Teej!

Last week we celebrated the woman's festival "Teej". It was a full weekend party all across Nepal. During Teej the women fast for 24 hours with no water or food. They all dress in red saris, with a red tikka and red glass bangles. Red is the color married women wear and the whole idea of the festival is that the women fast to wish for the long lives of their husbands, so they can provide for them or to wish for a good husband for all the single ladies. Unfortunately the volunteers couldn't cope with the fasting aspect so we will probably all have crap husbands, who will die early and produce only baby girls (sigh).
The night before the 24 hour fasting there is the "stuffing of the face ceremony", which all volunteers happily took part in. It was like a midnight feast. The families here never buy food from the shop but on this occasion they bought fruit and nuts and made us hot oily prawn crackers. We also had an array of Nepali sweets, my favorite was these doughnut type balls soaked in syrup and ginger and were sickly sweet.

Getting dressed for Teej was the most fun, the sister spent a good half an hour putting on our Saris. Then the aama squeezed tiny glass bangles onto our wrists. About 30% of the bangles broke in the process leaving our hands bloody but also sparkly, which was nice. We're pretty sure aama dislocated Mellisa's thumb as well because it's swollen quite a significant amount since the event.

Today we went on a trek, which was amazing! When we got to the top we had buffalo chow mien and Mountain Dew  drink, which we a pretty sure has been banned from the UK because of its dangerously high caffeine content. On the way back I got seriously leached. I didn't see the culprit but it has left me with a very bloody foot, which keeps sticking to my flip flop.


My body is definitely on Nepali time at the moment. I'm up at 5 AM to lube and milk the cow. Then a bit of clothes washing or corn shedding. Before a mountain walk with the mountain walk crew. Tara brought a yoga book here and I've been appointed yogi of the group. Tomorrow we plan to walk to the mountain top cafe, perform our sun salutations to the Himalayas before tucking into a bowl  of muesli. Perhaps a tad ambitious but I think a lot of the volunteers are determined to come back fit after our unforgiving diet of samosas, pakoras and buffalo. If it's not greasy and its not spicy its not getting served here in Nepal.

Ferri Bitula

Mariam

xxx

Saris and Shopping!

I'm sitting in the internet cafe, covered head to toe in powdered cement. Today we were performing what can only be described as the most thankless task in the world. We have to remove cement from the classroom floors before they are plastered. Tools included hammer, pickaxe and tiny Gurka knives. It took 5 of us 6 hours to get a quater of the room done. I have cement in my eyes, in my ears, in my nose and a nasty gritty feeling between my teeth. I'm heading straight for my cold bucket shower as soon as I get home.

Last weekend was very exciting. On Friday one of the volunteer's aama told us Sari shopping. She spoke as much English as we did Nepali but language of shop brought us together. Next weekend is the big women's festival in Nepal. All the woman wear red and fast for the whole day. We have been promised lots of dancing and singing. So four of us girl volunteers went frock shopping in preparation, IT WAS LIKE NEPAL MEETS SEX IN THE CITY! Amazing...

She took us to a small shack which was decorated with the most beautiful long sparkly bits of material. I'm glad we were with aama because she could get us the best Nepali prices. The material was 600 Rs a pop and we only get paid 700 Rs a week. It was quite funny. One of the volunteers Steph was charged more money. When we asked why they just kept saying "big, you know, like fat? need more sari, big girl". I almost errupted with muffled laughter, Steph can't be bigger than the most of us volunteers but the Nepalis seem to have it in for her. Her family love calling her fat. It's not a insult over here, it's a compliment to be able to keep your women fat it means you have enough money to feed them.

After we got the material we went back to the village where we found the tailor shop. It was a room about 3 x3 m with three women and a large pedal powered sewing machine. The woman measured us all and kept telling us how pretty we all were and repeating our Nepali names over and over, in case we would forget them. That cost us 100 Rs. All together a tailor made Sari with next day deliever cost us about 6 british pounds, barginous. But here it cost us an entire weeks wages that most Nepalis would use to feed a family of about 5.

The internet keeps going off so I will send this while I still can.

Lady in red

xxxx

Long time no blog!

Long time no blog! Loooads has been going on here. Unfortunately I’ve gone blank so I’m answering some requestions.

What did I pack?

I packed 3 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of trousers, 5 t-shirts, a hoodie and a raincoat. Had quite a cringe moment though. I spent hours picking out the perfect travelers shorts in Camden market. When I got to Nepal I noticed my trousers on about 50 % of the population. When I checked the tags I saw they were made in Nepal, so that was a waste of carbon footprint.

Are there any traditional dishes I am going to try?

Nepal has one traditional dish Dhal Bhat, (rice and lentil stew). Am I going to try it? I try it every day, for breakfast, dinner and if we’re lucky lunch. I have to say I’m quite enjoying it now though, I generally can’t get through the day without dhal bhat.

 Curd! They love their curd here. When we asked what it was they say “boil milk, leave for 3 day” ..mmmmmm. We had it with these wood chippings they claimed to be cornflakes. I had seconds, I’m loving my curd, loving it lumpy, loving it tangy, not loving it so much in the morning.

Are they still going to disown you when you get to that time of the month?

No! Although in Nepal woman are not allowed in the kitchen or allowed to eat with the family during their periods, they have got used to having volunteers here and we are allowed into eat with the family. winner. Our sisters still have to eat alone though, either in a dark room or outside. But the volunteers being here seem to have had quite a positive impact on the community. Apparently the teachers in the school we teach in have stopped hitting the students due to the presence of the volunteers.

 The community watches you really closely. Sometimes when we are working they like to form a big crowd around us and just watch. It’s quite a lot of pressure, but everyone’s really friendly. They taught us how to carry the bricks in baskets on our heads like the Nepali women. It’s not has hard as it looked, so we started using it to work. The Nepalis absolutely loved this, there was lots of clapping and approving head waggling.

We had chicken for the 1st time yesterday, I ate it mainly out of politeness and respect for the missing chicken running about in the garden. It was boiled, and was quite nice when you found white meat, but that wasn't easy espically with only one hand. Its quite easy to pick up a mouthful of boiled chicken skin and gristle. I think I may tell them I've converted to vegetarianism ....again.

 According to the caste system our family can only eat chicken as a meat. Some of the other volunteers eat goat and are not allowed to eat chicken because they are of the higher caste. The caste system is still something I can’t quite get my head around. Someone of a higher caste will sometimes refuse to eat from a plate is someone from a lower caste has touched it. The children from lower castes the “untouchables” often drop out of school because of bullying from pupils and teachers alike. It’s quite hard to witness.

Better go, our didis want to teach us how to milk the cow :s

Mariam

xx

Homage to Pepper

Sad day guys...

I got a text message from my mum on Thursday 1AM saying that my dog Pepper had died.When I looked at the date I realised that it had been sent on Monday. My dog had died 3 days ago. Needless to say I didn't get back to sleep after that. I couldn't quite believe it he was always so lively, but he probably was about 13. Apperently he got quite ill very quickly and had to be put down. I didn't tell my family, its quite hard trying to explain the concept of pets to a Nepali family, but all the volunteers were very sypathetic. It's going to be so quiet at home, I can't believe he won't be there to welcome me home.

Oh Pepper how we will miss you...

Mariam

xxx

Monsooning it down!

We're in the middle of a 4 day monsoon over here. We've been told that it has come late as a result of climate change, but apperently people round here will blame a non-laying chicken on climate change.

 We started teaching yesterday! That was very exciting. After 6 hours of manual labour I wasn't sure that I would be up to it, but the kids were amazing. Me, Tara and Dilwar have grade 9 (14-15 year olds, plus the occasional 17 year old who has been kept back). No teacher training here, we just got put into the class and were told to teach them English! We did quite well we managed to think of a couple of games to keep them occupied. Their level of English though is amazing so we are going to have to start planning lessons properly. They've done the tenses and preposition and article and all sorts. I haven't even done thoose!This iss going to be a serious learning curve for me, but Bal gave us an English text book so hopefully we'll be able to convince them we know some English.

It was a speacil holy day today so everyone gets the day off work. We had a smashing curry for breakfast then a guru came round to our house and tied thread around our wrists and put a rice tikka (third eye) on our forheads. Me and Melissa (room mate) bought some mendhi last night and didi Prabhu went to town on my left hand, I look like a fell into a tank of heena.

In other news I taught Khushi (lizzie) to juggle, she's two balls down and she made me write this. We've had two people in the group leeched already. I haven't had one yet but I have that to look forward to.

I'll try and put some pics up soon, I'm dying to get some up.

xxx

Settling In

Hello!

Just a short blog today, I've been given the global discussion topic this week of Climate and Environment! (get in), so I need to do lots of research.
We've been getting stuck into manual work like no ones business, shoveling, breaking down walls, building wall, pulling other enthusiastic Nepali school kids away from the pic-axes. It's been really fun and we start teaching next week as well.
 My dhai (eldest brother) is a farmer as well as a market researcher in Kathmandu, so yesterday he let me interview him about the climate and environment in Lamatar. It was really fun, definately a bonding experience. Using a dictaphone waas a hilarious experience, I only wish I had asked him more questions. The main issue seems to be forest fires, which although does not effect the villages directly, it drives the leopards out of the forest and they tend to eat people's live-stock, which is great. They grow everything here themselves. Nothing is bought from a supermarket, which probably goes some way to explaining why we have dhal bhat for every meal of the day.

Today we got the bus into Labhou. There were tens of woman lining up with anything that could hold water, from milk pails to fanta bottles. Apparently there is no water supply in Labhou and the woman have to take a daily bus ride to collect all the water from our village. I've got some great photos and I've started thinking about a project on woman's inequality for when I get back. We'll be visiting Maiti Nepal soon, a refuge for trafficked women. They teach them to make and sell beaded braclets and bags, so friends and family, be expecting beaded gifts on my return.

Shuva Din,

Mariam
xxx

Hi HO!

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