Hi, Everyone. En route from Kathmandu to ARI, we have been gifted with one night and day in Singapore due to a flight cancellation!
On August 7, we reached our first destination in Nepal after five flights. Over two days worth of traveling is perhaps a bit much for our age, we have decided! We have learned so much about rural life in Nepal and the challenges ARI graduates face. Their leadership skills are being put to good use as they work to help provide basic education, raise awareness about women’s issues and encourage indigenous people to claim their rights. We have seen the many challenges a developing country faces, such as load scheduling of electricity, sanitation and road improvement.
Our first reunion was with 2010 ARI graduate, Sandeep Lamsal from Taulihawa in the Dang District. This is the Lower Terai, or plains of Nepal bordering India and is rice-growing country. It’s approaching the end of the rainy season and in the temperature hovers around 95 degrees. Sandeep guided us all around Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, on a scorching day. Of course we got seriously sunburned. The next morning our driver dodged goats as we drove along lush green paddy fields. We visited the ruins of the palace where the Buddha grew up as a crown prince. Later, we collapsed from either jet lag, sunstroke or both! We managed to meet and share meals with Sandeep’s family.
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| Breakfast with Shanta, Ammar and Simon Chaudhary |
On August 10, we traveled to Ghorahi in the Upper Terai, a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. It resembles the location of ARI! We were welcomed by Shanta and Ammar Chaudhary and their son Simon. Shanta is an ARI grad who also returned to be a Training Assistant. She works with BASE (Backward Society Education www.nepalbase.org), an NGO that helps provide education, works with women’s groups and advocates for the now freed bonded laborers to get land promised to them by the government. We kept hearing echoes of our own Civil Rights Movement.
Ammar and Shanta are members of the Tharu caste, indigenous people whose property and rights were taken away by a higher caste. Ammar works to educate all indigenous people about their rights and lobbies the government to recognize these rights in the constitution. In addition to their social work, the farming family grows rice, corn, vegetables and keeps three cows. They have a well but no tap water. Shanta cooks rice, potatoes, green beans, pumpkin leaf, chicken and soup (Joyce was thankful her dishes were not too spicy) on a two burner propane stove. Dishes are washed outdoors, and we enjoyed bathing in the stream after a hot day! If the sun had not shined, we would still have Simon. His joyful disposition kept us smiling, and he insisted that Bob Uncle and Joyce Auntie see him off on the school bus!
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| Siddartha |
We visited three different schools. Each time we rode buses stuffed with passengers and crossed rivers where water flowed over concrete pads instead of under bridges! Joyce closed her eyes and prayed. Sister Home Boarding School was started by ARI grad Sayni Chaudhary. Primary students are taught Nepali, English and Social Studies by young teachers who either have their Bachelor’s degree or are working toward it. There is also a Women’s Learning Center where women meet to discuss their concerns and are trained in skills such as sewing.
Siddhartha Academy is a private school, both primary and secondary levels. The principle gave us a tour of the secondary school, where chemistry, biology and physics labs are still under construction. We spoke to two groups of 10th graders where everyone seems to want to be a doctor or an engineer.
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| Rural Government school |
In Tulsipur, we met the principle who started the government school twenty-two years ago with support from Shanta’s organization, BASE. He will retire in two years but dreams of a computer lab and a library before he leaves. Here, the children recited their lessons for more seasoned teachers.
We attended the 19th Indigenous People Cultural Program and enjoyed the local Tharu folk music.
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| Folk music at Indigenous People Cultural Program |
We’ve had the privilege of being the first foreign guests in Ammar’s family home, the challenge of walking narrow foot paths through rice paddies, and an arduous 13 and a half hour bus ride from Ghorahi to Kathmandu. Tomorrow, ARI!
