On the dark side of the school

Despite this...

...Kathmandu does not get power outages. At least, not like the ones I know in New England. First of all, they happen everyday. Twice. Second of all, they are planned by the government.

It is called Loadshedding. We are scheduled to get power for a little more than half the day. Sometimes we run a gas-powered generator, but the gas to run it gets expensive. Asoke told me if this current schedule keeps up (pun intended), they might have to charge (not intended) the boarders a little extra to make ends meet and so that we aren’t studying in the dark. Even so, during the evening study session the kids must strain their eyes earlier and earlier before the generator begrudgingly sputters to life.

The noisy, gassy, electric beast sits 2 floors below my window

The government schedule is accurate for the most part, but it is a rotating schedule. So for the past week, we haven’t had electricity in the mornings or evenings—it comes on just before noon, is off by 3pm, and doesn’t come back on until after 9pm. On Monday this week we had to wait until 11:30pm for power. (Actually we didn’t wait, we slept. All it did was wake me up because I’d forgotten to turn my lights off after the power went out.)

Can you imagine school in the U.S. without power? Sure you can—it looks like a white board and a marker and dark computers. But it is no way to conduct (!) a quality education, not in this modern world. So now can you imagine what Nepal could do with a full day of electricity? Every class could utilize technology in some form, even just to catalyze (!) a lesson. Computer class is a crapshoot here and it’s because we don’t have access to electricity for much of the school day.

Did I mention it lives on the school's gutter/lazy river?

Nepal: Your country is one of the richest water resources in the world (it is not, as is widely taught here, the second richest after Brazil. But there's still a damn lot of water here.) Be environmentally conscious, but please, start turning that into electricity. I know the dry season is the reason you have to split (!) the power among the different zones during the day. If you want a better future for your country, I think it starts with your water. Clean it up, build some mills, protect your rivers. Then let your schools see the benefits, your businesses, your tourism. At the very least, clean and harness your water so that I can use the internet and play Text Twist as I please.