It dawned on me yesterday that I haven't actually written about anything that has happened since the volunteers arrived, so here you have it, an overdue update.
The UKVs arrived on the evening of the 28th and it took them a record breaking 2 hours to collect their bags and get out of the airport, they are now at the top of the leaderboard for bag-collection time, not that there are any winners in this competition. Anyway.
The UKVs and ICVs (In Country Volunteers) then had three days of In Country Orientation (ICO- prepare yourself for many acronyms) which included language lessons, health and safety briefings, learning about the strategy of VSO Nepal, etc etc. I unfortunately had to miss one session as I finally got hit with food poisoning, although I did have a glorious 3 and a half weeks without getting it. Sadly we lost one of the UKVs during this time due to personal reasons, but it was all dealt with very well by VSO.
After the ICO we headed off to Besi Sehar which is the administrative capital of Lamjung, the district we are working in. With a lot of persuasion we managed to get a great deal on the best hotel in Besi Sehar, which was one final bit of luxury for the volunteers but has now ruined us for the next 10 weeks. In Besi Sehar the volunteers had 4 days of InCO (In Community Orientation) which was led by yours truly and my counterpart, Rahul. The InCO mainly consisted of learning how to facilitate, setting goals and preparing for life in the community. I really enjoyed leading the InCO and it has given me plenty of experience in training and facilitating sessions, which I 100% would not have been able to do this time last year. Thanks ICS.
There were lots of mixed emotions over these few training days as the reality of the programme kicked in for the volunteers. Having never seen the community before there were lots of questions about the toilets and electricity, as well as some doubts as to what we are going to do for the next few weeks. I've spent a lot of time recently reassuring the volunteers about how much they will get out of this project and how beneficial it is to the community. I have no doubt that in a few weeks time they will be wondering what they were ever worried about.
On the last night of InCO, myself and Rahul put everyone into their counterpart pairs and told them where they would be living and working for the next 10 weeks. This was by far the hardest task I've had to do yet as it is such a crucial part of the programme. If you mess up the counterpart pairs you could really affect the way the volunteers work for the duration of our time here. So no pressure...
After InCO training it was finally the big day to leave for our communities. The bus, as always, was very late and completely unsuitable for the roads it was about to travel down. It was a long and emotional day dropping all of the volunteers off at their host homes, and even I felt a bit overwhelmed when I first came into my new room, completely bare concrete walls with two pieces of furniture. Fortunately my counterpart came in just as I was about to have a meltdown and we drank tea on the roof looking out to the Himalayas. You can see Annapurna from where I live, no biggie.
The first night wasn't the easiest. In Duipiple, where I live, there was no electricity, so we sat all evening in torchlight. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted my new eight legged roomie who was roughly the size of my hand. Neither of us wanted to remove it so he just lives in my room now. I half expected to wake up with spider on the face, but the odds were in my favour. He has since disappeared and I've emptied my entire suitcase to make sure the cheeky bastard isn't trying to get a free ride back to the UK. I can picture the headline now (in The Sun, of course) "British volunteer brings home killer spider from Nepal, mass panic ensues".
On our first full day, Rahul and I walked up to Sami B, the highest community at 800m. Because we are absolute warriors we managed to do it an hour and I'm almost certain I'm going to lose some toe nails as it turns out my trainers are a bit too small. It also turns out that almost everything I've packed is completely useless as I was expecting cold weather when in fact it's absolutely boiling. Somebody is going to be awfully smelly within a week or two. Or now.
After an entire day of walking around the hill, we returned home to dahl baat, my number 1 most hated thing about Nepal. Dahl baat is rice and lentils and is served like clockwork everyday at 9.30am and 7pm. There are no exceptions to dahl baat. Dahl baat is life. My 8 legged friend was still missing as was the power so we embarked on the first of many, many card games. I have no doubt that I will be an absolute boss at sh*t head by the time I get back to the UK.
We've spent the last couple of days in the office and visiting two of the other communities which included a 10k walk in flip flops no less. I currently have the most disgusting traveller feet and I can't see that changing in the near future. To get to Rambazaar we took a bus which turned out to be an experience in itself. On the way home a huge argument erupted between the guy that collects the money and a passenger. I obviously had no clue what they were shouting about but it ended with the money collector getting a huge pole from the back of the bus and going for the passenger with it. Fortunately my counterpart/bodyguard helped to diffuse the situation and everyone was ok. It escalated quickly, as Ron Burgundy might say.
The first week is coming to an end and I am off to a team meeting shortly to see how everyone is getting on. More updates will follow soon.
Lizzie x
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