Posts Tagged ‘village’

Posted on May 28, 2009

Books for Chankhu Besi – Update

Update – shortly after Uday and I delivered the books, teaching materials and play equipment to the local school at Chankhu Besi, a cloud of controversy began to brew on our beloved Nepali village. The new VSO volunteers who arrived in March just returned from their village stay at Chankhu Besi and told us the details.

Apparently, there has been some misunderstanding between the school teachers and the community about who can have access to the books, equipment, and teaching materials. The community thought that these items were available for everyone in the village and the school teachers believed that it should only be used by the children who attended the school.

The whole incident conjured up ill feelings on all sides and I can imagine it has also re-sparked the sensitive issue about how the majority of the families in the village would rather send their children to private schools than to the local government school (see previous post – My Village Stay Day 4). Add a feisty local government school teacher advocate to the mix and you have yourself a polarized community. As a result, our gifts of good intentions sat in a brand new book cabinet collecting dust.

The books and equipment were locked up and were hardly being used. The teachers were also unsure how to manage and use them effectively.

Both Gord, Udaya, and I had an underlying feeling that this would happen and now looking back at that time …. it all now makes perfect sense since there were some unusual reactions during our visit.

Throughout the entire time that we were there, I noticed that my Nepali family was very much excited to see me but when I mentioned that I was here to bring gifts to the school they seemed to be unenthusiastic and apprehensive about accompanying me to the school. As well, I noticed that certain families participated in the activities inside the school while other families (those who didn’t have children attending the local school, including mine) were subtlety observing events from the outside.

We had always envisioned that the community as a whole would have access to the resources that we brought. However, I realize now that since the local school is managing the books and equipment for its students and since they are poorly funded as compared to the private schools, it is fair and it understandably makes sense that the teachers would assume that these resources are for their SOLE use only.

Nevertheless, when Udaya returned with the new volunteers in April, he tried to remediate the situation by co-developing a strategy with the teachers that would see the resources being shared by the entire the community. This included a library book borrowing policy for the village and a designated play session for a few hours a week for non-local school children (on a Friday or on the weekend).

Time will only tell if this plan will work out. Gord and I plus a few other volunteers plan to visit Chankhu Besi again in the next few months to check on their progress.

New volunteers helping out

Gord and I were relieved that the new volunteers were able to help out. They provided the much needed training, support and guidance by providing a few training sessions about book care and management, teacher training, and equipment maintenance. Anne demonstrated to the teachers how to effectively teach students how to read a book as well as how to read a book out loud in class. Other volunteers provided tips on how to take care of their books (little things such as how to carefully turn pages and store books away), and others demonstrated the many possible games that they could play with the sports equipment.

On one day during break, the school children broke out in a song and danced using the two Nepali drum sets that we donated.

Below is a photos from our  flickr set (photos and videos) of the new volunteers at Chankhu Besi during Sports Day and reading Room to Read books in class.

Thanks again for your support and making this happen for the children at Chankhu Besi.

Posted on April 1, 2009

A Library for Chankhu Besi

Project completed!

Related posts:

• Books for Chankhu Besi Project Update
• A Librarian/Tree Hugger and a Painter without Borders

It was an amazing yet exhausting day. I had to climb up the mountain 3 times to help bring down the books and equipment. Most of the community members were surprised to see me again and of course asked me where the rest of my group was. They were even more curious to know what I was bringing to the school.

The children immediately clamoured over each other to get at the books like there was no tomorrow. Most of the children were so busy reading that they hardly noticed that we were there.

We had a small presentation by the school teacher of the items that we had brought followed by a short lecture on how to take care of the learning materials. The day ended upon receiving a framed letter of appreciation from the village leader.

It was such an immense heartfelt feeling witnessing everything first hand. Seeing the joy and smiles from everyone and also the emanating interest and curiousity from the children when they flipped through those pages. I only wish that I could have shared the experience with everyone.

Thank you so much to the following people who supported our project:

Kathy, Anne Maise, Isabelle, Theresa, June, Mary, Sue, Dennis, George, Allie, Tlell, Melissa, and Cameron. And to our Nepali support, Uday, Ajimme, and Sano.

(Apologies to those for whom we have missed or have misspelled their names).

I’m sure our group will return to Chankhu Besi to visit our respective Nepali families but to also help the local school community maintain their new library as well as help train teachers on how to effectively teach their students how to read.

Once again on behalf of Gord (http://gordclements.ca/) and myself, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

Posted on March 27, 2009

Books for Chankhu Besi Project Update

Oh boy, here we go…

Thank you so much to the friends and family who have donated so far. We have already collected more than enough funds (and so quickly, thank you) and due to a perfect opportunity that has arisen in our busy schedules, we are going to deliver the books and equipment that we have already collected TODAY!

A week ago, the school teachers at Chankhu Besi gave us a wish list of items that they would like to have and Uday (our Nepali language guru) and I spent our free time after work scouring the Kathmandu markets to find the best deals.

Aside from the 220 Room to Read Local Language Books (and we are still getting more) we already managed to purchase, we were also able to get:

• Maadal Nepali drum one set (we threw in an extra one)
• Baasuri flute (we threw in five)
• Cassette player and 2 nursery rhyme tapes (English and Nepali)
• Accordion powered piano keyboard (wait till you see what this thing looks like)
• 5 footballs
• 2 Volleyballs
• 5 Skipping ropes
• Dolls as teaching materials
• Rack or cupboard with glass on it
• Paper, cardboards, and chart paper
• Dust bins
• Boardmarkers, Pencils, Pencil crayons
• 4 water jugs and a 40L water container
• Calculators
• Wall clock
• Various flip charts with pictures
• Number chart (Nepali and English)
• A world map (I can finally show them where Canada is)
• Stacks and stacks of writing notebooks and materials

The school has about 60 children, all between the ages of 3 – 10. The 4 school teachers along with a few villagers will be meeting Uday and I at around noon at the top of the hill to help carry the various items down.

I am very excited but also quite a bit nervous at the same time. Aside from the needed items mentioned above, I hear that most of the community members have been really eager to see all us again (most of which have been calling our mobile phones non-stop ever since we have left). Unfortunately, due to time conflicts, the availability of Uday (very important as he can translate), and that most of the volunteers are out of valley, I am the only one who can make it back today. Nonetheless, my visit will be short and sweet with a direct visit to the school and a quick visit to my Parajuli family. I’m sure we will all be back for an official “Return to Chankhu Besi” visit soon.

Stay tuned for photos and video footage of the event.

Posted on December 23, 2008

The Return to Kathmandu

41 days later in Nepal…

After our long and unexpected good byes to our Nepali families, we began to make our way back to the Pacific Guest House in Kathmandu. The sun was starting to set and small conversations of reflection (and rejoice) helped set the background during the hour long drive.

Emotionally and physically exhausted from the day’s event, we somehow managed to garner up some renewed energy as we approached the city outskirts. Looking out the bus window, we were bewildered with familiar visuals and feelings of hot showers, choices of food, flat roads, western toilets, vehicle traffic, crowds of people, city lights, and markets galore. For better or for worse, we were ready to reacquaint ourselves with grand-scale civilization again.

When we finally arrived at the Pacific Guest House we were greeted with old-familiar faces. Nukhol was the first meet us at the gate followed by Karma from the front desk. Sunju helped us with our bags along with two new kitchen staff. With some renewed excitement, I immediately jumped out of the bus and began to unload our baggage. It wasn’t until I grabbed our key to our new room (Room 114) and headed up the stairs when our grand revelation began.

Jubilation

Our new room not only had an armoire and a desk but also a large bed with real-soft pillows, high-thread count bed sheets and a very warm blanket. That’s it!

Honestly, it felt like we just arrived at a 5-star hotel. Our older room at PGH (Room 112) was not bad but this room (Room 114) was noticeably better.

It has been about 4 weeks since we left PGH and during that time we were staying at Chetena Kendra and Chankhu Besi. Chetena Kendra was literally our training ground before we immersed ourselves into typical Nepali rural lifestyle at Chankhu Besi.

After being away from these subtle luxuries for quite some time, we both proclaimed (as we both took our hot showers) that we will NEVER again take these things for granted again.

A right of passage

The next morning, a group of us gathered at the breakfast table and reflected on our experiences from the past several weeks. To be honest, I very much miss my Nepali family’s cooking and dal bhaat. Although it was pretty much monotonous, it was nonetheless fresh and healthy and was the closest thing to resembling the sense of a “home cooked” meal. The life we left was much simpler and we learned more about ourselves and each other during that time.

Looking back, I can say that we are all now completely different people compared to when we first arrived in Nepal. Even though we went through and experienced many difficult trials and tribulations, we would not have changed a thing about it if we could (well…maybe I would have brought sleeping bag). Things that used to be culturally different or shocking are now considered normal to us and our confidence in living and working in Nepal is much more stronger than ever before.

Ready or not, here we come.

Posted on December 22, 2008

My Village Stay – Day 7

(The long overdue post of our most memorable day @ Chankhu Besi)

It was Day 1 of our community project. The plan was to start immediately after breakfast and then see how the rest of the day goes for our carnival. All the volunteers were ready to go as we hastily started to clear out the classrooms of all furniture, desks, and wall hangings. We were also accompanied by a dozen or so eager community members, most of which taking the initiative on various tasks and happily trying to figure out some of our initial start-up problems (we had no tools, buckets, or any idea where to get water). Overall, it was a great start to our day.

The classroom walls needed dusting and washing before we could apply the paint and the doors and windows needed some prep work done as well. Helen, Manish, and Jimmy were inside taking care of that along with a few teens that started trickling in to help. Donald took on the doors and windows prepping followed by myself and a few young talented painters. I taught Santos and few other kids on how to hold a paint brush and to use as little paint as possible when covering a surface (remnants of my Student Painting Works days).

We bought wall brick brushes but could not afford any handles and so we started looking for any sturdy branches to attach the brushes to. Of course, how do we attach them together without any tools? A Nepali gentleman saw our predicament and went back to his home and brought back a hammer and some nails and started nailing the brushes to the branches. Yes, we were in business after that.

Outside, a community member (darn I forgot his name) took on the task of patching up the side of the school walls. Some of the women started making mouldable clay by gathering earth from the surrounding area and mixing it with water and which was then liberally applied to every hole and gap around the school. Luckily, the sun was out all day without a cloud in the sky allowing the newly repaired walls to quickly dry within a couple of hours.

Finally, Gord (a fellow Canadian volunteer) took the lead on designing the English alphabet wall just outside the main classroom. Each letter was carefully stencilled out along with an object whose name started with that letter. It was starting to look like a really neat place to learn.

One of the most interesting and perhaps entertaining highlights of the morning was the instalment of their new tire swing. The location of the school was next to a very large tree, probably the oldest and most prominent tree in the village. Jimmy and I were charged with the task of trying to figure out how to tie a rope around the largest extending branch over the school yard and then securely hang a tire to it. In the end, the solution was pretty easy as our young counterparts quickly figured out what we wanted to do and excitedly scrambled around us to quickly assess how to build their new “thrill” ride. And before you know it, the teens were already scaling the tree and securing the rope while crowds of kids gathered around jockeying for position to be the first person to try out the swing.

We were all praying to Bhagwan that no one would slip and fall.

The Unfortunate News

By the late morning, we were more than half way done repairing the walls and repainting the inside walls, doors, and windoews of the school. It was about that time when we heard they news from Udaya that we had to cut our time short at Chankhu Besi (we still had two more nights) and immediately return to Kathmandu.

Protesters (about a particular issue of which I do not recall) have declared a bandha somewhere in Banepa or Dhulikhel and the main roads were potentially going to be indefinitely road blocked, thus preventing any flow of traffic whatsoever to and from the towns. The “indefinite” part of the details that we knew signified that this bandha was considered highly unsafe. With this in mind, there would be a possibility that we would be stranded in our village and not be able to reach safer areas. Thus as per VSO policy, we had to leave Chankhu Besi immediately and return to Kathmandu.

We were all shocked by the news and I was mostly saddened as we were just getting started with our community. Day 2 of our community project was yet to come and I was mentally preparing myself leave in a couple of days. Nonetheless, were determined to get through everything. By 2pm, we finished painting the school, played a few games, and managed to squeeze in some dancing, snacks.

The long good bye and the road home

After our unexpected and emotional goodbyes to our Nepali families, we set forth back to Kathmandu. All of us were exhausted from today’s events – from repainting the school’s interior and exterior walls and playing educational games with children to having one last kajaa and long farewells promising to email, text, call and visit again soon. We slumped into our bus seats with our malas and tikas on, emotional/physically drained and dirty while reflecting back on our experiences and what could have been if we stayed a bit longer.

I never got the chance to say goodbye to my host brothers Bidur and Sudarshan. They were working when we had to leave. I do have their mobile phone numbers and I will definitely call them once I get a SIM card. I definitely plan to visit the village again and bring my host family an album of photos taken during my stay. I also made a lot of friends throughout village, especially the extended Parajuli families and Tlell’s host family. I am sure they will remember me as that funny-nepali-looking-moto-guy.

The time shared will forever be remembered as it was the first experience for not only the volunteers but for the community members as well. Time will only tell how much of an impact was made and it will definitely be exciting to find out what the ripple effect will be.