I arrived back in Delhi at the beginning of Feb after saying a tearful farewell to South India, to which I will definitely return before long. I flew from Chennai after my good friends Wil and Laura kindly let me sleep on their hotel room floor for a few hours before my flight. Arrived back in Delhi and it almost felt like coming home. The chaos, the pollution, the vast array of moving colours and the throngs of people negotiating their way effortlessly through every street and pavement only brought a smile to my face. I think I might feel this way only because Delhi is always just a stopover to somewhere new for me. From there I travelled to Dehra Dun and up to Purkal (the village where I'll be working for the next 6 months). I was welcomed with open arms by Mr and Mrs Swamy (who run the NGO) and started to get used to the incredible home comforts of delicious home-cooked south Indian food, a big cosy double bed, my own bathroom and two homely dogs to cuddle in the evening. Mr Swamy immediately got me working and involved in as much as possible. I have taught a few classes, been to a fundraising conference, revised the website, looked at the basics of budgeting, set up some meetings with the teachers and will do much more when I get back.
Now I'm in Khatmandu, in Nepal. I travelled over day and night by train to get to the Nepal-Indo border and since I had an unconfirmed ticket (the joys of the Indian Rail system!), I had nowhere to sit or sleep until about 4am so found myself drifting from edge of seat to corridor and occasional berth like a sleep-deprived ghost for most of the journey. The bus journey to the border was partly through some beautiful farming villages forgotten by time where we teetered along a dirt track just wide enough for 2 bicycles, and you had to lean to the opposite side to stop the bus from falling down the steep ditches on either side (felt like that anyway). At one point we stopped at a railway track waiting for a train to pass, and as I sat at the back and gazed out of the window, three little boys trundled past the bus and walked up a levelled pile of rocks next to the tracks. When they reached the top, they all sat in a row, pulled their pants down and proceeded to proudly defecate looking towards the bus whilst throwing the rocks to the floor. When they were done they simultaneously pulled their trousers up and continued on their merry way.
Crossing the border was relatively easy but there have been various problems here in Nepal with the upcoming elections looming. The road from the border to Khatmandu is closed with tankers being set ablaze etc., there are fuel strikes causing massive traffic jams, there are power cuts for about 8 hours every day and there is a general sense of uncertainty which you can feel in the air. So I spent a night in a rat dropping infested room by the border and headed to Pokhara at 6am the next morning. I met a jolly nice English couple on the bus and after a couple of nights recovering and enjoying the spotless hotel rooms and western comforts in peaceful lakeside Pokhara (like a land of plenty compared with India!), we embarked on a 4 day trek in the Annapurna area of the Himalayas. It was hard work at times, and I suffered a bit from the altitude when we reached above 3200 metres. On day 1 we reached our destination completely exhausted and were staying in a tea house in a small village. We all sat around the wood stove and warmed up whilst drinking tea and playing chess and I decided to put my shoes nearby to warm them up. Despite several warnings from our guide Krishna, I put them closer and closer until next thing I knew there was black smoke coming out from under my shoes. I grabbed them quickly and poured cold water over them. By some miracle only the toungue and the laces on one shoe were destroyed and the inside remained intact. Of course my shoe was now soaking wet, but we managed to dry it and repair it with a bit of gaffer tape and a new lace and I'm still wearing them now.
The views and landscape we explored was absolutely breathtaking, ranging from Lord of the Rings type forests to vast mountain peaks with epic waterfalls and gushing streams. I'll show you the money shot when I get back to Dehra Dun.
This evening I just got back from a documentary screening at the Khatmandu teaching Medical Hospital. I met the film-maker on the bus last night and he invited me to this screening that was for the local students. It was a film about the encroachment of Nepal's borders throughout history: first by the British East India Company and now by the Indian government. It was absolutely educational and I learnt that even the area where I'll be living in India was once part of Nepal. It was inspiring to see the reactions of the young students who all went away invigorated and more aware, full of questions and energy. I'll get a copy of the film to show those who are interested.
Off for dinner!
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