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Published: November 10th 2017
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Womens Group Meeting
Lots of discussion, where has our translater gone! Geo: 27.3571, 83.3395
Our first real outing into the area where we will be working. Dinesh allowed Lisa and I to borrow his Baja motorcycle so we could follow Madan out to meet one of the 9 womens community groups for a morning gathering and visit one of the Birthing and Abortion clinics.
So no problem, Madan came to the office and we collected the bike which was a low rider cruiser style. During the EWB training the Medical Stuff encouraged us to take our own helmets with us as the Australian Standards are much safer than many other countries. What the trainer failed to mention was the disclaimer that provided they were not too loud colours. We lovingly carried ours to Nepal and now quiet frankly might as well just have put signs on that say Yes Foreigners!! The Nepalese are so polite theyjust look an say stuff like oh you have your own helmets. Translation, seriously are you going to wear those things. One other politely said Oh they are so big. Theirs are quite small and thin in comparison and the favorite riding style is to balance the helmet on top of their heads, which not only defeats the purpose
Ducklings Tikkaed
There were about a dozen all marked with pink dots on their chests to make them easy to find. What a great idea and how cute but seems quite difficult in comparison to pulling it on properly. We were also told it is not legal for the pillion to wear a helmet as there had been sme trouble with shootings and both could not be identified because they had full face helments. We have decided to flaunt the law rather than take on the traffic.
So just to set the scene, it is a strange bike, we have not driven in Indian conditions for a few years, Darren has me on the back and Dinesh is the CEO of NAMUNA. Hmmm!! Not to worry, feeling confident regardless we head off and all good to start with. It was not too long before we started to question the quality of the seat foam as both our bums, legs and unmentionables had gone completely numb. The road has deteriorated, the bike horn does not work which is a very critical part of vehicle safety, we hang in there following Madan now on what seems like a goat track not a road. By this stage we are really starting to question where the hell we are headed and figure we must be very close to the Indian border which is
Darrens Hot Everything Face
Sadly you cant see the sweat clearly in this photo but it is very hot. a problem for us as we don't have Visa's for India. The Nepalese seem to head across without too much trouble but sadly not us.
Long story short we met the ladies and introduce ourselves and our plan. There was much talking in a dialect not Nepalise which does not help us as we don't speak that either but we left feeling like there was some buying. Madan had to work pretty hard translating for both us and them as there were questions flying thick and fast.
We left Madan out there and gently made our way back along the goat tracks towards the black road. Nice name for one with some bitumen. All was very crusy until a water buffallo on a mission failed to give way and very nearly took us out from a side path. Wow Darren did amazingly to hold everything together and save all three of us (the buffalo included) not to mention Dinesh's very posh bike. We failed to mention this small incident when we returned the bike. Nothing a good glass of Gorka Beer would not cure.
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Rosemary
non-member comment
Lisa you don't seem to fit in, you need a dress or a coulourful piece of material to wrap around yourself.