Life In Nepal: Back to Jhuwani

After one month of orientation workshop, READ Nepal’s staff members, including me, went back to Jhuwani to conduct survey and focus group discussions.

We prepared written survey and planned to include some local people in our volunteer team. Surveymonkey does not work here because not many had an internet access. One of the people I met didn't have a clue on what is computer.

On the first day, we met with a group of community people to orient them of the objectives of the survey. Some were not skeptical, questioning our motives. They said none would reveal their assets. Some questioned why the representation of the lower caste people was low in the meeting. The other was still in a bad mood because one of his cows was suddenly dead one day before.

Eventually, they were cooperative. We told them that our goal is to build community libraries and the community people would decide by themselves the persons to run the library or what to do with the library. We were there just to provide support. facilitate the assistance. Besides, I think people should be convinced that we were there to listen to them. My presence might light up the mood a bit because I looked like a stranger from the other planet, I was the only foreigner and I made them languge at my clumpsiness many times.

Before the survey, we made a social mapping in each village. A couple of dozens of village people gathered up at a meeting place help us draw the map of their village and who are residing in those houses. This social mapping is quite effective in surveying the economic status for our sampling because here everyone knows everyone. They can tell you how many cows their neighbors have, for instance. Then, the village people would select the random sample for us. A village has some 50 households. Our survey is one to five. Therefore, we conducted some 10 surveys by visiting to different households in each village.

Then, we conducted focus group discussions with smaller groups of people such as women’s group and librarians to find out what are the issues they face and what can be done to improve. I have been familiar with some people because I have been here before and also I met some of them in other places during the previous trainings. Two local people whom met me during my previous visit one month ago greeted me with “You are fatter!.” Yes, I told them that blame it on Nepali Dalbhat. Here, I eat more than I did in the US. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner at 9.30 pm. Nepali had dinner quite late. Although I get used to skipping dinner, I joined their dinner because I didn’t want to miss the discussion. By the way, unlike Western culture, telling people fat does not have a negative meaning. It is a matter of fact, I think.

I accompanied local people to visit people door to door in three villages. Nonetheless, I must confess that this is the toughest trip I had so far in Nepal. One day before this Jhuwani trip , I just came back from a two-day visit to Banepa. There, I had “King Curd”, the locally-made yoghurt that was contained in a pottery to keep the temperature cool. Nepali don’t keep King Curd in the fridge. I tasted it and found it very tasty that I finished a very big bowl of King Curd on my own. (even Nepali was surprised by my greed!). It was the best yogurt I’ve ever had. But the next day, I had a very painful stomach age. It was the day that I had to take off for my Jhuwani trip.

I was hesitant to go to the hospital after a librarian told me that her husband mysteriously passed away after being admitted to the hospital after having stomachache. So, I took Augmentin medicine that my sister told me it would kill whatever germs I may have. It worked in killing the germs in my stomach but it made me weak all day that I felt asleep many times during the first day of our meeting with the community. I thought people saw it but they seemed to forgive me. When I apologized, they said they thought it was natural to fell asleep because I didn’t understand Nepali language. Besides, the weather was very hot and humid. The next day, I decided to stop taking the drug. I would not have a chance to sleep because I had to walk all day. It was raining, which cooled down the temperature. But walking on the rice field with mud and smell of dongs of goats and buffaloes was quite an experience. Stay tuned for what happened next in the next post.