In Our Global Village: Life in a Nepalese Jungle Village Through the Eyes of Its Children

In Our Global Village: Life in a Nepalese Jungle Village Through the Eyes of its Children

A project of Junkiri School, Debniya Basti, Jhapa District, Nepal Edited by Einat Metzl and Amir Rosenmann

In Our Global Village Life in a Nepalese Jungle Village Through the Eyes of its Children

A project of Junkiri School, Debniya Basti, Jhapa District, Nepal Edited by Einat Metzl and Amir Rosenmann

Š 2009 by Einat Metzl and Amir Rosenmann Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.

For information: Einat Metzl emetzl@yahoo.com

Published by Einat Metzl and Amir Rosenmann

Preface After hearing for two years about the educational programs offered at Junkiri School in Debniya Basti, Jhapa, Nepal, we were fortunately invited to work with the children at the school. Junkiri is an alternative school program headed by Indira Ranamagar, director of PA Nepal, with support from Global Alternative Learning Alliance (GALA).

The school focuses on practical activity and learning by doing. It aims to bring out the uniqueness in children, and is firmly rooted in Nepali village environment.

Currently Junkiri has three sites, the first two in the Kathmandu area serving mostly children of prisoners who could not succeed in the national education system, and the third, also known as Village Junkiri, is located in the more remote Jhapa district in southeast Nepal, where this program and book was compiled. Junkiri School in Jhapa serves about 70 children in preschool, Kindergarten, 1st grade, and a mixed age after school program, every day for a full week. Working with the children of Debniya Basti and interacting with people of all ages in the village, learning about their lives in the Nepalese jungle, had been an incredible, generous, and joyous experience.

Everywhere we went we found kindness, gratitude, curiosity, and patience.

We devised a program which we hoped could serve the children’s needs for art education, English learning enhancement, and community empowerment. Our intention was to create an art based version of In Our Global Village; the photography and drawings that form the heart of this book tell many stories with few words. To add to that, although we had initially planned to have more verbal narratives included – our limited Nepali and the limited English of the children and most adults made the visual story a more feasible outcome.

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This book is not meant to present a comprehensive view of life in Debniya Basti on any level, but rather to present a visual tale of living in the village as we understood it from doing art, observing, speaking, playing, and living with a group of mostly younger children (ages 6 to 10), their dedicated teachers, and some teens.

Two unexpected things greatly influenced the way this tale unfolded, and later was edited in its final, written, format: first, the children’s and educators’ pronounced desire to enhance their English and use of art as an ongoing goal and, secondly, the inadvertent impact of our presence as foreigners in the context of the village life.

Since the first audience of this book is meant to be the young children we worked with, we decided to use simple and brief descriptions, emphasizing the new vocabulary in English and Nepali that was part of our program. We hope this will similarly benefit people of all ages in other areas of the world living in communities where English proficiency is scarce, and perhaps make this book more accessible to English-speaking children as well.

Similarly, embedded in our Post-Modern perspective and our experience in the village, we again learned the importance of understanding this project as a multicultural dialogue, one in which we acknowledged both sides, even if we wanted to tell the children’s story “from their own eyes”. In other words, any story we could tell would necessarily be limited by what we – Einat and Amir – know and don’t know.

Our meeting with the children, their families, and their teachers, impacted us just as they were impacted by us. It was part of how we communicated, with limited verbalization and constant modeling and observing. We brought new ideas, art supplies and techniques, funny accents, two different languages (we are both proficient in English and Hebrew and conversed between us in both), as well as unfamiliar clothes 5

and habits. We brought cameras and tried to capture the constant awe we felt for the beauty, calmness, and simplicity that is their everyday background, and that is far removed from ours. We also brought a need to adjust to the local water system, toilets, foods, insects, and timetables. And the children, as children do, observed and took in our every move, while we oberved and took in theirs. We were all teachers and students, and active participants.

Therefore, to leave out this dialogue, spoken and unspoken, seemed inappropriate.

We decided to add a section of our mutual works about each other – facilitators and students – hopefully reminding all of us of our rich experience, while providing transparency and authenticity to who we all are and what our process was like.

We hope you enjoy the book as much as we enjoyed every aspect of making it.

Namaste, Einat Metzl (PhD, ATR-BC, iMFT) Amir Rosenmann (PhD) August 2008

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For More Information About Junkiri Schools‌ Please contact Indira Ranamagar of PA Nepal (Prisoners Assistance Nepal): PCN 363 PO Box 8974 Kathmandu, Nepal Phone (office): 436-4896 (mobile): 985-1040-833 panepal@gmail.com or p_a_nepal@yahoo.com www.panepal.org Or Contact GALA: Global Alternative Learning Alliance 11024 Balboa Blvd.

Suite 645 Granada Hills, CA 91344 gala@gala-ed.org www.gala-ed.org

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About In Our Village www.inourvillage.org Cathryn Berger Kaye, CBK Associates, International Service Learning Consultants cbkaye@aol.com | www.abcdbooks.org Barbara Cervone, President, What Kids Can Do, Inc. | Next Generation Press bcervone@whatkidscando.org www.whatkidscando.org

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Our village in Southeast Nepal ...........................................

Greetings ............................................................................

Our families .........................................................................

Our homes ..........................................................................

Our friends ..........................................................................

School .................................................................................

Things we like to do ............................................................

Work....................................................................................

Animals ...............................................................................

Food we eat ........................................................................

Our scenery ........................................................................

How we get around .............................................................

Celebrations ........................................................................

Community work .................................................................

Clothes ................................................................................

Appendix: When Amir and Einat came to visit ....................

Page 9 Page 12 Page 14 Page 17 Page 21 Page 24 Page 27 Page 30 Page 33 Page 36 Page 39 Page 40 Page 42 Page 45 Page 46 Page 48

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The village of Debniya Basti, sometimes also referred to as Butta Bari (a bigger, close-by village on the main road), is located in the southeast Jhapa District of Nepal.

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Nepal is a country neighboring India and China. We have beautiful mountains that are known all over the world, including Mount Everest – the highest mountain in the world.

But our village is in a different part, a flat area called the Terai where the jungle is.

In our village, about 4000 people live happily and peacefully. Our village is close to 6 villages, that are all part of our community. In Nepali we call village – Gown.

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Welcome to our village! We mostly greet people with “Namaste” or “Namaskar”, and put our hands together when we meet or pass by, like in the picture. It means Hello and Goodbye, and also means peace. It is a way we show respect to other people, especially elders. We also use Namaste for prayers.

In the morning you can also say Suba Bihani – good morning, or Suba Ratri – good night. When we greet new visitors to our village or say goodbye to them as they leave our village, we make flower leis and put the red Tika on their forehead to wish them a good journey.

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Our families are very important to us. We help our parents with farming the fields, getting water from the hand pumps next to the house for cleaning and cooking, and we help with laundry and with taking care of our brothers and sisters.

Family Vocabulary: Family

Par-ee-war

Child

batcha

Older sister

didi

Younger sister

bahini

Older brother

dhai

Younger brother

bhai

Mother

Aama

Father

Bhuwa

Grandma

Hajur-aama

Grandpa

Hajur-bhuwa

Many times we live with our parents, brothers and sisters, as well as with grandparents and other relatives. If we feel close to someone we often call him or her auntie / uncle, or brother/sister even when they are not our relatives. Above are some words in Nepali and English for family, and the next page has some pictures we took or drew about our families.

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Taking pictures and drawing our families

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In Nepali we call house – Ghar. We live in houses built with different materials: some build their houses with tin roofs and others with straw roofs. Some have walls from wood, some bamboo reed, and others build with cement or bricks. We build our homes high (on stairs or stilts) because of snakes (serpa in Nepali).

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Everyone has a water pump next to the house, and that is how we get our water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and anything else. We have a toilet shed outside and a separate kitchen hut where we cook on a clay stove. Some homes have electricity, televisions, or cell phones but most people don’t.

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Outside our homes

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Details from our homes

Friend – Saht Sahti

In our village we spend time with our friends when we are not helping at home or studying at school. Here are some drawings we made and pictures we took.

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Self Introductions

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More Self Introductions...

School words: School – eschool Students – Beidarti Teacher – Sir / Miss Here is how to count in Nepali: One – ek Two – dui Three – tin Four – chhar Five – panch Six – chho Seven – sat Eight – ath Nine – Nu Ten – Das

We have a school in our village called Junkiri (firefly, in English) where we go for preschool, kindergarten and 1st grade. Our school was established three years ago and every year we add a class. For now, we also have an after school program for older children that go to day school in nearby villages.

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In our school we have three teachers and a principal. We sit together on the floor with our books and notebooks. We listen well and work in our books to learn better Nepali (reading and writing), Math, English, and Health Education.

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We also learn how to cook, and sometimes play or do art in our school. We leave our flip-flops outside to keep the classroom clean.

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We like to play with our friends, sisters and brothers outside. We play many games children play in other places like football (soccer) cricket, catch, find-thehandkerchief, singing, dancing, flying kites, climbing trees, swimming in the river. We also play special games to Nepal like Carrom-board (picture), Dice, or Ring.

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Things we like to do Game - Khel

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More fun things to do

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Most of our parents and other adults are farmers and they work in the fields. We have rice patties, a big tea garden, corn, and many fruit trees.

Some of our parents work as drivers of vans or rickshaws, and some work overseas to support our families.

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We help our parents every day with some of the work in the fields and taking care of our farm animals.

We have many animals that live with us in our yards – buffaloes, cows, goats, chickens, pigs, and pet dogs or cats. In the jungle around us there are also many other animals that also come to visit us like butterflies, birds, fish, many different bugs and insects, snakes, deer, monkeys, and even elephants pass by from time to time.

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In Nepali

In English

Biralo Kukur Gai Sarpa Putali Junkiri

Cat Dog Cow Snake Butterfly Firefly

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We almost always eat two big meals of Dal Bhat, which is a rice dish with gravy or soup, with potatoes, lentils, meat or fish. We snack throughout the day on fruits, tea, or small things from the village store like Coca Cola, candy, or ice cream.

Grapes - Ongur

Tea - Chia

Pani - Water

Apple - Xiau Banana - Kola

Orange - Suntala

Here is a picture of the store, some of our drawings about food we like, and some words in Nepali and English.

Ice Cream Ice Cream J

Mango - Aap Potato - Alu Papaya - Mewa

Rice - Bhat

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Small market places in our village

Because we don’t use much electricity we wake up early after the sun rises and go to bed a little after it gets dark. You can see beautiful skies from our village with Junkiri (fireflies) after it gets dark, and in the daytime you can see flowers, green fields, butterflies, and birds.

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Our village is right off the main road to India, but it takes a very long time to get here from the bigger cities like Kathmandu, which is the capital of Nepal. Sometimes it is difficult for buses to come through because of Monsoon rains or roadblocks.

Because the buses take a very long time and there aren’t always roads to get around, we don’t have many visitors from outside our area and we walk or bike a lot to visit friends, work, or bring things from the small market places around.

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In our village we have people that believe in different faiths and celebrate different things.

Most people follow Hindu or Buddhist traditions, or a mixture of both.

Here are examples of how we celebrate: First, we worship the Lord Durga for nine days in October. On the last day we mix maize and rice with sugar and red color to make Tika on our forehead.

During the nine days our friends and family get together to eat, dance and sing, and we give respect to our elders for 5 days. Children (and happy adults) get to play on a swing at that time. We enjoy a full moon day when it ends.

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Another celebration comes fifteen days later, and it is called the festival of light – or Deepawali. We burn candles, and put garlic on doors and windows. We eat fruits and sweets. Sisters and brothers put Tika on each other and give new clothes to each other. At night we sing and dance (Bhailo) in a special way for three days.

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Some people are Christians and they celebrate Christmas and Easter as well. We also celebrate birthdays, when parents buy new clothes for their son or daughter, clean up, then go to temple to give thanks. Then we have a party at home with friends, cake, and birthday candles. We give cake to everybody, and dance and sing.

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We work together to take care of our village. So when our bridge breaks, for example, we all help fix it together.

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Most of our clothes are shirts and pants like in other places but also many women wear Sari or Lungi with Kurta Suruwal (scarf) and men wear Kurta Paigama and Dupatta.

Also, women sometimes wear Lungi, which is a special dress for working at home.

Review of Words In Nepali

In English

In Nepali

In English

Namaste Miro Nam Gawn Ghar Par-ee-war Satee Biralo Kukur Gai Sarpa Putali Junkiri Khana Pani chia Suntala Xiao Kola

Hello / Respect My name Village House Family Friend Cat Dog Cow Snake Butterfly Firefly Food Water Tea Orange Apple Banana

Honcha / ho hoiyna Ek Dui Tin Chhar Panch Chha Sat Ath Nu Das Rukh Surya Chandra Rambrcha Tapaiko Danyabat

Yes no One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Tree Sun Moon Beautiful You Thank you 48

Appendix - When Amir and Einat came to visit our village

When Amir-Sir and Einat-Miss came to visit we took good care of them and we all had a great time.

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They learned Nepali and we learned English.

We played and did art together, sometimes in the classrooms and sometimes outside.

We could communicate through our drawings. Einat and Amir drew pictures to show us how they saw us and we drew pictures to show them how we saw them.

We also learned a little about taking pictures and how we look in pictures.

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We also had an exhibit of our artwork at the end and our mothers came to see and hear about what we did with Amir and Einat.

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When we said good-bye, we put a Tika on their forehead and made them flower leis for safe journey... and now we have this book to remind us of our adventures together!

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Special Thanks To: • Indira Ranamagar, without whom none of this would have been possible on any level. Thank you for inviting us to Junkiri, introducing us to the children and everyone involved, sharing your family and staff with us, and inspiring our every step.

• Jagat Magar, chair person of east Nepal Branch of PA Nepal & supervisor of the Junkiri School, who found time between his political life, family life, social activism, and many jobs – from government to farming – to escort our journey and introduce us physically and spiritually to the Jhapa area.

• Ranbarahur and Mira Ranamagar and their children, Arpon, Darpon, and Samarpon who hosted us so wonderfully, fed us, found spaces for us to sleep, and shared their everyday with us during our stay.

• Sonia Ranamagar, a big thank you from Einat who always wanted to wear a Sari and thanks to your kindness was able to. We loved spending time with her daughters – Monica, Binita, Anju, and Dipika – and carry many wonderful memories spent together.

• Ambika Gurung, the school principal and our main translator while working with the children. Thank you for your friendship, and for your professional and welcoming nature. We also thank Ambika’s husband, Vikash Gurung, who helped supply us with water and other fun snacks from his local store.

• Gita Shreebastab and Surika Younghang, the two lovely teachers at Junkiri who helped in our daily work at the school and after-school program. You are both so joyful and loving to the children that it was a pleasure to get to know you. We will remember our Junkiri time filled with Mehndi (Hena), flower leis, and rain dances.

• Angat Dhimal, who quietly and diligently brought us through the 24 hour bus ride to the village, purchased food for us and visited us daily, took pictures, and joined us on our voyage to nearby markets and villages.

• Uma Shrestha, PA Nepal’s treasurer and Junkiri School Supervisor, who happens to also be a wonderful cook, and welcomed us to her home in a nearby village twice and took us places with her van and motorcycle between her many impressive occupations.

• Jean Gennis and Steve Mereu, our U.S. ambassadors to global learning in Nepal and dear friends, thank you for helping develop Junkiri, and for the amazing opportunity to be part of it. Also,many thanks to Steve for all the help with editing and graphic design.

• All our joyous, beautiful students / artists of all ages in southeast Nepal who taught us so much.

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In Our Global Village, East Nepal presents a visual tale of living in the village of Debniya Basti, Jhapa, Nepal. It was done mostly by children of this village for other children around the world.