I was able to go out into the field last week, in Mansehra district. We only travelled about 30 minutes from the city, which is very close compared with many of the other schools (some staff travel 3 hours one way to get to their school daily). Anyway, it was just like stepping back into history. The houses were all made of mud, and dung was drying outside in the air – it is used as a fuel because the village didn’t have gas. We went into one house – the animals are kept outside, and then there was a courtyard, and then I just saw one large room with a number of beds.
It was great being able to visit the schools – we spent most of the morning visiting the government boys primary school. There was one teacher and I am not sure how many kids – maybe about 50. There were two groups – one of the younger children and one of the older children, both sitting outside. The first task that the teacher educator from MIED did was to sort out the classroom. It was being used as a storage place for the construction materials for the boundary wall, so was full of long pieces of wood with rusty nails sticking out. I spent most of the morning sitting with the younger children, as the person from MIED and the teacher were concerned with the older boys. The children were lovely, but so poor, and it was hard work given my lack of Urdu, their almost complete lack of English, and I was basically giving them a lesson having not prepared anything. The children all had notebooks with UNICEF written all over them, which I really didn’t like because it immediately defined the children as being recipients of aid. The school was completely open, so had a continuous stream of donkeys, goats, and cows coming through, as well as villagers who were very hospitable and gave us tea and snacks. Some of the women came up and talked to me but I didn’t have a clue what they were saying. It is particularly difficult because the villagers first language is Hindko, not Urdu, so the children were learning both Urdu and English in the school.
We then went on to the girls school. I was pretty shattered by that time. The girls were a lot shyer than I expected – if I asked them a question they giggled and hid. Three age groups were sitting in the same classroom, so the teacher basically had to run three lessons at the same time. It was very sad because some of the girls who had graduated from the school came back to visit, and they are not able to continue their education as there is no girls secondary school in the village.
I thought that that day had given me enough experiences to last the week. But no – the rest of the week threw quite a few challenges as well. The next day I had to check through and edit three reports – a key learning point is to ALWAYS ask when the deadline is and to clarify who to give the feedback to. Oh well. Then I had to try and understand a monitoring document that was incredibly confusing. The next day I went to a meeting at the Plan offices about this document, which was very interesting. The meeting started off in English, but by the end they had moved to Urdu and my brain was completely frazzled. And the day after that I had to facilitate another session with a team about weekly reporting – it was quite difficult because several people introduced completely new topics and so I didn’t know how far to stick to the topic or move onto another one if they wanted to. Also, half way through that meeting I had a horrible thought that I should have been at a different meeting, so I spent the rest of the time worrying. What an idiot.
Corry went to Islamabad for a VSO meeting on Thursday, so I was by myself for the weekend. But people have taken pity on me and so I have been fed by the director’s family for the last 3 evenings. His children are great, and on Saturday afternoon (after I had checked through the monitoring document again) we went for a drive around Mansehra – it was great seeing the views and getting a bit more of an idea of the area, and was v fun with 5 lively children. But people work SO hard here. The director and many others have worked every weekend since I have been here. There are so many people’s lives and jobs depending on the success of MIED.
The other evening the director and his children started telling me about their village in the Northern Areas. It sounds like a completely different world – to England but also to Mansehra. Their family numbers over 100, and it is not unusual for more than 20 people to live in the same house. Last week several of his brothers slaughtered yaks, which will give them enough food to last the winter. They don’t have gas or electricity (they cook over wood stoves), and can store the meat outside in the snow. It is -10 there at the moment! They showed me some photos of a family wedding – part of the ceremony is for the bride and bridegroom to cook chapattis together – but if the chapatti breaks that symbolises that the wife will have dominance over the husband! The photos of their village look completely stunning, and I cannot wait to visit that area.
Anyway, hope that all your Christmas shopping is going well :)
It was great being able to visit the schools – we spent most of the morning visiting the government boys primary school. There was one teacher and I am not sure how many kids – maybe about 50. There were two groups – one of the younger children and one of the older children, both sitting outside. The first task that the teacher educator from MIED did was to sort out the classroom. It was being used as a storage place for the construction materials for the boundary wall, so was full of long pieces of wood with rusty nails sticking out. I spent most of the morning sitting with the younger children, as the person from MIED and the teacher were concerned with the older boys. The children were lovely, but so poor, and it was hard work given my lack of Urdu, their almost complete lack of English, and I was basically giving them a lesson having not prepared anything. The children all had notebooks with UNICEF written all over them, which I really didn’t like because it immediately defined the children as being recipients of aid. The school was completely open, so had a continuous stream of donkeys, goats, and cows coming through, as well as villagers who were very hospitable and gave us tea and snacks. Some of the women came up and talked to me but I didn’t have a clue what they were saying. It is particularly difficult because the villagers first language is Hindko, not Urdu, so the children were learning both Urdu and English in the school.
We then went on to the girls school. I was pretty shattered by that time. The girls were a lot shyer than I expected – if I asked them a question they giggled and hid. Three age groups were sitting in the same classroom, so the teacher basically had to run three lessons at the same time. It was very sad because some of the girls who had graduated from the school came back to visit, and they are not able to continue their education as there is no girls secondary school in the village.
I thought that that day had given me enough experiences to last the week. But no – the rest of the week threw quite a few challenges as well. The next day I had to check through and edit three reports – a key learning point is to ALWAYS ask when the deadline is and to clarify who to give the feedback to. Oh well. Then I had to try and understand a monitoring document that was incredibly confusing. The next day I went to a meeting at the Plan offices about this document, which was very interesting. The meeting started off in English, but by the end they had moved to Urdu and my brain was completely frazzled. And the day after that I had to facilitate another session with a team about weekly reporting – it was quite difficult because several people introduced completely new topics and so I didn’t know how far to stick to the topic or move onto another one if they wanted to. Also, half way through that meeting I had a horrible thought that I should have been at a different meeting, so I spent the rest of the time worrying. What an idiot.
Corry went to Islamabad for a VSO meeting on Thursday, so I was by myself for the weekend. But people have taken pity on me and so I have been fed by the director’s family for the last 3 evenings. His children are great, and on Saturday afternoon (after I had checked through the monitoring document again) we went for a drive around Mansehra – it was great seeing the views and getting a bit more of an idea of the area, and was v fun with 5 lively children. But people work SO hard here. The director and many others have worked every weekend since I have been here. There are so many people’s lives and jobs depending on the success of MIED.
The other evening the director and his children started telling me about their village in the Northern Areas. It sounds like a completely different world – to England but also to Mansehra. Their family numbers over 100, and it is not unusual for more than 20 people to live in the same house. Last week several of his brothers slaughtered yaks, which will give them enough food to last the winter. They don’t have gas or electricity (they cook over wood stoves), and can store the meat outside in the snow. It is -10 there at the moment! They showed me some photos of a family wedding – part of the ceremony is for the bride and bridegroom to cook chapattis together – but if the chapatti breaks that symbolises that the wife will have dominance over the husband! The photos of their village look completely stunning, and I cannot wait to visit that area.
Anyway, hope that all your Christmas shopping is going well :)
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