Lingtep field visit - Day 6

With the memorial bench built and the related rituals complete, we spent the next two days dedicated to understanding the education needs within the community.

When we'd first walked into the village, past the school, we were initially struck by the surprisingly good quality building currently there. While we'd not necessarily intended to build the school in Lingtep, we'd heard that there may be need for some form of help. Our gut reaction was that this village is not the most in need - the main school building is in good shape, having been built within the past few years with a full staff of teachers.

Just before departing Kathmandu, we were hearing that the village is interested in expanding the school to include two higher grades. Speaking with community members, including students themselves, we found that those two higher grades are available in a village only one hour walk away. While that might sound far, for kids in their late teens, it is quite do-able - they don't even need to relocate or stay in a hostel. We heard this from families and students.

Our sight shifted and we discussed the possibility of another poorer community uphill from Lingtep that has no primary school - the closest is approximately 30 minutes downhill and uphill walk away (a long way for the youngest kids!). The village name is Ochhechhre. Due to time constraints (Dhirendra and I were under tight timelines to return to our respective work places), we were unable to visit the village ourselves. We did, however, discuss extensively with Dhirendra's oldest brother who is our main point of contact in the village. He will take the lead to travel to the village and gather the information to assess whether their is the adequate need and will.

Despite our feelings that the school in Lingtep may not be the most in need, we were hearing a great deal from the community that the school does need help. Folks were expressing a strong desire for us to first look at the ancestral village before turning to others. We decided to investigate more fully for ourselves.

We spent a couple hours at the school and realized something we'd not appreciated when we were walking by during non-school hours - the broken down building next to the new school was actually the 3rd and 4th grade classroom. The floor was bare, full of dust and classes shared the single space. At first, we'd simply thought that was an extra space - remainders of the old school. This was certainly better than nothing, but perhaps an area where the Taplejung School Project could assist.

We spoke with each and every 3rd and 4th grader there that day. It's hard not to be won over by such sweet kiddos.















All along, we've been less concerned with the infrastructure. Building a school involves rocks, mortar, logs, tin for the roof. But without the community's involvement, it will only be a building. We discussed with the community members about the importance of local ownership. Should they request TSP's help for improving the school's infrastructure, the condition we told them would be local people's involvement. That could be donating whatever they can (sending a family member for help, logs, rocks or whatever capacity they can). And it is the community involvement that has thus far and will certainly continue to be our central focus.