Santa and Stupas

Merry Christmas!

We had a fun week of learning, and did some Christmas crafts and baking.  I told the children that if they were well behaved and if sang loud enough Santa would come to bring gifts for them!  Another teacher had to translate, but they definitely knew what Santa is all about.  They sang Jingle Bells at the top of their lungs after that.  I've never had such an enthusiastic group of kids.  They're starting to understand the concept of pitch also, and that loud does not always equal better.  Listening is key.

Circle Singing

We made stockings out of paper and cotton balls.  The kids love to decorate with colouring and stamps.  Craft supplies are a luxury here, and it's very difficult to find anything fancy.  Santa came by and filled the stockings with candy!

So much red!

Some of the other volunteers at BaseCamp helped to make some sugar cookies that we also gave out to the kids.  It was a fun-filled sugary holiday.  One of the goals of places like the school I work at is to give the children motivation and encouragement to come to school, so they don't end up taking less favourable paths in life.  (I'm sure a little candy now and then won't hurt them.)

Christmas Eve is a night to go out here, since many people are off Christmas day, so we decided to hit the town.  We went back to the best bar, Purple Haze, where there were two awesome bands playing.  The crowds here go completely insane for good music and the dance floor turned into a crazy mosh pit.  Things calm down fairly early though, and we got back home by 11pm.  I don't know if I'm going to be able to stay awake for New Year's Eve.

Volunteer Buddies

I woke up Christmas morning to so many wonderful messages from friends and family, and was able to Skype in for Christmas Eve dinner back home.  There are now an extra 24 people from a school group staying here so space is a little tight and mealtimes are a bit of an ordeal.  Nonetheless, we had an amazing full breakfast with omelettes, then headed into Thamel for coffee and wandering.  Himalayan Java is now my go-to spot.  You can walk for ages here looking at shops selling the same things over and over again.  There are a ton of counterfeit North Face stores, and I'm pretty sure the "real" stores are fake too.

Our coordinator suggested a small hike up to the "Yellow Temple", starting near the 3 Buddha statues.  Well, we ended up at the top of some hill with a yellow building that was partly under construction but could very well have been the right place.  Everywhere in Kathmandu seems to have beautiful vantage points.  We even got a peek at the snowy part of the Himalayas.

Waaay back there.

Working with locals here, you get to actually find out the best places to eat.  We now know this secret samosa place, Tip Top, which is basically the fast food of Nepal.  You head through a secret, unassuming alleyway and then you're magically in this hub of fried and sweet goodness.  Everything is hand made, with tons of vegetables, and this magic sweet red sauce.  It's worth the long walk and inevitably getting lost en route.  Christmas dinner was a variation on dal bhat, and our wonderful cooks somehow make huge meals for over 30 people in a tiny kitchen.  We were able to stream some Christmas music, and we two Canadian girls had to explain The Log to our American and Nepalese friends.

Our tree may lack conventional beauty, but it has a lot of heart.

White Elephant!  The secret Santa gift choosing and stealing game.  The four of us from North America decided we needed to do some sort of gift exchange, so we set up a game with a 500 rupee (about $5) limit.  Everyone got really creative and we each ended up with something interesting.

I got a meditation introduction book which was perfect for my weekend trip.

We also visited the Garden of Dreams, which was one of the first really peaceful and quiet places I've been to in the city.

I’ve randomly met so many singers and musicians here.  I met a French baritone from Paris, and he introduced me to his Nepalese friend who is trained in Eastern Classical musical.  It’s pretty cool.  I hope to learn some of it at some point.  A lot of people here play either piano or guitar too.

Journey to Namobuddha:

I was supposed to meet my new French friend at the bus station, but I ended up being late and had assumed he had already left.  I jumped on a random bus headed in the direction I needed to go.  Later I find out he was actually very late and did the same thing.  This was possibly an indication of things not being straightforward for my mini-trek.

The buses here are a little crazy.  You basically show up at the stop and ask around for the bus to the general location you want.  It gets completely full with people sitting and standing, and I’ve seen a few with people riding on the top.  Buses will kind of pull over at various “stops” where people may be waiting, and the guy in charge of the door will yell out the destination and see if anyone else wants on, most of the time while the bus is still moving.  Later he’ll come around and collect the fare from everyone.  I get a discount (only 40 rupees for one ride!) with my volunteer card.

After about an hour I arrived in Banepa, one of many smaller city towns.  It’s about 30km east of Kathmandu.  The roads here take quite a while since highways as we know them don’t really exist, and the roads are very mountainous and winding.  I ended up grabbing a taxi from Banepa which cost a whopping 800 rupees to the top of Kyare, for the start of the trek up to Namobuddha.  You can see the Langtang range of the Himalayas throughout the hike and every view is stunning.

Well, I wasn’t exactly prepared for the amount of trekking involved.  It took about 2.5 solid uphill hours to the top, and then another 30 minutes to the monastery itself.  It is a GORGEOUS place.  Namobuddha is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and sits at about 1750m elevation.  I had been really hoping to get a room in their one guest house, but nothing was available.  I was still pretty satisfied with spinning allllll of the prayer wheels.

It's pretty much impossible to get a good photo of the size of this place, unless I had a helicopter.

Every place here seems to have a story.  Legend has it that Namobuddha is the place where the Buddha gave his body to a dying tiger and her cubs.  Later I made it to Panauti where there is a famous Hindu legend relating to the rivers there.

I had to head back the 30 minutes to the little town at the top of the mountain, and found a room at a little guest house.  I bargained a good deal since I was almost out of cash, and made friends with the family who owns it.  One of the daughters is my age and we chatted for a couple hours and have decided we are friends now :) she splits her time between Kathmandu and Belgium and we’re planning to hang out.

The next morning I woke up to an epic sunrise that I could see from my balcony, and then started the long trek back.  I decided to head west instead of north the way I came from to see some different scenery.  It was another 3 straight hours of dirt road until I came into Panauti.  Sometimes I feel like I’m in Skyrim with the dirt paths and coming across villages and friendly townspeople along the way.  I met some very sweet little girls on their way to school and they gave me oranges.

Now I know where all the oranges come from!

After Panauti it was an hour and half bus ride back to Kathmandu, and I still had to walk back to the house.  All told I trekked about 20-25km and saw some pretty awesome sights.  Not bad for a first go!

Panauti

Next weekend, something a little more relaxing.

Seriously could not get enough of this.

G is for Ganesh

I have survived my first week at my new post.  Sanga Sangai school has about 30 children, aged 4-12 or so.  I have been in charge of the oldest group, with 7 or 8 kids on any given day.  Kumar, Ashish, Aslam, Ganga, Soniya, Mina, Sumjhana, and Muska.  We start at about 11 and have a couple solid hours of studying before lunch and then music and dance in the afternoon before they go home at 3.  Now I'm not trying to pretend I know how or am exactly qualified to be a school teacher, so we continue with a lot of English and Math studying using the curriculum books there.  With only 8 kids it's more like a tutoring group than a full classroom.  Learning English is a huge focus and will give them a big leg up here, so even just speaking with them gives them a lot of practise.  The language barrier is challenging at times, but they usually correct me, or laugh when something is totally inaccurate.

My group!

The school provides lunch for the children, which Rabina, one of the other teachers, has been showing me how to make.  It's usually some kind of rice porridge or a simple curry.  The facilities are very basic, with no running water or modern stove, but the children receive a nutritious meal.  There's something special about preparing it ourselves and everyone communing together for it.  I plan on being a curry pro by the time I get home.

Getting ready for lunch.

The children can get kind of rowdy, but as soon as you start singing you have their full attention.  I've been singing them The 12 Days of Christmas with this awesome pop-up book, and they are literally cheering at every page.  I've never met kids so enthusiastic.  We've been doing a lot of big group singing and instruments, and they already know how to sing a few rounds so I've taught them a couple more and we'll hopefully be able to split into sections soon.  I'm still planning on getting some sort of keyboard set up - there's a bit of an issue with the power shedding schedule so I have to look at timing for that.

Crazy art time.

There are very little resources here so we attempted freestyling world maps. Not bad!

So cheesy, but the kids actually insisted!  We love selfies.

Recess consists of the children hauling out some wrought-iron play equipment that is less than safe by Canadian standards, and some other toys and balls.  It's actually one of my favourite parts of the day, as you can get them really riled up and it's loads of fun.

Safety first!

Fridays are a shorter day, and this week we spent the last hour watching the Cowichan Valley tourism video so I could show them a bit more about Canada and where I'm from.  They loved seeing all the animals and the ocean and the boats and trains.  I don't think children really understand the concept  of "far away", they just accept you as a person and have a vague idea that you magically appeared from somewhere else.  There was a classic moment when they were featuring a winery in the video, and on a closeup of a glass Kumar shouts "RAKSI!" (that crazy Nepalese wine) and everyone bursts out laughing.

Some days I've walked home with the children that are going the same direction.  They get SO excited to walk with you.  This city is incredibly busy, and it boggles my mind that young children are allowed to walk home alone.  There is no such thing as a crosswalk here, and it's nonstop crazy traffic.  It's basically Frogger every time you want to cross the street.  One afternoon I was needing a taxi to head to another part of the city, and the children were the ones to actually hail one for me.  I think I got a cheaper price after the driver saw me with them.

This has been a great week, and a lot less scary than I thought!

Now, into Thamel to celebrate.

Boys heading home.

Namaste, Children

Today was a special day.

Someone told me when I arrived that Kathmandu is either dusty or muddy.  Today was a muddy day.  I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of pouring rain (unusual, since it's always the constant barking of dogs or people talking), and this morning the streets were a sea of mud.  Puran, Alina, the two American volunteers and I trudged through the streets, zig-zagging our way through Sorhakhutte and Thamel.

I finally arrived at Sanga Sangai school to meet the children and the director and teachers.  It is a small building with 3 teaching rooms, an office, and a kitchen.  The children are provided a hot meal for lunch.

We knocked at the door and a small girl in a red hat answered with a "Namaste" and a big hug.  I felt at home immediately.  Rajesh, the school director, got the kids to sing a few songs for us, some in English, some in Nepali, one in French, and one in Finnish.  There are about 30 children who attend the school, and it runs Sunday through Friday.  There are 2 regular teachers and I'll be assisting them with lessons and making lunch, and reading/teaching English and music.

 Later we had our dinner at the cultural centre to celebrate the end of training week!  It was my first time wearing a sari, and Sita and Alina graciously helped out to dress me.  We had a good time eating traditional foods (more dhal baat!) and enjoyed the music and dancing.

Posing at Cultural Dinner

Swayambunath: Monkey Temple!

Today Alina took me to Swayambhunath, affectionately called the Monkey Temple.  It is a Buddhist temple of Newar origin.  Many people I have met are some combination of Hindu and Buddhist, and they worship or show their respects at either type of temple.

Prayer Wheels

There are SO MANY MONKEYS!  We stayed and wathed them for quite some time.  One monkey tried to steal our tea and another came out of nowhere and stole a little boy's cotton candy.  His mother tried to hit it with her purse but it ran away.  They are very sneaky.

Monkey Family

Thief

There are many temples and monasteries in this area, mainly on hilltops.  You can walk from one to another without there being a clear border in between, so it's sometimes hard to tell where you are.  This was a much more peaceful place than in the madness of downtown in the city.

Monk and Dog

There are a lot of stark contrasts in Nepal.  The beauty of the holy places versus the relatively impoverished areas.  We came across a street boy with one leg, with the other leg and arms fairly deformed, writhing and begging on the ground in filth.  We couldn't even imagine something like that happening in Canada, and it made me very angry to know there was nothing I could do right then to change it.  I am already coming to face some of the major culture shocks here.

I've joined a gym called Shubha Fitness and it's been pretty entertaining so far.  It's quite far from Thamel, the tourist district, and about a 25 minute walk from the BaseCamp house.  They said they never get foreigners (videsi) and I tend to get a lot of strange looks.  They seem to respect me now that they see I know what I'm doing and I chat with a few of the regulars.  Hopefully it won't be too much of a spectacle before long.  Yesterday morning I attended some kind of crazy Nepalese Bollywood jazzercise class set to Venga Boys music.  It was completely bizarre and I spent most of the class trying not to laugh.

Sneak peek...

Gulaabi, Pahelo, Nilo, Hariyo, Raato...

Alina has been a wonderful language teacher and guide for this week of orientation.  We went out shopping for a sari so I have some appropriate formal wear, and she showed me how to bargain and how to use various phrases.  I must have tried on every sari in the shop, but we were practising the names of colours and I got a nice one so I'm sure it's okay.  We had to go to a different shop to get the blouse and petticoat made, but that guy was sick so we had to go to his brother's tailoring shop instead, etc. etc. Nepal time...it will hopefully be finished by Saturday so I can wear it to our cultural dinner Sunday night after finally going to the school to meet everyone!

Oh, and the food is unreal too.

You Are Now Running on Nepal Time

One of my main reasons for taking on this trip was to extricate myself from the North American model of relentless scheduling and stress.  That said, this place is sometimes on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.  It's a really huge adjustment to not have a strict timeline for things.  I find myself asking everyone what we should be doing, or what's next a lot, when there really is time to just sit and enjoy.

We went to the reception for the wedding (it's a 4 day affair) last night and had a true traditional Nepalese meal.  There must have been around 200 people, and we all sat cross legged on the ground while a parade of people put food into our dishes.  I have never had so many different kinds of beans and lentils in one sitting.  The bride ends the dinner with the pouring of wine into everyone's cups, then the real party begins.  I thought Nepal would be a calm place, but these people really like to party.  You drink a lot of "rice beer", and that magic lamp liquor which I've learned is called raksi, which is definitely an awesome name.  The night turned into a Bollywood dance party!

Thankfully Alina prepped me in the morning during our language class.  I learned bhoj (feast), mitho cha (very tasty), pugyo (enough - they are constantly offering you more food), and some other choice phrases.  We work a lot on phrases to do with bargaining and ordering taxis, and I think I'm almost ready to try it on my own.  You can just use the word mahango (expensive) when you don't like the price of something.  We use mahango a lot.

Learnding

I'm starting to understand the very basics of this difficult language.  The hardest part is the subtleties in the slight variations of vowels.  There are a few "a" and "ah" sounds, and some vowels that have a longer duration.  There's also this soft "j" sound instead of a "ch" that for the life of me I can't get.  The grammar isn't so bad even though the sentence structure is different from English.  It's easiest to learn in phrases.  Luckily I have some patient teachers and have been practising translating English/Nepali with our cook, Sita.

I eat my momos off a golden platter.

 The food at the BaseCamp house is also incredible.  It's a mixture of traditional dishes and things we westerners will like.  Some concepts of western food are a little strange, so I did go to the tourist grocery store and purchased some Nutella and Diet Coke for comfort foods - hallelujah :)

Tomorrow I continue my orientation and language preparation and plan to venture a little farther out of our neighbourhood on foot.  I've already been lost a few times since the streets have no names and everything looks the same.  You start to figure out how it all works pretty quickly when you don't have a choice.

Shubaraatri! (Goodnight!)