A letter I wrote to mum, just now

Hi mum,
Nepal is great, I have walked up and down a great many hills, and when
my legs complain, I tell them "Well what did you expect? We're in
Nepal!" I've met a great many goats on my walks, although I haven't
had any goat curries. Lots of Dal Bhaat, and sometimes I'll treat
myself to buff momos (buffalo dumplings). We have Nepali lessons twice
a week, I love the challenge of learning a new language, even though I
can't imagine it will be very useful once I leave.

I would love some New Scientists, or any reading material you'd like
to sent me, although where to send them to? Three of us have just
settled into our house, the new home of the circus volunteers. And
we've just found out that they are having issues negotiating rent, and
may have to move us somewhere else. I will hopefully find out, one way
or another, in the next few days. The house has been unused for a
while, so we cleaned, mopped, swept away mouse crap, rubbish and other
more ambiguous refuse. Now we have a lovely little house, with a stone
staircase, stone bookshelf, a big backyard with a secret pathway
leading up to a giant statue of Buddha. It is far away from the
dubious Westernness of Sanepa, (a district in Kathmandu, the home of
our charity's office, the UN, and a huge number of NGOs and ex-pats)
and the sprawling mess and noise of central Kathmandu. I hope we can
stay there, it's even worth the 1-and-a-half hour journey into the
office, where we squeeze sardine-like into the Micro, a toyota van,
one volunteer claims to have counted 29 commuters. I too woke up too
early, to try and beat the rush and get a seat that I could stay in
for the entire journey.

I would love to stay for longer than my initial three months, although
sometimes I feel like getting out of here as soon as possible. I have
been given a lot of responsibility, but not the respect that this
responsibility accords. My flight from Brisbane, a promise of regular
training space, and now the house in Godawari, from these I have
learned that I cannot rely on this organisation to follow through with
its offers.

Unfortunately you brought me up very well, but I am starting to learn
how to break my programming, to tread on toes, butt in to
conversations, bang heads together, so that I can get training space,
essential items for the students, organise time for them to see what's
going on in the world of contemporary circus, and just have fun
together, build some group cohesion, things like this. Everything
takes time here, but if I can just get these few things sorted out,
then I would happily stay for a long time. If it doesn't work out,
then it's back to Australia, where I have received a few job offers
via email, and have applied for a couple of festivals.

The actual job which I ostensibly came here to do, the circus classes,
are great. Quite a challenge though. I'm looking forward to having a
bit more Nepali language to talk to them with. The kids are all aged
between 14-22, and mostly you would never know that they have been
disconnected from their families, trafficked, and abused. They are
bright, funny, keen to learn and willing to try new things. The issues
that come up are the same kinds of issues that all teenagers face:
self-esteem, body image, jealousy, etc. but there is a general level
of respect here that is rare among Western teenagers. I'm trying to
slowly bring in more theatre and general performance training, to work
on their stage presence a bit, sometimes this goes really well, and
sometimes it is a complete fiasco, but we always stay positive. One of the
kids goes off quite often to brood, staring out the window for long
periods with a look that speaks all too clearly of the past trauma and
current pressure that he must live through. A grim reminder of the
complexity of this situation.

I'd best get back to work. I've got to a report now to the project
manager in the UK, where I will no doubt repeat a lot of the things
I've just written here, but perhaps maybe couch some of them in more
diplomatic terms. I'm glad to hear that you're getting the move back
to Australia sorted. Will you move back into Carlton?

Bye then,
Love Ivan