Thulo Parsel - the village

During our stay here in Nepal, we have got ourselves an extented family through Palsang which we stay with here in Kathmandu and his brother Pravin, our trekking guide. Palsang and almost everybody we have dealt with during our stay are from the village of Thulo Parsel in Kabhrepalanchok District, central Nepal, and we went there to visit. It was one of the best things we have done during our stay!

Thulo Parsel is located something like 6 hours drive West of Kathmandu (depending on how long breaks the bus takes), and we went there together with Pravin, who lives in the village. We went by local bus, which was much more exiting than tourist busses:

You drive in a bus made for approximately 30 persons, and you start with it being full. But a bus in Nepal is never really full, and we ended up being somewhere between 50 and 60 persons on the bus, including a handfull on the roof together with luggage and a live goat. In the bus itself we had:

• People of all ages, from an almost newborn baby to elderly people
• Chickens (tiny ones in cardboard boxes saying "chirp chirp" for 4 straigh hours)
• A hen in a Winnie the Poh shopping bag (a live one!).
• Milkcan
• Fencing wire
• Sacks with rice and flour
• Large cans for...... maybe fuel or water?
• Large baskets, which the women carry on their backs
• Boxes with beer
• Fruit and vegetables
• And all the personal belonging to people
• (and on the way back we managed to squeeze 4 people into one seat, and not only 3 as on the way out: Valdemar, Harald, a car sick women, hanging out the windows for the best part of the ride, being sick and her little girl - local bus can be a tough ride)

With all these people and stuff in the bus, it is not possible for the driver to see much inside the bus and around the door. So the bus works like this (as all busses are doing here in Nepal): You have three people working on the bus, one driver, one to keep track of the passengers and to collect money from the passangers and one "bus-boy" who signals go or stop to the driver. One beat on the side/door of the bus means stop - two means go. Furthermore he hangs out the side of the bus shouting the bus' destination to the people waiting for the bus. It work perfectly and makes a bus ride in Denmark seem very very dull!

In the village we stayed at Pravins home, together with his parents, his wife and their little son, Sidant (Sidants' older brother lives at a hostel, a type of boarding school). We were meet by an amazing hospitality and kindness - thank you very very much for letting us into your family!

In the village we saw the Gumpa - a very nice place with a positive atmosphere. We have seen quite a few ones on our treks, but this one was special :0)

We also saw the schools in the village. There are two, and firstly we visited the higher secondary school. It equals something like 7 - 9 grade in Denmark. Here we just looked around a bit, as there had just been a fight between some students when we arrived - the kids are sometimes rough on each other - much more than in Denmark. We also visited the primary school, where Sidant. Here we visited his class and gave toothbrushes to the teachers as well as a to a few other classes. The teachers would then tell the children how to use the toothbrush, when handing them out to the children. No wonder so many small children have bad teeth, if the do not really learn to brush before they reach the school age, but very nice to see that the scholl teaches the children this as well.

On our walk around the village, we also saw many people working on the everyday village tasks, as well as a lot of goats and chickens. The season for harvesting is almost over, and there were much activity with drying crops and vegetabeles, and with preparing the fields for next seasons crops. We came across a man plowing his fields, and we had a go at it. It did not go well! You would imagine that the cattle would know were to walk on the field in relation to the already plowed part of the field, but either they are stupid or very provocative - they did not keep a straight line at all! But it was really funny, and the man took it very nicely, that he had to do the section ones more after us :0)

We also spend a lot of time playing with the children in the village. We had brought a football for Sidant, and with this, we quickly made friends with the other children. We invented different variations of how to play with a ball, all from football, over vollyball, to "I-grab-the-ball......catch-me-if-you-can" game. The last game really showed that maybe village children do not have computer, tv, bikecycles and a lot of the other stuff we have in Denmark, but they are much better with their gross motor skills than kids in Denmark. They runs really fast, up and down, over fields with rocks and in the dark, jump down from very high places (like the roof of a building) and climb high up in the trees, out on the very thin branches. All this made us think about what a good kids life really is.......

But the best thing about being in the village was without any doubt spending time with our extended family. Playing with our Bai (nepali for little brother), sitting in the kitchen and doing our best helping cooking, talking the best we could without us speaking nepali and just being together. We hope we will see them all again soon!

So tomorrow we will head home, after 2½ months of fantastic times, bring back a part of Nepal in our hearts. We look forward to come home and see family and friends again, but will also miss all our new friends and family here in Nepal a lot!

:0) Kirsten, Valdemar, Harald and Holger

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Thulo Parsel - landsbyen

Under vores tid her i Nepal, har vi fået os en udvidet familie igennem Palsang, som vi bor hos her i Kathmandu, og hans bror Pravin, vores trekkeing guide. Palsang og næsten alle vi har haft noget at gøre med er fra landsbyen Thulo Parsel, I Kabhrepalanchok distriktet i det centrale Nepal, og tog på besøg der. Det var en af de bedste ting vi har gjort under hele vores tid her!

Thulo Parsel ligger omkring 6 timers kørsel vest for Kathmandu (afhænger af hvor lange pauser bussen holder undervejs) og vi tog dertil sammen med Pravin, som bor i landsbyen. Vi kørte med den lokale bus, hvilket er meget mere interessant end turistbusser:

Du kører i en bus som er beregnet til omkring 30 mennesker, og du starter med at den er fuld. Men en bus i Nepal er aldrig helt fuld, og vi endte med at være omkring 50-60 mennesker, inklusiv en håndfuld på taget sammen med baggage og en levende ged. I selve bussen havde vi:

• Mennesker af alle aldre, fra en næsten nyfødt, til ældre mennesker
• Kyllinger (lille bitte nogle i papkasser, der sagde "chirp chirp" i 4 stive timer)
• En høne i en Peter Plys indkøbspose (en levende én)
• Mælkejunger
• Hegnstråd
• Sække med ris og med mel
• Store dunke til...... måske benzin eller vand?
• Store kurve som kvinderne bruger til at bære ting i på deres rygge
• Kasser med øl
• Frugt og grøntsager
• Og alle folks personlige tasker
• (og på vores vej tilbage, lykkedes det os at få plads til 4 personer på ét sæde, og ikke kun 3 som på vejen ud: Valdemar, Harald, en køresyg kvinde, som hang ud af vinduet det meste af vejen og var syg, samt hendes lille pige - de lokale busser kan godt være en hård tur).

Med alle disse mennesker og ting i bussen, er det ikke muligt for chaufføren at se meget inde i bussen og rundt om døren. Så en bus fungerer sådan her (som alle andre busser i Nepal): Du har 3 personer er arbejder på bussen, én chauffør, én der holder styr på hvem der stiger på og tager imod betaling og én "bus-dreng" som signalerer kør eller stop til chaufføren. Et slag på bussen betyder stop - to slag betyder kør. Derudover hænger han ud af bussen og råber destinationen på bussen til de folk der venter på busserne. Det fungerer perfekt og får en bustur i Danmark til være meget kedelig!

I landsbyen boede vi hos Pravin, sammen med hans forældre, hans kone og deres lille søn, Sidant (Sidanst storebror bor på hostel - en slags kostskole). Vi blev mødt af en fantastisk gæstfrihed og venlighed - tusind tak for at tage os ind i jeres familie!

I landsbyen så vi Gumpaen - et meget rart sted med en positiv atmosfære. Vi har set en hel del på vores trek, men denne var speciel :0)

Vi så også skolerne i landsbyen. Der er to skoler og først besøgte vi skolen for de største børn (svarer nogenlunde til 7 - 9 klasse i Danmark). Her så vi os kun lidt rundt, da der lige havde været en slåskamp mellem nogle af eleverne - børnene er virkelig hårde ved hinanden hernede - meget mere end i Danmark. Vi besøgte også skolen for de mindste, hvor Sidant går. Her besøgte vi hans klasse og gav tandbørster til læreren samt til lærerene i et par andre klasser. Læreren vil så fortælle børnene hvordan de skal børste tænder, når de deler tandbørsterne ud. Der er ikke noget at sige til at så mange børn har dårlige tænder, hvis de først lærer at børste tænder når de når skolealderen, men rigtig rart at se at skolelærerene lærere børnen dette også.

På vores tur rundt i landsbyen, så vi også mange folk arbejde med deres hverdagsopgaver, samt en hel del geder og høns. Høstsæsonen er næsten ovre og der var meget aktivitet med at tørre afgrøder og grønsager, og med at forberede markerne til næste sæson. Vi kom forbi en mand der pløjede, og vi fik lov til at prøve. Det gik ikke godt! Man forestiller sig at kvæget ved hvor de skal gå i forhold til det markstykke der allerede er pløjet, men enten er de meget dumme eller meget provokerende - de holdt slet ikke en lige linje! Men det var rigtig sjovt, og manden tog det meget pænt at han måtte pløje vores stykke om igen :0)

Vi brugte og en hel del tid på at lege med børnene i landsbyen. Vi havde taget en fodbold med til Sidant, og med denne fik vi hurtigt fundet venner. Vi opfandt forskellige variationer af hvordan man kan spille med en bold, alt fra fodbold, over volleybold til "jeg-tager-bolden-og-løber...........fang-mig-hvis-du-kan" leg. Den sidste leg fik vist os at det kan godt være at landbybørn ikke har computer, tv, cykler og alt det andet vi har hjemme I Danmark, men de er meget bedre grovmotorisk end danske børn. De kan løbe rigtig hurtigt, op og ned, over marker med sten og i mørke, hoppe ned fra meget høje steder (så som toppen af et tag) og klatre højt op i træer og helt ud på de meget tynde grene. Alt dette fik os til at tænke over hvad et godt børneliv egentlig er.........

Men det bedste ved at være i landsbyen var uden tvivl at være sammen med vores udvidede familie. Lege med vores Bai (nepalesisk for lillebror), sidde i køkkenet og gøre vores bedste med at hjælpe til, snakke det bedste vi kunne uden at kunne tale nepalesisk og bare være sammen. Vi håber at vi kommer til at se dem alle snart igen!

Så i morgen tager vi hjem efter 2½ måneds fantastisk tid, med en del af Nepal i vores hjerter. Vi ser frem til at komme hjem og se vores familie og venner igen, men kommer også til at savne alle vores nye venner og familie her i Nepal rigtig meget!

:0) Kirsten, Valdemar, Harald og Holger