The only foreigners in the village

Our team has left us. Four of them have gone on safari with our trusty ranger Suresh, and the rest have high-tailed it back to Kathmandu. Ray decided that we should stay on and do some carpentry work to improve the comfort for future tourists, like getting the doors to open properly, and thank god he did. I woke up this morning with a distinct case of the flying axe handles, and could not leave the bathroom for most of the day. I would dread to think what the bus would be like!

Yesterday our planned two hour walk to a village school did not eventuate, we had to make do with a bus trip on a scary track, and then a 30 minute walk to the school. Some of the students had walked to our village program for the past four days. They told us it took an hour. No way would it take us an hour, the bus trip alone took one hour, although it probably wasn't going at more than a brisk walking pace. Did I mention the scary road? We did manage to see a family of monkeys in one of the terraced rice fields on the way, and pick up two of the teachers. They normally ride a motorbike, but it is in for repairs (no wonder on that road). Serendipitously, we happened to be passing and stopped to give them a lift.

Arriving at the school, we were pleasantly surprised to find a well resourced library in an almost dust free environment. Part of the project is to set up internet hubs in three villages, so we are going to get one going at the school. Tara (not sure how he spells his name), one of the teachers, who was born in the village, attended the same school and is now teaching there, seems to be very on the ball. He may get funding for a teacher exchange in Hervey Bay. In which case we would be delighted to accommodate him for his three month placement. After we returned to our village, he emailed, inviting us to his home. We would go but don't fancy getting lost on the two hour walk up steep slopes. Might get killed by an avalanche.

Kids start school at three years of age. They look so tiny in their school uniforms. Their school week starts on Sunday and finishes on Friday at noon. Hours are from 10am to 4pm, with a half hour lunch break. They are expected to sit on their benches for very long periods of time. Suck it up westerners!

The students were expected to stand in the sun, it wasn't very hot, and listen to some very long speeches. I felt very sorry for the littlies, who were not in the least interested. Then some of the girls entertained us with dancing displays. It all ended happily when we distributed gifts to every child.

Some of the students walked with us back to the bus, just to make sure we got on it, I suspect. We came across some gorgeous puppies on the way, so I had to have a cuddle.

As I write, the sun is setting. Another evening without champagne, but Ratna has organized for a bottle to be sent from Kathmandu tomorrow. Now that I have recovered from this morning's episode, I can hardly wait. Just Ray and me and the family. What bliss.

As we were driving to the village of Nava somethingorother we encountered these two men. We gave them a lift in our bus. It turns out they were teachers at the school we were going to.

Brenda the mountain woman.

Here is some of the better housing at Nava ..... Just about every house on the main road (and i use that term advisedly) sells the same stuff in their streetfront shop.

They really did roll out the green carpet for us. The 120 students pictured here were the recepients of the gifts you see piled on the right. The main builNGO. The local tradespeople did aa reasonable job of the rebuild on this occasion. The room where the computers and modem will go so that the students will have internet access for the first time is on the top floor on the left. They already have some old desktop computers which make the dated laptops we are providing look like brand new models.

Puppies are puppies the world over.

The Kalikasthan youth group which provided about 30 of the 50 odd attendees to the project sessions. More singing and dancing for the farewell.

Brenda, Amanda and her daughter April in the computer room which will get their computers installed soon. They were supposed to have the room all ready by the time we arrived but apparently it was a mess on first inspection. It probably took a blast by Ratna and Bob, the project co leader, for them to get their act together and tidy it up.

The big kids sitting around in the youth group's meeting room, above the computer room.