Two days ago we started work finally. It was starting to feel like a bit of a holiday so we were all glad to get stuck in. Manual work here is nothing like working in the UK. It was hilarious our induction and our health and saftey were pretty much combined into one sentance from bal "I think you know how to use pick-axe isn't it? and spade also? now you must level the ground". So we spent the day leveling the playground in the sweltering heat, it was quite a lot of fun as we had to improvise most of it. They also had some contracted Nepali workers in to finish the plastering on the roof of the learning centre we are building before we start work on the second floor. It was insane watching them work. They only had one machine which was the cement mixer. They made this step like scaffolding from bamboo which went all the way to the roof. One worker stood on each step and they passed up these metal plates at the speed of light from the top to the bottem. The woman also worked, but they seemed to have a much more punishing job. They strapped large cone shaped bamboo sacks to their forheads which rested on their backs. The men would fill these sacks to the top with the sand used to make the cement. At the end of the day they were running behind on getting the job done so we had to step in and help fill these bamboo cones. It wasn't fun and some volunteers refused to do it on the basis that it was causing these women so much pain, but if they didn't finish that day they wouldn't get paid so I helped for a while until it was time to go home.
The next day I had some kind of awful stomach bug and spent 36 hours unconcious in bed waking only for bananas and dhal and the friendly face of my didis.
Today we did one of our global disscussion projects on education in Nepal, where we watched dvd's, did presentations and debated. We are learning so much here and I can't wait to come back and share our stories.
The internet is really slow here and its a daytrip to the internet cafe, so apologies if I haven't replied to anyone. Hope you are all well.
Namaste
xxx
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