Namaste Right Here!

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Wow! What a contrast! I made the 6 hr journey from possibly the poorest place I've every stayed in to stay with mum and dad in The Dwarkias hotel in Kathmandu- possibly the nicest place I've ever stayed at. The contrasts were so vast that I can hardly compare them. The hotel is built in the traditional Nepali style with original Newari carvings and artwork everywhere you look. The owner saved various wood carvings from derelict buildings and built them into his hotel. The place is absolutely stunning, a little haven from the chaos that is Kathmandu! Mum and dad completely spoilt me, treated me to a deep tissue massage -extremely painful but necessary, they made me feel special and loved.


We spent the afternoon in the traveller hub called Thamel, a spot of shopping, dads well honed bargaining skills and natural talent to make people laugh had us and all the shopkeepers in stitches! I Savored the hot shower, the flushing toilet, tv, Internet and soft bed but all with a heavy feeling in my heart. Here I am enjoying the most over the top luxury, not to mention the 9 course dinner, and my kids don't even have proper shoes...It's a strange world...

We had a lovely afternoon in Baktupur, an ancient Nepali city just outside of Kathmandu. As the guidebooks say: Baktapur is a Nepali City that has got it right... It's fairly peaceful, the Palace square has been pedestrianized and feels like you are taking a step back in time.

After much deliberation, I took a flight back to Chitwan, it's mental that I could fly from Kathmandu to Bharatpur in 20 mins yet the roads are so bad that it takes 6 hours to cover the same distance!

I Managed to find the school and was given a heros welcome by all the children who seemed so excited to see me! I don't have as much to tell this time as I've settled into the Nepali way of life here and have a little routine. I thought I would struggle to come back after such a weekend of luxury but it was surprisingly peaceful and easy to come back to. life moves at a much slower pace than in Kathmandu; there is very little pollution and lots of open fields, rice paddies, cows, buffalo, chicken, ducks and goats and not too many people or too much traffic to navigate. When I do my daily hour walk to get water I feel somewhat of a celebrity as everyone wants to talk to the foreigner. They love it when I speak some Nepali albeit awful!


Work goes on, we finished laying the stones and sand foundation for all 4 rooms. Over the last week I've completed a 12,000 piece giant grey puzzle then covered it with sand and water.
Today was a really interesting day. I learnt how to make concrete. Mum and dad donated some money to the project and with it we bought 400kg of cement, 450kg of sand and some new mattresses. It's amazing how far your money goes here, in Abu dhabi or London that same money would just about by dinner for two!!!
So up until now I had just been pounding out the hours, the work was repetitive and slow but today we mixed and laid the first cement, a labour intensive fast-paced task and for me it was great to learn a new skill. After a completely exhausting day on site, I managed a quick shower before I was called up on a promise I made last night. The lady of the house, a lovely lapsed-Hindu-now-buddhist who has dedicated her life to helping others took me to see the girls dorms... It was heart breaking, some of the beds were falling apart, the kids were packed like sardines in bunk beds both sides of the room and some of the mattresses had worn through to the plywood below. I know they were playing on my soft side but I vowed to fix the 2 badly broken beds an replace the two mattresses. The whole lot cost lest than 150dhs -25 quid! But in acquiring the materials we had to walk 3 hrs! There is no jumping in the car and driving to Ikea here! Haha!! By the time I got back in the last licks of daylight I was completely exhausted. They all laughed at me when I tried to explain that no one walks anywhere in Abu dhabi! but I have to keep going back to the mantra in my head: it's all relative. In the hills they wouldn't have a bed or a mattress.

Friday morning we laid another batch of concrete but by the afternoon shift, my guide wasn't feeling too well, he had a headache so I dosed him up with brufen and isostar and told him to rest. With the free afternoon I took the ukulele for a test drive, I had expected it to be a hit but hadn't prepared myself for the overwhelming response from everyone, students and teachers alike! It was great because I made up half the words then attempted to learn some Nepali songs an wailed in my best high pitched Bollywood impression! We sang till I couldn't think of any more songs and the sun was setting before dinner and an insight into the lady of the houses role. She is the bookkeeper, the mother, the nurse, the student councilor an the one in contact with the charity. As we sat in her room a little stream of girls (no boys) came in over the hours and she pulled out a little cardboard box from under her bed treating each ailment. The nurses among you would be fascinated with the way things are done here. To make a cotton bud she took a thin piece of straw and wrapped some cotton wool around it before bending it in half and hey presto a cunning replica of a cotton bud! One little girl had had sores on her feet for months that wouldn't go away with the iodine solution and a few days ago I gave her my Fucidine to use and now, 2 days later it's almost healed! It must be like magic to them. They also had a few kids with TB, one with bone TB which has left her badly deformed. We really do take modern medicine for granted...

This weekend I decided to come to the tourist hub, Sauraha, the entrance to the Chitwan National Park. I took a local bus then a horse and cart and the whole journey cost 3 dirhams! (50p) in some ways I love the traveler spots. There is bottled or filtered water everywhere and really nice to meet other travelers. I was fortunate to Stay next to the most lovely American/Mexican couple who completely took me on as their third wheel and where fascinated about Abu Dhabi. To me, life there is normal but when you start explaining it to Americans it does seem a ridiculous place to live in!

No trip to Chitwan is complete without the obligatory elephant ride in the jungle. We clambered atop the gentle beasts and tried to relax into the rolling gait for the 2 hour ride. The jungle was serene and fairly untouched despite the hoards of tourists that trample through every day and though we only spotted a few deer and some monkeys the other lot from our hotel saw baby rhinos, crocs and all sorts so I guess it's luck of the draw. I think our Mahout (elephant driver) was more interested in chatting up the cute Nepali girl on the elephant in front than finding wildlife. Anything would have heard them from a mile off! Haha!

We had dinner overlooking the river and despite having craved western food for the last few weeks when I sat down, all I fancied was dahl so I ordered Dahl and Naan!! Funny how the body works!

I have had such a wonderful self indulgent weekend with an hour long arveydic massage before bed and hours of reading my book on the porch I feel so refreshed and ready for the last week of building.

The last touristy activity was a visit to the elephant breading centre where we were lucky enough to meet their newest addition - a 3 day old elephant!!!! Cuuttiiieeee! My heart melted at the sight of him trying to figure out his wiggly trunk and clumsily stumble around.

I finally managed to peel myself out of the hammock which i had almost become one with as it swayed gently under the trees, overlooking the river. I'm very proud that I managed to negotiate my way by horse cart then local bus and half hour walk back to the school. I felt a weird sense of accomplishment and like I fitted in rather than the awkward lost foreigner. Little kids that I hadn't even met before were greeting me with "Hello Emma" I guess word has got around that a foreigner called Emma is around! I swear even a goat popped his head out of a window and bleated something that sounded so remarkably like 'Emmmmmaaaaaaa' that it made me look up!

3 days before the end of my project we finally were joined by one skilled labourer which had been promised from day one! It's amazing what a difference it can make! We managed to get done the same amount as we had for the previous 3 days and his work was much cleaner. For 20-30dhs (less than a fiver) which I had offered to pay all along we finally had the project moving at a respectable pace. But rather than get frustrated, the same quote resonates in my head which is " Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." ~ Theodore Roosevelt. I find it very fitting to the work here. I'm exhausted today as we worked so hard though after last nights 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' and 'Incy wincy spider' singing session I think I'm needed again later!!! They are so adorable, they mumbled the English version then all laughed at me as we did a Nepali version! Haha


The same furiously fast pace continued today and I could feel the extra work starting to ache in my back but my time here is nearly done so this is one final push. Being a bit of a Maths geek I did some sums whilst working today. So far we have laid 10 bags of cement each weighing 50 kg. For every bag of cement we mix 3 bags worth of sand (I'm gonna assume the same density for ease of calculation) so that's 150 kg. and 4 bags worth of stones which are noticeably heavier so i'm gonna say 60kg which is 240kg and 3 parts water (150kg) which means every single batch weighs 590kg say 600kg! Now I have personally handed every bowl full to the person laying it which means in the last few days I've moved an astonishing 6,000kg of concrete!!! No wonder my back hurts!! That's not to mention moving the materials to the mixing area, shoveling sand and the dozens of jugs of water moved!!! The mind boggles!

I had decided that the right thing to do would be to leave my beloved flip flops behind as they need them more than me...but instead when I was at the market with my 4 loveliest girls I bought them new sparkly pink sandals. I realised that I could buy 10 pairs of flip-flops here for the price of one of my havianas so I disguised my selfishness in not wanting to part with my shoes in a cloud of generosity so I bought the 10 pairs 😊 everyone wins 😊 I also unloaded half my backpack of tee shirts, socks, medicines, tic tacs and toiletries. I entrusted them to the lady of the house who was so grateful.

These last few weeks have been filled with so many emotions that it hard to believe its been such a short time. I have a new found appreciation for the labour camps in Abu dhabi. I mean, everything is relative and Even if they have 4 walls surrounding them and food every day it's a step up from the conditions they live in here and the measly 1000 dhs (less than 200quid) per month that they get paid over there is 3 times the salary if a teacher here. It's all relative. It's quite interesting that all the concrete or 'nice' houses here have husbands that are currently working or have worked in Saudi /kuwait/ UAE or Qatar. It's nice to see that the efforts of the ever so hard working labourers in the UAE is actually really worth it for their families.

What an incredible experience this has been. It seems silly but I've leant so much about myself in the last few weeks. It's been interesting to live in such poverty, to see that these children that have so few possessions have such big smiles, so much enthusiasm for life and for studying. So much respect for the elders, so helpful with the daily chores. I wonder to myself is it them that should be learning from us or perhaps that we should be learning from them. Learning to live in harmony with the land and each other.

I've met so many wonderful people here who have opened their hearts so easily ad keep saying "don't forget me" as if I could forget something like this! Although I think I had thought we would complete more than we have done its still nice I see the 4 rooms with solid foundations and 2 of the four now have concrete floors ready for the side walls... We will get there eventually. If any of you are interested to fund this project at all please contact me and I will arrange the correct means of doing so.

I'm back to Abu dhabi tomorrow then off to Thailand in 10 days where I'm sure you will hear from me again!

On a final note, I got bumped up to Business Class on the flight home!! couldnt have come at a better time! I guess all the good karma paid off!


Thanks for reading,
Namaste



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