Skolens forældre er enormt dygtige til at byde os velkommen. Hver gang repræsentanter for Himalayan Project kommer forbi, så har de pyntet gevaldigt op og virker gevaldigt glade for at vi er kommet. De havde nu slet ikke behøvet alt det kalas for at få os interesserede i deres skole, for det er jo helt klart at her skal hjælpes. Godt nok er der ikke mange børn, men forældrenes engagement er stort og ægte. Og så har de planer om at udbygge skolen til 5. klasse, for at få nogle flere børn i skolen, og dermed at udløse endnu en lærerstilling.

Skolen mangler altid undervisningsmidler og vi har to gange leveret stabler af kladdehæfter, kuglepenne og legetøj. Og nu trænger de igen.

Og så skal vi bygge en lang og høj mur hele vejen langs afgrunden.

Og endelig en vandpost til drikkevand og et lille simpelt toilet.

Orale is situated in the bottom of Upper Bakanje (Honde) Khola Valley at an altitude of 2.300 m above sea level with steep mountain sides on both sides. The river is coming rushing down very violently leaving only a narrow strip of land on the north side, where Orale Preprimary School is situated. The villages around Orale are small and very scattered and the school is actually situated in the middle of nowhere. Upstream above Orale is only one farm in the valley head close to the Hydropower Station of Sagar-Bakanje Electricity. Downstream are only few houses of Sagardanda North until the very village of Sagardanda. On the north side a trail leads steep up to the scattered village of Wadhale and finally to Chhirringkharka 1½ to 2 hours away where a primary school is situated. On the south side of the school a very fine and long iron hang bridge leads over the river and a trail leads steep up to the quite big but scattered village of Thamjengma and further up to south-west to Sagar-Bakanje with a Lower Secondary School or straight up to Dakchhu with a preprimary school. Both 1-2 hours away. Orale School is mainly supporting Thamjengma and the houses around Orale in a distance of less than 1 hour away.

The school was built by the villagers in 2006, half by collection among the villagers and the other half by the VDC. The villagers really wanted to have this school, because the small children weren’t able to walk the 1½ hours for the next schools through dense forest with wild animals and snakes. The school still isn’t recognized by the authorities, so it is run completely by the parents themselves. They are collecting 50-150 Rs (4-12 DKR) per month from each student for the teacher’s salary, but the collection only can provide half day salary, so the classes are only run for 3 hours a day in class 1-3. But the very engaged parents are working intensively to have the approval from District Education Office so a government employed teacher can be working full time at the school. The first year of running 12 students started in class 1 and now in the third year of running 24 students is attending the school. The school committee claim that 9 children doesn’t attend school because their parents are too poor to pay the monthly fee as low as 50 Rs, so if government take over the teacher salary, probably the number of students will reach 30-35.
The school house consists of only one building with two quite big classrooms. It is well build but very crude and with a roof of wooden shingles to keep construction expenses low. The playground is scattered with rocks and trees but seems to be very fine for many activities. But at the one rocky side with a sharp edge it has a vertical fall directly down into the river which at this place is very violent and wild. Falling out over the edge cannot be survived, and parents as well as teacher are very afraid of having their children playing at that place.
In autumn 2008 Himalayan Project provided educational materials for the school. There was almost nothing of this kind at the school, so the happiness was obvious when we delivered pens, copies, maps, books, balls and many other things.
The main wish of the school is to have support to be able to build a compound wall along the sharp edge down to the river, all the way from the hang bridge, down along the school house and down to the end of the playground. But the school also need a water post as there is no drinking water nearby. The wooden shingle roof will last for only 3-4 years before it will leak, so it should be replaced by tin roof. The class rooms are crude and cold, so they should be furnished with wooden ceiling. And there is almost no furniture for the students and teachers.