A Week In Lukla

This training course has been quite different from the others. The main reason is we are now into the Upper Khumbu  region which is the birthplace of Sir Ed's school building projects and the first lot of teacher training. So many tourists come through here every month, the schools (esp the model school, Khumjung) are inundated with tourists wanting to visit a real Nepali school. What they don't realize is that this region is one of the most well-off in the country because of all the aid money, resources and tourists that are directed here. As a result, the teaching this week has been in English as most of these school teach in English. So it has been a lot more interesting than the previous 2 weeks when everything has been mostly in Nepali! 'Jim Sir' is also here and as the big boss of the guys we have been working with, things have been kept on a pretty tight schedule.

Everyone is much more relaxed in our own roles now and are a lot more friendly, comfortable and light-hearted with us. Stacey is now known as Stracy (as Nepali can't seem to pronounce her name), I'm kanchi (sister, to which I respond Kancha – brother), Andrew is Andrew-ji (informal friendly name) and Peta is Peta-Miss.

We were introduced to the infamous Nepali 5 Dice game the other night which caused much excitement and animation! I swear it is the most excited we have seen some of our trainers! Basically it’s a race to 5000 with 5 dice and a very complicated scoring system. But Jim Sir bought prizes (torches, coke, apples…) and everyone was super into it. There was yelling, and slapping of the table…..5 mins earlier we had been complaining about a loud French group in the restaurant who had obviously not seen beer for a looooong time and were making quite a show about it. So we just decided to be louder. I think we won.

Our Everest mountain flight early in the week was just so fantastic! Jim Sir got us a plane that worked, with 2 very capable pilots (who were just as excited as we were) and off we went. Halfway though they turned round and told us to put our oxygen masks on. Pretty novel! Never before have I actually taken the safety briefing so seriously (it consisted of "Here is your oxygen mask.") We circled up above all the schools our participants are from and slowly got closer and closer and higher and higher and the view was just stunning. Great views of Nuptsee, Everest, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Gokyo valley and lots more I didn’t know. It made me pretty keen to get up something.

Life here this week has been pretty comfortable with easily accessible showers, beer and Pringles which has been the after work staple most days! (safe food you can trust!) It is sooo dusty though – we have resorted to wearing sunglasses most of the time and scarves just to try and keep vital things dust-free (eyes, throat….but ot no avail!) And the hotel we are in is pretty top range by Nepali standards. So it’s a bit of a transition back to Kathmandu (there is even a Lukla Starbucks!)

Earlier in the month we met Peter Hillary, and the most note-worthy thing he did was to compliment me on my camera when I asked for a photo (“Is that a g10?” me “Actually it’s a G12”, peter “Oh, I love those cameras. When I climb Mt cook I just take a few quick snaps hanging off my ice-axe…” me “Well, when I climb Cook I will think of you and do the same…” hahaha)…and then Jim Sir was sifting round down town and ran into Lydia Bradey (first woman to climb Everst without oxygen, and my climbing instructor a few years ago) and she said to say Hi! To me! So I was pretty stoked on life and am feeling like I am tight with all these hard-core climbing folk. The others tell me dreams are free! lol

So has been a good course. Have met some great people – a young teacher called Pasang who sings at the top of her lungs at every chance, a guy called Mingma who is the most enthusiastic, smart and keen young teacher, a key teacher called Bikram who is a little strange and wears a pressed black suit with the top button of his shirt done up and no tie, with a bright white New York Giants cap on, a small girl Karin who has helped colour in all our posters and do odd jobs for us and of course, my new one-eyed friend Lakman whocouldn't quite figure out why the white girl was so excited by his one eye.

The guy I was working with (Suresh) has gone back to do some different training and I’ve started with a new guy, Meen, who has also been in charge of the course here. So he has been busy with that so it has been hard finding time to talk Social Studies with him, but I think we have managed well. He is lovely and prefers to talk Nepali with me (which means very limited conversation) but it is funny at least. And when I do tell him something in English he acts ashtonished and tells me I MUST teach the class tomorrow. The whole day. Every part. I say…..no, no, no, no, Meen…YOU must take this and teach it. Verrrry bad if I do it….etc etc etc. One of tricks to communicating well here (or anywhere) is adapting to the locals expression. This means I say things like verrrrry good, verrrrrry bad, ahhhhh, good morning sir alot and in a funny accent.

The end of our time with these guys has bought about the inevitable report writing so I’m off to do that. Will be really sad to leave the hills and go back to Kathmandu, but I’m hoping the next lots of work for 3 weeks will be just as interesting…I am definitely leaving these hills with a feeling of having unfinished business and am looking forward to coming back and doing a few trips I have heard about that I am super keen for. I wish I was continuing on with the boys here into some mroe remote parts of the country, but I guess a part of travelling and this year is taking the good times and then being brave and hoping the next part of the adventure is just as much fun! As Stacy says "Things always work out good in the end. If its not good, then its not the end!" So thats what Im hoping for the next three week stint in an international school in kathmandu. I will miss the moonlit mountains and the starry skies! Photos come tomorrow

Ka Kite,