Putting the cycle in Carbon-cycle.

Welcome once again from sunny Nepal,

You can guess, from our long absence from your computers, that we have had quite a busy month. Highlights have been;

Purnaji, our VSO manager, coming to Mahendranagar to talk to all the movers and shakers involved in our work here. We had a workshop at which the 'VSO vision' and our future working plans were explained and negotiated with the Education Office staff. Some interesting feedback came out of this and we hope that a stronger and more profitable working partnership will result.

Both of us dashing around, both far and near, to decide on potential schools for closer co-operation over the coming year and a half. We saw some examples of interesting and well run schools to act as good role-models, as well as quite a few schools that will benefit from being modelled to (more on this in an upcoming blog). The reason for dashing was:

Heading off to Kathmandu for a couple of weeks for language refresher classes, education workshops and a security workshop. It was good to catch up with the VSO staff and other volunteers after 4 months in placement. We were, however, very lucky to leave when we did as a day later the roads were swept away. For more on this and the reason why we chose to make the journey by bus instead of air, see below.

Dashain (Nepal's longest and most important festival) saw us making the most of the week-long closure of schools and offices by doing the 'tourist thing' and visiting Pokhara and Chitwan wildlife park on our way back. Here are some Dashain festivities in Pokhara:

More of the above in later postings I'm sure. For now, on with this blog's theme which is (and anyone who knows us will have suspected that this was coming!), the environment.

It has been a wet year. In Britain, we hear, there have been floods (again) and several people have died. In Nepal also, the monsoon has been getting longer and more intense than in the past. Two sets of rivers have burst their banks as a result. One river, in the east, made international news as it caused vast swathes of flooding in India as well as Nepal. The other set of rivers were here, in the far-west, and flooded our district. On the day after we left for Kathmandu, a 1km stretch of the main high-way was destroyed and several of the communities, where the schools we work in are located, were swamped. Unlike the floods in Britain, the floods in Nepal and India have resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of homeless. Many of the rice-paddies were covered in sand and made useless, which is now threatening famine.

As in Britain, much of the destruction could have been prevented if homes and farms had not been built on flood-plains and if much of the water-absorbing forest had not been cut down. Here, the problem has been made worse by the fact that the flood victims were amongst the poorest people, with little choice but to live on the riskiest land in the riskiest houses.

Another factor, though, is becoming more and more obvious - climate change. The world (and particularly the richer portions of it) continues to burn coal, oil and gas and to drive cars, fly in planes and buy plastic at a faster and faster rate. As a result, the world (and particularly the poorer portions of it) continues to suffer weather related disasters at a faster and faster rate. Asian and European floods, African and Australian drought and North American and Asian hurricanes are some of the visible results from the last month alone.

Although none of this should be new to you, what may be new is the Nepali answer. Although cars and motor-bikes are becoming more and more common, the traditional methods of using cycles (and other human powered vehicles) continues. Cycles are used instead of many larger, more expensive and more polluting vehicles in the 'west'. Here are some examples and there are more in the album:
Milk lorry:

Dust wagon:


School-bus:

Purnaji (our education programme manager mentioned above) has been going one step further and has launched a cycling promotion campaign in Kathmandu. His awareness raising, 'No Petrol-No Problem' T-shirts and cycle rides are starting the fight back against petrol. As you can guarantee, we (along with other VSOs) have been only too eager to help out. Here are Purna and Mel in a shot taken by a petrol attendant:

It is ironic that for decades, Nepal and other 'developing countries' have been trying to become more like the 'developed world'. It may yet come about that, with dwindling oil stocks and rampant climate-change, the wasteful western countries will need to copy Nepal and similar nations in order to develop. Here endeth the sermon!