the publicity we eventually got going about 8.30 for a 2 hour trip round KTM in the heat and the traffic - there was about 40 of us - a couple of politicians - one in a tartan jacket - lots of male youths and us (our VSO group and Adrian). We cycled round town whooping and wooing - We were on TV, My photo was in the newspaper and Nick and Purna were quoted - (I wasn't asked for an opinion being a woman!) It was a good event - and there certainly needs to be more of this in Kathamandu - traffic numbers are growing rapidly mostly motorbikes as living standards in kathmandu improve for a small middle class- but there is no road safety and certainly no environment control - even new vehicles belch black smoke as the petrol quality is so poor - there is a shortage so it is mixed with other products - kerosine ??? to make it go further. The pollution is destroying a lot of the old buildings in Kathmandu's Durbar Square - not to mention what it is doing to the poor people living down town and working at the road side. So after 2 hours cycling round KTM I felt quite sick and developed a tight chest and nasty cough! All in an effort to save the environment.....

Anyway today on the way to work - I did notice all the rickshaws donning World wide fund (WWF) for nature banners on their carraiges and read that Thamel tourist businesses are pushing to make the streets traffic free. The Bemos/TukTuks (small - mini vans ) all run on milk float batteries - initiated I believe by an exp-pat business person - so a few things are happening and there is an awareness but so very very very much more needs to be done.

Jaya Gatra Festival (or something like that!)

A few weekends ago I joined Adrian and Crispen - another new engineer and their friends volunteering in Bangladesh who were up in Kathmandu for a break and to enjoy some western comforts - to head to the old UNESCO heritage site town of Bhaktapur for the Jaya Gatra festival. We headed out on our mountain bikes late morning and found a vibrant festival taking place - with local people parading in succession around town with banners and displays with photos of their deceased relatives. This was accompanied by music and dancers and was across between a jazz festival and a local stick banging version of moris dancing. We watched at street level for a while and then from a variety of roof top restaurants where we could watch in comfort and chill out with a few refreshments. Bhaktapur was filled with life and colour with everybody out in their best clothes for the event.

The New Life Centre

So as well as working with DNF I thought I would like to volunteer in my spare time in a more direct way - at an orpahange - the new life centre is a home for children with disabilities its not actually an orphanage as most of the children have families and the idea is that whilst the children come to the centre for operations and physio to get them mobile to some extent and get them a decent education so they can have some hope of earning a living in the future - they will eventually return to their families. - Many of the children sustained injuries such as rolling in the fire as babies and loosing hands and feet - the parents were too busy to watch them and there was no medical care so they lsot their hands and feet - and as life is tough in the countryside a subsistance labour intensive lifestyle with long walks to school - it would be very tough to be disabled there. When I first visited the place with Hazel a VSO colleague - I thought we had come to the wrong place - as a lot of the children were up and about playing games - although they are disabled they have artificial feet and many of them had devised ways of getting around. I initially went to chat and play games intended to help with home work - Its a great centre, the children are very sociable and speak some English and they do get a fair bit of volunteer support and there is expat involvement in getting it running well. Unfortunately I've only made it a couple of times as it is across the other side of town - which means a long journey on streets thick with traffic fumes which I'm afraid I really struggle with a shame as I would like to go more often

Lazy weekends

So after all this activity - more recently I have just felt like lying by a nice hotel swimming pool at weekends - having a read, a swim and a sun tan - I have headed up to the forest park resort and for about £3.50 I can laze around and have a good swim - and this has felt very good!

Evenings

It's not all interesting and exciting! Sometimes my evenings are filled with trips to the vegetable market or catching up on my hand washing! I should be studying more Nepali - but have been a bit lazy recently and been watching movies and reading novels instead!

We have our weekly friday evening volunteer meet ups for dinner - and sometimes music and beers- sometimes we'll have dinner round each others houses and - I have joined my Philipino friends for whisky and kareoke on a few ocassions too! I got a score of 96 for hotel california! Though perhaps I shouldn't be admitting to this!

So that's about it - over all I would say my work and stay here is generally going well - but whilst this is a great opportunity it really hasn't always been easy- and I have had quite a tough start!! I did suffer a lot with a bad stomach much of the first part of my stay (gastiritus) and several chesty coughs from a mix of pollution and monsoon season bugs - Kathmandu isn't the healthiest of places!!!. But hopefully this is all behind me - especially with holidays coming up and a chance to get to the Himalayas for a break and a lot of work opportunities out of town. Also the monsoon is nearly over and with the sunshine should come some great himalayan views and opportunities for some great weekend walks and bike rides.

It has been a long stint getting used to a new place and not having a break.

I have also missed my family, friends and activities - rock climbing and horse riding - I have been homesick -

Sometimes work has been slow, and there are times I have felt like an alien being here.

Sometimes at home my family keep the dogs tethered or caged up too much for my liking - I let them out sometimes but have to make sure the chickens are away - or they dont go and eat the latest Hindu offering.

Being an outdoor countryside loving person I am finding living in KTM quite hard as it is not really a city with any quiet green space - its quite busy and full on and there is a lot of congestion and pollution to deal with and I do get really pissed off with the traffic and the stupid ignorance of some of the drivers of other vehicles on the road - people just do not look coming out of junctions - and they never use their brakes - if they want you to get out the way -they think just beeping their horn works - so this can be rather stressful! Also whilst it is nice outside of town getting out of it does require quite a bit of effort at times -which can be rather tiring!

There are a lot of things I'd like to be more involved with but really find it difficult too - such as volunteering at the new life centre - I just really can't do the journey because of the pollution(though may be I can find somewhere closer to home as there seem to be LOTS of orphanages here in Kathmandu!)

In fact I am looking at moving closer to work to help with the chest problem - but as it is International NGO and embassy land the rents are too high for my VSO allowance

The volunteer allowance only really covers life's essentials - chocolate and swimming, and more than the ocassional evening meal out and beer are extra - ! Still I have my singing and language classes lined up for Autumn evenings - and these are free!!!! I have joined the Kathmandu choir as an alto and we are practising for our Christmas concert! And we get about 30 hours of paid language tuition which will be useful to take advantage of for my work trips out of town.

Anyway - Overall I am still glad I'm doing this - it is an interseting experience and a real eye opener in many ways - I can usually cope with the not so good bits - and I think I have quite a few things to look forwards to soon both work and leisure wise - so feel quite excited! Well must go now as I need to get to bed so I can get up early for a morning swim before work!

Bye for now - lots of love Mandy xxx