There’s no place like home August 20, 2009

Ok so a few people have asked about a final post about how I have found things since my return home.  Well…I don’t really feel all that enthusiastic about writing still.  I don’t know if that’s because I haven’t quite worked out quite what to write, or if it’s just because I have already slipped back into my lazy ways!  I would prefer to think it was the former…that I can’t quite figure out how to put it all into words.

Obviously 3 months in a country such as Nepal is going to have some sort of effect on people.  It certainly has had an affect on me.  Everyone who read this blog knows of the culture shock, and the struggle to deal with the crazy way of life over in that country.  You all know about the heat, the madness, the fact that I missed New Zealand, and that I didn’t have a fantastic placement after I left my kids at the first home.  I certainly didn’t hold back whilst writing the blog, which I am still happy about, as I think it captured the experience as much as possible through the written medium(oh my gosh how posh!)   It’s really hard to get it across to people who haven’t been there (obviously).  Obviously everyone’s experiences of such countries are so different, I just hope that I got my experience across in a way that was semi-understandable for those not there.

Before I left NZ, I  knew how lucky I was to live in such a beautiful country.  I knew to be grateful for clean (mostly) running water, showers whenever we want them, having a house, and having a relatively good health system in the country.  I knew that stuff, and I thought I could handle the challenge of Nepal.  Well as it turned out, Nepal threw more at me than I ever imagined, and it challenged me more than anything else I have done to date.  I kept comparing it to Ironman and thinking it just didn’t come close to that challenge!  I thought Ironman was tough, but being in Nepal was tonnes harder.  I then started thinking that if I conquered my time in Nepal, I could do anything!! 

I have now been home almost 3 weeks.  It’s amazing being home!  The first week back in Wellington was just amazingly beautiful.  I was so happy to be breathing in fresh, clean, cool air.  I was happy to turn the tap on and get water to drink.  I was happy to use the shower, sleep in my bed, have an electric blanket (thanks mum and dad!), see my animals, see my family, eat good food, prepare my OWN food, chill out, do nothing, do normal stuff, like cutting down trees, and helping fill up a trailer with chopped tree bits etc etc.  It was just great!  I really enjoyed catching up with friends again as well.  It seemed that it was only a day ago that I was saying BYE to them before the big adventure….but here I was, back from 3 months in Nepal.  It was done and dusted.  Over.  OVA-H!  I didn’t miss Nepal at all.  I was just sooooo happy to be back in the peace and quiet of New Zealand.  When we flew in over the coastline of NZ on the flight from Bangkok, I was just so excited and happy to see NZ, and the sea again.  It really was amazing.  (yes I know I am using amazing a lot, but that’s a great word to describe how it was!).

During my first week back, things seemed very very quiet.  There were no horns honking, the streets were quiet.  In Nepal there were people everywhere all the time, and traffic was absolutely mad at all times!  There were groups of people working together mostly everywhere you went.  People were hanging out with friends etc, laughing, talking, just generally appearing ‘happy’.    I was able to get back up into the hills and run/walk, which I found great.  It was so quiet up there, and I didn’t encounter a soul in my 90 minute sessions, which is a lot different from Nepal.  I just felt so appreciative to be home again, I felt really really happy and lucky!  Things seemed really expensive, as I was still comparing it all to Nepal prices.  Of course that just doesn’t work, but I couldn’t help thinking “In Nepal, water cost just 10 rupees, yet here I had to pay $4 a bottle!” (at the airport, but still!!!).  It was weird seeing lots of white faces around!  Whenever I would see a brown face, I would get this surge of familiarity, and it was weird.  The white people just looked weird to me, and I felt out of place, even though I was back ‘home’.

I was then booked on a bus to go up to Hamilton to stay with Tracey for a few days, as we were doing the ‘Tough Guy Challenge’ in Rotovegas.  I was excited, as it felt like my holiday was continuing, but on MY turf, and in a country which I at least understood!  The first part of the journey was taking a public bus from my house to the train station.  Well…I had my backpack on, and accidentally ran into someone with it (the bus was full of business-type people)…the woman said something to me, I have no idea what, as I didn’t quite hear her, but I apologised and walked down the back of the bus.  It was all full, so standing was the only option.  That I can handle (thanks to many a trip standing on the school bus back in the day).  I had no problem standing, as it gave me more of a chance to observe.  Oh my gosh…the bus was fairly quiet…everyone was pretty subdued.  They were all dressed in dark colours, and all looking out the windows, reading books, or staring straight ahead with vacant looks in their eyes.  Everyone looked so sad/angry.  It was amusing me, but also was weird to see.  Nepal’s buses are filled with people smiling, talking, helping each other, laughing, talking to strangers…..just the complete opposite of this bus.  If I had that bag with me on the bus in Nepal, someone would have helped me, or if not, they wouldn’t have even battered an eyelid if I had accidentally knocked them with it…as it’s all part and parcel of travelling in that place.  It was just interesting to notice all that.  

The next part of the trip was waiting for my naked bus to arrive to take me to Hamilton.  Well…I was waiting outside the train station, and was observing people flooding out of the station, heading to work.  Again, everyone was dressed in dark colours, they looked sombre, and they were all rushing to get somewhere.  It really looked as though they were heading for a funeral!  It was a Wednesday morning, and they were most likely heading to WORK.  A place where they earn money (plenty of it most likely), after coming in on a nice comfortable, safe train, after having fed their faces in their lovely homes North of Wellington.  Yeh sure….plenty to be unhappy about.  Ah maybe someone had eaten all the cornflakes that morning, or perhaps the toast got burnt…or….maybe they got up too late to even have breakfast…tough times! 

The bus trip itself was uneventful, and really enjoyable!  It was a really comfortable bus, we didn’t crash, the driver didn’t even honk the horn once, and we covered the distance between Wellington and Hamilton in 10 hours, WITH 2 stops!!!!  It was rather boring how everything went to plan really!   The raods were so smooth, and we were flying along.  Every now and then we would encounter roadworks, and yet again, a surge of familiarity hit me, as that reminded me of travelling on the bus to Pokhara, and felt more like it should be! 

That was the day I started missing Nepal.  I admit, I never thought I would miss Nepal.  I knew that I would miss the people I met in Nepal, but I never thought I would miss the craziness of Nepal in the way in which I have.  That first bus ride in NZ just reminded me how friendly everyone was in Nepal…they really were!  It seemed that the entire Kathmandu valley were friends/family.  Sure there were arguments, and bandahs etc etc, but overall, it really seemed like everyone knew each other, and were friends.  That wasn’t apparent here in Kiwi land at all.  People just don’t want to know you.  It feels so isolating, and as a ‘KIWI’ it felt weird to feel like that in my own country!  I can see how people who move here from countries such as India/Nepal feel isolated and lonely when they get here.  Driving along country roads in Nepal, you see large groups of people working together, in the fields, or at the houses, wherever you go!  Here….the houses look all closed up, there is no-one out in the fields, and all the cars are just driving fast with their windows up, so it’s just you. 

Everywhere I went was so clean!  It felt like someone had just come along and cleaned up the area especially…and even now, I can’t remember the place being so clean!  You go to a shop, and you buy stuff.  No bargaining, you just get it, or you don’t.  You pay horrendous prices for the simplest things. We think things are necessities that really aren’t.  You do your jobs, you go home, you work, you do things for yourself, and you think wow life is tough.  (ok that is a generalisation, not everyone thinks that way!)  The rivers are so beautiful, flowing fresh, and CLEAN.  There are large green fields just empty of people…..it is amazing to see it all after seeing dirty rivers,and roads clogged with people. I have to say that travelling in NZ is rather boring compared to Nepal.  As I said, things run to plan (generally), the roads are smooth, and away you go!  I never felt unsafe on Nepal’s roads, but the first trip I took on my own up to Upper Hutt, I did feel a little unsafe, just because of the speed we were all travelling.  In Nepal you are going fast if you travel at 60km/hr!!!   

Coming home has made me appreciate things so much more than ever before.  It has also made me realise even more, how materialistic we are.  Yes I know that is a generalisation yet again, but for the most part, it’s true.  I had a plan to get rid of heaps of my material possessions, as I know I don’t NEED them.  The people in Nepal have so little, but have so much, if you know what I mean.  They don’t have rooms stacked full of the latest gadgets, or the latest toys for their children.  The children are lucky if they even have ONE toy, and that’s a luxury!  So, back to my plan of getting rid of stuff…yes people have asked if I would get rid of my laptop…..no.  I know I don’t NEED it as such…I do want it, and I don’t want to give up all of my material possessions, I just want to live more simply.  I know that it’s hard within a society which is wired the way ours is.  Not impossible though….just another challenge.  I do have to keep reminding myself that this society is very different to the one I have just come out of, and that people have choices to live whichever way they like here.  Just because they are materialistic, doesn’t mean that it is wrong or whatever…..but I tell you, it’s tough going at the moment. 

I am still at the stage where I think that nothing is a real problem in this country.  People moan and complain about such small things….but really, it’s nothing.  I just wish that more people could see that. 

Don’t get me wrong, I do NOT think I am so much better than everyone else because I have come back from Nepal, and am so much more appreciative for my life now than before I left.  I am no better than the next person, it just frustrates me at times to see people whinging and moaning about things that really do not matter!  For example, if the trains break down, so what!  We should be grateful we have trains….honestly!  Yes there are some things in life that annoy us, and irritate us, and that’s the way it will always be, but mostly, we are sooooooooo lucky to live in this country.  I don’t see how it’s fair that some countries are so poor like Nepal, and the people have to live the way they are.  I went over to ’save the world’ and saved nothing….just saw a massive need for help.  It has also opened my eyes up more to things I can do within NZ to help people (in terms of health), and hopefully have an impact on their lives.  That doesn’t stop me wanting to save Nepal though…or at least a few of them.  If I could adopt from there, I would.  If I could bring all the people I wanted, over here to live a different life, I would…if I could fix the entire country, I certainly would….anyone got a spare billion for a start??

So…almost 3 weeks after returning, and I still am happy to see the wide open spaces, smell the fresh air, and see the beautiful clean environment.  I am happy to see my family and my friends, and generally catch up on things.  Of course, nothing has changed at home, and I didn’t expect it to.  It’s weird now……and now I miss certain things from Nepal.  They do say you can have reverse culture shock when you do go home from countries with such different cultures.  Well…it took a few days for the culture shock to really hit me in Nepal….so I guess it’s not unusual for the reverse culture shock to take a while to kick in.  It’s nowhere near as bad as the Nepali culture shock…it’s just that I prefer some of the ways they Nepali’s live…..KE GARNE!!! 

So that’s it….I am loving eating BEEF again…oh my, it’s good!  I am loving cooking and having a variety of things to eat, I am enjoying drinking water out of the tap, sleeping in my  big bed….riding bikes, running, swimming (well I haven’t done that yet, but I will enjoy it)….but yes I miss Nepal.  And I really didn’t think I would.

I will end by saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone who left comments on here, and emailed me during my time away.  It was always great to hear from people….and knowing you were all out there was very helpful during the tough times   Thanks everyone!!!!

Pokhara :-) July 28, 2009

This is a city which is about 200km from Kathmandu, and is famous because of its lake….Phewa Tal.  WIth a population of about 170,000 people, it’s the second biggest city in Nepal.  Renee (another volunteer with VSN) and I were booked to take the bus from Kathmandu-Pokhara on Tuesday, leaving the mad city at 7am.  I wasn’t particularly excited about it, as by that stage I was just really over Nepal and wanted to just get home to Kiwi-land.  Anyhoo….got all prepared, and met Renee and we headed down to the bus.  The buses were all lined up along the road and people were everywhere.  There were little stalls on the side of the road selling all sorts of snacks, including fresh coffee!  That was very well recieved by these 2 caffiene addicts.  There was a man who tried to sell me a 3 rupee paper for 120 rupees…..ah NO mate.  I gave him 5!  Silly man…just because I am white doesn’t mean I don’t know the value of the paper….especially seeing as I had been in Kathmandu almost 3 months!!  Anyhoo….at 7.05am we were actually moving forward and heading out of Kathmandu…amazing that we weren’t delayed.  Things were fairly uneventful really…until we were about 1 hour out of the city.  We were just on the hilly mountain road when things came to a standstill.  That’s right….nothing was moving – anywhere!  Basically there was a traffic bandah…so nothing was moving.  After 2 hours of baking in the hot hot sun,no shade, and no breeze, we were finally allowed to move on!  We had a quick lunch stop, and 10 hours later we pulled into the bus park in Pokhara….yep that’s right folks, 10 hours later   As soon as we had entered Pokhara we were both commenting on how different it looked, and how clean it appeared….I had a good feeling about that place the moment we entered the outskirts of the city.

 

Renee and I found great accommodation at the Mountain View Hotel or Viewpoint Hotel…ah something like that.  It was cheap, clean, and we both got a double room each.  It was great.  That evening we went wandering down to find the lake and check out the area.  OMG!  People had been on about how beautiful the city was, and how clean it was etc, but I didn’t really believe them.  I should have  been more optimistic, because it was indeed a lot different to Kathmandu.  Yes there were still all the touristy shops and people trying to sell things to you, but there were footpaths, rubbish bins, hardly any rubbish just lying around, and the lake was fairly clean as well!!!  It was heaven….and from the moment I saw it I loved that city.  Some places just give you a good feeling as soon as you get there….and Pokhara was like that. 

 

We ended up spending about 10 days there.  There is so much that can be said about each day, as we filled them to the max of fun stuff.  I won’t bore you with the details, I will give a quick run down of how we spent our time. 

We paid 100 rupees for cheap mountain bikes and biked quite a way around the lake.  During that trip we had to ford many a stream/river.  We talked to lots of kids along the way.  We walked through rice paddies to see a bridge.  We dunked our heads and bodies under communal taps to cool off, and we had an icey cold sprite to cool down on the way home.  We were out there for about 6 hours and it was fantastic.  I really loved that day, even if the bikes were cheap and nasty and the gears kept slipping etc.  We saw some beautiful sights, and I was just amazed at where we were, and couldn’t stop saying how glad I was that I had come! 

 

The beautiful rice paddies at the end of the lake...looked amazing in real life.

 

The women often carry the heavy loads. I had to quickly take this shot before she ran me off the bridge hehe

We had to push our bikes through this bit....was a bit deep to bike through.

After biking around the lake we biked out to ‘Devi’s Falls’.  This is a water fall where the Seti River flows really fast, and eventually disappears underground.  Waaaay back in time, a Swiss ( I think he was Swiss) tourist tumbled to his death here, and pulled his girlfriend with him, so the falls are named after him (apparently his name was David or something like that anyway).  Well they are quite pretty…even if something so horrible as that happened there. 

 

The river

 

Just funny English....

 

We hired a boat and paddled out on the lake.  We hooked it up at a lodge and found the path to the World Peace Pagoda.  We walked for an hour in absolutely sticky, humid heat on a really steep track to get to the actual pagoda.  We saw a snake, a beautiful bird, and many pretty butterflies, but boy we were soaked with sweat!  Lovely!

 

Yes I truly did most of the paddling that day

The World Peace Pagoda

After walking up to the Peace Pagoda and down again we were rather baking hot.  We paddled around to this beautiful little bay and found this really nice waterfall which we dunked ourselves under as it was sooooooooooooo refreshingly cool!

 

oh it was soooooo nice....amazing!

Similar to NZ

We jumped into the lake as we were paddling as well….it was so nice.  These boats were so stable that even I was able to clamber back onto it from the deep waters of the lake.  It was so nice to be immersed in cold water….the best feeling as it was just so humid there!

 

The following day we were going to go paragliding, but the weather wasn’t on our side, so Renee and I hired a scooter to go up to the Sarangkot lookout. Let’s just say it was quite an experience.  I got the pleasure of driving because a) i have a car licence, and B) I have actually driven a scooter before.  I had only ridden one on my own before however, and only a 50cc baby…..weeeeell.  We both had helmets thank goodness….and off we went on our beautiful yellow racer.  The speedo went up to 120km/hr or something like that…so I was rather excited.  After negotiating the traffic, finding a petrol station, getting the slow-speed wobbles as we exited the petrol station, we were soon on the way to Sarangkot.  We had to ask directions along the way, but were soon on the rutty, 4WD track which led to the top.  Let’s just say that there were rocks, HEAPS of them, mud…HEAPS of it, and more rocks and potholes than anything I have done on a mountain bike.  Ah no worries…..2 Kiwi girls can handle anything.  That is until the driver loses balance on a particularly gnarly section of the road and the bike tips over to the side and we both fall splat onto the rocks!  I was lying there with my leg under the bike just laughing and laughing, and Renee could only see me shaking.  She didn’t know if I was laughing or crying…and all I could say was “get the bike off my leg”…..when I stood up I started to cry (always happens when I hurt myself, first laughter, then crying haha).  She was unharmed thank goodness, as I felt really bad for having lost my balance like that with her on the back.  I had what looked like a wee hole in my shin…but it looked clean and ok, even though it felt like I had been bruised to my bone.  I walked around a bit, then back on we got, and carried on to the top.

blonde and blonder go biking

There were some hairy sections on that track, and I am not quite sure a scooter was up for the task, but it got us there in pretty much one piece….even if the wing mirror did get a wee bit bent….ok ok, it became very loose after its embrace with the rocks!

 

Seeing as we had the bike, we decided to ride out to one of the other lakes in the area….the Begnas Lake.  It didn’t take us long to get there, and it was beautiful.  However, by this stage my leg was really looking beautiful.  Nothing that some lake water couldn’t fix though!

Beautiful huh!

I really liked this lake

 

After the lake we drove around Old Pokhara, seeing old buildings similar to those of Kathmandu.  I had to concentrate on driving, as it’s fairly crazy, and people, chickens, trucks, bikes, cars, motorbikes etc all cross your path frequently on the roads.  We made it through unscathed, and were soon heading out the other side of Pokhara.  We were following the Seti River and it was just amazing.  The roads got quieter, the rice paddies were greener, and it was just amazing.  We were flying along on the scooter at 80km/hr at one point.  YES I did make sure it was on a safe section of straight road with nothing coming, and I could see that there were no children close to the road etc etc.  It was awesome.  We drove out past the Tibetan Refugee camp which we planned to see at some stage during our time there.  All too soon it was time to get the bike back….so we took it back, and I limped off as fast as I could so I didn’t have to explain the broken wing mirror.  The guy was already looking quite concerned about the amount of mud that was all over the bike….well he didn’t tell us we weren’t allowed up Sarangkot on the dam thing!

 

That night I washed my leg again and poured some betadine into the hole.  It was actually a hole…like a puncture wound.  Any bigger and it would have required stitches, but it was quite small, just deep.  I love stuff like that….but as I dropped the betadine into it, I started to feel a wee bit queasy in the ol’ tum tum.  I then felt really dizzy and like I was going to vomit….so I lay myself on the floor.  Then my hands started shaking and I felt gross.  I couldn’t believe it!  ME?  Getting all icky over a hole in my leg?  My goodness!  Renee came in and found me lying on the floor hehe…..it passed quickly but that was weird.  Needless to say my leg was aching a wee bit, but it was cleaned and covered.

 

The next day we were waiting for paragliding still…..so we hung around town.  We went and read our books in a cafe by the lake, then were told that paragliding wasn’t happening that day either.  So….we got kayaks this time and paddled out onto the lake.  Those things had minds of their own I tell ya!  It was so hard to paddle them without turning around….I would paddle, then if you stopped you would just spin around….it was frustrating, but we soon got the hang of the beasts and made our way around the lake at a lazy pace.  It was great

 

Trying to cool off!

we swam from halfway across the lake. I towed the boat by tying the chain around my waist....

We eventually got to go paragliding.  It was fantastically peaceful, although I did get motion sick and threw up my coke on my leg and the guy’s leg…oooops.  Ah well he is used to it so he said.  It was cool…..we couldn’t get enough lift and would have had to land anyway, so it was probably good that I spewed hehe.  All good.  It wasn’t as scary as I thought, but I wouldn’t do it again, just because of the sickness aspect

we went jumping off the pier with the local boys...

We saw beautiful sunsetsWe drank Everest Beer

We saw mountains....finally This is Macchapuchare (Fishtail) Mountain - in the Annapurna Range

Young monk-in-training having fun during a break from prayer

No trip to Nepal is complete without seeing the yeti

Sadly our time came to an end all too soon and we were booking our tickets back to Kathamandu   I was so sad, I really didn’t want to leave Pokhara.  If I had been able to have a placement in this city, my time would have been so different, and I would have found it a lot harder to leave.  However that was not the case, and it was hometime.  We boarded our bus, left pretty much on time and made it back to the valley in just 7 hours this time!  It was  a fairly straight through drive…a lot more pleasant than the one to Pokhara.  We left the beautiful mountains behind, the beautiful lake, and the peaceful, clean city, and headed towards the madness of Kathmandu.  As soon as we had entered the valley I felt the energy drain out of me….it was weird, but true.  All too soon we were back within the madness, and walking through Thamel again.  Our holiday had come to an end.  I have to say that Renee was great to spend time with.  We just did simple things but had a great time doing them, and both had similar things we wanted to do.  She laughed a lot AT me…I have no idea why…..hehe   It was a fantastic way to end the time in Nepal…and I am so glad I did go there.  To have left Nepal with only seeing Kathmandu and the Valley would have been such a waste….there is so much more out there than the polluted dirty city of Kathmandu.  Even though I didn’t want to leave Pokhara desperately, I was still happy to be getting closer to my departure day   New Zealand was still calling me home!

Bye bye children… July 13, 2009

Well well well….my official volunteer is OVER – OVAH hehe   YAY.  I was so excited (as you will all know).  I headed back out to the home on Thursday.  I had already decided that I could only manage ONE meal of daalbhaat a day, not the usual 2.  My stomach just can’t digest that much white rice.  I like the taste of the meal, just not twice a day every day.  My guts just can’t deal with it all!  Anyway…back out to the crazy place.

Friday saw us having a dental ‘camp’.  This involved all the children (about 30) from the other VSN home coming to our home to join our 14 children to have their teeth checked.  The dental team was coming sometime in the morning and were going to stay until 3.30pm to see all the children.  The children had the day off school for that obviously….lucky them huh!  Of course some of the children were so scared of this impending visit!  One of the girls from my home (yes she was my favourite by far) was sooooo scared because she had 2 wiggly teeth and one of her top ones was very crooked and kind of sticks out.  Ah dear….the joys of dental work!  I tired to reassure her, but you can only do so much.  Friday dawned and the home was a flurry of activity as we arranged tables and chairs etc for the ‘treatment’ room.  The dentists arrived and took a while to organise all their stuff.  Once that was done, 2 of us volunteers were taken to be ‘assistants’ hehe.  Ok so all we did was clean (’sterilise’ Nepali fashion) the instruments after they were used…and throw out used syringes etc….ah I don’t even want to know how they dispose of them.  There were no sharps containers that’s for sure!  Apparently they go back to Kathmandu….probably to be disposed of in the beautiful excrement-filled Bagmati river (which they claim to be a ‘Holy River’….it smells really really badly).  Anyway….one by one the children trickled in to have their teeth examined.  There was a team of about 5-6 dentists, and they were really fast!  Some children needed an extraction, most didn’t need much at all.  Most of them got to stick the thing in their mouth full of the sealant stuff to help prevent cavaties in the future…and then they were free.  Really it was quite well done considering the country we are in, and they were really very fast.  I got to see lots of the dental instruments, and clean them in something…not quite sure what it was, but it was kind of nice to be ‘involved’.  Most of the children were really good with it all too, even those who needed extractions!  Soon enough it was all over.  Natalie, MG and I (Natalie was an old volunteer who had come back to visit) took a break whilst the guests had daalbhaat (NO way were we eating hehe).  We headed up to the chiya pasaal (tea shop) and had some COFFEE……just instant, but it was what I needed anyway.  We also bought some little snacks…as I hadn’t eaten anything all day, and energy was leaking out of me! hehe.

Saturday was our last FULL day with the children.  The thing is with this way of life, there isn’t actually a lot of time to PLAY.  Weekdays they get up, do some chores, eat, finish homework, get ready for school, go to school, come home, do homework (some of them take a looooooooooooooooong time to do this), eat again, then bed time!  Weekends (which is Saturday) they have chores (washing their clothes, and the home) which take them hours sometimes, then they have to wash themselves….it’s not unusual for them to be still going into the early afternoons!  Then they can have some time to ‘play’.  MG and I were going to do stuff with them, like plan activities, but we really didn’t have the time!  Their chores etc are the priority….so we had to go with that.  Some of the older children were faster with things, but the girls in particular sure took their time!  It was worse on this past Saturday because they had mid term exams starting on the 12 July, so they really had to revise on Saturday after their jobs were all done!  MG, Natalie and I headed out to get them some doughnuts for their treat.  We walked in the scorching heat, only to find the darn shop wasn’t even open   So….we got them some chocolate bars (5 rupees a piece!) instead!  We then walked back to the home, and helped them revise.  Now the way children are educated over here is just a joke.  They just memorise everything.  AND their English books and teachers are often wrong.  One day the children came home and said “We have tapeworms in our stomachs” to which I replied…..only if you are sick…you don’t have them all the time, and they didn’t believe me, because their teacher had told them that they do have worms!  Another one was an English passage…..it said “I feel —— inside” and the teacher had said the word was “pretty”….so ever since then, we joked about feeling “pretty” inside hehe.  Ah dear…..what their teachers say is gospel, even if it is the most absurd thing on the earth!  Hello….English is our first language!  Ah well……there was no telling them sometimes!  It was funny helping them revise.  If I asked a questions in a different order to which they appeared in the book, BOY did I get yelled at!  They knew the stuff in the order it appeared….but that didn’t stop me!  So that was our final full day with the children.

Sunday morning we headed back to the home.  The children were busy cramming still…..all you could hear was each child chanting various things from their textbooks…..”adaptation is the process……..” blah blah.  They learn a lot of crap that’s for sure.  They don’t understand most of what they recite though….they have no idea what they are saying, they just know what they have to say!  Soon enough it was time for school.  Just before we were about to leave with them for the bus, the house manager gave us both a red tikka and this flower necklace thingy…it was really pretty!  (fresh flowers too!).  When we were walking up the hill to the bus, the children were like “You’re not crying…..you’re happy!” hehe…to which I replied “I am a bit happy, but a bit sad”.  I love the children, they were pretty cool, but I was over the village.  They got off to school, we waved madly, then we returned to the home to leave their chocolate bars on their beds for them to get when they got home from school.  It was then a mad rush back to our families to get our bags because the taxi was waiting for us!  I got my bag, and was just saying BYE to my host mother, when she rushed inside to get the stuff to give me another tikka.  Hers was the really thick kind….and it was smeared all over my forehead.  As I was walking away from the home it started sliding off my head…that’s probably bad luck, but I had to flick it off my head!  Anyway, I still had a tikka.  We got in the taxi and headed out of the village….and that was it.  Finito!

I was happy to be leaving the village, everyone knows that.  I never really bonded with the family, and I never got used to eating on my own before everyone else!  That was something I just didn’t enjoy.  I dreaded eating because I knew that I would be watched so closely, and yes I know that it is a good thing supposedly, but I just didn’t like it at all.  MG and I were dropped off at the hotel.  My first plan was to go to my Sherpa’s as soon as possible, but I really wanted a shower because I felt disgusting, so I ended up checking into a room!  Then I thought that going out there today was just silly because I am going to Pokhara tomorrow, which means being at the bus at 6.30am…..sooooooo I will head there next week.  They are still being paid for me I think, but that’s ok, they need it   I am not sure how long I will be in Pokhara for, it depends on what there is to do, seeing as it’s the monsoon season and all.  So tomorrow will see us doing a 6-8 hour bus trip to Pokhara, and then doing who knows what   I will prob come back to K’mandu on the weekend or early next week.  I will then have a few days left to spend with the Sherpa’s, and get my souvenirs together   YAY.

So…..do I recommend volunteering through GVN?  NO.  I paid a lot of money to them, and hardly any of it goes towards the organisation here in Nepal (VSN).  They get diddly squat which I don’t think is fair at all.  I didn’t know that before I came.  I am not even sure how GVN uses the money!  VSN themselves is a good organisation, trying to do the best for the children.  Some of the homes do not need volunteers as much as others.  I was unfortunately placed in one which I didn’t feel needed my presence.  Sure the children were great, and they made me laugh, but I came to help people, and I don’t really feel I have achieved that during my time here.  Most of the time here is downtime, so you have to be prepared for spending a lot of time without the children, and trying to entertain yourself in between times.  At times that is not easy, but that depends on how resourceful you are I suppose.  Would I volunteer again?  Not like this.  I will volunteer in a nursing capacity, but not in a pleb role.  I want to be doing something that will actually make a difference to someone’s life (I don’t care how soppy that may sound), and I believe I have more of a chance to do that with nursing.  So…my plan?  Get back to nursing, get some more money, more experience, return to Nepal to visit and to trek, (and am not coming in summer!  I want to see the darn mountains that supposedly surround this valley hehe), and go somewhere to do volunteer nursing work.  I was looking through my photos last night, and I really will miss some of those children, one in particular.  She was such a sweet, caring, funny, smart girl!  I would have loved to pack her up and take her home for sure….but I know that wouldn’t be the best thing for her.  I do worry about their futures.  VSN doesn’t have the funding at the moment to support university education for 40 odd children…..so the future is a bit unclear.  They say that if we as volunteers want to sponsor a child, we have to make sure we can do it long term!  I would love to be able to provide university education for at least one of the children….but then their chances of future employment are not that great anyway….for the best chances they need to get out of Nepal for a while to earn some real money.  I do wonder what will become of them.  There are some seriously smart children within the 2 VSN homes.

So, now I have 12 days left in Nepal….I can’t really  believe it, it just doesn’t seem at all real!  I have a lot of stuff that I am going to leave behind (medicines etc), and that’s good because I have a really big scrapbook to take home with me.  My children’s home are doing a correspondence thing with a school in Eastbourne, Wellington, and they compiled a scrapboook of their lives for this school.  Seeing as I live in Wellington, I have the lucky job of taking it back to them!  Oh yay…..so that’s something that needs to find a place in my bag, and at the moment it’s an impossibility!

Probably won’t update this whilst in Pokhara….hopefully will actually be having FUN and doing things with my days!  YAY.  I will go and give the children a final visit sometime next week before I leave.  Saturday 25 July will see me getting out of here…and I know I will be sad to leave the Sherpa’s, cos they are really nice people, but my time has come to an end, and I must move on   But I will be back….at least I hope so!

Downhill slide… July 7, 2009

Well there’s less than 3 weeks to go until I fly home again!  Can you  believe it?  In some ways I can…in other ways it feels like I haven’t been here long at all   I know I have been saying that I am ready to leave, and I am, it will be weird coming back to NZ, and there are definitely people I will miss from Nepal, but my time has come, and it’s nice to be ready now!  I really feel a bit let down by the whole volunteer experience however…and still really wish I could have stayed with my original kids, as they needed someone there to help them, they really did.  However, if that had been the case, I may be begging for money now so I could either bring them all back to NZ or buy them a house to live in!  As it is, I won’t be too sad to leave this current home on Sunday/Monday…I will miss a few of them, but knowing that they are well looked after makes a big difference!

So what has been happening?  I was plodding along at the home/placement, and things were going ok.  Not brilliantly, but you all know that!  I just haven’t got into any groove at this place…ah well, time is almost up   I had to arrange some time off, as I really wanted to go kayaking.  Well the kayaking trip never eventuated as I couldn’t get anyone to go with me   So…I had some days off and I thought a yoga retreat would be a good idea.  Well it sounded like a good idea at the time!  So I booked it…and arranged all I needed to arrange.  I woke up with a cold last Saturday….that’s so common here, cos of all the dirty air and the zillions of people!

The other day Natalie and I went for a walk out to the Monkey Temple (Swayambhu) and on the way back we stopped in to see my family.  Mingma (the mum) was so excited to see me, she gave the biggest hug!  It was sooooo nice.  I have missed them!  I needed some love haha!  They thought that I had already gone home to NZ as I hadn’t phoned or emailed them….well I didn’t see the point when I knew that I was going to go back and stay with them/see them before I left  Nepal!  They fed us roti and tea which was nice….and Phulamu said I was ‘thin’ hahahaha yeh right.  Well they love to feed you there that’s for sure!  I am so NOT thin trust me folks…I have been eating a whole lotta stuff since being here!

Sarah-ji left last Tuesday for home, so that was a bit weird.  All the people I started with have now left and it was a bit strange.  Some of the new volunteers from June are really nice, it’s just different.  People are coming and going all the time through this programme, it’s not cool though as it’s a bit unsettling for this old girl!

So Sarah left, and then I was heading out to the yoga place.  I handed over 9,000 rupees…which is about NZ $200 for 5 days.  I got there and found out that there were 3 other people already there doing yoga, so I felt ok, as I was concerned I would be the only one (as it’s not the peak season for tourists, being the ‘monsoon’ and all).  My cold was ok….but I was feeling a bit dodgy all over really.  We did our first yoga class that evening and I got in trouble.  I felt like absolute shite….I was shivering cold (yippeeee fever time), and my joints were aching, and my nose was running.  I also felt sick in the stomach!  And of course….I have super-tight hamstrings!  So I was not doing well!  The instructor told me that it was all psychological (the tightness) to which I replied “Oh no, it’s very real”!  I wanted to bash him already!  Then he told me “You need to close your mouth” hehe and I thought initially that was to tell me to SHUT UP (which it may have been) but I think it was more to do with breathing through my nose and not my mouth.  Well….I usually breathe through my mouth anyway, and with a stuffed up nose, I didn’t have much choice!  I was getting very angry with him….I was trying my best in the state that I was in, tight hamstrings and achey joints are not a good combination for a successful yoga class!  I was NOT having fun at all.  He kept telling me that I needed to TRY at least….oh my gosh!  I was trying!  The class ended and 2 of the people went out of the room, and I just couldn’t move…I was shaking wickedly with cold, and felt horrible.  So I just sat there on my mat…listening to this weird-o American guy talk to the instructor!  He was like “I really want to be a yoga instructor, but I smoke hash sometimes, and I am a violent person…..can I still be a yoga instructor”??  OMG, it was turning into some crazy counselling session between a silly Nepali yoga man and a silly American guy.  I sat there….but then I had to leave.  At that stage I had decided that I was not going to stay feeling that way, and with an instructor like that…it wasn’t going to work with me!  I hadn’t brought a jersey with me, so I had to get my sleeping bag liner and wrap it around myself for dinner, as I was freezing!  Oh yes, and guess what dinner was?  Daal frikkin bhaat…..I can’t do it!  Luckily I didn’t have an appetite anyway, so I had about 2 spoonfuls and then went to bed.  I was so cold, but eventually warmed up, then woke up sometime during the night because my stomach was aching very badly, and yes it resulted in a few trips to the loo, and YES I know you all wanted to know that

The next morning I felt somewhat better, in that I wasn’t hot and cold anymore, but I was still wanting to go back to the Hotel to recover.  I could hear a group of them up in the room (which was above my room) chanting some stuff…but I waited, as they had said the previous night that we would have a yoga class at 0700.  So….at 0700 they came and got me and I went up for yoga   It was a good class….one of the students was taking us.  She was from Austria, and did a great class…I only wish I was feeling better!  She did a mix of Kulindali (or something like that) and Hatha yoga….the one beginning with K is awesome.  It’s really like a cardiovascular workout more than normal yoga…I liked it, but couldn’t give it my all as I felt gross still!  The longer I tried, the worse I felt.  So….after the class I told the guy that I was going home and he got mad.  He was like “I think you had already decided that when you got here….what else has happened…i think something else is wrong” and I was like “I just feel like crap and I want to go back to the hotel to recover as I am not enjoying this!”…why is being sick such a hassle…oh and you are a dickhead for telling me to try when I was dam well trying even though I felt like death!  Silly man!  I then asked about getting my money back and they said I had to ask the hotel man as that was whom I had given the money to….ah great!  I managed a few spoonfuls of breakfast, and then they had arranged a taxi for me to get back to Thamel…..YAY!  At this stage my guts were rumbling away and hurting a wee bit.

I got back to Thamel and just died in my room!  I was absolutely shattered.  I felt disgusting!  Let’s just say that for the last week I have spent a LOT of time on my bed watching TV.  Thank goodness for the International Movie Channel which has subtitles!  I have seen so many movies!  I just couldn’t do anything!  My gut was out of control!  Most of what I have eaten over the last week has just come straight on out again   This morning is the first morning I have been out of my room before 10am….showered and ready/willing to eat!  I went down to Pumpernickel and got some cornflakes as I thought that would be ok for the gut.  Mostly I have been trying to eat really plain/bland food for the last few days…just to let my gut settle.  Well that didn’t really work out well either….they went in, and came out hehe oh dear.  It feels ok now….and I have 2 plain white rolls to eat later when I am back at my room.  Hopefully they will stay in.  Not that it matters…I have eaten so much over the last couple of months, I can afford to go a while on reduced rations! 

I am heading back to my placement on Thursday, and then will be picked up on Sun/Mon and go to Swayambhu and MY Sherpa’s   I will then head to Pokhara for a couple of days with another volunteer and see that part of Nepal, then head back to Swayambhu….get some things, then fly home to NZ on 25 July, touching down in Wellington on Sunday night   YAY!  I am looking forward to that.  As I have said before, I have got what I need from this experience, and I am ready to come home and get back into MY life again!

So I am pretty excited now as the countdown for HOME begins!  I don’t want to rush my time here, as I know I will look back and I will want to do some of the things again, but on the whole, I am done

AWOL kids and mountain bikers! June 29, 2009

Saturday was Amanda’s last day at her placement, so she decided to play a video for her home’s kids, as well as mine as she taught them all at school during her time here!  On Friday they came home from school and said they had to be at the other home by 11am for the video.  I asked their house manager if we could all go, and he said that IF the chores were done, then they could go.  I asked if I could take the 3 children who have ’special needs’ and he said that it would be really difficult….but I said that I could pay for a microbus if we needed it.  He said ok then!

There are 2 ways to get to the other children’s home.  One is a short way, but it involves going on very narrow tracks through the rice fields.  The other way is longer, but it follows the road, and that was the path I intended on taking with ONE of the children (with cerebral palsy).    I thought that the other 2 boys with downs syndrome would be ok to walk with the other kids across the rice field.  So….Saturday dawned and the children had finished their jobs pretty much by the time I turned up at 7.30am.  They were really excited….of course!

I went home to have daalbhaat (am soooooooooooooooooooo over it), then returned to the home.  I wanted to leave about 10am with S, as I had no idea how long it would take us.  The children were pretty much ready when I got back there…dressed in their ‘going out’ clothes, and looking really nice.  It was at that time, of course, that the skies opened up and the rain started coming down.  Now let’s just say the monsoon has finally arrived….so it was just constant rain….not really heavy, just constant drizzle really.  Of course there were no umbrella’s (apart from mine) so we were just going to have to get wet.  This is Nepal, and life can’t stop just because of the rain!  Luckily Natalie had come over, so she could walk with the children going across the fields, whereas I would take the road.  (she is an ex volunteer and has come back just to visit).  That group started off, and one of the boys with down syndrome (let’s call him P) went running up the hill.  I had thought he was going with the other children through the fields, but no!  Wise move really, as the rain made things pretty tough.  S headed out the gate soon after him, and I hurred J along to come with me.  So, with my umbrella, one child running up the road, and another steaming off after him, I followed behind dragging J with me!  I was almost up the hill by the home when I heard “DIDI!!!!!!!!!!!!” (didi means older sister, and it’s what you call females who are older than you).  One of the children was coming back from the rice fields saying she had to change her clothes and I had to wait for her.  The thing is…I had 2 children steaming off in front of me as it was, and I had to catch up with them…so I had to keep moving forward, although I did slow down.  I kept walking, and once O was dressed again, she came sprinting up the hill in the rain screaming “DIDI WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” hehe.  I waited as much as I could, and she eventually caught up with me.  We all caught up with S, and I asked her where P was and she said she didn’t know and that he was just ‘running ahead!”  I asked them all if P knew the way to go, to which they replied “NO”.  These children (aside from O) don’t usually go to the other home as it involves such a walk for them, and it is difficult to organise it!).  The rain was coming down, and I had just the one umbrella and of course it was muddy.  We were on what equates to a 4WD track, but after a km or 2 it eventually turns out onto the sealed road.  After hearing that P didn’t know the way, I got a bit concerned.  He is 16 years old, but I had no idea what he was thinking.  I didn’t know whether he was just sooo excited to be out of the home that he had just bolted, or whether he would eventually stop or what.  He is higher functioning than the other boy, but still, I wasn’t sure what he was doing.  I instructed the other children to stay on the side of the road while they were walking, and I started running to try and catch this naughty P!  I was running along a muddy road with my jandals, no umbrella, and my backpack on….trying to catch a child!  Some school girls passed me and I asked them if they had seen a short boy, to which they replied “P??  Yeh he is running, very fast, that way!” and they pointed down the road toward the sealed road.  At this point I got very worried as I could not see P and the sealed road was just ahead.  I had 3 children behind me, no cell phone, no first aid kit, very little Nepali, and I couldn’t see P anywhere.  I reached the end of the track and asked some more people if they had seen him to which they replied “running, very fast” and pointed down the road still.  OMG I thought….what the heck am I going to do!  I could not see him…..and I was scared….very scared.  I got to the road where there are a few little shops and I saw D (one of the guys who works for the volunteer organisation).  He was like “Hi, what are you doing?”…I had 3 soaking children with me, one missing, and I just said “We are heading to the other home, and I can’t find P cos he just ran off on us before we had even started…” and he said “He’s in there” and he pointed to a shop!  OMG I have never been so relieved.  D said he saw P running down the road with no-one else around him, and apparently P had stopped a car or something….I don’t really know what he did, but D caught him and stopped him thank God!  I was soooo angry with him, and D gave him a good telling off in Nepali and told him to go slowly from then on!  I was so glad he had been there…I hate to think what could have happened if D hadn’t been there!  It doesn’t bear thinking about really.  The kids thought it was a great laugh….but it made me very cross…..that along with the rain, and the crazy time we had to walk was just doing my head in!  D also told me of a shortcut to take after the bridge…….

We carried on through the rain….without too many problems.  A microbus came past and I tried to stop it, but it drove right by!  Ohhhhh that was making me more angry!  We got to the path, and started our cross country trek.  OMG  never again.  Never, ever again!  The rain was still coming down….it was a narrow path through rice fields, and I had 3 children who couldn’t walk properly….oh S***!!  Most of it was ok, but there were  a few hairy moments…one which resulted in me falling flat on my knees in the mud in order to prevent one of the kids from hitting the mud.  She was just laughing hysterically which made me even more frustrated…..looking back it is funny, but at the time I was still getting over P running away from us that nothing was funny to me at the time!  At one point I was going to try and piggyback her up the hill, but she was just too heavy for me!  I hauled her up instead!  We finally made it to the home….wet and muddy (well I was the muddiest), but we had made it safely thank God!  I had a slight problem with J as he was too scared to go through the gate into the home…so I had to physically lift him to get him in!  Once he was there he was fine!  I think he was just scared and possibly thought it was like the hospital or something like that.  Of course, once we got to the home the rain soon abated…hehe!  All the other children had made it without any problems!  Oh…and the reason ) had to change her clothes was not because she had slipped as I thought, it was  because she had peed her pants!!!  Oh dear it still makes me laugh.  She is the cutest girl ever…she is about 10 years old, and tiny for her age.  Her English is so good, she is so smart, and just a really cool kid.  She must have been soooo embarrassed by it, and apparently (according to Natalie) all the other kids were just pointing and saying “O is peeing her pants” hehe….and the rice fields were full of people planting rice as well!  Oh poor girl….but sorry, that is pretty hilarious!  I think it will always make me laugh.

So…we had a good day at the other home, the children always like to meet up with the others….they all go to the same school and do a few activities together, so they are all friends which is good.  Amanda was leaving via taxi, and I decided to go with her into Thamel, as it was Sarah’s last weekend as well.  I had the problemn of trying to get the 3 children back to our home though…and there was no way they would be walking, even though the rain had stopped.  I asked the taxi if we could take a detour to my home, and we squashed into the taxi, so at least they all got home safely.  Natalie stayed with the other group, and made sure they got on the start of the rice field track bef0re leaving them (the house manager said that’s all I needed to do).  So thank goodness….they are all home safe and sound, and we survived the outing.  I learnt something….I am NEVER taking those 3 children that way again….at least not on my own that’s for sure!

So today is Monday and I am still in Thamel!  YAY.  I had decided to come in for Amanda’s and Sarah’s last weekend….then tomorrow is the new volunteer dinner (for the July group), so I thought I would stay in for that…and on Wed my time off starts anyway, so I am just staying on.  I am soooo over daalbhaat.  The actual taste of it is fine…I don’t mind it at all.  What I do mind is eating so much white rice and not being as active as is necessary to get rid of it all.  I hate it…it is just so stodgy and gross and makes me feel really ugh.  I thought it was just from not being as active, but it is more than that, cos when I am in Thamel eating ‘normal’ food, I don’t have such an issue!

Ohhhhhh and yesterday, Sunday, was the day of the mountain bike ride!  We (Sarah, Renee and I) had signed up for the “Downhill dreams” ride which involves 21 km of downhill riding…from Nagarkot to Bhaktapur.  We drove up to Nagarkot and got started….ah the magic of being back on a bike!  I love biking soooooooo much!  It had started drizzling while we were in having breakfast….but it was still warmish.  Of course I was so well prepared, I hadn’t even brought my jacket to Thamel with me, let alone mountain biking haha.  Everyone else had rain jackets!  Ah well…..Kiwi’s are tough.  We headed downhill, with me racing at the front with the lead guide.  It was awesome!  We stopped at one point to wait for the others.  We waited…..waited, waited!  I thought that it was nearly impossible that they were that slow coming down the hill!  I turned around and started biking back up the hill to try and find them.  The cloud was really low, and the rain continued.  Luckily the road was quiet!  As each bend came, I thought the others must be ‘just around this one surely’ but NOPE.  I got sick of it, so turned around….a few metres down the road I saw the guide I had been with coming back up the road.  I told him I didn’t see them…and were both really puzzled.  They were going slowly…but not that slowly!  I just imagined one of them lying in the ditch or something….I just didn’t know what could have happened.  We kept heading UP the hill.  The guide was asking everyone he saw whether they had seen cyclists….YES they had seen them….but where were they now!  I remembered the younger guide had told Renee that we would be heading down on a gravel track as opposed to the road which we had driven up on.  I told the guide, and he was like “mmm there is a track they may have taken” so we turned off the road and down this slippery as track.  It was still raining (let’s just say it rained the entire time we were cycling to save me having to re-write that!).  The track soon turned into a single track which was very exciting for me.  It was like a clay track though, and was crazy in the wet.  The back wheel kept just sliding out on me, but I was in my element…I was imagining Sarah and Renee on that track, with NO mountain biking experience, and it did make me smile a little hehe.  I was going slowly at times because my rear wheel seemed to have a mind of its own…but it was awesome!  Soon enough I could hear my guide talking to people….and he had come across our AWOL mountain bikers WALKING back towards the road.  They had thought we were going on that track!  hehe.  It had got even trickier a bit further on, and they had decided they were in above their heads, so they turned back….thinking that I was probably at the bottom by that stage anyway haha.  Oh my goodness…..it was hilarious!  So Sarah and Renee pushed their bikes back up to the road and I biked behind them.  It was an awesome track, but in the wet it had gone from a grade 2 to possibly a grade 3-4! hehe.  Anyway…..with that mystery solved we headed back down on the road!   I was happy because 21-22km of downhill riding isn’t exactly a workout, and I really wanted to be active, so the uphill to find them was awesome really!  (the guide told me at one point that this particular ride was for people who were ‘fat and lazy’ haha).  We stopped a few times on the way down, just to regroup.  At one point we stopped (soon after coming off the muddy track) and checked for leeches.  I had none, but Sarah had a few…..and a really big fat one in between her toes which we pulled out.  Gee they are hard suckers to kill (yes hilarious I know).  I was standing on it, poking it with a stick etc, and it just kept wriggling!  I don’t mind pulling them off, but when they are on me it’s a different story!   I squealed like anything when I got one on my leg the other day on the way to the children’s home haha.  I had to get one of the children to pull it off….:-)  Anyway….it was a really awesome ride!  We got to Bhaktapur and were all pretty much soaking wet.  We had wanted to look around the town (you have to PAY to get in), but seeing as we were all so wet, we opted against it and went and had lunch instead.  It was the first time in Nepal that I have been cold!  I had soup for lunch!  It was a nice feeling really!  We finally got back to the hotel and had a hot shower and scraped all the dirt and grease off our legs.  What a day!  My butt is so sore today….you can tell I haven’t been on a bike in a while that’s for sure!  The guide was telling me about all these other awesome rides they do….and I really want to do the one they do through Tibet…but not this trip.  They ride 70km each day, but combined with the altitude, it’s a really tough ride.  I was looking at that before I came over here actually (although the one I saw was a road bike one) and I really want to do it one day….and I will   It will be awesome that’s for sure….maybe that will be my next adventure!

I was soooo happy yesterday being able to get out and be so active, and do something that I really love!  I have missed my bike a lot!  I can’t handle eating white rice twice a day any more either….have to find a way out of my morning daalbhaat.  I just have to!

On Wed I am supposedly heading out to my yoga course…which I know very little about haha.  Ah well….let’s hope it’s not really hard out, cos we all know I am NOT flexible!

Rising mercury! June 24, 2009

Oh my gosh if I read that one more time, I will scream!  The newspapers over here love writing “with the rising mercury” blah blah blah in regards to the quite insane temperatures which we have all been suffering from lately!  So apparently this is the hottest summer in Kathmandu in a while, and boy oh boy can you feel it!  Sheesh!  The monsoon is hanging over our heads, but it won’t dam well start, so the heat has been just crazy for the last couple of weeks!  I am talking about 35 degrees in B’chhap, and a few degrees hotter in Kathmandu.  Sure, that’s not necessarily that hot considering Delhi is sitting at about 43 degrees….but for ME it is insane, and I just melt away in that heat!  Even at 6.30AM the sun is shining and the heat has started!  The monsoon is supposed to have started, but it hasn’t come….YET.  It rained the other night which was really good, but that’s it!  The last couple of days have cooled down somewhat….although today is pretty warm again.  Overcast, but warm still!  Ah well….dirty, sweaty and grimey (sp??) is how it is for me over here

So what has been happening?  Not a lot really….that’s why I haven’t written anything much exciting!  Life is getting dull over here…..how can that be?  Coming in on the microbus the other day, I was thinking that I would actually miss the craziness of this place.  Being crammed into a mini van with 30 or more other people is quite funny….I like it!  (especially when you are by an open window…otherwise it’s just too hot!)

Life at the children’s home is ticking along ok.  We do homework every afternoon, the children are pretty good at getting into it, although they have started really liking the other volunteer over me because she will give them the answers a lot more, whereas I try and get them to work it out themselves!  hehe.  Meany Rebecca huh!  It’s pretty good….they are generally good children, and I do like them, I just don’t see them in as much need as I anticipated prior to coming here, but it’s ok!  My time is almost up with them actually!  I really wanted to do a kayaking trip, so I applied for some time off next week, as we have to try and get it done ‘before the monsoon’ (IF it ever dam well comes!), so I wanted to do it next week.  However, it has been a real problem trying to get someone else to come with me!  Renee was keen, but I couldn’t talk to her properly till today, and she can’t have the time off because it is too soon, AND there is something happening on the 4th July (the Bagmati River clean up day or something), so she’s not allowed to come.  So….basically now I can’t go kayaking because I have no-one to go with at this stage.  I do have 6 days OFF though, and I am NOT giving them up!  So….I think I will go and do a yoga retreat just somewhere in Kathamandu.  5-6 days of yoga and relaxing, with meals and accommodation thrown in as well, so I will chat with the guy tomorrow and get that organised for next week!

This weekend, I am coming back into Thamel on Saturday with Amanda, as it is her last night (she has been here 5 months, and is a fellow Kiwi!).  She  lives out near me, and is getting a taxi to pick her up, so I will tag along and get a free ride back to town (the organisation provides the transport back to town on your last day).  I will stay in Thamel on Sat night, and then on Sunday, Renee, Sarah and I are (finally) going mountain biking!  It’s called “Downhill Dreams” and is 21km of….well downhill   hehe.  It sounds like it is pretty much ON the road as opposed to true mountain biking, but I am excited, as I just want to get on a bike again! We leave Thamel at 8am….so that’s cool!   Hopefully it is not too hot, but then again, I don’t really care…..I just want to be doing something.  I have been walking a fair bit around B’chhap, and the other day MG and I walked UP to the temple, and then over to Godawari, where we went along to the Resort!  WOW….that is sooooooooooooo nice over there.  It has a pool, and I don’t know what I was expecting, but the pool is really nice, and I will be heading along to it at some stage whilst I am still in B’chhap!  It’s 300Rs for a swim for non guests, so that’s ok I guess….anything would be fine for me…it’s not a lap pool as such, but is prob about 20 metres or so in length…I am sure I could do some lengths.  I did bring my togs, but I don’t have goggles or anything…they may have some I can borrow or buy maybe….goggles that is   I will probably return to my family on Sunday evening, as I have spent a wee bit of time away from them…including tonight!  I am supposed to be heading back there, but the ol’ tum has gone a bit dodgy on me again, so will wait until tomorrow!

So….on Tuesday I will come back to Thamel, and on Wed (hopefully) I will go and start my yoga retreat thingy….as long as I can do it on those days…otherwise I will have 6 days to do something….and I have NO idea what that’s going to be at all!  Then I will go back to placement on the 7th July or thereabouts, and will finish up there on the 12 July   YAY.  MG is finishing at the same time, so we will both head back into Thamel at the same time, and then…..I will be reunited with my Sherpa’s for the remainder of my time here   YAY!  I will get fed roti every morning, HUGE plates of rice, and generally just turn into a biggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg blob   I will find another pool close by so I can go swimming or something, otherwise I will have to book another seat on the plane…seriously!  They certainly like to feed me there.   I am pretty glad to be going back with them…..I don’t know how I will spend my days….but I will be able to laugh with them again, and that will be fantastic!  YAY!  It’s not that I dislike my current family..not at all.  They have been very nice to me, just not as inclusive as the Sherpa’s.  They are just very different.  That’s life!  They are very nice people, and I have had plenty of time on my own, but I just felt a connection with the Sherpa’s, so am very very excited to be returning to them!  Then….on the 31 July, I will board my plane for Bangkok, stay the night, and then get to NZ on the 2 August

Today I purchased some Nepali clown pants hehe.  There are pants over here which are sooooooo popular…definitely amongst the tourist groups anyway!  They are 100% cotton, and have elastic around the ankles….elastic around the waist, really quite baggy (but not really baggy)…and they are sooooo comfortable and cool, so I got some!  My children at the home keep saying that my pants are too short (despite them covering my knees) and I am sick of being stared at just because some of my legs are showing….so I got some today.  They were pretty cheap….300Rs.  They are not all that strong, being just cotton, but they will do the trick.  They will be fine in Wellington, although a bit on the chilly side at the moment!  The southerly will blow straight through them!  That was my exciting purchase for today!  I have so many things I want to buy before I leave….I have to empty out my bag so I have more room to buy stuff hehe.

So yeah……that’s it for now.  Next week Sarah will be gone, Amanda will be gone.  June’s volunteers are slowly leaving as well!  One left within the first 2 days of training due to a medical problem, and one has just left early due to being ill and travelling on anway….so that’s us!  July’s intake will be here very soon…next Tuesday or whenever it is, so that’s pretty cool.

Right then….so I have been online twice today!  hehe…really felt like updating the blog though, as I know I haven’t written much lately.  That’s because things have been ticking along ok!  Nothing exciting to say!  Right…that’s it.  I will update after mountain biking, or after yoga, or whenever I get back to the internet

Ah the pressure… June 16, 2009

Ok, so another week has passed….well pretty much anyway!  Nothing much has happened this week, so maybe, just maybe, this won’t be ‘one of those essays’!!! 

The country is heating up, the monsoon is supposed to come very soon, the stupid Maoists are causing disruptions every week….mmm the village has an eratic water supply (well it seems eratic to me) AND this keyboard is sticky and I can’t type fast!  BUT things are going along ok! 

So…I returned back to my home last week after the most amazing 4 days off.  It was hard going back out there.  I found I had 2 volunteers with me…one was only there for another few days, and the other one is here until mid July.  I was very happy to find I had some company out there, as you all know I was going crazy (er)!  On Friday Steph was heading back to Thamel, so I decided to go with her, as I didn’t want to have to find something to do during the day!  She didn’t know how to get there, so I went to show her the way   It was good….we had some fruit in Thamel which was great, and then we parted ways again…after a quick visit to the office (I wanted to see the boss to see if I could change my programme…but she was out in the village…MY village haha).  I headed back out to do some homework with the dear kiddies!  A couple of them always try to get me to DO their homework for them….and I am so strict, they must think I am so mean haha.  Ah well!  Saturday is their day off…and we just mucked about from what I remember.  Sunday arrived and we got to the home to hear that there was NO school because the teachers were holding a strike.  GRRRR another day to try and entertain the little darlings.  Luckily the home manager wanted to go for a walk to get some fruit trees…so that was great.  What should have been a 3-4 hour round trip took us about 6 hours.  We had about 13 kids with us, and when we arrived at the nursery, no-one was home….so we had to walk around to fill in time before they got back.  It was hot.  We got cold drinks along the way, as well as some dried  noodles, AND then some other snack on the way home.  It was pretty good.  It was stifling, but sooo good to be out walking, I didn’t really care about the crazy heat.

Monday we arrived at the home at 7am, and guess what?  There was a valley-wide strike by the Maoists, so NO school yet again!  grrrr.  MG (my side-kick, 19 years old from Mississippi haha) and I were like OH NO!  Another day with crazy kids!  MG was actually really sick, so she ended up going back to her house, and I tried to spend as much time at the home as I could without going mental myself.  We played lots of cards etc, but the kids were going mental and kept fighting and being really silly!  7pm came and I was outta there….what a day!

Today, being Tuesday, there is school and NO strike thank goodness.  Every week there are problems in this place….strikes, demonstrations etc etc.  Grrrrr.  We were very happy because it meant that we could get out of the village and head back to Thamel!  YAY.  MG and I were on that microbus so fast after daalbhaat this morning hehe.  Now we are back in the craziness of Thamel.  Whereas I don’t love the touristy feel of this place, it has water, so that is great.  I am sick of not having enough water out in the village.  The taps are only running for a few hours a day, and that is usually the time when we are at the children’s home!  I am just so dirty when I am out there…it’s quite gross.  My hair is disgusting…:-(  I know there are more important things in this world, but everyone around me is so beautiful and looks good…I don’t haha!

Today’s microsbus ride was pretty normal…although from Lagenkehl to Ratna Park I was sooooo squished in….the most squished I have been, but I really quite enjoy the craziness.  Driving/travelling in NZ will seem so boring after all this haha.  This place survives in chaos and I am not sure how!  There are traffic signals but they mean nothing.  Indicators are rarely used, and as for having a side of the road to drive on?  What’s that!  You drive wherever you can!  Craziness….I don’t know how there are not more accidents in this place!  You honk the horn if you want to pass, then you pretty much pass anyway!  It’s just insane…..I don’t know what isn’t allowed here, as everything is done haha.

What else can I bore you with today…..tomorrow we are meant to be going to see a Bollywood movie as our volunteer outing…and then going to a rakshii house somewhere so that could be entertaining!  I have a heap of washing awaiting me back at the hotel…that is something I will not miss, handwashing in the shower.  Ah well….dirt doesn’t kill you.

Ok, till next time readers!  I am going to leave my children’s home in about 2-3 weeks and spend some time seeing some more of Nepal.  I have to see the boss of the office tomorrow to inform her of my plans hehe. 

Part Two June 10, 2009

Another great night at Borderlands…a lot quieter than the previous night, as a lot of people had gone home   I was pretty excited about going off canyoning the next day that’s for sure!

Day 3 dawned pretty darn hot (as is so normal here now).  We had the usual brekky, then met our guides, and got suited up in our stylish wetsuits , helmets, and harnesses!  I had to borrow some covered shoes, as my sandals that I had got in Thamel for 500 rupees had broken during day 2 of rafting!  YEAH thanks Thamel!  Stooopid….they were not TEVA they were TOVA’s haha.  Silly.  Anyway, I had my spunky blue canvas sneakers on which were a size or 2 too  big, but they would do the job.  At about 10am we headed off carrying our wetsuits on our back (stuffed with everything we needed), as we had to start off with a 35-45 minute walk.  The guide took us straight up the hillside opposite Borderlands, and it was really steep!  There was a path, full of steps that were just that little bit too short for my long western feet (every step in this country is out to get me I tell ya!).  It was sooooo hot, but he was going really really slowly!  After about 20 minutes we stopped to have some water, and carry on.  I wasn’t tired as such, just hot as!  We came across some water taps along the way which was so nice, we could step under them and soak ourselves, wet our heads/hats and then carry on.  It sure was warm up there.

Eventually we made it to our starting point (our first waterfall)  where we wet our wetsuits and then got into them….ah so nice and cold!  We got all prepared, and then had a little practice on the life line rope.  I wasn’t scared at this point!  It was then time….I didn’t want to go first of course hehe.  Sarah did I think, then I went after her!  It was actually ok…..a  bit slippery with the moss etc, but overall ok!  We all did it really well I think!  At the bottom of each waterfall we had to be hooked onto the safety line, as in some places, we were just all perched on rocks way up this mountain, with nowhere else to go really, but down!  I was really glad that my stomach was behaving that day!  It would have been really really horrible to have a dodgy tum whilst up the mountain bound in a wetsuit and harness!!  It got really hot up there as in some places we were in the sun with no chance of shade.  The final waterfall was the longest one of that day, and it was a rather tricky wee number, just because of the slippery moss!  I slipped a few times, but righted myself with the help of the guides…that’s what they are there for   It was great fun, and whoever was waiting at the top was splashing more water down on us (as the farmers take lots of the water for their rice at the moment so the waterfalls are all a  bit dry!).  It was really really fun, and at the bottom we could see what we had just done!  YAY for us!  It was great.  After surviving that, we had to walk back down the remainder of the hill.  That was a bit fun, as we were pretty much bush whacking for a good part of it before we got on the track again!  hehe.  It was slippery on the rocks, but we made it YAY

Another beautiful shower at Borderlands and I tried to wash my shirt as it was pretty filthy!  The showers are soooo cool.  There are 3 shower heads, in one room, with rock/concrete floor and walls and no roof.  You can see the mountains over the top of the walls, and it’s pretty awesome!  The showers have hot water, and if you don’t mind sharing the space with 2 others, they are fine!  I am pretty much over the whole modesty thing….well to a point at least!  It’s ok when you are in a room such as that!  It was a great shower anyway!  Another great night at Borderlands….we played cards, and I learnt a new game (yanef….taught to us by an Italian guy who learnt it from an Israeli guy!).  It was great fun, but we were all pretty knackered, so it was early to bed again.

Day 4 and we were ready for action up the waterfalls!  We had the basics, and we were ready to tackle the challenge of Old Jumbo (the name of the waterfall for that day!).  We started off driving a bit down the road, then we walked over this great swing bridge which crossed the mighty Bohte Kosi river, and then we walked through corn fields and rice fields.  It was hot yet again, but it wasn’t such a long or steep walk as it had been the first day.  There was water along the way, and locals who could laugh at us, and stare at us as we walked along carrying our wetsuits on our backs yet again.  They must have seen it before, but still, they stare all the time   We got to the top after about 30 minutes of walking, and got ready for the first challenge.  Firstly we were talked through our 5 waterfalls for the day.  We would experience sliding, abseiling, jumping, and just free falling/swinging, and a wee bit of swimming.  All rather exciting sounding to me!  The first one was the absolute worst one ever, and I was actually rather scared!  We had to start part way down the cliff face, which involved a rather technical maneouvre!  We hooked on to the safety line, and then had to walk down to where the first guide was waiting.  That sounds all good, but when you are only hooked on by one rope, and you have to use your upper arms to help you, it’s not cool!  Especially when you have no upper body strength!  I got to the guide and he was like “Come down more” and I really didn’t see how I was going to do that without absolutely dying and falling off the dam cliff face!  After a few tricky minutes, I was down where he wanted me to be, and hooked my foot into the rope.  Shite that was a bit hair raising I tell ya!  I felt a lot more secure once he had the actual abseiling rope attached to my harness!  After the start it was actually ok, it was just getting started that almost killed me!  One of the waterfalls had a ledge which we had to conquer, which in itself was quite hilarious!  We all found ourselves in different positions coming down that…I didn’t quite slip, but it wasn’t pretty, whereas Sarah said her foot got stuck and she thought she was going to end up upside down!  My favourite one was the sliding one.  It was only short, about 5 metres probably.  We sat at the top, crossed our arms, wiggled our butts, got a push from the guide, and down we went, into the pool at the bottom….no ropes required!  YAY.  That was a really good one!  The next one was the jumping one, which good old Becs stuffed up haha.  We were supposed to jump backwards….well I thought I was doing that, but I kinda jumped sideways, and therefore almost swung back into the wall!  Ah well………..no worries mate   It was great!  The last waterfall was the highest at about 45metres!  It was a whopper!  It had to be done in 2 stages as well which made it a bit more interesting.  The first bit was ok….again, once connected with the rope and harness all was well.  I went down ok, but then about halfway down the first bit I began thinking about the rope breaking….NOT a good thing to think when you are about 30 metres off the ground haha.  I got a bit scared at that point, but then tried to focus on just getting down to the midway point.  The midway point in itself was rather exciting.  The guide was just hanging off the wall!  He then connected my safety line to the hooky thing, and then disconnected my abseiling rope!  I was really scared just hanging there.  I was saying “Malai dherai dor lagyo” which means “I am very scared” haha.  He just kept laughing at me and repeating what I said, while the guy at the bottom was yelling “Chitto chitto” which is faster faster!  Ah the crap I got once they knew I knew a teeny bit of Nepali!  The whole way down on that second day they were saying “Chitto chitto” hehe.  Once connected again I was away laughing…and got to the bottom no worries!  Once I swam through the water, that was it……our adventures were complete!  I was really sad to be leaving Borderlands, I really really enjoyed it out there!  We headed back for our late lunch, and then it was time to go back to Kathmandu.  We were in a mini van on the way home.  It took us about 3 hours, and we were all too soon back in the hustle and bustle of crazy Thamel.  I am thinking I really want to do a kayaking trip, so I am going to see if I can do that at some stage.  I also want to go to Chitwan, but not sure if that will work out so well during the monsoon, if indeed it really hits like it should do!

So, we got back last night, and we are staying another night in Thamel.  I was soooo tired today, and I really didn’t want to go back to placement, so I am not going until tomorrow hehe.  I have 2 new volunteers with me, so that may change the situation – we’ll see!  I still want to finish early though, as there are some things I have to do  before I leave.  Who knows when I will be back to see this crazy place.  Sarah leaves in just 3 weeks, which is crazy in itself….she is very happy to be going home though!  I have some more things to see, so am not really ready to go home as such.  Although the other day I woke up and really just wanted my normal western life….it’s rather uncomplicated, and I just wanted my ‘normality’ back!  I don’t think I could be a backpacker who travels for months and months on end.

Anyway…..that’s it.  Borderlands is amazing.  The rafting was great, as was the canyoning.  I loved it!  Even with the gut problems, I still managed to have a good time.  It was over all too soon, as happens with all good things.  Nepali people are so friendly on the whole….well the ones that you get to actually meet.  Some of them are just so different.  The younger ones are pretty friendly, and everyone we met whilst rafting/canyoning were really cool, and if anyone wants to go rafting/canyonng whilst in Nepal, contact me, and I will tell you who to go with

Borderlands, the Bohte Kosi, and immodium :-) (part one) June 10, 2009

What an amazing weekend we just had!  Absolutely fantastic!  Friday saw me leaving Bistachhap and heading to Thamel in preparation for the rafting/canyoning trip.  I was planning on leaving B’chhap after daal bhaat (about 10am) but then the house manager told me there was going to be (yet another!) strike from 10-12 so I should leave earlier.  So I left the home at 8.20, but didn’t leave my family home until 9am.  I got the microbus from Godamchour, and made it into Lagenkehl (spelling??!!) no worries, but once I got there, there was just chaos!  A million people trying to get into one bus, and then none of them making it on.  It was stinking hot as always, and no buses seemed to be running to Ratna Park, which was my destination.  I decided that I would just have to take a taxi.  I saw a taxi, and asked him how much it would be to get to Ratna Park….350rupees he said!  “Ah dherai mahango chaa” I replied (That is really expensive!)….and we agreed on 250 or something!  I didn’t really care after all that…it was hot, and all I wanted was to be in Thamel, as I was feeling really tired and a bit ick.  It was a good trip to start off with.  We were trying to converse, but again, I have such limited Nepali, and he knew very very little English, so it was (as always) quite entertaining!  We got to the bridge and there was just no way we could get across.  There was traffic everywhere, and they had blocked that bridge!  So we drove around a bit, and got to the next bridge, and the same thing happened.  There were about a million motorbikes and nothing was moving!  It was about a hundred degrees, no wind, and no movement!  Everyone was just honking (as is usual in this mad place), but nothing was happening.  The driver was like “……jam…..ramro chaina”  (traffic jam, not good!) hehe.  I was going to walk, but then it was just so hot, that I thought I would just sit in the dam car and wait, as he couldn’t really go anywhere else anyway!  We finally made it across the bridge and slowly crawled our way along!  By the time we got to Ratna Park, I had already decided to give this driver 500 rupees, as we had been in the car for about 2 hours (it’s usually a 30min trip in the bus, or less!), so I asked him if he could take me to Thamel (a further 5 mins in the car) and I would give him 500 rupees!  He agreed……I thought that in the big scheme of things, 500 rupees isn’t a lot to me, but it could be for him, and we had both suffered in that car, in the heat, and we had a long journey.  He had been a really good driver, and very helpful to me, and really nice.  He tried to communicate with me, and I appreciated his help a lot.  I also thought it was a bit weird to bargain for a 250 rupee trip and then pull out a 500 rupee note which is all I had!  Anyway….he got the 500 rupees, I got to Thamel, and we were both happy!  (the bus trip costs 12 rupees normally!!)

On arrival in Thamel I really wanted a mango…I had fallen in love with that fruit!  I went to a street seller man, and got 2 mangoes and some bananas!  The mangoes were huge, and I was so excited!  I made my way to the hotel, where I scoffed the mango pretty fast!  Halfway through it I felt like it was a pretty darn big thing to be eating all by myself, but I just kept going, as it was quite good.  By the end of it I had had enough though!  My stomach was certainly full!  I then fell asleep on the bed for some of the afternoon which was a bit strange.  I did some washing….and then later in the afternoon/early evening, I headed out to get some kai!  I just had a salad as I wasn’t feeling very hungry at all.  It was such a good salad, and I had a good chat with one of the waiters there….they are quite friendly around here that’s for sure   hehe.  I headed back to the hotel and felt pretty ok…except that I did still feel really full and a bit bloated.  I went to bed earlyish, and tried to sleep.  However, my stomach had different ideas.  It was majorly bloated, and just was really really sore.  I could not get comfortable no matter how I lay.  I lay on my front, my back, my side, I sat up, I curled up, I lay straight, I walked around, I ate some stuff in the middle of the night as I thought I was hungry, I just wasn’t a happy camper.  I had the fan on my face as I was so darn hot!  I was up in the middle of the night and really felt like I was going to vomit…..nothing came!  I tried to make myself sick as I thought it would make me feel better, but it didn’t!  I was so mad, as we had to be at the rafting office at 6.30am!  How typical I thought…I have been pretty good most of this trip, and then I get a sore stomach the night before a 4 day trip away, AND I didn’t take any meds with me, because I didn’t even think I would get sick!  I tossed and I turned, and I managed to sleep a wee bit, but then I was awake again, and then the quick trips to the loo began!  Oh no……what was happening!  My stomach wasn’t cramping as such, just constantly sore, and I had a rafting trip in just a few hours, which began with a 3 hour bus trip, and I had NO meds   I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, and  just hoping that I didn’t have to cancel the trip!

6.30am came, and I prepared and checked out.  I met Sarah and we went to the office….we had both had limited sleep, and I wasn’t feeling too confident about the whole thing!  It was pouring with rain which was exciting….NOT.  We went to a bakery to get something for brekky, as that is the only thing open at that time of the morning.  I thought I could manage that, as my stomach was feeling a bit hungry.  Still sore, but controllable, thank goodness!  (TMI??? too bad folks…this is how it was!)  We waited around a bit, and then headed down to the bus at about 7am.  We were on the road by 7.20am and it was ok….I still didn’t feel too flash, and my stomach was gurgling and hurting, but we were on the way at least!  Along the way we saw what looked like a dead guy lying on the footpath.  There was a body, and he was surrounded by a group of others and a policeman.  There wasn’t much/if any movement coming from him, so that was a bit ick!!  We soon left Kathamandu behind, and then had our first stop for the toilet….thank goodness!  Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty on my behalf….luckily I had snatched some loo paper from the hotel prior to leaving….I climbed back aboard the bus feeling a bit gross, and the trip continued!  At Dulikhel we saw a bus that had crashed at some point…just lying on its front down the ditchy thing….happens a lot around here!  We had another stop along the way, this time for tea.  I managed a tea, and of course, a toilet stop!  Again….not pretty.  My poor stomach was just aching, and I just really wanted to get to our destination.  The road from then on became really windy and bumpy, and the stomach just got mashed around something wicked.  Oh I have to say, that at some point I decided to take one of Sarah’s immodium tablets, as I really just wanted to raft without worry.  Well….I had one and things kept happening….so hmmm! The trip was quite beautiful, but I didn’t get to see a lot of it, as I was just not comfortable!

We got to the river (our starting point for that day) and I felt like absolute shite.  I felt so sick and my stomach was soooooo sore.  It was bloated something wicked, and just ached really badly.  I cried as I felt so gross, and I was so tired from not sleeping the night before, I was disappointed that it was happening just when we were going rafting, and I really didn’t know how i would manage getting down the river.  It didn’t help that it was really really really hot that day!  I took another immodium (it says to have 2), and then Javed (one of the guides) gave me some rehydration salts in my water which tasted disgusting, but I got them down.  I had moments when I felt ok, but moments when I just felt gross!  I got into the gear for rafting, and when they tightened my life jacket I just wanted to vomit, as it was so tight across my bloated gut!  Anyway….a quick dash to the loo (well the rock!) and then we were away down the river!  My stomach wasn’t really great, but nothing happened along the river thankfully!  We stopped for lunch where I managed a bit of bread and a few bits of pasta….I lay in the bus, took a trip to the loo (are you getting the idea!), and then we were off again.  Being on the river was actually good, as it was cooler, and I think having something else to focus on really helped my gut situation!  We didn’t encounter any crazy rapids on that first day, I think the biggest were about grade 3 or something.  It was heaps of fun (well aside from the constant gut ache!).  The river was a brown colour, and I am sure the toilets just empty straight into it, but it was fairly clean in terms of actual rubbish etc.  It was nice!

The trip ended and we then had to carry the rafts up to the bus…..and I had to go to the loo again!  So…I took 2 immodium, and still went a lot of times!  It didn’t really seem to do much to me….so about 12 trips to the loo in about 12 hours….hehe you all wanted to know that didn’t you!  We boarded the bus and then drove to Borderlands (our resort for our stay).  It seemed to take forever to get there.  It was stinking hot, I felt disgusting!  I tried to sleep, and then I sat up and really felt like I was going to vomit!  Luckily Sarah had an actual vomit bag, so she gave it to me….thankfully I didn’t need it!  We finally arrived at Borderlands and it was sooooo good to have stopped being on the bus!  The road we were on is the only route in that region from Nepal to Tibet, and it is a shocking road in places.  It gets quite narrow, and there had been a lot of landslides so that blocked off even more of the road!  It was ok though…we made it safe and sound!  I managed a shower, and then just crashed!  We had dinner at about 6.30, and by then my stomach was feeling a bit better….I managed a small amount of dinner, but it still wasn’t feeling 100%.  Off to bed we went, and I was so grateful to have some sleep!

Now let’s just backtrack and let me explain Borderlands Resort.  It is an amazing place!  The roaring Bohte Kosi is right beside it, and it’s sooooo peaceful and beautiful there, it really really is!  It is near the end of the season for rafting etc, so there were hardly any people staying there, which made it nicer!  Sarah and I were sharing a tent, and what a luxurious tent it was!  It was a permanent tent, so it had a nice roof over it etc.  We had 2 chairs out the front, and our beds were cute little bamboo numbers, with beautiful white sheets and duvets….really nice.  We had a wee table with a bottle of VODKA on it (we didn’t drink any of it, promise!), some flowers, and heaps of room. It was really really nice.  Ours was quite private, we were surrounded by beautiful trees and bushes, and the river was only a few steps away (well down the bank, but it was sooooo nice!).  Each night we slept with the roar of the river ringing in our ears…..amazing.  There are communal showers and toilets, and a combination of the Nepali squat toilet, and western loos which is great!  (especially when you have spent the day squatting behind trees/rocks etc!).  There is clean drinking water (treated with iodine) coming out some taps, and normal water coming out the handwashing taps.  There is a teeny swimming pool, outside chairs etc, and a beautiful thatched dining hall/bar area.  It really is something pretty cool!  Each night the resort staff provide snacks at about 7pm, and then dinner is served at 7.30.  It is a buffet style, and you get what you want….drinks can be bought, they just put them on your room bill, and you pay at the end.  You can have complimentary tea and coffee which is really good.  They serve brekky at about 8.30, and it’s really great.  It’s  predominantly Western food, and you can’t fault it really.  They change it every day, so that’s pretty cool.

So….day number two!  My stomach was feeling somewhat better, in fact when I woke up I was soooooo hungry!  We were lucky and had toast that morning, so I downed a few slices of that which was good for the old tum.  There was doubt as to whether we would actually get rafting that day as there was a strike (AGAIN!) and there were people supposedly coming from Kathmandu to join us for day 2.  Well they never got out there, so we went anyway   Normally the trip starts at the resort on day 2, but because of the rainfall lately, the river is too high, and the rapids are too dangerous for the plebs to go down!  So…we drove 2km down the river to our starting point for day 2.  My stomach was feeling 100% better than the previous day, but still not quite perfect!  We mucked about setting everything up, pumping the rafts up again, joking around, and general silliness (not from me of course, I was sitting meekly by the bus awaiting further directions!).  Soon enough we were jumping in our rafts for day 2….and away we went!  WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  It was awesome!  A lot more fun than the first day,  and not only because my stomach was feeling better!  We had a lot more rapids on this day which was cool, and they were really close together.  My neck was sore from the first day’s efforts, but everything else was pretty much ok!  I wasn’t really scared as such.  We had 7 in our raft, and only 3 of us were tourists!  The other 4 were guides/wanna -be-guides etc.  It was pretty cool, except that the Nepali woman in front of me kept getting her left and right mixed up, so when the guide yelled “RIGHT BACK” she would paddle backwards…hehe, but that was the other side!  EVERY single time she did that!  It was quite funny, but luckily it didn’t really matter too much, and we didn’t fall out or anything dodgy!  Some of the rapids were grade 4+ so they did get rather exciting!  It’s great when all you see is this great wall of brown water, and you know you are committed to cgoing down it!  It was really awesome….but for some reason my butt didn’t want to stay connected to my seat that day, and on numerous occasions I found myself bouncing across the raft and almost sitting in Sarah’s lap hehe.  (she was sitting opposite me!).  At one point the guy in the front threw Sarah’s drink bottle (an aluminium one!) back to her, and it landed right on my big toe…..OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.  It did hurt rather a lot, but we had more important things to think about!  There’s just a little hole on my toe, nothing major…all the scabbies from my itchy bites are more impressive actually!  My legs are scarred already, ah I will have great memories of this place!  After about an hour of rafting, we stopped for lunch.  The boys (and girls) served us up a good feed yet again, and I didn’t have to spend that lunch break squatting by some rocks or sleeping in the bus trying to calm my guts!  YAY!  We started off soon enough, after a pep talk from our leader who reiterated how important it was for us to paddle when he said to paddle, as we had just got stuck in a hole right before lunch!  I was paddling as hard as I could trust me!  It probably didn’t help that one of our crew, James, had come down with some gut issues on day 2!   Poor boy!

The second section was rather exciting as well…heaps of good rapids, and lots of water everywhere, it was great   We did have to portage one rapid, as it was too dangerous to go down with the plebs in the boat.  The guides took the rafts down that rapid while we walked on the rocks beside the river.  It was fine….then we were back in and away we went again!  It was really awesome.  The hills were just so steep and covered in beautiful green vegetation, and heaps and heaps of rice fields planted wherever the villagers could find space on the hillside.  The rice is just growing into this beautiful bright bright green at the moment, and it looks really impressive!  Not all fields are bright green though, but when they are, it will look amazing.  There are so many little villages dotted all around on the hills, and people all over doing their daily work.  Sometimes that’s just taking the goats/cows out to graze, or it’s looking after the rice, giving it water, or planting more, digging the ground etc etc.  Certainly a lot to do, and no space for a tractor or modern machinery/tools.  Whenever kids saw us, they would wave and yell hello (well most of the time, except for the one kid on the bridge who gave us the one finger salute!  Friendly Nepali’s!).

All too soon we were going down the last rapid, and then that was it!  Day 2 was over   We had to carry the rafts up the road side and wait for the bus to come back and get us!  We had to carry the dam raft on our heads which wasn’t too exciting, especially since my gut still wasn’t perfect!  grrrr.  We sat around waiting, and eventually the bus came, the rafts could get loaded, and we had to wait for our transport back to Borderlands (some people on the raft trip were going back to Kathmandu, and some of us were heading back to the sanctuary of Borderlands!). Soon enough our ride came and we were off, heading back to the peace and quiet

Ho-hum June 3, 2009

This week is chugging along somewhat speedily already, and I haven’t really done anything!  On Sunday I headed into Thamel for my night of ‘luxury’ haha….well a hot shower and the chance to wash my clothes, and catch up with the other volunteers anyway!  It was nice to be back this time, as I am not loving my new placement. 

 

Last Monday I was ripped from the safety of my Tibetan family in Swayambhu, and taken out to Bistachhap, where I am to be  based for the remainder of my time here in Nepal.  I was not excited about it, I did not want to go, but I had to!  We got out there about 2pm, and I was taken to meet my new family.  It’s all so laid back over here when you meet your families!  They don’t just show you where things are (like the toilet etc), you have to ask, or find them yourself.  That’s ok, as I can talk, it’s just different that’s all, but then what isn’t different over here!!!  After dumping my stuff I had an hour or so to spare before I had to head to the children’s home, as they come home from school about 3.30pm.  I sat outside with my new aamaa who doesn’t speak very much English at all, and drank milk tea and ate biscuits!  It was weird.  I was feeling ok about being taken from Swayambhu at that point….just ok!  I went down to the children’s home, and met the new kids, and helped with homework etc.  It was ok.  Headed home again at 7pm-ish and then felt really sad because I just wanted to get back to town and my Tibetan family   It didn’t last long, as it was then daalbhaat time!  Being back in the village means sitting on the floor (well near enough to the floor) and eating with your hand.  That’s ok…not a huge problem, just something different yet again.  I met the dad that night, and he knows a bit of english, so that was pretty good.  They also have a 15 year old daughter, and a 18 year old son.  They also know a little bit of English (well the son knows a lot, but is hardly ever around!).  A lot of these families tend to want to feed their guests first and on their own!  So yes, you got it, I was eating on my own, with everyone standing around waiting!  I told the dad that I wasn’t special and that I would like to eat all together the next night, and he said OK OK…..well it hasn’t happened.  For a couple of nights afterwards, I was fed with the daughter, but now it is back to being just me!  I don’t like it.  I sit there and I eat ALL by myself, and then they eat all together after me.  They watch me, because they always want to give me more.  It’s good daalbhaat, but I still am not comfortable being watched like that.  Ah well….looks like I just have to get used to it, as that’s the way they insist on doing it!  Oh I have to add that they have 4 goats downstairs in their kitchen/dining area…hehe.  They also have a kitty named something…not sure, and a dog called Puppy!  He is cute, but only 8 months old and very crazy.  He jumps up my leg every time I go past him, and he just loves mouthing….grrrrrrrr.  Ah well!

 

The first morning I headed out to the children’s home about 6.45am, and my aamaa saw me and said “Chiyaa”??  which is tea, so I had to pause to drink my tea, and then head out to the home.  No worries.  Morning daalbhaat is at 9am-ish, so I head back home for food, and then not back to the home until 3.30pm!  So I have a lot of time to waste during the day! 

 

So what is the children’s home like?  It is a relatively new building…it was built about 2006 I think, so it’s pretty good.  There are about 13 kids I think!  The oldest is 15-16, and the youngest is 7 years old.  The 2 oldest boys generally stick to themselves, so it’s the other kids who might need something.  This home is extremely well run, and they have everything they need.  There are 2 boys with down syndrome, and one girl with cerebral palsy.  I need to do daily physio on the young girl, so that is at least something I can do!  She hates the physio, it is very tedious…but we have to get through it.  She has a tendency to speed through the session, so you have to try and hold her back and remind her to go slowly…well you can only try!  She is very strong willed that’s for sure.  A lot of the kids at this home don’t tend to listen to me….they listen to the older boys and the manager and the didi etc, but not me.  Ah well…I will just let them run wild and when someone else steps in to discipline, that’s all good haha.  Not the best attitude from me, but honestly, there are 2 young boys who just do what they want to do, and nothing I do or say makes much of a difference!  I am really  not needed in this home.  It is a VSN-run home, so if there was any problems, they would sort them out as they are in full control.  My role is simply to do the physio, and help with homework, and then try and do something fun on the weekend (Saturday).  The kids are really good at entertaining themselves though.  I don’t feel like I am bonding with these kids very much actually…so I am not giving it my all to be honest…bad I know!  I just don’t feel like I need to be there, and that’s not cool.  With the last home I really felt like I needed to be there, and those kids really needed someone…and that was quite good!  It was a shite building etc, but the kids really did need someone there, and they were pretty cool kids.  Ah well!  That’s life I guess.  So my last week has been really lonely…I am the only volunteer in Bistachhap, so I have no-one to hang out with during the day….and my family are all off doing their thing.  They are the complete opposite of my old family.  They feed me, and I have a nice room etc, but that’s it.  They don’t appear to be overly interested in me.  I really am thinking of changing my last 3 weeks here to a homestay progamme, so I can go back to my Tibetan family and spend some time with them.  We have just got 12 new volunteers, so maybe one will be placed out with me…I really really really really hope so!  I have my fingers and toes crossed, and I have asked them to put someone else out there, as there is only so much reading/walking you can do!  One good day was when I went into the hospital with our boy who needed surgery.  He has downs syndrome, and you wouldn’t believe the trouble they had trying to get a hospital to agree to do the surgery on him!  It was ear surgery, but they all said “Ah his life expectancy isn’t that great you know” blah blah.  Anyway, they had to see all these doctors etc, and have bloods done, an echo, an ECG, chest xray etc, to ensure he was fit for surgery.  Now this boy hates hospitals!  He climbed onto the bed face first, lay on his tummy and wrapped his arms and legs around the bed and would not budge!  Jaggu (house manager) and I had to pry him off and roll him over hehe.  He was shaking so badly, just for his ECG…poor boy.  He has really low verbal ability, in that he very rarely talks.  He can understand what is said, but he doesn’t talk back.  After about 5 hours in the hospital, we were done.  Getting his blood test was pretty exciting!  As soon as the needle went in, he jumped up and tried to take off….so with 4 of us trying to pin him down they got it done.  It was interesting to be in a private Nepal hospital….not quite the same as private in New Zealand that’s for sure hehe.  You should have seen the stares I got while I was sitting with him as well!  He is different, and I am white!  Oh dear….hehe.  He often just cracks up laughing for no apparent reason (I want to live in his world sometimes!), and he was doing that quite often that day…and people would just look at us, and stare hard out!  It was really funny, but I started to get a bit angry, because we are both still just people!!!!  Finally after 4 days of tests and meeting with the docs etc, he was given the all clear for surgery last Friday!  YAY!

 

I was supposed to head back to the village on Monday but there was a bandh (strike) so no public transport was running.  Oh what a pity…hehe.  I stayed another night in Thamel, and was planning on heading back yesterday (Tues).  I was going to visit my Sherpa’s first, and then head out so I could be at the home for homework time (oh yay!).  I used the internet, and then was walking back to the hotel, and Kamaal was there and said that Kate wanted to talk with me!  I walked back to the office to see her, and she asked me if I wanted to go and stay the night with K who was at the hospital.  I said YES of course…as I was interested to see the hospital, and to see how he was doing.  We headed out to the hospital at about 3pm.  I was there with Bikram (who is the day guard at the home).  He doesn’t speak much English, so it was a very quiet time.  He fed me doughnuts though for afternoon tea (I did only have a little lunch thankfully).  We spent the afternoon watching Nepali tv, playing with K, and just trying to pass the time.  K had a room of his own, with an ensuite.  There was a spare bed and another long-ish seaty thing.  Bikram had nabbed the spare bed, so the other thing was mine!    At about 7pm the phone in the room rang, but Bikram was out of the room!  I answered, and the person started rambling off in Nepali of course!  I said I only understood very little Nepali, but it didn’t seem to matter.  They were talking about daalbhaat and meat, and I don’t know if that was for K or for us!  Anyway, I hung up when I thought it was finished.  Then Bikram came back and asked if I wanted daalbhaat and I said ok.  He gave me some money and told me to go first.  Luckily I knew where the canteen was from our previous visit earlier in the week!  I headed over there, and meekly asked the guys if this was where I came for daalbhaat!  Yes it was, and did I want meat…(all done in frikkin Nepali) to which I said YES.  Then I ate….oh and they always give you seconds!  I didn’t get seconds of rice cos my goodness I had quite a mountain of rice on there already thank you very much!  It was good, and I got a spoon!…..everyone does though.  I then went to pay which was quite an issue, but I did it and scurried back to the safety of the room!  K was tucking into his own daalbhaat, and then B went off to get his.   

 

About 9.30pm I was shattered….we all dossed down to sleep!  No blanket, no pillow, no pj’s, the bench was just that little bit too short, but it was softer than my bed at my home in the village, and I was tired as!  I went to sleep pretty quickly, and woke up at 2.30am or something like that…and again at 4am, and again at 6am, but really all in all it was a good sleep considering I thought I was going to have to go without sleep! 

 

At 6.30am the nurse came in to give him some meds, but he was asleep, so she told me to wake him up and give him his meds!  AND his ear drops hehe.  I shook him awake and he was not a happy chappy with me!  I gave him his tablets, and he chewed them up!  He keeps chewing them, even though he is supposed to just swallow them!  It makes a real mess!  His mum then came to visit, and she just wanted to touch me hehe.  Oh dear…she is from a village about 2-3 days away I think.  Anyway, she was really nice, and was crying at times I think.  We had milk tea for brekky, and biscuits!!  At about 8.30 J and D arrived, as they needed to do the signing of  the discharge papers for K.  YAY he is going home   I said to J that I needed to get into Thamel to book the rafting trip, so he said I could go with D on the motorbike   YAY!  I have wanted to go on a motorbike since I got here, as they are everywhere!  I jumped on the back and off we went…..it is certainly the way to travel in this madness.  It was such fun.  He then let me off close to Thamel and I walked the remainder of the way!  I am now waiting for Sarah to arrive so we can go and book our tickets.  Actually I am waiting for my milk tea to arrive….the guy who runs this particular internet cafe gives volunteers a discount, and he always tries to feed us.  Today it’s just tea…I can do that

 

I will catch the crazy microbus back out to the village this afternoon, and then tomorrow just do the normal village stuff, and then on Friday after the kids have gone to school I will head back to Thamel.  Sat we are heading off for our rafting adventure!  We are doing 2 days on the Bohte Kosi river which is a really steep baby, and is supposed to be really scary when the water is high….which it is at the moment   hehe.  We are then doing 2 days canyoning as well, so that will be awesome.  If I don’t post again, it’s because my life was taken on the river haha.

 

So all in all, I am not loving my new placement/family, but I hope to only be there for another 5 weeks, which is bearable for me.  If I get another volunteer out there with me my feelings could well change, but I do really want to spend some more time with my Sherpa family before I leave anyway.

 

Alrighty, I will write again after our river adventures!