School party time and hiking in the park

TGIF has got as far as Nepal!

We went in on Friday 19th expecting to work, only to find most of the children in mufti and the classes very informal, to put it mildly. The children did turns, singing popsongs, break dancing, or dancing tradtional Nepali dance. A couple of boys even did acrobatics in the tiny overcrowded classrooms between the desks.  Teachers were persuaded to sing and to dance, and so were we. It was all great fun and may well be repeated every Friday - I hope my video camera won't be out of power next time.

The teachers invited Anny and Rosemary into the staff room for lunch so I went too. They bring food from home. Ate iskus (prickly avocado-like vegetable, boiled and eaten warm (probably cooked in school) with hot pickle – all off newspaper - and nimki (home-made batter pieces). Shared cake with them.

Four go on a hike.

At the weekend, Margaret F, Margaret E, Anny and I went on a hike arranged through Social Tours

Kathmandu lies at 17XX m; we went by minibus with our guide to Kokani, at about 2,000m, but it was soon obvious there was a problem. This turned out to be a no-show porter. So our petite Nepali lady guide shouldered our backpack herself – no problem. She was a hard dude, used to mountain biking and mountain marathon running, and also hard technical climbing in the mountains. And there she was, stuck with two over-60s and two over-70s. 

We hiked about 10 k to Shivapuri Village, mostly through forest, so disappointingly without views, though we did see several eagles, but when we arrived at the tea-house, the view was out of this world. There were log seats right on the edge of the valley with a 180 panorama of green valley sides, then the “lower” mountain range and finally, looking right up into the sky, the snow-covered peaks of the Langtanstopping the clouds. It was clear and cold and we were glad of the open fire to sit round, despite the smoke. Excellent food, very primitive accommodation (there was hot water, but we were too cold to shower!) and company too. What more could you ask for?

Next day we set off after lunch to return by another trail but after 2 or three hours it went badly wrong and we were negotiating pretty difficult rocky terrain. Our nimble little guide had no qualms about our capabilities but we mutinied when she wanted us to cross a section of razor wire and climb down a precipice to gain the path (OK, maybe precipice is a bit of an exaggeration). Anyway we finished in fine form with hot sweet Nepalese tea when the driver met us again about 5. Once again it was good to exchange the crush of Kathmandu for the calm of a national park.

Having said that, I love the craziness of it. Out wandering the streets this evening the power went off, so all the smaller shops were lt only by candles and torches and still the hundreds of motor bikes and the laden pedal bikes without lights appear from nowhere and go in any direction. It's mad, but very good natured on the whole. Yes there's a cacophony of hooting, but it's mostly to say you're coming through, and “pedestrians/other traffic” “Move Over”. It makes me laugh, which reminds me to count my blessings and they are these:

    I don't mind a bit of mess, so long as I've my own place to go to.

    I am not scared of much

    I love all manner of foods

    I don't often get sick

    I'm not very observant so a lot of bad stuff passes me by.

So there we are – lucky old me.

Brenda and the chess tournament

On Sunday Brenda went to work by special request, as the orphanage had been taking part in a chess competition. Sunday was the day of the presentations and they only asked Brenda to stand up in front of everyone and extend her felicitations! She seems to have done this admirably, in front of TV cameras and reporters. Sorry I can't give any better detail but the lady in question has long been in her bed. You'll have to ask her about it, or, better still ,email her and ask her to write on here again.

Weddings

Suddenly (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) we are seeing loads of weddings. Apparently there are auspicious days for this, and there haven't been any for two months. Now there are. Haven't managed a photo so you'll just have to imagine the white saloon cars festooned with flower garlands and glittery stuff, the ladies in bright red saris thronging the street, and even one red coach pulled by two white horses and with two servants in very smart red uniforms. This was either a military or police person's marriage according to our driver.