Kathmandu, Nepal
Posted by pertorkelson | Filed under Nepal
March 16-18 - I observed and assisted in a Basic ECD (Early Childhood Development) Teachers’ Training Program. The program was a six days’ program and a continuation from last year. The first three days, March 16-18, the participating teachers were trained and educated in various topics on how to deal and teach children in the classroom. The program is made for teachers taking care of children up to the age of five. The trainers who were educating the teachers have life long experience in the field of teaching children in their early years and even though I do have lots of knowledge about children, I have learned many new things and perspectives on how to deal with young children. I really enjoyed the first three days of the training; it was joyful, interesting, inspiring and challenging for the mind.
One day after the office last week, while I was on my way home, a young boy threw a water balloon on me. I spoke to the young boy’s friends shortly and they asked me if I wanted to play football, but I told them I would play with them some other time. I kept on walking towards home and got hit by another water balloon, some children where sitting up on a roof throwing down on the street. The reason for all water balloons were the holiday “Holi” which took place last week, it’s a festival where people throw water balloons and colors on each other.
About 15 minutes walk from my home I have a really good bookshop, Pilgrims Book House, even though I don’t engage to read in my leisure time I get inspired at looking at all the books about spirituality, Buddism, Tibet etc. I’m not a reader, I’m a man who looks at books. Hehe! Just across the street from the bookshop, there is a nice hotel called Himalaya Inn, I had my haircut there last week.
This past Saturday was a great day. It was the first day that I spent sightseeing since I arrived in Kathmandu and my friend Aalok guided me to a few sights. We met before noon outside a supermarket and started walking towards Durbar Square in Patan. I really enjoyed walking in these quarters, as the style of the Newari architecture is something new to me (the majority of the inhabitants in the Kathmandu Valley are Newaris). The temples, buildings and structural design around Durbar Square gave me a very special feeling. It’s really beautiful. After spending some time in and around Durbar Square, we then we took a taxi to Swayambhunath. It is a great Buddhist temple on a hill west of Kathmandu. The view from Swayambhunath looking over the whole Kathmandu Valley is astonishing, but I enjoyed the feeling better at Durbar Square. The sun was shining all day and it was warm.
Yesterday it was back to work as the Teachers’ Training Program continued. We also held the Training Program today and tomorrow will be the last day. I really enjoy learning on how to deal with young children; how to make them feel happy while learning, having joyful moments in the classroom and encourage their minds to create. It is all an inspiration to me.
One thing that needs to be mentioned is that I have to bend my back while washing the dishes and cooking, because the height of the basin in my kitchen is a little lower than usual, I think.
I’m always here…
Kathmandu, Nepal
Posted by pertorkelson | Filed under Nepal
I’m here now. A new life has started. I got a very special feeling when I landed at the Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu, I can’t describe it, but if felt different and new to me. A volunteer from the organization I’m working with picked me up at the airport. His name is Sudharshan and he escorted me to my new apartment, it’s a very cozy place I have got, I like it a lot, it more or less has everything I need. I’m staying on the ground floor of a family’s house and the family is really nice and friendly. The family consists of the father Sudhan, his wife Vinita (Vini), their son Saugat and at the moment there is also a nephew staying with them, Rijan, he is really nice and intelligent. My first impression of my home is great and I like it already.
The weather is much colder than in Dhaka, especially in the evening and nighttime when it can go down to as low as +10 degrees Celsius, but it’s getting warmer as time goes on.
On my second day in the Kathmandu Valley, I walked around together with Sudharshan in the district where I’m living; Lalitpur. We passed by a gas station and there were more than 150 motorcycles waiting in line to get fuel, Sudharshan told me that it’s common to wait minimum 6 hours and sometimes up to 10-12 hours to get fuel. He helped me with showing a supermarket called Saleways, it was a good one and they had all kinds of Himalayan products. Ejaculation? As we bought quite a lot of groceries we took a taxi home to my apartment in the area of Jwagal. It’s a very peaceful area and I really like it, it makes it easier to relax, it makes it easier to think, it’s just great. In the evening I was treated for dinner by Dhirendra, he’s the Country Director of ICRI-Nepal, the organization I’m working with. Together with his wife and daughter we all had a lovely dinner with introduction of each other and discussions about our work. It will be a true pleasure working with him and his colleagues.
One thing I would like to mention is that I have a couple of cable TV channels e.g. HBO, CNN, ESPN, BBC, Discovery Channel, VH1 etc. and that is really nice, so I can watch things like news, sports, TV-series etc. in my leisure time. Another thing I should mention is the load-shedding schedule for the electricity, everyday the electricity is shut off between 3-4 hours two times (which means 7-8 hours with no electricity every day). A good thing is that there is a schedule and they follow the schedule so it’s quite easy to plan the living. A third thing which is comfortable is the closeness of small grocery shops and some other small stores as well where it is possible to buy the most necessary things for the household, in 5 minutes I can walk to buy vegetables, bread etc.
A friend of Sudhan is living just across the street, his name is Raja, he’s a very nice man. I met him last weekend in his home and when I told him that I have studied social anthropology, then he brought out a book and showed me and immediately I told him that “I read this book in one of my courses in Stockholm University”, then he told that he is the one who has taken the cover photograph. What a small world! Here I am, talking and discussing Nepalese culture and language with a Nepali who has taken the cover photograph on a book I used in one of my courses during my education in the university. The cover photograph is showing a demonstration in Kathmandu in 1999. In the evening, that same day, I was talking to Rijan, he’s a very nice and intelligent young man, 16 years old. It’s been quite some time since I met someone this knowledgeable and he speaks very well English too.
On Sunday, last weekend, Sudharshan and I walked more or less the whole day. It felt like there was no end our walking. We first went to different telecom offices and after meeting with the Managing Director, he luckily sent me to one of the branch offices where I picked up my new sim card. It’s incredible, the waiting time to get a sim card is normally 6-7 months, they are not distributing any sim cards to people at the moment, but I was lucky enough to get one. But you know me, Mr. Charm himself. Haha! Anyway, Sudharshan and I continued walking as I had to run a couple of errands in different areas around the city and we also walked around in the touristy Thamel. We also had a late lunch in a nice shopping mall called United World Trade Center (UWTC).
At work: This week I have been working in the ICRI-Nepal head office, starting to get acquainted with the staffs and the work in itself. I really like everyone in the office and it feels great being here, it’s a new environment with new assignments and new challenges. It will take me, naturally, some time before I get a good overview of the work, and luckily I will be working both in the office and in the field as time goes on. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the head office lies in Sanepa, Lalitpur and it takes me approximately 35 minutes to walk to the office in a normal pace, which is a nice way to start the working day and finishing it as well.
I don’t have an Internet connection in my apartment, but there is an Internet café about 10 minutes walk from my apartment that I visit. The connection speed is not exactly like a rocket (6-7 kb/sec), but it’s the best possible option around.
One thing I have been thinking about this week are all the dogs running around in the streets here in Kathmandu, there are lots of street dogs and most of them seem to be suffering from different sicknesses. It’s sad to see.
Two days ago I had dinner with Aalok, a colleague of mine, after we had finished our work. I like him, we are joking everyday when we meet in the office, he’s one year younger than me. On the way to the restaurant he said to me; “Now we are going to have a candle light dinner, but I guess you would prefer to have a candle light dinner with Alexzandra instead”. Haha! (I laughed when I wrote this and thought about his joke)
Yesterday morning on the way to office I saw an elephant walking in the road, it was quite unusual to see.
Yesterday we had an Open House program in the ICRI-Nepal head office, and it was really nice to meet the different partner organizations, teachers and principals from schools, people from other organizations and institutions etc. I had interesting conversations with women and men representing different children’s organizations and I’m looking forward to meet the children and get to know the work of the member organizations of NCPD (Network for Children, Prisoners and Dependants). ICRI-Nepal is an umbrella organization for NCPD.
It has taken me more than 2 hours to upload the pictures and write this post. Do I have patience?