School as usual. The original school was completely destroyed by the earthquake. Fortunately it happened on a Saturday so was empty of kids. I would hate to think of the human cost if the quake hit on a school day. In its place a temporary school of wood and corrugated iron was established on the same spot. It was important to get the kids back into the school environment as soon as possible, not only to progress their education but also to recover psychologically from the trauma. CARITAS is a Swiss charity and they are going to rebuild the school with completely new facilities. I understand they are doing this throughout regional Nepal in areas they deem show a quality level of teaching. Batase school is recognized by CARITAS as one of these. Construction will commence around October this year. The temporary school will have to be relocated during construction.
Meanwhile the school is introducing a lunch program where a kitchen will prepare lunch for all of the children. They previously had such a program but for the lower classes only.
Students will be able to study to year 10 here at Batase. Year 11 and 12 is done at college if they want to further their education – such is the system here. This means going to Kathmandu. Arneil is currently completing his final year at college in Kathmandu.
We rest for a bit then got involved in helping the men move rocks up a hill at the new hostel. We got into the line and physically passed the rocks from one to another. We then collected firewood for later tonight. Around 5pm we walked up to sunset hill to get some pics. It’s breezy and cold.
We have a bonfire and the kids from the hostel come around for songs and toasted marshmallows curtesy of Chloe. Rajan played guitar. It came out turn to sing and we had to scratch our heads to find an Australian song we know. We decided on a song and Maddy had to download the lyrics. We sang badly but the kids thought it was great. They have so many beautiful traditional songs to sing but we struggle to think of any significant Australian songs to choose from. Why is that?
angusmccoll 