A bumpy road girl
![a bumpy road girl a bumpy road girl](https://townsquare.media/site/698/files/2020/04/Bumpy-Road-Sign-1.jpg)
It’s disconcerting and impossible to get a straight answer when you have twenty or thirty students fidgeting and the same number of voices yelling at the same time. The girls are shy and prefer to sit huddled next to each other and speak all at once. We succeeded in getting the older classes to adjust to the concept of sitting within their row on the floor and tried to instill in them the concept of ownership for their particular row but it was still a challenge. The students had reassembled the chairs to their liking and convenience. Sadiqa and I discovered the next morning that all our hard work trying to assemble the chairs into rows was for nought.
![a bumpy road girl a bumpy road girl](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/failure-bus-bumpy-road-nepalese-kalapani-nepal-circa-november-circa-november-kalapani-50301444.jpg)
I should have known better and heeded my own oft-repeated advice on managing expectations. The day had gone well and I was excited about tomorrow. After lunch at the principal’s house, Sadiqa and I spent the rest of the day drawing rows on the plastic floor covering and assembling chairs into rows to encourage students to sit in an orderly fashion. We met with the teachers and principal to complete the school assessment and discuss their needs. Since it was quite late in the day and starting to get hot, we visited each class briefly and decided to meet the students the next day. The staff and students were expecting us and had put up the tents we had sent to replace those destroyed by the fire. The school is located on a flat plain overlooking a common area and local orchards and you can hear the water running in a nearby stream. Upon our arrival to the village, we were greeted with freshly baked bread and then made our way to the school. Godah is a lush village nestled between mountains and surrounded by a lovely river. The destination, however, made the trek completely worthwhile. There is no paved road to Godah so we went off-roading on a narrow, dusty lane up and down mountains in a beat-up car with a wizened driver, both of whom had seen better days. It was a back-breaking, rock-riddled, dusty and treacherous three-hour ride. I recently got back from visiting the girl’s school in Godah.