Imadol

The community south of us is called Imadol. It is a rural community, where the price of a Toblerone would be the equivalent to one or two week’s wage. Houses are three stories high, with livestock on the ground floor, bedrooms on the second floor, and kitchen, patio and bathroom on the top floor (so that you don’t walk over the kitchen-a sacred place). The property is marked off by stone walls, within which is the garden. Then beyond that, is farmed, terraced fields. Houses are tightly packed together in clusters at the single lane road/footpath. Along the road are shops that sell lentils, rice, tea, sugar, hoses, razors, coke, soap, etc. There are also a few tailors, mechanics/bicycle repair shops and a temple to Lord Krishna. The cows, goats and chicken are let loose for the day to roam anywhere they like, provided they stay out of the fields-so they rummage through garbage and along the roadside. The dogs rummage through the garbage but we’ve yet to witness a massacre of chicken versus dog.

One of a few schools in Imadol is High View. It provides schooling for 300 village kids ages 3 to 18. It is a great school managing with very little. There are annual standardized tests in which High View kids have done well, and some have gone on to College-one student this year scored in first division (I don’t know what that means exactly but it is a very big deal). They provide scholarships for 8 kids in the community and plan to provide more in the spring, with the help of Nepal Reliance Organization. Because of their low fees, and good grade results, they are well respected in the community.

The school presently has no water, and the toilets are: one open pit latrine and an enclosed concrete wall to pee against. Water for cleaning must be carried by the ‘sister’ from a well down the road. My dad is raising the money needed to put in a well, pump, taps and 4 toilets. Once the money is raised, it should take 2 months to complete. The lifetime of the well should be 10 years, after which, it can be dug deeper to extend its life.

The group of teachers are a very dedicated. They manage formidably with cramped classrooms. Here, the common teaching style in the younger grades is rote learning. In their little sing-song voices, they say a word, spell it, and then say it again. They rock back and forth with the meter created by the repetition. A favourite class is GK-General Knowledge and IQ-it is a class on trivia. Related to the class work in social studies, health and science, they consume facts such as the capital of Bhutan, the third planet from the sun, the first US president, the speed of light, the parasite carried by mosquitoes, and so on. Every week, they have Quiz Contest (usually boys against the girls), and points are scored for your team for knowing the answers to (what on the surface appear to be inane) questions. Also once a week (they go to school Sunday to Friday), they have Friday afternoon “programme”-within the school there are four houses, denoted by four colours, so that each house contains a mix of age groups from 3 to 18. These colours make up a team for competition. The competition ranges from spelling bees to athletics.

Their health class covers personal safety and hygiene. Though there are the few statements such as my favourite; Q. Why is a drunkard hated by all? Ans: A drunkard is hated by all because he forgets his morality (you need to picture a grade 2 class asking and responding in unison). The class also covers avoiding dog bites and signs of a rabid dog, boiling drinking water and the signs and symptoms of cholera and dysentery, treatment of diarrhoea, and avoiding electrocution from fallen electrical wire.