1. The weather during the entire trek was fantastic and we never received a single drop of rain, nor a flake of snow. The days were warm and sunny and the nights were cool, with occasional small patches of frost on the ground each morning. However, it never really dropped below freezing.

Thank you very much!! 

2. On 22 November, after a long visit in Khinji Phalante and a night camping beside the friendly police station, our caravan of people from all walks of life, from sherpas, to oil men, to nurses and engineers, spanning an age range of more than 60 years and 4 generations, walked for 7 hours down through gorgeous green hills to the village of Saipu, where we caught a bus to Kathmandu. It was an exciting and bumpy bus ride, taking 10 hours. All of us were glad to get back to Kathmandu for a hot shower, comfortable bed, and delicious 5-Star hotel buffet breakfast. 

3. On 21 November, we said our goodbyes to all of our wonderful friends in Dhaurkharka and walked west through the rolling green hills for 7 hours to visit the high school at Khinji Phalante where the three girls from Patale who wish to become teachers, Mingma, Yangie and Kandu are in attendance. It was an enlightening visit and the locals put on a rather elaborate dance programme for us. At one point, all of us were dancing around in a circle with all of the teachers, bureaucrats, and the school children.

The girl's teachers told us the girl's performance is "moderate", which might be considered "poor". We found out they will have their first exam next week and upon inquiry, the girls told us the worrisome news that they have not studied at all and are not prepared for this exam. Not surprising, as this is the first high school exam they have ever taken and their parents have had little, if any education.

We visited the girls living abode, which is a tiny hovel under the eaves of an abandoned looking village "hotel" 30 minutes walk each way from Khinji Phalante. It's far from the high school. We decided they should move closer to the school so they can have more time to focus on their studies. Also, we decided these girls need after-school tutoring so they can do the remedial work they need to improve their performance in school, develop good study habits, etcetera. These are things that are sorely lacking after their many years of school nonattendance in their village due to years of political disturbances and threat of kidnapping that left their families feeling it was unsafe to send their daughters to school. Fortunately, nowadays those problems are gone and the region is entirely secure and safe so people can move about freely without worries.

4. Our hosts in Patale Dhaurakharka presented an elaborate Sherpa dancing ceremony for us on the night of the 20th. It was quite impressive and we were greatly honoured.

5. On the morning of the 20th, a group of us walked to the neighbouring village of Chhermading. 700 people live there, and they don't receive many foreign visitors, if any. Their school has 300 students of ages 4-18 and goes up to class 8. They have 8 teachers. We met the members of the school management committee. They are very keen to make an addition to their school and add classes 9 and 10. This would make their school the only high-school in the district and enable students to take the school-leaving-certificate exam, a college entrance requirement. Currently such students have to walk 1 day to the nearest high-school, a hardship for the students and their families, who are seldom able to afford boarding costs, in addition to the difficulty of separation from their young children. For this reason, it seems few students in this district complete high school. During our meeting with the school officials, we agreed to try and locate funds for the new school buildings, supplies, and teacher’s salaries required.

6. On the morning of the 20th, Katherine and Deha visited the upper primary school in Dhaurakharka, where they have 60 students ages 4-18 in classes 1-5. They practiced their ABCs, met the children and gave additional pencil-prizes for those children who were more able to answer questions correctly.

7. Later on the 19th, we visited the Dhaurakharka School down by the river and taught class to 45 children ages 4-14 in classes 1-3. We covered mathematics, Nepali language, English language, Sherpa language, Nepali and English writing skills, drawing, and even had a small arts seminar, making, decorating and then flying paper airplanes constructed from coloured paper.

We met each child and asked their name, age, class level and village location. During that time we cursorily examined them for health issues. We recommended they visit the health clinic if they exhibited any.

We gave all of the children pencils and commended the teachers on their good work.

8. On the morning of the 19th we had a very fascinating prayer ceremony on top of the hill at the village temple complete with chanting monks, banging cymbals and drums, burning incense, prayer scarves and amulets, etc.

9. Katherine has seen about 40 patients in 2 days at the Patale-Daurkharkha health clinic. She is planning to phone in a dispatch in an hour or two to update everyone about all of their health conditions. We learned that this is the only health clinic in the entire district of Patale, which now has a population of 6000-10,000 people. There is no government census here, so figures are inexact.

Dati Sherpa, the local nursing student kind sponsors have trained is now practicing at the clinic and she is getting the feel of things. She seems very professional and focused and showed us her graduation certificate and mark-sheet. We are proud to say she did very well and was in the top section of her class. Now that Dati is working in the clinic, there are new opportunities for the other workers, Pasi and Jamyang, to receive further education. One big problem Dati is having is that every day she has to walk 3 hours each way to and from her home and the clinic. 6 hours a day of walking means she can't do her job effectively and we need to find a solution to this, like somewhere for her to live in Dhaurkharka. That means her rent and eating expenses will have to be paid.

Pasi would like to learn more about prenatal, birthing, and postnatal care, while Jamyang would like to attend pharmacy school. We hope to find sponsors for their education this season. Pasi has also agreed to consider opening a new, smaller health clinic in the neighbouring village of Chhermading (where 700 people live), where she would work one day a week. It would be at her mother and father's home, and they have agreed to the idea. Hopefully we will find funding for this soon as well.

We have decided to usher in a new phase of remodeling at the Dhaurkharka health post. Here is the remodeling project we envision:

• A. Render (plaster) and paint the walls.
• B. Waterproof the floor and put linoleum on top.
• C. Put more glass in the windows so more natural light can come in.
• D. Put in more wires and light bulbs so there will be four lights.
• E. Put in a permanent privacy curtain around the bed in the corner.
• F. Get Pasi the depo-shots. She said they cost 100-150 rupees each. The government has a big difficulty supplying the "free" ones. While we are waiting for the "free" depo-shots, more babies are being conceived. We want to slow down the birth explosion in Patale and the depo shots seem to be the easiest way. It's kind of like telling people that "free" food is available then telling them there is not enough "free" food and then they will starve.

This is Brian Cross calling in for the Service Trek on the 22^nd of November.

We had a long trek and we’ve finished in a place called Khinji Phalante. We visited a school and had a very nice welcome party. In attendance was the government school minister, all of the teachers, and a number of school pupils who did a very nice dance for us. Then we had to join in the dancing. We were covered in garlands. We could hardly see above the garlands on our bodies, there were so many of them.

We’re trekking with a number of different people who are going to go to the hospital with us in Kathmandu. We’ve got the Tamang family: the mom’s name is Doma and the son’s name is Binod. He’s going to have his feet looked at, which were badly burned in a fire when he was very small. We’ve got 3 girls all from the village here named Mingma, Kandu and Yengjie. They are studying at this school in Khinji Phalante to eventually become teachers in Patale in about 4 year’s time. We’ve also got with us Jangbu’s mom, who’s going to the hospital, Jangbu’s wife, his sister-in-law, his mother-in-law, and Lakpa and his wife.

We’re all going to hopefully trek today to Those and try to catch a bus back to Kathmandu. We think the bus leaves at 5:30 in the morning, so we may have to camp again at Those and get up very early tomorrow to get the bus back. back to top

 

 

Hi, this is Katherine Waldrop calling in for the November 2009 Service Trek. Today is November 21^st.

After 2 steady days at the health post in Patale, seeing loads of patients with gastric problems and all sorts of things, we’ve referred several patients to Salleri and Kathmandu for surgical procedures. We are headed to Khinji Phalante for our second to last night.

Last night there was a festival with lots of Nepali disco dancing to see us off and wish us a safe journey. We have a steady day of walking. Then we’ll camp in Khinji Phalante and see where we go tomorrow. We’re not quite sure. Okay, thanks. Bye. back to top

Bureaucrats, teachers and students preparing to bestow garlands at Khinji Phalante High School ceremony. David Begneaud checks out a young girls badly deformed foot in Dungopa (Bhittakharka). Deha Shrestha, Service Trek director and programme manager for the Mount Everest Foundation, calls in to the head office from Dungopa (Bhittakharkha), rick of corn drying on right.  Our little Service Trek group in Phaphlu. L-R: Deha, Brian, Jackie, Dorje, Katharine, Jangbu and Dave. Our trusty and loyal sherpas taking down our comfortable camp and packing it up on a beautiful morning in Jhaphre (Dan Mazur).

Hi, this is Jackie Cross calling in for the Service Trek on the 20^th of November from the Patale area.

It was lovely and sunny today, although it’s still icy. I did a very good Bambi impression across a bit of grass.

We’ve visited two schools in the last two days. Yesterday we broke the ice with paper airplanes before we went on to alphabets and numbers. Some of them knew all their numbers and alphabet, while others we’re more interested in playing. We were introduced to all of the children. There was one young lad who was really shy and very ashamed of the sores on his face, so we were thrilled to see him up here at the health centre first thing this morning. Katherine treated and looked after him.

Today we went on to a second school where we sat and talked with the teachers. They’d never had any foreign visitors, so we didn’t actually get involved nor do any hands-on training, but we talked with them about what they wanted and what their requirements were. They are really keen to get another two classes to enable them to take the students through the SLC (school leaving certificate). It sounds feasible, but Bureaucracy is a slow and painful thing.

The children were thrilled to see us. There were only 100 of the 300 enrolled present. Where the other 200 would fit, we have no idea. We gave them lots of gifts like pencils, crayons, and hats for the small ones. They looked really lovely and weighed us down with prayer shawls and flowers. It was very sweet.

Tomorrow we are heading into the unknown for the Service Trek, new territory, to check on the high school where 3 girls are being sponsored by the Mount Everest Foundation in the hopes that they’ll come back here as teachers. Okay, thanks for following our trek. Bye. back to top

Hi, this is Katherine Waldrop calling in for the November 2009 Service Trek. Today is November 18^th.

After hiking all day yesterday through the mist and fog we reached Japhre, where we set up our tents and camped. I think we’ll spend the day walking towards Patale, where we’ll spend the next 2 days visiting the health clinic to see and treat patients, as well as visit the 2 schools and teach lessons to the children there. That’s it for now. We’ll call in again soon. Thanks for following along our Service Trek. Bye. back to top

 

• Dan Mazur (leader) - US and UK
• Ms. Katherine Waldrop - US
• Ms. Jacqueline Cross - UK
• Brian Cross - UK
• David Begneaud - US
• Deha Shrestha - Nepal
• Jangbu Sherpa - Nepal
• Dorje Sherpa - Nepal back to top