Radio and other matters

It all started with a random conversation which went, ‘wouldn’t it be a good idea to have an English speaking show’ and I now have one. I wrote a concept paper and visited the local radio station which broadcasts to the Mid Western Region of Nepal and they liked the idea. The show is called Next Generation and is a thought provoking show for the Next Generation of Nepal to discuss what matters to them and improve their English. I am presenting it with my friend Hast every week and so far we have recorded one show, in which I sound kind of robotic as I have to speak sooo slllowwwwly so people can understand what I am saying.



I have to say finding a new interest to channel my energies into is like someone pressing the on button to my virtual batteries and I feel really excited and enthusiastic. And they have offered to teach me the technical editing bit, which I am really interested to learn, why not seize the opportunity when it’s presented. Oh and by the way in the photo is my friend Hast on the left and the previous gorgeous boy I met at the station the first time who had to stand in for our technical guy after he had a motorbike accident, eye candy!

Thank you to my lovely mother who is sponsoring the show!

In other matters work is going well, I have started volunteering for another organisation who are a youth led good governance and anti corruption organisation. Coincidently the organisation is situated in my first house and the main office is my old bedroom and today I found out that its perfectly acceptable to have a nap on the office floor. Last week I developed a proposal for them which was about using public speaking programmes as methods for holding the government public service providers accountable, it was a really difficult proposal for me to write actually and reminded me of writing my dissertation for my MSC, e.g. it was stressful. Competition is pretty tough, so keep your fingers crossed and send good vibes across the way and hopefully we might get it. It was a record achievement last week as I also submitted two other funding proposals for my other organisation and these felt really easy after the ordeal of the previous proposal. It was all facilitated using an empowering, enabling and capacity building approach of course and any other bullshit bingo development terms I can throw on the table...

And finally, the signing of the constitution has been extend for three months, it was a bit touch and go for a while and the country held its breath whilst we found out if the government would be dissolved and the country would go back in to conflict. In the lead up to the deadline for the signing of the constitution, there were loads of bhaandas (strikes) called by different political parties through out the country. When a bhaanda is called by a political party they state their reason and their terms, one reason I heard was something to do with beef being sold and eaten, as beef is sacred to the Hindu religion and the terms of the bhaanda were all shops being closed and all transport use being banned apart from bicycles.

One of the sticking points for the none signing of the constitution, as I understand it (which might not be entirely right), is what to do with the left over Maoist army who are currently in various camps around the country, there is a problem on how to integrate them into the current Nepali army and I guess back into main stream society.

Oh and one last thing, last night I was lying in bed and a bomb went off, apparently no one was hurt and no one seems really that interested or worried about it, it has become a normal part of life it seems.

A bit of a mission

As I sat on one of the four hard single beds for our morning meeting, a small dirty baby crawled around the floor tossing what looked like Bombay mix about the floor. Today I was beginning the delivery of the first project I had contributed to the design of in a developing country and I was very excited to find out if it would work. The adventure had begun the previous day with a 13 hour journey on a local bus from Nepalgunj to Khallanga in the district of Salyan. Our mission to audit government service provision, accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities.

We sat in this bedroom as if it was the most normal place to hold a meeting, there were us three ladies from Nepalgunj and about five other people from local organisations, who had come to help us to deliver our mission. At one point a man joined us with his arm tucked into his pocket, I came to the conclusion he was hiding his disability. The baby crawling around joined his mother and she popped out her breast and started feeding her baby, I tried not to look, but just couldn’t help it.

As I sat in that room I could smell various odours, I was holding my sulphurous explosions in. After an ongoing stomach problem I had self diagnosed that I had giarsis, a nasty intestinal parasite, I will spare you the details, so I prescribed myself some antibiotics and had since experienced frequent vile odour emitted from my behind.

After a dose of dhall baat for lunch at 11:00, even though I wasn’t hungry, we set off to visit the government thullo manches (bosses), armed with audit forms to ask without even an appointment and proceeded with our unannounced enquiries, which were surprisingly well received. I noticed that all the offices are still working on a hand written basis, computers do not dominate the work place, everything is handwritten and placed in cardboard files. The reason for my noticing such detail is based purely on the need to entertain my mind from boredom as I couldn’t understand anything that was said, as my nepali is ok but by no means can I understand a conversation between a group of nepalis, not yet anyway.

With our five visits completed and samosas in our bellies, the three of us headed off to have a look round khallanga. The tiny town is nestled in the hillside and benefits from far cooler temperatures than Nepalgunj, I was even able sleep with a duvet, what a treat. The houses are traditional homes built with straw, mud and wood, with slate roofs neatly packed. The contrast of the houses against the darkened sky as a storm approached was immense. That night I went to bed without a shower or brushing my teeth as I could not face another dip in the smelly bathroom which housed a simple nepali style toilet, a tap, bucket and jug for showering and bum washing.

The next morning we had all just woken up about 6:00am, when a male colleague from a local organisation came into our room pulled up a plastic chair and started talking to us about the days programme, is this guy for real. I asked my colleague to tell him to go whilst we got showered and changed. Apparently it’s perfectly acceptable for a man to come into a bedroom with three women in at 6:00 am, but in his defence he had brought me a nokia phone charger. The day was fresh and bright after the storm, I showered and was just about to change from my cotton mexi when I noticed a boy peering through the window, I shut the window deciding not to embarrass the boy for his misdeed.

About 5.5 hours later I found myself sitting in a meeting room waiting for enough people to turn up to start . These situations are difficult for me, as I understand very little when the conversation gets going and really my contribution to the programme was more in the design that the delivery, though apparently just appearing as a foreigner gives status to the programme, but really it was my co-workers who did all the work at this stage. This feels very strange to me as I am using to taking the lead in these situations and enjoy being an extrovert, buts in some ways it’s kind of nice to have less responsibility. At just gone 12:00, one hour later than scheduled, we started and the room was full to bursting, we had to bring in extra chairs and benches just to accommodate everyone.

Four hours of absolute boredom later and the programme ended and I can happily say it was huge success, I found out later. Although I have to say I was about to keel over with boredom and general uncomfortable feelings, the success of the programme and happiness of the Co-ordinator was enough to pull my spirits back up. And from that point forward I vowed to myself to start actively learning nepali again and have since been studying 1-2 hours per day and can already feel an improvement. Only another seven more districts to go and I hope to be fluent!

Funny things that have happened recently

Every day my life is full of funny little things that happen and they really make me laugh. Many a time I have been sited laughing to myself as I cycle down New Road like a mad foreign English women and this is simply because people really make me laugh.
A are couple of incidents recently have really tickled me.

My hair was going a dirty blond sort of colour with roots and grey coming through, so I went to the shop to get some more die, the closest the shop assistant could find was ‘copper light brown’ which is basically red, yeah really close! So I thought bugger it I may aswell dye my hair this colour and much to my surprise it actually looks nice. As I was dying my hair and the house boy Deepak, who is 13, also wanted his hair dying so I dyed his hair too. And then I’ll be jiggered, my land lady asked me to buy her the exact same colour, so I did and then I dyed her hair too and put the remaining dye on the Deepak’s hair, who slept with the dye on overnight and it had a really cool effect.

On the very same day with my shiny new hair in tact and sporting my new dress, which I like to think was from Warehouse but was in fact from New Road priced 1200 npr (£10), I set off to the local radio station with an idea in mind. To broadcast a thought provoking talk back show in English for young people with my Nepali friend. I had previously met someone from the radio station who liked the idea and said I should meet the station manager at 10:00 on the following day. Of course with the, ‘no plan, plan’ which is followed by the majority of Nepali people, when I arrived the station manger was in Kathmandu and they didn’t know who the hell this red headed mad English woman was, welcome to my world. Then this amazinglingly handsome guy sat me down and started chatting to me and my eyeballs nearly fell out my head as he was just so unbelievably gorgeous it was almost embarrassing and I hazard a guess he was at least 10 years younger than me. Some time later after I had met my friend at the station who had turned up fashionably late as usual, we left, but it was not until I had had a really good look at the boy.

That evening I went with the same friend to an evening called ‘Idol 2’ at the local hotel and guess who was presenting, yes the amazingly attractive guy, though I have to admit I think he looked better the first time round, luckily I was looking better the second time round sporting another new dress from Warehouse of course. So to cut a long story short and this is nothing to do with the aforementioned boy, I as per usual, ended up being escorted on to the stage along with about six Nepali boys for a spot of Nepali dancing which involves an arm extended flapping kind of a jiggle.
Five days later I was returning from the local shops and there was a small teenage girl with pigtails waiting at my gate whose mother runs a little beauty shed I think is the best term, she said she had seen me dancing on the TV the other night and brought me a caramel lolly which she informed me was her favourite so she thought I would also like it, how sweet. I invited her to come to my hula hooping class on Saturday morning, I wonder if she will come.

And so the laughter continues....

Article for Big News,

Nepali adventures

As I cycle across the field to my house, I can see a big whirl wind of dust heading towards me, so I brake, cover my eyes and brace myself for the encapsulation, just another magical moment in Nepal. I arrived in Nepal in November, having said farewell to the Energise and Willow Tree Centres in Salford and set out in search of new adventures and experiences, with the support of Voluntary Services Overseas. My assignment: to work as Organisational Development Advisor for an organisation which advocates for the rights of people with disabilities on a national level, for 26 months.

After 3 weeks language and cultural training in the pollution filled, yet strangely charming city of Kathmandu, I flew out to Nepalgunj in the south of the Midwestern region of Nepal. I am living 15 minutes from the Indian border and fully intend to cycle there to do my shopping (when I have my Indian visa) as apparently ‘its so much cheaper across the border’, bit like Asda maybe?

After another 3 weeks language training, I was deemed fit to be let loose on the good people of Nepalgunj and armed with 10 sentences about myself and about 30 verb flash cards, I started working in my office. My office is in a stark contrast to the luxury of the Energise and Willow Tree Centres, whilst in the UK we fight for disabled toilets, in my office there is no toiled at all, I have to scamper round to the neighbours to pee. Although we are fighting for the rights of people with disabilities, they would have to crawl up the steep steps first to enter out office as there is no wheel chair access. Things have changed around here though, now we even have a computer, phone and we are getting the internet! But despite the small difficulties, I love it here. Waking in the morning to the cool breeze coming through my window at 6:00 am, I can hear the gentle hiss of pressure cookers as people prepare their dhall baat. Dhall baat is basically rice, dhall, and curry and Nepali people eat this same dish every day twice a day and they love it, so do I actually but not every day twice a day.

My biggest challenge to overcome so far was to adjust to being one of the very few (eight) white people living in Nepalgunj, this at first was very hard as wherever I went people would stare at me, so to overcome this I bought a bike, which reduces the amount of staring time per person and potential conversation. Now I feel so comfortable cycling around the place, I don’t mind people staring and usually share a joke or greeting with them. The Nepali people are so kind and welcoming it’s beautiful to experience and its real privilege to be here working and living with them. It’s hard to believe that they are capable of the previous years of conflict encountered here, but there are small reminders such as bhandas (strikes on the streets) which take place frequently and regular small bombs. The political situation is very fragile and we currently await the signing of the constitutional agreement by the two main parties.

One of my highlights has been running a hula hoop workshop at the volunteer conference in April, my group were so keen we created a hoop dance which we performed at the bollywood party and they all did really well. Nepali people love hula hooping and I have found a shop which will make hula hoops out of water pipe by melting two pieces of pipe together. I now have a small group of avid hula hoopers, so at the very least when I leave I will have left my mark by way of a hula hoop.
My next personal project is to get approval from a local radio station to present a light hearted English speaking talk show, ‘Next Generation’, for the younger generation of Nepal to talk openly and honestly about a range of thought provoking topics, whilst exploring the English language. I hope I can pull this off as I feel young people here have a lot to say but don’t have the platform to say it and are really keen to learn English.

As time rapidly marches on I wonder will 26 months be enough to bring about some small changes I hope to make during my placement, I try to cling to every moment and to live in the now.

Diarrhoea

Today I woke up only to discover that I really shouldn't have drank that tap water at the new years party last night, yes I have diarrhoea. What has really made me laugh though is the following text message:

"Lula i hear that u r suffering from diarrohea may i right or wrong? if it's true i pray with god for your better health.lokenndra".

Yes the word has got round about my loose bowel movements much to my entertainment.

Dreaming

As I sat at Kathmandu airport waiting for my flight back to Nepalgunj, I felt a mixture of emotions; happy and sad. Happy because I had enjoyed spending time with beautiful people in Kathmandu and Nargakot and sad that I didn’t know when I would see any of them again.

I can definitely feel a change upon me, which is both a change within myself through personal thoughts and feelings and a change brought about by external factors and the boundaries between these changes are blurred. One of the external factors is the changes within VSO. As a knock on effect of the recession VSO has experienced a reduction in funding and consequently ten members of VSO Nepal staff have been made redundant. To add to this VSO on a global level is currently redefining its direction which means that VSO programmes in Nepal are coming to an end and new programmes have not yet been defined. What this means for me is that my governance programme doesn’t exist anymore and consequently there is no funding available from VSO for me to deliver activities within my placement. So I am glad I seized every opportunity there was to get involved with; the volunteer conference, governance review, leadership programme and the general assembly because now I will not even be reimbursed to travel by local bus to a meeting.

However as the eternal optimist I do not feel negative about this, as I like change and who knows what new programmes may follow. And as the programme has finished things are not as strict, so now I have the opportunity to investigate another volunteering opportunity with a youth led organisation which I am really excited about, so there are always positives to come from change.I will really be able to focus on my work now that my previous VSO commitments have ended. Over the next three months I will be travelling with my volunteering organisation to eight districts to audit services and entitlements provided for people with disabilities, which I am looking forward to.

I have decided to invest some time and money to create really nice space to relax in, in my dancing room as I will be spending more time at home from now on. At the moment I don’t really have a good space to chill in the evenings and I want to create a relaxing room which is a mass of cushions and comfyness with kind lighting, divine smells and rich materials, with a bit of a Turkish feel.

I have been thinking about the retreat centre I thought about starting whilst I was in the UK and I have decided to carry out a feasibility study to see if I can make it happen in Nepal, which of course I can. I think my life flashed before my eyes slightly when I had my cist removed and awaited the results of the biopsy, I thought it could have all been over, but it wasn’t and now I have an amazing opportunity to follow my dreams and make something really amazing happen.


Highlights of the first quater Nepal 2011:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=625466&id=605555023&l=9b8ca18d0e