A Saturday Nature Ramble in Loly Goon

Outside the Hostel

Posing for my Picture

What have I found?

The children, of one of the hostels for St. stephen's School in Loly Goon, and I decided to have an outing to a nearby forest which had been developed to attract visitors.

We set out for the forest about 10am on a Saturday morning , taking along with us, a plastic bag to collect different spieces of leaves and wild flowers in. We also had a big bottle of water, 2 apples cut up into small pieces, a few plain saltine biscuits,some raisins and 2 sweeties each, for our lunch.

We had a wonderful day out,and the children and I had learned many new words, the children English words and me the Nepali word for many of the different trees, plants and insects we had seen.

In the evening we made a collage with the leaves and flowers and Miss Susan, the teacher who ran the hostel told us the names of some of the flowers and from which tree some of the leaves had come.

St. Stephen's School Concert Loly Goon

Getting ready for a Nepali Dance Routine

Infants ready to go on stage "Fruits of The Earth"

I want to share a few photos with you from St Stephen's School Concert.

St. Stephen's concert took place a few days after the one at St. Joseph's, Git Dubling.

The staging was built and erected by the parents of the pupils who live in the village, two days prior to the date of the concert, so that the children could have a full rehearsal on the day before the concert. All went well at the rehearsal.

That night, the night prior to the big day, we had a terrible storm and the stage and the tarpaulin covered in area for the visitors, was completely demolished.

The villagers turned out in mass at 5am, first light, to start building again. All was ready for the first visitors arriving at 10am. The concert did not get started until 11.30am as many of the visitors coming from further afield, had had to walk along very wet and muddy pathways.

The concert went well ,much to the relief of the staff and pupils of St. Stephen's. And the visitors all appeared to enjoy their day out.

St Joseph's School Concert---- Gitdubling

Lining up for the Entrance Parade

The boys from class UKG; even they get make up on.

A mixed age group; helping each other to apply the finishing touches.

Posting some pictures of the children of St. Joseph's getting ready for their annual school concert.
A lot of preparation goes into the presentation of this.

They, the pupils, give performancies using the English, Nepali and Hindi media; and use music,dance and drama.

Schools from all around this area come for the performance and parents and guardians are also invited. Because many of the visitors have to walk for several hours to get to St. Joseph's, they are offered a light snack and the adults tea and the children juice.

The residents of the village of Gitdubling all get together, build the stage, help get the pupils made up and into their costumes,which are all made on site, and help with the snacks,teas etc.

The concert is a wonderful opportunity for the pupils.staff and villagers to get together and show what can be achieved with lots of hard work and co-operation.

St. Joseph's Hostel Gitdubling

A impromptu concert in the school hall

They loved getting their photos taken

St Joseph's hostel provides accommodation for approximately 84 pupils who attend St. Joseph's Sch. Many of the pupils live a long distance from the school and can not travel daily.

The Hostel consists of two long dormitories with bunk beds on either side of the room. The bunk beds are about 2 feet apart and there is no furniture in the dormitories except for the beds.
Any spare clothing is kept on the bottom of their bed.

Toilets and personal washing facilities are apart from the sleeping accommodation. The kitchen and hall for eating in are also in a separate building.

The residents spend much of their time out of doors or in a class room studying. They get about 2 hours homework every night. They all have to do odd jobs around the property, eg. collecting wood for the cooking stove, preparing vegetables,washing clothes etc.

When they do have spare time they love to sing and dance and the boys play, basket ball, football and cricket. The girls look after the younger residents. This keeps them very busy.

ST. Joseph's School Gitdubling

Hard at work Homework time

Meal Time in the Hostel Rice, Dal and Curried potatoes

St. Joseph's School Gitdubling West Bengal, was established in 1948 for the education, of the poor village children of this region.This school educates children up to approximately the age of 15.

St. Joseph's school has 380 students at present. Pupils come from various villages in the Kalimpong Hill Region. Street children from Darjeeling are also sent to St. Joseph's , if they wish to leave the streets and get an education.

The school , has a hostel attached to it. This is very crowded, however, the residents living in it, are on the whole, very happy and contented with their lot. They receive three meals a day, education and a bed to sleep in.Many of them would not receive these basic amenities in their own homes.

Whilst I was working in West Bengal I spent several weekends with the hostel children, and really enjoyed their company. They love to play, dance and sing when they have free time.
However, they also have to spend some time in study and all have jobs to do around the hostel, food purchasing , collecting from the garden, and the preparing of it in the in the kitchen. They also help to keep the surrounding area clean and tidy and have to do their own washing.

Their lives are very different from most children's lives in the Western world.
But the children of St. Joseph's think themselves very luck to be there.

GITDUBLING

A view from Gitdubling, West Bengal, overlooking St Joseph's School

Pupils from St. Joseph's School, Gitdubling, West Bengal

Gitdubling is a small market village surrounded by other small villages scattered around in the hills of the Kalimpong hill region.

Names of some of these villages: Nok, Pochok, Longsheol, Kaffer, Pakang and Dubling.

The whole area is very hilly and forested, and hard surfaced single track roads are few and far between.

The people from the surrounding villages depend on Gitdubling for:- shopping , market day is on a Wednesday, for religious celebrations and for schooling after they have completed grade 4 in the other village schools. St Joseph's School in Git Dubling takes the pupils up to grade 10.

Some of the villagers have to walk for up to 3 or 4 hours to reach Gitdubling and then walk home again carrying heavy loads ,supported by bandas around their foreheads, and mothers with babies strapped around their mid drift.

My visit to West Bengal in 2006

A view of Kanchenjunga, West Bengal

Travel:
I flew from London to Kathmandu in Nepal, from Kathmandu I flew to Kakabeta on the border of Nepal and West Bengal. I was met there by a driver and jeep, who had been instructed to take me to Kalimpong.
This journey took three hours over very rough roads but through beautiful countryside. When I arrived in Kalimpong another jeep was waiting to take me to Gitdubling. This took another three hours and the roads were even worse.
By the time I arrived there I was exhautsed and not sure what to expect. I was taken to the convent of the sisters of St. Jospeh of Cluny. There I was made very welcome, given tea, and warm water in a bucket to wash with.
I then sat down to my first meal-19.30 hours- steamed rice, dal and hot curried potatoes along with a glass of warm boiled water.
I was in bed and asleep by 21.00 hours.