August 25th, 2009

The past few days have been fairly normal; I've been going to Pashupati and spending time with the kids as well. I'm including a photo of me and my gal Gita--the kids had a good time with my camera.. they love to take pictures. However, last night Sir Sean Connery was celebrated, as he is every year when you're around me. We had a cake, balloons, some truly horrible "cider", mango juice, and two movies, which just happened to be my favorites--From Russia with Love and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ("Junior!"). How did my two favorite Sean Connery movies show up in Nepal? I think there's some kind of universal reason behind this... Enjoy the pics!

Me 'n' Gita

Happy birthday, Sean!

Some mango juice, Sean, and some "grapple cider". Don't ask what that means; I've tasted it and I still don't know.

Sean's 0079 cake

Vinod, our only boy, blowing out Sean's candle

Narti Part 4: The trip home

My girl Maya... just had to include this photo somewhere! (she and her sister are moving to Kathmandu to Papa's house, yay!)

We had a lovely send off on Sunday morning. All of the girls had spent the entire night awake because right now it is the Teej festival. On this festival, women fast for the good health of their husbands or luck in finding a future husband, so the night before is a little like Mardi Gras. The girls stayed up, had a huge meal at midnight, and then danced the night away in a frenzy. Unfortunately, I was dead tired and slept through this all, but I’m told it was a sight to see by Sarah and Sam. Vinod said some of the girls were the best dancers he’d ever seen. I wish I had pictures for you all. Some of the girls gave me a little mini-show of dancing before I went to bed though--they danced so fast it reminded me of some kind of seizure… I can’t imagine how exhausted they were by the end of Sunday. Anyways, all of the girls got up (or stayed up) at five in the morning to see us off. They all came out to the road, they put tikas on our foreheads, and they gave us bouquets of flowers and waved us away.

The girls dancing the night away for Teej (Thanks to Sarah Rhodes for the photo)

Krishna-sir, Vinod, and most of the girls

Sarah getting her tika applied

Me with my bouquet and tika, saying goodbye before getting on the bus

After a while, our bus (which was much nicer than the one on the trip out--more room for feet, and rather empty at first) filled up with people, and Vinod, Sarah and I decided to sit on top for a little more breathing room. Once again, putting myself in more danger than I ever have, but it was so awesome. Roller coasters will never be the same. We were riding on top of the bus around mountain curves and passing big trucks with other vehicles coming our way (I said a few choice words more than once), and a couple of times I swear that driver was going a little fast for having people on the roof of the bus, but the views were worth it. I didn’t bring my camera out of course, but the mountains in some parts of Chitwan (a region that we rode through) look like they come straight out of a fairy tale. The cliffs are sheer, the water slices through and leaves steep islands with temple tops sticking out through the forest canopy, there are more shades of green than I could possibly describe, and I fully expected the creatures of Narnia to start appearing out of the brush. The wind sculpted my hair into an indescribable up-do; my legs are sunburned; the backs of my knees are bruised from the metal luggage rack we were sitting on; but we whooped and hollered when we were going fast and I saw some absolutely incredible sights. Well worth it.

A view from the top of our bus (Thanks to Sarah Rhodes for the photo)

Narti Part 3: Touristy Bits

A view from the top of a truck on which Vinod and I were riding

Just a short little post--I tried to have my rice read (to see the future) but the lady was out. Fortunately (I use this term very warily), her brother-in-law happened to be a snake charmer, so we got to see him do his thing. I must say, the past few days I have probably put myself in the greatest danger I’ve ever been in, just by riding on top of vehicles and playing with snakes (and going to the bathroom where snakes happen to live). This guy brought out a basket and sat it down literally four feet away from us. The locals were gathered around behind us--even they weren’t stupid enough to sit as close as we were. He unties the basket and there are two freshly caught cobras in it--straight from the jungle, he said. I was terrified, but I watched the whole time. They stayed in the basket, but seriously, if they had felt threatened by any of us, there was no way we would have been safe. I told Vinod and Sarah that I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t push one of them in front of me if we had to run away. I was dizzy and had a headache afterward because I was hyperventilating I think… it was exciting, but the type of excitement that is almost indeterminable from terror. We gave the dude 200 rupees for being clinically insane and collecting these snakes--he deserved that much, it was scary. Eugh.

The two cobras who were feet away from me.

The last night we were there, the girls hennaed my hand. I think that’s pretty touristy as well, although not so much here. I love henna. The most common design here is simple but beautiful, and they especially liked it on me since I’m so white. Lol.
A last thing, not really touristy, but just awesome. One night I got to see quite a show just by looking up. We were far away from absolutely everywhere, of course, and the night sky was amazing. There were so many stars out, and I could even see the Milky Way, which I haven’t seen in a long while. The clearing where the girls’ hostel is located is surrounded by trees, and at night, those trees are filled with fireflies. The stillness of the bright stars contrasts beautifully with the blinking and motion of the fireflies, but to top that off, there was a storm to the southwest, completely hidden by the trees except for echoes of the flashes of lightning. It was a natural light show that I can hardly describe. It was awe-inspiring. I know I’ll never see anything like it again.

Narti Part 2: Life in Narti

The school in Narti near sunset

When we got to Narti, our mission was to find out how the girls were being treated there, what they needed for a better life, and if any of them wanted to come study at Papa’s houses in Kathmandu. Overall, I must say that the girls seemed very happy. Some of them are taking the opportunity to come to the city, but most have decided to stay in Narti, in their home district. The people there are very proud of their culture and want to stay in the district to make a difference there; the girls don’t seem to understand that they can get a better education in Kathmandu and then return to their homes, but hopefully we can impress that upon them with time.

Our room in Narti, complete with mozzie nets

Narti is a wide spot in the road and the girls there live on government property. All of them are Kamlari--they were sold into slavery by their parents or grandparents at a young age and worked for a master until they were bought out of slavery by a group called SWAN, which then sends them to school. Their housing and resources are very minimal. There is electricity most of the time. However, there is no safe water source--the girls bathe under a well pump about 50 meters from their housing and cannot drink the water from that well; there’s no sink at which they can wash their hands. They have two toilets (of course without flush, that’s the norm in Nepal) but they’re not very safe… there was a snake in our toilet the first couple of nights; when it was finally killed (the third night) we found out it was indeed poisonous. Eek.

The girls washing their hair under the pump

My bath time in the same spot

The girls have cows to provide milk (and hopefully some day, income). We had milk tea every day for breakfast (it was delicious) and I even got to milk a cow, which has seriously been a dream of mine since kindergarten (I got sick on the day of the little social when we got to milk the fake cow with a latex glove udder… I’ve milked a real cow now. Ha). It was more gross than I’d imagined. I also got to take a shower under the pump. We have to wear a big skirt called a lungi (can’t shower naked, it’s taboo to be naked in front of other people; understandable, I guess, but somewhat difficult for nude-model-Mariah to get used to) and the water was always cold, but it felt wonderful after the hot and humid days in Narti. Transportation to nearby villages (to visit the hospital, get our bus tickets back, see a girl off in her mission to find her brother) was either walking or riding on buses, trucks or tractors. Many of the trucks were so full we ended up riding on top; it was a little scary, but offered some great views.

I milked a cow!!

Me on the back of a truck... normal transportation

A view from one of our truck rides--homes in a rice field, mountains in the back.

The first morning we were in Narti there was no school because it was a type of father’s day. The girls put a pink tika on their “father’s” (Krishna, the man who runs the hostel and school) forehead and bless him with pink flowers. We got the tikas too, I’m not sure why. There were also sweets involved, and much henna-ing of hair.

One of the girls, Amrita, applying the tika to their Krishna's forehead

The girls go to a government run school, which I was lucky enough to teach in for one day (they only had school one of the days we were there due to festivals… that’s a clue for how often they actually have school). The school is sort of a joke as well because many days some of the teachers don’t show up. I taught sixth grade English and Maths. They didn’t understand English, even after six years of “English classes”, but I lectured on the verbs “to be” and “can” and sort of made it into an inspirational speech (or tried to… I don’t think they got it). Eventually I gave up and just worked on pronunciation of simple words. Math was easier for me, even though they didn’t understand English, math is a universal language, so it worked out. Sixth grade is a tough group anyways since they’re always, literally and in every culture, “too cool for school.”

Narti Part 1: Transport out of the Valley

Last Tuesday I came home from my work at the nursing home to find out that a trip to Narti was in the works. I hadn’t really planned on visiting the small village located in the Dang district (if you look for it on a map, you might want to try to find the city of Lamahi or Gorahi… it was near those), but since a trip was being planned, I decided to be a part of it. It was prepared and executed really fast--we spent five days there and back. I went with the leader of the boys’ home here, Vinod, and other volunteers Sam and Sarah. Let me tell you, everything about this trip was an adventure, from the very start. On Tuesday, Vinod talked me into going with him to the bus station to pick up our bus tickets for the next day; only problem is he rides a motorbike, and my nurse mother has drilled into my head that you never ride a bike (especially without a helmet or leather--I had neither, and Vinod laughed out loud when I asked about a helmet… apparently people who ride in back never get helmets in Nepal). I was nervous, but I went along anyways, because I’m in Nepal, and everything is an adventure here. Since it’s the rainy season, it’s very warm when it’s not raining--I was in a thin t-shirt and capris… but since it’s the rainy season, it starts raining at random times, and it decided to start raining about three seconds after we started out. This wasn’t a regular rain either--it was an absolute downpour. I had to laugh, because if I didn’t laugh, it would have been tears. I was soaked to the skin--probably the wettest I’ve been in my life (the rain was coming down so hard I couldn’t open my eyes even though I was wearing glasses)--and freezing, and so was Vinod. He made me some coffee when we got back. He deffo owed me.
The next day (Wednesday) we started our trip at five a.m. It took the cramped bus about an hour and a half to get out of Kathmandu Valley, but then we were on our way. Unfortunately, we were on a reused city bus--the seats were so close together that I (let alone Vinod, who is six foot tall) was very uncomfortable… and it was a twelve hour bus ride. Unfortunately, wherever Vinod and I sat, the people who were going to be sick sat in front of us. I need to stop hanging out with this guy--it’s always the laugh or cry situations… we were vomited on multiple times, but just had to laugh, or else we’d be sick too. We stopped a few times for food, I slept a little, but when I was awake, the scenery was amazing. There were mountains and rivers and jungle and plains. Nepal is a country of varied and beautiful landscapes. There were some rock slides as well… a little unnerving when the road is about a lane and a half wide and there is traffic coming from the other direction, but ya know, it‘s something you get used to.

Nepal: Second week.

The past week has been a good one. I was a little sick, but I’m now on the mend. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the kids… They’re absolutely awesome to be around; they’re so loving and love to learn. I know I shouldn’t, but I definitely have some favorites… Gita, although she’s very young and doesn’t speak any English (she’s just learning her alphabet), always has the biggest smile and tries her best to hold my hand when she can--and is always saving a kiss for me before I leave; Yeshorda just turned 13 and is quite shy but always good for a hug; Kabita is street smart and sassy, and speaks the best English I’ve heard; Sangita is 18 and humble, but very smart and quite cool; Ashok always needs help with his math homework, but is a quick learner; and Saroj is the best photographer and most creative kid I’ve met here. I could go on and on but I think I might bore you. Suffice it to say, these kids are awesome and deserve so much more than they have, but make the absolute best of everything they’ve got.

My girl Gita and I

I went to supper the other night with volunteers Sam and Lauren--we had a great meal on a terrace at Boudanath, which offered a great view. The Bouda stupa is 38 meters tall I found out last night. I had a veggie burger (YUM) and some potatoes, and tea, and coffee, and for dessert there was chocolate cake and lassi (Lassi is a yougurt drink here… if I haven’t described it before, well, it’s awesome). It was a great time. Lauren shared some of her adventures; she’s been working with kids at a Buddhist school on a writing workshop, and some of their stories are so great!

Bouda Stupa from a more level view

I also recently bought a traditional dress from Nepal--a kurta surwal. I plan on getting several more (well, maybe two more). They’re so pretty, and they’re good for every day wear here too… and they’re all tailor made. Yay!

My new, pretty blue kurta surwal!

Volunteer House

For now I’m in Kathmandu, and it’s monsoon season, so it’s unbearably hot during the day until it rains, and then it doesn’t stop raining and gets much cooler. Right now it’s raining, but that’s ok because that means it’s cool.
Here are some photos of the Volunteer house, as per request. We do have a sit down toilet, but it is broken for the moment.

The reading room

The volunteer bedroom, mine is the bed in the corner (there are 5 in here)

Our downstairs (working) bathroom

Dal baat: rice with veggies fried in oil and curry. This is every meal, breakfast included.

Plans for the next few months

The Ashram where I've started working

Just so everyone is up to date on what I’m doin‘:
Until the end of August I’ll be in Kathmandu. I’m working with the kids every Sunday through Friday morning from 545-7 and evening (430-6), spending time and helping them do homework. Then from 8-12 every day I’m working at the Pashupati Bridhu Ashram, a kind of elderly home… with less facilities. It’s actually the Ashram where Mother Theresa started her mission and the part I’m working for is run by the Sisters of Mother Theresa. On Saturdays the kids don’t have school, so I’m trying to set up a photography workshop for a small group of those interested and old enough. They all LOVE cameras, so I’m going to teach them the basics. I was inspired when one of the kids taught me more on my camera than I knew myself. He’s a smart one. He’s def in the class.

An entrance into the part of the Ashram where I work

From September to the end of November, I will be traveling the country to volunteer in other places. I don’t know in what order yet, but I plan to go to Pokhara, Banepa, and Dolpa.
In Pokhara I would be working with a home for boys, just tutoring in the mornings and evenings, and seeing them safely off to school. Banepa would be working in a hospital, doing whatever they need. A lot of premed students go there, but I love hospitals, having been raised by nurses, and I’m really starting to think of nursing as a career opportunity, although I’m my favorite Classics professor would hate that--she wants me to be an archaeologist, of course--anyways, tangent, where was I? Oh yes, Banepa=hospital. Both Pokhara and Banepa are fairly close to Kathmandu (as in only 6 hours away by bus). Dolpa would be a 20 hour bus ride, then staying in the main city there with my name on a waiting list until I’m allowed on a flight to my final destination. But it’s a beautiful place, up in the Himalayas, and I’d be teaching at an English school. I’m looking forward to all of my placements… I haven’t chosen when to go where because I’m hoping someone else will want to go to Dolpa so I don’t have to do the long trip alone. Although I can’t wait too long because then it will be uber cold. I’ll keep you guys updated.

Dhapasi to Pashupati

A sunset with the mist rolling in over the mountains from the west, taken from my roof

The past few days in Nepal have been busy. On Thursday I was able to visit Bouda (pronounced BOH-duh) and Pashupati. Bouda is one of the most important temples in the Buddhist religion, very important for Tibetans. There’s a HUGE stupa (the biggest one I’ve seen) and a very lovely temple within the area. Pashupati is a Hindu temple and park and is along the Pashupati river. This place has a really weird myth around it that I just have to share… Shiva (the god who it’s dedicated to and the “main” Hindu god) was chillin’ in Pashupatinath as a deer with a shiny silver horn for a while, but the other gods got worried when he didn’t come back for so long, so they went to look for him and broke off his horn. They buried it, and then many years later, a farmer lived on the land. He noticed that one of his cows dropped a little milk on the same spot every day, and that ticked him off because he wanted the milk, so he dug up the spot where she dropped the milk, and lo and behold, the horn that the gods had buried so long ago had become a fiery phallus. (???!?!) So that’s where the temple is built, and along the Pashupati river there is a deer park, of course, and it’s also where Hindus cremate their dead.

The giant stupa at Bouda

The temple at BoudaThe bank of the Pashupati River where families cremate their deadThe main Pashupati temple to Shiva, where the mark of the fiery phallus is housed
The small temples, all to Shiva, at Pashupati. There's always a docile bull (Shiva was the Master of the animals)sitting in front of them, facing the west I think.

The next day I got to go to the Durbar Patan area--the big Nepali market, not the touristy Thamel area, although I did get to go there (not including it on here… just imagine Bloomington with less drunks and more Nepalis). It was really neat because it’s all these old temples and buildings--they honestly look like they’re from the 19th century at least--they’re falling apart and melting into the ground really, but there’s shops in all of them and windy roads and tiny alleys. It’s pretty neat.

The really old temples in a courtyard surrounded by markets.

Some of the old dilapidated buildings and the markets

Saturday was spent with Papa’s kids, who are awesome. It’s so neat to see kids who have so little, and yet education for them is an opportunity and something exciting instead of a chore. After everything they’ve been through, it melts your heart when you see where they’re at now; one of the volunteers here interviewed a couple of them--she’s a writer--and when she asked what they liked most about being at Papa’s house one of the little boys said “Papa’s love.” Seriously, I’m not making this shit up. If you eat that kind of thing up, there’s plenty more where it came from, and if you want to donate (or volunteer!), please please please visit The Nepal Orphans Home Website.

Me with two of Papa's girls

Two of the cutest kids you'll ever meet, Gita and Rajan

Nepal Capital, day one

The view from my balcony. (Balcony makes it sound glamorous, but I promise it isn't.)

So I got to Nepal safe and sound. However, my first impression (on little sleep, and culture shocked beyond belief) was terrifying. The traffic is honestly one of the scariest things I’ve experienced…there’s a lot of honking and driving on the wrong side of the road and almost hitting pedestrians involved. Buses are 10 person vans with at least 20 people crammed inside. Whoasies. Also, the streets are lined with trash which lends the city a disgusting smell. Kathmandu is a city of five million, the capital of its country, and it has no municipal water, sewage, trash, or transportation systems. Oh, and don’t ask for my address, because I don’t have one. This is how these five million live.

Houses, shacks, mud, and piles of trash along a main road in Kathmandu. This is along a serious thoroughfare.

That being said, I’m sure things will start to look up once I get sleep. Nepali is going to be difficult to learn, but the other volunteers are great, and the kids are so loving. I don’t know where I’ll be placed, I haven’t spoken to the woman in charge of that yet, so we’ll see how it goes. Today I got to go to a ceremony for brothers--it was a holiday today, tomorrow is one as well; there are a lot of holidays in Nepal--where sisters honored their brothers by decorating them with paint, tying a pretty bracelet on their arms, and shoving food in their mouths. Interesting, to say the least. I then got to go to a temple here in town called Swayambhu. There were three giant buddhas in the Buddha park, and then we climbed a big hill to see all of the giant lumpy things--called stupas--which I was told were dedicated to gods and goddesses, but I have also been told that they hold relics of Buddha and are sacred for that reason. There were lots of monkeys, lots of people making sacrifices, and lots of poo from pigeons and dogs. It was cool to see, and it offered an awesome view of the city. After a stop by a restaurant for lunch, a store for some supplies, and an ATM for some rupees, we took a taxi back up the hill instead of walking the long way. (I’m in the Dhapasi district, by the way… it’s funny that they ask for your address on the visa papers and there aren’t really addresses for most people.) Tomorrow is a new day and I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

The Boy's House leader, Vinod, being annointed by one of his sisters. All of the other boys got the special treatment too.

Jesse with one of his favorite studentsMe with one of Papa's girls


All of the Tibetan prayer flags at the Buddha temple. Well, not all of them... this was one of like three giant sections of Tibetan prayer flags.
At the Buddha temple. His golden insignia with a monkey on it.

The last days of Berlin

How many times can I say that my hosts were wonderful? I feel like I have to one last time--they were awesome and made sure I was always having a great time.
After our big bike ride to Sanssouci on Friday, Saturday started slow. We had brunch at 1pm, and I‘m still not sure how that is included in the name “brunch“, but most brunches around here go to 2pm anyways (4pm on Saturday and Sunday)… May said it was because there‘s so many students around this area. After our late brunch, we went to the Pergamene (or Pergamon) Museum, which has an entire altar from Pergamom, and ancient city. And for all you Catholics, this isn’t your regular altar--the Greeks knew how to do it. It’s more than 30 feet high and 100 feet long and covered in bigger-than-life-size sculpture. It’s pretty awesome. We also got to see the ancient gate of Babylon (which was HUGE as well!) and some rockin’ Islamic art. We stopped for some bubble tea, my first bubble tea experience--it was good, although Greg says they got it wrong, and then went to have shisha (hookah for southern Hoosiers) and drinks at the shisha bar down the street.

The Pergamene Altar at the Pergamom Museum

An awesome Islamic vase
May and Greg at the shisha bar

On Sunday we started late after staying up late the night before, and met May‘s brother Magnus and sister Louise to see the Bodyworlds exhibit… It was really amazing, so many cool things they’ve done and so much you can learn about besides the sculptures (which I didn’t know would be happening, I just thought it would be a lot of their famous sculptures) but it wasn’t fun stuff to learn. May and I discovered that after your mid-20s pretty much everything starts going downhill. Yay. After Bodyworlds, we went to the cathedral in town, the Berliner Dom. It‘s very recent (the 19th century) and very ornate. We were able to climb to the top to see the city from the cupola. The statues were huge! Then we went to Greg’s music studio where he mixes and masters music. I tried to learn what those actually meant, but he is a genius and it’s been a long time since I took physics. Very cool to see though.

The Bodyworlds exhibition in an old factory

The Berliner Dom's altar and organ

Yesterday was another slow morning. I spent the time reading and drinking chai in a café since it was rainy. After May got off work, we went to Checkpoint Charlie which has right next to it The Checkpoint Charlie Museum, all about the wall, and started only years after the wall was erected. As an American student born two years before the wall came down, I didn’t know much about it, but I’m so glad we went to the museum. There are some horrible stories, but there are a few good ones as well. After spending a few hours at the museum, we headed to see the Holocaust Memorial in honor of the Jews killed during WWII. I was surprised at how happy people seemed there, I thought it would be very solemn. At first I was a little offended and thought people weren‘t taking it seriously, but instead of being mad about it I tried to see the good things that were still happening, even at this kind of memorial. In the evening there were lots of phone calls after supper, and May and I took a walk. It was a great last night, although a little tiring. Nepal, here I come!

Checkpoint Charlie

A piece of the Berlin Wall
The Holocaust Memorial with some young lovers