Delhi Airport

This may sound rather obvious, but fourteen hour flights are long. There’s something that happens when you hit the seven hour mark and you realize that you’re only halfway there that makes you begin to curse all flight travel and yearn for a bed. Luckily I had spoken to the ticket agent in Chicago before I left and he switched my seat from being in the middle to an aisle much further up in the plane. I was also located next to the bathroom, so it was nice that I could just turn around and scope out the line before getting up. I was seated next to a very nice gentleman who was also going to be stuck in Delhi for twelve hours. I had a hard time understanding what he was saying, so we didn’t speak much, but when the duty free cart came around he bought two bottles of whiskey and two watches, which peaked my curiosity about who exactly this guy was. I thought about striking up another conversation but he replaced his headphones almost immediately afterwards, so we continued our journey in amicable silence.

When I was checking my bag in Tampa the woman at the ticket counter seemed to imply that I would be stuck in some sort of transit area in Delhi that had no food, water, or bathrooms. This, thank goodness, turned out to be totally untrue and instead I’m now residing in a pretty typical international airport, with a food court, shops, a couple of restaurants and some nice lounges. They even have free wifi if you have a cell phone they can send the information to. I’ve set myself up in a nice little corner behind a staircase, and have gotten around four or five hours of sleep.

There are a few things, though, that divulge the fact I’m not in Kansas anymore, with the clothes and the language being the two most obvious. I love the kurta’s and sari’s the women wear here. Kurta’s(I think that’s what they’re called) are the outfits with the long shirts, matching pants and a matching scarf. I love how bold they are, the colors choices are always bright and because they’re generally one color they stick out nicely in a crowd. What’s odd about the language is that while most people are chatting in Hindi/whatever Indian language they’re speaking, all of the signs are in English. Even the television I’m watching that is streaming some Indian news station has all of the writing in English. From what I understand about India, this is because with the plethora of different languages spoken on the subcontinent English is sort of a lingua franca, a leftover from the colonial days when everyone had to speak it.

Most of the restaurants at the food court had their menus separated between vegetarian and non vegetarian options. None of them served beef, as cows are sacred in Hinduism, and some of the places served sea food like fried calamari and tuna flakes. I broke down and bought a mango lassi, which is like a mango smoothie made with yogurt. It was delicious! The mango they used to make it was HUGE.

Finally, the air conditioning here isn’t set on winter in Antarctica like it is everywhere in the US, and I’m actually sweating a bit waiting for these twelve hours to be up so I can finally make my way to Kathmandu. Thank goodness this is only an hour long flight. It’s so close I can taste it!

 
(Sorry no pictures this post, there are a lot of security people wandering around and I suspect they wouldn’t be thrilled if they saw me taking a bunch of photos)

On My Way

They say trouble comes in threes. I prefer to think that the more problems that happen pre departure the more awesome your trip will be. The first setback that occurred was when my Mom called the airlines to double check that I had a seat on the flight. I did, but before hanging up she casually asked what size was the maximum for luggage and if it would be able to be checked all the way through to Kathmandu. Nope, no way can that happen. Because my layover is over 12 hours long(ya I’m already super excited that, way to make it worse airlines) they can’t hold it that long. I would need to get a visa and get my luggage, recheck it in, and then go through security again. I didn’t have time at that point to get a visa without paying around $200, which I am unwilling to do. If I didn’t have liquids I might be able to manage only having a carry-on, but between contact solution and other items I really needed to check a bag.

My possessions for the next six months

We called back and got assurance by a different man that they would be able to check it all the way through because the layover wasn’t longer than 24 hours. We just had to make completely certain when we checked the bag at the airport that it was checked all the way. This turned out to be true, but we had to have the poor man at the luggage check in call the airline themselves and do a manual override of their bag checking system. I also discovered when I checked in that I would not be spending my 12 hours and 40 minutes in the airport with food and drinks, but instead I would be stuck in the transit area. Super fun.

The second problem had to do with my car, which decided to die two days before I was supposed to leave. Luckily it wasn’t the alternator like we thought, just a faulty break light. Still, it had my Mom and I panicked for a bit.

My presents for my home stay families

I discovered a third issue when I tried to buy gas at the gas station. My credit card was rejected, which didn’t make sense because I had just paid my bill. I called them when I got home and discovered that it had been shut down because someone had stolen the numbers and was attempting to buy building materials in Delaware. My bank, being awesome, immediately smelled something fishy and shut down the card. So I didn’t actually lose any money, but I won’t be able to get a new credit for a week. I’m going to be in Kathmandu by then, and my Mom is flying to California for the next month. Considering I was primarily thinking I would use my credit card in Nepal, that is slightly inconvenient. My Mom is going to send it to me when she gets home, and I’ll have to manage with the cash I have until then. I don’t think it’ll be too hard.

So now that I’ve got those problems out of the way, hopefully the rest of my flights will be uneventful, if dreadfully long. I am currently sitting in the Tampa airport, munching on a turkey and artichoke panini, waiting for the plane to board. A bit sad about leaving, but mostly crazy excited to begin my adventure!

Why and What

I feel like a good place to begin this blog is by answering the two questions I get asked most frequently when I tell people that I'm going to Kathmandu; “Why Nepal?” and “What will you be doing over there for six months?”.

The inspiration for this journey actually began in 2007, when I had the opportunity to spend my summer abroad. I had looked at many different programs, mostly around Tibet as I had just finished reading a book about the Dalai Lama, until I came across Passage Program. Their Tibetan Cultural Immersion Program was actually cheaper than a lot of the shorter programs I had seen, and six weeks seemed like a good length of time. Four of those weeks were spent living in Kathmandu with a Tibetan family.

All of the students in the program

And two were spent in Tibet visiting monasteries.

Hayley and I in front of the Potala Palace!

I expected to go and become energized about Tibet, but I found myself being more drawn to Nepal. The people, the culture, the food; I fell head over heels in love with the country. I resolved to one day return to Nepal, although at the time I was unsure of what pretext I could use.

                 

I found my excuse during my senior year of high school when I read John Wood's book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. After trekking in Nepal and promising some school children that he would come back with books, his efforts quickly spiraled into him founding Room to Read. Room to Read is an amazing NGO that builds schools and provides books for libraries in developing countries. His passion and commitment resonated with me deeply, and I knew that this is what I wanted to dedicate my life to. I hope to someday work for a development organization that operates in Nepal, preferably one relating to microcredit or education. Granted I’m still not sure exactly what I want to do for this development organization. I should probably figure that out soon.

                 

My original plan of spending an entire year abroad was shortened due to various restraints, but I settled on participating in both a summer and semester program. My first program is with Passage Program, who now goes by the name Passage International. The amazing staff is what brought me back to Passage, along with their price. Anyone looking to spend time in Nepal or India, I assure you Passage gives the most bang for your buck.

                

 For my first ten weeks I’ll spend Monday through Friday in a 90 minute Nepali language class, before spending the rest of the day interning with RHEST. RHEST(Rural Health Education Services Trust) is an NGO that provides scholarships to girls living in rural Nepal. Not only are girls less likely to receive an education than boys, but in rural areas they are also at risk for human trafficking. The hope is that by paying for educational expenses their parents will be less likely to sell them, and they’ll be able to get higher paying jobs. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing for RHEST, but I’m really excited to learn more about their organization and hope to get a chance to do field work for them. On weekends Passage has set up for me to take heritage walks throughout Kathmandu, which should also be really interesting.

A temple in Bhaktapur I saw on a heritage walk on my last visit

After my Passage Program ends I’ll begin a fifteen week Development and Social Change Program with the School for International Training(SIT). SIT is an awesome organization, and besides taking a development seminar I’ll have the opportunity to hear guest lecturers from people who work for the World Bank, USAID, and a variety of NGOs. I’ll continue taking Nepali language classes; these will be two and a half hours long with former Peace Corps language instructors. Besides taking classes I will be going on a number of excursions which include; a homestay in a rural Nepalese village, visiting Darjeeling in India, a safari in the Chitwan National Park, and trekking in the Himalayas. No big deal.

                Only three days and 20 hours of flying stand between me and my adventure. I’m ridiculously excited!