Education as Eyes for Society

Arriving in Nepal could be a sudden culture shock.  The first city you are going to hit, before reaching your final destination, is Kathmandu, a typical developing-world capital rushing into the modern era.  Making your way through the outskirts of the city to head West, you might get an overload from crowds, noise, concrete monstrosities, billboards, and the vast array of vehicles that use the one lane roads: trucks, buses, tractors, bicycles, rickshaws, motorcycles, as well as cows, goats and buffalos, all sharing the road with you and many other people.  

Leaving the big city behind you, you ride westward and reach a junction where the road splits - going straight will take you to nearby Bhaktapur, a much quieter city, with its historical city centre closed off to traffic.  Following the road to the left instead, will slowly take you uphill away from big urban developments.  You will cross through rice, corn, mustard or wheat fields.  The landscape around you might be green and lush, or dry and dusty, depending on the season you come.  You will see people farming, red brick houses, and huts; the sounds of traffic will make way to those of the farmland with cows mooing and people calling each other across the fields.  After an hour you've been driving on bumpy roads, you will reach your final destination: Duwakot!  

This is not a big town.  It is a small village set at a higher altitude from Kathmandu, which you will clearly see from the rooftop of the house, with the lights of the airport illuminating the surrounding sky at night.  The village actually stretches all along the road and into the fields, but the school itself is near the centre, a square (Neupane Gaun) with a couple of large trees where kids play, men chat, or watch people go by while sitting at a couple of tea shops.  With the additional barbershop and a few grocers, this is as much as you're going to get as far as commercial activity.

The town is known in the valley for its nearby Nepal Engineering College.  It is a few minutes walk downhill, where the campus, its football field, basketball court and dormitories stretch along a river carrying all the water descending from the hills of this North-Western area.  

A lot of people are farmers in this area.  Cultivations alternate, and there are also small patches of trees and bamboo.  There are many trails that wander off to all directions, but a popular short one takes you to the Southern entrance of Changunarayan, a temple which origins go back to the IV century a.D. whose present architecture is from 1702, having been rebuilt after a fire.  From the temple, on clear days, you will enjoy spectacular views of the whole valley, and behind you of the mountains, gradually ascending towards the highest peaks.  Mt. Everest will be clearly visible from Nagarkot, another popular destination one and half hour walk from Duwakot.

There are frequent buses going straight to Kathmandu every half an hour.  Bhaktapur is more easily accessible.  The distance is actually quite reachable on foot - there is a trail cutting through the fields, which takes 45 minutes.  Taking the road is half and hour longer, but preferable if you don't like mud in the rainy season.  Accessing any of these two cities will be necessary for any special errand you might need to run, or for Internet and international calls.  Otherwise, there is more than a person needs readily available in Duwakot.  All volunteers that have come, enjoyed this village for its simplicity, for the familiarity of its people who recognised them through smiles on the streets, for its charming countryside, and for the complete absence of the hustle and bustle typical of Kathmandu.  This is where life goes back to basics, with every day starting with the call of roosters and birds chirping, and ending with the soothing lullaby of crickets.