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!

Birthday boating in Bardia.

Hello again. You're going to think that we are on one long holiday here but this blog is in answer to some questions by Elise (Mel's Niece) and Sharon (Steve's sister) and will also serve as an update. But first, a question from Luca (Mel's oldest nephew):

How hot is it in Nepal?

Well, Nepal is varied. In some parts it is high mountain (where it is freezing) but where we live it is flat and hotter. At the moment it is summer and also the rainy season. This means that some days it is hot and reaches 40-45 degrees centigrade. Other days it is much cooler because of all the rain clouds (down to about 25 degrees). We are expecting the rains to finish in a week or so but then it will start to get cooler. We are told that the temperature drops to 10 degrees in December.

What did you do for your birthday?

Due to a day's festival, we were able to head off to Bardia National Park, which lies about 5 hours bus ride away. We stayed in little rooms that were built in the Tharu style, of mud and wood. Here is a traditional Tharu house, owned by our guide, Sitaram:

The Tharu are the original inhabitants of the therai (the flat part of Nepal where we live). 60 years ago, this area was composed of just swamp and jungle, in which the Tharu people lived in forest clearings. They are reportedly resistant to the dangerous form of Malaria that used to lurk here. In the recent past, however, the forests were logged, the swamps drained and the mosquitoes killed with DDT (a nasty chemical). As a result of this 'progress', other groups, from the hills and India, moved in and the Tharu now mostly work hard on other peoples' land. They are frequently exploited and poor.

The highpoint of the Bardia visit was a raft trip down the rain-swollen rivers into the heart of the park. We stopped at various points to climb watchtowers and observe nature at its grandest:

We saw lots of interesting birds, insects and deer but the highlights were this very rare Gharial crocodile basking on a mud-bank:

And this large, wild bull elephant with two youngsters in tow:

There are also wild rhinos and tigers here but we didn't see those. All four creatures, and more, used to live all over the terai but, due to the above mentioned 'progress' are now very rare outside of national parks. We were, in fact, filmed by the army (who were very excited to find us as we were the only tourists that weekend). They wanted to ask us about our opinions on security and anti-poaching methods in the park. Now that so many rare and endangered animals are concentrated in the park, poaching may lead them to extinction. Poachers are usually poor and these animals dead bodies are very valuable in some traditional medicines and as ivory. The army is doing its best to protect the animals but they also cause their own problems and we found mounds of rubbish near their old camps.

Did Steve make Mel a birthday cake?

Yes indeedy! It was supposed to be chocolate but that ran out so 'Bournvita' had to substitute. There was no room for the candles but the 'miracle oven' gave it a funky round shape:

What birthday traditions are there in Nepal?

Although the date of birth is very important to many hindus (due to the importance of horoscopes) there are no real birthday traditions, for adults, in this part of Nepal. One thing that often happens is that people take 'mithai' (sweets) into work or school to share. Mel tried this but the office was closed due to yet another 'bandh' (strike). We had to eat all the mithai ourselves, which was a real nuisance as you can imagine!

Anyway, apart from the above birthday news, the only interesting thing to report is that we were recently in a small earth tremor. We were having dinner at the time so didn't rush outside and it only lasted a few seconds.

Schools have started again and we're starting to get out and about for work again. No doubt, there will be more school related blogs soon (which will answer more of your questions).

Until next time, we hope enjoy the photos in the album.

Mel and Steve