Unexpected Photo Dump #1

Due to certain technical challenges (such as the catastrophic meltdown of my laptop's face), it's been difficult to access the hundreds of higher-quality photos I've taken with my camera. Today I borrowed another computer and transferred some to my other device, so now I can share them! Here are some notable ones, available for download in their full, glorious 6+ megabyte size. They're vaguely organized by how far I had to go from my room to take them (except the first one, duh), and include such localities as Khandbari, Malta, Num, Lulungma, and Chyaksedada, the latter three of which are villages on the Makalu base camp trail.

Surya Boarding School

This is an overdue post about the place where I actually work, Surya Boarding School.

Welcome!

First of all, the school's main gate can be reached from the main drag in Khandbari via a picturesque back alley in just two or three minutes.

Our alley

However, reaching the classrooms takes an additional five minutes of walking, as the grounds are quite extensive. Alas, the whole place is built into the side of a steep mountain slope (this can't be helped; very few places around here are flat), so going across the grounds is more like hiking than walking.

So many stairs

The entire campus can't be captured in a single photograph from the ground and is beyond my limited artistic capacity to recreate on paper. It consists of an office, a cafeteria, six buildings containing multiple classrooms, two outdoor assembly areas, a soccer field, and a few acres of terraced fields used for teaching sustainable agriculture. Currently under construction are one classroom building, an additional office which will contain a new library, an expansion for the cafeteria, underground wiring, and better outdoor paths/stairs. It's great; I can only imagine what kinds of fun my childhood friends and I would have had exploring such a place during recess.

Primary/secondary level classrooms

Occupying this space are about 650 students [7/11/16 edit: 700 in the 2016-17 school-year], 40 faculty and staff, and a small army of temporary construction workers. The students range from nursery level to tenth grade, and many of them have attended only this school since the beginning of their education. The school aspires to offer eleventh grade (which is like junior college in Nepal; see my earlier post about the Nepali education system) starting next year.

Primary level classrooms

Students take all compulsory subjects with the addition of computer science, trigonometry/precalculus, and sustainable agriculture, the last of which is integrated into the curriculum of the mandatory Occupation, Business, and Technology class. Each school-day runs 10-4, with eight 40-minute periods, a 30-minute recess, and a short assembly at the beginning and end of the day.

New construction

There are few teaching resources beyond textbooks, whiteboards, an offline computer lab, and whatever can be found or improvised from local materials (some of these improvised things are actually really neat, particularly in the science classes), but we do our best with what we've got. The teachers are paid significantly less than their peers in government schools, which, sadly, is the norm here, but the school recently began a pension program for teachers of 5+ years to encourage long-term retention.

Assembly

Current projects at the school include trying to ban junk food, improving the quality and variety of healthy food available at the cafeteria, improving the availability of multimedia in the classrooms, and trying to make the school a litter-free zone.

The infrastructure going up here is beyond anything else happening at schools in this district, or in most others. I've heard more than one Nepali person say that they didn't think a school in the mountains would ever be like this. There are two or three other developments happening which are secrets for now, but which will probably make an appearance on this blog in the coming months...

Here, ancient temples
Mountains up above the clouds
And rusty tin roofs

The Current Situation in Nepal

As always seems to be the case, Nepal is not having a great time overall these days. I'll save myself the trouble of writing an entire essay by including this excellent article summarizing what has been happening at a national level (just skip the contrived title).

Here in Khandbari, few people are still visibly reeling from the effects of the earthquakes, as the epicenters were quite far away from here and the damage was not as serious. This town is growing at such a fast rate that it's difficult to tell which construction projects are new and which are earthquake repairs.

However, the shortage of gasoline, caused by protesters in the Tarai region, and probably also by the Indian government, has had a markedly negative effect on Khandbari. In the past month, I'm aware of just two deliveries of gas, 500 liters each, of which motorists could only purchase two liter increments, and which was quickly exhausted. I've heard that some people have been able to buy smuggled gas for a whopping $5 per liter. Cylinders of cooking gas are also very scarce. It's a very strange situation; there's so little fuel that people are cooking with fires and riding their motorcycles downhill with the engines off, but somehow there's enough for two private helicopters to land here this week (probably heading toward Mount Makalu to rescue overzealous tourists).

Also in short supply here are construction materials and various foods - onions, potatoes, rice (though the next harvest is coming shortly), and lentils, among others. This district does not produce enough food to sustain itself indefinitely; instead, it imports foodstuffs from other districts, paid for by exporting cash crops (primarily cardamom and rudraksha). There's plenty of other food for now, and the things which are running out are still obtainable at outrageous prices, but as anyone who has been to Nepal knows, having no cheap rice and lentils greatly interferes with the typical Nepali diet. In a sad irony, the shortages do not seem to extend to the surrounding villages, because they had no choice but to be mostly self-sufficient even before these current problems began.

Village scene

Every day there is some story in the news about gas convoys coming from China or a number of tankers making it through the Indian blockade, but none of it is coming here as of yet. In the meantime, school continues, everyone is eating overpriced daal bhat, and we're making tea over a wood fire, in the old way.