Random thoughts for a Wednesday

When we were sitting in Kathmandu, in an upstairs balcony we watched the female traffic guard. She stood in the middle of the intersection and seemly randomly blew her whistle. It had no effectr on cars or bikes, they just whizzed around her. At times she wandered over to a college and chatted with her.

Last night going to and coming back to internet cafe we observed a patrol of police, about 8 men dressed in a blue jungle pattern and carrying sticks. Up the road they set up a road block and stopped every car. They would blow their whistle and cars pulled up. If a car didn't stop they blew it louder and the car pulled in. We wondered what would happen if the car didn't stop? They had no means of chasing it and no guns to shoot at them, so they could have just driven through.....guess its seen to be doing something. At the bank the bank guard at least had a huge Gurka knife.

This morning I went for a walk along the lake before sunrise. It was nioce seeing the mist coming up from the lake and on the way back I had a good view of the mountains. What really amused me is the names of places. 'The Moon Dance Cafe', 'The harmony motel', 'Penguin motel (haven't seen any penguins yet), 'Silent Hotel', 'The international Inventive School' and this morning my favourite so far......'the Cosmic Brontosaurus language school'.

After breakfast I visited the International Inventive School. I introduced myself to the principal and she showed me around. They go from aged four up to aged 16 at this school. There are 700 kids and about 40 teachers.The classrooms are about a quarter the size of Australian rooms and in each room there are about 30 students. This means only room for desks, which are long benches. There are rows on each side with gaps down the middle....boys on one side and girls on the other. I visited year 9. They had about 5 students squashed onto each side. They had a good laugh when I pointed out I wouldn't fit behind the desk. Then a kid as nearly as big as me stood up....he was sitting on a stool down the back. They were all very well dressed and happy. They told me about the subjects they did and I taught them a short lesson. I visited a couple more classrooms and learnt a little about the school.