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.