THE BRICK-FACTORY 19.03.2011

Today we went to a brick-factory, where woman and men worked and some of the children were going to school or daycare. We meet the woman who had started the project "Care development organization" which included telling about health to the workers and their families and also was taken care for the children. The woman who has started the project was a very inspiring woman.
The factory was a crazy and surrealistic experiences, where all of us got our lives into perspective. Compared to Denmark it was like a slave-factory.
In the evening we were going out in the Nepali nightlife. We ate at a Thai restaurant and some got a big fat steak! Later we got drinks and were ready to party, but apparently the places to drink and dance close at 12 pm in Nepal!

16/3

Today the first lesson was Nepali language, and we learnt how to say "I like volunteering"(malai soemsewa garna manlagccha) and I think everyone here do. The next lesson was about the caste system and everybody was asking alot of questions. After lunch we all took a taxi to womens social forum. We were very surprised to find out that most of the speeches were in Nepali, unfortunately Anjanas Nepali lesson didn't quite reach. Then action aids international coordinator actually said something we understood. Afterwoods some of us took a taxi to Tamel where we were relaxing at a roof terrace drinking soft drinks and eating a snack. At night we went to a local Khaga ghar drinking some beer.

The 29th of March

When I was told that we were going to sleep for a night in the slum a lot of thoughts ran though my head. I think I can say that almost everyone was kind of nervous about going there. We talked about our hopes and fears like: What could we expect? How do the people in the slum live? Can they speak English? and so on. Unfortunately, some of us woke up Tuesday morning with bad stomach. We wanted to go so much that some of us doped our bodies with Imodium and went. We arrived in the evening and all of the people thought that we were very interesting. We had an introduction to the slum and the program for the night. Afterwards they showed us around in the slum. At 6 pm the “fun” began. We taught them the “Bunny Bunny” and the “Pony” and they all thought that it was very funny. We learned how to play some different games too. Then we danced and had fun all the evening as scheduled. All of the children were asking “What is your name sister?” and I think that all of us were told that we had very beautiful names. Afterwards we went to our host families to have dinner and spend the night there. Some of us had to eat with one family and sleep with another, but it was totally okay. We all lived with very different families; some were more reserved than others. The place where I had to stay was a house only made by sheets of metal and I couldn’t even stand in an upright position. We enjoyed the night with the family and some of us tried to sleep while listening to the rats running around on the thin roof made of metal. We met in the morning with smiles on our faces, but also very tired. The people from the slum held a last ceremony to thank us for staying there. I think I can say that everybody were very happy that they decided to go to slum and we all had an experience that we will never forget.
- Stine

The 24th of March

Today we were supposed to visit the orphanage which Amanda and Caroline will be working at later on. But due to 98 Japanese visitors there wasn't room for us and we will go there on Sunday instead. So today we had Friday's class, 'future workshop'.
We were introduced to the critique, the fantasy and the implementation phase. At first we should find all the negative aspects of 'Youth in Asia and social change', then the most positive development we could think of and in the end try to build a bridge between the negative and positive, figure out how the change could be implemented. Only interrupted by chicken-energizers we worked on this all morning.
In the afternoon we had time to work on our Drivers of Change-projects; the ideas for projects we will like to start when we reach our final placements.
The highlight of the day was at dinner when we finally got the sushi many of us had been craving the last days and later on we once again enjoyed Kathmandus night life.

The 22nd of March

Today we woke up to a brand new week after the weekend, where our two days trekking trip, from Sundarijal to Chisopani, had put its marks on all of us with really sore feet and muscles. Therefore much of the day went by listening to people complaining over this ;) After breakfast we did our weekly Tuesday-cleaning to make the platform all shiny again, which nobody really sees as a hard job be course it's just so cosy hanging out with the other guys meanwhile. Afterwards we all had to present the assignments on the Human Right situation of the countries we are going to, which was really exciting and informative. Then we had a House Meeting and to sum up: "everybody thought that everything was going very well and was very happy to be here - from the bottom of their harts" ;) Today's lunch was a hit for all of us, we had pizza which was a really great change from daalbhat. Not that we don't like it... After noon we had a class with Rikke about social change agents and we found out what characterizes a social change agent, for an example is it someone who is thinking independently, speaks up and who is challenging the norms, so we could at the end of the day conclude that we are all social change agents! I personally found that very inspiring and motivating for my further journey , both as a volunteer, but also in life :)
The rest of the day went by washing clothes , shopping, hanging out and seeing a movie. When we went to pick up our clothes again at the laundry service we all discovered, horrified, that much of our clothes had shrinked or was been miscoloured in some way. When we confronted the laundryman he just replied: "Not my problem, we use chemicals?" .....!! So from now on we do our own laundry.

The 14th of March

This day was our first excursion-day in Nepal, and we were all really excited to see more of the country. After our morninggathering and about an hour of culture- and religionclass, we all got on a bus and headed for the wetlands where we would visit temples. The busride was extremely bumpy, and there were many obstacles on our way - for instance, our driver's helper had to climb on top of the bus to remove electrical wires hanging really low. Besides, the engine kept setting out, and we weren't always sure whether or not the driver would be able to start again. When we arrived at the first location, which was a beautiful little lake, we all stumbled out of the bus with our cameras and started clicking away, which made us look like a group of Japanese tourists. We soon found out that we are very different than the japanese though, since our heavy Danish Viking-bodies almost made the boats sailing us across the lake sink! The weather was great, and with the breeze on the lake and the beautiful surroundings, we couldn't help but love the fact that we are finally in Nepal. It was certainly worth the 1,60 Danish Kroner we paid for a boat and a boatsman!
After the sailing, we ate some sandwiches on the bus while going to the first temple of the day. It was situated on top of a hill, and we had to climb a rough 256 steps - or that was how many there are officially, but Thomas counted 353 of them, so it's understandable that some of us were short of breath when reaching the top! We had a great time there though, and the locals were really friendly.
They gave us all red dots on our foreheads and came with food which we were too polite to say no to - luckily, noone has gotten the diarrhea yet!
The next temple was in a forrest and it was interesting to see how different the temples are here. We visited a monestary and saw young boys being taught by a lama. The third temple was different again from the last 2, and we spent most time here doing funny roleplays for each other. It was a great day with a lot of new impressions and experiences, and I personally slept the whole way back to the platform. Pretty nice accomplishment if I may say so, with all that honking and bumping on the streets here in crazy Nepal!

Last day with teaching

Today was our last day with teaching at the global platform. A day where we finished the last things we have been working on for our entire stay here in Nepal. First we had a feedback session on our drivers of change projects, before put our finishing touch on them and presenting them to the rest of the group. The drivers of change projects are plans for projects we will do when we get to the countries where we are volunteering. They are not the main thing we will do, but volunteering we will do besides the main project. There were lots of great projects presented today; we had projects about after school clubs, student councils, art class, HIV/AIDS information campaigns and other exiting projects. This was also the day our photo project ended. All month we have been supposed to take a picture of social change. Today our pictures were exhibited together with a text explaining the picture and why it showed social change. All the people living at the global platform were then invited to look at the photos and vote for the best. Here Sebastian’s picture showing some Nepalese youths became the winner. He therefore won a vase and is now competing in a global ms competition for the best social change picture. Here the grand price is a Roskilde festival ticket.
All these things ending today made me realize how soon we are leaving Kathmandu and all the great people we have been living with for the last month. We have had our daily life and established a daily routine in this house and grown to love being here. I am sure that we have all enjoyed our stay here in Nepal very much and wouldn’t have been without it. It also shows in our conversations which now are a lot about the countries we are leaving for, what to expect, hopes and fears. I feel sad to leave all these great people and what has been our home for the last month. But at the same time I am very excited about getting out and doing some real volunteering.
This evening some of us went to curry without worry. Curry without worry is a project were volunteers give out food to everyone who wants some. There is no strings attached, one can just come and get food. Some had already been 2 weeks ago, they had told about glue sniffing everywhere and street children acting almost violent. Today was very different from what I had been expecting from these stories. People were cueing without problems and I dint see a single child sniffing glue. It almost seemed like everyday life and the atmosphere was nice and relaxed. This was a very positive experience for me, seeing how some people are trying to help those in need. We helped by serving the food, and just talking to people. There was also a lot of people looking and taking pictures of us. I believe that by just being there we helped by creating awareness and showing that we at least try to do something.

Malte

Sneaky nepali men

This weekend was by far the most interesting weekend in Nepal. We were 9 people from the platform who went to Chituan for a 3 day safari hoping to se elephants, crocodiles and of course the famous and very shy tiger. Saturday morning we left the platform about 6 o’clock and oh my god, I have to get use to getting up early, because I was so tired. It took about 6 hours to get to Chituan, and we all got really annoyed by the fact that we stopped almost every hour for a toilet break. The first toilet break was really interesting, because the toilet wasn’t like a little shed with a hole in the ground, but four sticks planted in a square with some fabric wrapped around them for “privacy”. The funniest thing was, just before I had to go in Mathias caught a Nepalese guy in lurking on one of the girls from our bus while she was peeing. Really sneaky!!

We arrived at the hotel and six of us went to go on jeepsafari hoping to see tigers and rhinos. Early to bed and up again sunday at 7 o'clock. Our schedule was really busy and I have never met so stressed out nepalese men before. They just kept saying hurry hurry to Louise, Sofie and I. I didn't sleep at all that night because we had a very interesting neighbor who partied all night long and then got up at five thinking that it would be so funny to puke right outsite our window. such a good wakeup call.

First we had to go on a canoe trip to see crocodiles and Signe and I was almost peeing ourselfes, so afraid to be attacked by a crocodile. But the only one we saw was so tiny and it almost looked paralysed. I'm pretty sure it was a fake one. Then out for a swim with the elephants and later on an elephantride.

We met some pretty cool british guys and sunday evening we played some wicked games with them and they tought us some great new energizers.

So all in all it has been a great weekend with new experiences, new friends, and some really great pictures on my camara of Louise and our neighbor "the camel toe".

Shuva Bihani, Shuva Ratri and Nameste Nepal.

The time we have spent in Nepal is slowly coming to an end. And as much as I am happy that we are about to embark on our volunteer-adventure, I can’t help feel a little solemn that the time lost, is so close at heart.

Trying to number the days in Nepal is as hard as catching the fleeting wind. You never suspect that a storm brewing, will rush over you at any second, at any time.

From sitting in the slum eating something suspiciously called ‘Balls’, to hearing till tale of the father and his transcend from high ranking military officer, to poor workman in the slum. Or the trekking in the Nepalese mountains covered with experiences like me taking a dip in a fountain, while an old Nepalese man was laughing his ass off. And by that I mean he quite literally laughed at me, while taking a dump. And I can’t forget the children at the orphanage and the joy we had with dancing, talking and fun remarks like “You so tall, you so white!”

These and hundreds of experiences have made me grow as a person, within the few weeks we have been here. And I am guessing the same applies for my fellow volunteers and the experiences they have encountered and enjoyed.

So while the days are numbered (one week to be exact), the work is still at hand. And with the Drivers-Of-Change, still buzzing discussions and euphoric weekends in the sun and in the mountains (the last one might not seem as work, but to work, you need to relax), the trip is finally taking shape. And I can’t wait for the next few days where we will have our last live experiences before departure.

Signing out Troels

Quote: “Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step on the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to”