So, two days ago my friend and I were walking home from the program house and were hit with count it, four, water balloons. One attack involved an 8 year old-ish boy chasing us down for like five minutes before nailing us in the back with multiple balloons as we tried to flee pathetically. I returned to my house to find both of my brothers toting squirt guns and happily hosing everyone who passed beneath our balcony. This sparked some questions, as you might imagine, and I was informed that this is the beginning of the Color Festival and that for the next two weeks I can expect to be pelted with water balloons on the way to and from school. The actual festival only lasts one or two days, and during that time the water balloons are full of paint, until then kids get really excited and just use water. They lurk on rooftops, in alleys, or in the case of the eight year old they are just persistent. Being white and really tall apparently makes me a perfect target.
In other news, I got hit by a bike for the second time, on my way to school. I have developed a knack for making eye contact with someone on a bike, and walking one way and then the bike swerves the same way, and then I go the other way and the bike swerves that way and hits me. However, as I’ve said before, I still think of all things to get hit by in the street, a bike is probably my top choice.
I have also recently stopped listening to all the warnings about eating street food and have fulfilled my appetite by gorging on delicious samosas. It is so amazing I can no longer resist. I found a nice little place that sells the most amazingly wonderful samosas for 7 rupees. It’s like they are free.
Yesterday we watched Slumdog Millionaire after class. I had seen it before I left but watching it while in Nepal was such a different, and intense experience. Everything in the movie now seems so familiar – the crazy bus and car horns, the language and the garbage, the clogged streets, people’s mannerisms, the street dogs. I felt like I could smell it all.
Last night we went to the ambassador’s house who is actually a very close friend of the Daniels family. I delivered a gift that Roz had sent with me and got to see a beautiful quilt that Roz had made hanging above her piano. Her house is absolutely gorgeous, in a quiet and beautiful area. Being in such a nice house made me miss home, but was also quite overwhelming. We had delicious pizza and brownies and even ice cream, for the first time since being in Nepal!
I have also recently learned that the sentence for hitting a cow with your car is more severe than killing your wife. It’s unclear if this is actually true, but at this point I could believe it. Additionally, there is a law here that says that if you hit someone with a vehicle you have to pay for the person’s medical bills, and thus recently there have been instances where people have been hit and injured and then run over and killed so that the driver wouldn’t have to pay the bills. This has been a recent issue, and it’s shocking to me that the law has not been revised.
This weekend I am going with some friends to Dhulikel, a village about 30km outside the city. It is a traditional Newari village that is supposed to have amazing views of the Himalayas. It will be nice to escape the smog and spend some time hiking and relaxing. There are supposed to be some beautiful Buddhist monasteries around the village and some nice day hikes. When I return my sister is going to teach me how to cook some delicious Nepali food and being a student at a beauty salon, I may even let her cut my hair.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Dheri upanyaas
Yesterday was extremely ridiculous, the streets for absolutely packed for Shivarhatri and it took us like 40 minutes to go a few kilometers on the bus. On my way to and from school we were consistently stopped by groups of small kids who were holding a string/twine across the street and demanding that we pay them to pass by. It doesn't help that they assume all Americans and super rich -- and thus they would surround us and pull at our clothes and our bag etc. I pulled the "ma biddhyarthi chhu, rupees chhaina." (i'm a student, i have no money) card, and could often get away, but many of our classmates ended up being forced to pay.
In other news I came back from school yesterday to find that my dad has left for Japan and will "return after one year." Apparently everyone neglected to tell me that he was just home on holiday for the last month and then was going to leave again. Unfortunately I didn't get to say goodbye, and I had really enjoyed talking to him, so that was sort of sad and unexpected. However, as many of us have learned in the past month, communication rarely happens between us and our families. Often there will be some random person in our house for a few days and I will have no idea who it is, experiences that many of my classmates have had as well. When we ask who it is, my family will respond with some answer that is so clearly wrong, like "he is my brother, or he is my father" both of which I know to be incorrect. Or, sometimes we will eat on the floor for no particular reason.
I'm slowing being able to communicate much more easily in Nepali, though. I had a nice long conversation with my amma last night in Nepali, which was a big slow and very general, but still it's nice to feel like I'm making some progress. My brothers are so adorable, my younger one saw that I had all these books on yetis and got so excited and got into bed with my headlamp and read for like half an hour. This was the first time I have seen any of my family members read for "fun." My other brother, the 17 year old is currently taking these huge exams that he must pass in order to "graduate from HS" and be able to go to college. He has big exams in science, math, and social studies, but once he completes them has three months off. He goes to bed at like 9 and then gets up at like 2:00am and studies by the light of my headlamp until he leaves for school around 7:00. Crazy crazy schedule.
I saw that Slumdog Millionaire did really well at the Oscars!! I bought it here for 150 rupees the other day, that's like $1.50 and we are going to have a screening at the program house on Thursday before we go off to a pizza party that the ambassador is holding for all american students studying in Nepal.
In other news I came back from school yesterday to find that my dad has left for Japan and will "return after one year." Apparently everyone neglected to tell me that he was just home on holiday for the last month and then was going to leave again. Unfortunately I didn't get to say goodbye, and I had really enjoyed talking to him, so that was sort of sad and unexpected. However, as many of us have learned in the past month, communication rarely happens between us and our families. Often there will be some random person in our house for a few days and I will have no idea who it is, experiences that many of my classmates have had as well. When we ask who it is, my family will respond with some answer that is so clearly wrong, like "he is my brother, or he is my father" both of which I know to be incorrect. Or, sometimes we will eat on the floor for no particular reason.
I'm slowing being able to communicate much more easily in Nepali, though. I had a nice long conversation with my amma last night in Nepali, which was a big slow and very general, but still it's nice to feel like I'm making some progress. My brothers are so adorable, my younger one saw that I had all these books on yetis and got so excited and got into bed with my headlamp and read for like half an hour. This was the first time I have seen any of my family members read for "fun." My other brother, the 17 year old is currently taking these huge exams that he must pass in order to "graduate from HS" and be able to go to college. He has big exams in science, math, and social studies, but once he completes them has three months off. He goes to bed at like 9 and then gets up at like 2:00am and studies by the light of my headlamp until he leaves for school around 7:00. Crazy crazy schedule.
I saw that Slumdog Millionaire did really well at the Oscars!! I bought it here for 150 rupees the other day, that's like $1.50 and we are going to have a screening at the program house on Thursday before we go off to a pizza party that the ambassador is holding for all american students studying in Nepal.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Maph Garnus (Sorry for the delay....)
Sorry for being a horrible blogger – I know it has been waayy too long, and now the task of catching y’all up is daunting…so I may do it stream of consciousness style.
On Saturday our group returned from a week long excursion in the Terai – the southern most part of the country that borders India. We stayed in the village of Sauhara which is located on the northern entrance into Chitwan National Park. The town itself is super touristy, but it was also really quiet and free of dust and insane horn honking. While there we visited a variety of NGOs – a Biological Conservation Center, a beekeeper, a woman’s micro credit group, a community forest, a biogas plant and a few others. On the last day we had a “fun day” during which we “canoed” – basically, floated, down the river that runs through the village and saw crocodiles, rhinos and peacocks. It was gorgeous and very relaxing – I felt like I could have stayed there all day. After the canoe ride we went to the elephant breeding center where we got to see adorable baby elephants, some of which were actually extremely aggressive. The babies weren’t tied up or anything so they roamed freely and a few decided it would be fun to bluff charge us and/or head butt. In the afternoon we entered the National Park on elephants – it is the only way you are allowed in. There were four of us essentially in a basket on top of the elephant and we cruised around for a couple hours. We saw more rhinos, deer and peacocks, but the heat and dust were pretty oppressive and riding an elephant is not exactly a smooth ride.
Now, some other fun tidbits from the trip. First, the bus ride. Anyone who has traveled abroad is probably familiar with the absolutely terrifying bus rides. The “highway” that runs east-to-west in Nepal is roughly 1.5 car widths wide and teeters high above a deep river gorge. Huge buses are constantly whipping by and passing each other on corners at 60mph. Many of the buses or trucks we saw were carrying 20ish live goats on the roof!! The best part was, every 20 minutes or so we would see the shells of buses crashed into the side of the hill, no doubt the result of some fiery crash. How we survived is unclear at this point. The bus ride took like 6 hours, and it’s only like 150 km from our school in Kathmandu. It seemed actually much longer as I was having my first legit digestive problems. Ha.
Random News from Kathmandu:
Much to my dismay goat meat is now playing a prominent role in my diet at home. It’s hard to describe what it tastes like, but I feel like 90% of it is fat and a thick, chewy skin. AND, leaving food on your plate irritates the Gods, so my family sits there as I finish every last morsel. Additionally, when I first arrived my family made sure that the food wasn’t too spicy, but they have slowly upped the ante to the point that at dinner I have to consume ridiculous quantities of yogurt and water to cancel the heat. I have eaten some chicken here, which has been quite good, it takes a little while to get used to picking through fat and bones after so many years of boneless chicken breast at home, but perhaps this is the way meat is actually supposed to look like. My family has almost no premade foods in the house, just the staples that they use to make curried vegetables and rice etc. Often they have biscuits (cookies) that we have with tea, and they do have some ramen noodles that we eat raw, but aside from that almost everything is in bulk form.
Today is a Holy Day in the city, the celebration of the birth of the god Shiva, it’s called Shiva rhatri and I think we are the only school/work place in all of Kathmandu that has school. Thousands of people from Nepal and India go to Pashupatina, the Hindu temple in the eastern part of the city and do puja, get naked and smoke a lot of marijuana. Today is the only day that weed is actually legal here. The temple is flooded with sanyas – they are devout Hindus who are in the “final stages” of their lives and thus renounce everything, get rid of their possessions, stop eating and just hang around temples etc. They often only wear loin clothes and paint their bodies. If anyone has seen the cover the Lonely Planet Nepal book, the guy on the cover is a sanyasan. We went to visit the temple yesterday before it got too crazy and two of us were actually really awkwardly interviewed by some news media.
As for school, last week we were surprised with a “pop up exam”, our Nepali language teachers version of a pop quiz. We had to write an essay and then read it in front of the class which was shockingly difficult, but I think we are all amazed at how much we can actually say now. It’s frustrating still at home because while sometimes I think I could say most of what I want to articulate in Nepali, it’s just so much harder and so slow to formulate in my head. Nepali is a postpositional language (?) so the word order is so very different than English. In Nepali if I wanted to say, “Ashley and I went to Thamel,” the word order in Nepali would be “Roz Ashley with Thamel go.” Sounds simple maybe, but with more complicated sentences I panic and revert to English.
Load shedding is definitely still in effect, still 16 hours a day, so a lot of time at home is spent by candle light, or the light of my headlamp or “torch” as my family calls it. They are newly fascinated by it. I actually don’t mind the load shedding because it limits the amount of time that I will be forced to watch really horrible Bollywood films slash Hindi Music Videos.
Almost two weeks ago now, my friend got attacked by a dog on our walk home. The crazy thing was it was a small, white, fluffy, manicured house dog that bombed out into the street when its gate opened as the owner drove inside. It got some good bites out of her leg, and eventually we took her to the clinic here, but luckily we were able to find out that the dog had been vaccinated so it wasn’t necessary to get the $1,500 rabies shots. Other than that we have had no troubles thus far, though I have had, of late some annoying instances with men following me etc. For the most part they are harmless but the other night I was walking home, it was still light out and was followed for quite some time by a begger before my long legs were able to beat him out. Luckily all the Nepali men are so short and out of shape I can usually get away quickly.
I have been reading The Snow Leopard and have determined that I really want to do my ISP on yetis! I figure that this will be a great way to get me into the mountains…I find it interesting that my family never reads, they will actually just sit there silently and watch me read than do it themselves. And, whenever I’m reading they think I’m studying, they couldn’t possibly understand that I enjoy doing it. Oh Nepal.
I realize that this doesn’t exactly flow nicely, and for that I apologize, I will try to be better about updating more frequently. Please let me know if you have exciting questions or things you want to hear about. I miss you all and thanks to everyone who has emailed me!! Also, I have been trying to upload photos but have had no luck, so I guess you will just have to use your imagination (and google images)...sorry Mom. :(
On Saturday our group returned from a week long excursion in the Terai – the southern most part of the country that borders India. We stayed in the village of Sauhara which is located on the northern entrance into Chitwan National Park. The town itself is super touristy, but it was also really quiet and free of dust and insane horn honking. While there we visited a variety of NGOs – a Biological Conservation Center, a beekeeper, a woman’s micro credit group, a community forest, a biogas plant and a few others. On the last day we had a “fun day” during which we “canoed” – basically, floated, down the river that runs through the village and saw crocodiles, rhinos and peacocks. It was gorgeous and very relaxing – I felt like I could have stayed there all day. After the canoe ride we went to the elephant breeding center where we got to see adorable baby elephants, some of which were actually extremely aggressive. The babies weren’t tied up or anything so they roamed freely and a few decided it would be fun to bluff charge us and/or head butt. In the afternoon we entered the National Park on elephants – it is the only way you are allowed in. There were four of us essentially in a basket on top of the elephant and we cruised around for a couple hours. We saw more rhinos, deer and peacocks, but the heat and dust were pretty oppressive and riding an elephant is not exactly a smooth ride.
Now, some other fun tidbits from the trip. First, the bus ride. Anyone who has traveled abroad is probably familiar with the absolutely terrifying bus rides. The “highway” that runs east-to-west in Nepal is roughly 1.5 car widths wide and teeters high above a deep river gorge. Huge buses are constantly whipping by and passing each other on corners at 60mph. Many of the buses or trucks we saw were carrying 20ish live goats on the roof!! The best part was, every 20 minutes or so we would see the shells of buses crashed into the side of the hill, no doubt the result of some fiery crash. How we survived is unclear at this point. The bus ride took like 6 hours, and it’s only like 150 km from our school in Kathmandu. It seemed actually much longer as I was having my first legit digestive problems. Ha.
Random News from Kathmandu:
Much to my dismay goat meat is now playing a prominent role in my diet at home. It’s hard to describe what it tastes like, but I feel like 90% of it is fat and a thick, chewy skin. AND, leaving food on your plate irritates the Gods, so my family sits there as I finish every last morsel. Additionally, when I first arrived my family made sure that the food wasn’t too spicy, but they have slowly upped the ante to the point that at dinner I have to consume ridiculous quantities of yogurt and water to cancel the heat. I have eaten some chicken here, which has been quite good, it takes a little while to get used to picking through fat and bones after so many years of boneless chicken breast at home, but perhaps this is the way meat is actually supposed to look like. My family has almost no premade foods in the house, just the staples that they use to make curried vegetables and rice etc. Often they have biscuits (cookies) that we have with tea, and they do have some ramen noodles that we eat raw, but aside from that almost everything is in bulk form.
Today is a Holy Day in the city, the celebration of the birth of the god Shiva, it’s called Shiva rhatri and I think we are the only school/work place in all of Kathmandu that has school. Thousands of people from Nepal and India go to Pashupatina, the Hindu temple in the eastern part of the city and do puja, get naked and smoke a lot of marijuana. Today is the only day that weed is actually legal here. The temple is flooded with sanyas – they are devout Hindus who are in the “final stages” of their lives and thus renounce everything, get rid of their possessions, stop eating and just hang around temples etc. They often only wear loin clothes and paint their bodies. If anyone has seen the cover the Lonely Planet Nepal book, the guy on the cover is a sanyasan. We went to visit the temple yesterday before it got too crazy and two of us were actually really awkwardly interviewed by some news media.
As for school, last week we were surprised with a “pop up exam”, our Nepali language teachers version of a pop quiz. We had to write an essay and then read it in front of the class which was shockingly difficult, but I think we are all amazed at how much we can actually say now. It’s frustrating still at home because while sometimes I think I could say most of what I want to articulate in Nepali, it’s just so much harder and so slow to formulate in my head. Nepali is a postpositional language (?) so the word order is so very different than English. In Nepali if I wanted to say, “Ashley and I went to Thamel,” the word order in Nepali would be “Roz Ashley with Thamel go.” Sounds simple maybe, but with more complicated sentences I panic and revert to English.
Load shedding is definitely still in effect, still 16 hours a day, so a lot of time at home is spent by candle light, or the light of my headlamp or “torch” as my family calls it. They are newly fascinated by it. I actually don’t mind the load shedding because it limits the amount of time that I will be forced to watch really horrible Bollywood films slash Hindi Music Videos.
Almost two weeks ago now, my friend got attacked by a dog on our walk home. The crazy thing was it was a small, white, fluffy, manicured house dog that bombed out into the street when its gate opened as the owner drove inside. It got some good bites out of her leg, and eventually we took her to the clinic here, but luckily we were able to find out that the dog had been vaccinated so it wasn’t necessary to get the $1,500 rabies shots. Other than that we have had no troubles thus far, though I have had, of late some annoying instances with men following me etc. For the most part they are harmless but the other night I was walking home, it was still light out and was followed for quite some time by a begger before my long legs were able to beat him out. Luckily all the Nepali men are so short and out of shape I can usually get away quickly.
I have been reading The Snow Leopard and have determined that I really want to do my ISP on yetis! I figure that this will be a great way to get me into the mountains…I find it interesting that my family never reads, they will actually just sit there silently and watch me read than do it themselves. And, whenever I’m reading they think I’m studying, they couldn’t possibly understand that I enjoy doing it. Oh Nepal.
I realize that this doesn’t exactly flow nicely, and for that I apologize, I will try to be better about updating more frequently. Please let me know if you have exciting questions or things you want to hear about. I miss you all and thanks to everyone who has emailed me!! Also, I have been trying to upload photos but have had no luck, so I guess you will just have to use your imagination (and google images)...sorry Mom. :(
Monday, February 9, 2009
Dhal Bat, Dhal Bat, Dhal Bat
I’m so lucky to have a mother who cares enough about me to send me helpful lists of things that she “would like to read about” on my blog. Thus, this entry will be dedicated to some of those things, and ideally there will be less complaining about crazy, hair-less, rabid (?) kukurs.
First, a typical day in Kathmandu. I wake up around 6:45 and my sister Manisha makes me tea and brings me breakfast around 7:00. Breakfast is usually comprised of either bread and orange jam or a dry rice crispie like cereal that has ginger and peanuts and other interesting spices mixed in. It is rather uncomfortable to be served breakfast by my sister, or anyone, for that matter, but it is just the way it is here. There are many things that we all come into contact with each day that make us very uncomfortable, but are considered fine here – it just takes some adjusting. I usually leave the house and meet up with Lisa and walk to school at about 7:15. The way to school takes about half an hour, and winds through some smaller streets and other larger ones as well. We walk past many butcher shops and often see goats being slaughtered somewhere between our house in Sukedara and the school which is located in Naxal. We have language classes in groups of three or four from 8:30-11:00, though, at some point in the middle a gong will sound indicating it’s time for a 15 minute chiiya break. A lecture of some sort follows language class for the hour and a half before lunch. So far we have had lectures on Buddhism, Hinduism, social entrepreneurship, rainwater harvesting, and history. The SIT staff makes us lunch and we have an hour and a half break until our afternoon activity. After lunch we either have another lecture, watch a film of some sort, or go on an excursion.
Typically our afternoon class ends around 3:00 and then we are free to do whatever. Often some of us explore the city, do some shopping in Thamel, the tourist district, or visit one of the thousands of temples. I usually head home around 5:00ish and get there at 5:30ish. At home, my sister or mother makes me tea again and we chat. As of late they have been encouraging me to “take rest” which is nice, because often I don’t get much time to myself. I typically study with my brothers by candle light at the kitchen table before we eat dinner. Dinner is eaten late here, usually around 7:30 and 99% consists of dhal bat and water. As I think I have mentioned, utensils are not used but huge quantities of food are consumed in a remarkably short period of time. I often question whether or not my father actually chews, it seems to be that he just inhales and when he is finished says, “ok, thank you, see you next time.” It cracks me up every time. We often eat at the kitchen table – many nepali families do not have tables – by candle light as the power doesn’t usually come on until 8:00pm, but a few times we have eaten on the kitchen floor. Perhaps one of my greatest struggles is going to be sitting comfortably on the floor for hours at a time. In Nepal it is considered extremely rude to sit with your feet pointing at anyone, so one must always sit cross legged or in some other sort of difficult position that does not offend anyone. I’m attempting to get more flexible but it is a struggle.
After dinner I often hang out with my brothers and sister – Rohit, Suraj and Manisha. My brothers are obsessed with my iPod and have taken to dancing around the house singing various Akon, Sean Kingston, Rihanna and Beyonce songs. A few nights ago they forced me to sing the national anthem at the dinner table, you can imagine how that went. One of their favorite games is to point to things and have me recite them in Nepali. My sister got pretty frustrated with me because it literally took me like ten days to be able to remember the word for blanket. Oh – this brings me to Nepali beds. My hips are literally bruised from sleeping on my side on the beds which are essentially boards with a sheet on top – the “pillow” has a pretty similar feel. Needless to say I mind it less and less everyday, and as we are constantly reminded, we all came to Nepal to “step outside our comfort zones.” This brings me to sickness…. Our group was pretty healthy until earlier this week when we began dropping like flies. It is so so so easy to get sick here, whether it is from eating street food, or getting a tiny bit of water in your mouth in the shower. Many of my classmates have experienced being very very sick, but except for a low fever for a few days I have felt pretty good. Knock on wood.
In general, minus dogs and monkeys, I feel very safe in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, because of Hollywood movies, most men here have a very unrealistic understanding of western women and while comments are made 99% of the time, I haven’t felt unsafe. Really, everyone stares, so I’ve gotten used to it.
As for sightseeing in the city, we really don’t have much free time, but I have had the opportunity thus far to visit the city’s holiest Hindu Temple, Pashupatinath and the Stupa, which is the largest Buddhist temple here. At Pashupatinath there were many cremations going on along the “river” which was, interesting, I guess, but rather unsettling. In the Hindu religion, dying at Pashupatinath is the ultimate, infact there is a huge building where people can come to wait to die. Westerners are not even allowed inside the temple as we are considered impure. The Stupa is located in Boudah, the Buddhist community and is absolutely gorgeous – bright white with prayer flags everywhere!! I have also been to Patan Durbar Square which is also nice, but infiltrated with crazy numbers of tourists. I suppose I shouldn’t speak negatively of tourists, as I am one as well, but it does seem to taint the experience.
AND, trekking – in March we will trek to Lower Mustang and trek out, I think it’s like four days each way, so that will be nice. Next week we will go to a small village in the Terai, just near Royal Chitwan National Park where we will study community forestry among other stuff, and visit some NGOs as well.
I do read some newspapers here, we have them at the Program House, but they are pretty bad, I tend to get my news elsewhere. The media here is super corrupt and unstable, and some journalists have even been killed lately.
I think that should cover all the questions… I’m learning more and more Nepali each day, and feel like I’m making improvements. It’s really exciting to learn another language again, and I’m amazed at how supportive and interested my host family is in my education and the language. However, my father did sit me down and tell me that I studied too much, which is sort of true, but it’s so hard to not get behind in the language. So far the load shedding hasn’t been an issue here, it just means that we read by candle light sometimes and so forth, a lot of the shops here have generators so really it sounds just like my house in Vermont! I think the harder part is the fact that there is no indoor heat anywhere. While Vermont is much colder you can always escape it inside. Here, it’s usually significantly colder inside so the layers are essential.
Oh, one more thing. The bus system here. Amazing. Buses drive by slowly and men yell out the destination and if you are so inclined you leap on the bus as it continues to drive past and often end up one someones lap, or on the roof. Lisa and I tend to walk.
I love and miss you all! Since being deemed Rachana, I haven’t been called Roz in so long. ☹
First, a typical day in Kathmandu. I wake up around 6:45 and my sister Manisha makes me tea and brings me breakfast around 7:00. Breakfast is usually comprised of either bread and orange jam or a dry rice crispie like cereal that has ginger and peanuts and other interesting spices mixed in. It is rather uncomfortable to be served breakfast by my sister, or anyone, for that matter, but it is just the way it is here. There are many things that we all come into contact with each day that make us very uncomfortable, but are considered fine here – it just takes some adjusting. I usually leave the house and meet up with Lisa and walk to school at about 7:15. The way to school takes about half an hour, and winds through some smaller streets and other larger ones as well. We walk past many butcher shops and often see goats being slaughtered somewhere between our house in Sukedara and the school which is located in Naxal. We have language classes in groups of three or four from 8:30-11:00, though, at some point in the middle a gong will sound indicating it’s time for a 15 minute chiiya break. A lecture of some sort follows language class for the hour and a half before lunch. So far we have had lectures on Buddhism, Hinduism, social entrepreneurship, rainwater harvesting, and history. The SIT staff makes us lunch and we have an hour and a half break until our afternoon activity. After lunch we either have another lecture, watch a film of some sort, or go on an excursion.
Typically our afternoon class ends around 3:00 and then we are free to do whatever. Often some of us explore the city, do some shopping in Thamel, the tourist district, or visit one of the thousands of temples. I usually head home around 5:00ish and get there at 5:30ish. At home, my sister or mother makes me tea again and we chat. As of late they have been encouraging me to “take rest” which is nice, because often I don’t get much time to myself. I typically study with my brothers by candle light at the kitchen table before we eat dinner. Dinner is eaten late here, usually around 7:30 and 99% consists of dhal bat and water. As I think I have mentioned, utensils are not used but huge quantities of food are consumed in a remarkably short period of time. I often question whether or not my father actually chews, it seems to be that he just inhales and when he is finished says, “ok, thank you, see you next time.” It cracks me up every time. We often eat at the kitchen table – many nepali families do not have tables – by candle light as the power doesn’t usually come on until 8:00pm, but a few times we have eaten on the kitchen floor. Perhaps one of my greatest struggles is going to be sitting comfortably on the floor for hours at a time. In Nepal it is considered extremely rude to sit with your feet pointing at anyone, so one must always sit cross legged or in some other sort of difficult position that does not offend anyone. I’m attempting to get more flexible but it is a struggle.
After dinner I often hang out with my brothers and sister – Rohit, Suraj and Manisha. My brothers are obsessed with my iPod and have taken to dancing around the house singing various Akon, Sean Kingston, Rihanna and Beyonce songs. A few nights ago they forced me to sing the national anthem at the dinner table, you can imagine how that went. One of their favorite games is to point to things and have me recite them in Nepali. My sister got pretty frustrated with me because it literally took me like ten days to be able to remember the word for blanket. Oh – this brings me to Nepali beds. My hips are literally bruised from sleeping on my side on the beds which are essentially boards with a sheet on top – the “pillow” has a pretty similar feel. Needless to say I mind it less and less everyday, and as we are constantly reminded, we all came to Nepal to “step outside our comfort zones.” This brings me to sickness…. Our group was pretty healthy until earlier this week when we began dropping like flies. It is so so so easy to get sick here, whether it is from eating street food, or getting a tiny bit of water in your mouth in the shower. Many of my classmates have experienced being very very sick, but except for a low fever for a few days I have felt pretty good. Knock on wood.
In general, minus dogs and monkeys, I feel very safe in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, because of Hollywood movies, most men here have a very unrealistic understanding of western women and while comments are made 99% of the time, I haven’t felt unsafe. Really, everyone stares, so I’ve gotten used to it.
As for sightseeing in the city, we really don’t have much free time, but I have had the opportunity thus far to visit the city’s holiest Hindu Temple, Pashupatinath and the Stupa, which is the largest Buddhist temple here. At Pashupatinath there were many cremations going on along the “river” which was, interesting, I guess, but rather unsettling. In the Hindu religion, dying at Pashupatinath is the ultimate, infact there is a huge building where people can come to wait to die. Westerners are not even allowed inside the temple as we are considered impure. The Stupa is located in Boudah, the Buddhist community and is absolutely gorgeous – bright white with prayer flags everywhere!! I have also been to Patan Durbar Square which is also nice, but infiltrated with crazy numbers of tourists. I suppose I shouldn’t speak negatively of tourists, as I am one as well, but it does seem to taint the experience.
AND, trekking – in March we will trek to Lower Mustang and trek out, I think it’s like four days each way, so that will be nice. Next week we will go to a small village in the Terai, just near Royal Chitwan National Park where we will study community forestry among other stuff, and visit some NGOs as well.
I do read some newspapers here, we have them at the Program House, but they are pretty bad, I tend to get my news elsewhere. The media here is super corrupt and unstable, and some journalists have even been killed lately.
I think that should cover all the questions… I’m learning more and more Nepali each day, and feel like I’m making improvements. It’s really exciting to learn another language again, and I’m amazed at how supportive and interested my host family is in my education and the language. However, my father did sit me down and tell me that I studied too much, which is sort of true, but it’s so hard to not get behind in the language. So far the load shedding hasn’t been an issue here, it just means that we read by candle light sometimes and so forth, a lot of the shops here have generators so really it sounds just like my house in Vermont! I think the harder part is the fact that there is no indoor heat anywhere. While Vermont is much colder you can always escape it inside. Here, it’s usually significantly colder inside so the layers are essential.
Oh, one more thing. The bus system here. Amazing. Buses drive by slowly and men yell out the destination and if you are so inclined you leap on the bus as it continues to drive past and often end up one someones lap, or on the roof. Lisa and I tend to walk.
I love and miss you all! Since being deemed Rachana, I haven’t been called Roz in so long. ☹
Saturday, February 7, 2009
City Livin'
As the days pass in Kathmandu, it's unclear to me whether or not I'm becoming more comfortable with the city, or more terrified. In many ways it is a friendly city -- the vast majority of the people here are compassionate, genuine people, and yet in so many ways it is also a busy, intense and at times, scary city. In the past few days I have spent more time venturing outside of Naxal, the area where the SIT house is located and have been confronted with some of the harsher realities of the city. Near Thamel, the tourist district, beggers line the streets and I saw, for the first time, a group of orphan boys sniffing glue out of milk bags -- a growing phenomenon here in Kathmandu. Each day on my way to school I walk past a dog that I'm sure is going to attack me one of these days. He has one eye and always growls and bluff charges and each day I get more and more terrified.
I'm enjoying my host family still although they have made it their personal goal to feed me more than anyone could ever imagine eating. Picture the largest plate of rice ever and then add a bunch of curried veggies -- it sounds delicious I know. But, the kicker is, they eat with their hands ridiculously fast so not only do I have a ton of food to eat, but I have to eat it really really fast just to keep up. The daal bhat is starting tog et a little bit old, which worries me since I haven't even been here two weeks. Each morning my classmates and I reminisce about how much food we were fed and how we can get out of it. The thing is, our families do not accept the request for "less" -- it is a cultural goal here to feed the guests until they are full and I think they think it takes a shit ton of food for us to be full, which is not at all the case.
If any of you ever get the opportunity to watch a Bollywood film I would definitely recommend it. I watched one last night that was priceless -- it was possibly the worst movie I had ever seen. There was a bad guy with a gun but then a german shepard lept out of nowhere and knocked the man to the ground and then a torch-toting monkey lit the man on the fire. That was merely one highlight, I wish I knew the name of the movie so you could go watch it. We only have electricity for like 6 hours a day so luckily the tv is rarely on.
More soon...
I'm enjoying my host family still although they have made it their personal goal to feed me more than anyone could ever imagine eating. Picture the largest plate of rice ever and then add a bunch of curried veggies -- it sounds delicious I know. But, the kicker is, they eat with their hands ridiculously fast so not only do I have a ton of food to eat, but I have to eat it really really fast just to keep up. The daal bhat is starting tog et a little bit old, which worries me since I haven't even been here two weeks. Each morning my classmates and I reminisce about how much food we were fed and how we can get out of it. The thing is, our families do not accept the request for "less" -- it is a cultural goal here to feed the guests until they are full and I think they think it takes a shit ton of food for us to be full, which is not at all the case.
If any of you ever get the opportunity to watch a Bollywood film I would definitely recommend it. I watched one last night that was priceless -- it was possibly the worst movie I had ever seen. There was a bad guy with a gun but then a german shepard lept out of nowhere and knocked the man to the ground and then a torch-toting monkey lit the man on the fire. That was merely one highlight, I wish I knew the name of the movie so you could go watch it. We only have electricity for like 6 hours a day so luckily the tv is rarely on.
More soon...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Hello from Kathmandu!
It is hard to believe I have only been here for eight days, so so much happened I don’t even know where to begin.
We arrived in Nepal last Tuesday after traveling for over 30 hours, needless to say we were all exhausted, disoriented and overwhelmed. The Kathmandu airport reeked of urine and was deserted, with only bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. We walked right through customs and were met by our SIT program staff and a pack of street dogs outside. From there we boarded a bus bound for Pharping, a suburb of Kathmandu located just 30 km outside the heart of the city. It was midnight Nepali time so we drove there in the dark and woke up in a completely new area. Pharping is a small village from which you can see the Himalaya’s, when and if the smog ever clears. In addition, the surrounding hills are terraced for agricultural purposes and dotted with Hindu Temples decorated with prayer flags, hundreds of them.
While in Pharping we stayed at a nice guesthouse and took part in some orientation things, ventured into the village and began our Nepali language classes. There are only three or four of us in each language class, so we are actually learning quite quickly. The poverty in the village is overwhelming, but the people are incredibly friendly and interested in us. We attended two puja’s – religious ceremonies – and saw sacrifices take place as well. It is so interesting to be in a place where the overwhelming majority of the people have such devout faith in their religion. I made friends Asika, a little girl who lived near the guesthouse and was possibly with the most adorable little girl I have ever seen. I taught her how to give high-fives and we were immediately best friends. She taught me lots of Nepali words.
After four days in the village we returned by bus to Kathmandu and were ridiculously overwhelmed. If I manage to avoid getting hit by some kind of motorized vehicle over the course of the semester, I will consider myself lucky. The streets are narrow to begin with and are packed with cars, buses, bikes, motorcycles, rabid and “healthy” dogs, rabid and “healthy” monkeys (which we were encouraged NOT to make eye contact with), goats, cows – which are holy, and people, so many people. It has not rained here since October so the dust is overpowering and air thick with diesel fumes. In the morning the sun is bright orange as it tries to shine through the smog. The Himalaya’s are less than 75 miles away and yet I have never seen them from the city.
Three days ago we were shipped away with our host families. I live with a mother, father, 19-year old sister, and two brothers who are 17 and 15 in a huge house. I have my own room with a balcony and we even have a hot shower (heated via solar power). Additionally I have a western toilet, which is not always common, as many families have squat toilets. Sadly, though, my family does not use toilet paper, instead my bathroom is equipped with a hose that sprays ice cold water remarkably fast. Needless to say, it is an experience. Most of my family speaks English very well, so we have gotten to know each other well and I insert Nepali when I can, which is not often. My host mother has made it her personal goal to make me as uncomfortable as possible though, as she has informed me that she will only speak Nepali with me, to help me learn. It is a nice, thought, but it translates into many long, awkward “conversations” dotted with the longest awkward pauses ever. Load shedding is also in effect so we don’t have power for like 14 hours a day, which isn’t that big of a deal, just means that I often study by candle light. I’m really enjoying learning the language here, it is challenging, but we have already made so much progress.
I hope some of this makes sense. Lots of love.
It is hard to believe I have only been here for eight days, so so much happened I don’t even know where to begin.
We arrived in Nepal last Tuesday after traveling for over 30 hours, needless to say we were all exhausted, disoriented and overwhelmed. The Kathmandu airport reeked of urine and was deserted, with only bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. We walked right through customs and were met by our SIT program staff and a pack of street dogs outside. From there we boarded a bus bound for Pharping, a suburb of Kathmandu located just 30 km outside the heart of the city. It was midnight Nepali time so we drove there in the dark and woke up in a completely new area. Pharping is a small village from which you can see the Himalaya’s, when and if the smog ever clears. In addition, the surrounding hills are terraced for agricultural purposes and dotted with Hindu Temples decorated with prayer flags, hundreds of them.
While in Pharping we stayed at a nice guesthouse and took part in some orientation things, ventured into the village and began our Nepali language classes. There are only three or four of us in each language class, so we are actually learning quite quickly. The poverty in the village is overwhelming, but the people are incredibly friendly and interested in us. We attended two puja’s – religious ceremonies – and saw sacrifices take place as well. It is so interesting to be in a place where the overwhelming majority of the people have such devout faith in their religion. I made friends Asika, a little girl who lived near the guesthouse and was possibly with the most adorable little girl I have ever seen. I taught her how to give high-fives and we were immediately best friends. She taught me lots of Nepali words.
After four days in the village we returned by bus to Kathmandu and were ridiculously overwhelmed. If I manage to avoid getting hit by some kind of motorized vehicle over the course of the semester, I will consider myself lucky. The streets are narrow to begin with and are packed with cars, buses, bikes, motorcycles, rabid and “healthy” dogs, rabid and “healthy” monkeys (which we were encouraged NOT to make eye contact with), goats, cows – which are holy, and people, so many people. It has not rained here since October so the dust is overpowering and air thick with diesel fumes. In the morning the sun is bright orange as it tries to shine through the smog. The Himalaya’s are less than 75 miles away and yet I have never seen them from the city.
Three days ago we were shipped away with our host families. I live with a mother, father, 19-year old sister, and two brothers who are 17 and 15 in a huge house. I have my own room with a balcony and we even have a hot shower (heated via solar power). Additionally I have a western toilet, which is not always common, as many families have squat toilets. Sadly, though, my family does not use toilet paper, instead my bathroom is equipped with a hose that sprays ice cold water remarkably fast. Needless to say, it is an experience. Most of my family speaks English very well, so we have gotten to know each other well and I insert Nepali when I can, which is not often. My host mother has made it her personal goal to make me as uncomfortable as possible though, as she has informed me that she will only speak Nepali with me, to help me learn. It is a nice, thought, but it translates into many long, awkward “conversations” dotted with the longest awkward pauses ever. Load shedding is also in effect so we don’t have power for like 14 hours a day, which isn’t that big of a deal, just means that I often study by candle light. I’m really enjoying learning the language here, it is challenging, but we have already made so much progress.
I hope some of this makes sense. Lots of love.
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