bus

Bus to Arughat today and what a bus!

Scary and exciting, lovely scenery but no chance to photograph as too busy hanging on. Lunch was interesting and tasty.

Completely covered in dust on arrival and just had to buy replacement bag as one split. Looking forward to a cold wash!
tomorrow start walk to Manbu village, not too far so hip should cope. Wish my Nepal study had been more successful!

Nepal at last

Arrived early am yesterday sleepless admiring sunrise over the Himalayan foothills, immense  steep slopes clothed in felt - like green terraces, houses perched high on ridges and impassable looking paths wandering  for miles between fields and woods and bare and barren hillsides. A bit of a hiatus at the airport with late transport resulted in me being the only entertainment for half a dozen bored taxi drivers wanting to practice their English. A lovely girl, Pratikshya met me and escorted me to my hotel; (rather striking murals in hotel).

there was certainly no chance of me finding it on my own, and subsequent experience proved emphatically that taxi drivers can not find their way round Bakhtapur either.
She  walked me through the ancient centre of this historic town, purchasing the necessary permits for me as a foreigner to visit, then I was taken to Khatmandu to visit PHASE director Gerda who was working a shift in the CIWEC clinic for foreigners . This proved to be quite a smart looking facility on western lines, opposite the British Embassy and therefore in a quiet and clean part of Kathmundu.  Needing to do some shopping, another GP Kiran, and his wife Maria and I ventured into Thamel and braced the endless rows of shops and shacks selling very similar items to bargain our way through transactions. Returning to my hotel in neighbouring Bathkhtapur was an experience as the taxi driver had no idea where the hotel was so it was quite an adventure getting back! However everyone I meet is very polite and try to help. Coping with the chaotic noise and terrible roads and traffic is hard work! Food has so far been fine, hot water bottle a comfort, but the frequent power cuts difficult to deal with.here is the view from the hotel on a very quiet morning at breakfast

 

there is no chance of a street photo when it is busy as it takes all my energy to stay upright. 

Today I saw the new office of the charity  

for briefing sessions, Pratyskya thankfully came for me as I had No idea where to get the bus. As is evident the office isn't quite finished, here is how construction is done.....

I am off tomorrow to the villages, there are 2 of us going to different places with 2 PHASE staff accompanying us. Probably no wifi till 12th Feb.  Till then....

Not nepal

Nil to do with Nepal,  but I am now in Istanbul,

lovely warm weather, and I have enjoyed eating my way round the bazaar and having a turkish bath after a quick half day in the blue mosque

and Hagia sofia. You can see I spent a profitable hour with 2 young bored techy guys in Manchester airport,  blue tooth discovered!  However, still haven't found a way of getting photos from camera onto blog. A treat in store....

feverish friday

Ok folks,  my 1st attempt to get this post done on that.......tablet thing.

1. Happy to report that my hip is behaving well and accepting graduated training, so a total of 5 miles in slush on roads on Wednesday (punctuated by a lovely lunch and natter), and up and down Swansfell Pike yesterday, pilates and shopping fast today has all helped. Good thing I am not working with all this time spent exercising. Packing not so successful,
2. have spent an hour trying to get a photo from my tablet onto this blog;failed;frustrated.

timeline of preparations;

Have had a day off preparations today, relaxing,  but plenty of time to reflect on the timeline of this enterprise.

March 2014-inspired by Sarah's dahl and photo evening.

May-applied to volunteer with PHASE; also moved house.

June-informal interview and fact gathering morning  in a motorhome early on a wet Sunday on the banks of Ullswater!!

Booked on the training weekend in September. Also met Lakhpa Sherpa and his wife Pat- more info gathering, and started to try to learn nepali.

July- Chat about the projects with another volunteer. Also started 3rd job(locum) to help with funding trip.

August-bought tablet and started to try to use as will be useful for teaching on the project; what frustration technology causes me (and son)! Flights booked, committed.

September-fascinating and exhausting weekend in Ravenstor youth hostel in Derbyshire at PHASE weekend training; realised why I'd made no progress with nepali language and vowed to tackle the actual devangari script. Also started more serious walking to get fit enough to trek.

October-continued to train, 4 horridly wet walks; replaced leaking new boots, and leaking waterproof over trousers. Hip agony every time it sees steps or a hill, not looking too good....

November- mouse eaten strap of rucksac finally gave way; another new bit of kit to break in. No progress with Nepali.Hip problem necessitating lots of physio(££££)

December- Injection to hip bursa fantastic!! Pain free for first time in 2 months, but not allowed to walk for 2 weeks. Santa very generous-head torch, power monkey, gloves  and 7 pairs of socks. Had 3 delightful nepali lessons with Biparna; learnt a lot about Nepal but no progress with the language.

January-Back to physio as first serious walk (in rain) uphill set hip off again;determination creeping in, wonder if I will have to crawl to the village in Nepal! Less busy  as down to only 2 jobs so have time to download some  teaching materials onto that tablet thing.

Packing....

2nd attempt. no pictures this time

So, preparations so far have included;

1.trying to get fit to walk, thankyou U3A friends and other walking mates; and the gym ...;
2.acquiring warm clothing as I am expecting very cold temperatures, though apparrently not much rain; why is it that all walking equipment decides to fail at the same time new boots and rucksac beaten into shape?;
3.trying to learn Nepali-an impossibility, even after 6 months of battling the 'teach yourself book' and CD (have now got to page 35), videos on line, and 3 lessons from a lovely lady in Preston, and reams of paper covered with scrawls of the devangari script;
4.omitting my late night cup of tea-there is no way I am going to get up at night, get dressed and out to the hole in the floor in a hut in the middle of a village with no lights !! so bladder has been trained;
5.on the same theme, practicing the squat;
6.reducing the many and frequent snacks -there will twice daily dahl bhat tarkari and not much else;
7. attempting to learn how to use a tablet and download teaching materials onto it, thanks Alan for IT help;
8.hours spent trying to find and download teaching materials, got some fantastic photos-thanks Sarah and Ant, and Bob;
9. getting visas-frustration +++;
10. learning how to use my new power monkey-thanks Heather and Gavin;
11.updating the phone, areal challenge as numbers simply seem to disappear !;
12. getting used to a travel towel; has anyone else tried to dry themselves on one?

Am now at the trying to pack stage, as well as getting the documentation together, and had better get on.

I am not risking adding any pictures; need some tuition first.

Well! I have been meaning to start a blog about this very exciting trip for weeks and it has taken me 3 days and about 6 hours to sort out how to do one; not a great advert for my IT skills is it?

This chance to travel to remote rural Nepal for a short term placement mentoring young nurse/midwives  arose way back in 2013 when I read an article about it in a medical magazine, and then quite by chance in March of 2014 attended a fascinating evening with a colleague who did the same 2 years ago and has been a source of information, teaching aids and hints and tips since then.

PHASE is a  small Nepalese charity dedicated to helping the Nepali people to empower themselves to modernise life,, and you might like to have a browse in their fascinationg website.
http://www.phaseworldwide.org/.
I will have to 'publish' this as i cannot find a way to continue to type past the logo!!