So, we waited today for the oppositions response to what we thought were their demands being met. Yet, the strikes, curfews, and insanity continued preventing us from moving about this police state freely. We were planning to hike to a monastery but then ominous clouds appeared unleashing a torrent of rain and hail! It hailed so much. Needless to say we stayed in. We walked about, ate some water buffalo, popcorn, and kind of tried to keep busy although we are both exhausted. We have not rested once since we started this trip. I have a cold and a cough, Audrey stomach issues and the wife has been making us various somewhat foul tasting remedies to help us. We are both losing weight! Here they eat Dal baT for breakfast. Have you eaten bats for breakfast? Ok its not actually bats but lentils and rice but in the morning we feel more like eating warm croissants but guess what there aren’t any! (Audrey just smacked her lips and said "I wish there were") . We ate yak yogurt or something of the sort and various strange things. Now it’s late, dark, all we hear are the dogs out. The boy is in dog house, the dog is in his cage, and we are reaching out to the west through this blog! We learned at dinner of the ABCDE of finding a mate (through arranged marriage) this is the women criterior. A is for age (she must be no older than your favorite pair of shoes *joke*) B is for beauty (she must be better looking than your boy and dog) C is for character (she must lie and steal only for you), D (Audreys fav) is for "Domestic science" (she must cook better than your boy and retrieve faster than your dog), E is for education (she must know when to shut up)…..
Ok maybe this is not exactly right but its not too far off. The women’s criteror is that they pray the man does not drink and beat them. No, I did not make this up. D for the women is replaced by not Drinking. When a young girl dreams here they hope to find a nice man who wont beat her. Needless to say the values here are "traditional". The conditons of living are hard for many. Fortunately, everyone seems to be well fed but for example water shortage is a big problem. We went to check out a water project that the NGO built and I must say we Imagined that the whole village would have water in their homes. However, to reach the water source you needed to walk down many steep steps to a tap in the ground where the women would retrieve water or wash their things there. We did not find this to be impressive until we found out that until this was built the women had to get water from a nasty sewer looking river. How spoiled we are! The schools we visited and interviewed staff at were so primitive. Most schools do not have bathrooms at all! or running water, electricity, heat, and basic things like desks, chairs, pens and papers are non-existant and beyond reach. We learned that the yearly school budget came to $600 dollars a year! thats including teacher salaries, maintenance, furniture, materials, books, and everything. No wonder the school hardly looked like a school and more of a prison. The toilets that do not have running water empty out behind the schools and no they are not western toilet but squat ones. We asked how do they learn with no lights? Oh they leave the windows open and when its cold? oh they close them and the kids learn in the dark. There is no heat either and many schools are in the mountains. Not to mention kids walk at times 2 hours each way up hill to get to school. The other needs like drinking water for the thirsty kids were so much more of a priority that they could not see the need for electricty or lights, and heat is so far removed from their experience that it was like I suggested giving every student a g5 notebook computer. There is so much to do no one knows where to start. The need is so great. The English teacher for a lack of a better word do not and cannot speak English. The Nepali teachers (understand that many of the poor are indigenous tribal people and of the lowest caste) the Nepali teachers themselves do not know Nepali!
Any one with any means send their kids to private schools. However, the "public" schools cost money as well and only those families that can afford it send their kids to them. Those who cannot, well its tough luck. We discovered that the "public" schools have fees and charge students to take exams (4 times more than the private), to recieve study materials ectera. This is because there is so little money in the budget that the teachers try to get their salaries by charging for exams and supplies. All in all the system is inadequate to say the least. GAN helps with training and some scholarships but not with direct funding. They are "developed" based and interested in self sustaining projects. However, straight up they need cold hard cash and not even that much to make a considerable change. I would say for $200 dollars I myself could install a solar panel and electricity but I was discourage to do so. It is not the methodology of the NGO we are volunteering for. I would like to see direct support occur for these schools. If anyone is interested in helping these kids, please let me know. When you see the photos of how adorable they are and how wretched the conditons in these schools are you will want to! Anyway, the NGO has made a big impact on the lives of those they have reached but so much more is needed and not just for Nepal but FOR THE WHOLE FUCKING POVERTY STRICKEN WORLD!
SO PLEASE HELP SOMEWHERE SOME HOW! Send money, volunteer I honestly will say that these days of volunteering have been very rewarding and have open my eyes even more to the amount of hardships people world wide are facing. We are so fortunate and yet we bitch and moan all the time. Throw these kids a bone!
Speaking of bones, Astro is going to town on the water buffalo thigh and now I regret not getting one for the boy. (ok Audrey slapped me and its in poor taste but he IS treated like a dog). Again, we will chalk it up to culture and all that. So much is "lost in translation"..
Ok the daughter just arrived… I am now distracted….. 
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