After breakfast, we headed to the offices of RCDS where EWN also has their field office and
where the training would be held. I really had no idea what to expect of anything; the place, the day, the women and, of course, teaching. The programme was Women's Initiation in Eco-Tourism Training and the subjects ranged from environmental issues like waste management to hospitality and entrepreneurial skills to hygiene, health and first aid. Every day in the afternoon was the English class. Most of the anticipated attendees were women who run small guest houses with their family. Most had husbands and children whospeak English to the few tourists that come through that region (it is still very undeveloped in terms of tourism) but most of them had little or no English at all. Some hadn't even had any education and were unable to read or write in Nepali, let alone read English letters. So the content we would be teaching was going to be very basic. I had chosen to take the beginners class and Francesca took the people who could speak a little English already.
Archana had no idea how many women were going to actually show up but we were expecting about 30.This was first time she had come as the project coordinator (she had done many trainings before, but not running the whole programme) so she was busy making sure we were ready and everything was in order for our first day. Trainees were coming from villages throughout the whole district and many of them had walked for six or eight hours to get there so were to stay in town for the six days. There was a budget of Rs 300 a day for the participants who did not live in town to cover costs of accommodation, which ended up being somewhat of an incentive for people to come along regardless of how interested they were in the actual course. The training was in the rooftop room of the RCDS building. The RCDS office and the room that EWN rent from them are on the middle floor and another organisation rents space below. The training room was a big L-shaped room with a slanted corrugated iron roof. Throughout the week, the sound of thwang could be heard periodically as another person banged their head from standing up too close to the edge of the room.By ten o'clock, the official start time, we had only one woman with her 18 month old daughter, but within the next half hour, the women trickled in and suddenly there was a room full of women, chatting amongst themselves as they sat cross-legged across the floor. After the time consuming process of getting all the attendees registered and introductions by a local teacher (apparently the first man in the district to have a masters in English), who is an enthusiastic supporter of EWN's programmes, having had both of his daughters do training with them in the past, the sessions began.
On the first day, Francesca and I sat in on all the sessions, partly to get a feel for the programme and also to familiarise ourselves with the women. It would have been great to understand the content, particularly the lively input from the trainees when they were debating various issues, but as everything was not only in Nepali, but in a local dialect that even Archana didn't understand half the time, we could only watch the dynamics and body language - which was interesting enough. All went well and although most of the women were painfully shy when it came to getting up and speaking in front of the group, you could see the majority were incredibly engaged and clearly keen to learn. There were many group activities where they were given big sheets of paper and asked to make lists of things, for example, what they thought were negative and positive impacts of tourism. Then each group had to present their lists to the class. Before long it was lunchtime, although lunch was nowhere to be seen. The morning session was allowed to run over and then there was a period of milling around until the food finally arrived, much to Archana's relief. Potato curry and chapati served up on flimsy, but effective paper plates that were lined with some kind of foil on one side to stop them going soggy. It was actually very tasty and I would have happily had seconds but with over 38 women present along with the team, Archana, Francesca, Soroj, Raj and myself, there was only just enough to go around. Lunch was followed by sweet, milky instant coffee in even flimsier plastic cups. Pretty crap as coffee goes, but when it is the only thing on offer, a cup of hot sweet liquid goes down nicely. I was starting to get nervous, as my 2 o'clock teaching slot was fast approaching. I had been given the 'course content' and been translating various phrases to use with the group. Soroj was going to translate and assist me (thank god!). I had talked to a few people beforehand and had been told not to expect to go too far, and that it was all about repetition. I stood in front of my class of over 20 women, looking up at me expectantly and took a deep breath. "Namaste! Mero nam Miranda ho - My name is Miranda", to which they all chimed Namaste back, and for a moment I suddenly went blank and thought, I can't do this, what was I thinking? (much like one point on the hike up to Panchassee), but a moment later, I regained my composure (I don't think anyone noticed my panic) and dived back in. By the end of the class, I had a big smile on my face, having had all of them attempt to tell me their names in English. What really made it for me was the smiles of gratitude and hands clasped in farewell as they said goodbye. I was their teacher!
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