One Week Down

We made it through our first week. By Wednesday, we thought we were going to have to cut our working time back to two weeks because Daniel was not coping with any of it: the food, the lack of hot water, but mostly just living with Suhendra and Bidya. Living with another family is never easy, but when the conditions are tough and the culture is alien it’s even harder, particularly for a 14-year-old. But then, Christopher is perfectly happy and embraces everything and while Tom would be happy if we said we were leaving, he’s not worried by anything and the Nepalese love him.

Rajani, from Projects Abroad came to see us on Wednesday to check how everything was going. This is standard procedure as they have to fill out a form making sure we’re happy with everything. When I mentioned that things were fine but that there is no hot water she looked shocked. "But how do the children wash?" she asked. Never mind the bloody children. I answered rather obviously, "In cold water." She stared at me. She then called Suhendra in from the kitchen and they launched into a long conversation in Nepali or Newari (which is what they speak at home). We sat there like chopped liver and when they finally finished she turned to us and explained that Suhendra and Bidhya don’t have solar hot water as we thought. (The reason Annika sometimes had warm water in the afternoon was that the black tank on the roof would heat up during the day when the weather was warmer). But, she said, he was happy to heat some water for us if we wanted. He’s never offered to do this and, to be honest, a bowl of hot water wouldn’t really make much difference.

I had rung Rajani the afternoon before explaining how unhappy Dan was and warning her that we may only be able to work two weeks instead of four, so, once the hot water conversation was over she started on Dan. She is very nice, but her approach is Nepalese. She told him he shouldn’t throw away such an opportunity, that he was lucky that his parents had given him this opportunity, that the children here need his help and that she would make sure he got a reference from the school and that this would be very valuable when it came to getting a job in later life. While all of this was true, it was not very helpful for Dan. She suggested maybe he would be happier if she took him to one of the nearby orphanages where he could play with the children after they came home from school. Hmmm. Not really what Dan needed: more of the same. He just grunted and nodded and told me later that he just wanted her to shut up, which was fair enough. We tried to explain to her that it wasn’t anything here that could help, but that he just missed his friends and was finding life here hard and, more importantly, he never chose to come here and wasn’t terribly keen on the idea from the start. To her credit, she suggested a trip to the City Centre where there are shops and the cinema showing the new Harry Potter film. This was more like what he needed. Daniel can always be cheered up with a bit of shopping. She finally left and we all went off to work, but she came to see us at both of our placements later that morning to make sure everything was going well there. She went to Arniko school first and told me when she got to CBR that she’d spoken to Dan again and he’d promised he would stay for the four weeks (just to shut her up again he told me later). Surprisingly, he has seemed happier since then so we’ll see how he goes.

So, having made it through that first week we are taking some respite and, on the recommendation of the Lonely Planet guide have checked into the International Guest House in Thamel. And it is bliss! It’s a beautiful hotel. The lobby has lots of lovely carved wood pillars and it has a large courtyard garden where the grass actually looks green, not brown. It is surrounded by a high wall topped with barbed wire and the only entrance gate has a guard so we hope our stuff is safe in our rooms. We have a deluxe room and the boys a superior deluxe (they didn’t have two), which is very spacious and clean. Each room has a bathroom but most importantly….HOT WATER!! Not tepid, not lukewarm, scalding hot. So the first thing we all did was luxuriate in a long shower, the first I had had since we got here. They also have free wi-fi here but, as usual, it’s not reliable. And how much does all this luxury cost? US$40 for the superior deluxe and $33 for the deluxe and that includes breakfast. And at night it’s quiet. For the first time on arriving in Nepal I experienced silence. The hotel has a large generator for the power cuts but our room is away from it.

We splashed out on dinner at the famous Rum Doodle bar, not dirt cheap, but cheaper than home. They had a live band, which had the decency to play the standard covers band list. You can’t beat Knocking on Heaven’s Door in a Nepalese accent.