A day with me

How does my normal day go? Well, it start’s 5 am, when I’m woken up to this music down from the streets. I assume this is some kind of religious ritual that has something to do with the temple near by. This is the wake up call for some of the Nepalese, but not to me. So I continue sleeping, occasionally waking up to the noises of the city waking up: motorcycles honking, people talking and what I guess to be a corn salesman shouting, when he moves along the street.  And then finally after seven, usually closer to eight I get up and start to get ready for work.

After breakfast and possible a cold morning shower I head towards the office, which is situated in a near by village.  I get to begin my journey with extreme sports, which is called: crossing the road. Car roads seldom have zebra crossings, so you need to weave in between the cars and the motorcycles. Or this is what the locals do, I try to wait for a small break between the waves of cars. In this time at least one taxi stops in hope of to get some money from the westerner.

After few crossings I get to my bus stop, where I try to check from the bus boy: Wai wai? And on to the minibus, which is usually quite crowded, and hot. The bus takes me over the Ringroad, which is a big road forming a circle around Kathmandu. Time from time the bus boy, usually hanging partly out of the open door, shouts out the destinations of the bus to check if someone wants to get in, and also shouts the passing stop names, if someone would like to get out. It’s always fun, when someone from the backseat reaches their destination and pushes their way through the full bus. I like to look at the different houses on the way, some very new and fancy, most a bit run-down and there is even a small pine tree occurrence along the way. Usually after 20 minutes of the bumby ride I reach the office.

At the office after greeting co-workers I head to my office room, which I share with two others.  If it would be a field day, now someone would come and ask if I would like to go along, sometimes I even know before hand.  If it is a day at the office I write some reports or search for information or do what ever you do at an office. Didi ("sister"), brings us juice and when it’s lunchtime, she comes to tell us that lunch is ready. We usually just exchange smiles, cause she doesn’t speak English and my Nepalese is quite restricted. Lunch can be noodles, soup, or beaten rice with some vegetables. And usually the foods are a bit spicy, cause the Newaris like it hot.  Sometimes I go and bother Tej, our office assistant, with some questions. And in late afternoon it’s time to head home.

So the bus again and back to Patan or I should say to Jawakhel. Sometimes I curve to the Supermarket on my way home. After a hot day I cannot resist the idea of a soda. At the time I get home, or bit after it, starts the power cut, which usually lasts 1 to 3 hours. At home I might read or watch series on my computer or write emails to be sent tomorrow from work. Yes, it’s all excitement here! The darkness comes so early, so there is no point going out. Sometimes I socialize with Ronjon, a boy from down stairs who takes care of the flat I live in. I have a room to myself and a shared kitchen and a semi shared bathroom, with a cold water shower and a balcony, where we do the laundry. From the balcony you can watch a near by building to be built, or women working in a small patch of field or children playing. Because the big festival is coming, the Dashain, many of the children are flying kites, this is apparently the thing to do over Dashain. Around nine I start the bugwatch. These nice little friends of mine usually come out around this time. There are nowadays just few of them, and then we have a confrontation. Yes I know: poor little western girl, can’t take a few bugs. But I rather keep my eyes open a bit, than become an all you can eat buffet during the night. When the city has quieted down the dogs start their choir. I like to listen to their howling from near and far while I start looking for some dreams.  

Loo Niva

Loo Niva means the dawn or the break of day.  It is a NGO (non governmental organization) working in the field of children’s holistic development. The story of Loo Niva dates back in mid nineties, when a group of students started a library for children with support from CWIN.  Their vision is a nation where children can enjoy their rights in a friendly environment. To reach this goal, they have numerous programs and grass root activities in order to raise awareness of children’s rights, to prevent exploitation and marginalization of underprivileged children, and to promote high quality education.   They work with the surrounding communities and schools. They also give education support and have sponsor children, who probably would drop out of school without Loo Niva’s help. And the library is still working!  Loo Niva has also Finnish partners: ETVO and Interpedia, and they also get funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I have now worked with Loo Niva for a week and what a week it has been! The office consists of nine full time employees and four part time employees and a huge group of local volunteers.  All of the staff is motivated and all of them have been eager to make me feel welcome. I was also happy to learn how many sociology students I have around me!  The week has been busy with getting used to a new environment and orientating to the new job, I also had few field trips and we celebrated the National Children’s Day with a big event, wherein Loo Niva published a DVD with children’s songs. 

On my second day at work I was asked if I would like to take part on a field trip to nearby schools, in order to take invitations for a celebration and publication of children’s music DVD and to take reports to be filled about the sponsor children.  So in a few minutes I was sitting on a motorcycle and we were leaving the noise and pollution of the city behind and driving towards breathtaking views of the countryside and mountains. I like travelling by motorcycle; you can enjoy the scenery, the ventilation works and many of the places would be impossible to get to with a car. You also get to witness the goats beside the roads and women carrying their heavy loads in huge baskets on their backs. It is also usual to see a lot of dogs lying around. I saw one puppy so thin and sick that it probably had only few days to live and still it was wagging its tail. Of course this is normal life in places with a lot of stray dogs, but for an animal lover these aren’t very pleasant sights.

During the field trip it came obvious that Loo Niva is a respected partner with the schools.  The schools are eager to co-operate and want to change the attitudes towards child friendly atmosphere. For example in one of the school’s, there was someone visiting at the same time from another NGO, and the vice principal told her about Loo Niva with praise. Children are also excited to see visitors and got wild when I took out my camera. Unfortunately we were in a bit of a hurry to get to visit all the areas schools within a day, so we didn’t have time to see the sponsored children. We met with the principals, vice principals and head teachers who told us about their ongoing programs with Loo Niva and the sponsor children. In one of the schools, we were asked to meet with two of the sponsor children because they were failing some of their classes. The honesty of the children amazed me. One of the girls had just moved to the area so the new school might feel a bit unfamiliar still, but she also helped her parents to earn money by making carpets with them, which keeps her away from school from time to time. The other child told that she can’t always come to school or do her assignments because of family violence, caused by her fathers unemployment and alcohol problem. Loo Niva had already counseled the family, but sadly the ways to help children in her situation are limited, especially if they don’t have other family members to live with. Luckily there are some clubs after school where she can stay and have her own space to study.

Another day I took part in a field day in a near by village, where the theme of the day was the importance of children's education for the village’s women. Even though the communication was in Nepalese I enjoyed the day thoroughly. The day consisted of information and conversation and some games for the women. Even though I had many people around me kind enough to translate, I was sad not to understand everything that the women were saying, because I’m sure I could have learned a lot from them. 

Lets see what kind of challenges Loo Niva has in store for me for the months to come! If you want to learn more about Loo Niva Child Concern Group, you can visit their own web site, or the sites of ETVO and Interpedia.