Water and Power

Water is becoming a real issue. It isn’t due to rain for another few months and the hydro and town supply lakes are low. Each house has a tank connected to the town supply that should be filled regularly. However, we are getting about 2 hours of water once a week we think. We ran out last week so had to get a tanker to come and give us more. We are very low again now so showers are getting even shorter – think we can both shower in 2 minutes now. As well as the low water the load shedding of the power system has now increased to 11 hours of power cuts a day. Today the power was cut from 5am to 11am and 5pm – 11pm. I’m not complaining as the wedding next door has just lost it’s sound system so the repetitive Nepali music has finished for the day!!! We get power on a Saturday evening but often parties and weddings drain the system so much that there are frequent cuts anyway!!! Surges are frequent and one must use a volt guard on fridges, computers etc. We didn’t bring one so had to get one here. We got the best, most compact locally made one available – check out the photo!!!

Bikes

We have bought bikes to get around here. They weren’t the cheapest available but they weren’t the most expensive either. They are 18 speed but haven’t got suspension although the roads here are like mountain biking trails in NZ! We road them home from the shop and then for another ride one afternoon after which Mark had to tighten almost all the bolts holding his one together only to find all the ball bearings in the rear cluster missing and the bike not working next time he went to get on it. The shopkeeper even looked surprised!!!

We are really enjoying being on bikes and being able to get around cheaply. Today we went to the tourist part of town for a ride and twice we were stopped by police to get one side of our wheel sprayed as we went through a bird flu area!!!!

Schooling and Youth Group

We are really settling into Pokhara and loving it here. It is an incredibly beautiful place. We have been living in a house with two other couples from the mission. They have now left and we are in a six bedroom house on our own!! There are lots of people who come through for meetings and they will stay here. Anyone reading this is also welcome to stay!!!
One has to talk about schooling and youth group here. There are now to be no complaints about what it is like in NZ.
Parents and students have the choice of going to either a private or public school. Anyone who can pays for their children to go privately as the quality is much better than the public system. The private system, minus Nepali lessons, is taught in English. In the public schools it is all taught in Nepali.
The children in the public school start going when they are 5 years old and can go up to school leaving certificate which is 15. They don’t have uniforms.
The private schools start at 3 years of age and then formal education starts at aged 6. They start exams at the age of 10 which they have to pass in order to go up to the next class. Once you have achieved a school leaving certificate at aged 16 you can then do another two years of education not available in public schools to get a higher school leaving certificate that enables you to attend university. The parents are told that in order for the children to pass their exams when the child is a teenager they have to attend the boarding school. If the children don’t attend the teachers ignore the students ensuring that they fail. Boarding fees are expensive and hard to parents to pay. They have uniforms similar to Catholic schools in NZ from the age of 5.
In both systems school starts at 8.30 to 9am and goes until about 3pm after which most students have tuition in order to pass the exams they have to sit. They attend school 6 days a week although Fri is only from 9am until 1pm. There is no school on Saturdays which here is the day that people attend the temple or church.
Youth group starts at 6am on a Saturday with a bible study. Teaching begins at 8.30 and then the youth join in the main service at 10am. There is often a bible study during the week as well.

Shopping

Well. I must tell you about shopping here as it is very different to NZ. I have found some supermarkets which is great as they have shampoo, toilet paper etc.

To get the buffalo milk one must go to the corner diary in the morning. If you go at night it is a lot more expensive as they have paid for the storage and that requires a generator to provide back up power as the power is off so often. As they use water to make it go further it needs to be boiled before being drunk.

To get fruit and veges one goes to any number of people sitting on the street. You plck the produce you like the look of and the tell him how much you wnat – your options are 200gm, ½ kilo or a whole kilo. They then hold up the old school balance scales and weigh your produce against a weight. If it doesn't weight enough you add say another apple. You then pay the set amount which seems to involve what one INF’er called skin tax – tax for not being Nepali. Therefore our didi (homehelp) does most of the shopping to get the best deals.

I had to go clothes shopping today. To do this you walk into a shop and pick a fabric that you like for your top, pick a fabric for your pants and another for your shawl. However, you sit down on a stool and they bring the fabric to you – very fast. Before you know it you have 20 or so different fabrics in front of you as you try to work out which colour combinations you like. You then take your material to a taylor who measures you up and makes your clothes. An top, pants and shawl costs about $40 all up.

To get a cell phone you have to fill out a form which includes adding a passport photo of you, signing it with your name and thumb prints and drawing a map of your house as there are no street names or numbers here, just names of major intersections and major roads – therefore drawing a map is the same as saying I live at 44 Pembroke St, Invercargill!

Some shops you barter at and others you don’t. You soon learn which is which but also having Nepaliu language skills brings the price down a lot.

Our first week in Kathmandu

Well, we have survived our first week and it has been a lot of fun.

We started off at Matt and Liz Watson's house - another INF couple from NZ. They were a real blessing and it was great to spend time with them to learn how to do basic stuff like how to cope when the power goes out, how to live without drinking the water out of the tap etc.

We then moved to Goshen house, a lovely guest house near the INF office. We have been fortunate to be joined by another couple from UK who are also undergoing orientation and then they are working in a medical camp in Surkhet, west Nepal.

One must talk about the roads here. The main roads are sealed and then back roads are only sealed if the owner wants it to be, and they pay for it. Therefore, you get random bits of sealed and the rest is dirt/rocks/bricks etc. The road is used by everyone and thing, motorbikes, cycles, cars, buses, trucks, tankers, tuk tuks, people, dogs, cows..... They generally drive on the left but the centre line isn't painted and moves around to suit those on the road. There aren't footpaths so people walk on the road. One lady from here got knocked over last week as the vehicle was so close to her it caught her handbag and pulled her over injuring her head.
The most important part of a vehicle is the horn and this is used to warn other road users they are coming, therefore when you get to an intersection you don't look - just beep your horn and pull out! The number of near misses I (Jo) find staggering.

The water is very low in the hydro dams so the government has started what they call load shedding which is scheduled power cuts totaling 63 hours per week at the moment and the length of time is set to increase. This impacts everything. You go to a cafe and can't get coffee as they can't work the expresso machine. We need to get passport photos and can't as there is no power.

Water is also very limited so although you have hot showers you have to wet yourself, turn the water off and soap down, turning it only only to wash off. Mark is struggling to clean his razor when showering!

We both have bad hayfever due to the dust everywhere. Rain isn't due for months so we best get used to it!!!

We are off to Pohkara tomorrow to start language training tomorrow. We are taking a bus there which should be fun. No doubt we will have some more video for you!



Jaimaste

We're finally here, Nepal put on a great welcome for us, the Himalayas were looking splendid. We couldn't decide which one is Everest but they made the Southern Alps look like sand dunes. We landed at the airport and then spent the next hour nervously waiting for six Nepali immigration officials to decide if we should be allowed in or not. They didn't seem to accept our Visa and we ended up coming in on a tourist visa.

Once we'd cleared customs we were greated by some of the INF crew and we had our first experience of Nepali roads. Apparently it was a public holiday so the roads were "quiet".

While they technicially drive on the left there are no lane markings and as the general rule is big is best and whoever has the loudest horn. The streets are filled with cars, truckes, tuk tuks, motorbikes (driver wears a helmet and children ride without one), elephants, dogs, cows, bikes and people.

We then were wisked off to a medical clinic where we had three more vaccinations. I love being a pincushion!

We went to church today as Saturday is their holy day. We recognised a few songs that we knew from New Zealand that they were singing in Nepali. Otherwise we sat and pretended to laugh when everyone else laughed and said AMEN with everyone else and didn't understand a word! The Nepalis there were very friendly and pleased that we could extend a Nepali greeting to them so started talking to us in Nepali which drew a blank look from us!

We are staying with Matt and Liz, another couple from Wellington living in Kathmandu and working with INF. They have a beautiful house that they have really made their home with a great paint job and lovely furniture, a lot of which they have had made for themselves. We have the guest room upstairs which has great views.

We didn't get much sleep last night as most houses have dogs to protect them (despite every house having a dog the Nepali's are scared of them!!) and they decided to have a 'bark off' at 4am. The roosters then started and then the motorbikes - if we closed our eyes we could've sworn we were at the farm. Then the handbells started with the ladies walking down the street offering their puja - daily morning sacrifice to their Gods. They ring the bell to let the Gods know that they have left their sacrifice.

The guest room has a fluch toilet which we are excited about and we went to the supermarket and found drinking chocolate so for now - Jo is happy!

Please pray for us as the task of learning the language now appears very very daunting and so necessary. We leave for Pokara next Friday to start this after more orientation here.

jaimaste

Well its finally happening, we're sitting in an internet cafe in Singapore on route to Nepal. We're at the internet cafe because our hotel wanted to charge us $27 for internet access, $1 at an internet cafe sounds much better to me.

We spent the day at the zoo today. It's very impressive, the favourite was definately the polar bear.

Our farewell tour around the North Island went well, we covered 2216 km over ten days but had a great time with family. We returned home to pack up the house. We were a little supprised how easily it fitted into a 3x3m storage unit with space to spare. So if anyone in New Plymouth is looking for somewhere to store some stuff get in touch we're happy to sub-let a couple of cubic meters!

Anyway time's about to run out, we're very excited about finally reaching Nepal.

God Bless
Mark and Jo