42 at 42!

I should have guessed. When something is going to start at a certain time in Nepal, it won't. It's part of the culture to be late.

So it should not have been a surprise that the marathon would start horribly late.

But with a very last minute ok from my cardiologist in France - I got it at 6PM on the eve of the "race" after the excellent heart specialist in Kathmandu asked for a second opinion on the risks of running so far – we arrived at the start as requested at 5:30 on the morning of Saturday 6th October for the course briefing.

Naturally, it was late. What should have started at 6 started at 7 and the briefing was a question "does everyone know the way?"!

And, for the first time in ages, the sun shone. And shone, and shone, and shone.

Anyway we started.

Water and sponging stations were planned for every mile starting at 3 miles.

Of course, they did not. Apparently the volunteers had run off with their t-shirts - and the water :)

Actually, I had gone somewhat prepared – at least taking money enough to buy some water in a shop after it became quite obvious very little was coming our way from the organisation.

Oh, but the sun.

Having started so late, the morning got hotter and hotter. And the lack of early water began to take a huge toll on the runners.

And then the traffic.

We had been told that traffic would be stopped for a few hours along the route. I guess the traffic volunteers went the same way as the water – home :)

Around the airport (roughly 25 – 30KM in to the course), you could only walk – the traffic was completely jammed nose to tail.

But, I finished – evidence in the photos link. Somewhat slower than the 4 hours I planned and trained for and rather badly burned. But hell, given the conditions, a success.

Now I'm already planning next year. Not least of all a water supply – one of those that you carry like a back pack with a drinking hose. And industrial strength sun cream and a cap!

Fantastically, so many VSO people waited at the end (they having run 5KM, 10KM or the half marathon). Really incredible – even cycling back up the course for more than 5KM to support me. Nice people!!

Simon.

Trip to Rautahat and Makawanpur districts

At the end of September I (Laura) went to visit two district offices of one of the organizations I work for.

The 7 hours bus journey took us to the Rautahat district in the Tarai area in the South of the country and right by the Indian border, an area much hotter than the Kathmandu valley and much poorer too. Plenty of rice fields, some sugar cane, very few cars, rickshaws ridden by very skinny but strong men, ox carrying the carts, water buffaloes working on the fields, mud houses…

In most places we visited, we were offered "dhud chya" (very sweet milk tea) and before we started our work, we had to spend some time "socializing". You never know when you will actually start a meeting and you end up "wasting" a lot of time.

We visited an eye hospital and a couple of schools where "my NGO" works to integrate deaf kids into the regular classrooms, but without great success at the moment. The deaf kids end up all together in one class, with the sign language teacher.

The Nepali government has a program to integrate deaf, blind and mentally handicapped kids into schools. They bring some of these kids from around the district to specific schools where they study and live (they all share one small bedroom with big, thin foam mattresses). A salary is provided to a person who takes care of these kids and to a sign language teacher. This is a good start, but the sad thing is that some parents never take the kids back home… ever.

Disability is considered a curse, a family shame… and families try to hide their disabled relatives. People with disability and their families are normally rejected by their communities.

After Rautahat district, I went to Hetauda in the hilly Makawanpur district, between the Tarai and the Kathmandu valley: a very pleasant village with hardly any traffic and with lots of walking possibilities to interesting villages hidden in between the mountains and valleys.

I joined a "community disability worker" to her regular visits to her "clients" – disabled kids and their families. An "eye opener" for me, especially when we visited a wooden shack where a 2 year old kid was left on his own because the widowed mother had to go out to search for some work for that day.
In another house I managed to drink the just milked milk I was offered… straight from the cow.

During this trip I realized that Nepali language is a must if you work outside Kathmandu. The communication with the superb staff members has been quite limited.

I finally came back to Kathmandu with a jeep (with 9 other passengers) through the Northern hills of Hetauda: impressive landscape and road.

Back in Kathmandu, the father of one of the board members of "my NGO" died. I joined the staff members to their visit to the family in the big Hindu temple of the capital. The dead people are cremated right by the Bagmati river and their ashes are thrown to the river. Then, their family fasts for 13 days while staying in some dependencies of the temple, arranged specifically for that.

That's all from me. More soon.

Laura