Blogs from Lazimpat, Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 4

It’s time to put some organization into my project. The domain is music education. I’ve found so far that the system here tends to be tiered, with the highest level of music education available for those who want to become professional musicians, the mid-level for those who want to be amateurs or hobbyists and include music as part of a well-rounded education, and the low-level for quick instruction for tourists or short-term Nepali students. I will therefore organize my project along these lines—studying each level of music education as it applies to its niche of music students. The top level includes instruction organized around the guru-shishya system (intense, disciplined, devoted instruction from a master teacher to his ‘disciples’), instruction at private music schools, and in some cases university instruction. The mid level includes music in public ... read more

In the three days since I last wrote my project has multiplied and expanded at least three-fold. Getting started was the hard part; now I’m just going with the flow and seeing where it takes me. Already I’ve had three madal lessons with my teacher, and he has made it very clear on more than one occasion that he is willing to help me out with anything I need, above and beyond just madal lessons. I’ve met his family—his wife, mother, father, little boy, and nieces and nephews—and they’ve invited me to participate in picnics, outings, and festival celebrations with them. The little boy is learning to call me ‘uncle.’ My madal technique is improving; I can consistently make the ‘tang’, ‘tok’, ‘dhing’, ‘kha’, and ‘dhang’ sounds, and I’m practicing rhythms that incorporate each of these ... read more

Well the past week has been great, although it started out quite awful. On Saturday I ended up spending the night over our toilet bowl - I vommed 6 times within a 10 hour period along with having fever and chills, and ended up in hospital with a saline drip fed into my arm all day Sunday. They diagnosed me with food poisoning and dehydration. I was feeling much better after this and headed home….unfortunately by Tuesday I was feeling awful again and this time had diarhea along with the vomiting. So went back to hospital. This time they did some tests on me and found I had Acute Bacterial Dysentary. What a relief to know! I ended up with some antibiotics for the next few days and stayed at home, sleeping and reading my book. ... read more

So I'm now in Nepal. So far in a week I have done so much and next week I will start work (or try to). I've started learning to ride a motorbike which I would think owuld appear hilarious to outsiders - after one lesson I can start the bike, change gears, turn and brake. I think I will definitely need quite a bit more practise though. The backroad to Bhaktapur is quiet and takes you through some small villages and fields which is a welcome change from the dusty highway they are in the process of upgrading to 6 lanes. OH&S seems to be nonexistent here. I don't think any of the construction workers have even heard of hard hats. I walked about Bhaktapur with Puru today, exploring the Durbar Square and the back alleyways. ... read more

Hello everyone for my final post from Nepal. We (hopefully) should be flying out tomorrow afternoon to Bangkok and the sun! I heard about the problems at home yesterday, and I'd just like to send my best wishes to Dave in getting better and hope that everyone else is OK back at home. I'm thinking about you all loads. Right, shockingly smooth back up to Kathmandu from Chitwan, kept entertained and mildly terrified by passing several completely annihilated buses and lorries on the way, including one which had ironically been saved by ploughing straight into an enormous boulder, because it prevented it from flinging itself over a cliff edge! Greeted in Kath by endless touts who were upset to realise that we knew exactly where we were, that Thamel was only 5 minutes walk away and ... read more