An earthquake that has shaken the world

Today I start this post with an extremely heavy heart. What should have been a post about my teaching experience in school has now become about a major natural disaster that has absolutely devastated a country and it's people.

I've had many concerns from a lot of family and friends from home, and let me assure you that I'm perfectly safe and well. Thank you to everyone who has contacted me to make sure I'm doing ok. Luckily, my network and data was working so I was able to make contact with people as soon as the earthquake struck.

As a lot of you know already, I am currently volunteering with VSO in the Lamjung district in a place called Duipiple. We were only approximately 35km from the epicentre of the earthquake so we could really feel the impact when it struck at around 12 noon on Saturday.
At the time, I was having a nap. I haven't been sleeping well in Nepal so was making the most of a quiet morning. I was awoken by what I thought was a large construction truck going past the house. It was shaking the house considerably, so I got up to investigate. I then realised after seeing people running out of their houses shouting or screaming, and other houses shaking along the street, that I was in the middle of an earthquake. I ran downstairs into a doorway and found my Didi clutching her children. We all ran outside to an open area and waited for the earthquake to be over. This earthquake measured (the measurement seems to change from source to source) around 7.8/7.9 on the Richter scale. 30 minutes later, another big aftershock struck the community.
It was a very surreal experience. I have never felt an earthquake before and I certainly won't forget this one in any hurry. It's an unnerving feeling when the ground moves beneath you. It wasn't as if it was a little bit; the ground was violently shaking everyone and everything. The tremors continued on average every 30 minutes for the rest of the day.
When I look back, I actually surprised myself with how I remained calm and collected. If I'm honest, it felt a little exhilarating feeling an earthquake, however this feeling very quickly disappeared when I heard of the destruction it had caused to the west of the district.

Tragically, Kathmandu suffered immensely with a lot of their World Heritage sites having been destroyed or damaged. But the real loss here is the lives. As I write this now, I believe the death toll has surpassed the 5000 people mark, with 1000's more injured or missing. The prime minister himself has said that the death toll could reach 10,000. A horrific number to even think about. Whole villages have been wiped out due to both the earthquake itself and landslides triggered by the aftershocks. The landslides have also meant that rural, mountainous villages are inaccessible. Trekkers and their guides on Mount Everest have been killed due to the onset of an avalanche the earthquake caused, with many more people trapped and waiting for a helicopter to lift them from base camp. This has been the biggest earthquake in Nepal for 80 years, and what's more, it was long overdue.

The aftershocks have caused as much damage as the earthquake itself. As I've previously mentioned, there have been landslides in the Kathmandu valley. Houses that hadn't initially fallen down from the quake then collapsed in the aftershocks. The aftershocks have even caused damage emotionally and mentally. Saturday night/Sunday morning was horrific for trying to sleep. The tremors were pretty constant and it meant that practically the whole community I live in slept outside. Everyone was on edge, waiting for the next tremor to come. When it did come, you could hear men shouting, women screaming and children crying. In those situations, you really just wish you could take their suffering away. We also had a 6.7 after shock on Sunday afternoon, which again shook the village to it's core.
The community have slept outside since Saturday night out of fear of even more tremors. You can see in the pictures their makeshift tents they have been using.

What's even more worrying is the rainfall and snowfall that could potentially cause more destruction. Nepal is notorious for landslides and if the country has more rain and snow as it is predicted, it could cause further chaos and destruction, thus taking even more lives.

Thankfully the family and friends of our Nepalese volunteers are safe and well. Most of our counterparts are from Kathmandu itself and naturally the images of devastation have broken both their hearts and ours. The main thing is that their family has their health, which can't be said for a lot of other people.

The priority for us now is to get our counterparts home to their families. Unfortunately, this means that we too will be leaving community and flying home to the UK. We've had confirmation that we will be leaving in the next couple of days so we've been asked to be packed and ready to go at any moment. It makes me incredibly sad that we can't help with the disaster relief in Kathmandu as I am just simply getting on a plane and leaving it all behind. Sure, I can do fundraisers when I get home, but I'm leaving having seen the devastation and pain that a whole country is going through. It makes me feel guilty that I can't do something in Nepal itself, having called this place my home for 2 months. I write this in tears because I'm leaving not only the Nepalese counterparts and host home, but people I now call my friends and Nepalese family. It really has affected me more than I ever thought it possibly could. Nonetheless, I have to think that I am not trained for this situation nor am I medical professional. I have goodwill to help out, but it is not what is necessarily needed at this exact moment. All I can say is that I hope Nepal remains strong and strives to come back from this extremely unfortunate natural occurrence.

The disaster relief has been incredible with numerous countries sending over helicopters to reach those in rural areas and medical teams to deal with the vast amount of people injured. They are also providing safe drinking water and items such as blankets to those sleeping outside. If you would like to donate to the disaster relief fund, then please visit these websites and donate to one of the many great charities that are all currently on ground in Nepal.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/27/nepal-earthquake-how-you-can-help-donate-aid
http://time.com/3836242/nepal-earthquake-donations-disaster-relief/

I've also shared a post of photos on Facebook that tell Nepal's Earthquake story.

Let's do what we can for a country that is in dire need of human compassion, and let us also remember to show as nations what Nepal stands for:

Never Ending Peace And Love.

Alice x

"Whatever you do, don't do it halfway"

What a milestone! Halfway through the project and everyone seems to have achieved a lot already. However, as the blog title states, we all have a lot more to do in our remaining few weeks. I'm really sorry it's been a while since my last post, but it's been pretty busy with Mid-Phase Review, our Community Health Programme CAD and team meeting on Sunday.

So... let me fill you in on what's been happening.

We left for Pokhara on Sunday 12th April and it took approx 2.5 hours to get there. We had lunch straight away and got stuck straight into our training. The first session (and probably my favourite session of the 3 days) was reflecting on our personal development. I was looking forward to Pokhara mainly because of the change in scenery and western food, but actually, I took a lot away from this session and the whole training in general. With the amount of physical work we're doing in community, its really easy to forget about the personal changes you go through on a programme like this. This experience has definitely made me reconsider future career prospects, and has helped me develop work skills. For example, project management has been vital for planning and implementing our CAD's within community. We as volunteers are solely responsible for the programmes, and if we weren't able to manage with this responsibility, we definitely wouldn't get things done. The second session was reflecting on our counterpart relationships and host home environments. Meetum and I are lucky to have a good relationship, and if we've ever had any issues, we've talked about it. This session was good to bring up anything that might need to be addressed. For example, Meetum openly admits to me that she thinks I don't eat enough, but I reassured her that if I was hungry or if something was wrong, then I would tell her. Plus we also talked about not relying on each other too much. Also, Meetum and I came runner's-up in the Mr & Mrs quiz. She assumed I couldnt ride a bike. She thought they meant motorbike! The third session was presenting on what we had done up until MPR and what's to come. For this, Meetum and I wrote a poem:

We arrived on a Tuesday in our community home.
We got off the bus and were all alone.
Duipiple, the centre of the country we're in.
At once we noticed, "Where was the bin?".
It got us thinking the waste needed picking,
So we went to VDC to get our brains clicking.
A litter picking day was planned for all to come.
It would make the town merry and a lot less less glum.
Litter was picked off of the streets.
Tea and biscuits were provided as the treats.
Managing the waste was the issue now.
We provided a workshop to show them how.
Mini greenhouses were fun to do.
The ladies had answers to give us too.
Bins are the next step for this small Lamjung town.
Recycling their products will mran they have waste management 'down'.
These are the CAD's we have done for far,
And now we are here for MPR.
A lot has been planned for the next five weeks.
It's crazy to think how quickly time creeps.
School sessions have been planned. We are ready to train.
The children can make a change from the knowledge they gain.
Menstruation, reproduction and the confidence to speak out,
The children will benefit from this, I have no doubt.
A community health programme was to take place in week four,
But issues arose that closed this door.
Worry not, this programme will be back.
It's taking place on the fourth of Baishak.*
This is what we've completed up until now.
Hopefully the second half will make you think "WOW"!

*17th April in the English calendar - just to let you know.

I think I have a future in writing poems for Hallmark. It went down a treat ;)

Speaking of treats... have I talked about the serious stuff enough to now divulge into the details of FOOD?!? Our first dinner was actually dining out in a bamboo restaurant overlooking the lake. In true British fashion, and to obviously make us feel more at home, it completely tipped it down. It was emphasised even more by the metal sheeted roof. A downpour and a half!!! Now imagine if you will... a moment where you've been so overwhelmed, that a little part of your brain goes into overdrive, and you go a tad crazy. This was exactly what happened to me when I saw the menu. I ended up sharing a plate of cheesy, salsa nachos with Rosie, and I had bbq chicken sandwiches with chips and salad. Let's not forget the cheeky two cocktails that accompanied this meal as well. They were polished off in no time and measures are DEFINITELY stronger in Nepal! Day two I got actual cornflakes with cows milk. COWS MILK! And toast. Glorious toast. Only thing that would've completed the toast would've been marmite. Lunch was a pizza. I obviously would've had one for dinner the night before, but it wasn't on the menu. A sweet Danish in the afternoon. Pasta in a tomato sauce for dinner. Day three. Omlette on toast. Chargrilled chicken wraps. Chocolate cake shared with Rosie in the afternoon. Stir-fry noodles. Day four. Lots of toast. Chicken schnitzel sandwiches with chips and salad (these were unbelievably AMAZING!) and a frozen yoghurt. I also managed to get a lot of fresh fruit juice into me from this trip which was so satisfying. Miss lots of fruit and veg! However, after eating all this glorious food, I don't think the stomach could handle the western food overload. I felt a little bit sick in Pokhara but as soon as I got back to Daal Bhat in community, it actually settled... This is just my luck, and I guess that means no binging on burgers or lasagne when I get back then.

We also had some really lovely free time in Pokhara whereby we had a bit of an explore of the city. It was New Years whilst we were there and Nepal is in the year 2072 now. There were lots of things going on in the streets with people dancing, playing instruments and oddly, there was a large parade of motorbikes down the lake road. Loud motorbikes too. On New Years Day, the whole team headed down to the lake and we boated around for a couple of hours. It was honestly so peaceful with the Himalayas and the Peace Pogada in the background. Plus, it was sunny so topped off the boating experience even more. On our last day, Rosie and I went to a supermarket. Yes... an actual supermarket that had refrigerated cabinets and shopping trolleys. But the nicest part was our long walk back chatting the entire way. Let me just emphasise that it was a LONG way. Nice to have a heart to heart now and again isn't it?

Thanks for planning a good MPR Aweg, Kuldeep and Miranda =)

After we got back from Pokhara on the Wednesday, we had to start prepping for our Community Health Programme on Friday. It was a very successful day with approximately 30 people turning up from 13 households. The community is a Dalit village who are a group of margainalised people shunned from Nepalese society. The purpose of the programme was to allow the Dalit community access to healthcare and to build a better relationship between the community and health post. The general feedback from the programme was that they were very happy to get check ups and required medication, and the community would now go to the health post and see the health assistant if they were ill, instead of travelling hours to Pokhara. They also felt happy that their care would continue having now developed a relationship with the health assistant.

Our team meeting was really interesting on Sunday, as Jita and Soti Pasal team members; Rosie, Jeshmina, Nisha and Keah, led their ACD on female empowerment. One really good idea from Rosie was a world map that had facts about the limitations on women around the world. It was surprising how close to home some of the facts were and the shock factor of how women are treated globally. Good job guys! It really was an informative and thought-provoking session. One you should be proud of too!

Lastly, Duipiple are currently hosting a Dutch organisation called Medical Checks for Children, who have worked here for the last 4 years (this being the 5th and final year). They have noticed reoccurring problems with children in the area and these include anemia, worms, malnutrition and dental problems. As we have roughly 4 weeks left in community, we made them aware that if they would like us to discuss a particular topic within the school, we'd be more than happy to help. Meetum and I have also produced leaflets on ten common childhood illnesses, which will hopefully contribute to the great work this organisation is already doing.

So that's about it really. Meetum and I will hopefully be teaching some school sessions by the end of the week, which include menstruation, general sexual and reproductive health, climate change, female empowerment and healthy living, and... we have a few more CAD's to run which are commercial vegetable growing, healthy livestock, cervical cancer awareness with a pap smear and the unveiling of the new community recycling bins.

Sorry once again for not posting something sooner, but I promise the next post will be within the week.

Alice x

The tale of Alice & the mahoosive spider

Once upon a time in a faraway land called Nepal, Alice wasn't feeling so great. She decided to freshen herself up a bit by having a shower, so she picked up her shower essentials to which she found the beast.

The biggest spider she had ever seen was staring with it's evil eyes into her soul. She gently tried to move it out of the room and with success it went along with this action. However, the spider was just preparing for battle. It swiftly moved up the wall, barely missing Alice's face and sat in the door frame. He was concocting a plan to get back at Alice for disturbing his resting place.

Without hesitation, the spider scurried down the wall towards Alice's bed. Alice, not wanting to share a bed with this creature tonight, quickly tucked the mosquito net under the mattress to shield her comfort from the beast.

And so the wait ensued. The spider flattened itself on the side of Alice's bed and Alice, not wanting to leave the room incase it moved to an unknown destination, sat waiting for her counterpart Meetum to return and tell Alice if the spider would in fact kill her.

When alas, Didi came to the rescue and shoved the beast out of the room with a brush, after laughing at the cowardness of her UK volunteer.

The End.

Moral of the story kids: Nepal has some disgustingly big spiders who will most definitely eat your face off. Ok... bit of an exaggeration, but it looked like Satan's spawn. And, don't think you can catch them, as they are fast. REALLY fast. Your best bet is just to leave the room and never return. Yes... just let the spider win.

PS: The spider photo wasn't the one in my room but it's the same spider. To gauge the size, think a palm...

Reflection on appreciation

Now this may seem like a pretty deep topic, but as I'm approaching the halfway point of my programme in Nepal, I thought now would be a good time to reflect on what I've learned so far and what I've learned to appreciate.

Things I appreciate from the UK
One definite thing I've learned to appreciate (and I think the rest of the UK team have too) is food. Honestly, we can't stop talking about it!
By all accounts, the food is NOT bad here, its just the very small variety that we are exposed to each day. Around 9am, I have rice, daal and some sort of curry. Around 7pm, I have the exact same dish. This is completely normal in Nepal and people will only eat 2 meals a day. There's a couple of problems with this for me. I get absolutely starving around my normal lunchtime because the white rice I am served is not filling. In fact, it actually makes you more hungry, and this is why I see Nepalese people having mounds of rice on their plates. Secondly, white rice is REALLY not good for your digestion so it plays havoc for us UK volunteers who are used to a lot more fibre. I've been pretty lucky with my Didi as she has cooked me mini omelettes, eggy bread and noodles on occasion. I remember for breakfast a couple of times I had puffed rice (much lighter but still not great), warm buffalo milk and a little bit of sugar. Amazing...
So as a result of this, I've really learned to appreciate the variety of food we're exposed to in the UK. Something that has stuck out for me, and is very pro-Nepal, is how wasteful we can be in the UK. My UK household personally doesn't waste a lot of food as we use our leftovers and buy what's needed, but in Nepal it is very much frowned upon if you take more on your plate and don't eat it. Plus, the Nepalese people consume what they grow and don't end up wasting their produce, which makes me think we should follow in the footsteps of my Uncle Bernard and Uncle Dave and grow more things ourselves. Also, planning your meals ahead of time allows for less waste as you're not tempted to buy things you don't need. Plus it saves the pennies too.

Another thing I'm appreciative of from home is my family and the support system I have from them and friends. It broke my heart when a man from the Dalit village told me of his three sons; two work in the Middle East and one lives away to farm. My family is very close knit and as I've spent more time out here with families who are separated, it really brings to light how I take mine for granted. Not because I'm a selfish person but because it takes being in places like this to make you realise that family are the ones that shape who you are. They help you to grow and they give you all the love and support you could ever need. If I had to experience what the countless number of families in Nepal have to face, I would always feel there was a void where that person was supposed to be. It is usually the male members of the family that go off to work away, so I think without my Dad in my life, where would I get my awful Dad jokes? Or as much as I hated my brothers teasing me (and still do!), it made me into a strong, independent woman. Or I like to think so... (Thanks James & Eddy!)

Also, I've learned to appreciate the female empowerment I have at home. Ok... there's still gender equality issues in the UK, but I have experienced first hand how shunned these women are made to feel. They're told to sit down and basically shut up in community meetings. They all congregate together at the back, looking too scared to raise their voice. Women are made to feel dirty during their menstruation. They are generally treated as second class citizens.
Whereas for me, I feel empowered in my home country to speak my mind, contribute answers, take the lead and not be treated as second to a man. Also, I feel completely normal if it's that time on month. Women should NEVER be made to feel dirty with something so natural. Nepal still has a long way to go to ensuring women get their voices heard, but things are being done about it. I see how confident the female Nepali counterparts are, and I hope that their assurance of themselves passes on to younger generations.

Things I appreciate from Nepal
Now to turn the tables... 

I appreciate the beauty that Nepal has to offer. I went up to the roof the other night to get my washing, and I actually just stopped and looked up at the stars. All I could hear were the crickets, and it was honestly one of the most beautiful settings I've encountered.

Nepal has shown me that it isn't about material goods that make you happy, it's about the basics. The people in this community don't have much, yet they appear to be unbelievably happy. It has made me appreciate the simple things like family, friends, support and love. This really, is all you need, yet I sometimes think we forget that.

Lastly, I appreciate the kindness of my host home. I am so far away from home. So far away from my normality. So far away from my own family. The host home, Didi especially, makes me feel comfortable and appreciates that things are vastly different for me here. Yesterday she made me eggy bread because I just couldn't handle rice that morning. When I was really ill, she always made sure to check up on me in her broken English. Checking my pulse, feeling my temperature and tucking me in. Didi is only 26 (2 years older than me), but I feel she is so wise beyond her years. She really isn't 26 and I guess when the norm is to get married pretty young here, your young adult life is vastly different to what it would be if you grew up in a city or in another country.

There were always going to be tough times out here, but that was going to be counterbalanced by the amazing experiences I would have too. And thankfully, Nepal hasn't disappointed. I'll admit, it's incredibly different to what I expected, but looking back, I'm not really sure what I expected. When people think about Nepal, Mount Everest always springs to mind. Not that Nepal is one of the 12 poorest countries in the world. All I know is that as the weeks are slowly creeping down to my departure date, I hope I can make positive lasting changes in this community. They seem engaged in what we have planned and are keen to implement those changes with us. I won't reveal what programmes Meetum and I have planned, as that will spoil the rest of my blog posts, but let's just say they're beneficial to a developing country.

So... my next blog post will probably come from Mid-Phase Review in Pokhara, and I'll have lots to share with you then! It will most likely start with a conversation about food, and I sincerely apologise for this. But god dammit, I just need a pizza ok? Haha it's been a while...

Namaste for now everyone =)

Alice x

Waste not, want not

As part of our work in community, we have to complete an ACD (Active Citizen Day) to our fellow volunteers on a topic of our choosing. Meetum and I chose to do a Waste Management ACD on Sunday, as we felt waste is a major issue not only in our community, but an issue for Nepal in general. I think back to my brief time in Kathmandu and how I witnessed rubbish flowing into the river. Thankfully that doesn't seem to happen in Duipiple, nonetheless rubbish is found in the gutters, along the road and in the open green areas. We felt that a waste management ACD would bring to light what we had experienced in community through our CAD's (Community Action Days), as well as the issues Nepal faces as a country dealing with a waste problem.

Did you know...

* Hospitals have no permitted area to dispose of their hazardous waste. This means it is usually burned which is very dangerous as it releases dioxin and furan into the atmosphere - two highly carcinogenic pollutants.

* There are no proper slaughter houses in any municipalities & no rules for disposing of dead cows and dogs. They end up in shallow graves near river banks, leaching into the water supply.

* Plastic bags clog rivers and choke drainage pipes creating flooding & spreading disease. The health impacts are get at all levels.

Another important issue that relates to waste is climate change, with Nepal desperately trying to combat both issues.

On Monday we had our Waste Management workshop and what I thought was going to be a total disaster (it was raining quite heavily and one person turned up at our scheduled start of 11am), turned into a great success with 30 people attending, and... the majority were women! Wooo Girl Power! Admittedly most of them didn't arrive until 12.30pm (that's how Nepalese time works. You say 11am and they come at 12.30pm), but they seemed to really enjoy it and have great input. The workshop included;

* Healthy and unhealthy environments (the differences between them & what we can do to keep 'our' environment healthy)

* Biodegradable & non-biodegradable products (definitions of both, examples of both and what we can do with biodegradable products)

* Making use of non-biodegradable plastic bottles (the women all decided to make mini greenhouses, and they absolutely loved it!!!)

* Ideas on what to do next

I was really impressed by the knowledge of the women. The head of the women's group even came out with bio-gas as a way to reuse biodegradable products. Impressive hey?

What I thought was going to be an hour workshop, actually turned into 3.5 hours including the chief of VDC making a speech about the need for change. Progress!!!

All in all, I felt this workshop was a brilliant start to implement change to the attitudes of waste in the community. In the ideas part of the workshop, we had a woman commenting on how if you're out shopping for sugar, rice, flour etc... take the jar you already own instead of buying a new one. Simple, but effective. And a very good idea if I say so myself!

You may be wondering how I'm doing in terms of my ear infection that I commented on in my last post. Well... and I REALLY wish this was an April Fools Day joke, but I've actually got worse. On Monday, I believe I got food poisoning from some samosas and it still hasn't sorted itself out, and I have awful abdominal cramps. On top of that, I woke up in the early hours of this morning with a swollen face (check out the picture. I look miserable but it's pretty funny having hamster cheeks. I'm trying to find the positivity people...). And, after going to the doctors today (a week after my first visit), apparently the infection hasn't fully cleared, so I'm riddled with bacteria at the moment. And not the good Actimel kind =(

But, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm off to Pokhara hospital either tomorrow or Friday to get seen to by a specialist. I'm just not getting better and with my body trying to fight a whole array of things, I need a little help to push me on the road to recovery.

So, by the time my next blog post comes around, hopefully I'll be fighting fit again and can tell you all about my nice adventures. Not the adventures where I'm in bed all day trying to recover!!!

Alice x

And last but not least... my hamster face.