A hazy few days in Bangkok, my alcohol tolerance is back up to a normal standard with doctor's advice of a strict two beers at lunch time. This place is wonderful, I mean it's not but after 3 months away from the 21st century, hygiene and general good old fashioned fun its a wonderful holiday... And how long is it going to last? :)
I just had a cheap bowl of soup and seafood noodles and got chatting to this bloke, Sean, from Australia who just got a teaching job outside of Bangkok, no qualifications, $1000/month, free studio apartment and free training... hmmm, this is a new development and is seriously having me doubt the idea of going to study for the full TEFL qualification now. I need to work out a lot of things and if I want to do the 4 week extensive qualification I need to be in Chaing Mai by Saturday or Sunday bearing £900. You see the thing is is that I don't have £900, I never really had £900, I was just hoping things would work out - which to be fair they probably would. Loans could be paid back, but at what cost? Why put yourself in debt when you can potentially get a job without that little bit of paper costing you nearly a grand, a grand that will come out of more paychecks than you actually have time for out here? I have accepted my place for Oxford Brookes so I have to be back by August to start early September, that will give me only 2 months of teaching after the month course... Paying back £450/month will leave me with too little to live on, well at least to live well on and working one wants to let off steam etc... of course, you'd go mad if everyday you just went back to your apartment alone and ate instant noodle soup whilst watching TV that you can't understand, my students would become my only friends and that's just weird, that's probably how pedophiles are made.
And that's another thing, I will be at university next year getting a degree and by the looks of things most countries in Asia care more about the degree thing than the actual TEFL thing. Ross, the comedian I met in Kathmandu was teaching in Soel, no TEFL only a degree in Sound Engineering, so it doesn't matter what you have... just a spark for teaching which I think I have, well at least I take huge enjoyment out of it... I might just call up Sean and see if he can get me the interview he offered to get me half and hour ago. I didn't refuse I just said I'll call him... the phrases 'they're screaming out for English teachers in the start of the new year' and '30,000 baht a month' really made an impression on me... also the jobs are all over, bangkok, down south, chaing mai, who knows what beautiful place I'll end up - and I could do it for 3 months instead of two... less disappointing for my employer when I leave (although there is no mention of time in the contract) and thats a net pay of over £3000 above rent! I'll have money to go home with, what a nice change that will be.
I mean there are disadvantages, I will go home without a qualification, a qualification that was a goal to achieve out here, but I am going back to get another bit of flimsy paper, and heck I can even do the same thing back home to be safe, it will just be a little less exotic. I think I seemed to have made up my mind haven't I? I love blogging, it gives you the impression that someone is listening even though they may not be... depressives all over the world, get off the £200/hour couch and set up a blogspot account, it'll save you a lot of money and silent, ambiguous head nods.
So looks like my leave from Bangkok will be procrastinated a tad, I was planning on going up to Ayutthaya before getting the train up to Chaing Mai the next day for a day of floating noodle shops and Templetastic scenery... ah well, there's always next week :)
Shit i never remember to talk about the title, well today I had a 10 baht coin rejected by my guesthouse because it had the markings of a coin that had been placed in somebody's mouth before they were cremated... kinda weird, but also a little cool in a culturey kinda way... but it does mean that somewhere in this country a cheap bastard is picking through the sacred ashes searching for 20p, there's always one isn't there :)
Quick shout to Amelia and Nini, was so lovely to see your faces and hear your voices again, anyone who wants to skype im at leo-fabbri. Peace and Love
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Khao San and Sun
Sa-wat-dee-kaup! After nearly 10 months away, I'm back, and everything is as I left it but without the revolution - busy, sinful, exciting and NOT FILTHY!!! I must say I have only been here for two nights but I am already reveling in the contrasts between here, Bangkok and there, Kathmandu. It is incredible how only a thousand miles can separate two cities with such different customs, ethics and psyche. For a start the streets are clean and this is really not by magic, people just use bins and don't shit in the alleyways - pretty simple stuff aye?
Everything after the last post went without a hitch, the flight and the arrival was simples, even enjoyable, now i have the secret knack of getting my baggage out first on the reclaim belt, every time, I was off the plane and on a train in under an hour - the airport high speed train has been completed recently as it certainly wasn't fucking there last time (!) so i was at the end of the line with 3 heavy bags in the new found heat and at that moment I thanked the universe that my flight was delayed otherwise I would be in the same place only at 1pm. Unlike my previous prediction it I didn't get on 1 tuktuk but on 3 to get to my destination... The first one was a bastard, i haggled him down to a 3rd his asking price on the the commitment that I would spend 5 minutes in a tailor shop (a very common con in this part of the world, but it is useful to do if you're in not much of a rush and you need a price to go substantially down as the tailor shop/jewelers/art gallery or whatever usually pays for their petrol or lunch if they bring in a certain amount of people)... well the tailor was slightly wise to me not actually wanting to buy anything and to be honest I couldn't be arsed to make him think any different - i just wanted to get into a hotel room. The tuktuk driver said he couldn't take me any further as he had no petrol after i was shown the door so i refused to pay, took my bags and got into another one, a nice tuktuk guy, with no tailor, but not much idea of where I asking him to go but in all reality I probably said 'soi rongmai' wrong and i was 15 minutes later dropped off on a busy street that turned out to be 'soi rangmai' and i payed him 50 baht. Luckily another driver did know where i was trying to get to and even a cheap hotel to stay in near there and 40 baht later i was there. I checked into the budget hotel where my room contained only a bed, a window (lucky) and a plug all for the meager price of 150, oh and just a 5 minute walk from the infamous Khoa San rd... where the streets are as ethically dirty as the Kathmandu streets are actually dirty. But I'm alone and on a budget so it's just not as fun as last time - Harry Williams or Max Carpanini, get your arses out here!
My first night was great though, i was up for celebrating so after hitting a bar I found some good laughs and music with many of the party-holics that litter these streets and indeed much of this country, the kind of people who happily spend $30 a night/every night and its crazy to think that that was me last year, and now for the first time in almost a year I can see how i spent £1000/month in my last travels, compared to £1000 in the last 3 months I'm doing a lot better but probably having a little less obvious fun! One thing I am happy about though is all this cheap beer, its always possible to be slightly tipsy most of the time and still be cheap, just stick to street food, something that already has gotten me a tad ill, jeez 3 months in Nepal and no diarrhea, two nights in Bangkok and it arrives - that's just the wrong way round!
So the next few days will hopefully be spent productively, today i will research and tomorrow I will go find one of the offices in the city that I can go to to put myself on the TEFL course, hopefully somewhere in the North or somewhere in the South, who knows? Bangkok is great but its tiring, like any massive city, and expensive, like any massive city, and dangerous, like any... well you get my drift... many years in London and it turns out I'm truly a country bumpkin, accent and everything. So i guess I will chill for a while, i feel like i deserve a little relaxation and with hour long massages from £3 this is truly the place to release all the stresses of wonderful yet harmful Nepal. I'll catch you later X
Everything after the last post went without a hitch, the flight and the arrival was simples, even enjoyable, now i have the secret knack of getting my baggage out first on the reclaim belt, every time, I was off the plane and on a train in under an hour - the airport high speed train has been completed recently as it certainly wasn't fucking there last time (!) so i was at the end of the line with 3 heavy bags in the new found heat and at that moment I thanked the universe that my flight was delayed otherwise I would be in the same place only at 1pm. Unlike my previous prediction it I didn't get on 1 tuktuk but on 3 to get to my destination... The first one was a bastard, i haggled him down to a 3rd his asking price on the the commitment that I would spend 5 minutes in a tailor shop (a very common con in this part of the world, but it is useful to do if you're in not much of a rush and you need a price to go substantially down as the tailor shop/jewelers/art gallery or whatever usually pays for their petrol or lunch if they bring in a certain amount of people)... well the tailor was slightly wise to me not actually wanting to buy anything and to be honest I couldn't be arsed to make him think any different - i just wanted to get into a hotel room. The tuktuk driver said he couldn't take me any further as he had no petrol after i was shown the door so i refused to pay, took my bags and got into another one, a nice tuktuk guy, with no tailor, but not much idea of where I asking him to go but in all reality I probably said 'soi rongmai' wrong and i was 15 minutes later dropped off on a busy street that turned out to be 'soi rangmai' and i payed him 50 baht. Luckily another driver did know where i was trying to get to and even a cheap hotel to stay in near there and 40 baht later i was there. I checked into the budget hotel where my room contained only a bed, a window (lucky) and a plug all for the meager price of 150, oh and just a 5 minute walk from the infamous Khoa San rd... where the streets are as ethically dirty as the Kathmandu streets are actually dirty. But I'm alone and on a budget so it's just not as fun as last time - Harry Williams or Max Carpanini, get your arses out here!
My first night was great though, i was up for celebrating so after hitting a bar I found some good laughs and music with many of the party-holics that litter these streets and indeed much of this country, the kind of people who happily spend $30 a night/every night and its crazy to think that that was me last year, and now for the first time in almost a year I can see how i spent £1000/month in my last travels, compared to £1000 in the last 3 months I'm doing a lot better but probably having a little less obvious fun! One thing I am happy about though is all this cheap beer, its always possible to be slightly tipsy most of the time and still be cheap, just stick to street food, something that already has gotten me a tad ill, jeez 3 months in Nepal and no diarrhea, two nights in Bangkok and it arrives - that's just the wrong way round!
So the next few days will hopefully be spent productively, today i will research and tomorrow I will go find one of the offices in the city that I can go to to put myself on the TEFL course, hopefully somewhere in the North or somewhere in the South, who knows? Bangkok is great but its tiring, like any massive city, and expensive, like any massive city, and dangerous, like any... well you get my drift... many years in London and it turns out I'm truly a country bumpkin, accent and everything. So i guess I will chill for a while, i feel like i deserve a little relaxation and with hour long massages from £3 this is truly the place to release all the stresses of wonderful yet harmful Nepal. I'll catch you later X
Goodbye and Namaste
(written 25.04.11)
Nepal’s wonderful element of procrastination has clung onto my trip until the very end; my flight to Bangkok is delayed without apology. Now I have three hours to kill before going through security once again where I will have to once more take off my shoes, be asked where I’m from a thousand times as the airport officials inquire into what exactly the durex packets in my toiletry bag are… (Giggles) they’re for sex? Aaaah, interesting…!
So at least I know how to keep myself amused… I don’t mind waiting in airports, and now I have time to use the power points here my flight, albeit three hours behind schedule, will be more enjoyable with the comfort of one or two of the illegal movies I stocked up on before leaving Boudhanilkantha. I left the project a day premature for various reasons, which I do not particularly want to go into too extensively. My host father, Rustam, appeared to show his true colours. Not to me, he has been wonderful throughout but to Connor. Maybe for good reason in a delusional mind but for me it was unacceptable and on Saturday I made up some reasons and left my acting house for an extra night in the RCDP hostel in west Kathmandu.
I have been boring you with the problems that face the orphanage that I worked for all but three months and each entry a new problem is uncovered and an old one misunderstood. One thing that I now know for sure is that the darn place just don’t work, it’s as corrupt as anything involving rupees out here is. The money sent to that place is with out a doubt lining at least 2 out of the 3 present committee members’ pockets, and then they still have the nerve to pretend that everything there is fine. They have vegetables they say, enough food, which is an incredible lie to tell to someone who has been there every day for 8 weeks. With the addition of two more kids to the 19 already there and already malnourished and under cared-for things needed to change and after two meetings with the committee and about 10 lies in each meeting, things weren’t going to be changed themselves, not by the committee and unfortunately not by me.
Connor had decided to go ahead with the project he has been planning for all the time I have known him, to start a new orphanage with 5 of the kids, there’d be a cold day in hell before the men ‘responsible’ for the kids let that happen so he went in the back door and started gaining permissions from the kid’s families. Rustam found out, confronted Connor and threatened the man who has been looking after the kids for almost every day these past 18 months with sexual abuse claims, completely unfounded with no supported evidence and utterly ludicrous. Connor will be fine, as I said there is no tangible evidence, but it’s the thought that counts and it’s a thought that drew me to the end of my tether and here I am.
It is certain that the orphanage will be disbanded. It turns out that actually is operating pretty illegally even by Nepali law and now the guns are out there will be no hesitation from shutting that place down and that will be that. Connor, last time we spoke, and Deepika are doing a good job finding homes for the rest of the kids that won’t fall into Connor’s hands, in better, more facilitated and hopefully less corrupt institutions. I am aware I have left at a bad time, either too late in order to keep my faith in the organisation I have been previously dedicated to (naivety is underrated), or too early to both realise the truth and see out the outcomes. It’s a shame that I have no idea where I can safely make a donation to at this period, and also a crying shame that the kids will most likely be separated, but that’s life I guess – at least for them, and they will be fine if they’re looked after well and always remain aware that nothing about their situation is their fault.
For our last day Carrie and I took the kids up into the hills to one of their favourite spots for a picnic and a swim in the waterfall. The 40-minute hike in mid-seventies heat was like any other, severely unpleasant but ineffably satisfying. The kids were incredibly well behaved and even picked up all their litter (Nepal watch out for the new generation!). The waterfall is beautiful, with a large cascade falling from the shelf where we were sat below a smaller one. This perfect spot, like any, is a little difficult to get too and rock climbing was necessary for the last stretch. Most of the kids have no problem with this, nor do I but the little ones needed some help to get down the last rocks before we made it. Unfortunately in the process of helping little Rachana down, my bag came open and out came both my HTC desire and my camera phone and plopped into the fast flowing water, sinking to the bottom. I heard that pure water doesn’t actually damage electronics as it’s not H2O that carries electricity but the ions floating in it but this is useless knowledge as there is no such thing as pure water outside of a lab, and especially not in Nepal. They were frazzled, and I was in a shit situation.
No more videos, no more pictures and I’d lost the emails of many of the people I have met out here. There had to be something I could do that wasn’t just leaving them in the sun for longer than the sun was due to be out… and then I remembered, four weeks ago a friend of mine in passing conversation had told me that if I was ever in a situation such as this what I was to do was to find salt… lots of salt. He said that the salt absorbs the pesky water out and hey presto, good as new. At the time I remember doubting this a little, especially the ‘good as new’ part but after three hours of both my phone and the camera dunked in two 1kg bags of salt they returned to life. The video camera is buggered, the filming part of it doesn’t work but the phone, with my emails and my camera is ‘as good as new’. You win some and you loose some and being that the video camera cost little over a hundred pounds, I am amazed that it lasted this long and I think it may have been a little creepy to some people (Amelia) – although I never thought to listen.
So I have officially run out of stories and I am excited to collect some more, further eastern ones to bore ya’ll with. I am due, if not delayed again, to now arrive in Thailand at around 16:30 local time, just enough time to get on a bus, then a tuk-tuk to find a cheap hotel, go out, get some street food and a Leo Beer or two, probably two. I can’t remember if Internet phone calling centres are as frequently found in Thailand as in Nepal, so Lucas if I you don’t here from me today – Happy Birthday Buddy! I miss you lots and I will call as soon as I find a place to do so. Ok, enough of this – doing this on word allows me to see the word count and I can see that you all are wonderfully patient with my ramblings; I could almost hand this entry in as A-level course work.
Nepal’s wonderful element of procrastination has clung onto my trip until the very end; my flight to Bangkok is delayed without apology. Now I have three hours to kill before going through security once again where I will have to once more take off my shoes, be asked where I’m from a thousand times as the airport officials inquire into what exactly the durex packets in my toiletry bag are… (Giggles) they’re for sex? Aaaah, interesting…!
So at least I know how to keep myself amused… I don’t mind waiting in airports, and now I have time to use the power points here my flight, albeit three hours behind schedule, will be more enjoyable with the comfort of one or two of the illegal movies I stocked up on before leaving Boudhanilkantha. I left the project a day premature for various reasons, which I do not particularly want to go into too extensively. My host father, Rustam, appeared to show his true colours. Not to me, he has been wonderful throughout but to Connor. Maybe for good reason in a delusional mind but for me it was unacceptable and on Saturday I made up some reasons and left my acting house for an extra night in the RCDP hostel in west Kathmandu.
I have been boring you with the problems that face the orphanage that I worked for all but three months and each entry a new problem is uncovered and an old one misunderstood. One thing that I now know for sure is that the darn place just don’t work, it’s as corrupt as anything involving rupees out here is. The money sent to that place is with out a doubt lining at least 2 out of the 3 present committee members’ pockets, and then they still have the nerve to pretend that everything there is fine. They have vegetables they say, enough food, which is an incredible lie to tell to someone who has been there every day for 8 weeks. With the addition of two more kids to the 19 already there and already malnourished and under cared-for things needed to change and after two meetings with the committee and about 10 lies in each meeting, things weren’t going to be changed themselves, not by the committee and unfortunately not by me.
Connor had decided to go ahead with the project he has been planning for all the time I have known him, to start a new orphanage with 5 of the kids, there’d be a cold day in hell before the men ‘responsible’ for the kids let that happen so he went in the back door and started gaining permissions from the kid’s families. Rustam found out, confronted Connor and threatened the man who has been looking after the kids for almost every day these past 18 months with sexual abuse claims, completely unfounded with no supported evidence and utterly ludicrous. Connor will be fine, as I said there is no tangible evidence, but it’s the thought that counts and it’s a thought that drew me to the end of my tether and here I am.
It is certain that the orphanage will be disbanded. It turns out that actually is operating pretty illegally even by Nepali law and now the guns are out there will be no hesitation from shutting that place down and that will be that. Connor, last time we spoke, and Deepika are doing a good job finding homes for the rest of the kids that won’t fall into Connor’s hands, in better, more facilitated and hopefully less corrupt institutions. I am aware I have left at a bad time, either too late in order to keep my faith in the organisation I have been previously dedicated to (naivety is underrated), or too early to both realise the truth and see out the outcomes. It’s a shame that I have no idea where I can safely make a donation to at this period, and also a crying shame that the kids will most likely be separated, but that’s life I guess – at least for them, and they will be fine if they’re looked after well and always remain aware that nothing about their situation is their fault.
For our last day Carrie and I took the kids up into the hills to one of their favourite spots for a picnic and a swim in the waterfall. The 40-minute hike in mid-seventies heat was like any other, severely unpleasant but ineffably satisfying. The kids were incredibly well behaved and even picked up all their litter (Nepal watch out for the new generation!). The waterfall is beautiful, with a large cascade falling from the shelf where we were sat below a smaller one. This perfect spot, like any, is a little difficult to get too and rock climbing was necessary for the last stretch. Most of the kids have no problem with this, nor do I but the little ones needed some help to get down the last rocks before we made it. Unfortunately in the process of helping little Rachana down, my bag came open and out came both my HTC desire and my camera phone and plopped into the fast flowing water, sinking to the bottom. I heard that pure water doesn’t actually damage electronics as it’s not H2O that carries electricity but the ions floating in it but this is useless knowledge as there is no such thing as pure water outside of a lab, and especially not in Nepal. They were frazzled, and I was in a shit situation.
No more videos, no more pictures and I’d lost the emails of many of the people I have met out here. There had to be something I could do that wasn’t just leaving them in the sun for longer than the sun was due to be out… and then I remembered, four weeks ago a friend of mine in passing conversation had told me that if I was ever in a situation such as this what I was to do was to find salt… lots of salt. He said that the salt absorbs the pesky water out and hey presto, good as new. At the time I remember doubting this a little, especially the ‘good as new’ part but after three hours of both my phone and the camera dunked in two 1kg bags of salt they returned to life. The video camera is buggered, the filming part of it doesn’t work but the phone, with my emails and my camera is ‘as good as new’. You win some and you loose some and being that the video camera cost little over a hundred pounds, I am amazed that it lasted this long and I think it may have been a little creepy to some people (Amelia) – although I never thought to listen.
So I have officially run out of stories and I am excited to collect some more, further eastern ones to bore ya’ll with. I am due, if not delayed again, to now arrive in Thailand at around 16:30 local time, just enough time to get on a bus, then a tuk-tuk to find a cheap hotel, go out, get some street food and a Leo Beer or two, probably two. I can’t remember if Internet phone calling centres are as frequently found in Thailand as in Nepal, so Lucas if I you don’t here from me today – Happy Birthday Buddy! I miss you lots and I will call as soon as I find a place to do so. Ok, enough of this – doing this on word allows me to see the word count and I can see that you all are wonderfully patient with my ramblings; I could almost hand this entry in as A-level course work.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Bring on the sun... 5 days :) :)
Its raining here and it's becoming old news, the monsoon is certainly beginning to settle in on the lush green valley that is for another 5 days my humble home. Kathmandu in seasonal rain is a pretty sight with high rolling cumulonimbi replacing the Himalaya with more spectacular height and even beauty and the small wispy clouds scratching the surface of the foothill seemingly engulfing the aligning gumpas in ethereal nothingness. But in a dirty city, and Kathmandu is at least a prince of dirt, the rain brings more filth as the sewers overflow (where the are sewers) and the streets are flowing with sailing boats of noodle packets, banana skins and water bottles. Iv heard that by June the center of the ring-road can have floods up to the waist - I feel lucky that my flight is booked in a mere 5 days, out of which 3 will most definitely be water-logged.
Connor is back and with him good news, he is taking 5 of the most needy and sick kids with him to Dolakha in the east to start up his own NGO, the children will definitly miss them but Connor will be back every month and the 5 are too happy to speak of. Things are looking good at the project which is fantastic as it would be terrible to leave when the place is in the need it has recently been in. The first of the international fund raising is trickling in from the States and Singapore and now the children have lunch of different kinds every day... at last there is no cries of hunger in those long afternoons before the rice is served. The money is looking positive but if the UK helped out too, things will be perfect. The money being sent over is now in Connor's control as no one in this country, at least anyone we are affiliated with, can be trusted with money, not even my host. But Connor has started to set up tabs with most of the essential shops in the town and when he comes back every month he will take the funds out of the central account and settle the tab himself, we hope this system is fool-proof and i have absolute trust in Connor so I won't feel suspect to deposit funds myself in the slightest. So when I return, beware, the fundraising hat will be well and truly on.
Connor is back and with him good news, he is taking 5 of the most needy and sick kids with him to Dolakha in the east to start up his own NGO, the children will definitly miss them but Connor will be back every month and the 5 are too happy to speak of. Things are looking good at the project which is fantastic as it would be terrible to leave when the place is in the need it has recently been in. The first of the international fund raising is trickling in from the States and Singapore and now the children have lunch of different kinds every day... at last there is no cries of hunger in those long afternoons before the rice is served. The money is looking positive but if the UK helped out too, things will be perfect. The money being sent over is now in Connor's control as no one in this country, at least anyone we are affiliated with, can be trusted with money, not even my host. But Connor has started to set up tabs with most of the essential shops in the town and when he comes back every month he will take the funds out of the central account and settle the tab himself, we hope this system is fool-proof and i have absolute trust in Connor so I won't feel suspect to deposit funds myself in the slightest. So when I return, beware, the fundraising hat will be well and truly on.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Kids with Paint, Kids with Paint.
Jeez, i fear it may be a little hard to follow my last post as not too much has been going on to the previous kinda level and I'm not complaining :)
The orphanage is starting to shape up, with the first money of the new committee arriving from Carrie things are a changing. First on the agenda is what I am currently escaping from is the painting of the whole house. Not surprisingly the walls and interestingly the ceilings are covered in grubby hand marks and exhaust fumes. New paint! The walls are going to be a nice dirt-invisible chocolate colour and the ceilings a yellow/cream. I have no idea how its going to look but it will at least look fresh rather than grimy. The painters took the piss a little and tried to charge waaaay too much for the job and the paint and also insisted that they had new rollers and brushes bought from them, but Carrie and Rustam haggled it down to only a slightly extortionate price, although its probably how much you would pay someone to paint one room back home so hey.
The next thing on the to-do list is to replace the current mud/march/stagnant-water land outside in the 'garden' with concrete. Not too expensive and way more permanent that a actual garden, then the kids can play basketball or whatever without running a risk of cholera, simple ideas. I, as everyone else, feels supremely lucky that Carrie turned up, she did great by fundraising before hand and without her and her introduction to deepika, a nepali UN worker, we would probably have never started to pull away the power from the current businessmen committee members to ourselves and the founder, Rustam. This is a hinging moment in the charity's life as for the first time it is actually a charity and not just an advertising technique. I have a few ideas as well with the money i want to donate, new benches and a table for everyone to sit round at dinner i think is where I'm going to spend it, much nicer than squatting on the floor and stairs.
Yesterday I was a teacher for the first time. I took a class of 7 elementary adults for 2 hours at a career development office in Charapark, on my side of the Kathmandu ring-road. I really really loved it, being centre of attention and all ;) Its great because iv been asked to come back for one more session before i leave the country to actually start doing this seriously (as in getting paid to do it)and its fantastic that i actually enjoy it and get some results also. We shall see where it takes me.
I am thoroughly looking forward to leaving Nepal for a while, its starting to become a little too much for me in some ways and the orphanage being painted and done up with new financial prospects seems like a perfect conclusion to my work out here. Thailand is calling and according to friends its fecking boiling so i cannot wait, just 8 more days and ill be there :) 8 more days :)
The orphanage is starting to shape up, with the first money of the new committee arriving from Carrie things are a changing. First on the agenda is what I am currently escaping from is the painting of the whole house. Not surprisingly the walls and interestingly the ceilings are covered in grubby hand marks and exhaust fumes. New paint! The walls are going to be a nice dirt-invisible chocolate colour and the ceilings a yellow/cream. I have no idea how its going to look but it will at least look fresh rather than grimy. The painters took the piss a little and tried to charge waaaay too much for the job and the paint and also insisted that they had new rollers and brushes bought from them, but Carrie and Rustam haggled it down to only a slightly extortionate price, although its probably how much you would pay someone to paint one room back home so hey.
The next thing on the to-do list is to replace the current mud/march/stagnant-water land outside in the 'garden' with concrete. Not too expensive and way more permanent that a actual garden, then the kids can play basketball or whatever without running a risk of cholera, simple ideas. I, as everyone else, feels supremely lucky that Carrie turned up, she did great by fundraising before hand and without her and her introduction to deepika, a nepali UN worker, we would probably have never started to pull away the power from the current businessmen committee members to ourselves and the founder, Rustam. This is a hinging moment in the charity's life as for the first time it is actually a charity and not just an advertising technique. I have a few ideas as well with the money i want to donate, new benches and a table for everyone to sit round at dinner i think is where I'm going to spend it, much nicer than squatting on the floor and stairs.
Yesterday I was a teacher for the first time. I took a class of 7 elementary adults for 2 hours at a career development office in Charapark, on my side of the Kathmandu ring-road. I really really loved it, being centre of attention and all ;) Its great because iv been asked to come back for one more session before i leave the country to actually start doing this seriously (as in getting paid to do it)and its fantastic that i actually enjoy it and get some results also. We shall see where it takes me.
I am thoroughly looking forward to leaving Nepal for a while, its starting to become a little too much for me in some ways and the orphanage being painted and done up with new financial prospects seems like a perfect conclusion to my work out here. Thailand is calling and according to friends its fecking boiling so i cannot wait, just 8 more days and ill be there :) 8 more days :)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Jailbreak!
So after a terribly cramped minibus journey i have finally found internet... and I have so much to tell you children.
I think we should start with a story about a shower, a language problem and 24 hours in a Kathmandu prison. Monday was just that, my first incarceration and in probably the worst country to pop my prison cherry. At 11am a dirty boy entered a dusty, small police station in the north of the city - and he was checked in for much longer than he bargained for. Wait, lets turn the clock back just 1 hour. For those reading you may remember my 'genius' plan for obtaining the showers that are unavailable to me at my home here, waiting until the 5star hotel across the road started cleaning the rooms and sneaking into an unused room two floors above where the cleaning was happening, taking off my clothes and glorifying in the now foreign pleasure of a hot, powerful shower. They caught on. And they were waiting for me. I hadn't even removed my boxers when a knock on the door sounded through my grubby ears. Fuck. I came out to face a hotel worker, i still thought i could get away with this grand theft aqua - but no. I was soon surrounded by most of the workers in the hotel shouting at me, in broken English. They called the police and soon I was taken in a truck to the nearby police station where the nightmare was just starting to become lucid, this was going to be a long day I thought.
Now I understand that what I did was wrong, stupid, disrespectful even, and i soon knew that i was going to pay for this mistake in the most sincere way - a night in a KTM prison. I was locked in a small grubby cell next to the main desk with just a wooden plank as a seat and later a bed and a equally dirty Nepali man by the name of Gobin, a nice bloke with no English who was in for fighting and interestingly the first Christian I've met out here - the interesting point is we met in a prison! The first few hours were ok, It seemed a little comical to me - the whole ordeal. And i was told by the one officer who could speak English that once the Head of Police came back at about 4 o'clock he would speak to him in my favour and i would be released, back to the life of crime i so obviously lived. This officer usefully fucked off about 2 hours after this statement and when the Head of Police did come back he turned out to be a little against me and the whole side of the world I came from. He didn't release me. I was a thief in his eyes and reminding him that it was the judge that should decide that and not him was not a great move, sometimes i put my foot in my mouth, big surprise? He locked himself in his office and then I started to get a little nervous, apparently he was the only one with the authority to release me. Ok, I thought, let's think this one through. AHA! The british embassy! I knew my rights, I knew I was by law to make a call to my embassy who would in turn get me the fuck out of there - the Nepali police obviously disagreed. The HOP also was apparently the only one too who could give me permission to follow international laws and regulations, perfect. I did my best, I befriended a timid junior officer in the hope that he might break the rules for me. He couldn't, he said that the boss would beat him - this is when i realised that the police force system in this country isn't exactly productive for the decreasing situation of the national social system! What to do next, i began shouting... that this was an outrage, that they were breaking more laws that I did, anything to get the boss comfortably sipping his chai out of his office. I tell you the Nepali police are even better at selective hearing and sight than English waiters, no cigar once more. And by the time it hit 7pm and i had used up all my broken Nepali and they're broken English I started to worry, the embassy had closed.
I was left with two obvious options, one to suck it up, curl up and try and rest until tomorrow and see if the next day would bring in a different light but due to this days current failings i doubted that this would happen. Option two, jail break. I asked to use the toilet and whilst being escorted out i scouted out my surroundings, one guard by the gate, closed and a 4 foot wall. Possible. Then at about 8pm I had my chance, Gobin was escorted also to use the toilet and the gate was open as the HOP just left the office with no glance in my direction. I build up all the strength i had inside me and ripped the padlock from the barred door, it swung upon silently and i hopped out grabbed my shoes and ran at the gate, a light at the end of the tunnel was close, i could smell the familiar fragrance of sewage and car fumes, freedom. I made it, but only for a second, i heard a shout then i felt a tackle. I was down on the ground with four oily hands restraining me, back in the cage. The on duty officer was spell struck at the broken padlock, to be honest so was I. And when Gobin returned we were locked back in with two padlocks. I made myself as comfortable as possible and when the power cut out at 9pm i tried to get some sleep.
The next day saw me at 7am, feeling desperate and still so dirty. An officer told me that I would be out at 10am when the HOP came back, apparently this time he would release me. He didn't, and at 9am I had a longer more grammatically incorrect lecture about white people and the hell we bring also to help his point out he had a gun at his hand that he occasionally pointed at me (jesus christ was i scared, this later was described by him as 'only a joke'). Again the suggestion that this was not me as i was actually here helping the very country he was 'policing' fell on deaf ears. The next two hours I spent feeling sorry for myself, repenting that consciously innocent attempt to clean my soiled armpits in a $60 a night hotel. I realised something that has unfortunately stuck with me and will stick with me for the rest of my time here and any other trips i will make here: the Nepali people as kind as they usually are, as friendly, as hospitable are by a huge majority unintelligent. I know some people will disagree, maybe even judge me for saying such a thing and I uphold their freedom to do so but as a general rule the people of this country don't try much, in school, in government, in industry, in change. I know that this isn't the population's fault, this is just the shitty situation that they have been born into, a vicious cycle: the education isn't there to allow people to actively insist upon a change and in order for there to be a change there needs to be a universal and sufficient education system to bread the intelligence that lies dormant but still with great potential throughout this society. Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills and this is something that on a grand scale is yet to happen. The police, like any developing or perhaps even developed country, are of course worse and in Nepal this is still true, their behaviour not just with me but with each other boarders simian nature, shouting, spitting, fighting. It was noticeable in their language, there was no quiet speaking, discussing, only shouting in conversation and shouting on the phone, when they speak English this is obviously different but in my time here I can only say I have met 4 people with good English, one of them lived in the states for 6 years and another happens to be one of the cleverest men i have ever met and I am sitting with him right now. I am not having a go, i love the people here but they need help and they know they need help, and for so long they have been relying on other nations to provide this help and this has become a habit which will be hard to break, something that i think will change, it will have to change - and obviously the problem is deeply rooted in the government or the lack of government and of course the lack of faith people have in the possibility of change, a need for a revolution is beyond doubt but the last two have failed who here has faith in a third? Not many but still maybe enough.
Anyway, so clearly I'm out of custody. I do very much think that i would still be in there if it wasn't for a stroke of luck, they had no intention of letting me go - I think i was interesting to them. The stroke of luck came in the form of a previous criminal of this country, turned police helper in a weird 'catch me if you can' way, anyway he found me feeling sorry for myself in a foreign jail cell. He was one of the few well travelled Nepalis that i have met, a nice guy but still not much going on upstairs apart from the usual wonderful national psyche, hospitality and generosity. He heard my story convinced the officers to transfer me to one of the city's prisons, a concept i wasn't exactly sure of. They did, after all it had been 24 hours and they hadn't charged me, a fact that i don't think would have made much of a difference without a local ally. There at the prison office I met the head of the Kathmandu district office who apologized for all I'd been through and allowed me to finally call my embassy. They immediately asked why i didn't call them from the onset and i explained. They also apologized and told me that due to the fact that i hadn't technically committed a crime I was free to go the minute i showed my passport and visa to confirm that i not an illegal, the assumption the previous HOP made. So that's done, I'm free and happy, with little bad feelings only a super huge grudge upon a man that i could never bring down so of course the anger is counterproductive and i have dropped it, there was no choice. And now i am enjoying freedom, sipping on an ice coffee and enjoying the beginning of monsoon season here, its cooling and the rain is predictable so Im almost always inside when the skies open and drench the dusty plains of the Kathmandu valley with the water not three days prior I attempted to steal.
On another note I am writing to you from the future, the year is now 2068 and its a glorious new years day. Last night the whole of Rustam and Sangita's family came to cramp around the little house that i stay to celebrate the beginning of a new time, and as always i was welcomed into the celebrations with warm family hands and a tall glass of Nepali whiskey which ain't too bad at all. We dined like kings, with papad, pickle, prawn crackers and a special dal baat, with chicken. Although i have now been successfully attempting vegetarianism for nearly two months i felt it appropriate to disregard my experiment, which is purely idealistic rather than ethical, for just this one night and as the power turned on to welcome the new year in everyone was in good spirits and festive cheer. This was also my first lie in for a long time, i didn't see the world before 11am today and i am feeling fine, sitting in an Israeli chillout lounge in the busy centre of the city, laundry is done and my suit is dry cleaned - for i have a job tomorrow. I am going to be teaching my first english class in a career development centre not far from the prison i was transferred to from the police station. I am a guest speaker and my topic is pronunciation, so i better get cracking on my lesson plan, i am apprehensive but excited - i feel i can teach this with the little experience i so far have, if it were grammar i would be screwed, i don't think i even know English grammar rules very well I just speak it. This will of course have to change soon :)
A long post and i hope you all enjoyed reading about my misfortunes and perhaps bent opinions, and the question on everybody's lips - am i clean? Yes, i took the kids up to the local waterfall an hour trek in the foothills above this smoggy city and nature provided me with the shower that society had previously denied, the hot water wasn't working though.
I think we should start with a story about a shower, a language problem and 24 hours in a Kathmandu prison. Monday was just that, my first incarceration and in probably the worst country to pop my prison cherry. At 11am a dirty boy entered a dusty, small police station in the north of the city - and he was checked in for much longer than he bargained for. Wait, lets turn the clock back just 1 hour. For those reading you may remember my 'genius' plan for obtaining the showers that are unavailable to me at my home here, waiting until the 5star hotel across the road started cleaning the rooms and sneaking into an unused room two floors above where the cleaning was happening, taking off my clothes and glorifying in the now foreign pleasure of a hot, powerful shower. They caught on. And they were waiting for me. I hadn't even removed my boxers when a knock on the door sounded through my grubby ears. Fuck. I came out to face a hotel worker, i still thought i could get away with this grand theft aqua - but no. I was soon surrounded by most of the workers in the hotel shouting at me, in broken English. They called the police and soon I was taken in a truck to the nearby police station where the nightmare was just starting to become lucid, this was going to be a long day I thought.
Now I understand that what I did was wrong, stupid, disrespectful even, and i soon knew that i was going to pay for this mistake in the most sincere way - a night in a KTM prison. I was locked in a small grubby cell next to the main desk with just a wooden plank as a seat and later a bed and a equally dirty Nepali man by the name of Gobin, a nice bloke with no English who was in for fighting and interestingly the first Christian I've met out here - the interesting point is we met in a prison! The first few hours were ok, It seemed a little comical to me - the whole ordeal. And i was told by the one officer who could speak English that once the Head of Police came back at about 4 o'clock he would speak to him in my favour and i would be released, back to the life of crime i so obviously lived. This officer usefully fucked off about 2 hours after this statement and when the Head of Police did come back he turned out to be a little against me and the whole side of the world I came from. He didn't release me. I was a thief in his eyes and reminding him that it was the judge that should decide that and not him was not a great move, sometimes i put my foot in my mouth, big surprise? He locked himself in his office and then I started to get a little nervous, apparently he was the only one with the authority to release me. Ok, I thought, let's think this one through. AHA! The british embassy! I knew my rights, I knew I was by law to make a call to my embassy who would in turn get me the fuck out of there - the Nepali police obviously disagreed. The HOP also was apparently the only one too who could give me permission to follow international laws and regulations, perfect. I did my best, I befriended a timid junior officer in the hope that he might break the rules for me. He couldn't, he said that the boss would beat him - this is when i realised that the police force system in this country isn't exactly productive for the decreasing situation of the national social system! What to do next, i began shouting... that this was an outrage, that they were breaking more laws that I did, anything to get the boss comfortably sipping his chai out of his office. I tell you the Nepali police are even better at selective hearing and sight than English waiters, no cigar once more. And by the time it hit 7pm and i had used up all my broken Nepali and they're broken English I started to worry, the embassy had closed.
I was left with two obvious options, one to suck it up, curl up and try and rest until tomorrow and see if the next day would bring in a different light but due to this days current failings i doubted that this would happen. Option two, jail break. I asked to use the toilet and whilst being escorted out i scouted out my surroundings, one guard by the gate, closed and a 4 foot wall. Possible. Then at about 8pm I had my chance, Gobin was escorted also to use the toilet and the gate was open as the HOP just left the office with no glance in my direction. I build up all the strength i had inside me and ripped the padlock from the barred door, it swung upon silently and i hopped out grabbed my shoes and ran at the gate, a light at the end of the tunnel was close, i could smell the familiar fragrance of sewage and car fumes, freedom. I made it, but only for a second, i heard a shout then i felt a tackle. I was down on the ground with four oily hands restraining me, back in the cage. The on duty officer was spell struck at the broken padlock, to be honest so was I. And when Gobin returned we were locked back in with two padlocks. I made myself as comfortable as possible and when the power cut out at 9pm i tried to get some sleep.
The next day saw me at 7am, feeling desperate and still so dirty. An officer told me that I would be out at 10am when the HOP came back, apparently this time he would release me. He didn't, and at 9am I had a longer more grammatically incorrect lecture about white people and the hell we bring also to help his point out he had a gun at his hand that he occasionally pointed at me (jesus christ was i scared, this later was described by him as 'only a joke'). Again the suggestion that this was not me as i was actually here helping the very country he was 'policing' fell on deaf ears. The next two hours I spent feeling sorry for myself, repenting that consciously innocent attempt to clean my soiled armpits in a $60 a night hotel. I realised something that has unfortunately stuck with me and will stick with me for the rest of my time here and any other trips i will make here: the Nepali people as kind as they usually are, as friendly, as hospitable are by a huge majority unintelligent. I know some people will disagree, maybe even judge me for saying such a thing and I uphold their freedom to do so but as a general rule the people of this country don't try much, in school, in government, in industry, in change. I know that this isn't the population's fault, this is just the shitty situation that they have been born into, a vicious cycle: the education isn't there to allow people to actively insist upon a change and in order for there to be a change there needs to be a universal and sufficient education system to bread the intelligence that lies dormant but still with great potential throughout this society. Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills and this is something that on a grand scale is yet to happen. The police, like any developing or perhaps even developed country, are of course worse and in Nepal this is still true, their behaviour not just with me but with each other boarders simian nature, shouting, spitting, fighting. It was noticeable in their language, there was no quiet speaking, discussing, only shouting in conversation and shouting on the phone, when they speak English this is obviously different but in my time here I can only say I have met 4 people with good English, one of them lived in the states for 6 years and another happens to be one of the cleverest men i have ever met and I am sitting with him right now. I am not having a go, i love the people here but they need help and they know they need help, and for so long they have been relying on other nations to provide this help and this has become a habit which will be hard to break, something that i think will change, it will have to change - and obviously the problem is deeply rooted in the government or the lack of government and of course the lack of faith people have in the possibility of change, a need for a revolution is beyond doubt but the last two have failed who here has faith in a third? Not many but still maybe enough.
Anyway, so clearly I'm out of custody. I do very much think that i would still be in there if it wasn't for a stroke of luck, they had no intention of letting me go - I think i was interesting to them. The stroke of luck came in the form of a previous criminal of this country, turned police helper in a weird 'catch me if you can' way, anyway he found me feeling sorry for myself in a foreign jail cell. He was one of the few well travelled Nepalis that i have met, a nice guy but still not much going on upstairs apart from the usual wonderful national psyche, hospitality and generosity. He heard my story convinced the officers to transfer me to one of the city's prisons, a concept i wasn't exactly sure of. They did, after all it had been 24 hours and they hadn't charged me, a fact that i don't think would have made much of a difference without a local ally. There at the prison office I met the head of the Kathmandu district office who apologized for all I'd been through and allowed me to finally call my embassy. They immediately asked why i didn't call them from the onset and i explained. They also apologized and told me that due to the fact that i hadn't technically committed a crime I was free to go the minute i showed my passport and visa to confirm that i not an illegal, the assumption the previous HOP made. So that's done, I'm free and happy, with little bad feelings only a super huge grudge upon a man that i could never bring down so of course the anger is counterproductive and i have dropped it, there was no choice. And now i am enjoying freedom, sipping on an ice coffee and enjoying the beginning of monsoon season here, its cooling and the rain is predictable so Im almost always inside when the skies open and drench the dusty plains of the Kathmandu valley with the water not three days prior I attempted to steal.
On another note I am writing to you from the future, the year is now 2068 and its a glorious new years day. Last night the whole of Rustam and Sangita's family came to cramp around the little house that i stay to celebrate the beginning of a new time, and as always i was welcomed into the celebrations with warm family hands and a tall glass of Nepali whiskey which ain't too bad at all. We dined like kings, with papad, pickle, prawn crackers and a special dal baat, with chicken. Although i have now been successfully attempting vegetarianism for nearly two months i felt it appropriate to disregard my experiment, which is purely idealistic rather than ethical, for just this one night and as the power turned on to welcome the new year in everyone was in good spirits and festive cheer. This was also my first lie in for a long time, i didn't see the world before 11am today and i am feeling fine, sitting in an Israeli chillout lounge in the busy centre of the city, laundry is done and my suit is dry cleaned - for i have a job tomorrow. I am going to be teaching my first english class in a career development centre not far from the prison i was transferred to from the police station. I am a guest speaker and my topic is pronunciation, so i better get cracking on my lesson plan, i am apprehensive but excited - i feel i can teach this with the little experience i so far have, if it were grammar i would be screwed, i don't think i even know English grammar rules very well I just speak it. This will of course have to change soon :)
A long post and i hope you all enjoyed reading about my misfortunes and perhaps bent opinions, and the question on everybody's lips - am i clean? Yes, i took the kids up to the local waterfall an hour trek in the foothills above this smoggy city and nature provided me with the shower that society had previously denied, the hot water wasn't working though.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
I can see why there is alcohol at English Speech Days - they're fucking boring
Hello Hello Hello!
First of all, to all who read the last post the photographeeeees that i took in the Himalaya are now up on the book so checkle them out pls!
I really have just been kicking around the last few days, catching up with everything thats going on and getting everything sorted before i leave the country in 2 weeks (can't believe i will be back in thailand in such a short amount of time :) ) By sorting out I mean the future plans of the orphanage.... Im sure you recall the problems facing it and the solutions given 24 hours after things got messy. Well to all who have been to Nepal and know how things roll out here you won't be surprised to hear that no-ting has happened to resolve the issues. So we are taking matters into our own hands. By we I mean Rustam (the founder and my host), Carrie (a new british volunteer who fundraised before coming out here), a Nepali UN worker and myself.
Here's the scoop:
The board of committee have done bugger all in the last month to change the orphanage's situation. Still the kids are living off just rice and lentils with no vegetables, no fruit and no milk. The water is cutting off all the time and the whole place stinks of everything nasty. We all had a meeting this afternoon for a couple of hours in a local restaurant and have decided to act, but we have to tread carefully. We want to set up a new counsel with Rustam, Carrie and myself on the board of committee. Then we can do things how they should be done, with no business mentality, just as a charity, how things should be. We wish to set up this committee on the side of the other one and slowly (and without the other's knowledge - the tricky bit) transfer the power from them to us. To do this we need to raise money which we will all do when we get home after the summer. Its not a huge amount of money, the orphanage of 19 children will be well sustained on around £1000/month, something that I'm sure, given my past experience fundraising, is possible. Buuuut.... to raise money back home the charity needs full transparency, something that it does not have now (lots of money goes missing every month to the greedy businessmen who 'sponsor' this place). So Rustam is writing up a budget of pipedream outgoings to present, The UN worker is designing a website and Carrie and I will be in charge of correspondence and fundraising. With a full website and budget lists we think that this is possible, people all around the west do want to help and operating this as a western-style charity (e.g. websites, welcome packs, direct debit forms, letters from the children, pictures of the children, shopping lists) some people will be interested to help with a fiver or so a month commitment and we only need 200 of these donors to have a wonderfully happy and healthy orphanage.
So Im in central KTM now with a mission at hand for tomorrow. I am going to the west of the city to the RCDP headquarters to speak to those bastards that I paid 50,000rps ($800) to to do this project. Out of this 50,000 12,000 has turned up my end of the deal funding the host family I stay with. No money has been donated to the orphanage despite RCDP stating on its international website that it would. So 38,000 rps is missing or rather has been pocketed by this 'Non-Profit Organisation'. Outrageous yes? So tomorrow I will go see them but I will have to tread carefully, the orphanage is at the moment still dependent on them for the volunteers they need so much and if I go in all guns blazing that could jeopardise the orphanage's immediate future. If they think that Rustam told me the amount he got then they could get mad at him and cut off they're relations with him and the orphanage sooner than we want. I will go tomorrow and say to them that i have been at this orphanage for 6 weeks now over the course of 10 weeks and have witnessed 6 other volunteers arrive through RCDP and yet the place still has no money, so RCDP why is this? I gave you 50,000 rps, I would like a legal receipt documenting where this money was spent - surely you can arrange this, Im sure you keep accounts etc. Then it looks like it comes all from me as a concerned volunteer and no one gets in trouble. If they can't which I am guessing will happen, I will contact IFRE the america NGO i organised this through and inform them that they are working with a fraudulent organisation. The rotary club overseeing this will also be informed and unless they try and make economic amends, we are looking at legal action being taken against them... Bullet proof.
Small steps slowly, thats the plan. And I intend to see this project to the end and stay on the board of committee for the lifetime of either myself or the orphanage. I have found a path :)
Ok, so thats me... I will let u know how it goes, check out the pictures :)
Oh just thought id mention that I saw 'A beautiful mind' last night - what a movie, that film had my in tears and in complete confusion - i know i'm ten years late but WOW - one of the best things i have seen all year. Watch it!!
Much love
Oh yeh, about the title - it was the kids end of year speech day today and i sat through 3 and a half hours of nepali speeches (which sounds like army style shouting) in 75 degree heat... I would have died if it wasn't for Angry Birds on my phone!
First of all, to all who read the last post the photographeeeees that i took in the Himalaya are now up on the book so checkle them out pls!
I really have just been kicking around the last few days, catching up with everything thats going on and getting everything sorted before i leave the country in 2 weeks (can't believe i will be back in thailand in such a short amount of time :) ) By sorting out I mean the future plans of the orphanage.... Im sure you recall the problems facing it and the solutions given 24 hours after things got messy. Well to all who have been to Nepal and know how things roll out here you won't be surprised to hear that no-ting has happened to resolve the issues. So we are taking matters into our own hands. By we I mean Rustam (the founder and my host), Carrie (a new british volunteer who fundraised before coming out here), a Nepali UN worker and myself.
Here's the scoop:
The board of committee have done bugger all in the last month to change the orphanage's situation. Still the kids are living off just rice and lentils with no vegetables, no fruit and no milk. The water is cutting off all the time and the whole place stinks of everything nasty. We all had a meeting this afternoon for a couple of hours in a local restaurant and have decided to act, but we have to tread carefully. We want to set up a new counsel with Rustam, Carrie and myself on the board of committee. Then we can do things how they should be done, with no business mentality, just as a charity, how things should be. We wish to set up this committee on the side of the other one and slowly (and without the other's knowledge - the tricky bit) transfer the power from them to us. To do this we need to raise money which we will all do when we get home after the summer. Its not a huge amount of money, the orphanage of 19 children will be well sustained on around £1000/month, something that I'm sure, given my past experience fundraising, is possible. Buuuut.... to raise money back home the charity needs full transparency, something that it does not have now (lots of money goes missing every month to the greedy businessmen who 'sponsor' this place). So Rustam is writing up a budget of pipedream outgoings to present, The UN worker is designing a website and Carrie and I will be in charge of correspondence and fundraising. With a full website and budget lists we think that this is possible, people all around the west do want to help and operating this as a western-style charity (e.g. websites, welcome packs, direct debit forms, letters from the children, pictures of the children, shopping lists) some people will be interested to help with a fiver or so a month commitment and we only need 200 of these donors to have a wonderfully happy and healthy orphanage.
So Im in central KTM now with a mission at hand for tomorrow. I am going to the west of the city to the RCDP headquarters to speak to those bastards that I paid 50,000rps ($800) to to do this project. Out of this 50,000 12,000 has turned up my end of the deal funding the host family I stay with. No money has been donated to the orphanage despite RCDP stating on its international website that it would. So 38,000 rps is missing or rather has been pocketed by this 'Non-Profit Organisation'. Outrageous yes? So tomorrow I will go see them but I will have to tread carefully, the orphanage is at the moment still dependent on them for the volunteers they need so much and if I go in all guns blazing that could jeopardise the orphanage's immediate future. If they think that Rustam told me the amount he got then they could get mad at him and cut off they're relations with him and the orphanage sooner than we want. I will go tomorrow and say to them that i have been at this orphanage for 6 weeks now over the course of 10 weeks and have witnessed 6 other volunteers arrive through RCDP and yet the place still has no money, so RCDP why is this? I gave you 50,000 rps, I would like a legal receipt documenting where this money was spent - surely you can arrange this, Im sure you keep accounts etc. Then it looks like it comes all from me as a concerned volunteer and no one gets in trouble. If they can't which I am guessing will happen, I will contact IFRE the america NGO i organised this through and inform them that they are working with a fraudulent organisation. The rotary club overseeing this will also be informed and unless they try and make economic amends, we are looking at legal action being taken against them... Bullet proof.
Small steps slowly, thats the plan. And I intend to see this project to the end and stay on the board of committee for the lifetime of either myself or the orphanage. I have found a path :)
Ok, so thats me... I will let u know how it goes, check out the pictures :)
Oh just thought id mention that I saw 'A beautiful mind' last night - what a movie, that film had my in tears and in complete confusion - i know i'm ten years late but WOW - one of the best things i have seen all year. Watch it!!
Much love
Oh yeh, about the title - it was the kids end of year speech day today and i sat through 3 and a half hours of nepali speeches (which sounds like army style shouting) in 75 degree heat... I would have died if it wasn't for Angry Birds on my phone!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Same same, but hotter.
Kathmandu - The sun is burning and there now is no lake to cool me off, but hey! Im making the best of it. I arrive back in the smoggy city on Monday afternoon and after rushing straight down to freak street, the sun was terential (have i mentioned that?), i booked myself into a 200 rups room and sat down for my first actual coffee in pushing 4 weeks. I was buzzing my tits off by the second cup! Here i got chatting, perhaps a little enthusiastically, to a top bloke from Scotland who's been teaching in S Korea for the last 2 years and back home was a standup comedian... Iv never met a comedian before, and they are just as fun as you'd expect - he had an apartment in Ktm above one of my original aquatences, Paul, who i was glad to see was still here and we spent the evening on Paul's girlfriend's apartment roof with many friends, a good fire and a good amount of Kurkhuri Rum and Raksi, both are fecking lethal and Tuesday morning presented me with my second hangover of the trip... nasty, but the numbers are at least down! So the following day was spent clearing up the damage of the night before, lots of coffee, shaking hands and one trip to the hospital for an emergency tetanus jab for my south african friend! Standard. Apres I headed up to Thamel to have lunch with Helen, generally a great catch-up, its sad she's heading off to india real soon, i will miss her. But this is the traveling life and im used to, no happy about it - the detachment that naturally occurs with friends out here i think produces the healthiest frienships. I said goodbye, bought a watermelon and headed back to Boudhanilkantha, back home.
The kids were glad to see me back and have spent the entire day showing me everything that is slightly different from before, new football, new haircuts, clean toilets (!!!!!), everyone is doing well but just as i suspected the money hasnt quite turned up yet but if a meal takes 2 hours to be made in this country, money is going to take a long time too.
So thats me, and im fine... if not great. I booked my flight to Bangkok (no malaysia :( - not enough cash) on the 25th of this month (* my lil bro's b-day - It felt right!) and i cannot freaking wait to be back there... not bangkok, Im getting on a train straight to Ayuthaya the second i touch down as i dont want to go from one fuck off city to the next. There i don't know, wait a little until my TEFL program starts, wherever that starts (chaing mai, phuket or ko samui - all great in there own ways) - but waiting in Ayuthaya, my absolute love, is no bad thing - i will be templed and night bazaared out by the time my course starts and im looking forward to meeting Thai Carpanini again at Bah Eve Guesthouse (Harry knows what I mean - Max there is no insult in the last sentence i swear, he's a happy happy dude.).... But this is all speculation, nothing solid but the plane ticket - who know's what will happen, I never do.
Oh and G - cheers for the email, made me feel excellently special, love ya man!
The kids were glad to see me back and have spent the entire day showing me everything that is slightly different from before, new football, new haircuts, clean toilets (!!!!!), everyone is doing well but just as i suspected the money hasnt quite turned up yet but if a meal takes 2 hours to be made in this country, money is going to take a long time too.
So thats me, and im fine... if not great. I booked my flight to Bangkok (no malaysia :( - not enough cash) on the 25th of this month (* my lil bro's b-day - It felt right!) and i cannot freaking wait to be back there... not bangkok, Im getting on a train straight to Ayuthaya the second i touch down as i dont want to go from one fuck off city to the next. There i don't know, wait a little until my TEFL program starts, wherever that starts (chaing mai, phuket or ko samui - all great in there own ways) - but waiting in Ayuthaya, my absolute love, is no bad thing - i will be templed and night bazaared out by the time my course starts and im looking forward to meeting Thai Carpanini again at Bah Eve Guesthouse (Harry knows what I mean - Max there is no insult in the last sentence i swear, he's a happy happy dude.).... But this is all speculation, nothing solid but the plane ticket - who know's what will happen, I never do.
Oh and G - cheers for the email, made me feel excellently special, love ya man!
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