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...