Media Centre for Volunteer and Adventure in Nepal

Diane Doyle

Its an early start and I arrive at the home at about 07:00.Every morning is pretty much the same.Clean rice ,this involves picking out bugs,stones and bits of dirt and bad rice, cleaning Aloo(potatoes), chopping whatever vegetable is going into Dal Bhatt that day.Dal Bhatt is eaten twice a day , at 09:00 just before school and at about 18:30.Dal Bhatt consists of rice, vegetable curry and a lentil soup.The kids, in fact all Nepalis mix it all together and eat it with their hands , not as easy as it looks.Most of mine ends up either up my sleeve or on the floor, which explains my weight loss.

Then I help children with homework.This means grabbing a child and asking have you done homework.The normal response is