Namaste!

Here we are!

After 2 months traveling around China and Mongolia we've now set foot in the country that's going to be our home away from home for 3 months. Taking off from Hong Kong and landing in Nepal is like traveling way back in time, only all it takes is a 5 hours flight. In Kathmandu there's so much to absorb, the noise, the colors, the smells, that it's a bit dizzying at times and it took us a few days to adjust before it was time to assess the situation.

So what did we get ourselves into? As often with statistics, it's hard to find 2 sources that agree on the numbers so I'll use the most commonly accepted ones:

- Population: 29.3 M in 2009 (source: UN Population Division)

- Population under 18: 12.7 M in 2009 (source: as above)

- Life expectancy jumped from 43 years in 1970 to 67 years in 2009 (source: as above)

- Gross national income per capita: 490 USD as of 2010 (source: World Bank) which ranks the country 196th out of 215 countries

- Total adult literacy rate % as of 2008: 58% (source: Unesco)

- Secondary school enrollment ratio 2005-2009, gross*, female: 41% (source: UNESCO)

- Child labour** 2000-2009: 34% (source: UNICEF)

There's a lot of work to do but our mission with Foundation Nepal will focus on one aspect: improve the level of English and raise the teaching methods standards of primary and secondary school teachers in the district of Humla so that they can in turn deliver better to the children. Unfortunately there is no such statistics as "% of English proficiency among primary and secondary teachers in Humla" so there will be some assessment work required before we know what the extent of the problem is. Foundation Nepal, the NGO we're working for, has first-hand experience with the local teachers though and we know that a lot of them never received any formal training in order to become teachers and as a result the standard of English in the villages of Humla is very poor...

One of the first steps for us was to learn the basics of Nepali language so that we can interact better with the locals outside of the big cities, where the level of English is generally good.

After 2 weeks of Nepali training, I'm happy to say: "Ma Nepali ali-ali bolchhu, ra malaai Nepal ekdam man parchha! = I can talk a little bit of Nepali and I like Nepal a lot!

Now, off to a 4 days trek in the Annapurna to practice in the field! :)

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* The number of children enrolled in a level (primary or secondary), regardless of age, divided by the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the same level.


** Percentage of children aged 5 to 14 years of age involved in child labour activities at the moment of the survey. A child is considered to be involved in child labour activities under the following classification: 
(a) children 5 to 11 years of age that during the week preceding the survey did at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work, and
(b) children 12 to 14 years of age that during the week preceding the survey did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of economic activity and domestic work combined.