Developing

 As I reflect on what I’ll miss about Nepal words like ’mess’ ‘chaos’ ‘unpredictable’ suddenly came up. Why would I miss those things?

Every day there’s traffic coming in all directions, perhaps a stream flowing where a road was yesterday, or a trench appearing outside our house, tangles of electric cables,

someone calling ‘fresh mangoes’ someone else with a smoking cart of cooking sweetcorn. A sudden free bus ride in the dark….

A neigbour here is amazed that her UK house is always easy to find, in the place she remembered it to be. Nothing has changed. But when she returns to Nepal it’s not so simple. She often has to look for her home amidst the tangle of new buildings! I don’t like mess, but I admit being in a developing country is often energizing.There’s always something happening, something more to learn. It makes me feel alive, perhaps childlike (especially when I need help to even cross the road or to speak). Many of my friends were brought up in remote villages. Their childhood memories are of telling the time by the kind of cockcrow, sleeping under the stars, natural remedies for illnesses (including grim stories about having tape worms pulled out of them).

Sharda has joined our walking group on Sundays. She knows the names of most birds and the uses of many plants. The tip of this one can be rubbed over the body. Her mother still uses it instead of soap when she washes (it smells of mint and lavender)

Another, a nasty spikey kind of nettle makes nutritious soup. Sharda would sneak out and gather it during lockdown to feed her family. If she doesn’t know what a palnt is called on our walk she just asks a passerby. Nepalis respond to everyone as if they already know them. No need for the British ‘excuse me’ or ‘thank you so much, goodbye..’ etc. Sharda set me the example of climbing a tree, so I followed.

Even in the midst of teaching others I’m constantly having to be a pupil. Especially when a course is all in Nepali and I’m totally dependent on the translator.

We celebrated last week that our counseling collective taught 20 people the supervision Foundation Course.

Despite all the movements and tangles and set backs….. developing.