A day in Dhading

Not sure if I'll be glad I did this or not, but I ducked out of school early today to catch a bus and come to Dhading, the district center, so I could stay in a hotel tonight just so that I can get up tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. to watch the Monday Night Football television in my room. I know the Packers are bad, but I want to see why. Besides, two bus rides for a total of 100 rupees plus a hotel room for 300 equals a grand total of $5 US. So it's a Christmas present to myself.

Wednesday we take off to Chitwan for a few days for Christmas. We're riding elephants. The rest, as far as I'm concerned, is just details.

Today's bus ride was nice, but not nearly as nice as my last two. We came up to Dhading last Saturday, and we went to and from on the bus. On top of the bus. The first time was just Saroj, Rajesh and I on top of a full size bus, but on the way back it was the three of us plus Andy and Ashish who were coming to visit. This time, though, we were on the roofrack of a smaller bus, and we were joined by two goats, one of whom hid his head under my leg, which was fine, except when he decided to lift his head. At that time I'd get the horn. I remember hearing about riding on the top of buses and thought it sounded pretty cool, but damn, some of those roads get pretty high. The first ride I was on the outside, and I'm not huge on heights, so I threw my earphones on, turned Bloc Party all the way up, and just looked forward. I'd lean in when we were going around corners, like I would on a roller coaster or something. It turned out to be a pretty good time, and it was a beautiful day, so it was worth it.

In other news, I've been sick twice more. The most recent was easy, but the time before was terrible. I couldn't keep anything down at all, and the cramps were brutal, so I ended up taking a nice ambulance ride to a nearby hospital-type thing (I'm not quite prepared to call it a proper hospital). They gave me some good stuff, though, so I felt alright after a few hours, but the doctor had me stay overnight, with an IV in the entire time. Saroj or Rajesh would follow me around holding the IV if I had to hit the bathroom, and one time they both came with me, as we were talking and whatnot. Seemed like a good idea until we couldn't get the door open to get back out. Fortunately we were on the ground floor, so out we went through the window, IV and all.

This week our school had their anniversary where parents and other locals came, and we made a 10,000 rupees donation to a kid in our Green Club who was recently diagnosed with cancer. It worked out nicely, because the crowd donated 27,000 more. I'll try to write more about him (Namarach) soon, he's a great kid.

Anyway, the hotel I'm staying at serves french fries (or finger potatoes, if you will), and the little kids playing GTA behind me keep bumping in to me, so I'm getting out of here. Daal bhat is tasting good again after a few rough days post-sickness, but I love getting some different food. I just finished 'The Odyssey', which I picked up for 25 cents, and the book drove me crazy. They feast every two pages in that book.

Sorry there are no pictures this time, as this computer is a joke, but I may have a chance later this week. There's plenty more to hit on, as well. Hope everyone has a great holiday.

First week in Gajuri

The roomies in our room before we got it all sorted out. While other volunteers have complained about rodents in their rooms, we've only had salamanders.

Our house. I'm kind of disappointed that I don't have a better picture of it, but oh well. Our room is on the right on the second floor. We have as nice a house and as nice a room as any of the other volunteers in other villages.

Daal bhat! This is what we eat everyday, twice a day, at about 9:30 and 6:00. That's the first helping of everything before our 'aama' comes around trying to put more on the plate. The bowl in the top left hand corner is for daal, a broth with lentils in it. The top left and right corners of the plate have different chili-type stuff, and the top is a mixed of steamed veggies. Our family does a really nice job of rotating through different chillis and veggies, so it hasn't really gotten boring yet. On top of that, it's really good, so I don't think I'll have too much problem eating this for the next six months. I figure it's pretty much like a burrito bowl at Chipotle, but the meat only shows up now and then. We actually eat at a kitchen table, too, and it's always just me, Saroj and Rajesh. I was given the option of using cutlery, but I declined.

Our school in Gajuri.

Andy and I doing laundry in the river in Dhading, where our district office is and where we had our last week of traning.

I finally have a Nepali 'home', and so far so good. I can't really figure out where to begin, but I'm going to have to wait forever for pictures to load, so I'll probably just ramble and hope I hit the proper topics.

I can hit the basics first. My host family has four kids, but only three of them live with us. Their eldest daughter is married and lives elsewhere, leaving two daughters and a son sharing the room beside mine. The youngest daughter is in grade 10 at our school, but I have no clue how old she is, probably 16 or 17. She also has a friend who stays at our house because she lives too far away from school. The son is probably about 18, and he doesn't go to school anymore because he failed his exam for whatever grade he was in and decided not to go back. As you may expect, the education system here is a little out of whack, so in order to move on to the next grade you have to pass an exam at the end of the year, which from what I understand isn't the best-written test in the world. Because of this, kids can be all sorts of ages in any given grade. I was in a grade 8 class two days ago and I think the kids probably ranged from like 11 or 12 to 16 or 17. The eldest daughter in our family is probably in her early 20s, and I believe she exited school the same way.

All in all, our family is very nice. Our baabu (Dad) and aama (Mom) are both quite nice, as are the kids, but none of them speak a lick of English. That became a bit of a problem on Wednesday, when my weak Western stomach decided it wasn't cool with the undercooked buffalo-meat from the night before. I decided to stay home from school, and at around noon I was woken up by some guy I'd never seen before. He starting asking me questions in broken English, and I could see aama and baai (younger bro) at the doorway. I told him I was feeling fine and just needed to rest, but he wasn't getting it and kept talking about going to the hospital and other jibberish. He asked where Saroj and Rajesh (the roomies) were, and then asked for their cell numbers. I figured that was cool, because they could tell him to relax. But when he got off the phone, he told me they'd be home within 5 minutes, and they ran home because the guy had told them I was seriously sick. Now, I understand that there was a lot lost in translation, but I was sitting up in bed talking to the guy so casually that I can't believe he didn't clue in to the fact that I was okay. Apparently it's the Nepali way to over-worry about people, which is too bad, because it's the Ryan Mosher-way to want to be left the hell alone. I'd been looking forward to having a few hours to myself, but oh well. The bug passed quickly, as I was eating full daal bhat at six. Aama didn't want to give me any of the spicy stuff, but that's the best part, so I had her pile some on.

School is going quite well, too, although we're not doing a lot just yet. We go in to free classes and play games and talk about the Green Club (our after-school program) with kids. It's pretty odd, because during these free classes the kids could be running around in the school yard, but they all run to class when we ask them to. Kids that aren't in the class often try to look through the windows, and then beg us to come to their class next, it's pretty cool.

Anyway, I'm being called to head to Mike's Breakfast, the greatest restaurant in the world. While I enjoy daal bhat, getting a break from it is very nice. French toast and a banana pancake today, I think.

Still in Kathmandu, so more pictures

Andy was on the phone, so I walked across the alley way to the bar. These two guys were drinking 'Tongbas', so I figured I'd get in on it. The Tongba was a rather weird drink, with hot water and some sort of liquor poured over seeds or berries or something, I don't even know. I switched right back to beer afterwards.

My side of mine and Saroj's room. The room was great, I'll be ecstatic if the next one is as nice.

When I first saw the thumbnail of this picture I thought it was of my host family's house. But it's not, it's Jessie's.

The tap, on the road in front of the house I stayed in last week. This was my shower, and place to do laundry.

We're in Kathmandu again tonight because there was a strike near Dhading, so the roads were closed. Not really sure what the strikes consist of, but they used to be quite frequent, I'm not sure how often they happen now. But people block the road, so we can't head up there. We're not entirely sure of the circumstances surrounding this one, but it sounds pretty bad. Apparently there were a couple of people missing for the last couple months (I've heard that they were students and I've heard that they were politicians... perhaps neither is true), and the body of one was found today. Sounds gruesome, but I can assure you we're in no danger, so don't worry about it.

In other news, you should check out Elizabeth's blog, who is putting up pictures, too.... ewray123.blogspot.com.

The SPW office in Kathmandu.

Kathmandu. More specifically, Thamel, the touristy district. We ate dinner the first night we were here on the deck/terrace area below the Carlsberg sign.

Post #2 of the day

The house I stayed in the past week. My room is the door on the left.
So I'll keep going and see if I can add a couple more pictures. The one above is a picture from around the campfire. Rajesh, holding the drum on the right side of the picture, is one of my two roommates for my placement.
Another campfire picture. Saroj, my other placement roommate, is the guy furthest to the left.



Above is the view from the terrace of the training center.

After a week at the training center we moved to a nearby village, which was about a twenty minute walk away. I was staying with Saroj, a 19-year from the Eastern end of the country that is probably one of the best couple English speakers there. He is ridiculously polite, as most of the Nepalese are. We stayed with a family that had one young daughter. Their house was great, and if my placement house (and room) is anywhere near as good (or if the daal bhat is as good), I'll jump through hoops. It was real village living, sitting on the floor to eat daal bhat, using the toilet Nepali-style (though with toilet paper), and cows and goats walking all over the place. In fact, I was walking with Guru, the program coordinator, back from a hike up the top of the hill, and two cows ran by, followed by a bull, who took a few quick steps towards us before heading back in line with the others. Scary.

The week at the village was pretty similar to the previous one, besides the change in living conditions. Last night we found out the people we will be living with, and where we'll be. I'll be with Saroj, and Rajesh. Rajesh is 21, and he's been taking medical training, so if a snake bites me he'll hook me up. If a leopard bites me I'm not so sure. Our placement is in the Dhading district, which is to the west of Kathmandu, and our village is Gujari, which is 23 miles from Dhading, where our district center is. We are a few kilometers off the highway, and we are fairly close to Kathmandu, which is nice. My village is an easy walk from both Rachel and Fiama's, and Andy, Andrew and Elizabeth are all close to Dhading, so they'd be easy to visit, as well. A funny story about the village is that Cody, last year's volunteer you all know from the pictures, said Gujari was the only place where the volunteer wasn't allowed to use toilet paper. However, we'll be in a different house, so I think I'm fine.

Anyway, we're in Kathmandu tonight and then we head for a week of training at the district center tomorrow. After that it's time for our placements. Tonight, beers.

Hope you all enjoyed the updates. Glad I got the chance to write at length! Time to go find a donut or something. May try to sneak in here later and give more pictures a shot, as well.

This is me with two kids from the village near our training center. They were using a bamboo stick that they folded in to a triangle to push along a little ring, which you can see the one kid holding. I tried, and was terrible at it.

Okay, this picture took like 8 years to load, but these are the international volunteers for this year. This is just after we finished our whopping two weeks of language training (past volunteers have gotten like 4... not sure why we were shorted). The guy on the far right is Prakash, one of three language trainers, and the girl three from the right is Korona, one of the others. The third guy, Siddhi, was gone that day, which is too bad, because he was hilarious and the skit we had to do that day was completely geared towards him. The rest of the cast of characters are, from left: Elizabeth (from Tennessee), Andrew (London), Fiama (Milan), me, Laura (Philly), Andy (Baltimore), and Jessie (Atlanta).

Not sure where to begin. We spent the first week in a hotel/hostel of sorts at a training center. I shared a room with Andy and Andrew, and our neighbors were 5 of the Nepali guys who got up MUCH earlier than we did, but that was never a very big deal. It took me three days, but I finally decided to jump in to the shower, which was frigid. But by about the third time I was used to it, so I showered every day for the rest of the week there. There were two shower stalls for everybody, and four toilets -- two of which were proper Western-style toilets, while the other two were the 'long drop' ones, which are in the floor and you have to squat for. Didn't use those that week.

The food is always 'daal bhat', which is a mix of lentils (daal), rice (bhat), curry, veggies, and which sometimes features chicken. The curry is usually a mix of a number of things, including potatoes, beans, peas, cauliflower, chicken or whatever else is available. I'd say it's similar to Indian food, but isn't anywhere near as spicy. It's spicy enough for me, though, so it has the right amount of flavor. At the training center we ate daal bhat at 1 and 7, and we had breakfast everyday, as well, which alternated between toast and jam and cereal and milk. The toast and jam was awesome, although the toast wasn't all that toasted, so I'd always grab a few slices of that and a hard-boiled egg (which was available every day). Cereal days were more iffy, because the milk has to be boiled to get the bad stuff out of it, so that was a weird experience. The water is typically boiled, as well, and I've drank it at all temperatures, and to be honest the warm water really hasn't bothered me. The food has been good, overall, too, although when we get back in to the city we hit the Western food pretty hard. Today, for example, Andy spotted 'Mike's Breakfast' on the way in, which is owned by a former Peace Corps volunteer. I had Eggs Benedict, a milkshake, and shared a plate of bacon.

We spent the days at the training center with four two-hour sessions. Three of them would be language, and for the last one we'd join the national volunteers (the Nepalese) for whatever they were doing. Usually it was largely in Nepali, but we got out of it what we could. Every night there would be activities, too, which usually was kicked off with a bonfire (usually when the electricity was out, which happens for a few hours every day). Nepali people know song after song after song, and they don't need to be around a campfire to sing it, but it's there that they specialize. I'm trying to include a couple campfire pictures, but they are currently loading, so we'll see what happens. The most interesting songs are like a battle, where they figure out a tune, and a girl and a guy take turns singing verses that pretty much make fun of each other. Over the last while I'd be sure to cozy up to someone who knew what was going on, because when the Nepalis would roar you'd know you missed something funny. When we'd see that the lights had come back on, we'd go to the training hall and play games.

This has been a very long post, and I managed to get two pictures added, so I'll continue on about my next week with another post.

Finally in Kathmandu

After a weekend in London, and then about 12 hours on a plane, I am now 11 hours and 45 minutes away from the Central Standard Time Zone. Not really sure why the 45 minutes, but hey.

I flew Qatar Airways in to Doha, Qatar, had a three-hour layover and then flew QA again to Kathmandu. The visa process was a bit of a pain in the ass, as everyone that gets off the plane flocks to these 9 or 10 tables lined up along a wall with information to fill out. It took us a while to find the right sheets, and as I filled out my visa form I realized I had left my passport-size photos in the bad I had checked. Fortunately, they take pictures there, so I exchanged my Canadian $20 bill for 1145 Nepalese rupees and got my picture taken there

Anyway, I am now getting booted out of the internet cafe. We just finished eating here in the Thamel area of Kathmandu, a somewhat touristy area. Our hostel is here, but tomorrow we head out to a training village, so I won't be able to post for a couple of weeks. May get time tomorrow, though.

Anyway, if you wanna check out where I'm at now... I didn't have my camera... but here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamel

More Pictures and SPW info

Looks like I can only post a certain number of pictures per post, so here' s a few more.

Also, here's the Students Partnership Worldwide website: http://www.spwusa.org/
There's a lot of great information on there, whether you just want to have a better idea of what I'm doing or if you're looking to do something like this yourself.

A view of the village Cody lived in.

The village where they trained last year.

Pictures from a former volunteer

So I've finally set up a blog. I apologize for taking so long, but hey, at least I got it set up before I left. I am getting on a train in Portage, WI at noon on Tuesday which will get me to Chicago at about 4:00 that day, Washington at 1:00 on Wednesday, and finally Newark at 7:00 on Wednesday. I fly out of Newark the next morning (the 30th), then spend three days in London before flying out of there on Sunday evening (November 2nd). We have a layover early the next morning in Qatar, and then finally arrive in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, at 4:00 on Monday, November 3. That is, of course, local time. I don't have a clue what time that is compared to here, but it's a fair assumption that my biological clock will be shot.

In the meantime, I've gotten some pictures from Cody, one of last year's volunteers, so I can show you what things will look like when I get over there. These pictures include some of the village where Cody lived and worked, his house, his host family, and the other volunteers from last year.

One of the other volunteers sitting in the doorway of their bedroom. In each village there are typically three volunteers, one international along with two from Nepal.

The bedroom.

All of the Volunteer Peer Educators (VPEs), the more specific term for what I will be.

Overlooking the village.