Jon Crispin's Notebook

I have been all over the place this summer and posting here has been irregular.  Nepal was a while ago and I still have photos to share, but it is difficult for me to play “catch-up”.  I like being able to post immediately and when I put it off, I often lose interest.  But I do want to share some of this.

Our second full day in the Western Hills started in Sanphebagar.  We visited two different schools and it was amazing.

There are two types of education in Nepal; public and private.  Kids who go to the public schools wear blue uniforms.

This  young fellow is at the Khaparmandu Primary School (Sanphe municipality-2, Goyal Pani, Achham).

I often had to quietly enter the classrooms because the kids were very interested in my presence.  I didn’t want to disrupt the lessons, but there was always at least one kid who wanted to see what I was up to.

They eventually got used to me though.  This little girl was especially connected to what was going on in the classroom.  She was really paying attention to the teacher and seemed to have an answer to any question that was posed.

Males in Nepal often have a comfortable physical association with each other.  It is really nice to see this kind of connection.

I like this photo of the bus.  It doesn’t really fit into the narrative, but here it is anyway.

The second school we visited was the Saraswoti Lower Secondary School (Sanphe Municipality-2 Loli, Achham).

The classrooms are only illuminated by window and door light, and it is amazing what digital cameras can record in such low light.  This is a pretty typical room with fabric covering a dirt floor.

Everyone leaves their shoes outside.

The classes featured a bit of participation by the kids.  Often, one child would come up to the front of the room and be asked to recite a lesson.

The kids were so sweet.  As I noted earlier, they were very interested in us, and quite open. It is likely that they haven’t seen any Westerners at their school before.  Sanphebagar isn’t particularly on any trekking route, and especially during the recent Maoist uprising there wasn’t much contact with outsiders.

The monsoon began in earnest as we were heading back to Dhangadhi.  Driving is always interesting in Nepal, and in these conditions was quite thrilling.

There will be one last post on the trip, which I hope to get up soon.  I spent a day in Sindhupalchowk, which was devastated in last year’s earthquake.  There are some very interesting projects there that World Education Nepal is supporting and I am eager to share them here.

Thanks for following.