A terrible beauty 

You told me about the squat toilets 

You told me about getting the shits and not to drink the water 

You told me about the dirt and the back breaking roads. 

You told me about the poor food 

You told me about the smog and to wear a mask when in the city but 

You didn’t tell me about the heart-aching beauty  

You didn’t tell me about the sunset turning the mountains pink 

You didn’t tell about the green, the green terraces like a geometric jigsaw 

You didn’t tell me about the eagles soaring, wing-tips spread as they search for prey.     

You didn’t tell me about the groups of Nepali women like a flock of crimson flamingos 

No you didn’t tell me it all….  

Mero nam Terry ho!  

7 Weeks in Nepal (October – December 2016) 

Where it all began 

My journey to Nepal started in 2015 on the English Channel on board Challenger 2. The Challengers are seriously fast sailing yachts which were built in 2000 and raced around the world in the B.T. Global Challenge. A week learning the ropes, sailing in a force five wind, cooking in a galley with hardly room to breathe and a bunk the size of a coffin! It was fantastic, the wind in your face and an overwhelming feeling of freedom. It seems a funny place to start a journey to the Himalaya’s I know but it was on that boat that I realised that at 63 that I needed to start having adventures and testing my limits.   

Getting Started 

Back on dry land Steve mentioned the Rank Memorial Award. The Rank Foundation support an individual who has designed their own programme of learning around one of the Foundation’s key areas of interest:  Leadership, Care or Enterprise. This would include an element of working in an outside agency, preferably abroad. 

My proposal was to work in Nepal with women and enterprise. 

Why Nepal? Well, there had recently been a devastating earthquake, women were very poor, ill-educated and seriously second-class citizens. I also had a connection in Nepal through Soroptimist International.  

I did think long and hard, a seriously foreign country and without my other half but nothing ventured as they say. I did some research and made my application. Fingers crossed. 

 Short-listed and presentation 

Great news I have been short-listed, bad news can’t use PowerPoint for my presentation, however will I manage? A moment of inspiration, I’ll use objects to hold my story together. A horseshoe, a candle, a beaded purse, my OBE and my bus pass! I meet some of the Trustees and carry off my presentation and answer some additional questions, it’s all very pleasant and I enjoy myself. 

Back at Kings Cross it’s a lovely day so waiting for the train I have a crab and avocado sandwich and a G&T in the sunshine.  

 

Announcement and Preparation phase 

£4,500 award to spend 7 weeks in Nepal, wow so excited! Response from most of my family and friends, shock and horror “you can’t be serious?” my friends shout, what about earthquakes? Where will you go to the toilet? (the most commonly asked question) What will you eat? (the second most commonly asked question) What about kidnappings? (hadn’t thought of that). There is a lot to do, obtain a visa, get immunised against a variety of diseases, do some research, buy a rucksack and a sleeping bag. Oh! and let the local paper know. 

Week 1 

Introduction to Kathmandu and induction: 

Wow! it was Tihar: This festival of lights This festival lasts for five days and people worship Laxmi – the Goddess of Wealth. All the houses are cleaned and decorated with lit candles, oil lamps and other lights. During the five days, crows, dogs and cows are worshipped and daubed with vermilion. Mandalas are constructed in the streets and in doorways. It was an assault on the senses, Kathmandu that most exotic sounding of capital cities, was awash with noise and colour. As a treat I stayed at the Kathmandu Guest House which has seen many famous individuals staying, not least the Beatles and JFK. This did not prepare me for my home stay….. 

Induction, firstly I was quite put out to find there were 2 volunteers older than me, Daisy and George were 84 years old and had come from Canada to Nepal to support the training of teachers. The good news is that means I have at least another 20 years of adventures. 

I find myself with around a dozen volunteers from all corners of the globe (why do we use that phrase, it’s not as if the world is square?) Young French men have come to build toilets, young Americans come to teach English in Buddhist monasteries, young Antipodeans to teach women’s empowerment classes, a young Japanese girl to work in a nursery and an English and South African couple come to Nepal via China to teach in local schools, these are just some of the wonderful people I meet.  We learn basic Nepalese words, get loads of hygiene warnings and instructions not to ride on the top of buses. We also firm up on our intended activity and I had signed up for empowerment and women’s enterprise training. Next stop Tinpiple and Rama’s house.  

 Weeks 2- 5 

Home Stay  

After a very bumpy hours ride out of Kathmandu, heading north, dropped off at what I would describe as a modest dwelling. We are warmly welcomed by the family especially their 11-year-old son Navin (another CR7 fan!) who becomes chief translator. 

A routine quickly becomes established, chocolate biscuit and black tea for breakfast and daal baht in a pack up and a walk down the mountain. 

Evenings consist of playing cards with Navin who is quite the little card shark, an occasional tune on his guitar, more daal baht and reading the kindle after lights out at 20:30    

The work 

Women’s empowerment classes in the sun on the path – communication skills, collecting payments from villagers for the cooperative. (A seriously lung testing walk from Tinpiple). 

Most of my time is spent working with Tina, a young Austrian woman putting together a fundraising proposal for the Jitpurphedi Women’s Agricultural Cooperative. We work in the VIN office or in a small hut in a nearby hotel with fantastic views over the valley.   We meet with the Cooperative’s President and meet with the architect from Kathmandu and we measure the land and photograph the land registry document. We write to past volunteers and get over £1200 in before we leave. We shoot a short video and draft a very comprehensive proposal – fingers crossed, the women are inviting us back for the opening of the building. 

weeks 6-7 

The holiday part, after all that hard work need a well-deserved break and we embark on 10-hour drive to Pokhara one of the best adventure locations in the world. We stop along the way at Bandiphur, a medieval mountain kingdom. A beautifully kept village with no cars or bikes allowed and oh an another amazing and seriously lung testing walk up to the temple where, to quote The Who, you can see for miles and miles and miles. 

My activities in Pokhara break down into 3 sections 

1 Yoga, Purna yoga retreat, can’t recommend a yoga retreat enough. woken at 05:30 with the sound of a Tibetan Singing Bowl, hot herbal tea and an hours stretching, followed by a banana and more tea with an hour of yoga before breakfast  

2 Being a tourist , visit the World peace temple and resting place of Buddha, buying yak blankets, drinking Tom Collins (not exactly a local drink!) 

3 Being adventurous, white water rafting, para gliding and zip lining 

Coming back home 

I was so happy to get home and see the family, Facetime is good but does not replace the real thing. I was really surprised that it took me longer to get back into the groove than it had readjusting to life in Nepal. Didn’t help that it was Christmas coming up with all that food, drink and sweet stuff after a fairly abstemious few weeks. Nor that the skies were grey, people’s clothes were grey and no-one said Namaste. 

So what…..  

Well it is all very interesting tripping off around the world with other people’s money but what difference did it make to me, to them to the UK? 

• I know I want to continue to have adventures 

• I fell in love with Nepal and its people and have resolved to support the women of Jitpurphedi by raising the money to construct the cooperative  business centre. 
• I am also supporting VIN through Friends of VIN UK to promote volunteering to Nepal with VIN.  

If anyone is interested in supporting the people of Nepal, either through volunteering or contributing in other ways. Believe me it will be great.    

http://friendsofvin.uk/about-us/ 

https://www.volunteersinitiativenepal.org/ 

 

We wake to the clatter of tin pans

To the sound of hawking and spitting

To the blaring of lorries horns

We wriggle an arm out of the sleeping bag and check the phone

Six, twenty it says

We wriggle back inside until we have to get up and pee.

We get a cup of black tea to start our day

We get a lunch box for sustenance mid-day

We get a wave goodbye, “see you at sunset” they say

How to describe the daily trek down the mountain

How to describe the terror of the great trucks hurtling towards you

How to describe the clouds of dust and diesel and the gritty feel on your teeth

How to describe the bikes and cars freewheeling to save fuel

And all the time the constant blare of horns

Get out of the way they say

Get off the road they say – but there is no path

Get out of the way I am coming around the bend

Get out of the way, it is my road

Get out of the way I am overtaking, a road made for one

And sometimes to say hello

We stop at the Temple and sit under the Peepal tree

Are we becoming enlightened, are we becoming like Buddha?

No just stopping to eat our lunch for breakfast

We look over the valley, the most beautiful valley I have ever seen

We see fork-tailed pariah Kites circling lazily in the sky looking for their next meal

We wave to the children on their way to school

What is your name?

Where are you from?

How old are you? They all ask, the same questions every day.

Beautiful brown eyes, beautiful smiles

So cute in their school uniforms

So interested in the strange white women sat under the Peepal tree

We resume our walk, dodging buses, dodging, lorries, dodging motor bikes, dodging nasty prickly seeds that stick to your clothes.

Tinpiple comes in sight, six roads converge

Bikes, trucks, rubbish everywhere.

We make for the local café

50 Rupees for a hot milky coffee whilst waiting for the bus, best drink of the day

And we will do it all again tomorrow.