Holi Festival of colour

Holi Festival of colour

Monday 17 December 2012

The Changing Landscape of my Life


My time volunteering in Nepalgunj came to an end in October, I finished my work and headed to Jumla for a 10 day trek to Rara lake with fellow volunteers. It was a welcome break away from the every day realities of life, all communication and luxuries removed, we reverted back to basic survival, carrying all our own equipment for camping and cooking. What shocked my system the most was just how cold it was in the evening, some nights if we did not have time or resources to make a fire we cooked in the freezing cold before jumping into out tents and sleeping bags to eat before slipping into slumber. On average we spent about 10 -12 hours per night tossing and turning in our sleeping bags trying to keep warm. I had started off with a whacking great 17 kilo rucksack and was happy to feel it slowly depleting as the trek went on. We had flown in to Jumla on what I would describe as a tin pot plane, you could even see the pilots from the back of the 22 seater, fiddling with their knobs. There were genuine screams as the plane came into landing, because it looked like we were hurtling into the side of the mountain, it was a crazy moment of hysteria which we will never forget.

Returning from the trek to Nepalgunj was a strange sensation, packing my furniture, random belongings and exotic dresses to go to Kathmandu I did not feel particularly sad. Having moved around a lot in my life I have learnt to adjust very quickly to the changing landscape that has become my life, connections are made easily and not forgotten, but I have learnt to let go and move fluidly on to the next stage of my life, which has brought me to Kathmandu for now.

Life here is completely different, it’s comparatively easier to live here in some ways. The climate is much cooler than the soaring summer heats of Nepalgunj and during the winter days its freezing inside but in the sun you can still catch a tan, especially on my balcony. My new organisation is amazing, its 100% female staff and they are really intelligent and friendly people. One of the new challenges of living in Kathmandu is load shedding. Basically there is not enough electricity to go round. In Nepalgunj we sourced our electricity from India, but here it is different. Now the rains have dried up and hydro power cannot be generated we have 10 hours per day without electricity which is divided into two sessions of five hours. This means that in the morning and/or evening I may be without electricity. My organisation has a generator, but it’s a bit temperamental and sometimes doesn’t work and is expensive to run. I am glad that I work from my netbook which has a battery for 3-4 hours. Also the internet seems more temperamental here too and I am often left without connection for a few hours or even a day – terrifying how reliant I have become on the internet for daily living. My journey time to work has also increased, it can take between 20 – 60 minutes to reach the office, which actually does not really bother me as much as I thought it would, though I am still toying with the idea of buying a scooty (that’s Nepali English for scooter, they also have water tanky’s) to razz around in.

Socially there is about 100 times more exciting activities to do and people to do them with and I am really enjoying the steady flow of friends that come round for dinner, coffee and visits. My apartment lacks the beautiful setting available in Nepalgunj but is not without character and charm, I even had a chais lounge which I always wanted in UK but could never afford (or did not want to spend money on), I bought it for less than ten pounds and I have sat on it once, but it looks good. My apartment also benefits from a massive balcony which is great for sun surfing and hula hooping.

So my plan now is to stay in Nepal until November 2013, there may however be a spanner in the works, which is that the Nepali government are no longer processing visas for NGO and INGO foreign volunteers or workers, unless they are directly linked to the government. Hence if I don’t get a visa by May 2013 I will have to leave. However it’s all uncertain, technically speaking there is no government here, so anything could happen between now and then, I am not worried about it. If I do stay until November 2013, my current plan (subject to change), is to finally make it to Goa to do my yoga teacher training course there, write a book and have a lovely time for 5 -6 months, sounds ok doesn’t it! If I have to leave early then I will return to the UK for Tom’s wedding and spend the summer in the UK and then head to Goa, let’s see.

Friday 31 August 2012

A Change of Plan


My placement in Nepal comes to an end in November when I will have completed 2 years. I had planned to go to India to complete a yoga teacher training course before returning to the UK to potentially work in Manchester for my previous employers. But now my plan has changed. I will be moving to Kathmandu and extending my volunteering with VSO to work with a; Women’s Alliance for Peace, Justice and Security. This is exactly the type of organisation I want to work for, over the last 6 months I have been studying a certificated course in ‘Understanding Gender in Society’, which coupled with my own experiences over the last two years has given me a fairly good understanding of gender issues in Nepal. Gender inequality is an issue that I hadn’t given much thought about until I stepped out of the UK, as the inequality here is so glaringly obviously it is impossible to ignore. Though I have really enjoyed working with disabled rights and anticorruption, gender inequality is closer to my heart and I am really looking forward to the new challenges ahead of working with a new organisation. With two year of experience tucked under my belt I am hoping that my work experience, language skills and cultural knowledge can be put to good use, though it does feel a bit strange volunteering for three years.

Leaving Nepalgunj and joining the big smog of Kathmandu will present a new set of challenges. The air pollution is vast and simply moving around from A to B can take time and be frustrating. Also financially Kathmandu is more expensive and there is fairly large ex-pat community that get paid a fair amount of money, which I don’t. Whilst I still want to enjoy some of the benefits of being part of a larger ex-pat community, I don’t want to loose my solid connection with Nepali friends and this is very important to me.

One thing I really looking forward to is visiting the Kathmandu Circus and doing some hula hooping with them and I am going to set up a weekly hoop jam to get a collective hula hoop group going. I also need to decide what to do with Ziggy (my dog), he has a good home to go to with my friend here, but if possible I would like to take him to Kathmandu.

So lots to look forward to in the future, but before any of that starts I have my 77 year old hula hoop buddy Alan coming from the UK for some random adventures in September, a 10 day trek in the mountains in October, plus I need to procrastinate about doing the 50km Annapurna trail run in March.
Life in Nepal is so good, I LOVE IT!

Monday 27 August 2012

Typhoid



Sometimes things happen which really are very sad indeed. This weekend whilst I was off enjoying myself on a motorbike tour one of my neighbours children died of Typhoid simply because she did not have enough money to buy medicine and she did not have anyone to ask for help. Although I had never met this neighbour I wish that I could have helped this situation.

Friday 3 August 2012

A Rant About Nepal


Although it’s easy to paint a pretty picture of my stay here in Nepal, I think it also necessary to share some of the repetitive annoyances too that occur almost on a daily basis.


Stare bears

Living in a fairly remote city in Nepal off the tourist track there is little interest or reason for tourists to visit, which actually I like. In fact I think if you have time its far more interesting staying in these random places than that of tourist traps, the culture so rich and the experience so authentic. The down side of this is that any movement is bound to cause a stare and I mean any movement. And it’s not a subtle stare it’s a stop and have a really really good stare and take in every detail gold fish style stare. There are several ways to deal with this and these vary according to tolerance level, the person who’s is staring and general mood at that exact moment. Ways to deal with stare bears include; 1) ignoring it, 2) stare back and smile this usually causes embarrassment on their part 3) say hi or Namaste 4) or rare occasions say ‘what’, look mad and slightly crazy.

Married or unmarried
One of the many many questions that curious Nepali people fire at me is ‘are you married or unmarried’. This is actually a sensitive issue as the whole of Nepali society fiercely revolves around the expectation of marriage which I vehemently disagree even though I understand the reasons for it. Therefore its never a good question to start off with, my reactions can be blunt pushing on rude; ‘unmarried’ followed by firing a question right back at them, ‘are you married and do you enjoy it?’. The truth of the matter is once you scratch below the surface most young people would choose not to be married but don’t know what else to do and to be honest – what else is there to do in this country?

Your Fat
Where I come from its apparently good to be thin and bad to be fat, these are messages and images that we have been bombarded with from a variety of media sources forever, which re-enforce these ideas into our vulnerable minds. In Nepal though it’s the reverse, people think its good to be fat as it shows health and wealth and bad to be thin. So if someone says, ‘ you became fat’ its a compliment and if some one says ‘you became thin’ it not a compliment! It’s like a reverse head fuck and actually really interesting experience to witness my own reaction to.

Nepali time and Its Cancelled

Nepali time basically means everything starts later than planned. So training that was supposed to start at 10:00 am may start at 13:00, someone who I have arranged to meet at my house may come 1 – 2 hours late if at all, without informing me. Plans get cancelled at the last moment and sometimes never happen at all. Now you might think that Nepali time and cancellations may have caused me some annoyance and despair, but actually it doesn’t. I won’t lie that is hasn’t taken some time to adjust to this way of life, but now I have I actually like it because it means I can cancel things too and be late without any major consequence and I really like this as its so not allowed in the UK. I wonder if I will ever be reliable again.

Can I Have Your Phone Number
Without doubt the single most annoying thing in this country is people asking for my number and then calling me on it for no apparent reason other than for novelty factor. And if I don’t answer they just keep on ringing and ringing and ringing. It’s quite hard to avoid giving out my number the only real way round it is just to say no you can’t have my number.

Thursday 19 July 2012

Montage dance performance to Dirty Dancing Part 3 of The Funny Five Weeks


The third of my funny five weeks began as I landed in Gerona Spain. We dragged our suitcases and hooping paraphernalia off the bus to our hostel for the night. Although on the outside the hostel look really nice and quite funky, the inside our room resembled that of a prison cell, god I hate these uniform rooms in hostels they make me loose the will to live. The room clinically clean, dark and dingy. The mattresses decked in thick black rubber and windows displayed bars, it felt like prison. After a day of snoozing we met with fellow hoopers for dinner in a quaint street square which housed a display of alfresco restaurants beginning to team with glamorous looking Spaniards. Now I used to speak Spanish, but since learning to speak Nepali just about everything was lost, but slowly a tiny bit came back and I mean un poquito. Who cares though because the next day we set off to our luxury Spanish villa where there wasn’t a single Carlos or Pedro in sight. The villa was set on a hill over looking the beautiful countryside, large gardens, a swimming pool and two houses made up our villa. A whole a range of activities were scheduled for the week ahead including; pole dancing, bollywood dancing, yoga, acro yoga, 80’s dance, plus all manner of hula hooping delights. We were in for a good week. And it was, the weather was brilliant, the food fresh and the people rocked big style. Highlight of the week included doing a montage dance performance to Dirty Dancings’, Now I’ve Had the Time of my Life with my new Irish friend at the Renegade Show, plus watching everyone else’s performance was totally awesome. Low light of the week was being kept awake whilst a handful of people partied on the dance floor above my ceiling! (and yes I am getting old)
Before I knew it the week came to an end and it was time to head back to the UK for Jess’s hen party, with a few new hoop tricks up my sleeves and a host of new memories to boot.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Text message recieved 10.07.12


"a warm hello to my most respectable madam...apparently, only 2day in the spambox i came across the sms usent me in recent past... n d credit goes to my hitler wife b4 going 2 her parents home...a womans' mind is horrifyingly unpredictable almost kind of cryptic for us to read, leave alone understand it...by d way how r u doing... must b having heavy workload... mayb i cud b some help free of cost...now i m free 24/7 since my wife gone 4 a long stay..take care c'ya."

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Part 2...Whistle Stop Tour of Manchester


The second of my funny five weeks was my first week in the UK. I don’t think people realise just quite what it is like living in Nepal in contrast to the UK and I had difficultly trying to explain the differences. Although people might perceive that my role here is quite easy, because of the slower pace of life and less demanding job role there are a major everyday challenges that I have to overcome like soaring high temperatures of up to 45C, no electricity, no water, no waste management, poor transport, speaking Nepali, being in a patriarchal country, positive and negative discrimination towards me, the list is endless. That is not to say that I am not grateful and happy to be here, it’s just to point out that it is not easy and very few people could hack this experience. So that is why I appreciated returning to my own country so much as all of those difficulties were removed. I couldn’t believe how pleasant the weather was for my first week in the UK, it was beautiful, I watched as my family got sunburnt at our family barbecue and my brothers adorable children bounced carefree on the trampoline in the afternoon sun, as I sat sipping rosé from a proper flute glass, what a treat. My mother and I did our usual trawling around the various shops that we love to shop in, buying must have and must not have but have to have items to take back to Nepal and everyone seemed so nice, it was almost like my mother had pre-programmed everyone to be overly nice and friendly. My two most ridiculously overpriced and inappropriate items being a play suite and sort gold crocheted waistcoat that I will rarely have the chance to wear in Nepal, but when I do it will feel amazing!
Having rested and rejuvenated at my mothers beautiful country home it was time to travel north west to Manchester my previous stomping ground, where I was met by my wacky friend Andrew in my favourite racing green Mazda MX5. As I was only staying for one day and two nights, time was short and I had booked a tight schedule. First stop a visit to my previous employers the Big Life Group, who I totally love. Visiting that office was like putting on a pair of comfortable slippers, it was great to see all the old faces. We talked about possibilities for my future with the organisation all of which sounded very exciting. Highlight of this visit though had to be their 10 year celebratory video which was montage of office tomfoolery to a badly sung ‘working 9:00 – 5:00’ by Dolly Parton, I loved it! I sped off to Salford for a quick catch up with the old work gang and a sandwich in the community cafe, it was great to see everyone, but all too brief! Then I dropped in to see my friend who is six months pregna
nt and the size of a house, seriously I have never see anything like her bump it was huge, water retention apparently! Mean while back at Julie-Andrews gaff we sipped gin and tonics in garden and readied ourselves for dinner. Dinner was excellent and I met up with some very special friends who had life changing stories (like divorce) and all looked fabulous. The next morning I arose early at 3:00 am and headed to the airport with my new hooping friend Rachel who had overslept and was therefore discombobulated. Manchester airport check in for Ryanair hosted a spectacular visual of pre- Brits abroad all wearing shiny new this season holiday wear from Primark. Sometime later we boarded the cheap and not cheerful plane to Gerona, where they tried to in sell every know item possible including; smoke free cigarettes, scratch cards and £2:00 bottles of water, I refused to buy anything on principle and sat back in relaxed anticipation of my one week hula hooping holiday in Spain.

Thursday 28 June 2012

Five Funny Week’s


Week 1 I recently had what I like to refer to as ‘five funny week’, funny peculiar, though there was many funny moments. It all started with the soaring heats in the Terai, rocketing up to mid 45C’s at the time I remember thinking how nice it would be to make a sharp exit to the cooler weather enjoyed in Kathmandu, which I hadn’t visited for a while. Perhaps I could conveniently fit in a trip before I left for my three week holiday in the UK. Things were getting a little shaky throughout the country as the deadline to one of the many attempts at signing the Nepali constitution loomed. In Nepalgunj shops and roads were closed due to bandh’s (strikes), people took to the streets to protest or just to have fun and further west of the county a group of volunteers had to be evacuated by the UN to Kathmandu after violence broke out. This news I selfishly became interested in, would I also be evacuated to Kathmandu? I held my breath and didn’t book any flight to Kathmandu to catch my onward flight to London, in the hope that I might score a free flight and a pre – holiday holiday in Kathmandu.
The call came late afternoon a week before I was due to leave for London, I was to be evacuated. In a rather non-glamorous and uneventful fashion my friend drove me through a field on his motor bike to get to the airport and I flew safely in the small and scary plan to Kathmandu. Much to my over excitement I found 15 other volunteers in our favourite hotel, which is like a volunteer second home. We shared stories of heat, transport, food shortage and boys with sticks and set about to have a really good week. That week was my best week so far in Kathmandu, the weather was perfect and every day we did yoga or running and other random activities like basket weaving, participatory skills and hula hooping with the local children and hotel staff. We danced, we drank, we laughed and most of all we had a really good time. Like most good things though as the end of week drew on I felt that the novelty was wearing thin and I was happy to bid farewell to the sunny smog of Kathmandu and head north west to London.
I had a short transit in Bahrain in which I indulged in a mixed berry smoothie and cheesecake, my first in a year and half – when It came to paying I used this thing called a credit card which I popped in this magic machine and paid in currency unknown. During the flight I met another volunteer who was also returning to the UK for a short holiday, when we had worked out how to buy a ticket for the tube we fled to the very fancy new kings cross train station for lattes before joining our connecting trains to our respective homes. My first impression of home was just how clean everything was, ridiculously clean, very welcome after the grimy streets of Nepal strewn with litter and open defecation. After a teary exchange with my dear mother we headed off home. I couldn’t help looking round all the cupboards and gazing at their contents, especially my newly constructed built in wardrobe, which hosted all manner of exciting clothing options for the future weeks, all of which I had forgotten about. ...to be continued

Saturday 19 May 2012

Life in the Terai


Life in the Terai begins at 5:30 am during the hot weather, when temperatures soar to 45C a vast difference to my own countries climate when daily conversation is based on the terrible UK weather, here we would welcome a rainy day. My dog Ziggy waits happily on my door step waving its tail excitedly as I open the front door onto my balcony, the air is fresh in comparison, a welcome relief to the whirring fan in my bedroom. In the back ground I can hear the call to prayer from the local Muslim temple, this indicates that its time to dress and head to the stadium to go for my early morning run. I put on my tight lycra running shorts and t-shirt, securing a long sleeve top around my waist to try to cover up some of my forbidden areas. As I cycle along the dirty streets I can feel the curious stares and when I arrive I am greeted by a dozen ‘Namaste’s’ and ‘Mornings Mornings’, in Nepal you receive not one but two ‘Mornings’ a unique and endearing greeting. I meet up with my two Nepali friends and we run gently at first as we warm up before speeding up our run. We talk in English and Nepali though neither of us is perfect in our linguistics, it’s the effort and companionship that counts. After our rounds have finished the sweat pours and I head red faced towards the market. I see my American friend heading my way, she is off to teach at one of the local schools, then shortly after a foreigner heads towards us running who I don’t know, this is a rarity indeed as there are only, seven foreigners living in Nepalgunj where I am based. We stare just as the Nepali’s do and fail to muster up any kind greetings other than smiling. I head over to the vegetable market and grow greedy at the lush selection of vegetables which are a far more resplendent arrangement than I would find in the UK. I buy my weeks vegetables for 260 Nepali rupees which is about £2.25. Then I head to the next shop to buy eggs, I don’t have any change so they suggest that I pay the following day, this is repeated at the next shop where I buy yogurt and milk without any money. As I arrive back at my house I am happy to find that there is both electricity and water, these things should not be taken for granted in Nepal where I have learnt the real value of these precious resources. With still hours to burn before work I do my house work, cook my lunch and check my e-mails then it’s off to the office on my bicycle, dressed in a Nepali kurta sawel. When I arrive the office is closed, I am not surprised, I wait patiently and think about why I am here in the first place. My main motivation was to share the skills I have with Nepali people, whilst also having an adventure myself. One thing I have realized here is that unlike in the UK my work is less about personal achievement and more about a slow steady pace where it feels like small steps are made towards small changes, this I have accepted. Uma, the office Co-ordinator arrives from her village and we talk about today’s work, she has lots, I have a little which I begin. First I write an article for my organizations Good Governance newspaper, titled, ‘Why is it ok for male prostitutes and not female prostitutes?’ Then I plan a presentation for a new volunteering program called ‘Good Governance Defenders’. I volunteer for two organizations, one is a disabled rights organization advocating for the rights of people with disabilities and the other is a youth based anti corruption organisation, quite a contrast though there are many overlaps when it comes to organizational development, with which I am tasked. As I sit in the office the fan fails to turn we sweat, its edging 43C. Tea comes and go’s it’s delicious and sweet far better than English tea which I never liked. Then at 5:00 pm its time to head home, I pop my laptop in my bicycle basket and cycle the dusty busy road towards home. I have begun to think of the cycle home as a game, in which I have to dodge cows, dogs, buffalo, horse drawn carts, cars, buses, rickshaws, lorry’s, tempo’s motorbikes, pedestrians, cyclists and holes in the road, its enjoyable if you look at it that way, but not for the faint hearted. I stop off in the bazaar to buy lentils and various simple food supplies which my allowance finances, then drop into see friends on the way home for a cup of coffee. Reaching my home I give my neighbour 1000 rupees for her children’s school uniform and school books and feel content in my days activities.

Monday 9 April 2012

What's Going On!

It’s been a very long time since I have written a BLOG, which believe me is a positive rather than negative indication of how my life is going in Nepal. I started my placement in November 2010 and it’s already April 2012, so I have been living here now for 17 months with 9 months to go until my placement finishes in January 2013. With that in mind I am thinking about what my options are for the future and this is what its looking like; 1) Have a small break and start a new placement with VSO in Nepal, my current placements cannot be continued as the Governance Program I am part of has finished. 2) Return to Manchester and do a short term job with my previous organization, if they have anything. 3) Cruise round Asia on a motorbike for an unlimited period of time. 4) Something else! Either way I am pretty excited about all possibilities.

My decision to come to Nepal to volunteer is without doubt one of the best decisions I have made, I have learnt so much from this country and culture that will remain with me for the rest of my life, my life will never be he same again and I am a much better person for it. Also I have learnt new skills and a new language and I am about to embark on a 6 month long distance course on, ‘Understanding Gender in Society,’ which I think will be incredibly interesting considering the context of my setting.

The last couple of months have been good, I inherited a puppy dog called Ziggy (Stardust) from another volunteer who got Ziggy from the dog rescue centre in Kathmandu after there was some kind of viral outbreak. The volunteer has since returned to England, so now he is mine! He is totally cute and adorable and loved by all, when I leave I have already had offers of homes for him to go to which is reassuring. It was during my return trip from Kathmandu with Ziggy that I participated in my first triathlon. The triathlon was took place in beautiful surrounding of Lake Begnas near Pokhara, with a view of the mountains and trees. The first part of the triathlon was the 750 metre swim through Lake Begnas, it was really hard as I was only wearing my Marks and Spencer’s swimsuit my mum had sent, which was not sufficient to keep away the chills, I stepped out of the lake thinking how on earth can I continue with the rest of this triathlon, but I did, after all there was no way in hell I was giving up! So I continued my merry journey cycling on my friends oversized mountain bike for 20 km then just as the mid day sun hit its top temperature I started my 5 km run. The run was by far the easiest part as this is the part I had trained for and built up my stamina in, but the heat was intense. As I sprinted through the finish line my friends and Ziggy were there to greet me. My time was 2:42 which I thought was good and I came second out of the ladies and was presented with an engraved ghurka knife and a one way flight of my choice in Nepal, very nice.

My work is going well, but there have been no major achievements which is fine. It’s hard to describe what the working conditions are like here, but I can tell you that in one office we only just got a computer and printer which doesn’t always work if the voltage is low, it might give you an idea. In comparison to work load in the UK, it’s been around 50% of the work load there. This is due to many reasons; language difficulties, my program with VSO coming to and end and there fore no funding being available and also because my role is as an advisor in which I am supposed to be building the capacity of my work colleagues, which is like an add on to their role and work load. Accepting this is hard, but I have accepted it now and slowly work improves and gets more interesting as we work out how best to work with each other. On reflection I think work load expectations in the UK are too high and my friends often complain saying; ‘works been really stressful’.
Only 6 weeks to go and I will return to Europe for three weeks, I will spend a week in the UK then jet off to Spain for a Hula Hoop Gathering for the week then I will return to the UK for another week. I am really looking forward to seeing all my friends and family and having a bath at my mums house and glass of Oxford Landing Sauvignon Blanc.

See you all soon
xxxxxxxxxxx

Sunday 22 January 2012

SPONSOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Support us for a charity Triathlon to make the annual VSO volunteer meeting happen in Nepal

Dear Friends and family

Each year VSO Nepal organizes a volunteer conference, during these three days we gather in a low cost accommodation to update share and plan with each other as well to check in with the ones that are posted in remote areas and look together with VSO how we can make sure we get to reach our goals of enabling people in Nepal to break the cycle of poverty. As a result of the international economic crisis, funding for VSO has been reduced and this event can no longer be funded from the budget.

Because we, the volunteers, believe it is crucial to support each other and get time to discuss our opportunities and challenges in working in improving education, health and governance in Nepal, we are determined to raise funds to make this event happen. For this reason, a few of our brave colleagues are going to participate in a triathlon on the 25th of February where they will have to swim 1,5 kilometers through a mountain lake (in February!), cycle for 20 kilometers through the Annapurna mountain range, and finish with a 10 kilometer uphill run (for more information, see: http://himalayanrush.com/).

We want to know if you are able to help us by sponsoring us to complete the triathlon and support your VSO Volunteer to attend this years volunteer conference. Please pledge the amount you would like to sponsor directly to louise.belinfante@gmail.com

Your donations will be tax deductible as they will be going to a registered charity.
Every little bit helps, we are hoping that among all of our VSO volunteer colleagues we will be able to raise about 3500-4000 Euro in total which will enable us to support our VSO colleagues and the partners they work with. Please let me know if you have any questions or want more details on the triathlon,

Thank you so much for your support

Tuesday 17 January 2012

When does inclusion become exclusion?

(article for good governance weekly)

This week I visited schools in Banke to find out how they include disabled children in mainstream education.

One of the schools I visited was attempting to include deaf children into its school fairly unsuccessfully. There was one very dedicated female teacher who was obviously doing her best to teach a class of fourteen children. The teacher had only received one month of sign language training and was there for very limited by her capacity to teach using sign language. The other difficulty she encountered was that the children were of all different ages. The outcome is a class of fourteen children who are not receiving education to suit their needs and abilities.

For the teacher to receive adequate skills in sign language she needs to receive a further six months training, but who will teach her class whilst she receives this training. And how can the problem of teaching mixed ability children in the same class be overcome.

In another school blind children were being integrated more successfully. The blind pupils are taught in the same class room using Braille and they are able to live at the school during school time to make accessibility easier.

It feels like the attempt to include the deaf children into mainstream education is having the opposite effect excluding them from the education they are entitled to and socially excluding them from the other school pupils. But with limited resources what is the answer?

Deaf children could be assigned their own personal signer who could interpret during class time or each teacher could be taught signing to a high level, but with limited resources these solutions are not practical. The alternative could be a district school in which all deaf children can access education which fits their age and ability and in which teachers receive the correct sign language training. In one way this would promote education inclusion but potentially would socially exclude them from every day society and family life.

There is no simple answer, it’s a complex situation made worse by limited resources and agendas for social inclusion. What we must also remember is that these children are individuals with their own thoughts and feelings and what suits one child may not suit another, ideally it would be good to offer children a choice of how they would like to be educated to suit their individual needs.