It took a little while, but Lok and I were able to go to Nalang village development committee in Dhading this weekend (June 13/ 14 2009) for an exploratory visit. It was a great pleasure to see Lok’s hometown, meet his family members, and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the Dhading countryside.
Some pictures of the visit can be found here.
Even though Nalang might be a beautiful place to visit, life is not easy.
Dhading district is located in Nepal’s central region, the same region where the capital is located. According to the latest census, the district has around 340,000 inhabitants. These inhabitants are somewhat mixed in terms of their culture, religion and language. The largest groups are the Brahmins and Chhetries (Hindu people who traditionally live in the hill areas), janjati (a diverse group of indigenous people) and Dalits (so called lower caste people). The majority of people are Hindu, but around a quarter is Buddhist.
The area has one hospital, two primary care centers, and five doctors. Unfortunately, only 44% of the population is literate, and only 43% of the population has access to a toilet. One out of twelve children dies before s/he reaches the age of five. Nalang, which lies in the middle of this large district, has no health post. The nearest hospital (the district hospital) is around three hours walking away for most people. Recently, the government has started placing poles to hang electricity wires, but most people until this moment do not have electricity.
To visit Nalang we followed the Prithvi highway, named after the king who unified Nepal in 1769, king Prithvi Narayan Shah . This road splits near Dhading where a large bridge leads over the Trishuli river (the Trishul is Nepali for the trident that the Hindu God Shiva carries, just like Neptune). The road winds its way up through the hills, where our first stop was at Lok’s sister's farmhouse. There we had a meal of dal bhaat – rice with lentils and vegetables -, ate fresh honey and milk, and discussed the monkeys who come from the forest to steal the fruits at her family’s farm. After around an hour more we arrived at the bottom of Nalang, the part which touches the road, from where our walk into the hills started.
We walked for around two/three hours until we reached the Sri Jaleshwari primary school. Still dripping with sweat caused by the high humidity of the rainy season we went to visit the school, which was empty on the Saturday holiday. The first impression I had was that the school very badly needs rebuilding. The stone and mud walls show strong damage, the tin roof has some very large holes, and in general the place looks old and feels very warm on the inside. Not exactly the best place to start your future in education.
Around another one hour walk got us to Lok’s house. Besides the sounds of the magpies and the occasional cry of a cow, buffalo, or goat, we suddenly heard a bulldozer. This bulldozer is currently used by the villagers to continue flattening of the hills in order to prepare for a road being built. Unfortunately, the bulldozer broke down a few minutes after we arrived.
After fresh bananas and yoghurt, the exchange of gifts with Lok’s parents, and a look around the lovely farm, we met one of Lok’s brothers; Ram. Ram was central in the establishment of Sri Jaleshwari school and was teaching there in the beginning. As he is the only teacher with a Masters degree in the area, he is now teaching in the higher secondary school closer to the top of the hills of the family house. With him we discussed more thoroughly how best to approach the school community about the plans to rebuild. As first steps we would like to discuss plans with the two teachers, the school committee, parents of the children, and other interested parties. Together with this group an estimate can be made of the costs of re-building parts of the school. Then we need to wait until the end of the rainy season before any building can start. We are still a bit careful in making too many promises, as the villagers of the community have suffered false promises from outsiders before. One of the central ways in which we would like to work is by involving people closely in building the school. For instance, by involving them in the planning and asking them to contribute labor. If the school comes simply as a ‘gift from foreigners’, then people might not feel a sense of ownership. We feel such a sense of ownership is necessary for people to keep taking care of the school and keep it in a good condition. At the moment, an important choice to be made is which part of the school to rebuild (i.e. the left part with library and office, or the right part with the three classrooms).
On Sunday we visited the school again, but now it was filled with the 57 children that learn there. One class was learning numbers, while in the other class the children were learning English. We talked briefly with the male teacher who was there. Most of the children are from the Tamang community, a mostly Buddhist ethnic group that is spread over north-central Nepal who have their own language (also called Tamang). Of course the children were just as interested in us as we were in them…
The way back was a much easier walk downwards. Although the Nepali terraced landscape makes farming very difficult, it is a pleasure to walk through the corn fields and observe the preparation for the rice planting. That will probably happen after a week or so, when the rains start in earnest.
As I wrote just now, I am very happy we visited. It was very good to see the school and some of the community around it with my own eyes. Also, it feels very good that concrete planning has started. I am looking forward to visit again in around two months, at the end of the rainy season to see how the preparation is going.
