Advances in Nepali

I’m not sure if it was the time off from the class, or being surrounded by people who were constantly speaking Nepali, but something clicked over the weekend and my language class was much easier. I had somehow absorbed most of the verbs and did a pretty good job answering my teacher’s questions.

Before going to RHEST I stopped by the tailor to get my kurta made. The first place I went to when I stepped inside the two women totally ignored me. I said ‘namaste’ and tried to catch their eyes, but they didn’t even look over. Whatever, it was there loss of business.

The second tailor I went to went well. They didn’t seem to speak any English but I was able to communicate pretty well with a mix of Nepali and hand gestures. There were these two adorable little girls were there with their mother, who was also buying a kurta. The older one spoke English surprisingly well, and I practiced my Nepali with her, pointing to colors and naming them and talking about the kind of fruit I like(by the way my language teacher keeps asking me what fruit Kristin and Mom like, for Kristin I say all fruit and for Mom I say none)

I felt very accomplished when I finished my purchase and the day was made even better when I saw two bunnies in a restaurant courtyard. One was a very tiny baby bunny, and I kicked myself for not taking my camera with me. The other was big and white, but I couldn’t catch either of them to pet.

I had made plans to meet Hayley in Thamel so she could get her hair straightened and I could get my hair henna’d. I felt accomplished with my Nepali for the second time when I asked for the price in Nepali to the cab driver and he answered in Nepali. I also got 25 rupees less than what I usually pay. Success!

When I got to the Korean hair place I ended up getting a facial instead, I’d never had one and was curious as to what it was like. It was quite relaxing, but she put a lot of moisturizer on my face. I wanted to be like, um that’s not what I need, but whatever. Hayley got her hair straightened which looked amazing, and next time she goes I think I’ll get the so called ‘face cleaning’.

The day had been awesome, but the night seemed to be less inclined to be kind to me. After Hayley got into a cab I was almost immediately accosted by street children. One of them was blatantly huffing glue, and I was reminded about how even though Thamel is the tourist area, it still is very poor. I told them to go away in Nepali, and many of them did, but there were two boys who began grabbing at me. I escaped into a nearby store, and the girls who worked there luckily got them to leave me alone.

I was not in the best place to get a cab I guess, because guy didn’t stop for very long and wouldn’t negotiate prices until I got inside. Because I was rushing I hadn’t been looking down, so I stepped in ankle deep mud and trash. That was awesome, my feet smelled great in the taxi cab. I actually felt sort of guilty for the driver, although he looked even younger than me.

The night luckily got better when I got to the Attic, this bar that is actually located in the attic of a house. I was able to wash off my feet, and got some A.F.C which is like KFC but much better. I stayed there for awhile before meeting up with my Aamaa at Shisha, which had live music. In total, I’d say it was a good day. 

Weekend at Borderlands

I was supposed to go on a heritage walk in the morning but Anil, the guy giving the tour, was busy so it was rescheduled for Wednesday. I got up and packed for my weekend getaway to Borderlands, a resort on the border of Tibet. Hayley and crew were the ones who organized the trip, and I was really excited to be invited along. I had driven from Lhasa to Kathmandu the last time I was here and remembered the drive being beautiful, as well as the location being a really interesting place to visit.

The drive was amazing, if super scary for me. I’m not used to driving in mountains so I wasn’t expecting the road to be so narrow, barely enough to fit two cars. These huge buses will come barreling down the road with the only warning being their very melodic horns. I’m not sure who started that trend, but they all sound sort of similar to the trailer from Meet the Parents.

We stopped twice on the four hour ride; the first place being a little roadside café where we grabbed some lassi’s and used the bathrooms. It was amazing how quickly things became rural; we probably had only been driving for an hour. We were driving out of the Kathmandu Valley and it was incredible to see the next valley over.

The second place we stopped was next to a river, where we had some snacks as all of us were starving. Hayley, Dipenka(Oz’s cousin) and Pravena and I all played in the super cold river for a bit and then came up and had a bit of a dance party. They’re a really awesome group, so much energy and fun. It was then that I saw that my camera batteries were dying, which really sucked. They had lasted for a super long time, I hadn’t charged them since I came to Kathmandu, but I also hadn’t brought my charger so I now had to be more careful about when I was taking pictures.

After we spent some time at the river, we finished the drive to Borderlands. It was late by the time we got there, so we really couldn’t see anything, but the river was so loud you could definitely hear it. There were also dozens of fireflies everywhere. I didn’t know that they were native to Nepal, but they were amazingly beautiful. I chased them for a bit, but wasn’t able to catch any.

We had a huge buffet feast at Borderlands, and then proceeded with the drinking and partying. My eating with my hands technique has gotten better, and I even got a bunch of compliments from the Nepali’s. We were the only ones there, which was good, because things got pretty rowdy. It was raining, and even though I had only one pair of pants, I joined the other girls dancing in the rain. They were playing primarily Hindi songs, but with some English ones thrown in. It was a great night, I had an amazing time. It was nice falling asleep to the sound of the river; it was similar to the ocean but more chaotic.

After sleeping in tents we got up early in the morning and I took some pictures of the place. It was so beautiful and peaceful in the morning, and it was really cool that you could see like six waterfalls in the distance. You could also see into Tibet, but borders are pretty arbitrary in my opinion(the Chinese would probably disagree). On the drive back we stopped by one particularly big waterfall, but there were dozens more. The ride was less scary this time because I was used to looking at the spectacular views.

We stopped at a Hindu temple on the top of a mountain on the way back. These roads were even narrower, now only fitting one car at a time, and higher up in the mountain. I had to take some deep breathes to relax, but everything went fine. The temple itself was gorgeous; apparently the master who had carved the statue of the goddess had done it with his feet. The story goes that he had made one statue for a king, who then cut off his right hand so he couldn’t replicate it. He then made a statue with his left hand and had that cut off too. So finally he made this statue with his feet. I dunno if those were cut off too, but maybe.

Before driving back to Kathmandu we had a few drinks and some snacks at this resort place, where the view was amazing. The power went out so they all sang Hindi songs, which I guess is a common activity. Pravena had an amazing voice, I was quite jealous. The drive back to Kathmandu was uneventful, but I’ll never forget the weekend.

Cows and UNICEF

The language class actually went better today. I think Sushila tried a different approach with the verbs, only giving me about 15 to go over and mostly making sentences with them. It was much less frustrating than trying to straight memorize them. RHEST was fine, but what keeps happening is that they will give me a job to do and then halfway through they’ll be like ‘oh I forgot to tell you about this part of it, now you have to go back over all your work and change it’. It’s not super terrible, just very frustrating. And they seem to think I’m slow because I didn’t do it right the first time, so they’ll explain things extremely slowly over and over again. It’s satisfying work, though, because I know how important it is to keep good records.

After RHEST I was walking home from work when I got hit by a cow. Yep, you read that right, a cow. They have herds of them walking down the backalleys that can barely fit one car usually around the time I get off of work, and generally I’ll just step around them. This time however, I was stuck between the wall and the cow, so I tried to quickly step around him. He had decided that he really didn’t like me for some reason, and rammed me with his head, with enough force to actually lift me off my feet.

This hurt like hell, but wasn’t that bad except where I landed happened to be in the path of a taxi. Luckily it wasn’t going very fast so they were able to stop in time. I was shaken, and my stomach still kind of hurts, but mostly I find it funny now. Cows are holy in Nepal, so my friends were joking that I’ll become wealthy.

After that experience I meet Trishna for a beer. Trishna is the reporter I’ve mentioned before, and a really interesting woman. Because she works as a criminal investigator she's gotten threatening phone calls and messages from people who don't want her to run a certain story. It's dangerous work, and from what I understand women don't usually do it, but she seems pretty unflappable. She was surprised when I told her many of the girls that RHEST gives scholarships to have six or seven siblings, and is thinking of doing a story about the organization. 

After the beer Hayley and Oz came and picked us up and took us to dinner. We were having dinner at his Aunts house, and I didn't realize this beforehand, but all of his Uncles from that side of the family were also attending. It was such a big affair they actually hired a live band to play, and this man sang amazingly beautiful Hindi and Nepali songs. The snacks were amazing, momos and chicken and vegetables and french fries. I thought that was supposed to be dinner so I filled up on them, although the huge portions of rice and dhaal came later.

At the dinner I met one of Oz's Uncles who works for UNICEF. We got to talking, and he actually works for their education department. It is so amazing to meet and get to talk to people who have the job you want. I really want to work on the education side of development as well, so learning how important before school education is was very interesting. Most of the children in the developing world haven't seen a book or even a  pen before going to school, which can make it much harder for them to learn. He's working on ways to support before school education in those areas.

What's even more amazing is that after inviting me to visit him in New York, which is where he works, he said that if I email him he can set up a meeting with the head of education department of UNICEF in Nepal. Just to ask questions and get a feel for the organization. What an incredible opportunity, it's amazing how easy it is to meet people and network here!

BBQ's and Superstore's

The highlight of Wednesday was definitely the BBQ I went to at Oz’s house in the evening. RHEST was sort of a bust because the computers weren't working so I couldn’t do the work I needed to. The language classes aren’t getting harder per se, just more frustrating. All of the verbs end in u, which for some reason really confuses me. Honestly I’ve gotten better at conjugating than recognizing the verbs. But I’m sure if I keep working it’ll come to me.

I watched television at the house until Hayley called me, and then took a cab to Oz, her boyfriends, house. The night before when they had invited me to the BBQ I had pictured a traditional American one, with a grill and excessive amounts of meat. This was more of a low key affair, with the meat being mostly chicken and fish and cooked in a large toaster oven.

Oz is an awesome cook, the chicken was amazing. He put some Thai sauce on them which made them absolutely divine. The fish was also really good, rainbow trout with a little bit of lemon. I feel that when it comes to fish it’s better to be simple.

Thursday was another pretty standard day, with the language class again being frustrating but good. I just sometimes feel like I’m not getting anywhere, even though I know a lot more now. But oh well, I’ll just have to keep working. My stomach was unhappy all day, which was really lame, but I had been waiting to get sick. It’s just a fact of life here since the bacteria in the water is so different.

At RHEST I accidently stayed longer because I was looking at the computer clock, which said 3, instead of my watch, which said 4. I had been surprised at how little time had passed, but just figured I was bored or something. It was only later that I saw it said AM instead of PM, which is what tipped me off.

After work I walked to one of the big new supermarkets in Kathmandu. It was HUGE. They had five floors and included a floor just for shoes. I needed some shampoo, conditioner, soap, makeup remover and laundry detergent, which I picked up for 970 rupees. At first I was outraged by how expensive it was, and then I realized I could never have gotten that much stuff in the US for only 15 bucks. 

Mr. Momo I think

Sooo much ramen!

On the way home I stopped by a tailor and (sort of impulsively) bought fabric to make another kurta. It was on sale, and really beautiful, but I now need to go to Tamil to exchange my Thai money for rupees and take some money out of the atm.

I spent the night at home chilling with Kishan, which was actually really nice. I’ve been so busy lately it was really nice to just relax and veg out. Tomorrow is Friday, so I’ll almost definitely be out and about, and Saturday I’m going to Last Resort with Hayley and the gang. Super pumped!

Going to the Field with RHEST

It was quite difficult to wake up in the morning after all of the partying the night before, but I grabbed some coffee at the European Bakery down my street on the way to work. It was amazing, as usual, and at around fifty cents an awesome price. I had to miss my language class because I was going out into the field with RHEST, and we were leaving at nine, which was a bummer.

The ride was quite beautiful. We were going to an area of the valley where most people subsist at least partly off of agriculture. The road was ridiculously bumpy, but I enjoyed listening to the Nepali music on the way.

The school

After we got there we went to one of the schools that RHEST works with and distributed the materials. Each of the students on the scholarship program receieved an umbrella, a backpack, books, and school fees. The school was depressing enough with the lack of facilities, but there also only seemed to be one teacher who rotated through the classes, so most of the time the students are studying by themselves.

RHEST teaching the children and women about trafficking

I was there when one of the RHEST employees was conducting interviews for new participants in the program, and he told me some (shocking to me) stories. Apparently it’s not uncommon for children to live with their grandparents or an aunt and uncle because their parents will get divorced and both marry other people. Instead of the children going with one parent or the other they’re just abandoned unless a relative takes them in.

It’s also not uncommon for a family to have six girls and one boy because the parents just kept having children until they got a boy. This is why providing scholarships to girls in rural areas is so important; because they’re valued so much lower than the boys in the family. It was a good trip, and I feel more inspired to work for RHEST now, but it’s also difficult to think about the hardship these children face.

After being stuck on the road due to a truck that had sunk in the mud(hooray for monsoon season), we made our way back. The most frightening part of the drive was when we had to go down the road backwards because there was no place to turn around. The road was pretty narrow and there were a few large drops, but everything went fine. I was dying of hunger by the time we got back to Kathmandu, as I hadn’t eaten in nine hours and had only had a cheese croissant for breakfast. I was hungry enough to try the ‘American’ Sour Cream and Onion chips from a convenience stall, which were shockingly different to the American ones.

 
After I got home Hayley called me and invited me out to dinner with the group from the night before. I had had an awesome time hanging out with them, so I readily said yes. I was super tired from the trip and the fact I hadn’t gotten any sleep, but I’m glad I went. The food was amazing, and they had some crazy stories. Growing up in a national park will do that, I guess. The people you meet have had so many amazing experiences, hopefully I’ll come back with some great stories of my own.

New Road and Hayley's Welcome Back Party

Sunday was spent with a trip to New Road, a shopping district of Kathmandu. Thamel is where all of the tourists go to shop, but New Road is sort of the Nepali equivalent. You can find pretty much everything there, and for a pretty decent price. Megan needed to find a charger for her batteries, which was easily discovered at the first shop we tried.

I had come mostly to purchase some sandals, which I desperately needed. You take your shoes off when you go inside of a home, so only having sneakers was quite obnoxious. They’re pretty comfortable too. We went for lunch at this roof top café that had the best pasta salad I may have ever had. After lunch I purchased a new sky blue kurta, which was more expensive than I was hoping but I’m still very excited to have. We also got a few movies, which they sell for fifty cents each, and went back to Yanik’s house to watch them.

Monday was a fairly standard day, beginning with my language class and RHEST. Afterwards I hung out at the house until later in the night. Hayley, one of the girls who did the Passage program with me four years ago, had flown into Kathmandu that morning and was having a welcome home party. It was amazing to see her again, she hasn’t changed a bit. The party was also pretty crazy, and I met a lot of interesting people.

Shristi and actually not her boyfriend

I seem to find myself around people a lot older than me, so meeting Shristi was really nice. She’s 19 and goes to college in Kathmandu. She’s done some modeling before, but was very down to earth. Our birthdays are actually a day apart(hers is September 12^th) so maybe we can have a joint celebration. Her boyfriend was also a very chill guy.

Trishna is on the left

Trishna works as a criminal justice reporter for one of the papers around here. She’s fiercely intelligent, and you tell that everyone at the party really respected her. She clearly cares a lot about Nepal, and wants to improve the country.

After the party Kishan picked me up and we chilled for a bit with his friends before heading home. It was a great night, and it was amazing to see Hayley again.

Fourth of July in Kathmandu

My homestay family left around noon to take my bhaai back to India. They’re going to be gone until Saturday, but Kishan will still be around. It’ll be really nice to have the company; otherwise I might be sort of lonely in this big house. He’s a really chill guy too, so it’s cool to hang out with him.

I got my phone today, which is already proving useful. Megan, the girl who had done a Passage program four years ago, wanted to go to the Fourth of July celebration with me so Yanik called and arranged it. Phora Durbar, where it was being held, was within easy walking distance so I set out to find it. I was feeling adventurous so I decided to not check the map Yanik had drawn for me and just try to find my way on my own, which went about as well as expected. I love wandering around Kathmandu, so I didn’t mind getting lost and taking a taxi to the party. I got to see some neat shrines and trees, so I would say the journey was a success.

Things here just seem to work out almost eerily well. I got out of my cab at a pretty random spot, but immediately bumped into Megan who was asking a guard for directions. We could see where the event was happening, but had to walk around for a bit before we could find the entrance. After showing our passports and having them write down the number(I now sort of suspect that the celebration was a ruse to keep track of Americans in Kathmandu) and went inside. We checked the prices of the food, which were pretty expensive(read four dollars for a sizable burger) so we decided to just get a drink and eat elsewhere. We saw Amy, the girl who works for USAID, sitting at a table and she invited us to join her. We met John, another person who works for USAID but was just visiting for a few weeks, a guy who works for the foreign service and seems to be in charge of giving visas, and Rob.

Rob has been here for seven years, and originally came to Nepal when working for the Peace Corps. After falling in love with the country he started an organization that teaches victims of rape and abuse massage therapy, and then finds them employment in spas. It works to both provide the girls with a means of supporting themselves, as they are usually shunned by their families, and as a way to council them. It’s amazing the people you meet here.

After finishing our drinks and saying goodbye, Megan and I had pizza and she showed me a really neat bookstore called Pilgrim’s Books. It’s pretty famous among the tourist community and has a café in the back. The place was surprisingly huge, and had a lot of neat stuff. I’ll probably go back there to get my postcards and some souvenirs, but for now I’m saving purchasing gifts until a bit closer to when I leave.

We checked out the Garden of Dreams before walking home. Everyone raves about how beautiful it is, but we both found it sort of small. It was gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but not as amazing as everyone says and more expensive than what I’d want to pay for something that size. It was really nice to have someone to go exploring with, Megan is a really awesome person. Besides having a love of Nepal in common we get along really well, and I felt very comfortable being myself around her. The last time I was here I had five other people to explore with, and I hadn’t realized how much I had missed having a traveling companion, not that I don’t like exploring by myself.

After a successful walk home without getting lost we shared a cab to Upstairs Jazz for some drinks and some chicken momos. The momos were delicious, and the live jazz was pretty good. The drummer was rocking out, but I sort of missed the saxophone guy. It’s a different band that plays on Wednesdays than Saturdays, so it was nice to have a variety.

We actually ran into Ron, who lives down the street from Upstairs. He joined us, and we all had a good time chatting and hanging out. I casually mentioned I wanted to find a part time job and he said that it would be really easy for him to find one for me. How crazy is that?! I had expected to look for one but not find any, but he said he could probably find me several to choose from, “Within half a day” to quote him exactly. I think I want to get a bartending job. Learning to bartend in Nepal would be an amazing opportunity, and would probably help me practice my Nepali.

Wandering the Back Alleys of Kathmandu

I got up super early this morning to have breakfast with Yanik. Yanik was in the area because he had just dropped Lauren, another girl on the Passage program, off on a bus headed to Pokhara. She was going for her trek, although because it’s monsoon season it’s probably going to be a pretty rainy one. I’m not going to be trekking with Passage, but I’m pretty sure I will be with SIT sometime in October. The rainy season will be over by then; I’m hoping there won’t be too many leeches.

We ate at Mike’s Breakfast, which is a restaurant that serves American style breakfast. Mike had been living in Kathmandu since the 60s, and had come to Nepal as one of the first Peace Corps volunteers. Like a lot of the expats who have been living here for awhile, he had come to escape being drafted in the Vietnam War. I guess he then made a life for himself and never went back home. The food was pretty good, but the portion was HUGE. I do not know anyone who would be able to eat that much in one sitting.

Lunch at RHEST. The rice puffs kind of tasted like cereal

After breakfast I hung out in my house until my language class, which went fine. I learned a bunch of verbs that I’m going to memorize over the weekend. I had two cups of coffee at breakfast, the coffee here is organic and delicious, but I hadn’t anticipated the amount of caffeine they had in them so I was jittery all morning. RHEST was fine as well, although I’m still getting a hang of all of the little idiosyncrasies with the paperwork.

On the walk home I saw a huge heard of cows milling about. Normally I’ll see one or two, usually just chilling like they own the place. Today, however, there were like 20 all walking together. The cows here are sort of strange; they don’t look innocent and dumb like the ones in the US. These have a look in their eye that makes it seem like they’ve seen things, terrible things. Maybe I’m just imagining it, though.

The gates here are really cool

A mural about water sanitation

Entrance to a restaurant

After RHEST I went exploring, aka got myself lost. I picked a direction and started walking; taking pictures of the things I thought were interesting. I was determined to walk back a different way than the way I had come, partly because the road I was walking on was really polluted. I probably inhaled as much smoke as what is in a pack of cigarettes just from walking, and am considering purchasing a mask.

But anyways, to head back home I walked into one of the numerous back alleys of Kathmandu. I figured that because I knew the general direction of where I needed to go I could probably find my way back. Big mistake. The tiny roads twist and turn in every direction, and I managed to find myself in a very poor area of Kathmandu. I wouldn’t say the stares I got were hostile, but they were definitely not friendly. I just put on my ‘I know where I am and where I am going’ face and walked quickly. Luckily I found my way to the main road, and walked home.

All of the windows at this house looked like this

I was toying with the idea of going out to this bar where they have live music on Fridays, but it was the last night before my Aamaa and bhaai leave so instead I hung out with them. My Aamaa’s friends were over saying goodbye, and again I was astonished at how friendly everyone is. They seemed to feel completely at ease with me, as if I were an old friend who had come home after a long time away. It’s really nice, if a bit strange to me.

 
After they left I watched a show about tracking Yeti’s in Bhutan, which was surprisingly interesting. Bhutan seems like an awesome place, I think I’d like to go there someday.