A Longwinded Account of Life in Nepal

I’ve had quite a crazy week, but I’ll do my best to post a rundown of everything.

For those of you who are too busy for the long winded account, here’s the abstract.

In short form:
Last Wednesday I met my new research assistant, Anu, who is FABULOUS. Thursday, I went back to the Kavre Deaf School to apologize for my absence and explain my new research goals. Friday, I met a deaf lady who is friends with my host father and went to my first Rotary meeting. Saturday and Sunday were spent in Kathmandu with friends. Monday, I went back to Banepa and met my research assistant to go to a nearby village and see an adult sign language class. Tuesday, I came back to Kathmandu and got my notes in order and met a fellow researcher who is working in the deaf community. Wednesday, I prepared to go to a Buddhist nunnery to hole away and get lots of scheduling done. Unfortunately, the nunnery guest house was full, and I will continue my hunt for a monastery or nunnery tomorrow.
For those of you who are “very interested” or at least, bored with whatever you’re doing, here’s the rather long-winded account

In long form (by subject):

Research Assistant
I met my new research assistant, Anu, through a Rotary contact who knows Robert Rose, the founder of The Rose International Fund for Children (TRIFC) and my affiliation for Fulbright. Mr. Shrestha, the man who introduced us, was found Anu for me, and let me know that he had a potential research assistant who had great qualifications and speaks wonderful English. After meeting Anu and doing a few short research trips, I’ve discovered that she will be a wonderful asset and I’m thrilled to be working with her. She’ll keep me on my toes for sure – she can’t wait to learn Nepali Sign Language and keeps checking to make sure that I’m getting my research organized, that I’ve prepared questions for interviews, or have begun to schedule trips.

Research Overview
About the research, like I mentioned before, I’ve had to change from an in-depth project to an increasingly broad project that will take me all over Nepal. I’m planning a four-part final project with Part 1 being a general overview of deaf education in Nepal including methods of instruction, strengths, weaknesses, etc.; Part 2 will be a list of all the deaf schools (I can find) and basic information; Part 3 will be a list of all the local deaf organizations with basic information; and Part 4 will have a list of NGOs who work specifically with the deaf with basic information. Given the difference in perspectives, such research may not be used in Nepal as I would hope (to make connections between schools, organizations, and NGOs), but the research will hopefully be a good resource and potentially strengthen the deaf education network. One reality that I’ve had to face is that I will likely miss schools (there’s no reliable list of schools available – I’ve already added 10 schools to the list I was given by the Nepal Federation for the Deaf), and that even if I should somehow locate all of the schools and organizations, there’s a good chance I’ll run out of time to visit all of them. I hope to find an NGO or association in Nepal who is willing to help me to add to the research as more information appears after I have to leave. That way, the research will be continually updated and disseminated, and hopefully will remain useful and current for a longer period of time.

Dhulikhel Rotary Club
I attended my first-ever Rotary Club meeting in Dhulikhel (a town near Banepa) last Friday. Mr. Shrestha invited me to come to the meeting and share what I was doing, as well as meet his fellow Rotarians. I was surprised when I arrived to find almost as many western faces as there were Nepali! There was one other American who was doing research in agriculture in Nepal, 3 Australians who work for an NGO that has started an orphanage in Nepal (for children ages 3-18, they hope to help them all the way through school and into post-high school jobs and academics), and another lady from Australia who is actually a member of the Rotary Club in Dhulikhel. I enjoyed the meeting and came away very impressed with all that the club is doing. Also, upon finding out that my dad is also a Rotarian, Mr. Shrestha appointed himself a sort of temporary guardian because I am his friend’s (fellow Rotarian’s) daughter. I am well looked after in Nepal between my host family in Banepa and the numerous other friends I’ve made!

Val, the Rotary club member from Australia, usually comes to Nepal annually for a few months, and spends much of her time in Australia fundraising for various causes she’s heard about in Nepal through Rotary. One project she told me about when I ran into her and Mr.Shrestha on the way back from the village where I did research the other day, was that a group of school children in Australia raised money (by doing chores for their parents) to purchase two goats (a male and female) for a family in the village. I thought that was a wonderful idea for a philanthropy project for children! If anyone’s interested in doing something like that, let me know and I can help facilitate it from the Nepal side. If it could lead to pen-pals and friendship between children here and in America, even better!

Deaf People in Banepa
My host father, Tikaji, has decided to introduce me to all of the deaf people he knows in Banepa, so I have made a good number of contacts through him. First, we met with a woman who he grew up with and who became deaf around age 6 after becoming sick and developing a high fever. Rseea was very nice and communicates largely by Nepali Sign and gestures. She seems to be able to lipread well also. While we were there, Tikaji surprised me by stating that when Rseea was sick as a child, her tongue grew to an abnormally large size causing her to not be able to speak, and asked me if that was why most deaf people in Nepal couldn’t speak. Having been forewarned about this view by the book “Buddhas in Disguise” by Irene Taylor, I was able to conceal my surprise and explain gently that Rseea’s tongue looked normal in size to me, and her speech deficit was likely due simply to the fact that she couldn’t not hear the sounds needed for intelligible speech. I explained that I was fortunate because I could hear pretty well while my speech developed, allowing me to speak pretty intelligibly, but she may not have had training to continue learning how to speak and recognize sounds after she became deaf. Though the view surprised me, it is a logical one to have when a person has no background knowledge in the subject – it’s less logical to assume that something wrong with the ears would affect speech in such a way.

While meeting the deaf members of Banepa, I also found out that Tikaji’s nephew, who lives in the large family house over the shop, is hard of hearing as well. How I went several months without meeting him or anyone mentioning him to me is surprising, but the family may have been making sure I would not judge them for having a deaf member of the family before allowing me in on the well-known “secret”. Tikaji’s nephew can hear some, and has a hearing aid which allows him to communicate primarily through hearing and lipreading. Signing is not an option that has been entertained. I was involved in a family meeting the other day about how to teach the nephew (who is 10 or 11) how to speak more clearly, and how to improve his academics. Apparently he will be starting speech therapy in Kathmandu soon, and opportunity afforded to very few people in Nepal who have hearing loss. I agreed to go with Tikaji to his school next week to give the teachers and principals a few ideas on how to make learning in a hearing classroom easier for him.

Sign Language Class in Village
I went to a sign language class in a very small village outside of Banepa on Monday to see how it was taught, who was being taught, and get a general idea of the education afforded to deaf people in the villages. Getting to the village included both a bus ride and a fairly long walk and Anu and I met up with Dineshji, a deaf sign language teacher who now goes around to villages near Banepa and teaches sign language to deaf adults who have had very few communication options in the past. This project is part of the Kavre Development Association for the Deaf, and has included three nearby villages since its inception. The villages are chosen by Dineshji who finds places that have a large concentration of deaf adults without sign language, and then when the village is chosen, puts up posters and knocks on doors. Somewhat surprisingly, most of the students in the class seem to be at least minimally educated (in hearing schools or homes) and all demonstrated at least basic literacy skills. Two of the students appeared to have exceptional literacy skills. The day we went, only 4 students came, but as it is during harvesting season, the number is not surprising. The classes in a resource room at a post-secondary school, and 38 students came from all over at the beginning, but the number has since decreased to 16 because so many needed to get back into the potato fields and earn money to feed themselves and their families. Anu, my research assistant/interpreter, was a huge help with the interviews and great company. I think we’ll get along swimmingly!

Random Side Notes
Unfortunately, I had the unpleasant experienced of being harassed on the bus the other day, but have since learned how to best avoid situations like that in the future – sit up front or stand, and as Anu told me, “bring a safety pin with me to poke anyone who bothers me because telling them to stop isn’t going to work”.
A huge shout out to the Idaho State University library for giving me access to the databases so that I can make up for the research lost in my luggage. The access will make my research so much easier!

On Saturday, I went to my friends’ Nepali class and learned exactly how deaf and inept at language learning I am. I now have empathy for class clowns, because my frustrations were vented in a similar manner (lots of joking, trying to find the easy way out) during the class. Had I been this deaf when I learned spoken English, my English would not be nearly as good as it is now. I was fortunate to have the amount of hearing that I did back then.

I am headed to a Buddhist monastery or nunnery for a few days to get my head back on straight, organize my research, set up my schedules, and basically just get mentally healthy so that when I begin my travel-heavy field research I’m on top of my game.

I will likely be headed down to the Terai (in southcentral Nepal) for 15 days at the end of November with Anu and some Rotarians to do some of my field research there.
I’m looking forward to diving headfirst into the research!

Thanksgiving in Nepal will consist of a few American dinners and a comfort food dinner with friends – can’t wait for the traditional Thanksgiving foods!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and safe travels!