New house, trekking and elephants

New house, trekking and elephants

My language classes have finally come to an end, and I begin wonder how I will ever get by with 50 verb flash cards, 1-20 in Nepali and 10 sentences about myself that my colleagues have already heard! I have really enjoyed learning a new language and I do feel confident that I can get by with what I know and I have tasked myself with studying an hour improving and learning new vocab (I really am square).

Gwyneth who has been staying with me during the language training in another volunteers unoccupied apartment, is about to leave her for her placement, which means for me it is time to go it alone. I have found a very nice house to live in, which I will move into this week when I have furnished it. The house is a bungalow with 2 bedrooms, lounge, kitchen, dining room, bathroom (in and out), pantry (very nice) and an outside storeroom. Its ironic that normally I would have no problem in furnishing this size house with all manner of unnecessary bling, in fact normally I don’t have enough space and now I have loads of space and one back pack and suitcase to fill it. One of the best features of the house includes the roof which is a giant balcony the size of the entire house and is perfect for hula hooping and other activities yet to be explored such as drying washing and flip wanging (there are no wellys here). The other good feature aside from the authentic water pump in the garden, it in fact the garden, its lovely and big and it all mine! There is a guava tree and a curious looking parasitic plant which has crawled up a tree to sprout what looks like giant marrows, very interesting. As the newbie in the community I will of no doubt be of major interest to the local community, no one lives on their own here, particularly a youngish unmarried women such as myself, tongues will wag! Although no doubt my landlady has already spread the word of the random creature who is coming to potter round her empty house.

I have just returned from my first holiday (well official holiday), to Bardia National Park, with Gwyneth. We spent Christmas Day trekking all day through the park with our guide rising at 6:00am to feast on banana porridge and nepali chiyya before setting off. It was freezing when we set off, but as the sun rose and we gathered pace we slowly peeled back the layers and by lunch time it was sweltering. There wasn’t much wildlife around in the park, but I was not disappointed, I was just glad to be in the country side drinking in the fabulous landscape of trees, forest, birds and rivers. We did see many deer, woodpeckers, parrots, humming birds, wart hogs, wild boar, a very long python, crocodiles and fish. At the end of the day, we hopped on an elephant, a rather dishevelled looking creature and ambled for a further hour through the river, long grasses and forest as the sun began to set. I did feel a bit guilt afterwards for riding an elephant I don’t really believe is exactly the right thing to do, especially when I saw one chained up like a dog afterwards but it was an interesting experience. We ended the day with a fine meal and I had a tea pot of hot toddy before a hot shower and hot water and bed at 8:30pm.

I will be spending this week purchasing essential items for my house like; bed, mattress, quilt, gas stove & bottle, crockery, fridge, water filter, table and chairs and I am going to purchase a bike. I have missed my bike and look forward to minimising length of stares from local people, though I have yet to see a foreigner on a bike, in fact I can go for weeks without seeing a foreign face at all, I am ethnic minority. I will have an incoming phone line and the internet at my new house shortly, so I will be expecting lots of calls!!!! And then finally...after all this fannying about I will start working on 3^rd January, which will bring a whole new set of surprises and challenges.

I hope you enjoyed you Christmas celebrations and binge drinking and have a great new year celebration. I will be spending new years eve with Wanet the other volunteer in Neplaganji.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. By the way it’s already January in Nepal and the year is 2067, they are ahead of use which is ironic.

Please send me news and come and occupy my spare bedroom.

XXXX

My Routine and I am not talking dance

So I thought it might be interesting to to tell you about my daily routine now I am in Nepalganji. Nepalganji is on the south west border of Nepla, its only 15km to the Indian border, so I can apparently nip over the border to buy bollywood outfits and coffee at raamro price.

Each morning I get up about 7:00- 8:00, take out last nights ear plugs and boil a pan of water. When the water is boiled I transfer this tiny amount into a bucket and mix with cold water-this is my shower/bucket. I have got this really handy glove thingy which makes the thimble soap and water go further. They I dress and do yoga or hooping, if I am feeling brave I will go for a run. Gwyeth, my current flat mate is up and about and breakfasted before me, so I will conjure up some random breakfast like tomatoes on shit white sugary bread, followed by yogurt and banana.

Using my bucket I will then hand wash what ever I fancy e.g. sheets, towels, underwear - there are no washing machines!

After buggering about for a couple of ours we will cram at our nepali language before our lesson begins for about two hours before a lunch of lentil and vegetable soup. After lucnh I always have a 1 exact teaspoon of fresh coffee made of the stove using Gwyneths coffee maker thingy. Then we sit and wait for our teacher who is usually 25 minutes late, during sometime I will have a strop and go to make tea, it feels like I am a teenager again-but the teacher is sometimes very frustrating and so is learning Nepali.

After 4 hour lesson, we go to the market to buy food and eat out in swastik cottage-swastik means health, not what I thought it stood for. Then we will settle down on the floor - there is no coach, me in my sleeping bag wiggling around, for some tv. Either channel 3 news, channel 21 random bollywood dancing, or channel 32 a really bad 80's film never seen before because its so shit. About 8:30 I am about ready to issue an ASBO on the neighbour who decides to put his music on really load. And as I settle to bed about 9:30 and put my ear plugs in, it is all about to start again....

Raw garlic and ginger

I have been in Kathmandu for two weeks already, actually it feels like a lot longer. The first two weeks we have been what I like to call ‘herding’. Walking around in our new volunteer herd. I am not really fond of herding, but in this situation it has mainly been a positive experience in which everyone has been very supportive and tolerant. During the two weeks I have settled into Kathmandu and the way of life here and I have begun to understand the culture and learn the language. Highlights’ so far include last Saturday’s Hash and evening Himalayan Blues Festival. The Hash is basically an expat running and beer fest which I should hate, as surely I must want to mix with Nepali, but actually its a relief to meet up with other people who know where I am coming from and its also a great way to see the countryside outside of Kathmandu. It was great to have a dance to some live music after the run, which by the way was 13 km! Although for us volunteers we blew 3-4 days budget in a night out, well worth it though!

With the highs come the lows, which started with the squits on Sunday and finished on Tuesday, this was a really shitty time though, I felt very low and energy less. I managed to cure myself with my faithful friends raw garlic and ginger and have since committed to swallowing raw garlic and chewing ginger on a daily basis and I feel great!

Herding will end on 1^st December when we all go to our districts to find ourselves fancy apartments and to complete a further 3 weeks language training. And then finally I will begin my volunteering. I am intrigued to meet my new colleagues and to discover the delights of Nepalgunji. The picture painted so far has been varied, but I will decide for myself and paint my own picture.

It hasn’t rained once since I have been here which is very strange for me, but usual for this time of year here. I never thought I would miss the rain, but the pollution here is so bad because we are in a valley it would be if the rain came to rid the smog.

Big love

x

Good Bye and Namaste

I had a wonderful time saying good bye to everyone before I left, it really felt like everyone was supportive of what I was doing. The bolly wood night and mad hatters tea part at work were brilliant and great to see people at work-out of work. Then Francesca and Dave supported me on the 42 mile sponsored cycle challenge, which was indeed a challenge (for me and Dave anyway). I had a lovely time staying with my Mum and she really helped me to eliminate non essential items when I was packing in my final few hours. Brighton was fabulous-zombie walk and dancing-wicked.

My final farewell in Manchester was lovely too and it was great to spend some time with Dave before I left.

Rob saw me to the airport, thank goodness, I could not carry all my luggage on my own and I even managed to down a jacket potato before climbing aboard.

After what felt like forever I finally made it to Kathmandu, where was my welcome part, no where to be seen! So I caught a taxi to the guest house and slept. Over the last week I have been settling in. I have been learning to speak Nepali, which is going really well. People are really friendly here and will help you with your language. On the first Saturday I went to the hash house harriers run, up hills and down dale through spider webs, it was really good and my legs ached for four days. The temperature is chilly really, not as cold as UK ha ha but without heating its really cold when you are sitting in the class room.

There are 12 new volunteers that make up our group, I am the only British, the rest are Dutch, African, Philippian, American, Canadian and Indian. All ofcourse are really nice!

My battery is about to run out so thats all for now....to be continued

PS food good

Bollywood Extravaganza

In true leaving do styley I was lucky enough to jump on the back of a fundraiser my friend Meena was organising for female cancers. It was a Bollywood night with Bollywood music, rice and three and lots of dancing. I had a great night, thanks Meena!

Preparing to go

In early November I will be going to Nepal to volunteer with VSO as an Organisational Development Advisor, for an NGO which campaigns for the rights of people with disabilities. I am going for 26 months and spending the first 2 months learning to speak Nepali and getting orientated.

How excited I am!

The preparations have begun both mentally and practically. What to take, what will I need, eek oh ah!

I also have a personal secret mission, which will be revealed in time...