This past Thursday was Krishna's birthday. From what I understand, Krishna is the reincarnation of Vishnu, the god of protection. Someone told me he was turning 12,000, but I don't know if that's true.
I haven't been doing that much in Pepsi-Cola. The past three days I've been working on a mural at the VSN school. Simona, one of the other volunteers from Italy, had painted a huge map of Nepal with all the 75 districts. And I somehow became in charge of painting a huge map of the globe to go next to the map of Nepal. So, I had to sketch out the globe and then paint all the continents and oceans. It's been pretty fun and it's been nice hanging out with the other volunteers, a lot of whom are working at the school doing different things. Besides Zach, who arrived in Nepal just a couple days before I did, the other 15 or so volunteers have arrived only in the last two weeks. So I feel very wise being able to tell the newbies where they can get the best momos, when the electricity is probably going to cut off, how to deal with leeches, etc.
Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Doha and then to D.C. and then to Greensboro. And then I'll be back.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Back to Kathmandu
Last Wednesday, there wasn't any school because it was a Hindu holiday. I don't really know what the holiday was about, but I got the impression nobody really did. They just knew how to celebrate it. Sonam came and got me that morning and we followed crowds of other people coming from all over down to a little pond past Phaplu. Everyone crowded around and tried to push their way through to the water's edge where they would light incense, throw a couple rupees into the water as a blessing to God, and wash their face, hands and feet. And then everyone pushed and shoved to try to make their way into the really tiny "temple" area where there was a little statue of Shiva covered in paint and flowers and tika. I got a big, wet tika on my forehead and lit some incense at the altar. Afterwards, a Hindu priest wrapped red-dyed twine around my wrist until it made a little bracelet. Supposedly it's supposed to protect you from any difficulties while you wear it. It's also supposed to protect you from ghosts…..
On Thursday afternoon, after all the students were finished with exams, the seventh and eighth graders got together in one of the classrooms to give me the little going-away shindig they give all the volunteers and teachers that leave the school. They sat me down in the front of the classroom and a representative from each class came up and gave short, awkward speeches thanking me for teaching there. And then any students that wanted to got to come up and give me a tika. But because going-away things are apparently special occasions, the students don't have to just dot a little tika on your forehead. If they want, they can smear it all over your face. So, a couple of the more daring students came up and slapped red tika all over my face. I think most of them did it with love, some probably in revenge for the trigonometry I made them learn.
After that, I went and hung out with principal for the last time at the hostel, drank some tea. Then I went and hung out with Roby for the last time at his lodge, drank some tea. And then I had a really nice dinner with Sonam and his wife at their house. They were super, super nice and we talked for a really long time. They gave me a bag of fruit and biscuits and ramen noodles for my trip to Jiri and Sonam gave me prayer beads to wrap around my wrist. They called them "tokens of love".
Friday morning, I got up and started walking at 4:00. By the time I was past Phaplu the sun was coming up, and by then I could already tell it wasn't going to be a fun day. My backpack weighed like 40 pounds, mostly because of all the books I'd brought with me to read. After walking down from Phaplu for about an hour to a little town called Beni, it was uphill all the way to the Lamjura pass at over 3500 meters, the highest point on the trek from Jiri to Namche that lots of trekkers take who go to Everest Base Camp. By the time I was nearing the top, I was having to stop ever ten minutes or so to rest. And I started having leech issues. In the past 9 weeks in Solukhumbu, I'd only found maybe 4 or 5 leeches on me. But on Friday alone I found probably 15 on me, either just crawling around or already attached and sucking away, plus a ton more on my clothing. When I finally got to the top of the pass, I started the long, 2000 meter descent to the river. Apparently going up this side of the mountain is the hardest portion of the full trek to Everest Base Camp, so I was more than happy to be going down instead of up. Along the way I stopped near a little house and a bunch of kids ran out, really curious at the quire drenched in sweat and looking like he was near-death. Their mom came out and asked me if I wanted to buy some weed. And then she tried to sell me some little black balls that she said you smoke. And then her kids started pulling leeches off me that I hadn't seen. It was all very odd. I reached a town by the river called Kenja around 5:00 and stopped for the night at a little lodge, ate two big plates of daalbhat (which is an all-you-eat meal) and went to sleep.
When I woke up Saturday morning, my feet and shoulders were incredibly sore and it hurt just to sit up in bed. But I strapped on my backpack and headed out around 5:00. From the river it was straight up 1200 meters to a town called Deorali and then straight down 1000 meters to a town called Shivalaya. By the time I got to Shivalaya, I was beyond exhausted, but I was only three hours away from Jiri, so I kept going. I made it to a little town called Mali before I almost collapsed at a little lodge around 5:30. There I met a dude who didn't speak much English but I figured out was also going to Jiri to take the bus to Kathmandu and we agreed to leave at 5:00 the next morning to make it to Jiri before all the buses left. I ate another couple plates of daalbhat, slept, woke up Sunday morning, put my bag back on and kept walking. But this guy was really fast and he didn't have a heavy bag, so I had to power-walk for the next two hours to keep up with him, which was pretty miserable. But we made it to Jiri and managed to get tickets for a bus that left two hours later. From Jiri it was a pretty miserable 8 hour ride to Kathmandu but I managed to make it back to Suganda's house by around 6:00. I took my first shower in two weeks (it was a weird shower situation at the house in Nayabazaar involving a hose, long story) which was pretty wonderful.
Since then, I've basically just been hanging out around Pepsi-Cola, meeting a ton of new volunteers that have arrived since I've been gone (only one is still here from when I was in Kathmandu), drinking lots of tea, and spending a lot of time on the computer here at the VSN office. Yesterday I helped Dagan, a guy from Texas/Singapore, paint a classroom at the VSN school for a couple hours, but I haven't really been doing much. After three days of super intense travel, I haven't really wanted to do any work. On Monday I went into the city and met up with Jenny Vaidya, a friend from Davidson who lives in Kathmandu, and we walked around Thamel, one of the big touristy shopping districts. I bought a super cool Nepali wool hoodie. Yesterday, I tagged along with a couple new volunteers to a little town nearby called Thimi. While they walked around with one of the VSN guys I got a haircut at a little sketchy barbershop.
Next Tuesday, I fly back to the States. Until then I'll just be hanging out around Pepsi-Cola with the other volunteers.
On Thursday afternoon, after all the students were finished with exams, the seventh and eighth graders got together in one of the classrooms to give me the little going-away shindig they give all the volunteers and teachers that leave the school. They sat me down in the front of the classroom and a representative from each class came up and gave short, awkward speeches thanking me for teaching there. And then any students that wanted to got to come up and give me a tika. But because going-away things are apparently special occasions, the students don't have to just dot a little tika on your forehead. If they want, they can smear it all over your face. So, a couple of the more daring students came up and slapped red tika all over my face. I think most of them did it with love, some probably in revenge for the trigonometry I made them learn.
After that, I went and hung out with principal for the last time at the hostel, drank some tea. Then I went and hung out with Roby for the last time at his lodge, drank some tea. And then I had a really nice dinner with Sonam and his wife at their house. They were super, super nice and we talked for a really long time. They gave me a bag of fruit and biscuits and ramen noodles for my trip to Jiri and Sonam gave me prayer beads to wrap around my wrist. They called them "tokens of love".
Friday morning, I got up and started walking at 4:00. By the time I was past Phaplu the sun was coming up, and by then I could already tell it wasn't going to be a fun day. My backpack weighed like 40 pounds, mostly because of all the books I'd brought with me to read. After walking down from Phaplu for about an hour to a little town called Beni, it was uphill all the way to the Lamjura pass at over 3500 meters, the highest point on the trek from Jiri to Namche that lots of trekkers take who go to Everest Base Camp. By the time I was nearing the top, I was having to stop ever ten minutes or so to rest. And I started having leech issues. In the past 9 weeks in Solukhumbu, I'd only found maybe 4 or 5 leeches on me. But on Friday alone I found probably 15 on me, either just crawling around or already attached and sucking away, plus a ton more on my clothing. When I finally got to the top of the pass, I started the long, 2000 meter descent to the river. Apparently going up this side of the mountain is the hardest portion of the full trek to Everest Base Camp, so I was more than happy to be going down instead of up. Along the way I stopped near a little house and a bunch of kids ran out, really curious at the quire drenched in sweat and looking like he was near-death. Their mom came out and asked me if I wanted to buy some weed. And then she tried to sell me some little black balls that she said you smoke. And then her kids started pulling leeches off me that I hadn't seen. It was all very odd. I reached a town by the river called Kenja around 5:00 and stopped for the night at a little lodge, ate two big plates of daalbhat (which is an all-you-eat meal) and went to sleep.
When I woke up Saturday morning, my feet and shoulders were incredibly sore and it hurt just to sit up in bed. But I strapped on my backpack and headed out around 5:00. From the river it was straight up 1200 meters to a town called Deorali and then straight down 1000 meters to a town called Shivalaya. By the time I got to Shivalaya, I was beyond exhausted, but I was only three hours away from Jiri, so I kept going. I made it to a little town called Mali before I almost collapsed at a little lodge around 5:30. There I met a dude who didn't speak much English but I figured out was also going to Jiri to take the bus to Kathmandu and we agreed to leave at 5:00 the next morning to make it to Jiri before all the buses left. I ate another couple plates of daalbhat, slept, woke up Sunday morning, put my bag back on and kept walking. But this guy was really fast and he didn't have a heavy bag, so I had to power-walk for the next two hours to keep up with him, which was pretty miserable. But we made it to Jiri and managed to get tickets for a bus that left two hours later. From Jiri it was a pretty miserable 8 hour ride to Kathmandu but I managed to make it back to Suganda's house by around 6:00. I took my first shower in two weeks (it was a weird shower situation at the house in Nayabazaar involving a hose, long story) which was pretty wonderful.
Since then, I've basically just been hanging out around Pepsi-Cola, meeting a ton of new volunteers that have arrived since I've been gone (only one is still here from when I was in Kathmandu), drinking lots of tea, and spending a lot of time on the computer here at the VSN office. Yesterday I helped Dagan, a guy from Texas/Singapore, paint a classroom at the VSN school for a couple hours, but I haven't really been doing much. After three days of super intense travel, I haven't really wanted to do any work. On Monday I went into the city and met up with Jenny Vaidya, a friend from Davidson who lives in Kathmandu, and we walked around Thamel, one of the big touristy shopping districts. I bought a super cool Nepali wool hoodie. Yesterday, I tagged along with a couple new volunteers to a little town nearby called Thimi. While they walked around with one of the VSN guys I got a haircut at a little sketchy barbershop.
Next Tuesday, I fly back to the States. Until then I'll just be hanging out around Pepsi-Cola with the other volunteers.
Monday, August 3, 2009
This past week, it's rained a lot. Everyday. Sometimes all day. I'd been holding out on buying an umbrella since I got here, cause I was being really cheap, but I got the principal to go buy me one (since he gets the Nepali price and I get the "quire" price, for foreigners). Now I won't have to walk in the rain when I hike to Jiri at the end of the week to take the bus to Kathmandu.
Starting last week, the school has been having first term exams. So, everyday, I've invigilated exams. They pack 40 to 45 students, from classes 3-10 into each classroom during the exam period. All the classrooms are really tiny and the students sit four students to a bench, shoulder to shoulder, each bench/desk touching the next. No wiggle room. And the invigilator for each room has to somehow make sure the students don't cheat, which is nearly impossible since all the students are so packed together. Students from the same classes aren't sitting next to each other, but it doesn't really matter. The younger students can get the older students to help them answer questions. Invigilating hasn't been nearly as boring as I thought it would be. It's become sort of like a game, seeing how many cheaters I can catch. It's extra satisfying when I catch the extra sneaky ones. Different students have different strategies. One might write an answer on a piece of paper, put the paper in a pencil case and try to get the case to a classmate. Another might wait for a distraction, like another student asking the invigilator for extra writing paper. They're all super sneaky. But I'm better. I've developed a reputation for being the toughest invigilator. Every morning, students come up to me and ask me which classroom I'll be in, and I delight in the fear in their eyes when I tell them I'll be in their room…..
Yesterday, both my class 7 and 8 math classes had their exams, so I've been helping a lot of students with studying the last couple days. Students would come up to me and ask me if I could come to their house at a certain time on a certain day and I'd show up and there'd usually be a bunch of students and we'd have little study sessions. And I was pretty much always guaranteed a cup of tea (or three) for my services, which was pretty sweet. Twice, I went over to the house of one of my eighth graders named Raju and his mom would force tons of food on me (which I would politely pretend was unnecessary and then devour). I'd walk in and his mom would immediately say "Basnus". "Basnu" means "to sit" but when you add an "s" to the end of any verb, you're kind of adding a "please." So, she'd say "basnus" meaning "please, sit" but with a tone and a glare that said "Sit. Now." And then she'd say "kanus", "please eat", but with a tone of "You're going to eat whatever I put in front of you. Don't try to argue." And then she'd pile a bunch of samosas on a plate, which I'd eat, and then she'd pile a bunch more on.
On Thursday, school was cancelled because of a national strike. Some big teacher's organization in Kathmandu called a strike and every school in the country shut down. One newspaper said 6.5 million kids missed school. Apparently making kids miss school is the best way to improve the education system. So, on Thursday, I went over to the principal's "hostel" (which everyone calls it because eight or nine students from the school live there) hoping I could watch a movie. He called Roby, one of the other teachers, and he brought over a ripped copy of "Apocalypto" and the two of us watched it on the principal's little tv. The principal even brought us some tea. And then Roby (who is from Darjeeling but works at the school) invited me over to the lodge he stays at and we hung out for a while, drank some more tea. Then, on the way back to Nayabazaar, Shah saw me walking by and made me come in to his restaurant and drink some tea. Then I kept walking and Sonam saw me from the window of a house he was giving some extra classes at and he called me up, and he brought me some tea. Then I kept walking and Raju called me over and his mom saw me, commanded "basnus" and put a cup of tea in front of me. Then I went back to the house, watched the Aljazeera daily news and Urmila of my host family brought me a cup of tea. So, tea.
A couple days ago, the principal was telling me about a Bhutanese refugee who had been shot and killed in Florida. Apparently it's been a really big news story here in Nepal. He told me the story had really frightened him, since he hopes that one day he and his family can move to the States as Bhutanese refugees, and he asked me if this was normal in the States. And I was like, "Well, Americans have a lot of guns….and they shoot people more than other people shoot people…….more than like…..Canadians." The principal is always asking me about what it's like to live in the States and I always feel like I'm describing a horrible, vile place, and then end up saying something like, "but, I mean, it's not that bad, at least in most places". One day he asked me if there was a good train system. One day he asked me what the CIA was. He always seems to ask me questions with the worse answers.
On Friday morning, I'll start my walk to Jiri, where I can take a bus back to Kathmandu. I've been told I can make it to Jiri in two days, if I hike from sunrise to sunset. But, for some reason, that makes me kind of excited. It's like a challenge….
Starting last week, the school has been having first term exams. So, everyday, I've invigilated exams. They pack 40 to 45 students, from classes 3-10 into each classroom during the exam period. All the classrooms are really tiny and the students sit four students to a bench, shoulder to shoulder, each bench/desk touching the next. No wiggle room. And the invigilator for each room has to somehow make sure the students don't cheat, which is nearly impossible since all the students are so packed together. Students from the same classes aren't sitting next to each other, but it doesn't really matter. The younger students can get the older students to help them answer questions. Invigilating hasn't been nearly as boring as I thought it would be. It's become sort of like a game, seeing how many cheaters I can catch. It's extra satisfying when I catch the extra sneaky ones. Different students have different strategies. One might write an answer on a piece of paper, put the paper in a pencil case and try to get the case to a classmate. Another might wait for a distraction, like another student asking the invigilator for extra writing paper. They're all super sneaky. But I'm better. I've developed a reputation for being the toughest invigilator. Every morning, students come up to me and ask me which classroom I'll be in, and I delight in the fear in their eyes when I tell them I'll be in their room…..
Yesterday, both my class 7 and 8 math classes had their exams, so I've been helping a lot of students with studying the last couple days. Students would come up to me and ask me if I could come to their house at a certain time on a certain day and I'd show up and there'd usually be a bunch of students and we'd have little study sessions. And I was pretty much always guaranteed a cup of tea (or three) for my services, which was pretty sweet. Twice, I went over to the house of one of my eighth graders named Raju and his mom would force tons of food on me (which I would politely pretend was unnecessary and then devour). I'd walk in and his mom would immediately say "Basnus". "Basnu" means "to sit" but when you add an "s" to the end of any verb, you're kind of adding a "please." So, she'd say "basnus" meaning "please, sit" but with a tone and a glare that said "Sit. Now." And then she'd say "kanus", "please eat", but with a tone of "You're going to eat whatever I put in front of you. Don't try to argue." And then she'd pile a bunch of samosas on a plate, which I'd eat, and then she'd pile a bunch more on.
On Thursday, school was cancelled because of a national strike. Some big teacher's organization in Kathmandu called a strike and every school in the country shut down. One newspaper said 6.5 million kids missed school. Apparently making kids miss school is the best way to improve the education system. So, on Thursday, I went over to the principal's "hostel" (which everyone calls it because eight or nine students from the school live there) hoping I could watch a movie. He called Roby, one of the other teachers, and he brought over a ripped copy of "Apocalypto" and the two of us watched it on the principal's little tv. The principal even brought us some tea. And then Roby (who is from Darjeeling but works at the school) invited me over to the lodge he stays at and we hung out for a while, drank some more tea. Then, on the way back to Nayabazaar, Shah saw me walking by and made me come in to his restaurant and drink some tea. Then I kept walking and Sonam saw me from the window of a house he was giving some extra classes at and he called me up, and he brought me some tea. Then I kept walking and Raju called me over and his mom saw me, commanded "basnus" and put a cup of tea in front of me. Then I went back to the house, watched the Aljazeera daily news and Urmila of my host family brought me a cup of tea. So, tea.
A couple days ago, the principal was telling me about a Bhutanese refugee who had been shot and killed in Florida. Apparently it's been a really big news story here in Nepal. He told me the story had really frightened him, since he hopes that one day he and his family can move to the States as Bhutanese refugees, and he asked me if this was normal in the States. And I was like, "Well, Americans have a lot of guns….and they shoot people more than other people shoot people…….more than like…..Canadians." The principal is always asking me about what it's like to live in the States and I always feel like I'm describing a horrible, vile place, and then end up saying something like, "but, I mean, it's not that bad, at least in most places". One day he asked me if there was a good train system. One day he asked me what the CIA was. He always seems to ask me questions with the worse answers.
On Friday morning, I'll start my walk to Jiri, where I can take a bus back to Kathmandu. I've been told I can make it to Jiri in two days, if I hike from sunrise to sunset. But, for some reason, that makes me kind of excited. It's like a challenge….
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