A Month in Nepal

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A Month in Nepal

This NAGARMAIL is coming to you not from the usual Nepal, but directly from Lucan, Ireland, not from Doc, but from Niamh, Doc’s Mam.

We have just spent a month in Nepal and what a month!

Most of you probably know by now that Doc got married on April 25th to Divya, a beautiful Nepali girl. That was the main reason for our trip. We had never met Divya, though had spoken to her by phone and also by email. So, like all families, we were a little nervous. We first met her at the airport in Kathmandu on March 31st and felt we had known her for a lifetime. Over the next few weeks, we got to know her better. She is now part of our family and we are very happy for Doc and Divya and wish them a happy future together.

On our first morning at our guesthouse in Kathmandu, Divya’s parents came to meet us. Later that evening, Divya’s sister, her husband and two year old daughter joined us for a meal. Tadhg and Lou had arrived from New Zealand that day so we had a big celebration. The language barrier was a problem so Doc and Divya, who speaks English fluently, were busy interpreting. To hear Doc speaking Nepali fluently was amazing.

During our month in Nepal, we were treated royally both in the parents’ house and in the sister’s house, enjoying traditional dhal bhat in both houses. Little Ojaswe, Divya’s 2year old niece, was a delight and indeed decided to call us “new Granny” and “new Granda”.

We also spent time in Doc’s apartment in Bhaktapur, where Doc and Divya cooked for us and that was a great experience. The apartment is small and very simple without heating or hot water, but they have made it a home.

Fintan and Aishling arrived a week later and finally Senan for just a week, so we had a good family holiday, though missed Heather and Senan Og greatly.

We did the usual tourist sight seeing and shopping. The highlight was an early morning Everest flight, Divya’s first ever flight. We saw Everest pretty close up and each of us was brought into the cockpit one by one for a real close look. Wow!

Nepal is a beautiful country with absolutely breathtaking scenery, mountains, valleys, greenery. That is in the countryside. All along the way, even in more remote areas, there are little shacks selling vegetables, snacks etc. There are some nice buildings, shared by a few families but there are also corrugated shacks without light or sanitation where families exist. Modern Ireland wouldn’t even house animals in some of these shacks.

We located a Catholic church and attended Mass there on each Sunday, also Good Friday. It was a beautiful church with an attendance of about 150 people, all sitting cross-legged on cushions on the floor, all bare footed. Thank God there was a handful of chairs around the sides for those of us unable to do it Nepali style!

Kathmandu and Bhaktapur are a continuation of each other, just a river separates them. They are big cities but like nothing in Ireland, almost impossible to describe. There are people everywhere. There is traffic chaos everywhere and with no traffic laws. So taxis, motorbikes, buses, tuk-tuks all battle for “right of way”. It is just a battle of wills, with all constantly blowing their horns. The local people cross the streets amid this chaos without batting an eyelid. It was terrifying for a few days until we got used to it, and we actually didn’t see any accidents. The pollution from all these exhausts plus the natural dust is horrific. The roads, apart from one big one are just narrow, dusty, potholed lanes with no footpaths. On the sides of these roads, people set up “stalls”, sitting cross-legged on a mat and selling their goods. A bus “conductor” swings dangerously out the door, shouting the destination and people just cram onto these buses. Drivers of motorbikes wear helmets but the passengers don’t. I use the plural for passengers as often there is a whole family on the bike—father driving, mother and two kids, (maybe even three) on the back.

There is rubbish everywhere and I don’t mean a few plastic bags and take away wrappers on the side of the road. I mean the whole city’s rubbish, much of it in the rivers and piled high on the riverbanks. In the middle of the rubbish heaps are people scrabbling for anything that might be recyclable and saleable. Of course, there are dogs and rats there too and cows. Cows are sacred and so have the “freedom of the city”. It would be a greater offence to knock down a cow than a person. Also among the rubbish heaps are corrugated or plastic shacks where families live. We were there in good sunny weather. I just can’t imagine the winter time or the monsoon time which was just beginning as we left.

We stayed mostly in Kathmandu and made our guest house our second home. It was in Thamel, the tourist area, so we were close to excellent restaurants where we could eat for very little. For example, 10 of us had a meal on the last night, including some starters and a few desserts, drinks and bottled water and all for €100!!!!

Wedding Doc and Divya’s wedding was a Hindu wedding held at a temple in a courtyard, all outdoors. At the beginning, we had umbrellas to protect us from the sun but unfortunately at the end we were using the same umbrellas to protect us from very large hailstones and a torrential shower!!

The ceremony was very long, about two hours and that was with some parts being cut out in deference to our culture. Normally, the party would be held in a relative’s home but this time, it was in a beautiful hotel in the mountains. Both cultures blended very well. The buffet food was a mixture of Nepali and European food. Instead of a band, we were entertained by a group of folk dancers and musicians. It was amazing. The only alcohol consumed was by the Irish people there!

By 9pm, it was all over and the Nepali people returned home, apart from Divya’s immediate family and two of the Nagarhope Nepal people.

The singsong then started and it went on into the small hours. There were some great Nepali songs too from Raju and Dhurba.

Tadhg and Lou, Seamus and Niamh, Senan, Aishling and Fintan, with the bride and groom.

You have all followed Doc’s nagarmails over the past few years but until we actually went to Nepal, we had no idea just how much Doc does. It is absolutely amazing and we are so, so proud of him. It was a truly humbling experience to see his work and to see what he has given up to follow his dream. Divya too is involved in this great work. She has given up a well paid teaching job to commit to Nagarhope’s work.

While we sit here in our comfortable homes and do a little bit of fundraising now and then, we cannot imagine from a mail what exactly is involved or the sheer scale of Doc’s work. It is awe inspiring. . Doc doesn’t take time off; he is on call all the time. Hopefully now, his marriage will change that to some degree.

In our first week, we went to Nagarkot where Doc first met Dhurba and where all of this began. Nagarkot is a village in the mountains, only 40km from Kathmandu but a one and a half hour journey none the less, or more if unlucky. We travelled up by jeep, as we needed a jeep to see the proposed site for the children’s home. We travelled back two days later by public bus, an experience in itself!

Dhurba is truly amazing. He is 43 years old and for the past five years has looked after 13 year old Chandra Maya and 17 year old Prem, sending them to school, feeding them, giving them extra tuition and indeed involving them in the day to day running of the household. Neither of them are orphans but live quite a distance from school and so benefit greatly from being close to school. We met Chandra’s parents and brother, also Prem’s mother. Chandra is now at the top end of primary school, top of her class most of the time. Prem has just started a computer course in college and was delighted with a laptop, which we had brought over—thanks Ed.

For the past few weeks, Dhurba has also being looking after three more children, two sisters aged 7 and 11 and their 13 year old cousin. They have never been to school and their background is fairly dysfunctional. They are now at school and hopefully will catch up. When I told Dhurba how lucky those kids are, he immediately and sincerely said “No I am the lucky one”.

We met most of the Nagarhope Nepal committee; in fact we had our first ever joint Nagarhope meeting, a very interesting experience. They truly appreciate the money being sent from Ireland and put it to very good use. We went with them to view the proposed site for the children’s home, Doc’s ultimate goal. It was a very suitable piece of land though we had reservations about the location as it was a good hour’s walk, maybe slightly more, from Nagarkot, way down in the valley. However, in Nepal, that is no great problem for kids walking to school. In fact, on our bumpy, rocky jeep journey, we passed quite a number of children walking home from school. We then attended a meeting with the owner of the site and witnessed the bargaining about price etc. We might as well have been in Ireland!! Nothing is finalised yet but it certainly seems a step closer.

Schools / Sponsorkids:
The timing of our visit from a school point of view was bad. The school year finished as we arrived. Then they were closed for two weeks. We then had our wedding and after that, it was the new school year when schools were too busy for visits etc. So we really didn’t get to see schools in action; that will have to wait for our next trip.

Three of Doc’s school projects are in Nagarkot.

Sunrise School:
Many of you sponsor children in Sunrise. There are extra classrooms being built there at the moment so it was dirty and dusty. However, the day we were there was the last day of term and the kids were busy doing their last exams. So there was no opportunity to take photos.

Kent School:
This is a fine building but again it was closed for holidays so we didn’t visit it.

Mahankali School:
Nagarhope sponsors 15 students here though they don’t have individual sponsors as the fees are not so high. The first day we visited here, the students were all there collecting exam results. Also Doc had the tailor there measuring all the sponsored kids for their uniforms. The new computer room cum library was nearly finished and the carpenters were busy trying to get everything in shape for the grand opening.

Two days after the wedding, we were back there as guests of honour at an amazing grand opening . The place had been cleaned up. The yard was a sea of faces. This school is in the village so the whole village was looking on as we entered the yard where we were greeted with flowers, balloons, tikka on our foreheads and garlands. And I mean all of us, the whole family—Seamus and I, Senan, Tadhg and Lou, Fachtna and Divya, Fintan and Aishling. We were escorted up onto the stage and given fruit and more shawls. The programme had already started and lasted for another 3 hours---speeches and entertainment. All the staff and students were there, also representative staff and students from Sunrise and Kent. To hear Doc being respectfully greeted by all as “Doc Sir” was amazing. They were delighted when we presented them with the books which many of you had donated, all 25 kilos of them as we discovered when trying to pack!!

Miniland School and Teku Project:
Miniland School where many of you sponsor kids is in Kathmandu. As Doc has often told you, the sponsor kids are immigrant Indian kids. They are from very poor families and would never be in school without your support. They and their families spend hours scrabbling through the heaps of rubbish along the river looking for anything that they might be able to sell on or recycle.

The sponsored kids come to two rented rooms in Teku for about two hours before school. Nagarhope rents these rooms. Here Divya teaches them, and helps them with their homework or whatever is needed. They then go to Miniland School for regular classes After school they come back to Divya where again she does whatever is needed to keep them up to scratch. On the day we visited this project, it was the first day of the new school year so we didn’t go into the school itself. However, we were there to walk them from the school to the rooms in Teku, about 15 minutes walk. They have to cross a very busy road. We were terrified but they took it all in their stride. The older ones looked after the little ones and everything was very orderly.

They had no homework so we had a wonderful two hours with these gorgeous kids. They all left their shoes outside the door in a heap but yet nobody had any difficulty finding their own when the time came. Lou and I watched one little boy who had one shoe on and just kept trying all the others without ever looking down until he was satisfied that he had a match!!

They sang songs for us and said nursery rhymes. Then the fun started with a session of “snap apple” and what fun it was. We took lots of photos here and they delighted in looking at themselves on the cameras. Divya is doing tremendous work here.

While those kids are at school, Divya has some day classes for kids who have not yet started school. She also teaches some of their mothers and has a business project running too for them. They sew cushions and bags, using recycled plastic.

They also make book covers and some other items. This project is giving employment to a few people and hopefully will grow with time. This was a remarkable day.

On the way home, we visited the “home” of one of the children. In a space under the stairs of a tenement building, in a space about the size of our converted garage, lives a grandfather, grandmother, mother and three children. There is no window so when the electricity is off, which it is for many hours every day, and was when we visited, they just have a candle. They share a toilet somewhere with several other families. Despite this poverty, we were offered tea the minute we arrived. They are lucky to have a roof and four walls. Many families live in corrugated or even plastic shacks .It was a depressing end to an otherwise enlightening day.

Bhaktapur Project:
This is not a Nagarhope project but Doc and Divya have helped to set up a project similar to the rooms in Teku. They were approached for advice by a group who have set up a room where kids and indeed adults, some with disabilities, will drop in and have supervision. Seamus, Tadhg and Ivan , one of Doc’s friends helped with painting the room and decorating the walls . We were all then invited as guests where we were fed and thanked profusely.

Umbrella:
Doc has often mentioned Umbrella. It is an organisation founded by an Irishwoman which runs 8 homes for children, sending them to school and eventually reuniting them with families where possible. The homes are mostly run by volunteers, all nationalities. Some of you will remember that at the Elvis fundraiser a few years ago, Doc introduced Amy who was going out to Nepal for a few weeks to help Doc. He really didn’t have a lot of work for her and so introduced her to Umbrella. Several years later, Amy is still there. Two other Irish lads, Conor and Stephen had a similar experience, went out for a few weeks and stayed. All three are now directors.

These are remarkable, dedicated young people. While we were there, Umbrella was sending about forty children to a new home in Humla, a very remote area about 8 hours from Kathmandu. The kids were originally from that area and so were now being moved back to be closer to their families and maybe eventually reunited. We were guests at the farewell ceremony for these kids, a very emotional day indeed.

We met some of the volunteers at their weekly Quiz nights in Kathmandu and enjoyed some good nights with them.

Hopefully, this mail will encourage you all to keep up your support for Doc and Nagarhope. We still need sponsors for some children. If you can help, contact me.

If you would like to run a fundraiser, please contact me.

As always, the contact for myself is Niamh at 086 0666891 or niamhclandillon@hotmail.com