Saraswati Day

On our initial training day for the microfinance project (see previous post) at the Kavre School, there was lots happening! It turns out that not only was the TRIFC project taking off, but it was also Saraswati Day. Saraswati is the goddess of learning in Hinduism, and her image graces nearly every classroom I've seen in Nepal. To honor her, the teachers and students from the school, along with me, Rob and some of the ladies from the microfinance project, gave puja (offerings/blessings) to Saraswati in three places (2 temples dedicated to her, and a framed photo on the chair in the school yard). There was a celebratory air around the school that day and a special dinner was served later that evening. Thanks to the welcoming teachers and students who not only included me, but also taught me their traditions. There's no such thing as too much good karma for education!


Waiting to leave for the first temple. The construction materials you see in the background are for hostel construction on the third floor of the school building.


More waiting in line...At the first temple.


One of the teachers at the Kavre School for the Deaf giving Puja to Saraswati in the first temple. The teachers went first, then the older students, younger students, and finally the stragglers (i.e. me) :)


Giving puja at the final stop in the school yard. By this point, the nearby Saraswati temples had all been covered in rice, powder dye, flowers, wreaths and incense.


A final look at the impressive school yard puja.

Partnering With TRIFC - A Crafty Microfinance Project

This past week, I had the honor of working with Rob, Rose, Sandi, and Balram from The Rose International Fund for Children (TRIFC) to implement a microfinance project for deaf women from the Kavre District of Nepal.

First, to give you some background. In order to get a Fulbright grant, you really have to have an "affiliation". Basically someone who feels like you're doing something worthy of the grant and 'invites' you into the country. I found out about TRIFC when I was searching about deafness in Nepal and discovered a former Fulbrighter's blog. I got in touch with Franz, and he referred me to Rob Rose, the founder of TRIFC. Rob was a great help in learning about deaf education in Nepal and agreed that I could be affiliated with TRIFC. The Rose International Fund for Children is an NGO that works to change the perception of "disabled" in Nepal to "differently abled", and provide opportunities to people with all kinds of challenges, including deafness. For more information about their work, you can go to TRIFC's website: http://trifc.org/ or follow Rob's blog: http://trifc.blogspot.com/

Given the help Rob gave me during the Fulbright application process, and the work that TRIFC has been doing, I was thrilled to find out that I would be able to meet him in person, and work with one of TRIFC's projects. Rose Stevens, a volunteer with TRIFC, developed the microfinance project we worked on, and she and Sandi (another volunteer) conducted the embroidery training. The project aims were to give the ladies an opportunity for income, a place where they could meet and socialize with other deaf women, and also a place where they could learn a skill (embroidering cards) and learn Nepali sign, good business practices, good nutrition, etc.

Sixteen women were chosen for the pilot project, and met us at the Kavre School for the Deaf in Banepa. The women were all from the Kavre District, some living in town, others from villages up to 2 hours away. The training consisted of Rose and Balram (a former Teacher of the Deaf at the Naxal School for the Deaf in KTM, who now works with TRIFC) explaining the goals to the ladies and presenting the model of how the project was to work. The women will have an initial training period where they will work together for about 2 weeks, and then will meet two times a month to turn in the completed cards, catch up with each other, and perhaps have a small training on relevant topics (Nepali Sign, nutrition, business practices, finance, etc.). The cards will be sold predominantly in boutiques and craft fairs in America, but some may also be sold in shops in Nepal. The women will get a fair percentage of each card's selling price, and a small percentage will go into the group fund to provide for materials and costs.

So far, the project looks to be very successful. The ladies seem to be very excited about learning new skills, earning money, and having the social outlet, and the cards that were made during the training were very impressive (see below)! Rob, Balram and I interviewed each of the women to get their stories for a small bio on the back of each card they make. We heard from women who had the opportunity for education at deaf schools (even through Class 12!), women who had only a 3rd or 4th grade education in hearing schools, and even those who had no opportunity for education at all. Some of the women had lost their hearing as a child due to illness, while others were born deaf. Two of the women had harrowing stories to tell about being beaten by members of the Maoist Army because they were of the Dalit (formerly, Untouchable) caste. Luckily, one lady was rescued when her fellow villagers protected her, but the other lady's husband was killed in the beating that left her with a severely broken leg that has never healed properly, and 3 children to raise on her own.

Though the stories were difficult to hear, they demonstrated the importance of such a project. Ideally, with hard work, these women will be able to make a substantial income that will allow them to better provide for their family, give their children the education opportunities they were denied, and the time with the other women will give them something to look forward to. Two women from the group were chose as "group leaders" in order to increase ownership of the group while still providing leadership, and I believe that the group will flourish under their guidance. I look forward to seeing where this project goes!


Rob speaking to the ladies during the training about the the goals of the project.


Rose (pink shirt), and Sandy (black jacket), leading the initial embroidery training. Krishna mam, the principal of the Kavre School for the Deaf, interpreted.


The ladies looking at the sample cards and deciding if this was something they wanted to do. We started with 16 ladies initially, but it looks like the project will continue with around 12. So far, many of the participants have picked up the skills at an astonishing rate, especially given that most are not able to read the English instructions and are learning by looking at the sample cards instead.


One of the more difficult patterns. I believe this card was only the 2nd or 3rd made by one of the women. It boggles my mind that it looks so awesome already!


This lady came in as I was taking pictures of some of the completed cards, and was SO excited to show me hers. She was born hearing, but lost quite a bit of her hearing when she became ill around age 7. She prefers to speak and lipread, but took a sign language class offered by the school last year, and is hoping that her signing skills will improve while she's working with the group.

When In Rome, Be Roman. When in Syangja...

Since Sunday is a working day (and therefore a school day) in Nepal, I spent my Sunday in Syangja, a rural district outside of Pokhara. I traveled to Syangja (an hour and a half car ride through the mountains) with Rai ji from the Gandaki Association of the Deaf. He was going to learn about the Syangja association's efforts to secure land and funding for a school building while I did my usual surveys and observation.

When Rai ji and I were walking to the deaf association's office, we were stopped by a group of people who were giving tikas (a blessing or celebratory mark on the forehead). We were ushered over to receive the tikas before I had figured out what holiday we were supposed to be celebrating! As we walked away, Rai ji commented that "today we are Maoist". He proceeded to inform me that the tikas were given in celebration of the anniversary of the first day Maoist military education began in Nepal. He continued: "I always say, 'When in Rome, be Roman!'" So, when in Syanjga, be Maoist?

As always, the most important part of the day was seeing the school. To give some background, the Syangja deaf school is still in its infancy, only separating from a hearing school with a deaf class 2 years ago. Currently, they have been tentatively registered by the government as an "official" provided they can build their own school soon. Before I describe the school in detail, it's important to know how schools come about in Nepal.

Registered schools are typically required to be separate from any other school, have their own land and building (which can be built on specified government land), and all schools must start from Class 1. The concept of "middle schools" and "high schools" is foreign here, as schools must start from the beginning and can only add one grade per year. This regulation has made it difficult for deaf education in the country because there are many deaf primary schools (up to Class 5) or lower secondary schools (up to Class 8), but very few secondary schools (Class 10) and even fewer higher secondary schools (10+2). Thus, even if students are able to attend school at the beginning, they may not have a place to go after completing the grades offered at their school, due to lack of room at the HS schools, money for lodging, or transportation to and from the school. Even when the original plan is for a school to be secondary or higher secondary, by the time the 12th year rolls around, it's not uncommon for funding to have slowed to a trickle or dried up completely.

At the moment, the Syangja school has 15 students in Class 0 (Kindergarten) and 1, who are attending school in a small rented house outside of the main town in the district. Nine of the students live in the "hostel" which consists of one room on the second floor. There are two teachers, both deaf, Sarita has a B.Ed and MA degrees (obtained without access to an interpreter or any other accommodations)and Rajendra (also the principal) completed through Class 12 (IA degree) at the Pokhara school for the Deaf. Other staff include the hostel mother (mother of Sarita) and an interpreter who works with the local deaf organization. As of now, none of the staff has worked for pay for the last 2 years. The only funding source is the small fee that parents pay for their children's lodging, and small donations from the teachers themselves and members of the Syangja Association of the Deaf. To make things more difficult, in order to remain a government registered deaf school, they must have their own school building (therefore, needing funds for the leveling of the land, foundation, building, interior needs, etc.). Hopefully, once the building has been built, the government will begin allotting some funding for the school.


One of three "bridges" to the current school building. Fortunately, the place where the school will most likely be built is accessible by road!


The Syangja school's current "home"


Me in the hostel portion of the house, decked out in all my finery. In Nepal, special shawls and leis can be given to honor someone. When I arrived, the students met me in style, honoring me with leis, flowers, and shy greetings. I felt humbled by the welcome, and more determined than ever to complete my work here to the best of my ability.


Sarita in the middle of an English lesson.


Most of the school children, staff and members of the Syangja Association of the Deaf. To my right is Rai ji, the secretary of the larger Gandaki Association of the Deaf in Pokhara, whom accompanied me to Syangja and has proven to be both a friend and a wealth of information for me!


The area surrounding the school. The plot of land currently expected to house the future school building is around the top left corner of the picture.

One extremely important thing to note: A survey done in the district to collect data about the number of deaf people in the area estimates that there are more than 500 school-aged students with a hearing loss in the Syangja district alone. This is a staggering number given that there are only 15 students in the school, and only a handful of others attend local hearing schools with deaf classrooms or distant schools such as the deaf school in Pokhara. It only highlights the need for a large, self-sustaining deaf school in Syangja. Until this goal is met, many of the children will continue to be denied access to education and, quite possibly, language as well.

Kudos to the committed teachers and staff (of both Syangja and throughout Nepal) who are working extraordinarily hard with so few resources in order to bring the best possible education to the deaf children of Nepal.

On Being a Deaf Fulbrighter

I was recently asked by the Director of Fulbright Nepal to write a brief description of what it's like to be a disabled Fulbrighter for something that the IIE (Institute of International Education) is working on. I thought I'd share my thoughts on being a differently-abled Fulbrighter with you.

First, a cartoon I thought was extremely appropriate:


Published November 1, 1991 by Democrat & Chronicle in Rochester, New York.

I arrived in Nepal at the beginning of September, 2010, to do research in deaf education and literacy. Given that Nepal is my first real international trip, I was understandably nervous about the culture, and especially the language. Fortunately for me, my hearing (or lack thereof), was extremely beneficial in my immersion in the deaf culture here in Nepal. Within my first few days, as I was looking for the Nepal Federation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I asked a group of local boys – who were signing – where to find it. They grabbed me by the arms and chatted with me all the way to the Federation, taking the time to sit down with me to wait for the President of the Federation to come available. Similar scenes are repeated at the deaf schools and associations around the country. People may shy away from me at first, but upon learning I’m deaf and know a decent amount of Nepali Sign (NSL), I’m suddenly surrounded by friends.

There have been challenges due to my hearing loss as well. Spoken language is the biggest challenge. I was determined to learn spoken Nepali when I arrived (despite the difficulty of not being able to hear it), but have discovered that lipreading Nepali is actually far harder than speaking it. Thus, when I use my –meager- Nepali vocabulary, it puts me in an uncomfortable position of being able to speak it but not understand it in return. Since realizing this, I’ve put my focus on NSL and that has been much more rewarding. Another difficulty is that despite my hearing loss, I don’t fit into the traditional “mold” of deafness because I speak relatively normally, and lipread (English) fluently. I’ve been told that “I must have only a small hearing loss”, that “if I want people to believe I’m deaf I need to act deaf”, and have had teachers and principals from deaf schools (who know I’m deaf) call me on the phone because they don’t believe it!

Overall, despite (or perhaps, because of) my deafness, I have had a wonderfully rich experience in Nepal, and have learned more than I could have imagined. I wouldn’t trade the opportunity for the world.


FYI: There's another new post below about my recent visit to the deaf school in Pokhara.

Reminding Myself What It's All About

Apparently when you get burned out, you're supposed to go on vacation. Feeling like I couldn't drag myself away from work completely, I decided to compromise and visit the school for the deaf in Pokhara since I loved Pokhara the last time I was here. As it turns out, I'm not very good at vacationing since I've worked everyday that I've been here, but it has been good for reminding me what I'm here for! The elusive vacation will come in time I'm sure :)

During the last few days, I’ve been visiting the Pokhara school for the deaf – Srijana Higher Secondary School for the Deaf. As always, Pokhara is a beautiful place to be, and the people have been warm and welcoming. As soon as I got off the bus on Tuesday, I was picked up by Rai ji, a man from the Gandaki Association of the Deaf that I met last time I was here. We proceeded to meet and go over the schedule, and then went to the grand opening of a beauty parlor that a deaf lady is opening with a friend of hers. The beauty parlor was really nice, and it was great getting to see some of the members of the deaf association that I had met on my previous visit.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent at the deaf school all day. My day began when I picked up the school bus (which holds about 65 students and 15 teachers though it should hold probably only hold around 50 total), in Pokhara and was taken to the school which is located in Leknath, a small municipality about 20 minutes away. The Pokhara deaf school is one of the three higher secondary deaf schools in Nepal (it goes to Class 12), and one of the largest as well, with 216 students from 33 districts. The majority of the students live in one of the two hostels (150 students), while the others are bussed in from Pokhara. Largely due to the perseverance of the school management committee and the financial support from several NGOs, the Srijana school has been gradually growing in grades, number of students and infrastructure over the last 20 years.

I was warmly welcomed by the students and staff at the school, and was asked to introduce myself during the morning announcements in the school yard. Nervously, I stood on a chair and used my –still shaky – Nepali Sign Language skills to give a brief introduction while a teacher stood near me and “interpreted” in case my sign skills weren’t sufficient to get the message across to the students. :) I spent the rest of my time at the school talking to the headmaster and getting survey information, going from class to class to observe instruction methods, and talking to the students and staff. The older students were getting ready to go on a tour (field trip) to several cities around Nepal on their way to see China, so while the staff prepared for the trip, I was given ample opportunity to get to know the students.


The students signing the national anthem of Nepal at the morning announcements.


The Kindergarten 1 and 2 classroom at the school. Apparently the teachers attended a professional development class and came back determined to change the ambiance of the classroom. The warmness of the class is a testament to their hard work and perseverance.


This is pretty typical of the rest of the classrooms in the school, with the wooden desks and unpainted cement walls with some student work displayed.


The main school building. The first floor was built and remained a one-story building until the students had outgrown the school. After that, the second floor was added to hold the expanding grades and number of students. Finally, another small building with two rooms was built near the main infrastructure, and most recently, the cover over the open part of the school was added.


One of the two hostels at the school. This one houses about 100 female students and students in the primary grades. There is another hostel about 15 minutes away from the school that houses the older boys.


The beautiful library at the school. It is extremely rare for a deaf school in Nepal to have a nice library (or any library at all!). This one was funded by the Room to Read organization. According to one of the men from the school management committee, the NGO requires the library to be a painted, welcoming room before they agree to provide the books. The result is a beautiful room just beckoning the students to read.


Older students hanging out on the balcony since classes were canceled to allow the teachers to prepare for the tour that began on Friday.


These three little girls appointed themselves my Nepali Sign Language instructors on the bus ride home on Thursday. They brought out their English notebooks and proceeded to school me on each word. I learned the signs for many fruits, animals, colors and other nouns!


This little guy was so intrigued by all of the writing I did that every time he saw me he signed "writing". I think by the time I left he was convinced that was my name sign also!

Starting Anew

As may have been evident in my lack of posts in January, it was a rough month. Marking the end of the first half of the grant was illness, burnout and lots of research despite the illness and burnout! I think this is just a necessary consequence of living abroad for so long (especially for the first time) and being in a country where electricity and hot water are luxuries and central heating is non-existent.

So, that being said, I apologize for the delay and will do my best to update more regularly. Hopefully February will prove to be healthier month altogether!

Collaboration: Deafness and Buddhism

My friend Mikaela, another Fulbrighter in Nepal, is researching end of life care in Nepal, particularly in reference to Tibetian Buddhism. While looking into the related doctrines in Buddhism, she explored the idea of the "perfect human rebirth". Essentially, there are 18 points that one's birth must fulfill if they are to have the greatest spiritual opportunity. While exploring this topic, she noted that one of the attributes of a perfect birth is the existence of perfect senses. Deafness is specifically mentioned as preventing enlightenment because it "prevents the person from listening to the teachings and fully communicating or understanding".

Finding this troubling, we discussed the fact that this is actually incorrect, as deaf people (or people with any disability) who are in a supportive environment, can be fully functioning, have depth of understanding and be able to communicate fully. This discussion, as well as our desire to dig further into the matter helped remind us why we're both here, and renew excitement about our original research as well as this new side project. For more information, see Mikaela's fabulous blog post: http://michou87.blogspot.com/2011/01/perfect-human-rebirth-and-sense.html

I'll revisit the topic as we learn more. Hopefully through working together, we can help change what is potentially a very damaging perception!

A Few Tidbits about Life in Nepal:

On our trip to Barhabise (pictures and details about the school in the next post), Anu and I went up close to the Chinese border where there's a few hot springs. We didn't go over the border, but I was excited nonetheless because we were able to see China from restaurant where we stopped for tea :) Also at the restaurant, we met a very friendly man from Mongolia who has been traveling around Nepal and India learning Tibetan healing practices. We met him after he laughed heartily at our attempts to eat noodles with chopsticks and finally he decided he must teach us how to eat properly! Following the chopstick lesson was a very basic Tibetan health checkup in which the healer takes your wrist pulse and is able to determine which biorhythms are out of order. Anu was pronounced healthy, I was told to stop eating chicken and eggs and start taking meat oil...not sure what that means, but it
certainly may be worth a shot!


China!


Nepalese school children making the Nepali flag on the playground in Tatopani near the Chinese border. Side note: Tatopani literately means "hot water" and there are 30+ villages sprinkled around Nepal with this name. Oddly enough, while some have hot springs, many have no hot water - hot springs or otherwise!


I spent 30 dollars on a hot shower the other day. Yes, I know how absurd that sounds. But after not having a hot shower for weeks on end, 30 dollars seems like nothing when you can get the luxury of hot water! Fortunately, the hotel spa where I went made it worth it. Four showers later... I decided I'd made up for the $30 :) Good news though! We're getting a new water heater tomorrow! What luxury...

We currently have more than 14 hours of loadshedding each day. That means we have less than 10 hours of electricity/day. I'm barely going to react if there's a power outage at home in the future!

Plans for the Near Future:

Headed back to the lovely Pokhara area for a week or so to see the Srijana Higher Secondary Deaf School and do some catch-up writing.

Meeting with Robert Rose and a few others from The Rose International Fund for Children (TRIFC) on February 16th to visit a few more schools and work on some microfinance projects for deaf women that the program is hoping to start. It should be a wonderful time for collaboration!

Writing and preparing the my paper and presentation for the Fulbright conference in Goa, India on March 6th. Looking forward to seeing Goa and hearing what others are doing as well!