Nepal Photoma

Hi friends,

Kathmandu is a city full of live with 6.000.000 inhabitants. Poverty, dust and dirt everywhere. Traffic is really chaotic. Bikes, people, busses, cars, riksja’s and cows quarrelling to go ahead. No rules at all, even riding left is a big mess. Claxons are the only common language in the streets and on the routes. You have to cover your face to protect yourself from dust and pollution.
Poverty and misery are nearly bearable. So many homeless people, kids living on the streets and beggers. But also a lot of little restaurants with delicious food. I’m feeling guilty to visit them.
Twice a day, according to a fixed schedule, electricity fells out for three hours. Each day on different periods. This is so all over the country and is due to less water coming from the mountains to the electricity centrals in winter time. During summertime, they don’t have those problems. Everything is still frozen up there. But now, live goes on during power cuts with candle light and fire on the streets in the evening.
I’m going to my work by bike everyday. A dangerous trip of 30 minutes, my face completely covered except my eyes, not to breath dust and pollution. Each day a new challenge to arrive well at school.
The contact centrum where I’m teaching is situated in a very nice house out of the city center. It belongs to Yjoti, a great woman. Thanks to her, about 30 children from very pover families can go to the small class rooms she arranged for them.
The kids are between 4 and 12 years old. They never went to school before. They come to the contact center to improve their level so that they can go to normal boarding schools or government schools. It is a kind of transition school. They stay about a year before leaving.
We have two class rooms for 15 children. The youngest ones together and the older ones together. 26 girls and only 4 boys … Beside Yjoti, who is taking care of the house and the administration, also teaching in Nepalese, there are two more female teachers, Kumari and Sjama giving lessons in English from out primary schools books – mathematics, science, language etc … I’m taking over each class for an hour and pay especially attention to the kids who are starting and those who have some difficulties.
Charmina is the fourth of that wonderfull staff, cooking for all of us, the children included of course. Sober but nutritive meals … At 3pm school is finished. The kids are going home all alone, even the small ones and often barefoots. They got some homework that I have to correct the day after. But not a lot homework because a lot of those children have to take care of their little brothers or sisters when they come home. They really are all very eager to learn. They call the volunteers “sister”, but when I arrived on my first day with the presents I got from Belgium (most school furnitures), Kumari told the kids that I was a grandmom of 14 grandchildren calling me “oma”, they don’t ever say “sister” to me but “oma”. Drawnings from my youngest grandchildren are on the wall of the class rooms now !!!
On Friday, school ends at noon. No lessons on Friday, but only creative activities and a lot of singing and dancing. On Friday they also got a big delicious and rich meal because there is no school on Saturday. But on Sunday they have to go to school !!! In Nepal, Sunday is an ordinary day. Saturday is the weekly free day for everybody.
The children are waring an uniform given by Yjoti when they have the good luck to be admitted. Soon four girls of the second class will leave for a normal boarding school and four children of the first class will go to the second class. So four places will be free. Yjoti and her team are visiting the most pover families to recrute four new children. There has to be more women likeYjoti !!!!!!
It’s such a nice place to work, to see the tremendous happiness on those little faces. I got so much satisfaction and hope there.
After biking back to Kathmandu, I’m taking a shower (cold and brown water) to wash away dirt and dust. And each day, there is again the confrontation with the misery in the city.
Nepal is going deeply in my bones. Poverty without ending. But I’m still hoping that the tiny little help of each volunteer will improve slowly but surely life here …
Some more images from Nepal kids and my children in the contact center that I really want to help a little step further in a better future.
Sorry for my bad English …
Greetz to all of you !
Yvette

Newsletter - February 2, 2008