A Day Visit to Ramche

Jan 7, 2020

Winter season-low temperature I wake up early in the morning at 4:00 am to get ready for my trip to Ramche. I was in a hurry cause if I couldn’t catch the early morning bus, I will be super late for the school most importantly Saradha Miss principle of the school will be late too cause she was waiting for me.

So, I ignored my mom who was rushing to prepare breakfast for me at 4 am in the morning, it was a winter morning so it looks as if it was midnight empty street no sign of movement whatsoever. Anyhow my mom didn’t let me go without eating anything so I just drank a glass full of warm milk before I left.

It was 4:45 when I reached the bus park not bad my walking pace is really fast though and I went straight to the ticket counter to get a ticket for the first bus that leaves for Barbise, Sindhupalchowk. They told me the bus will leave exactly at 5:15 but I think because of winter the bus was quite empty only me and two old fellows were in the bus so I was sure that this thing ain’t gonna move soon.

So I got out of bus saw a dog desperately waiting if a shop lady will throw some food so I went to that small street shop and bought 2 donuts and fed him tearing it into pieces. After few minutes bus engine started so I got in my bus and finally, the bus was moving after almost an hour.The bus ride was crazy it was moving in its tortoise pace. It took almost 5 hours to reach my destination stop.

I was already late and got multiple calls from Saradha miss. From the bus stop I have to hike up to her house and have Dal Bhat as my lunch in her place. It was really nice meeting her after almost a year so she quickly serve me Dal Bhat and as soon as I finish we started our journey to the school. We talk about the conditions and situation of both village and school while hiking which was two hours long.

I was sharing all our plans and things that we want to do in the village whilst I got feedbacks with some other ideas as well. After reaching the school I had a meeting with all the teachers and called Amar dai who had a major role during the construction of our school but he couldn’t join us, his daughter and one of her friend join us instead. Following are things we planned for 2020 :

1) School: What can we do during the volunteer programs and furthermore activities? The first thing they want as help was an English teacher. All of them were graduated from government school so they are weak in English as government schools are all based on the Nepali medium. Except for the English subject, they are very confident with other subjects. They want someone who can effectively support them by staying there for a longer time.

Our volunteer program lasts for a week which is not enough for them to learn something in such a short duration but kids love our travel trip to Ramche as they can meet so many new people from different places and motivates them as our volunteer set example for them. They are not against our program but they want more support particularly in English courses they are even positive if they keep on interacting with foreigners they might improve.

2) Homestay: For homestay it is a really nice idea and they are really glad to hear about this idea I explained to them all the possibilities of homestay and the impact or changes they can face from it. If they started hosting guests for homestay they can learn new things from them at the same time can teach a lot to their guest.

Homestay can play a major role as the host family will be more aware and try their best to set best impression towards their guest. Their lifestyle might change as they will focus on hygiene by cleaning their home and its surrounding, sanitizing toilets, avoid some of their habits such as shouting or drinking alcohol and smoking. It can be an extra source of income and a way to bring tourism in Ramche as they have such a beautiful village for activities like hiking and cultural expedition.

3) Women Centre: While we were discussing all these things Saradha Miss mentioned about Radhika’s friend who wanted to go aboard for work. The condition of newly married girls and other teenagers are poor. They are clueless about what they want to do and can do. Some of them are trying to go aboard for work they are really naïve and can be a victim of girl trafficking and manpower company fraud. There is even a case of a married woman who went aboard to work leaving her own kids and it’s been more than seven years that she hasn’t returned.

I visited a village and spoke to females about their personal challenges of finding a good job, working abroad and the costs involved, who are disproportionately affected. Consequently, I proactively came up with an idea for setting up a women’s center where girls can learn, teach, and work. The non-profit will conduct training such as tailoring, handicraft, etc and they can use their traditional skills to create products that will be sold In Impact Everything store, allowing women to sustain their own income. Everyone was really positive and committed to fully support us.

Saradha Miss even requested an old man who usually rears cattle and makes mat, basket out of husk and hays to teach the kids about such skill. We can even include such activities in our volunteering program teaching our volunteers to make mats, pen holders, etc. out of corn husk. Including these activities the traditional skills will be preserved and can be exhibited outside their place.

4) Community Art: Art speaks where words are unable to explain. For a summer trip we also plan to add community art as one of the activities we will be doing where everyone from the community will be involved to complete art. About community art both of the teachers were really excited as they never heard about such artwork I explained to them about the awareness that the art/paintwork can spread all over the village and families. They responded very well saying we should draw pictures that show the bad impacts of drinking alcohol in the house of people who drinks a lot.

The houses over there are mostly separated it’s not close and compact like in city area or other villages to connect artworks from one house to another. But I will be working with Ayush Bajarcharya an amazing artist to figure out what will be best.

The overall trip went well I distributed some chocolate cookies to all the students of the school as the meeting was over. I couldn’t attend their general meeting as they keep on post-poning it because some of the members couldn’t manage their time for it. So, Saradha miss told me she will pass all the meeting minutes with other and she is sure everyone will be excited to support us.

Radhika was offering me to visit her home and meet her family specially Rakesh her brother who always ask about me, but I promise to visit her again soon so I hike down with Saradha miss to catch my last bus which leaves at 4 pm from Barbise, luckily  I didn’t miss it so it was 9 pm when I reach back home.

By: Sahib Baidya