School Days

Back in 1987 I was the first student to be registered for a new school that was starting called KISC (Kathmandu International Study Centre). A guinea pig for a new idea where we were being educated through self-study supplemented and assisted with tutorials. 15 years later it has changed significantly but there are still some things that seem similar. It is now more like a regular school with classes most of the time and it has grown with over 80 students now. The building(s) are also bigger now. However as Frankie, a friend from when I was at KISC noticed the other day, they still use the original school bell. It also still has a nice atmosphere and that flavour of an international school.

My mum thought it would be a good idea for me to help with the painting of their set as they really needed some help so I went out last Tuesday (just over a week ago). It feels like I have been there longer than a week. As well as helping with the scenery I have ended up helping with the drama part of the musical they are putting on, as the teacher responsible for this had to suddenly go back to the UK for a while. Fortunately there are others helping too!! I am also teaching the AS level art classes as they only had a teacher for one period out of five. So all in all I’ve ended up quite involved and have one day a week that I don’t go in, as well as the weekend of course. It has been fun though and quite similar in a way to the work I was doing back at home. So much for being on holiday. However I am enjoying it, they need some help and term finishes in a couple weeks after which mum and dad and I are going to Pokhara. We are also eagerly anticipating our Tibet trip in October.



“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”
Jack Kerouac ‘On the Road’


Festival for Women

Monday was a day of reds and golds. It was Teej, the annual festival for women. They all dress up in beautiful deep reds and bold pinks with threads of gold weaving patterns through the soft folds and over the shoulder hanging ends of the saris. They look freshly scrubbed; their faces have been powdered and matching their lipstick is the line of red powder down the center parting of their neatly combed and well oiled braids. Many have fancy doree in; black or red cotton three standed hair adornments that are braided in through the hair and have fancy dangling decorations at the end. The women go and do puja at their local temples but many also go out to Pashupatinath, one of the big temples in Kathmandu to do puja. The vendors were out in force along the sides of the roads: there were men selling beautiful glass bracelets that sparkled in the sun on carts, there were some snacks, a man sat on the ground printing beautiful red patterns on hands and feet, there were some clothes on sale, there were lots of sheets of plastic laid out with stainless steel plates and pots of many shapes and sizes and there were gaudy poster sized framed pictures of gods and holy men. There were the requisite real holy men wandering around too wearing saffron yellow with artistically made up tikkas on their foreheads and their metal alms pot. Ever aware of the money making potential of a camera I am approached by a yellow robed holy man whose photo I take who sends another man away as I have already been ‘got’ by him. They are mostly there for the generosity of the women on festival day who will be in a good mood and wanting to notch up their merit by giving to the holy men.

As well as the religious aspect of the day the women are there for a good time. There are clusters of women standing around watching while those in the middle play the madal (a Nepali drum) and sing as one or two dancers move gracefully in the middle. At another group there is a number of men on the outside of the ring and a load of them on the nearby slope looking down with fascination at the women dancing, intrigued but yet still apart from this day where the women are central. It is really important in a culture where women are so restricted and still seen as second class citizens. It is also a day where women get to go home to their mothers. In Nepal when a woman is married she has to go to live with her husbands relations and often doesn’t get to see her family, maybe even from one year to the next, so this is an important festival. I remember as a child always enjoying Teej. We would walk up to Batulichar, the next village from where we lived, to where the women would all congregate on the village green to meet and dance and enjoy themselves. I loved the colours and the new clothes and especially I remember the hair ‘doree’ with their fancy decorations that I loved as a little girl. It was all so pretty.



Today I am off and taking the morning to catch up on some emails and read. This afternoon mum and I are going to head into town. That should be fun. I will just have to continue exercising restraint as I keep seeing lots of lovely, affordable things!! I will just have to enjoy using my new camera that I bought with the money I was given (for that purpose) from Oasis for my leaving present, to record all those lovely sights and things.