This post is from Meena, our 15-year-old Ama Ghar sister who loves to laugh and play games – sounds like she had a wonderful time on her field trip!
The author, Meena Giri, 15 years old.
“The day when we went for a field trip to Chovar was Friday 2nd of December 2012. We had all gathered and had a short discussion about it. I was really excited that we were going on foot all the way to Chovar.
We left at around 9:45 am from our school. We were taken through a small lane behind our school and then came out from a place called Manbhawan, and walked out to the ring road. Then we went to a place called Nakhu and crossed the river. The river was obviously filled with pollutants and lost its natural transparent colour. It looked opaque!
I loved the fact that we were hiking but now came the part where we had to go uphills, but talking with my friends and teachers didn’t really make me realize it and I had fun. The path was mostly uphills and downhills after that.
The leaves of bushes were covered with a layer of sand and dust and instead of looking green it camouflaged with the ground. From a distance, I saw Chovar and the bridge . We walked towards the hill and got tickets to enter. The place was cleaner than the road but it was littered with plastic wrappers. We visited the two caves and followed the stairs leading to a better and closer view of the river but it lead us to a dead end so we had to climb back up. Our science teacher Raj Sinha explained that a particular part of Kathmandu had limestones so that the force of the water cut a gorge right through it. We sat on those limestones for a while to regain our energy. We could see the cement factory from there which was unfortunately closed down due to the pollution it was making. The sand or dust I assumed on the leaves happened to be lime, but the lime from the rocks on which we were sitting earlier had already been washed away. We walked out again on a hill and saw a monastery where monks lived. Then I saw a temple as well which looked quite familiar to me but then again all the temples usually look the same. When a person from a family becomes sick, they brought a plate and hung it in the temple. The temple was filled with different shapes and sizes plates.
Then we hiked again and found an enormous pepal tree. We sat under it had our lunch. The air was fresh, it was cool under the tree and I was really hungry after the long walk. I ate more quickly than usual and we all gathered, chatted and rested in the field under the bright sun. My shoes were hurting my feet but it didn’t stop me from walking back to school , and that was what we all did. Half the students went by bus with one teacher named Sandesh Rai. Even though I was exhausted and worn out I preferred walking and so did half the students who were remaining. I felt that the field trip was a blast and it was the best field trip ever.
The first thing I did as soon as I reached the school was to take off my shoes and wear my slippers. Then me and all my friends and teachers sat in our classroom and talked how much fun we had.”
Meena Giri, 15 years old