Blog entry five, staying alive (despite best efforts of earthquakes)

As I sit typing our second last blog entry in a cheap Bhaktapur internet café, the dull groan of the establishment's generator compensating for the characteristic lack of grid electricity, it strikes me that as a group, we have been in Nepal for exactly 80 days. While on first deliberation of our trip, considering the fantastic blur of thousands of experiences that constitutes our recollection, time appears to have flown by, and yet on a deeper inquest, the distance with which I recall life back home, combined with our absolute fluency in the Dulal village lifestyle, prompts me to truly appreciate just how long 80 days completely immersed in a new culture really is. The corn harvest has occupied much of the village community's energy as of late, with the green stalks that once coloured our view of the surrounding hills slowly receding, and children frequently calling in absent to class with afterward explanations that they were needed to help in the fields. 

Virginia and myself especially have been doing our best to assist with this laborious task, with the 25kg loads I managed to carry down from the fields at first seeming impressive, but were soon put to shame by Virginia's host brother's 50-60kg haul. 
On the weekend of September 10th and 11th we travelled into Kathmandu, staying at an unprecedentedly expensive and swanky hotel ($14 a night!) in order to celebrate Will's birthday. We surprised him with dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant on the other side of the city, which we had taken great lengths to track down due to it being his favourite cuisine. Back in the village on Sunday, the whole district population appeared to have heard of his birthday, and many congregated inside our house for a feast of chicken, rice pudding and various other delicacies (none consisting of dal baht, much to Will's delight). Even in my class, despite most never having met Will (he teaches at the other school), the next day my students shouted gleefully "Manley birthday!", and the lesson became devoted to writing out birthday cards, a personal favourite from one of my year 6 students reading: 'Happy birthday to yo Manlay sir. I am Deepak. I study in six class. I love Manlay sir but I love Aidan sir more'.

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With the conclusion of our placement drawing menacingly closer, priority during the last few weeks has been allocated to ensuring our fundraised money goes to good use. On a trip to Bunapur (the region's commercial hub) we invested in cement for roof repairs, carpet to cover the cold concrete floors in the nursery classrooms, new tables for rooms where children work on the floor, white boards to replace old and dilapidating blackboards, as well as paint for the peeling walls. 

Following this, much of our spare time after teaching became dedicated to painting the walls the bright shade of sky blue we had chosen, as well as assisting with concreting where we could. In addition to this, copious amounts of stationary (around 400 pens and pencils, 240 exercise books and 50 packs of colouring pencils), as well as a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste for each child were also purchased, serving to hopefully address future educational and dental wellbeing.

As many worried parents would I'm sure have pieced together from 3am news reports, an earthquake struck Kathmandu last week while we were precariously situated right in the heart of the capital. Elliot emerged from his shower very confused as to why the hotel was rocking back and forth, Will had to flee from a book shop he was perusing through as literature began to avalanche from the shelves, and I was stuck inside a cramped ATM cubicle mid-transaction. 

Later on, we read a hugely reassuring article on Nepal's preparedness in the incidence of such tectonic events, stating "in terms of human casualty risk, Kathmandu is billed as the most risk prone area in the world". Needless to say, when another potentially stronger aftershock was rumoured to occur some time during the night, sleep came quite reluctantly.

Ending on a more positive note, on a one night trip up into the mountains to Nagarkot, we awoke for the sunrise and were rewarded to our first real sighting of the Himalayas, which appeared in spectacular clarity, warmly illuminated by the morning sun. Until next time, Aidan.