Narti Part 2: Life in Narti

The school in Narti near sunset

When we got to Narti, our mission was to find out how the girls were being treated there, what they needed for a better life, and if any of them wanted to come study at Papa’s houses in Kathmandu. Overall, I must say that the girls seemed very happy. Some of them are taking the opportunity to come to the city, but most have decided to stay in Narti, in their home district. The people there are very proud of their culture and want to stay in the district to make a difference there; the girls don’t seem to understand that they can get a better education in Kathmandu and then return to their homes, but hopefully we can impress that upon them with time.

Our room in Narti, complete with mozzie nets

Narti is a wide spot in the road and the girls there live on government property. All of them are Kamlari--they were sold into slavery by their parents or grandparents at a young age and worked for a master until they were bought out of slavery by a group called SWAN, which then sends them to school. Their housing and resources are very minimal. There is electricity most of the time. However, there is no safe water source--the girls bathe under a well pump about 50 meters from their housing and cannot drink the water from that well; there’s no sink at which they can wash their hands. They have two toilets (of course without flush, that’s the norm in Nepal) but they’re not very safe… there was a snake in our toilet the first couple of nights; when it was finally killed (the third night) we found out it was indeed poisonous. Eek.

The girls washing their hair under the pump

My bath time in the same spot

The girls have cows to provide milk (and hopefully some day, income). We had milk tea every day for breakfast (it was delicious) and I even got to milk a cow, which has seriously been a dream of mine since kindergarten (I got sick on the day of the little social when we got to milk the fake cow with a latex glove udder… I’ve milked a real cow now. Ha). It was more gross than I’d imagined. I also got to take a shower under the pump. We have to wear a big skirt called a lungi (can’t shower naked, it’s taboo to be naked in front of other people; understandable, I guess, but somewhat difficult for nude-model-Mariah to get used to) and the water was always cold, but it felt wonderful after the hot and humid days in Narti. Transportation to nearby villages (to visit the hospital, get our bus tickets back, see a girl off in her mission to find her brother) was either walking or riding on buses, trucks or tractors. Many of the trucks were so full we ended up riding on top; it was a little scary, but offered some great views.

I milked a cow!!

Me on the back of a truck... normal transportation

A view from one of our truck rides--homes in a rice field, mountains in the back.

The first morning we were in Narti there was no school because it was a type of father’s day. The girls put a pink tika on their “father’s” (Krishna, the man who runs the hostel and school) forehead and bless him with pink flowers. We got the tikas too, I’m not sure why. There were also sweets involved, and much henna-ing of hair.

One of the girls, Amrita, applying the tika to their Krishna's forehead

The girls go to a government run school, which I was lucky enough to teach in for one day (they only had school one of the days we were there due to festivals… that’s a clue for how often they actually have school). The school is sort of a joke as well because many days some of the teachers don’t show up. I taught sixth grade English and Maths. They didn’t understand English, even after six years of “English classes”, but I lectured on the verbs “to be” and “can” and sort of made it into an inspirational speech (or tried to… I don’t think they got it). Eventually I gave up and just worked on pronunciation of simple words. Math was easier for me, even though they didn’t understand English, math is a universal language, so it worked out. Sixth grade is a tough group anyways since they’re always, literally and in every culture, “too cool for school.”