Splintered Lives (3 page)

 
The fresh air up the mountain was like wine and Sarah was soon fast asleep.

She awoke to blue skies and a sunlit mountain and heard the sound of activities going on in the village as she peeped out of her little window.
 
Sarah heard the clanging of buckets as people were getting water from the village well and there was the sound of laughter of the children.
 
Her washing facilities were basic but she managed to wash and dress quickly before breakfasting on a banana she had brought with her.
 
She stepped out of her door and the view was breathtaking.
  
On the mountains there were green foothills similar to the one she was living on, others were white topped and they were glistening in the sunlight.
 
The blue of the sky was reflected in the colour of the lake and the effect was exquisite.
 
The accommodation was almost like a hovel but the outside surroundings certainly made up for it.

Joe looked sleepy and a bit crumpled when he came into the cottage and they had a coffee together before he emptied the rest of her things from his car.
 
He helped Sarah to arrange her meagre belongings around the place and it looked so dismal that he said he would take her into Pokhara where there was a market in the centre of the little town.
 
“Come on if you are ready,” said Joe.
 
“I need to get away early to be back in
Kathmandu
tonight.”

“I need to get to the bank because I wish to buy some goods to make my home comfortable.” Sarah told him.

“I’ll show you the way,” said Joe, a bit impatient to be on his way.

They travelled down the mountain and after finding the bank and taking out some of her hard earned savings; Joe took her around the market. She bought a rug, some cushions, and a wooden figure of a Buddha and a lovely woven throw over for her bed so that she could use it as a settee in the daytime. She treated herself to a thick woollen jumper as well as a jacket and hat.
 
Joe took Sarah back up the mountain with her purchases and after a quick lunch, he was on his way back to headquarters in
Kathmandu
.

Although it is quite warm during the middle of the day it can be cold in the early morning and in the evening after the sun has gone down.
 
As it was in the middle of the day by this time, Sarah ventured out, with a sweatshirt flung around her shoulders and sensible trainers on her feet, in order to see the area where she was going to live.
 
There was a backpacker’s bed and breakfast establishment in the village.
 
This was built with two stories and had a corrugated iron roof.
 
She noticed that there were electricity lines and that each building is constructed on a terrace that has been cut out of the hillside. She also saw crops of greens, fruit bushes and an apple tree.
 
Other dwellings can be seen clustered on the hillside each having its own small terrace.
 
The paths are stony and the road stops at the village.
 
After that people have to walk everywhere, always upwards on steep hard paths but with the top of the mountains, with their white peaks luring the walker to go on.
 
She felt a pang of isolation and wondered if she had done the right thing, leaving her home with her family and friends behind.
 
She shrugged her negative feelings from her shoulders and carried up the path.
 
After a while Sarah met some men who were carrying great stainless steel pipes up steep gullies in order to bring running water to the village.
 
She was told that an American tourist was appalled by the hardships of the women, having to carry water from a far well, up the mountain to their homes.
 
He gave the people of the village a donation so that they were able to buy the materials to bring water there.
 

 
Sarah saw a tiny white goat stepping out from a building by the side of a smallholding.
 
There was straw on the floor, and it must have just left its mother for the first time.
 
She saw the gunge that the sheep that followed her lamb was licking from its new -born lamb and felt the wonder of nature.
 
As she wondered further up the path, the people smiled shyly at her, and she fell in love with the little community immediately.

 
As she climbed further up the mountain she came to the school, where she had been sent to work.
 
It was not a conventional school and the children were sat outside on a plateau, where there was a backcloth of the white peaks of the
Himalayas
.
   
There were many children sitting cross-legged, quietly listening to their teachers.
 
They appeared to be of all age groups, some of them quite big.
 
Most of them were dressed in school uniform, white shirts and grey skirts or trousers, but some of the children had no shoes.
 
There was a building set at one side of the plateau, where lessons would be given if the weather became inclement.
 
The children looked healthy and happy and with their big brown eyes, they were adorable.
   

Sarah thinks.
 
“I am here to teach them English so that they may use that skill to enable them to communicate with the many tourists that walk their hillside.
 
Many of them will perhaps, work in the tourist trade when they leave school.
 
There is a growing demand for guides on the mountains, as trekking becomes an increasing pastime for the young of many Western countries.
 
She had been swotting up on their language and had found the words she would need to communicate her lesson introductions.
 
She thinks. “I can’t believe that I will be staying on this mountain for the next two years. The beauty of it takes her breath away.
 
The vivid colours of the lake, the grassy outcrops and the little houses jutting out on a tableland over the valley far below seem like a dream.”
  

“Namaste,” (meaning Good Morning) she says to the headmaster as he comes forward to welcome her and introduces her to the children.

“Sawagat chha”, (You’re welcome) he replies.

They exchange names and he gives her instructions in stilted English for which she is very grateful.
 
She is to teach the young children by nursery rhymes and spoken English before embarking on the difficult reading and writing.
 
Sarah has brought some books with her that may be suitable for very young children.
 
She will start her lessons by teaching very simple sentences similar to the ones she is learning of their language.
 
She expects it will be a two way learning process.
 
She is shown around the schoolhouse.
 
It is a basic building built in a similar way to her cottage but much bigger.
 
There is just one large room where the teachers take their lessons in different areas of it.
 
It is only used when the weather is wet otherwise the children are taught outside on the plateau.

Sarah was not expected to start her job until the Monday and as this is Friday she has two days to settle in and get to know the area.
 
As she left the school she met a small party of tourists, not really trekkers, but enthusiastic enough to want to do a small trek up the mountainside.
 
There were six of them but as they passed the school, two of them dropped out and decided to picnic and look at the views from a grass area where they settled down to wait for their friends to complete their walk.
 
The guide continued up the mountain with the younger, fitter tourists.
 
He had gathered a numbered of boys from the village to carry the large boxes that carried the picnic that had been prepared by the Fishtail Lodge hotel.
 
As the school day was at an end Sarah saw many of the children follow the guide and the trekkers up the mountainside.
 
She wondered what the attraction was until she met the full party returning to the transport that had brought them to the village.
 
The air was cooler, the meagre evening meal finished and the women were sat on their doorsteps, chatting together whilst waiting for the children to reappear.
 
She saw more than one little boy give his mother a piece of chicken that he had been given from the picnic boxes. As he had been given these gifts he had thought of his mother, and had brought her a piece of the chicken to taste because he had so enjoyed it. Sarah was so impressed by the care the families had from each other and her heart was full of love for these simple people.

When she thought of all the material goods we have in the Western world and she saw how the people of this mountain live, she felt ashamed of the waste and the greed of even the poorest in our own society.
 
We have no real poverty in the West.
 
Any poverty we suffer from is of our own making. Drug, alcohol consumption and gambling are the destructive activities of the poor as well as the rich. It was like a celebration as the children brought the gifts to their mothers.
 
One of the tourists gave a block of soap that he carried in his rucksack whilst another found a few pens in his pocket.
 
These were precious goods for the mountain people as most were subsistence farmers who grew their own vegetables and maize and used a barter method to exchange their goods.
 
It was nice for Sarah to talk to the English speaking tourists and their guide who gave her some important information of her surroundings.
 
One of the tourists said that they had bought a bottle of wine with their dinner the night before at the Fishtail Lodge that would have bought a year of schooling for one of the children.
 
He was so upset that he had given the school a large donation along with all of the other tourists.
 
When people see for themselves the difficulties of the Nepalese people, their hearts go out to them, and they want to get some balance in the world.
 
Sarah was sorry to see her new made friends leave the village and hoped that others would come.
 
In the meantime she began to try to learn a little of the language of the native population so that she could communicate with the people of the village.
 
The village centre was now quiet as the children were in bed and their parents were cooling off from their hard day’s work.
 
Sarah sat out on her little terrace and decided that she was going to cultivate the soil and grow her own fruit and perhaps a few vegetables.
 
She loved her view and she felt very happy with the scenery and the peaceful solitude of her own place.
 

“I think I shall be able to settle here Sarah tells herself.”
 
As the feelings of loneliness begin to fade.

Chapter 2

Sarah’s Story

I have settled well into my job and I love the children in my care.
 
There are two other members of staff, the headmaster and a lovely young Indian woman.
 
Her English is understandable so I have someone to explain any difficulties I may have with the culture of the mountain people.
 
She lives in Pokhara and she arrives on our mountain on her motorised bike.
 
It is handy for me because she will sometimes give me a lift into Pokhara where at weekends I may stay in a backpacker’s hostel and get a lift back on Monday morning.
 
We became very friendly and one weekend she invited me to stay with her family in the town.
  

I had no idea where she lived and I was surprised when we drew up on the drive of a rather imposing house.
 
She called out to her parents who came out to greet us warmly.

“Lovely to have you with us.”
Her mother welcomed me.

“How are you settling here in Pokhara?” Asked her father.

“I love it,” I replied, with a feeling of great warmth as we all smiled at each other.

“Come into the house and bring in your things, Sahida will take you to your room if you wish to freshen up,” her mother said.

I was astounded at the size of the house; I was given a bedroom to myself where an ensuite shower and toilet was installed.
 
The room was light and airy and the bed looked really comfortable after my rather hard small bed.
 
I freshened up and Sahida came to find me and as I was ready I followed her to the sitting room, where the rest of the family was assembled.
 
I was introduced to Sahida’s sister, Taz, who was younger than she was and who led the family a dance, if Sahida was to be believed.
 
Her brother Taj, a handsome man of about thirty, shook my hand firmly and as I looked into his velvet brown eyes I felt a blush rising on my face and I quickly said it was warm so that I could cover my embarrassment and the confusion I felt.
 
After a moment the conversation began by us all talking at once until Sahida’s father asked me about my background and the reason I had come to Pokhara to teach.