In Your Hands Charity

Diary of volunteering in Nepal with In Your Hands Charity. By Tor Lovell, aged 17.

Kathmandu is a spider’s web, the city is built and supported by endless entanglements of thick cables and dark wires. The tightly knitted, threaded cable suspends itself between brightly coloured shop fronts and permanent pop up stalls that hold treasures of all colours, textures and validity. There is an abundance of faux North Face jackets and Burberry bucket hats, but most noticeably, an inconceivable amount of ‘hattie pants’. ‘Haathee’ refers to the Hindi word for elephant, the common choice of animal to be printed onto thousands of soft, light fabric trousers. If you do not return to your own home having been to Nepal without a pair of these stereotypical travel trousers, did you ever truly go?

February 14th:

Our group of 13 touched down in Kathmandu at 6 pm local time on the 14th February having busied ourselves with almost 24 hours of travel, including a welcome stopover in Dubai. Valentine’s Day had been forgotten about, that was until we took our first walk through the streets of Kathmandu where parts of the road were lined with floating red heart lanterns. We had a slightly less romantic evening consisting of unpacking at the Kathmandu Guest House, an absolute paradise we came to realise later on, and discovered the dish of the trip, ‘Momos’. Momos are effectively dumplings however the novelty of a new name and eating in a new country never wore off. The day ended with ‘Holiday Mum’ Jo Pawley, one half of the co-founding team who set up the charity, giving a rough explanation of the following days - with all of us being exhausted, she did have to re-explain all over again the following morning. But at that moment, we were all content with getting to know each other over drinks and starting to create bonds that have continued to last.

February 15th:

Waking up the following morning was a delight, having dreamt of Nepal that night and then waking up to my dream, I was fairly certain that already, I was in love with the place. My mother’s situation differed slightly as she fell out of bed and groaned, “I feel 104”. We were up and out of Kathmandu after a speedy breakfast and what came to be the last warm shower for a week, chucked in a tourist bus we were whisked off to Sukute Beach Adventure Resort - ironic really because Nepal has no seaside beaches as it is a landlocked country. The drive was three hours and you were kidding yourself if you thought you would be able to nab a couple of hours of rest. Sophie, the eldest daughter of Jo ‘Holiday Mum’ had been to Nepal several times before and slotted into the position of ‘Holiday Mum 2’ quite nicely, it is safe to say she knew everything and correctly described the drive as “Pothole City”. Sukute was the intended destination in order to meet Milan, a very gentle and kind local man who works alongside Jo and Pauline (the second half of the co-founding team for the charity) as their connection in Nepal.

The aim of this day was really just to settle in and prepare for our visit to the first school the next day and our first inevitable English tourists’ activity was white water rafting down the river next to the resort. We arrived back slightly soaked and tired and in great need of some delicious Nepalese food. The taste is quite indescribable so I will not attempt to explain, just know that every platter I tried topped the last and this only continued throughout the trip - my love for Nepalese food will become evident as I continue. After a hot rum around the fire, we dispersed to bed, excited for the following day.

February 16th:

Welcoming the day with perhaps the coldest shower of my life was an unusual start, however, I would soon get used to no showers for several days. Plenty of us have been camping with family or friends or have had a petty plumbing problem or have been in some sort of rare situation where we have had no access to a shower, but at the end of it all we take it for granted and know that we have good and reliable access to hygiene, it is not the same for everyone. After an absolutely unmissable breakfast of omelettes and potatoes, the group was prepared for the 45-minute walk to the first school, the Shree Singha Devi Basic School. Leaving fairly early in the morning, we ascended a wide accessible path of the most brilliant orange and yellow sand, it was cloudy and the mountains were not visible so we were surrounded only by the banks of the path and the tall trees.

We reached the school and were greeted by a woman wearing the most stunning outfit of bursting red, she taught English and spoke it well, enabling her to become one of the bossiest people I have ever met, being kind at heart too made her quite the character. We had not yet spied the children and discovered why as we entered the gates. They were all lined up neatly in an orderly queue appearing understandably timid and shy, however, this was immediately broken after we ushered our only known word of the native language ‘Namaste’ as we bowed our heads and pressed together our palms, it was after this initiation of comfort that the hidden smiles were revealed and their own confidence grew as well as ours. A few of the older children came forward and eagerly spouted their knowledge of English, “Hello my name is… and I am in class… I live with my family…” to which we told them our own names, however, these clearly absurd English names were not understood and were met only with blank silence and a shy smile. These gestures were repeated until the line of children ran out and lastly, we were ‘initiated’ into the school with the gift of bright flowers which I wished could have been preserved forever and soft, lush red power was pressed firmly to our foreheads.

The children enthusiastically sang to us their beautiful national anthem, I think the majority of them were purely excited to have the morning free of lessons! After this performance, the atmosphere quickly relaxed and chatter broke out in the schoolyard. An idea that seemed superb at the time but quickly descended into chaos was introduced. Beanbags and parachutes. The variety of games ended up establishing itself as a riot. It became our designated job to launch the beanbags as high as possible into the air and the children, ranging from the ages of 5-13 would race and compete to catch them, you can imagine the carnage… This lasted an hour or so before the girls and boys divided themselves and we were taken aside to let the girls place delicate flowers in our hair, a classic image of worldwide girlhood. Universally, children really are all the same.

Myself and Gala, a friend from home who travelled with her own mother and us, were hauled back to maturity when asked if we wanted to stand in on the Women’s Health Workshop. I had been so absorbed in flowers that I had not noticed the steady arrival of about 130 women, roughly every woman from the local area, all dressed in a splendid array of hot colours creating a divine image which of course is their normal every day. News of the impending Coronavirus was only starting to become serious on our way back to England, it is only looking back now that I realise that here at home, the main message is to wash our hands, but in countries similar to Nepal, much of hygiene is an entirely bizarre concept. The room was packed with stunning women ranging from newborns to hilariously funny grandmothers and each and every one of them was greatly intrigued by hand washing. As well as teaching the importance of hygiene, key areas of sexual education were taught, the elder ladies could not contain their laughter over certain diagrams, and also basic areas of self-defence. The main aim of the workshop, perfectly delivered by an educator associated with the charity, ‘Days For Girls’ was to educate and inform about hygiene but particularly topics surrounding menstruation. ‘In Your Hands’ uses some of the money donated to provide as many women as possible with reusable sanitary products, these bags were handed out after the workshop to many grateful women.

Later we said our goodbyes and wandered back to the Sukute Resort, the sun had appeared and the clouds had dispersed allowing the heat to radiate through. The cold showers were now acceptable and soon everyone was quickly changed and ready for snacks - today’s consisted of deep-fried cauliflower and popcorn… delicious. The Shree Singha Devi Basic School is the most recent to join the ‘In Your Hands’ roster and the least isolated, the school was adopted by the charity after a former organisation pulled out. We went to bed happy and content with the first day of charitable work and prepared ourselves for the next day where the harder work truly began.

February 18th:

Last night’s sleep was limited due to barking dogs and retching noises (we were staying in tents so everything could be heard), the children and the community also woke early. A rush to brush teeth under an outside tap is what started the day followed by a breakfast that was more like a banquet. Whilst we were finishing our own breakfast, the children began to arrive at school - very early! This was our cue to unwrap the bouncy balls and hula hoops both of which would have kept everyone busy for years if it wasn’t for the obligation to attend the first lesson of the morning.

Whilst the children were busy in the morning, we began to outline and paint the walls of the school, images included pictures of types of weather, a measuring stick, the ‘In Your Hands’ logo and Nepalese prayer flags. Inside the classrooms we were able to paint a large number square, the days of the week and the months also, at the end of the day when the children saw what we had painted, they were delighted, if not probably a bit confused, to begin with.

Once we’d finished the paintings and the afternoon lessons were completed, the revelation of bubbles and balloons caused an exciting chaos. The playground area was swarming with every activity and created a community of happiness. Once the school day finished, the children went home only to change out of their uniform (provided by ‘In Your Hands’) and returned for more fun until the evening! They now all know how to say ‘Goodbye’ and also how to blow a kiss.