I’ve been here over a month!  Boy time flies… This past week WPC had a very successful launch of our first awareness program.  It was thrilling to see the program come together so quickly.  We decided to partner with a local facilitator who has experience teaching child rights.  After quickly finding a projector, printing a banner, and some crafty PowerPoint work, we were ready to pilot our first program.  We covered a number of topics including our basic needs, harms caused against children, and ways to protect themselves from the harms that children face such as trafficking, starvation, disease, and harmful religious traditions.

For the most part the class responded positively.  The students were engaged, asking questions, responding to the facilitators inquires, and volunteering information.

  

When I arrived the girls greeted me with flowers:

After the three hour program we sponsored kaja (snack) for the students from a ‘local restaurant’. Nepalese love Ramen Noodles, or Snacky Noodles as they are called here, loaded with handfuls of hot peppers. I’ve found my taste buds are not only adjusting but craving spicy. This morning I tossed my attempt at eating oatmeal for a heavily masala-ed plate of rice. Mitosa!

With our first program complete, there are some changes I’m hoping to make to the material going forward to add additional focus on human trafficking risks.  We are planning to resume our program after the festivals, presenting to 7 schools, rather than our originally intended 3.

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This week started Nepal’s largest Hindu festival called Dashain.  Dashain is the celebration of a Hindu Goddess, Durga, and her victory over a treacherous demon who threatened to take over Devaloka, the home of the gods.  To celebrate, most temples in Hetauda are filled with special reenactments of the battle, adorned with gold and other ornaments.  During the 10 day celebration, Hindu’s and Christians alike use the time to visit with family and enjoy a break from school and work.  Sadly this year has led to mild
disappointment as many people have found it difficult, if not impossible, to travel due to the fuel shortage.

The fuel shortage is just one of the effects we are feeling due to the border blockades and Tarai protests.  There has also been a shortage of imported goods resulting in an uptick in cost of goods, some commodities doubling in price. Many restaurants are only open during peak hours and have set up wood stoves in the back due to the lack of cooking gas. People are seen stockpiling goods and siphoning gas all along the streets.  I’ll hopefully be traveling to Kathmandu at the end of the month and will be able to confirm the current state of the capitol at that time.  From what I hear the issue is much worse, magnified by the higher population and lack of local agriculture.

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Yesterday I had the girls who are staying during the holidays over to watch The Little Mermaid and enjoy some tasty popcorn and chiya. Such a classic. After Ariel traded her fins for feet, I started a typing class to teach the girls how to type “like an American” – fast without looking. After about an hour all the girls could successfully type home row without looking at their fingers or making mistakes!  Impressive!

Next week the office is on holiday.  I will be attending a conference with topics completely unbeknownst to me. Should be interesting.

This week my coworker and I went to a local village school to meet with the principal and head teacher to prepare for our child rights and trafficking awareness program next week.  The school is located up on top of the hill surrounding Hetauda and made for an interesting motorcycle experience, my first time on a motorcycle in fact. During attempt 1, we started up a road that was fairly washed out with large divots and boulders.  To ease his navigational difficulties, I offered to walk and meet him at the top.  I took off, moving quickly, laughing at my punishment for skipping my morning walk.  After about 30 sweat dripping minutes I arrived only to receive a phone call confirming the bike was in fact stuck and I needed to head back down.   The rest of the afternoon turned into a team building exercise to escape the hole the bike  was in and ride back down to safety.

The following day went more smoothly.  We made it safely to the school to find the principal, teachers, and other local NGO affiliates were in the middle of a meeting.  Joining them, we were able to directly speak to our program proposal and introduce the idea of child rights.  Although the discussion was in Nepali, I was able to understand bits and pieces before receiving an overview in English afterwards.  We were saddened to find that the school was currently sponsoring a whole list of kids that could not afford to pay for classes, or even a pen, many of the children would arrive unfed slowing their ability to perform in class, and 14 of the children don’t have parents and are either being taken care of by older siblings or neighbors.  How do you teach children about their right to freedom when they can’t afford their basic needs? We hired a professional facilitator to take lead of the session so hopefully he will help me understand as well.

(The school were we will be teaching.)

(The view from the school.  Not too bad!)

(Local home of a student)

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Last week I shared some insight on the implementation of the new constitution.  Quick follow up on that matter – over the last week the two frustrated parties (Tarai and India) have quickly escalated their concerns through border blockades. As a landlocked country, the primary method of bringing in goods is through the Indian border, the alternative is through China which is still blocked as aftermath of the earthquake. The Tarai are responsible for all access in and out of the country from India, so in rebellion, they mutually have caused havoc to Nepal’s ability to import supplies. As a result, this week prices for simple commodities such as spices, fabrics, sugar etc. have increased significantly. The largest concern however is oil.  Nearly all of Nepal’s oil comes from India on tankers, which are currently lined up for miles at the border, very slowly making it past customs.

I read about the lack of oil for a few days and then started noticing trucks parked all along the roads of Hetauda.  Yesterday, I walked past the only gas station that I know of here to find a line as far as the eye could see, hoping for their turn to fill up.  This concerns me as one of the primary means for income in the city is to work as a driver (whether bus, taxi, micro, or transporting goods). Definitely not what an already impoverished stricken country needs to experience.

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On a lighter note, last week we celebrated world heart day at the home by creating paper hearts for each of the children with a fact about your heart, heart disease or how to keep your heart healthy.  It paired as an opportunity to not only teach the children best practices for keeping their heat healthy but also an opportunity to practice English.  Double whammy!  It reminded me of the Jump Rope for Heart Days…

Today I got the chance to Skype with some of my beautiful friends all dressed up in Roman attire in celebration of a 30th birthday.  Cheers to you all.  Thanks for filling my day with a giant smile.