The Next Big Adventure and Why We Travel...

The Next Big Adventure…

Sometimes in life it is the past memories that we hold on to that colour our thoughts and shape the very being that you have become.

For me one of those experiences was walking through the cities of Edinburgh and London and feeling an intense feeling of having come home. The feeling of connection inspired my young ten year old self to throw myself into studying the history, architecture and people who inhabited this land before me. It carried through all my life and travels, whether it was through Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain, or to the South Pacific and Asia as a young professional. I have an intense connection to all cultures and always try see the commonality that we share on a global level, rather than the darkness that comes with myopia.

For my darling husband one of these formative experiences was a three month trip through Africa in 1972 with just his dad and younger brother. It’s an experience that shaped his view of the world at a very critical juncture of his development. It is just not possible to remain insulated and myopic when you’ve been exposed to so many diverse cultures and ways of thinking when you are young. It is a place he has always wanted to share with us.

This love of travel and enquiry is a gift that was given to us by our progressive thinking parents - and one that we have been committed to giving to our own children as they grow. I’ve tried to share a little glimpse of this through my blog over the years and it seems only fitting to start the blog up again now that we are on the move again. It’s long been on our bucket list to explore Africa with the kids. Up until now the kids have been too young or we have had too many trips to visit unwell family members holding us back. But 2017 is our year. 

Starting in Auckland we are flying to Dubai and from there heading to East Africa - Kenya and Tanzania for three weeks.

Boarding a flight to Dubai, there is excitement in the air. The kind that only a big adventure to parts unknown can bring. 

Standing in line at the Emirates check in counter it really hits me how much has changed since I started this blog back in 2012. The kids are no longer little and our pile of luggage is no longer giant! Such a relief - apart from the fact that during a fourteen hour flight the elbows and knees end up more in my personal space than ever before!

When a flight is delayed....

Once we arrive in Dubai we are going to spend a few days recuperating and trying to get into the African Time Zone so that all senses can be engaged when we arrive in Nairobi. 

Over and Out for now. 

It's Time to Start Again!

It's been quite some time since Adventures of a Travelin' Family has been online. With the start of a new year, and a new destination on the horizon this seemed the right time to bring back the adventures. The bags are packed and a whole new continent awaits! We fly out in two sleeps. I am looking forward to sharing the adventure with you once more.

Don't forget to subscribe to the blog by sending your email to the tab on the right.

Happy New Year!

Goodbye to the Tamang Family and Hello to Fear Factor and Beautiful Scenery

Nepal Adventure - Up to the Tibet Border and The Last Resort

Up at 5:15. We do our final pack up and load Durga's truck up with all our stuff. 

Sunrise... the sun is struggling to be seen through the pre monsoon humidity.

Just as we are sitting down to a last breakfast with our host family, a truckload of army men show up asking for breakfast and tea. Mixing with a bunch of uniformed soldiers armed with rifles and hand guns wasn't exactly how I expected to end our time here, but hey, one of these days I will learn to expect the unexpected. Given that the country was embroiled in a bitter civil war not too many years before it makes for a slightly uncomfortable feeling, but then it is also my misgivings about what an army is for. In reality these are young country boys (one of whom is related to Gyan's wife) doing their time and showing the countryside that their new government is in control. And I can't help but smile when I spy Liam staring, jaw open, at the rifles and guns on show. Boys and war, somehow they go together with such ease.

Sumi gives Randall a Buddhist farewell

Even though we have been staying with Tamang family for only four nights we really have become quite attached. As we pile our stuff into Durga's truck Gyan and his family give us the traditional Buddhist farewell blessing and drape white cloths around our necks. The girls are inconsolable about leaving their little friend Sumi, but as this world gets more global it is not inconceivable that they will meet up again someday. We will miss our lovely Nepali host family.

And then we are off. Out of the rural dirt roads and down to the Tibet Road where we are scheduled to pick up a mini bus provided by the resort that we are going to stay at tonight. Durga's truck is making some sad sounds and while we wait for the bus to arrive Randall and Durga try to assess the problem. It's a bit funny to watch them, and I'm not alone, the local troop of monkeys also head out of the trees to watch them.

They get the car temporarily sorted and soon our mini van is loading our bags into the back and we are off along the Tibet Road.

The road that leads from Kathmandu up to the Tibet border is the main one through to the north, and as the tourist trade of Mt. Everest grows, so do the people travelling this route to get to the Northern approach to Everest. Someday, someday, someday I will get to see this amazing mountain! Not this trip though, too high in elevation for our small children. We will stop just before the Tibetan border at a world renowned adventure-tourism resort. I can't wait to see this place, supposedly it is literally perched in a cliff, high above the Bhota Kose River.

But for now we are bouncing along the road, through commercial villages that sell - with increasing stock every mile we get closer to Tibet - cheap merchandise made in China. One town obviously was the Large Teddy Bear knock off town, with every village store selling an assortment of over sized plush teddy bears. Something every Nepali child needs, right? Um, I think not. It's really for all those rich tourists heading up this road to the North Face of Mount Everest who stop and buy the dirt cheap knock offs as prezzies to take home to their children. Oh, but I digress....

The roads are often bad, and, oh, did I mention that the drivers in Nepal are shockingly horrible? But the real delay are the constant road blocks put up by the police. I suppose after ten years of horrible civil war it is the new government's way to not only show that it has a firm grip on power but also employs many people in it's cause as possible.

The subject of the Nepali civil war itself is interesting. It was essentially the Maoist party who tried to overthrow the reigning monarchy back in 1996 and they slugged it out for ten years, eventually becoming a struggling democracy in 2006. As with many political wars the result was that something like 11,000 civilians alone were killed and more than 150,000 civilians were displaced from their homes. I guess that explains the horrid overcrowding and congestion of Kathmandu! I know that for myself between the years of 1996 and 2006 I don't recall any media about what was going on here. It makes you wonder why the media blows one event that kills a hundred people out of proportion and never even mentions one where civilians are being affected in the tens of thousands. Just saying!

One of the many police check points that we went through on the three hour drive.

I pretty much lose track of all of the police check points that we have to go through. As a tourist bus with a bunch of whiteys in it we don't get hassled at all, they seem to be mainly aimed at preventing illegal trade etc amongst the local population. I do notice that Durga and family who are driving behind us get pulled over for questioning a few times. Luckily Fionna, Scottish to the core, negotiates out of it every time.

As we follow the wild Bhota Kosa river closer to Tibet the canyon walls become ever increasing in the slant and soon it is rushing river rapids below us and sheer cliff faces above us. I'm no good at heights and it absolutely terrifies me travelling these roads that seem to be hanging on to the cliffs while crazy drivers pass and random dogs chase the bus. But, well, if I wanted safe I should never leave my home right??

At long last we reach the stop off point for our accommodation for the night - The Last Resort. A world class adventure resort in the heart of this crazy landscape. Not only do they do white water rafting and canyoning, but they are also world famous for their bungee jump and canyon swing.

It is only now that it becomes apparent to me that to get to said accommodation I will have to cross a swing bridge that hangs 150 meters above the wild rushing river.

Did I mention that I am afraid of heights?

No, terrified.

I get vertigo.

This is my worst nightmare come to life.

Unfortunately, while I am processing all of this my family and baggage have all crossed and are busy checking in. They obviously are not affected the way I am! Thanks for waiting guys!!

There comes a time all people's live when they have to face their fears about something and I suppose this is mine. I am certainly not going to sleep in the street with the feral dogs tonight, so cross I must. And I do it. The fear is something that comes straight from the gut. Something visceral and all encompassing. Sweat glands that have never been activated before go into overdrive.

I feel silly writing about it now that it is over with and obviously I survived, but fear is a funny thing and can strike a person for many different reasons. Seriously, I will take swimming with a lone hammerhead shark any day over this. But OK, I am meant to do this. If I was logical I would obviously go as fast as possible and be done with it. But no. I inch along, snail like. An octogenarian Nepali man passes me with a basket of bottles perched on his head, coming from the resort. I pass the section where the bungee jumpers go from and nearly pee my pants.

Eventually I do make it. My children are feeling shamed by me, and I don't blame them. Who has the snail-like mother who prolongs her state of fear by moving slowly across the bridge of doom? Oh well, no one is perfect!!!

Looking down between my toes more than 150 meters to the rushing river. Have I mentioned that I am prone to vertigo?

Once across it seems that I have landed in a beautiful idyll. The resort is absolutely a little slice of heaven nestled into the cliffs. Cut off from the reality of the world it is beautifully landscaped and butterflies float around the semi tropical flowers. It's just starting to rain, but it is a gentle rain that combines with the river sounds coming from way below us that epitomizes tranquility.

Welcome to The Last Resort, Nepal

The grounds are like a fairy land and the the luxury tents are so peaceful!

The accommodations are luxury tents nestled into the vegetation. What a contrast from the village life that we only left this morning! I book in a massage and the poor lady who gets my lot has quite a challenge with my knotted muscles. She literally climbs all over me with her own joints cracking in a stellar effort to unbend my knotted muscles.

Dinner is a huge buffet in the common area. I stick with the Dal Bhat, I've gotten a taste for it by now! And we even order a bottle of Indian wine. Such a luxury. The resort has a well stocked bar and the resort is very full with all manner of travellers, all of whom are western. We pass the evening playing games, dancing and enjoying the atmosphere. 

Tonight will probably be our last night with Durga, Fionna, Jaimie and Rona so they have a little ceremony for the kids with special awards and presents for the things that they have noticed about them over the past three weeks together.
*Juliet gets the supreme best Dal Baht Eater Award.
*Liam get the Most Adaptable Award.
*Clara the best Back Massager.
*Liana gets the Award for the Best Jokester.
It has been such a fun journey with our new found friends. It will be sad to see them go, but they are on to Europe from here for a family wedding.

Soon the night winds down and we head back to our tents in the rain. Going to sleep with sound of the soft gentle rain and the rushing river below I am utterly content with the universe.

Namaste.

Sick Bed, Flowers and Snakes.... Nepal Adventure Continues

Nepal Trip - Day 15 - Last Day in the Rural Countryside

Last night was rough. Enough said. 

So, needless to say I'm worthless today. All I can do is sleep, read, sleep, roll over and sleep. It takes me until noon before I can get anything fluid down me.

The kids and Randall go out for another school visit and I spend my time drifting in and out of the sounds of the rural life. The sounds of the farm animals, cuckoo birds, babies crying and dishes being washed on the side of the hill in the heat of the morning sun.

My spot for the day... Luckily my favorite travel author is keeping me company.... Thank you Michael Palin!

The family comes back late in the afternoon with stories of visiting another school, painting flowers and bumblebees. And heaps of drama. I nod and go back to sleep.

While I have been sleeping, the day seems to have been a strange one, with the stars not quite aligning around us. The family's adventure started with the car getting stuck in a ditch, next to a cliff. Of course I am out of order, the power doesn't come on all day (well that's not too unusual), and on the way home Durga and Gyan saw a car crash on the road and stayed to help. No one knows when they will be back. And to top it all off at dinner Jaimie stepped on a snake and the whole place erupts in frantic screaming (mainly from Sumi) while the village women go after it with sticks, creating utter chaos. I am so glad that I didn't know about the snakes while I was laying in the outdoor loo all night! Soon the poor wee snake is dead and everyone is laughing around the table again under the stars, enjoying a final dal baht meal together.

It's been a fabulous time spent in this rural environment, but our time here is done. It's time to move on tomorrow. Our lessons have been learned, friends made and many a story to use along the way.

Hopefully I will be upright enough to make the journey to the Tibetan border tomorrow morning. Another bus ride through the Nepali landscape. I am always happiest when I'm on the move.

For now I enjoy the sounds of the night and watch a brush fire move it's way slowly up a hill on the far side of the valley.

Namaste....

Nepal Trip - Philosophical Musings, Mothers Day and Thunder...

Day Fourteen - Another Day of Village Life

What a good night of sleep I had. Being "off the grid" certain appeals to my sleep patterns!

After our hearty breakfast we pile into Durga's long suffering car and head off down the valley to the village school of Durga's home town. It's a little village much further down the dirt road from Gyan's house but we make our way, past many corn field, water buffalo and protective dog.

This is a much more progressive school than the ones we visited yesterday. The feeling is immediate! Gyan is one of the head teachers, which probably explains it. His dealings with the guests from First Steps Himalaya would have opened his eyes to more modern teaching practices. The children here in the Mulkarka village school are all engaged and learning. Fionna is very excited as apparently it is is quite the turn around from the last time they visited. FSH is planning to open a year three classroom at this school this year. The ideas of learning are trickling up from their early childhood educational concepts. It's a process, and here it is very noticeably working. There isn't one classroom without a teacher or books and no one is shouting!

We get busy doing a bit of fun beautifying. Clara paints a hopscotch and spends hours teaching the children how to play the game. What an absolute hit! The other kids do murals. Liam is particularly proud of his abc snake for the little ones.

Clara's hopscotch is a huge hit!

Liam's ABC Snake mural for the preschoolers

I have one question that is burning through my mind on this trip. How do we debrief our children after this experience? It is always a tricky question, especially as I am not sure how I feel about rural Nepal yet myself, so how do I explain the things we are seeing to the kids. 
I mean, we are living with people who live more or less like our ancestors did thousands of years ago. Is it right to put modern day values on such a culture? To expect them to grasp our modern values? Or does it simply push them into a situation that they are not ready for? Or are they completely ready for it, and just need to be shown how? But I suppose, just like with most humans around the world there will be the bright sparks that take the ideas and run, and the traditionalists who don't embrace change.

Again, what to tell the kids? I think it is very much individual what each one will take out of it. For one thing they will certainly realize that kids are fun to be with, regardless of nationality. And that the world is not such a scary place. That it is just as possible to have happiness without all the trappings of modern stuff. But also that where we, the Douglas family, come from has changed more rapidly than this landlocked, uplifted nation surrounded by the worlds tallest mountains. And also that globalization is here to stay...

Should we feel guilt over the fact that Nepali don't have what we have? Not at all. They are just in a different stage of their journey. Also, should we help? That's always a big one for me to get my head around. One side of me feels that if someone is below me then it is my duty to lend a hand to pull them up. Of course that is my own westernized judgemental-ism about hierarchy, but I'm trying to be honest with myself about this subject so that I can figure it out. 

The other side of me has a bit more common sense. Help when appropriate, when possible, but it is not a duty. The people in Nepal are beautiful strong people who are on their own journey. Yes, their journey is linked to mine in the sense that we are all humans on the planet earth. We are all brothers in a way. But to suddenly advance a journey faster than it's meant to be on isn't right either. To every thing there is a time and a purpose. So our children hopefully will come away with a more global view on the world. With an appreciation for all those people who went before us to create the modern reality of the western world that we live in, but also for the journey of other people. And to respect that.

The projects that First Steps Himalaya are certainly something that I can get behind. It's about teaching the people to teach themselves. Teach the teachers to teach (not shout or beat) and the Nepali youth will find their own way. That way the future is placed in their own capable hands to mold it the way that fits them, not recreating something from another land.

Our children will always remember painting a classroom and teaching the local kids to play hopscotch. The big kids will remember the shouting of the non-progressive teacher and the time wasting of all the children sitting in classes with no teachers or books. If it inspires them to be a bit more thankful for what they have, then great. It will give us many a great dinnertime conversation that may not sink in, or may only percolate to come up later in life. But for me it has filled in a gap in the part of the world that I needed to see. And maybe that is all I need to say on the matter.

Enough of these philosophical wanderings.... back to the story. After all it is Nepali Mother's Day!

 

After finishing with the hopscotch we are invited to Durga's family's house to partake in a Mother's Day celebration. It's a spontaneous festival spirit. Durga only comes back to his village to visit his family a couple times a year. These people live in a little cluster of houses in the village, just down the hill from the school that we were just at. The houses are surrounded by their fields of corn, beans and onions. Next to their houses are shelters for their water buffalo, goats and chickens. 

His family, aunties, cousins, nieces are dressed beautifully in their traditional dress - happy bright red and green outfits dressed with smiling faces. There are no men here, they are all off working in the city or over seas. Many Nepali men leave Nepal for the Persian gulf taking the grunt jobs that no body else wants. Sweating on the tarmac in Kuwait to send home a few extra rupees, leaving the women to tend the fields, raise the kids and carry on with life.

We are invited into one of Durga's aunties houses. They sit us down and are so pleased to share their special feast day foods with us, treating us like visiting royalty. I am given a tikka, or blessing, for being a mother, complete with special red dot on my third eye. They serve us a mixture of baked sweat breads, sugar crystals and to drink, coca cola. Earthen floors with animals braying outside, it is a surreal experience!

One of Durga's nieces demonstrates how they grind rice into flour for cooking.

But soon we are off home to where our hosts have left us a lunch of vegetable soup and deep fried rice bread. Jin Kari, our hostess has gone to visit her mother to honor her for mothers day, one of only two days a year she will be able to see her. Sumi, the daughter of the house, plays hostess and the girls spend hours with her visiting friends, playing in the bushes and even getting their own Tikka's. Juliet gets so dirty that everyone jokes she has become Nepali!

Sadly for me this was my last meal for awhile....

Clara and Juliet receive Tikka's from Sumi, our host's daughter

Sisters

The Buddha's revenge that has plagued Randall on this trip hits me sudden and hard. Within an hour from when I was happily playing with the village kids to suddenly rushing to the out door toilet/shower where I make myself a home. Ugh. I'm a wreck. This would be one situation where it would be very nice to have a toilet in the room. Oh well, my reality morphs from fetal position on the bed, to the sound of the world coming in through the the cement walls and tin roof of the outdoor dunnie. As it gets dark I am only vaguely aware of the raging lightning storm in the hills around us, while the stars burn brightly above us. 

It's going to be a long night. Hello reality!

Nepal Adventure - Purple Paint, Children and Flowers

Nepal Adventure Day 13 - Purple Paint, a Trip to the Stone Age and Flowers

The sun seems to beam into the room straight from the mountains this morning. Bright and early. That's one thing this trip, we are certainly living with the sunlight. Early to bed and early to rise. Not a lot of distractions to keep you from listening to your rhythms.

After breaking our fast with fried eggs and roti bread the kids and I squeeze into Durga's truck, grown ups in the front and kids in the back. Randall is going to spend the day alone recovering. We are off to help out in the First Steps Himalaya classrooms.

I've mentioned before the school system in Nepal is really a new concept here, only starting in the 1950's, so you can imagine it is in it's infancy. The first school that we stop at briefly is a state school and recently the  Germans have built some sturdy classroom blocks. They have provided a big clean school building for the students to attend, but as with all the schools in Nepal the teachers are either lacking or inept. 

First Steps Himalaya, Fionna and Durga's grassroots charity, is all about the teacher education. As with most of the schools that they have approached they have started in this school by starting up a preschool classroom. The deal with the school is that FSH provide the trained teacher, the materials and in some cases clean up and paint the school rooms and the school takes on board the more modern teaching practices. (Standard practice is still the cane, shouting and rote learning.)

               

We don't stay long here as there are a few children who are quite scared of the blue eyed blond people, with one hiding and crying over these scary monsters suddenly appearing in her life. 

                              

So we are off to stop in the larger town nearby to buy paint for the classroom that FSH is opening up at one of the other schools. Our mission for the day is to clean the room up and get it ready for the class to move in to. 

The town is busy with the people getting ready for their day. The paint shop is dead in middle of the town. We park and haggle for a while about what color to get. In the end the girls talk us into purple.
                                      

As we wait for the paint to get mixed we wander around the town. Gone are the touristy shops selling singing bowls and souvenirs. Here is the nitty gritty of life. An alleyway blocked up with chicken wire and filled with white chickens, stalls selling fly covered sweets, some shops with clothing and fabric, and a couple of jack of all trade shops. The staring is intense. We are well off the beaten tourist track so the paint shop gets quite full with the bolder curios by-passers.

Armed with our cans of purple paint we throw the kids into the back of the truck and head off to the school. We are greeted by the headmaster and the new preschool teacher. And straight into it we get. First it's a matter of taking out the old matts, we find a scorpion and heaps of spiders. Luckily my manly son saves me from any of the creepy crawlies. The filth is appalling. 

As the day goes on we get the classroom cleaned up and ready to go. And it's time to get the paint ready and let the kids go for it. They do a fabulous job painting the walls. Rolling out the purple walls certainly takes this cement block from dingy into somewhere you'd be happy to have a child come into. I'm so proud of our kids just rolling up their sleeves and getting straight into it. I hope that someday they will look at the things they have, and the resources of their own schools and not just take it for granted. 

Some of the materials that we brought with us from Kathmandu, and that our friends back in New Zealand sponsored, will be sorted out and used to get this classroom up and running. I'm sure the little people going in here will feel the love, rather than feel as though they are just small inmates being shouted at. 

Pretty soon there is nothing left to do and we leave as the school children stream out of the school and head home for their lunchtime meals.

We stop at a little hole in the wall family place - I hesitate to say restaurant - for lunch. They provide us with several big plates of momo's - the traditional dumpling-like food that many families eat here. These particular ones are filled with a super spicy onion mix that gags us all! Luckily I spy a couple of cokes and buy those to keep the troops going. The kids think that I've grown two heads allowing them to share a coke. But at least it's not spicy and it's safer than anything that might have come into contact with the water here! 

Hiking into the countryside in search of our next school

And we are on to the next project. This one is in a dramatically rural area. We drive down a one laned dirt road and through rice fields for ages before finally stopping at a mud house. This house belongs to an elderly lady in the village who has taken a couple of orphan children into her care. These children are sponsored by FSH and Fiona and Durga are here to bring school clothes and books for these children. The lady who lives as basically as the poorest of our ancient ancestors live invites us in to see her house. The ground floor is a large room that houses her animals in the cold of the winter and up the dark wooden ladder to the earthen floored upper story where the family live. It's striking that she is living like the Vikings would have lived 2,000 years ago.

Mainstream students trying to make the most of their school time, even without a teacher.

Liana creating a little fun in the FSH preschool classroom

From her house we walk down through the rice fields to finally reach the village school. This, being a poor village and in the remotest part of Nepal as well has a hard time finding teachers, let alone quality teachers. When we arrive there are eight classrooms filled up with grubby children. Only two teachers total can be found in attendance. At the far end of the block is a little FSH classroom that has been started recently. We let the kids decorate their room and Juliet has a ball entertaining some of these small children teaching them how to put together a puzzle that we have brought with us from a friend in New Zealand. Liana  in particular gets very involved in the painting. While Jaimie and Liam roam about the school checking it out. I follow suit (my artistic skills are pretty minimal to say the least) and am really quite shocked at the state of the school. What is the point of these older children attending so called school if there are no books, no teachers with ridiculously poor hygiene? 

I do get that it is a culture in transition, leaving it's basic traditional life behind and wanting to start keeping up on a more global scale. Education is the natural step, but for us, watching from the outside it can be frustrating to watch the baby steps.

And finally it's time to head back to our lodgings and our awaiting dinner of Dal Baht. It takes us quite a few hours of winding single lane roads to get back to Gyan's house, but we are welcomed with Sumi's smiling happy face! The girls race off with her to play with the baby goats and pick berries. They arrive home with tales of Sumi's grandmother, goat stories and covered in dirt. It's all good. They have been adopted as members of the family.

Back at Gyan's House resting after a long day at the schools....

During dinner a large group of army officers stop by. At first Randall and I exchange worried looks. Not too ago Nepal was gripped in a bloody and awful civil war between the Maoists and the Government for ten years. The peace is now kept by the military and these road gangs of military men are common. But it's our first encounter with them. They soon settle in and are drinking tea with us as if nothing was amiss. It turns out that one of them is related to Gyan's wife and this is a fairly regular occurrence. Sigh of relief.

So, it's been a busy and enlightening day. I've enjoyed every moment of it (apart from the spicy momo's) and look forward to what tomorrow will bring. I'm so very happy to know that my wonderful husband is upright and on the mend. 

With the taste of Dal in my mouth I'm writing this in the dark (no electricity of course) listening to the night sounds. Far in the distance I can see the lighting playing along the mountain tops. I feel a million miles from my snug home in New Zealand, but also feel very much at home burrowed into my sleeping bag in this little throw back to the way the world used to be.

Goodnight!

Rural Nepal Here We Come - From Pokhara to Village Life in Mulkharka

Nepal Trip Day 12

From Pokhara to the First Steps Himalaya Project 

Today we were up bright and early for our flight back to Kathmandu. It was muggy even at 8:15 a.m. when we were packing in to the van for the airport. 

At the Pokhara Airport waiting for our flight!

The rescue helicopter that we saw while on the Annapurna track rescuing hikers from the Annapurna Base Camp

Randall was particularly withdrawn this morning, but when we got to the airport it became evident that he was sick again, and much worse this time. While the rest of us enjoyed the scenic flight back to Kathmandu and views of the snowy peaks out our window, he was barely hanging on, trying valiantly not to use his air sickness bag.

We arrived with a little dread into Kathmandu domestic terminal. Such a madhouse, but with Durga on point and the kids on bag duty we managed to get everything on trolleys and out into the car park.  Not for the first time on this trip we are so glad that we have a local guiding us. Navigating this system as a foreign woman with a bunch of kids on my own would be stressful to say the least.

following the car with all our bags through the outskirts of Kathmandu

But travailing Nepali style will always have it's challenges. The 4wd car we are using to get to the next phase of our adventure is stuck in traffic - leaving us to wait in the hot car park watching monkeys climb along overloaded power lines and guarding our baggage from ambitious taxi drivers trying to get our fare. Poor Randall. Sigh, it's all part of travel.

Once both the cars arrive we pile in and head off onto the "Tibet Road" towards the project villages, thankfully skirting downtown Kathmandu and the worst of this chaotic town. At least we are acclimatized and ready for it now!

heading into the hills - local bus service... I like the natural air conditioning!

One thing you really get the feel of in Nepal is the amount of Western Money that has poured in here. It's big business. All improving the lot of the country, but it seems a bit strange to drive along a road leading to Tibet that is built by the Japanese, past buildings built by the Germans and later through a forest that was replanted by the Australians and heading to a school project mainly funded by New Zealand. Nepal is like many developing countries where there are an abundance of eager aid projects ready and willing to lend a hand to bring the third world up to scratch. But does it do any good?

We shall see. It seems that "progress" is certainly inevitable. And, in principle, I am definitely for uplifting the plight of the poor where possible, but my personal jury is still out on the blanket aid that takes money from the west and dumps it into a country that isn't ready for it, or doesn't know how to use it. It seems to create a nation of beggars, rather than uplifting their plight. And who doesn't want to have pride?

I'm not fully getting that feeling here in Nepal, and one of the things that attracted us to the First Steps Himalaya project is the grass roots aspect. They're whole focus is on teacher training and empowering the locals with a good Nepali educational system. Not fancy things, but fundamentals. We shall see if it can do anything to make me feel better about the modern concept of charity.

buying some last minute fruit before heading into the hills north of Kathmandu

We drive out of the city of Kathmandu and soon the suburbs fall away as we wind through the mountains and past increasingly rural towns. The smog and congestion gives way to rice fields and the traditional mud brick houses. After three hours of winding our way through the back roads and up into the hills we finally stop at the First Steps Himalaya flagship project.


The husband of one of the teachers has laid out a lunch of spicy pumpkin soup that we eat on the clay floor of his house. And Randall finally gets to rest in their spare room. He's done well to hang on this far!

Once we are done with the soup, the kids, Fiona and I walk up to the local state run primary school. It is an interesting thing to ponder that education has only been legal in Nepal since 1953. Before that it was illegal and reading and writing was strictly for the upper or ruling class. When Nepal started opening up to the outside world the westerners brought their ideas of education for all, changing the cultural dynamic here forever. But although the idea that all children should get an education has arrived, the knowledge of how to actually teach hasn't shown up yet. And the adult literacy rate is still only 60%.

As we walk up the dusty road the children are all just returning from lunch and our kids cause quite a stir. We are WAY far off the tourist track and to have a bunch of blond and red headed children to gawk at is irresistible. At the end of the road is a school of concrete classrooms with wooden shutters. The children all pour in to their allotted classrooms, presentable in their official blue uniforms.

Ever the intrepid adventurer Clara wants to jump right in by herself and we leave her in a small cement box classroom with the other children her age. She only lasts a few minutes before coming to find us. Liana, Liam, Jaimie and Rhona go into the year eight class who are studying science. In fact, the teacher is actually shouting facts at the children who are obviously used to this and aren't paying much attention. None of our kids last long and soon we walk down the hill to the preschool that sits below the state primary school. Here is something more along the lines of what we westerners are familiar with. 

Liana, Liam and Jaimie join in a year 8 science class at the local school

First Steps Himalaya have done a good job of setting up a preschool here on site and as part of their strategy of working their way up, have recently taken the year ones down to their building and paying for a trained teacher as well. The idea is to build up one year at a time. The biggest thing is to educate the teachers on how to teach and they are trying to lead by example, showing what proper teaching can achieve at a preschool and year one level will hopefully trickle upwards. Seems basic but it's got to be first steps just as their charity's name implies. Smart.

Clara and Juliet have a ball joining in the year one class. Juliet leads them in a song and Clara assists in the English lessons. It just goes to show that all children have something in common, it's only as we age that we layer the judgmentalism of our cultures onto our view of the world.

Clara and Juliet enjoy their afternoon in the FSH flagship preschool classroom

We spend the most part of the afternoon here, but the hall of the mountain king is rumbling again and the nearby mountains are threatening us with another deluge. We need to get moving, before the rainstorm keeps us from getting to our accommodation for the night. Think - all dirt roads from now on.

Hiking back through the village we stop for a quick peek at the flour mill where ladies haul up huge bags of rice from their farms to be turned into flour. The lesson for the kids was big when it comes to how much work these people put into just the daily necessities of life. And that this is not very far removed from what village life would have been like for our ancestors as well.

Grinding rice into flour

Covering the hay before the nightly rainstorm

We return to the cars to find Randall somewhat improved after a long lay down and we continue on to the turnoff to Mulkharka, the (even more remote) village where we are to be staying with a local family. 

At the turn off we walk the rest of the way while the one car takes all of our bags (the non 4wd wouldn't make it down the rutted dirt road) it's a twenty minute walk and we are followed by the local children and some young women curious about these strange foreigners in their very closed neighborhood. We must look so strange to them. The girls are dressed so beautifully in their colorful dresses. They shyly wave at us and giggle when we try to speak to them.

Finally reaching the house of Gyan Tamang, our host in Mulkharka

The family we are staying with are absolutely lovely. Gyan is of Tamang descent, a tribe that immigrated over the Himalaya's from Tibet many years before. His house is traditional in every way. It is obviously the families pride and joy to have this house and it is pristine and the food is amazing. Dal Bhat of course! The kids are spread out through the bedrooms and Randall and I get a comfortable room up the ladder on the second floor, above the kitchen. There is a cement outhouse behind the house that boasts a western toilet and even a hot shower!

From our window we can look down the valley at the terraces of crops. Not too far below us is another little farmlet which belongs to Gyan's parents. Gyan and his wife have a son who is in Kathmandu and a daughter of ten. She is home from boarding school for the occasion of having western house guests. Her name is Sumi and Clara, Juliet and Sumi are instantly best friends!

The night brings thunder and lightning and with no power brings the evening to an early close. We all keep our flashlights near so that we can navigate the wooden ladder in the dark. The sounds of the night surround us and lead to a dreamless sleep...

Tomorrow we will be working in some of the more impoverished schools. 

Goodnight.