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.
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