This last week has invited me to look at things I thought I knew, in a different way and brought me into the present moment. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, all the fresh feelings of experiencing a completely new country and it’s culture awakened and heightened my senses.
Here at Laligurash Bright English School, I teach Art, Music and English. My main challenge this week was: How resourceful can I be when there are no art materials ? Art is not one of the subjects deemed as necessary here, neither music, in fact musicians are seen as the lowest caste, (there are seven castes with brahmen (priests) the top and musicians and tailors at the bottom, despite in 1964 Nepal’s Government made discrimination against castes illegal, it’s a slow changing process).
I managed to convince the Principal that these are subjects which are of great importance, and gave him my best, simple right brain - left brain explanation. I focused on why it is essential to stimulate both sides of the brain, not just the left, but also the right with the pupils.
Right brain activities are needed to encourage creativity, innovation, invention and intuition. Subjects, such as art, music, creative writing, theatre and movement (dance) are necessary to help birth new ideas, new ways of seeing things, nurture innovation and build on resourcefulness.
So, here I am being resourceful for my art class, collecting an abundance of coloured flowers, unusual grasses, leaves and corn sheaths on a walk round the school, with Sumatra (daughter of the Principal and one of the teachers at the school). We collected such a variety of natural materials, it took over several of the tables in the classroom. The brief I gave the pupils was quite open, designing a picture with the flowers and leaves in groups of three. Each group discussed ideas then had to execute their chosen idea on paper card (which I had brought with me). There was excellent team work and the results were quite stunning, I have included photos of some of their artwork here.
For the following art lessons with the younger pupils, I have collected all the waste cardboard boxes I could find for paper card, and I have my ex- neighbour, Sandra, to thank as she gave me two packs of crayons, felt tips, chalks and coloured pencils to donate to the school, which I know will bring instant delight to these children, who have rarely seen or used such materials.
After learning about the seven caste division system and how musicians are the lowest, I had mixed feelings and some trepidation about how music classes would be received by the students. I had brought with me in my hand luggage a few instruments, guitar, chime bars, xylophone and shakers, I was hoping to make some more percussion instruments out of the natural materials around the school and village (bamboo of all shapes and sizes grows here).
My first music lesson was met with curiosity and excitement from the schoolchildren as they had never seen nor heard a xylophone or chime bars. After touching briefly on a simplified music theory, I divided the children into groups and invited them to play the chime bars and xylophone encouraging them to make up little tunes. One child would play a rhythm on the Nepali drum ( Madal ) while different children would make up tunes on the chime bars. This was a success with all four classes, from ages 10 to 14 years, we made a mini - orchestra so every child had a chance to play an instrument and I was able to teach simple tunes like Happy Birthday, which they learnt to sing and play on the instruments. Each child also took it in turns to be the conductor, inviting the instruments in, one at a time, signaling for playing louder, softer, faster, slowly and stop. When the lesson ended, it was sometimes a challenge to stop the children from tapping the chime bars as they left the classroom !
I feel I’m settling in and adapting to this new life a little more everyday. I have a simple, yet comfortable room. I eat two meals (breakfast and dinner) of rice and daal a day with the school principal’s family, I sometimes cook the evening meal. If I get hungry there is an assortment of fruit growing wild in their “jungle - like backyard” ; bananas, persimmons, oranges, guava.
I am on the top of world looking down on creation …. here the school is 1 630 m in altitude, I’m completely immersed in nature, more than I’ve ever been in my entire life. A rich, lush green forest supporting an impressive ecosystem of animal and plant life. Stunning wildlife including bright red birds, birds with elegant long tails and a raucous, comical call, then there are blackbirds (bigger than UK blackbirds) that tunefully whistle to me to get up at six in the morning. The dawn is well worth getting up for, as the sun comes up and lights up the hills and valleys, a performance not to be missed.
Warm during the day at 20 c then when the sunsets, temperature drastically drops to 8 c. I am thankful for my K2 down sleeping bag and my faithful little hot water bottle which I travel everywhere with. All in all, I get a very good night’s sleep, must be the high altitude and the complete silence, no background noise of motorways, car alarms or police sirens.
The general ambiance here, the layout of the village is a little like being at a permanent “Glastoburyesque” festival, except there are no major bands, no stages and the loos are a lot better here. Everything has a camping feel to it. The kitchen is outside, many of the houses are “half” built, still a lot of reconstruction taking place after the earthquake, the ground level is built and out the top of the cemented first layer are steel rods potentially taking the building to the next level. Construction is slow as most families tend they crops in order to feed themselves and sell if there is any excess. They might only have half a house, but they will share with you the fruit from their trees or vegetables from their plot of land and wish you “Namaste” as they pass you on the paths. The literal translation of the word “Namaste” breaks down into three parts...”Nama” means bow; “as” means I; and, “te ” means you. “ I bow to you”, or I bow to the Divinity in you.
The community spirit is peaceful and positive despite the extreme lack consumer goods and possessions, it is a true pleasure and honour to be part of. Everyone knows each other, there is a “big family” friendliness that permeates the whole village, everybody genuinely cares about each other and there is much socialising. The elderly are respected and some cultivate their parcel of land well into their seventies. The main occupation here is agriculture, the terraced landscape loans itself to a rotation of different crops.
At a risk of sounding cliched, the Nepali are quite striking and attractive people. The women all seem to have incredibly long, lustrous, shiny dark hair, which makes me feel quite inadequate with my short “Julie Andrew’s Sound of Music” haircut ! They rarely wear make up, and they don’t need to. The men are equally handsome, and both men and women are physically fit and strong, carrying themselves very gracefully. The main religion is Buddhism, and the colourful red, yellow, green, blue and white Tibetan prayer flags decorate every house as far as the eye can see, carrying prayers to heaven. Hinduism is also practised by some inhabitants, there is mutual respect between the two religions as they celebrate each others festivals.
In addition to these main religions there is also “Animist” or nature -worshipping traditions and shamanic practices. The village witch doctor or “jhankri” as he is called here, is most revered amongst the local community and called upon for different ceremonies when someone is ill. It is a respected tradition which has been passed down through grandfather, father and son. There are no women initiated into this practice.
A witch doctor came to call last Saturday to cure a young child of epilepsy. It was a little girl of about eighteen months, whose parents are teachers at the school and live on site. The shaman said that the epilepsy was caused by light sensitivity. Some of the villagers here believe that drinking water when there is a rainbow in the sky can cause epilepsy.
The “jhanki” was an elderly gentleman in his eighties, and sat on a mat in crossed legged lotus position busily making a concoction of ground animal bone, spring water and water ticks which he had caught fresh that morning in a jar. The mixture was then put into a tiny metal capsule and sealed. All this while he recited mantras and prayers, lit incense and wafted the smoke around the little girl who was in the arms of her mother. He also placed a banana leaf between himself and the child, on it he put four stripes of tika ( a red dye used to mark the forhead) and ash from the incense. The ceremony lasted 45 minutes, at the end he put the tiny capsule on a length of thread then put the thread around the neck of the little girl.
Afterwards he stayed for a cup of tea and an omelette, while we, his captivated audience or the “doubting Westerners”, bombarded him with questions about the efficacity of his cure. “Had he cured epilepsy before ?” “How did it work ?” etc etc,. Completely non- phased and indifferent to our interrogations, he spoke to us through the interpreter. We later learnt that he had successfully cured other epileptic children in the village who were now adults… Indeed here, I quickly understood that it’s an advantageous to keep an open mind and respect the local traditions.
Every country has it’s positive and negative attributes, beliefs, customs and practices. Here in Nepal, what is most laudable and humbling to me, and maybe to others incomprehensible, is that the majority of Nepali are contented and are at peace with their lives with what little they have. This “little” was reduced further after the earthquake in 2015, but their capacity for resilience, joy and inner peace I know without doubt has something to teach me.
This YouTube clip captures the essence of Nepal :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcz34Zd5MZs
Namaste, until next week …
From left to right; Madal, Buddhist drum, xylophone, shakers and chime bars
Some of the pupils artwork using natural materials found around the school.
Work in progress …
Morning assembly at Laigurash Bright Future English Boarding School.
Surprisingly, by a huge margin, Nepal is a Hindu country however Tibetan - style Buddhism prevails here, on the ridge tops and the High Himalayas.