THURSDAY

98 years old woman from Jitpur village - she still cuts the grass ,feeds buffaloes etc...

Had another bumpy Indiana Jones ride on the local bus to go to Kathmandu , the price - 10 rupies...

Kathmandu looked chronically busy - tiger balm sellers , pipe carvers , 100% cashmere ( or is it ... ) shawls , incenses , mandalas , internet coffee places , wondering tourists , pirated dvd's , sleeping bags , fake ,, North face " winter jackets , woolen socks , yak- milk tea bags and so on and so on

To come back i had to take a cab , cause there is no public transport after dark . The cab drive at night was quite animating , but we didn't kill anyone (21 years of prison ) or a cow ( 20 years of prison ) , and we didn't get killed , so it was a good day.

WEDNESDAY

It's a boy ... not a girl

Other ECD kids

I can confirm it - Nepal is the country , where when you ask something , you will never get it , and you are given ,when you don't ask it . Today my face looks like a tribal native indian face , covered in all the rainbow colors - for no reason , all the people i lived with or worked with decided to give me Tikas in the most vivid colors . The teachers asked me to buy a sari and wear it at school :

,, The married woman shouldn't wear a pair of ripped jeans - it's such a disgrace! "

And then all the teachers found it funny the fact , that i drink a black coffee without the sugar . They told me , that i must be a very strong and severe person not to add sugar into my drink....

Today i brought to school an instant coffee bag and asked the other teachers to have some coffee with me . Four of them agreed to keep me company ( just to be amiable ) . Literally , they put two or three granules of Nescafe into their mugs and 5 spoons of sugar . The color of coffee was not brown , it was yellowish - and they drank it , saying that it was very tasty ! - kind of the same sweet tale , when i make declaration of love to rice every day ....

At school there is one blind teacher . Other teachers introduced him to us ( me and the other volunteer Zarina ) to him saying :

,,- Here is our abnormal teacher - he is blind! "

They used that word - abnormal... I thought , at one point , Zarina will die hearing that . She works in the organization , which actually does everything , that people with disabilities would be easily integrated into society and would not feel ,, abnormal '' .

It was difficult to keep the straight face , not to laugh , when Zarina was trying to explain that ,,abnormal '' is not a right word and should not be used in that case .

For dinner we went to Osho camp , which was really close ( 3 km ) and had an amazing dinner for 1.50 $ - simply an Eden....

TUESDAY

Teachers room

Teachers

School cantine

Ramis and his sister

How can one explain what the celery is to the kid who never saw it in his life ? I had difficulties with that during my English class .

At school local teachers,, accused ''us being unsociable and reserved . They wanted us to hang out with them in the room of principal , which serves as a teacher's room as well . Schoolteachers here are quite gossipy at a glance here . They do try to talk to me , but i don't understand mostly their questions , and they don't understand my answers equally , but we continue anyway having this no-win conversation . One of the ECD teachers gives me a TIKA ( red mark ,big honor ) on the forehead , saying that this way i look more serious - well , definitely i look like a popinjay and i am kind of nervous , if that violent red color will ever come off my hair...

During the break i meet Ramis (Mowgli 's) sister . She is 13 years old , she finishes her school at 3 o'clock , and then goes to work till 9 p.m . She cuts the lawns , does laundry for the rich families , cleans hotel rooms etc .

,, - She never does her homework , and she is not very talented '' - that's how her teachers describe her ...,, - But it's ok ''- they say :

,, - Anyway , she is from the lowest caste , so who cares ... "

My colleague from ECD class is 28 years old woman , she has a 18 months baby . Her daily routine is quite Spartan : she wakes up at 5 a.m. , does her household work , prepares breakfast to everyone ( she lives with her in -laws , that makes 9 family members ) . Then she walks all the way to school for one hour , works there , then comes back home , cleans the house , cooks the dinner , takes care of her baby . She doesn't groan about it , because , once more , she is from low caste and this is just a way to be .

Like they say there :

,, I am Dalit ( the lowest , untouchable caste ) , i am Woman , i am Dalit Woman - i am three times discriminated ..."

MONDAY

My crib

School

The little Garima

Back to work .

Indeed , I started to to be fond of those English lessons we are having every morning - it's so amusing to see kids actually willing to learn something with such an enthusiasm and without any enforce .

ECD class is very crowded today, we have 17 children - i guess , the word just spread out about new teachers with a lot of new games and activities . All the kids are dressed in dirty clothes , not washed - a band of young vagabonds... There is this little girl , called Garima , she is 3 years old .

I lifted her up , and even my handbag is a way heavier than her . An obvious lack of nourishment . The only food she has is dry , pressed rice, and the only thing i could think looking at her was the image of a starving child from Auschtwitz Birkenau camp .

Local teachers told , that the children were missing us yesterday and it just made my day till ... the moment i got back home and realized that the toilet was jammed and all feces from last three days are out ...

The head of the family fixed it up that problem next day and then gave some serious speech of instruction how to use the toilet paper properly . He said that all foreigners are using too much of toilet paper . Very ecological thought , indeed , but with no access to running water , it gets a bit complicated ...

DAY 6

Back to the orphanage . Bought the ball for boys ( they had no , even all of them love football ) and the 22 pair of socks ( not one of them had any ) . The handout had a huge success . Girls were trying the socks , then putting them back tidily in their treasure troves . The older boys started the try outs of the ball straight away .

The girls dragged me off to their room , saying that it's girls time and no boy is allowed to interrupt it . They were singing and dancing , i tried to imitate their moves , causing a lots of laughters , being such a maladroit . The girls brushed my hair , saying that i had very untidy hair , and that i should wear it in tight knot to look more attractive . Real beauty parlor we had there until it got dark ...