Another Week Down

Another week of work down and here I am back at the hotel in a comfortable bed with the heating on. I woke feeling cold early this morning so I picked up the remote next to my bed and clicked on the reverse-cycle air-con. Ah, bliss, the room started to warm up. And then the power went off. So I had to just curl up into a ball and try to get warm that way. Then about seven they put the generator on and the heating came back on. So I thought I would luxuriate further by putting on the TV and see what movie might be on HBO (one of the few watchable channels), but alas, the transmission was out. So I got my little lap-top out to check my emails; no internet. (Sigh).

My week at work was not so emotionally demanding as when I was working with the younger, more disabled children. It alternated between boring and demanding. The Japanese teacher, Kotaro, starts the day by holding up pictures of different objects and the children have to name them—things like body parts, or things around the house (broken light-fittings, hard wooden beds, ill-fitting doors, dirty windows—just kidding). This has been great for my Nepali but I fear I’m learning Nepali with a Japanese accent. I now know that ‘moon’ in Nepali is ‘chundrama’. I can say ‘hoina’ to the children when they get something wrong and ‘ho’ when they get it right. I also know a song in Nepali about being ‘kusi lagyo’ to meet you today. I also know ‘mathi janus’ which means ‘get upstairs’ and I’m looking forward to the chance to use that one.

What I need to know is how to say, "Not bloody rice again". On Thursday, by lunch, which we don’t have til 2.30, I was feeling very tired and a bit light-headed. I thought I was getting sick—I’m the only one who hasn’t had anything yet—and as soon as I could, I went home. But what I realised was that I had eaten a small bowl of a kind of rice pudding for breakfast with a few bits of mandarin and nothing from then til lunch, which was two-minute noodles with some raw onion on top. And since dinner is always rice, thin dahl and vegetables I concluded that I was starting to become a bit depleted. Neville has certainly lost weight and I think I have. The Nepalese are obviously used to this diet and look very healthy, albeit small. (I am average height here! The low doorways and tiny taxis drive Christopher crazy)

What the kids at CBR get for lunch would make most Australian mothers rather horrified. Most days the ones who can only manage soft food get rice porridge with a few grains or seeds mixed in and milk, but some days its three slices of white bread mixed with milk or tea. The ones who can feed themselves were eating their bread and tea by just dipping the slices in the tea. Some of the older ones bring packets of two-minute noodles to eat dry. One new boy has been bringing a packet of Horlicks biscuits and this is what he eats for lunch with his tea. We get rice flakes and potato or bean curry or noodles and sometimes doughnuts. The doughnuts are great—just like Byron Bay doughnuts—but aren’t much of a lunch. The main thing this food does is fill you up. It’s very tasty and I like it, but I think I’m starting to suffer from a lack of protein. We occasionally get a little bit of fruit at breakfast but I’ve never seen any at CBR and the only dairy we ever have is some milk in our tea.

So when I stopped at the good old Dokhaima Café before work on Friday I ordered an omelette with cheese and bacon and felt much better that day.

Every day after lunch, Siripa, one of the girls in the class asks for the puzzles. The first time she asked me I had no idea what she was saying and she was getting very frustrated with me. The only English word she was saying was ‘house’. Finally I asked this guy who was there because the Japanese guy had bunked off for the day, and he said she was asking for something you join together, like blocks. I was still mystified then I realised: puzzles! And she was overjoyed. So now I get "Miss!…Miss!…MISS!!" to bring the puzzles out and "MISS!" every time she puts a piece in. They all want to do them, there are only four puzzles and they all want me helping them at once. With this and Johnson calling, "Hello, excuse me. You come. This?" to check his bloody sums, I’m very glad when Asim, a big slow boy, decides it’s time to clean up and starts sweeping the floor with the small hand-held broom and we can pack up and finally get lunch.