Andy eating Froot Loops. My only picture that came out of our department store trip, although hopefully Elizabeth has more.
Two twins pushed together to accomodate the three of us.
Durbar Square in Kathmandu.
Before I'd had a chance to get back in to the classroom in Gajuri, we found that our language training was scheduled for four days in Kathmandu. Unsure whether it would start on the Sunday or the Monday (Jan 11 or 12), I was told to be in Kathmandu by the Saturday. On the way there I got in the same microbus that Elizabeth and Jessie had caught out of Dhading Besi. Micros are similar to 15-passenger vans, with the biggest difference being that Nepali people see the '15 passenger' classification as a wholely unnecessary limitation. Jessie was on the back bench, with Elizabeth, myself, and another girl crammed in to the aisle with our knees jamming in to the backs of the person in front of us, bobsled style. I should mention that the two things that frighten me most in Nepal are its roads and its drivers. Many of the roads are cut in to the sides of enormous hills, and are rather narrow and wind all over the place. The drivers will pass at any time, with little care taken even when going around one of the many blind corners. Before coming around the corner they'll sound their horn-which usually has multiple notes and sounds like an old school cell phone ringtone-and just hope for the best, often having to slam on the brakes and duck back behind whomever they were passing. Fortunately, they typically travel quite slowly, although not slow enough to keep inexperienced Nepali passengers (of which there are many) from being carsick. In the future, bus and airplane travel will be easy for me, while cars and trains will feel better than I can possibly imagine. But anyway, back to the subject at hand.
Our language training was taught by Karuna and Prakash, the two more capable of the three instructors that we'd had our first month here. The third, Siddhi, wasn't always accurate with his translations and was quite lacking in English, making it a little more difficult to put things together. For language training they usually split us in to small groups, and Rachel, Elizabeth and I spend most of our time during the first month with Siddhi. To be honest, I missed him this time around, because he was absolutely hilarious, although I probably learned a little bit more during our second round of training.
However, the third day of language training I learned less than in any other day, because I got sick again. I learned later in the day that Rachel had, as well, although much worse than I. She went to the clinic and learned that she had a 'feces-to-mouth' sickness, meaning an unclean person or insect touched something she ate. The strong belief is that we got our sickness from an Indian-style sweet we'd eaten the previous day, which irritates me because it didn't even taste good. We'd bought the sweets for Hari, an outgoing SPW employee, who'd had us over for daal bhat. At the shop, we each chose a type of sweet and bought two of them, and we figure when Hari served them to us that Rachel and I ended up with the same kind. The sick day wasn't too bad for me, though, as I spent most of it sprawled across the super bed we'd made in the hotel room, two beds pushed together for Andrew, Andy and I. This bed, while cool, should not be confused with Roach and JW's superbed in the yellow house on Regent street, although the setting should be taken in to consideration when evaluating the overall awesomeness.
Besides missing the training, the downside of the sick day was missing out on The Lion King. The eight hours of electricity that day were from 4 to 8 a.m. and p.m., so a few people went to Cheer's to watch the DVD which Elizabeth had bought. I made it out later that night and caught the end of Schol of Rock (which Cheer's had) and a bit of food, and was okay for training the next day.
Other highlights of the week included a trip to Durbar Sqaure, and a trip to a department store. Durbar Square was very cool, with some huge, interesting temples. The department store was a much stranger experience. Since we've arrived, all of our shopping has been done in villages or in small stores in the tourist area of Kathmandu. All these stores are smaller than convenience stores at home, or are shops that you don't really walk in at all. For example, if I want soap, I walk to a shop and tell them I want soap. I'll either be handed what they have, or am offered a choice between two or three. That's how we shop. As Elizabeth, Andy and I walked in to the first floor grocery area of the five-storey department store, it was Andy that first realized we might not have really understood what we were getting in to. As much as I've heard about reverse culture shock, I didn't really think much of it, but we proceeded to be steamrolled by variety and taken aback by the availability of things like Keebler cookies, taco mix, canned frosting and bubble bath. While the walls of toothpaste and shampoo were overwhelming, we made the biggest scene in the cereal aisle after discovering Froot Loops and a Cinnamon Toast Crunch knockoff. Store employees were watching us by that point, and I'm sure it looked like were overreacting, but it was weird. I can't really explain why. With the cereal, we just don't eat it here, we eat daal bhat. I don't even drink milk, except in tea, and I
love cereal and milk. Before we'd gone to the department store Elizabeth had discovered that the place we usually got breakfast near the hotel served Corn Flakes with cold milk. So we showed up there the next two days to order an empty bowl and a glass of milk, with Froot Loops in our backpack (although I only made it one day... damn sickness).
On the fifth floor of the department store Elizabeth bought here DVD (her host family has a player) and then we headed out the back of the store, to the first parking lot I'd seen since the Kathmandu airport in early November. It's funny to think about reverse culture shock because the first two Western cities I'll be in are London and New York, both of which I am a huge fan of. So while I'm a little wary of the shock, I still wouldn't mind a couple days in NYC, seeing as that I'll be there, anyway. If I'm going to go toe-to-toe with culture shock, I might as well take its best shot right away.
The top of Swayambhunath Temple.
Walking up to the temple. Many stairs, and many monkeys, had already passed.
These two monkeys were hanging out while I took the picture of Andy below, but when I went to have a picture taken of me, the one monkey jumped on to the top of the statue's head (while the other just chilled with his water bottle), a short distance from mine. When I had first arrived at the temple I had a juice box in my hand, and the first monkey I saw walked right up to me, and I tried to play it cool, until he started pawing at it, and when I pulled my hand away he started jumping after it. Someone told me not to tease them, although that hadn't been my intention at all. However, I decided to take all necessary precautions from that point forward, so when the monkey in this picture made a move towards me, I got the hell out of there.
Gathering outside in Adamara.
The boys at the swimming hole that Surya, our host brother, showed us.
This is the street we walk down to the school. From where I'm standing it's about a minute or two to the highway, and about four or five to school.
These bananas are my first step towards my very own 'tiny town'. There are regular sized bananas in Nepal, but mostly you find these little guys. Rajesh took this picture. For whatever reason, he likes to hold the camera at weird angles. I don't understand the kid.
The well our water comes from.
Our school's girls volleyball team.
Saroj and Rajesh at 'the tap', where we shower and wash clothes. It's about a three minute walk from the house.
Saroj washing a kid in Adamara at our Personal Hygiene presentation. I remember thinking, "I don't know if this would fly at home", and as he proceeded, thinking, "Okay, that definitely would not fly at home"
Classroom in Adamara.
Adamara.
Setting up for a Nutrition presentation in Sundrapur. On the far right is Surya, and the guy in the green shirt is Yogendra, one of our Green Club students.
