June 2009
Boudha
Thu 11th Jun 2009 — drewWe're now in Boudha, home to one of the largest Buddhist Stupas in the world. It's not small!
It is very peaceful here with lots of Buddhist chanting, incense burning and prayer wheel spinning. Pretty much all day, there are pilgrims, devotees etc circumambulating the stupa, saying their prayers and spinning the wheels.
Journey to Melamchi
Fri 12th Jun 2009 — drewWe were up early (5.45) and met by Purna's son, Pemba, to take us to Purna and waiting taxi. Only a short ride to the bus stop to find an old Tata bus waiting. Thankfully we had seats by the door reserved.
First day in Melamchi
Sat 13th Jun 2009 — drewSaturday is the only day off in the school week and we were glad to have a day to get ourselves together. Up for breakfast at 7.30; more packet noodles but this time with garlic and cabbage. We woke to a beautiful view down the valley with the village perched in a basin at the top.
What year is it?
Mon 15th Jun 2009 — drewNow two days into school. It was a little odd starting the week on a Sunday. Even more odd when in the first lesson we observed the teacher wrote the date on the board as 2066-02-31 (the date as we understand it actually being the 14th of June 2009). The Nepali calendar is a bit different to ours (it certainly doesn't seem like we've jumped over 50 years into the future up here!)
Doing porridge
Tue 16th Jun 2009 — drewPorridge for breakfast which we sheepishly enjoyed while Purna had the leftovers from last night. This simple breakfast was good as Heather had a slightly dodgy stomach and not relishing the thought of having to use the school loos; there is a slight problem of a lack of water to the school - will leave to your imagination what a pair of squat toilets serving180 people would be like in such a situation.
The English teachers left to go on training so we split up to cover - Heather taking the young'uns in the morning and Drew the older ones.
Lama reading
Sat 20th Jun 2009 — drewSaturdays are the only full day off, so we're writing this sat on an outcrop in a clearing on the hill opposite the village of Melanchi. It was only about an hour's walk to get over here, past the river, and the watermill where Jhungma was grinding wheat into flour. [Later on in the day we were treated to warm chapatis made with this flour; pretty certain that's the freshest bread we've ever had, and it was lovely!]
and on that farm he had some buffalo
Thu 25th Jun 2009 — drewNearing the end of our second week in Melamchi and we're certainly used to the quiet routine. This week Drew has been working on the computers, trying to set them up nicely. It seems they don't respond all that well to being slung into baskets and carried up 1000m of rocky paths on the back of porters (one is now held together by a sellotape repair!). Heather meanwhile has been helping with teaching including a few days of science lessons. This got the memory working hard, having to remember how to work out molecular formulae, valencies and balancing equations.
Climbing Tharapati
Fri 26th Jun 2009 — drewWe are writing this sat in front of a big iron strove- at 3510m, or 11513ft in old money. After a morning of teaching, we had lunch and set off up the hill to climb 1000m higher; the plan being to stay at the lodge near the top of the hill by Tharepati, and set off from here to the highest peak on the Helambu trail trekking route at 5am tomorrow morning. We have stuck to the plan so far despite pretty terrible weather; it was so foggy in Melamchi before we set off that you couldn't see much further than 10 – 15m and as school's half day finished it started to rain quite heavily.