Walkabouts

One thing that is good about the Terai, the flat land in the southern part of Nepal, is that is easy to walk and cycle about. I have done quite a lot of walking and recently I bought a bike to get a bit further.

One morning in November I decided to talk a walk in the forest behind the army camp. I had been there before and my intention was to take the same path as before even if it wouldn't really take me in to the forest properly.

When I got to the open area just behind the army camp I met some of the soldiers and, as usual, they were interested in were I was going. They told me there was another path through the forest and said it was easy to find and would take me back to the airport. I decided to give it a try and set out on the path.

To start with it was quite easy to follow and there were lots of birds and I was happy. It was so peaceful in the forest and cool and fresh.

After awhile the path got smaller but it was still no problem to follow it. It got increasingly difficult to see the birds though as the bushes were growing denser and denser.

Then it started to become difficult. The path divided and it was becoming more and more narrow.

Suddenly I came to an open space in the forest. The only problem was that I couldn't find the path going out at the other side! I was trying a few possible options but they all disappeared and could not be followed. In the end I decided that my only option was to go right through and try to find the river that must be somewhere near.

I could have done with a machete or something but in the end I got through anyway- only to find that the bank of the river was very steep and that it was only possible to follow it south, which was not really the way I wanted to go.

I followed the river south and eventually I got a place were a road crossed the river. I followed a man who was walking up from the river and came back to the place were I had met the soldiers before.

It was now about 3,5 hours later but the soldiers were still there and they came up to me and asked why I was coming that way, I should have been at the airport by now? When I told them about my adventures in the forest their reply was: Didn't you bring a map?- I didn't even now that such things as orientation maps existed in Nepal but apparently the army had one for this particular area. I don't think it would have been of much help actually.

"You should have turned left, not right at that open space in the forest", they told me....


Some weeks later I decided to cycle to the new bridge across the Rapti River. I had been there once before but that time I had come from town on a motorcycle. This time I iwas going to go through the field and the small villages along the dirt roads I knew must be there. I checked it all out in Google Earth first and wrote down the turns and distances on a piece of paper. I soon found that the roads had changed a bit but I was able to ask people about the way and I had a great trip. It's so easy to cycle and even if the road was very rough in places I managed to get were I wanted.

I wasn't alone on the road and along the road I met a lot of nice people. I saw eight vultures as well which was a great sight. It turned out there was a dead cow in the village above which I had seen them.

When I got to the main road, that is the road going from Nepalganj to the river I was surprised to see so many people heading the same way I I was. There were horse drawn "tongas", motorcycles, cycles and tractors. Lots of people were walking as well. It turned out there was a "mela", a kind of fair, somewhere near the river!

In the small river before Rapti (the same one as the one I followed when I was out walking) I saw one of the rides you could have at the fair; the tractor was driving at high speed and the water was splashing all over the people in it. Lots of fun it looked like.

I never went to the mela. Considering the crowds I say going there I thought it would just be too much. Instead I had my lunch at the shores of the Rapti and as I was eating a boy came and talked to me. he told me about the bridge, about his exams, about the flu in Nepalganj and about the tractors loaded with rice from India that were standing there waiting for the strike, or "chakka jam" to be lifted. He was really nice.

I cycled back home through the fields and was glad to have had such a nice day.

A day in Nepalgunj

I have now been here in Nepalgunj for about six weeks and I thought it would be nice to tell you something about my life here. This is the story of an ordinary Friday. It could be any weekday for that matter.

I wake up around 5.30 - 6.00 and my day always starts with me checking my email and the new enteries on Facebook. I do that while I'm still in bed and waiting for the water to get hot in the water heater. It's only around 16 - 20 degrees outside during the night now so I need hot water for my morning shower.





Breakfast is prepared. It usually consists of yogurt with pieces of apple and sultanas. As I can't get any bread here I usually have an egg as well. Well, since last Friday I actually have a miracle oven and can make my own bread so that is going to change my breakfast habits a bit I guess.



I usually have my breakfast on the roof as it is a very good birdwatching spot. It's also nice to see the the neighbours getting ready for the day. A lot of the life is spent outside here.

At 8.55 am I set out for the office. It's only two minutes walk away so usually I'm the first one to get there, or the second one as Lalita is usually there to sweep the floor.



As the "Advisors" that work here spend a lot of their time in the different "clusters" that UMN have the office can sometimes be rather empty. This particular day it's only me, Sunita and Lalita there.





I have so far spent most of my time at the desk reading documents and trying to understand the work UMN is doing in different places. It has been OK but in the long run it's getting a bit boring……

At around 12.30 it's time for lunch and I walk the way back home again. I usually have something out of the freezer to eat.





In the afternoon my room in the office gets very hot and it is a welcome break when Sunitas son and his "didi" turn up.



By 5 pm it's time to go home and then the sun is already on it's way down. It's not quite as hot anymore. Back home it's time for emails and Facebook again.





I cook most of my food myself and every evening I have to go and buy vegetables. I usually cook daalbhat and I always have "saag"!


One of the vegetable shops on the road


About 1 dollars worth of vegetable.


My handy little rice cooker


The daal in the pressure cooker


The saag being prepared


The daalbhat of the day

When the daalbhat is eaten the only thing that is left to do is the washing up. By 9.30 pm I'm usually in bed.

Nepalgunj, at last

I must say the way Nepalgunj is welcoming me is rather good: it's raining and the temperature is only around 24/ 25 degrees C! I can even sit here at my desk in the office without the fan on. It actually stopped working as soon as I turned it on, which is not too promising, but still......

I flew down to Nepalgunj this morning. It was a cloudy morning in Kathmandu as well and the mountains were no where visible. We were flying through clouds the whole way! I have a feeling I was lucky to have got on the early morning flight because if anything it is raining even more now!

Today I'm just spending my time here at the computer. Tomorrow, when Yagya, the Nepali Education Advisor, gets here, we will sit down and talk about my job and the coming months. Arjun, the Cluster Leader, came down to Nepalgunj on the same flight as I did and he is very busy today, having been away for two weeks (Learning Review and Dashain holidays) Hopefully he will also be able to sit with us tomorrow.

I guess a fair bit of my time the coming few weeks will be taken up by "house work". The flat I'm staying in is fairly empty. There is a bed, but no matress, a gascylinder, but no stove and a small desk in the "wrong place"! Luckily enough I have been able to borrow a matress from the guesthouse for the night at least and as soon as the rain stops I'll have to go and look for my own. I need a table and some chairs as well, a cupboard and a chest of drawers probably and, of course, a fridge. Then I'll need something for the sitting room, but I guess that can wait for awhile.

Tonight I will eat daalbhat and I have got an electric kettle coming in my luggage (I hope it will arrive safely in the rain!) which means I can make my own tea. I'll have to borrow a cup from the guesthouse of course, but I can at least have a cup of Earl Grey! I brought a whole loaf of bread and half a kilo of butter and some cheese so I'll be OK until I'm sorted.

PS There won't be any pictures this time as I haven't taken any and the internet connection is probably too slow anyway.

Dashain in Pokhara

I'm back in Kathmandu and life is beginning to get back to normal but the whole country has had five - six days of holidays and I spent my days in Pokhara.

I was not the only one, that's for sure; In almost every resturant I went to I met some UMNers, ex-UMNers or other people that I know! The buses were full both ways and it was more "Nepalis" than tourists even if the tourist season is also coming on now.

Most of my time in Pokhara I spent together with the Ardeby family. We went shopping in Chipledhunga, we had lots of nice meals down at the lake, we went to Hotel Barahi to swim and one morning we went up to Sarangkot to see the mountains.

We were a bit late getting there but we managed to take the photos we wanted and then, after having had a nice breakfast up there we headed down towards the lake. It was rather hot to walk in the sun but we managed to get down, though it took us 2.5 hours and lots of stops and lots of water.

I enjoyed my days in Pokhara and now I'm getting ready to move to Nepalganj. The luggage will go on Månday and I will be travelling on Tuesday I hope, I haven't got my ticket yet. I'm flying this time, I had enough of bumpy busrides for awhile - I had the very last seat on the bus coming back to Kathmandu and it was not very pleasant! Besides the distance to Nepalganj is more than double that to Pokhara.

I will spend my last few days in Kathmandu shopping for exciting things like an electric kettle and an iron. I'm looking forward to get started with my work in Nepalganj, but I guess it will take some time to get the flat organized before that.

Learning Review

For three days all those who are working in different UMN clusters and in Kathmandu have been gathered in Kathmandu for the so called "Learning Review". It's an opportunity for people to share what they have been doing in the clusters and also a chance to discuss the future.

This time the future was certainly in the focus as we were discussiong the new Strategic Plan. In smaller groups of about 12-15 people we were introduced to different aspects of the Strategic plan and then we all ahd a chance to give our opinion on certain questions in even smaller groups. Everybody really had a chance to give theri input. I think it was great! It was also a good for me to get to know both the new UMN and the people working in UMN.

We also had som time to sit down in groups according to our different "areas of work". In the Education group we were listening to reports from the different clusters but we also discussed more general things like report writing, what is quality education etc. For me, who is going to work as an Education Advisor, it was very good to get to know the Education Officers from the clusters and to hear about what is going on in the different clusters. I was given some time to share my experiences from Dailekh and Syanja as well.

The Education Group

We all left the Learning Review in a very happy mood, the last point of the programme being a rather hilarious power point on the "could be-future" of UMN. It included things like the present Visa officer becoming the PM, Desmond Tutu thanking the present Programme Director for what he had taught him on Integral Mission and our Conflict Transformtion Advisor, Bal Kumari, becoming the next General-Secretary of UN. Great fun! And why not???

Pokhara

In Pokhara again after four years! It's really nice to be back! I came to have my driving licence renewed and thinking that would take a few days I decided to stay for three full days. As it turned out it was actually done in an hour and that gave me almost three full days to spend here!

The first day I went to see the place were I was staying 2003- 2005. The neighbours were still there and I spent some time talking to them. The dog looked the same, but was not, the kids had grown and looked very different! I also went to see the lady in the Luv-Kush Dairy, where I used to buy my yogurt. It might seem an odd place to "revisit" but it was one of the places were I was often spending time chatting to the "shahuni" and the "sahuji".

Yesterday I borrowed a motorbike and went to GBS. It was great! (Photos to be posted later). The school has grown so big and there were so many new teachers, but it still felt like coming "home". There were still many staff members that I knew and it was so good to see them all again. Being there also made me feel like getting started with my work. There are so many challenges!

Today I think I'll spend most of the day down at the Lake and then, in the afternoon I'll be going to Chipledhunga/New Road to do a bit of shopping together with Manju, my friend with whom I'm staying here in Pokhara, and her daughter. Tomorrow I'll be heading back to Kathmandu on a tourist bus.

Monsoon Sunday

Today it has actually been raining almost all day. The skies are grey and I'm sure there won't be any hot water coming from the solar panels. Luckily enough the guest house where I'm staying has got a gas heater as well. I do need a hot shower to wash my hair tonight.

The monsoon was late and they say some parts of the country have only had some 30% of the normal rainfall. In the Mid-Western and Far Western Regions they say there will be a food shortage this winter because of this. Combined with all the bandhs and strike that different groups are calling, that disrupts the food distribution, it might actually be a hard winter for many people living in Kathmandu as well.

I have now been here for about four weeks and I'm feeling very much at home. Nothing much has changed- except the traffic is even worse than it used to be and almost everyone has got their own mobile phone. After three weeks I decided I needed one as well.

At the moment I'm staying in Kathmandu, doing language, but after Dashain I will move down to Nepalgunj. By then it is probably slightly cooler down there as well. I was there three weeks ago, and it was very hot, especially as I had just arrived in the country from a cold Sweden.

I will try to update this blogg every now and then and hope that you will enjoy reading it.