Today's my official last day of volunteering with VSN. and my last day in pepsicola. will be moving to thamel to stay in the hotel with my parents tomorrow. having mixed feelings now... the whole experience feels like its just flew past me.
Spent the whole of this morning just resting in bed coz was starting to feel a bit feverish yesterday and the whole of last nite. Restrained from taking panadol coz Marty convinced me that we should let our body do self-healing instead of relyin on chemically-created medicines. So just flooded myself with bottles of water, and am quite satisfied that I'm feeling much better. Usually at the first signs of sickness, I'd reach for medication, but guess now might try to avoid it as much as I can.
Over dinner last nite, he was talkin about how our everyday diet is creating humans with a lot more deformities than previous generations ago...etc etc.. Very interesting things he brought up. But on the other hand, life is so short enough as it is, if we were to really pick on every single thing we put into our mouth, and put so much stress on ourselves worrying about what the next generation will be like due to our binging habits, what's the joy in living then? contradications...
while I was leaving the house to come to the cybercafe, met a new girl who just arrived. she'll be moving up to my room tomorrow when i'm gone. haven't had the chance to speak to her yet, but she seems quite nice, had a sort of uncertain look on her face, but thats really expected. considering how ur just whisked into a house of a stranger in a foreign land...really can be quite daunting.
everytime i write an entry in my blog, i keep feeling surprised as to how fast time has just gone past. next week will be my last week in nepal. and it's back to civilisation..and routine.. kinda looking forward to goin back to work. this trip has been a great break and really did change a lot on my outlooks on life.
thank you Sue for helping me setup this blog, or I wouldn't have been so consistent in jotting down my experience here and would have regretted that much later.
anyways, gotta head off to the orphanage now... kinda sad that i'm leaving them. will be bringing my parents on saturday to visit them one last time before we head to pokhara on sunday-wednesday.
byebye pepsicola....
Showing posts with label volunteering in nepal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volunteering in nepal. Show all posts
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
happy birthday dear friend
yesterday was my last day teaching at the school. taught them 5 values since its my last class:
1) Dare to Dream
2) Never lose hope
3) Don't ever judge a book by its cover
4) Nothing comes without hard work
5) Stay true to yourself
Didn't expect to teach them these..it was quite spontaneous coz when i stepped into the class, felt that teaching from the textbk was quite a boring way to end my last class with them. so figured it might be more useful to teach them something not frm their books. thankfully their teacher was sitting in for this class, so he translated the meaning of the values into nepali for the kids. they sounded really interested in hearing what it was about. well...i guess thats my 5 cents worth of contribution to educating the children here. they were really nice kids, bought some sweets for them and gave some pencils and notebooks to the grade 4 class.
to my surprise, a few of the boys came up to me to give me some flowers. and one of them gave me a plastic flower he brought from home which said 'well wishes'. and this boy is one of the quieter ones who i barely gave much attention to in comparison with the louder kids. he was really sweet. took lotsa pictures with them and eventually had to say my goodbyes.. some of the kids asked me for my phone number in malaysia...hmm..was i really such a nice teacher? i doubt myself sometimes.
anyways, just been spending most of my time at the orphanage. this morning, sugandha brought me on his motorbike to a tailor to make my kurta - nepali dress. i love motorbike rides. especially now the weather's cool and the wind on your face is just a nice feeling. i had a friend who once told me he wanted to buy a bike, i never understood why he would spend all his money just to buy a bike when he's still in debt. and i never understood his love for riding on the bike. but maybe now i do...
something's been bugging me...some of the kids in the orphanage have been slowly becoming more attached to me...sometimes i question if this is such a good thing coz eventually i would need to part. in particular this young boy called suzan. he's a bright kid, very hardworking and very nice to the other children. always wanting to talk to me. yesterday while tsering lama (lady running the orphanage) was just chitchatting to me whilst the kids were doing their homework, she was telling me bout the history of some of the kids.
den she just teased suzan (with no harm intended) coz he had ran away from the orphanage 3 times. on one occasion even bringing 2 other boys with him and once they reached his parents' house, he gave them some money and told them to go back to the orphanage.
his parents live about one hour bus ride away from kathmandu. father's a diver and mother runs a small hotel. they sound quite well-off to me. but when this topic was brought up, suzan suddenly became very quiet and refused to lift his head up from his book. i wanted to ask why then was he in the orphanage but i figured i'd better skip the topic coz i could sense that suzan was feeling very upset bout it. the rest of the evening, he didnt utter a word and at certain times, i could hear a soft sniffling from him. i felt so horrible coz i tried to speak to him but he'd turn his head away. never saw this side of him coz he always looked so cheerful and lively. guess its tougher for kids who are about 8-11 yrs old coz at least the 5 yr old still do not know whats going on and just have a good time playing with each other. i don't understand why some parents know that they can't even feed themselves, but want to have a dozen children and make these children suffer. and for those who can afford, what for have kids if you don't intend to bring them up anyway. sheesh...
anyways, a proud accomplishment is that i'm almost done with reading my book "The tale of Murasaki" and only in 4 days!! usually i take months to finish a book. quite proud of myself!
alriteys, gotta head to the city to reconfirm my air ticket and will be heading to the orphanage after that.
to end this entry, dedicating it to a special friend:
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear friend
happy birthday to you...
if only you were still around...
1) Dare to Dream
2) Never lose hope
3) Don't ever judge a book by its cover
4) Nothing comes without hard work
5) Stay true to yourself
Didn't expect to teach them these..it was quite spontaneous coz when i stepped into the class, felt that teaching from the textbk was quite a boring way to end my last class with them. so figured it might be more useful to teach them something not frm their books. thankfully their teacher was sitting in for this class, so he translated the meaning of the values into nepali for the kids. they sounded really interested in hearing what it was about. well...i guess thats my 5 cents worth of contribution to educating the children here. they were really nice kids, bought some sweets for them and gave some pencils and notebooks to the grade 4 class.
to my surprise, a few of the boys came up to me to give me some flowers. and one of them gave me a plastic flower he brought from home which said 'well wishes'. and this boy is one of the quieter ones who i barely gave much attention to in comparison with the louder kids. he was really sweet. took lotsa pictures with them and eventually had to say my goodbyes.. some of the kids asked me for my phone number in malaysia...hmm..was i really such a nice teacher? i doubt myself sometimes.
anyways, just been spending most of my time at the orphanage. this morning, sugandha brought me on his motorbike to a tailor to make my kurta - nepali dress. i love motorbike rides. especially now the weather's cool and the wind on your face is just a nice feeling. i had a friend who once told me he wanted to buy a bike, i never understood why he would spend all his money just to buy a bike when he's still in debt. and i never understood his love for riding on the bike. but maybe now i do...
something's been bugging me...some of the kids in the orphanage have been slowly becoming more attached to me...sometimes i question if this is such a good thing coz eventually i would need to part. in particular this young boy called suzan. he's a bright kid, very hardworking and very nice to the other children. always wanting to talk to me. yesterday while tsering lama (lady running the orphanage) was just chitchatting to me whilst the kids were doing their homework, she was telling me bout the history of some of the kids.
den she just teased suzan (with no harm intended) coz he had ran away from the orphanage 3 times. on one occasion even bringing 2 other boys with him and once they reached his parents' house, he gave them some money and told them to go back to the orphanage.
his parents live about one hour bus ride away from kathmandu. father's a diver and mother runs a small hotel. they sound quite well-off to me. but when this topic was brought up, suzan suddenly became very quiet and refused to lift his head up from his book. i wanted to ask why then was he in the orphanage but i figured i'd better skip the topic coz i could sense that suzan was feeling very upset bout it. the rest of the evening, he didnt utter a word and at certain times, i could hear a soft sniffling from him. i felt so horrible coz i tried to speak to him but he'd turn his head away. never saw this side of him coz he always looked so cheerful and lively. guess its tougher for kids who are about 8-11 yrs old coz at least the 5 yr old still do not know whats going on and just have a good time playing with each other. i don't understand why some parents know that they can't even feed themselves, but want to have a dozen children and make these children suffer. and for those who can afford, what for have kids if you don't intend to bring them up anyway. sheesh...
anyways, a proud accomplishment is that i'm almost done with reading my book "The tale of Murasaki" and only in 4 days!! usually i take months to finish a book. quite proud of myself!
alriteys, gotta head to the city to reconfirm my air ticket and will be heading to the orphanage after that.
to end this entry, dedicating it to a special friend:
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear friend
happy birthday to you...
if only you were still around...
Sunday, November 05, 2006
alone in nepal
chase has finally left Nepal and is back in malaysia enjoying her hot showers. so now its me here all alone in nepal. sorta used to it though coz while chase was sick, pretty much did things on my own like going to the school and the orphanage. another week has just dashed past and its sunday again. really weird how time flies here in nepal, even though we don't really do much in a day. altogether have been here for 3 weeks already!!
latest updates from the orphanage, me and chase decided to buy some food for them like 2 sacks of rice, eggs, vegetables and meat because the couple-in-charge has been very kind to us and made us stay for dinner twice. also from what we've been observing, the food that the kids eat are just loads or rice with not much side dishes - daal baat etc. They don't really eat very nutritious meals, so we figured it'd be good to buy them some vegetables, meat and eggs.
things seem to be looking good for this orphanage because for the past few days that i've been going there, have been seeing visitors to their orphanage like the school's principal, teachers etc. at least they seem to be getting more help from people. and on friday, they actually got a new washing machine. washing clothes for approx 38 children is no easy feat, and this is usually done by only the 2 older girls. at least now with a washing machine, the clothes would be also much cleaner than done by hand.
don't really have much to update now really coz have been getting into a routine here. teaching at the school in the morning, resting for a bit, then off to the orphanage. this week will be my last week of volunteering coz this would be my 4th week here. have to say i'm getting rather attached to the orphanage coz starting to get to know the kids better, remembering their names, even the quieter kids are warming up. don't really have much to say about the school..not to say i hate the school, but maybe i'd say i don't really like teaching. or maybe just coz i don't really like how the school functions and how their teachers are quite weird. anyways, just 4 more days of teaching and i'm done.
my parents will be coming to kathmandu on friday for approx one week. Am looking forward to their arrival. thats when i'd be leaving pepsicola and stayin in the hotel with them. hot showers here i come!!!! hehehe....
the house will be kinda quiet this week coz brian's gone to his placement house in another part of kathmandu. thankfully marty's still around till this thursday where he's gonna go off to another village for placement. and i'll be leaving on friday. so its all good. haven't been much new volunteers coming in, think there's 2 from england that just arrived but haven't met them yet coz they're staying in a different house.
gotta head off to the orphanage... adios.
latest updates from the orphanage, me and chase decided to buy some food for them like 2 sacks of rice, eggs, vegetables and meat because the couple-in-charge has been very kind to us and made us stay for dinner twice. also from what we've been observing, the food that the kids eat are just loads or rice with not much side dishes - daal baat etc. They don't really eat very nutritious meals, so we figured it'd be good to buy them some vegetables, meat and eggs.
things seem to be looking good for this orphanage because for the past few days that i've been going there, have been seeing visitors to their orphanage like the school's principal, teachers etc. at least they seem to be getting more help from people. and on friday, they actually got a new washing machine. washing clothes for approx 38 children is no easy feat, and this is usually done by only the 2 older girls. at least now with a washing machine, the clothes would be also much cleaner than done by hand.
don't really have much to update now really coz have been getting into a routine here. teaching at the school in the morning, resting for a bit, then off to the orphanage. this week will be my last week of volunteering coz this would be my 4th week here. have to say i'm getting rather attached to the orphanage coz starting to get to know the kids better, remembering their names, even the quieter kids are warming up. don't really have much to say about the school..not to say i hate the school, but maybe i'd say i don't really like teaching. or maybe just coz i don't really like how the school functions and how their teachers are quite weird. anyways, just 4 more days of teaching and i'm done.
my parents will be coming to kathmandu on friday for approx one week. Am looking forward to their arrival. thats when i'd be leaving pepsicola and stayin in the hotel with them. hot showers here i come!!!! hehehe....
the house will be kinda quiet this week coz brian's gone to his placement house in another part of kathmandu. thankfully marty's still around till this thursday where he's gonna go off to another village for placement. and i'll be leaving on friday. so its all good. haven't been much new volunteers coming in, think there's 2 from england that just arrived but haven't met them yet coz they're staying in a different house.
gotta head off to the orphanage... adios.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
sighh...no trekking for me this weekend
Originally i thought yesterday was a pretty alrite day for me considering I managed to find my way to the orphanage's new home. And after seeing their new house, I felt really happy for them coz this was such a great improvement! They now have more rooms, more space and this is a real proper house. The kids looked really happy.
After leaving the orphanage at about 5.45pm when it was getting dark, I made my way home. Only when I reached the gate did i realise my wallet was missing. arggh..to be honest, i didn't really know how to react coz maybe i've sort of adapted to this nepali lifestyle where sometimes you don't really bother reacting too much. i was kinda stunned, but calmer than I expected myself to be. we called the orphanage to see if my wallet was there but they said they couldn't find it. actually that was the only place that i had rummaged through my bag to take some pencils for the children etc but i really can't be too sure coz the wallet could have gone missing elsewhere. sugandha offered to fetch me on his bike to search at the orphanage but i felt is was not necessary coz if they said they couldn't find it, its not nice for us to barge up there to search again. would be kind of accusatory since i'm really not that certain if i really lost it there.
anyways... just quite thankful that i didn't put my USD in my wallet, so the damage wasn't that bad. just lost my IC, my credit cards (which i got my mum to cancel), and money for trekking which was about RM200. and also thankfully i put some ruppee in my pocket so that can last me a while just for coming online for an hour each day and for commuting to the orphanage for the next week.
maybe it's god's way of telling me i need to be focused. My purpose of coming here was to do volunteer work and not to be on a holiday. so the money in the wallet was for trekking which i've decided to cancel. hopefully can get back the 30USD deposit that I've paid.
anyways, hope that whoever picked up / stole / took my wallet will put the money to good use. maybe it might feed a family...maybe it might help pay for someone's uniform...ah well...not gonna dwell on it. guess staying here really changed me a bit coz usually i'd be jumping mad at myself for losing something so important. but now just sort feeling that there's really no point crying over spilt milk and making a big fuss out of it.
gotta head off to the orphanage, bringing a swiss lady wif me today. she's not a volunteer but on like a one week cultural stay program.
adios.....
After leaving the orphanage at about 5.45pm when it was getting dark, I made my way home. Only when I reached the gate did i realise my wallet was missing. arggh..to be honest, i didn't really know how to react coz maybe i've sort of adapted to this nepali lifestyle where sometimes you don't really bother reacting too much. i was kinda stunned, but calmer than I expected myself to be. we called the orphanage to see if my wallet was there but they said they couldn't find it. actually that was the only place that i had rummaged through my bag to take some pencils for the children etc but i really can't be too sure coz the wallet could have gone missing elsewhere. sugandha offered to fetch me on his bike to search at the orphanage but i felt is was not necessary coz if they said they couldn't find it, its not nice for us to barge up there to search again. would be kind of accusatory since i'm really not that certain if i really lost it there.
anyways... just quite thankful that i didn't put my USD in my wallet, so the damage wasn't that bad. just lost my IC, my credit cards (which i got my mum to cancel), and money for trekking which was about RM200. and also thankfully i put some ruppee in my pocket so that can last me a while just for coming online for an hour each day and for commuting to the orphanage for the next week.
maybe it's god's way of telling me i need to be focused. My purpose of coming here was to do volunteer work and not to be on a holiday. so the money in the wallet was for trekking which i've decided to cancel. hopefully can get back the 30USD deposit that I've paid.
anyways, hope that whoever picked up / stole / took my wallet will put the money to good use. maybe it might feed a family...maybe it might help pay for someone's uniform...ah well...not gonna dwell on it. guess staying here really changed me a bit coz usually i'd be jumping mad at myself for losing something so important. but now just sort feeling that there's really no point crying over spilt milk and making a big fuss out of it.
gotta head off to the orphanage, bringing a swiss lady wif me today. she's not a volunteer but on like a one week cultural stay program.
adios.....
Monday, October 30, 2006
chase KO
let me dedicate this blog entry to chase since i dont really have much to update today. rather normal day, just finished teaching at the school and killing time before i head off to the orphanage's new home. (hope i still remember how to get there.) she was supposed to fly back on saturday nite but fell really sick with fever and diarrhoea. we told her to just let the diarrhoea continue coz even after taking some pills, it didn't stop. thank goodness we fully equipped ourselves with medication from malaysia. dont think i'd trust going to any doctors here...u can call me paranoid. but nopez, will stay away from them at all cost.
anyways, we told her to just postpone her flight back coz she looked like she was gonna collapse any minute. i know this place isn't some 5-star hotel but we reckoned staying here was better than being quarantined at the kathmandu airport which is no where near even a 1-star hotel.
she's just resting and sleeping at home now. well, maybe the positive side is that i still have a room-mate for a few more days!!! =p evil me.... (no, i didn't poison her to make her stay longer.)
she's got a seat confirmed on next saturday. tried getting earlier flights but they were all booked out. yes i know many are wondering why flights out of nepal are fully booked. it didn't come as a surprise to me coz my parents couldn't even get flights on nepal airlines for their trip here in 2 wks time. they're booked on thai airways which is a bummer coz they need to stopover at bangkok for a couple of hours. and this also means i wont be able to be on the same flight with them when i return. sighh.. ah well...i think they are still trying to get seats on nepal airlines so keeping my fingers crossed. actually quite looking forward to them coming over...
anyways, time to head off to the orphanage's new home. public buses here i come!!!
chase, get well sooon!!!!! guess u have to look forward to more daal baat. =p
anyways, we told her to just postpone her flight back coz she looked like she was gonna collapse any minute. i know this place isn't some 5-star hotel but we reckoned staying here was better than being quarantined at the kathmandu airport which is no where near even a 1-star hotel.
she's just resting and sleeping at home now. well, maybe the positive side is that i still have a room-mate for a few more days!!! =p evil me.... (no, i didn't poison her to make her stay longer.)
she's got a seat confirmed on next saturday. tried getting earlier flights but they were all booked out. yes i know many are wondering why flights out of nepal are fully booked. it didn't come as a surprise to me coz my parents couldn't even get flights on nepal airlines for their trip here in 2 wks time. they're booked on thai airways which is a bummer coz they need to stopover at bangkok for a couple of hours. and this also means i wont be able to be on the same flight with them when i return. sighh.. ah well...i think they are still trying to get seats on nepal airlines so keeping my fingers crossed. actually quite looking forward to them coming over...
anyways, time to head off to the orphanage's new home. public buses here i come!!!
chase, get well sooon!!!!! guess u have to look forward to more daal baat. =p
Sunday, October 29, 2006
the orphanage is really moving!
managed to get back safe and sound from Thamel this morning all by myself. chase fell sick so she took a cab back to the house but I needed to run some errands in the morning, hence i had to come back alone. It was actually quite easy, just need to shout out your destination to the boy hanging on to the side of the bus and he'll tell you if the bus is going there or not.
here's the route: walk about half an hour from thamel to the bus park called Ratnapark. Catch a bus to Baneswor, pay 9 ruppees, catch another bus to Pepsicola and pay another 9 ruppees. It takes bout 15 mins to walk from the main road to the house. even though the buses have no numbers, no words in english, and they look like they're falling apart, but at least the boys working on the buses have been quite helpful by giving correct directions about where the bus is going.
had quite a nice time at the school today. couldn't be bothered to follow their textbooks coz it seemed so boring, so I ended up devising my own things to teach them or played games with some classes.
on the walk back from the school, i stopped by at the orphanage coz i saw a truck with some beds and furniture that seemed to be from the orphanage. Saw the woman-in-charge of the orphanage and she told me that they will be moving today. I offered to help but she said everything was in a mess, so she told me to only go over tomorrow. So I've got the rest of the afternoon off... sighh..now that they've moved, everyday i'll need to change 2 buses to reach their new home. arghh...so not looking forward to commuting.
time passes quite quickly here in nepal. its already 4pm, and in a couple of hours its bedtime.
some general things that i realised i used to take for granted back home:
1) Hot water shower - having a hot shower on Saturdays in Thamel is like the only thing we look forward to in the week.
2) toilet paper / tissue paper - we can barely get these from any of the local shops around because ppl here just don't use them. don't ask me how they blow their noses coz i dont think they do. or they just blow it onto the roads like how they spit on the roads all the time. i had to stock-up on tissue when i was in thamel (the touristy area).
3) washing machine - i've HAND-WASHED my clothes once and will need to do another round tomorrow. so lazy to do it but i've got no choice coz the air's so dusty here that everytime we go out, the shirt will just feel too dirty to wear a second time. wringing your jeans with your hands is no joke.
4) My own car - Having been here for 2 weeks and only commuting mostly by foot or by public bus to the city, I realise how much I miss my car. Last time I even used to complain when the carpark is a bit further away from the entrance of the shopping mall. Think I probably will think twice about complaining after all the walking I've done here.
.....there's many more things really, but these are the main ones that I've personally felt stronger about.
anyways, enough of my ramblings for now. will just stone a bit before heading back to the house. think it'll be a quiet night ahead..... will have to think of what to teach tomorrow... la la la...
here's the route: walk about half an hour from thamel to the bus park called Ratnapark. Catch a bus to Baneswor, pay 9 ruppees, catch another bus to Pepsicola and pay another 9 ruppees. It takes bout 15 mins to walk from the main road to the house. even though the buses have no numbers, no words in english, and they look like they're falling apart, but at least the boys working on the buses have been quite helpful by giving correct directions about where the bus is going.
had quite a nice time at the school today. couldn't be bothered to follow their textbooks coz it seemed so boring, so I ended up devising my own things to teach them or played games with some classes.
on the walk back from the school, i stopped by at the orphanage coz i saw a truck with some beds and furniture that seemed to be from the orphanage. Saw the woman-in-charge of the orphanage and she told me that they will be moving today. I offered to help but she said everything was in a mess, so she told me to only go over tomorrow. So I've got the rest of the afternoon off... sighh..now that they've moved, everyday i'll need to change 2 buses to reach their new home. arghh...so not looking forward to commuting.
time passes quite quickly here in nepal. its already 4pm, and in a couple of hours its bedtime.
some general things that i realised i used to take for granted back home:
1) Hot water shower - having a hot shower on Saturdays in Thamel is like the only thing we look forward to in the week.
2) toilet paper / tissue paper - we can barely get these from any of the local shops around because ppl here just don't use them. don't ask me how they blow their noses coz i dont think they do. or they just blow it onto the roads like how they spit on the roads all the time. i had to stock-up on tissue when i was in thamel (the touristy area).
3) washing machine - i've HAND-WASHED my clothes once and will need to do another round tomorrow. so lazy to do it but i've got no choice coz the air's so dusty here that everytime we go out, the shirt will just feel too dirty to wear a second time. wringing your jeans with your hands is no joke.
4) My own car - Having been here for 2 weeks and only commuting mostly by foot or by public bus to the city, I realise how much I miss my car. Last time I even used to complain when the carpark is a bit further away from the entrance of the shopping mall. Think I probably will think twice about complaining after all the walking I've done here.
.....there's many more things really, but these are the main ones that I've personally felt stronger about.
anyways, enough of my ramblings for now. will just stone a bit before heading back to the house. think it'll be a quiet night ahead..... will have to think of what to teach tomorrow... la la la...
Friday, October 27, 2006
Survived two weeks
today's friday..and tomorrow's off day again. Can't wait to head to the city for a hot shower! I've already been here for almost 2 weeks and I'm still hanging on. Yippe!! Everything in Nepal sort of functions in their weird way where there's really no definite plans or nothing's really explained clearly. Today went to the school to teach, only managed to teach 2 classes coz apparently on Fridays, the kids only have half day of school and they spend the remaining time playing in the field. I also asked the Vice-Principal for a textbook so that I could sort of prepare for the class, however he didnt have any. And he didn't even seem bothered to get one for me. Sighh...this school's really got no system. the teachers who were teaching the students English could barely speak a word of it and talking to them was like talking to the students themselves.
anyways, there's really nothing much i can do bout it really. so will probably be heading into the school earlier on Sunday to have a glimpse of the textbook before class starts.
we've moved up into sylvia's room, its much smaller than the one we were staying in, but at least this is higher up and it gets the morning and afternoon sun, so its not so cold at night.
feeling kinda lazy at the moment guess its coz of the hot sun and the dust. will probably be heading back to the house soon to wash my hair whilst its still quite warm.
la la la la la.....
anyways, there's really nothing much i can do bout it really. so will probably be heading into the school earlier on Sunday to have a glimpse of the textbook before class starts.
we've moved up into sylvia's room, its much smaller than the one we were staying in, but at least this is higher up and it gets the morning and afternoon sun, so its not so cold at night.
feeling kinda lazy at the moment guess its coz of the hot sun and the dust. will probably be heading back to the house soon to wash my hair whilst its still quite warm.
la la la la la.....
Thursday, October 26, 2006
walk walk walk....
today's such a long exhausting day. this morning, me and chase walked wif the kids from the orphanage to their school - a one hour walk which the kids have to do everyday. however, the good news is, the couple running the orphanage managed to raise funds to move their home to a house nearer to the school so the kids don't need to walk so far anymore. thats why today we walked with the kids to their school so that we could see where their new home will be. the new home is indeed a much better house because at least this is a proper house where the kids have a garden to play in and they don't need to walk so far everyday. they will be moving this saturday, so from sunday onwards, i'll be taking a bus to the orphanage in the evenings to play with them.
suzan also brought us to our school placement this afternoon. it was also another long 30mins walk from our house. we met the principal who's a really nice guy but the school is not really in the best condition. We sort of arranged the classes i'll be teaching - 4 classes a day (Grade 3,4,5 and preschool). the school's really weird, they don't really seem to have any system and we were just thrown into a class and the teacher just told us we could teach anything we want since this is the first day. obviously me and chase were quite lost, so we just spoke to the kids a bit, read the textbooks, and basically just spoke with them in English.
After that class, we went to observe a preschool class, which was so boring....the nepali teacher just basically made the kids spell out all the animals in the textbook one by one and had a spelling test after that. I can bet with you that the kids probably didnt even know what they were writing. and the lady teacher also looked like she couldn't be bothered to teach...sighh....apparently i'd have to take over this class from tomorrow onwards also. sheesh...anyone got any good ideas on how to teach preschool in a more fun manner??
i think for the next couple of days, my day's schedule should go something like this. teach at the school from 10am-2pm, go home to rest for a bit, take a bus out to the orphanage at 3 and come home at about 6. its quite packed, but i think i should do alrite.
sylvia just left for bangkok this afternoon, she looked really pleased to leave and finally get some hot showers. i think i'd probably be feeling the same when its my turn to go. me and chase will be moving up to her room coz its on the third floor and its not as cold and noisy as the room we're staying in which is on the ground floor.
yesterday was a really good day, we brought all the kids out for an outing. the original plan was to go to swoyambunath (some temple place) or to the museum, however, in the morning, there was a strike happening in the city so the roads were closed and we couldnt go out. so we changed plans, and brought the kids out to a hillside where they could run around and play games. they looked kinda disappointed when we told them we couldnt go out as planned, but kids being kids, they were ok once they started running around and playing games. it was really great coz the kids were having so much fun. we also made lots of jam sandwiches, bought cookies, fruits, etc. even though it was really exhausting bringing 35 kids out on an excursion...but when we saw how much fun the kids had...it was such a great feeling.
might try to arrange to bring them out to the museum or swoyambunath another time...will see how the timing goes. one thing we've observed also is that the kids here love taking pictures. everytime we take out our camera, they will want us to take pictures for them. and loads of it!!. even at the school, the children were asking us to take pictures of them. after a while, just had to tell them no coz it was getting out of hand.
anyhows, gotta go soon coz need to head back to the orphanage, they should be done from school around this time.
more walking.......
suzan also brought us to our school placement this afternoon. it was also another long 30mins walk from our house. we met the principal who's a really nice guy but the school is not really in the best condition. We sort of arranged the classes i'll be teaching - 4 classes a day (Grade 3,4,5 and preschool). the school's really weird, they don't really seem to have any system and we were just thrown into a class and the teacher just told us we could teach anything we want since this is the first day. obviously me and chase were quite lost, so we just spoke to the kids a bit, read the textbooks, and basically just spoke with them in English.
After that class, we went to observe a preschool class, which was so boring....the nepali teacher just basically made the kids spell out all the animals in the textbook one by one and had a spelling test after that. I can bet with you that the kids probably didnt even know what they were writing. and the lady teacher also looked like she couldn't be bothered to teach...sighh....apparently i'd have to take over this class from tomorrow onwards also. sheesh...anyone got any good ideas on how to teach preschool in a more fun manner??
i think for the next couple of days, my day's schedule should go something like this. teach at the school from 10am-2pm, go home to rest for a bit, take a bus out to the orphanage at 3 and come home at about 6. its quite packed, but i think i should do alrite.
sylvia just left for bangkok this afternoon, she looked really pleased to leave and finally get some hot showers. i think i'd probably be feeling the same when its my turn to go. me and chase will be moving up to her room coz its on the third floor and its not as cold and noisy as the room we're staying in which is on the ground floor.
yesterday was a really good day, we brought all the kids out for an outing. the original plan was to go to swoyambunath (some temple place) or to the museum, however, in the morning, there was a strike happening in the city so the roads were closed and we couldnt go out. so we changed plans, and brought the kids out to a hillside where they could run around and play games. they looked kinda disappointed when we told them we couldnt go out as planned, but kids being kids, they were ok once they started running around and playing games. it was really great coz the kids were having so much fun. we also made lots of jam sandwiches, bought cookies, fruits, etc. even though it was really exhausting bringing 35 kids out on an excursion...but when we saw how much fun the kids had...it was such a great feeling.
might try to arrange to bring them out to the museum or swoyambunath another time...will see how the timing goes. one thing we've observed also is that the kids here love taking pictures. everytime we take out our camera, they will want us to take pictures for them. and loads of it!!. even at the school, the children were asking us to take pictures of them. after a while, just had to tell them no coz it was getting out of hand.
anyhows, gotta go soon coz need to head back to the orphanage, they should be done from school around this time.
more walking.......
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
bringing the kids out today
it's been a couple of days since my last entry coz the last few days have just sort of whizzed by and just didn't have the chance to come online. yesterday was the last day of Tihar festival which means all offices / schools will resume tomorrow. it's been quite fun seeing how people celebrate the festival here. the 5 days of celebration here have different meanings. first day was a day dedicated to crows, 2nd day to dogs, 3rd day to cows, 4th day to lakshimi (wealth god i think), and yesterday was for brothers. (meaning people give puja to their brothers at home.) sugandha's family didn't really celebrate the festival coz his mum passed away 2 months ago and they are supposed to be in mourning for one year.
however, yesterday we had a pleasant surprise coz whilst me and chase were just cleaning up / stoning in our room, susanna came to call us to join them in their uncle's house (the house next door which has a connecting door to ours). they were singing and dancing in nepali with guitars, tablas, and all the uncles, aunties, cousins were all there. they couldn't have a formal celebration, but having a small gathering was fine. we joined in for a bit, and ate newari food. the food was quite tasty.
after that, ajit (susanna's cousin) showed me pictures on his computer - then only i realised how big Tihar festival is coz in last yr's pictures, their family had such a big-d0.
anyways, another interesting thing about Tihar is that all the people's houses are lit up with flashing bulbs like christmas and kids form small groups to go singing from house-to-house, asking for money in return. even in thamel, these kids go from shop to shop to ask for money. quite amusing coz most of them get turned away but they still continue for the fun of it.
speaking about thamel, we went to thamel last saturday to stay for a night in one of the guesthouses since saturday is our off day. apparently this is what all the volunteers do, so that they can take a nice hot shower and sort of recharge themselves. sylvia wanted to bring us to a nicer guesthouse but now's peak season so the nicer ones were booked out. eventually we settled for a dodgy looking one but at least it had hot shower and it was really cheap. showered twice and really scrubbed myself!!! we treated ourselves to some nice pizza in the afternoon, had a nice dinner at a restaurant called pilgrim's - vegetarian food but absolutely awesome, great environment as well. met up with kelvin for a bit, coz he happened to come to kathmandu for a holiday. after one full week of chaos here, it felt really good to see a familiar face...very comforting. thamel looked really beautiful with all the lights and candles lighting the shops, less cars, less dust coz it rained in the day, and for the first time, I really understood why this place attracted so many hippies as it really had its own beauty and mysticism that I originally didn't see amidst the chaos and poverty of this city.
about the orphanage, we went with anne to her orphanage last sunday, and was even more appalled at the conditions. the kids here are much younger and most of them don't go to school yet. there were 3 babies that were just left crawling all over the room, peeing all over the place and no one really seemed to bother. the kids here are very different from our orphanage coz they are more attention-seeking and will grab you, pull you for your attention. there's no piped water to this place, so they have to take water from the communal water area and thats why i guess the kids don't really clean themselves. hung around for a couple of hours and the 3 of us were really so exhausted after that. but the kids were just lovely, u really need a lot of patience teaching them their ABCs. or even how to spell. den was also at our orphanage for the remaining days, giving them pencils, notebooks etc, helping them with their spelling, playing games, singing songs, etc. oh yes, the kids here don't blow their noses, i think for the simple reason that most places don't sell tissue!!!! i had to stock up on tissue whilst i was in thamel at one of those foreign supermarkets. for those who remember, you should know how sensitive my nose is. anyways, couldnt resist giving tissue to the kids to get them to blow their noses but failed attempt as they just smudged mucus all over their face. sigh...
managed to do a bit of sightseeing amidst all that. went to patan (another old city area - didn't really like it coz it was just too dusty and dirty). and also managed to go to swoyambunath (a stupa on top of a hill, had to climb steps like batu caves to reach it, and its a place filled with monkeys. got some really nice pics)
generally, a lot of things been happening and the days just been flying past. i do understand why sylvia's been complaining about this place coz she's been here for 2 months and its really quite emotionally taxing. on one hand, u have to juggle your volunteering placement, and on the other hand you got to deal with all the chaos happening around you. to get to thamel, we need to change 2 buses. only costs 9 rupee per ride. it was quite an experience and novelty to blend in with the locals, but i guess after 2 months of it everyday, (she needs to do it everyday coz her placement is teaching english at a monastery somewhere close to thamel), it does get to you. the pple will try to hassle you, stare at you, but most of all, its just the polluted air that really hits u.
thankfully, according to sugandha, my teaching placement is within walking distance from our house, so thats not too bad. will only start teaching on friday coz thats when school starts. but at least now its holidays, so got to hang around with the kids at the orphanage a bit more.
well, wanted to keep this post short, but i guess it will never be coz there's just so much thats happening here. me and anne decided to go for a 4 day trek at the edge of kathmandu valley, in 2wks time, coz we felt it would be nice to get some clean fresh air after all this. won't be going to solokumbu (mount everest regions) coz its quite far from kathmandu, need to fly or take a full-day bus to reach there.
anyways, thats about all that i can remember for now. probably might be able to come online a bit more in the next couple of days. till then......appreciate the hot showers back home!!!!!
however, yesterday we had a pleasant surprise coz whilst me and chase were just cleaning up / stoning in our room, susanna came to call us to join them in their uncle's house (the house next door which has a connecting door to ours). they were singing and dancing in nepali with guitars, tablas, and all the uncles, aunties, cousins were all there. they couldn't have a formal celebration, but having a small gathering was fine. we joined in for a bit, and ate newari food. the food was quite tasty.
after that, ajit (susanna's cousin) showed me pictures on his computer - then only i realised how big Tihar festival is coz in last yr's pictures, their family had such a big-d0.
anyways, another interesting thing about Tihar is that all the people's houses are lit up with flashing bulbs like christmas and kids form small groups to go singing from house-to-house, asking for money in return. even in thamel, these kids go from shop to shop to ask for money. quite amusing coz most of them get turned away but they still continue for the fun of it.
speaking about thamel, we went to thamel last saturday to stay for a night in one of the guesthouses since saturday is our off day. apparently this is what all the volunteers do, so that they can take a nice hot shower and sort of recharge themselves. sylvia wanted to bring us to a nicer guesthouse but now's peak season so the nicer ones were booked out. eventually we settled for a dodgy looking one but at least it had hot shower and it was really cheap. showered twice and really scrubbed myself!!! we treated ourselves to some nice pizza in the afternoon, had a nice dinner at a restaurant called pilgrim's - vegetarian food but absolutely awesome, great environment as well. met up with kelvin for a bit, coz he happened to come to kathmandu for a holiday. after one full week of chaos here, it felt really good to see a familiar face...very comforting. thamel looked really beautiful with all the lights and candles lighting the shops, less cars, less dust coz it rained in the day, and for the first time, I really understood why this place attracted so many hippies as it really had its own beauty and mysticism that I originally didn't see amidst the chaos and poverty of this city.
about the orphanage, we went with anne to her orphanage last sunday, and was even more appalled at the conditions. the kids here are much younger and most of them don't go to school yet. there were 3 babies that were just left crawling all over the room, peeing all over the place and no one really seemed to bother. the kids here are very different from our orphanage coz they are more attention-seeking and will grab you, pull you for your attention. there's no piped water to this place, so they have to take water from the communal water area and thats why i guess the kids don't really clean themselves. hung around for a couple of hours and the 3 of us were really so exhausted after that. but the kids were just lovely, u really need a lot of patience teaching them their ABCs. or even how to spell. den was also at our orphanage for the remaining days, giving them pencils, notebooks etc, helping them with their spelling, playing games, singing songs, etc. oh yes, the kids here don't blow their noses, i think for the simple reason that most places don't sell tissue!!!! i had to stock up on tissue whilst i was in thamel at one of those foreign supermarkets. for those who remember, you should know how sensitive my nose is. anyways, couldnt resist giving tissue to the kids to get them to blow their noses but failed attempt as they just smudged mucus all over their face. sigh...
managed to do a bit of sightseeing amidst all that. went to patan (another old city area - didn't really like it coz it was just too dusty and dirty). and also managed to go to swoyambunath (a stupa on top of a hill, had to climb steps like batu caves to reach it, and its a place filled with monkeys. got some really nice pics)
generally, a lot of things been happening and the days just been flying past. i do understand why sylvia's been complaining about this place coz she's been here for 2 months and its really quite emotionally taxing. on one hand, u have to juggle your volunteering placement, and on the other hand you got to deal with all the chaos happening around you. to get to thamel, we need to change 2 buses. only costs 9 rupee per ride. it was quite an experience and novelty to blend in with the locals, but i guess after 2 months of it everyday, (she needs to do it everyday coz her placement is teaching english at a monastery somewhere close to thamel), it does get to you. the pple will try to hassle you, stare at you, but most of all, its just the polluted air that really hits u.
thankfully, according to sugandha, my teaching placement is within walking distance from our house, so thats not too bad. will only start teaching on friday coz thats when school starts. but at least now its holidays, so got to hang around with the kids at the orphanage a bit more.
well, wanted to keep this post short, but i guess it will never be coz there's just so much thats happening here. me and anne decided to go for a 4 day trek at the edge of kathmandu valley, in 2wks time, coz we felt it would be nice to get some clean fresh air after all this. won't be going to solokumbu (mount everest regions) coz its quite far from kathmandu, need to fly or take a full-day bus to reach there.
anyways, thats about all that i can remember for now. probably might be able to come online a bit more in the next couple of days. till then......appreciate the hot showers back home!!!!!
Friday, October 20, 2006
Updates from Nepal after 2 more days
Basically the last 2 days haven't been doing much. On wednesday, we had 3 hrs of language class in the morning / afternoon, then lazed around a bit, and had teaching training class from 5-7 in the evening. the class was really useful coz the guy (ishwra - a person who's studying master or phd in teaching english as foreign language) -he gave us really handy tips on how to craft a class, how to make the class very engaging and how to plan the class before we go for it. so at least we sort of know how to handle the class. we'll all be given a textbook of the class we're teaching so at least the syllabus is fixed. we just need to p lan it to make it fun for the kids. after the class, jusr hung around the VSN office and chatted with brian and anne who also attended the class with us. anne has really interesting stories to share coz she just came over from india where she also did some volunteering work there, and also basically told us about her travel adventures in slovenia, and many other countries. we'll probably do some travelling together on our off days.
then yesterday (thursday), we had our final nepali class...but i might request for some extra classes coz i'm still barely grasping the language. in the afternoon at 1pm, sophie brought us for a walk to some other town..half an hour away. felt like a walk that took forever coz the roads we were walking on were not tarred roads, so everytime a bus or car went by, we'll be engulfed in dust. i think if i had to do a body check, it'll show all the breathing airways in my body totally clogged with dust. the town was called gataghar or something, i'm horrid with remembering names. anyway, the walk was really worth it coz this town is slightly higher on a hill, and the view from there is amazing. overlooking a city and we can see bodthnath's stupa from here. the air's a tad bit fresher and the view is just gorgeous. took a couple of pics, bought some bananas to eat (was crunchy coz not ripe on the inside even though the outside was almost black), then headed back to our house.
after that, at 4pm, together with suzana and her younger cousin sister, we went to VSN office to collect some bananas to distribute to the orphanage we were posted to. the orphanage is about 15-20mins walk from the house. this is really the highlight of the days we've been here for the last week. the kids are staying on the 3rd floor of an old broken shophouse, which frm the outside looks like a warehouse. when we enter, the stairs are barely lit and its dark and the cement floor has holes all over. the kids were not back from school when we arrived coz they finish school at 4 but they have to walk one hour to reach their home coz the orphanage doesnt have enough money for them to catch a bus.
there's 38 children living in this orphanage, all sleeping in 2 tiny rooms with double-decker beds. Usually a double-decker bed is for 2 pple, but here, they have to squeeze 4 children in one. the rooms are really bare and they dont even have proper cupboards. me and chase we lost for words when we saw the place. they have a small toilet area just across the rooms and the place they have dinner..very smalll as well. this is the only area they have to eat, do their homework, play etc. its really tiny. bout 8 kids have to squeeze on one table. from my experiences of going to orphanages in m'sia and s'pore....the kids back home live in paradise really.
there's a woman and her husband who run the place, and they've got 2 women to help them take care of the younger kids, cook, etc. they all stay on the 2nd floor of the shophouse. after waiting for bout 10mins, the kids finally came back. their average age, 5-9, the 2 oldest girls are 13 and they help to take care of the younger kids. there was so many of them, really disciplined. once they came back, they hung their bags on nails that were surrounding the dining area and went to wash their face and legs, changed out of their uniforms and sat at the dining area. we were a bit lost, coz we didnt know what we were expected to do. and we were still overwhelmed with the condition of the place. den we started distributing the bananas ,2 each, which they rather quickly gobbled up. dont think they get to eat a lot. all very polite and sweet kids. den we just pretty much played with them for a bit, got them to do their homework and had to leave coz it was getting dark.
my goal is to remember all their names in 2 days which will be a challenge coz their names are all so long!!! (like pupalama, gotharinda, etc) suzana was telling us that the lady running the orphanage was relying only on a handful of rice given by the lamas to feed the kids and there was no other orginisations supporting the place. BUt sugandha told us that VSN is gonna provide them with a year supply of vegetables and fruits.
thankfully we brought supply of pencils, books, colour pencils, erasers etc which we wiill be giving out to them today. me and chase were also thinking of buying rice and food for the kids.and probaby on one of our off days (Saturday) which the kids don't need to go to school, might try to arrange to bring them out to the zoo. but that is gonna take serious planning coz there's too many of them and too little of us. might try to work out something with brian and anne. and furthermore, i'm really not too sure if the cash we have on us is enough to do it. but we'll try to work something out and keep u all updated. really regretted not doing a fundraising before comig here.
we could really see the joy on the children's faces when we were there, coz i think they really lack attention. also another challenge is how to spend time with all of them because there were a few that were really shy and quiet and the louder ones were getting all the attention. there's just too many kids to handle. but they're so obedient and so lovable, not like the spoilt brats we get at home. anyways, gonna head back to the house soon coz brian's coming over to our house to go with us to the orphanage. he was posted to a different smaller orphanage but they have school today till 5, so he'll only go there later.
till then....
then yesterday (thursday), we had our final nepali class...but i might request for some extra classes coz i'm still barely grasping the language. in the afternoon at 1pm, sophie brought us for a walk to some other town..half an hour away. felt like a walk that took forever coz the roads we were walking on were not tarred roads, so everytime a bus or car went by, we'll be engulfed in dust. i think if i had to do a body check, it'll show all the breathing airways in my body totally clogged with dust. the town was called gataghar or something, i'm horrid with remembering names. anyway, the walk was really worth it coz this town is slightly higher on a hill, and the view from there is amazing. overlooking a city and we can see bodthnath's stupa from here. the air's a tad bit fresher and the view is just gorgeous. took a couple of pics, bought some bananas to eat (was crunchy coz not ripe on the inside even though the outside was almost black), then headed back to our house.
after that, at 4pm, together with suzana and her younger cousin sister, we went to VSN office to collect some bananas to distribute to the orphanage we were posted to. the orphanage is about 15-20mins walk from the house. this is really the highlight of the days we've been here for the last week. the kids are staying on the 3rd floor of an old broken shophouse, which frm the outside looks like a warehouse. when we enter, the stairs are barely lit and its dark and the cement floor has holes all over. the kids were not back from school when we arrived coz they finish school at 4 but they have to walk one hour to reach their home coz the orphanage doesnt have enough money for them to catch a bus.
there's 38 children living in this orphanage, all sleeping in 2 tiny rooms with double-decker beds. Usually a double-decker bed is for 2 pple, but here, they have to squeeze 4 children in one. the rooms are really bare and they dont even have proper cupboards. me and chase we lost for words when we saw the place. they have a small toilet area just across the rooms and the place they have dinner..very smalll as well. this is the only area they have to eat, do their homework, play etc. its really tiny. bout 8 kids have to squeeze on one table. from my experiences of going to orphanages in m'sia and s'pore....the kids back home live in paradise really.
there's a woman and her husband who run the place, and they've got 2 women to help them take care of the younger kids, cook, etc. they all stay on the 2nd floor of the shophouse. after waiting for bout 10mins, the kids finally came back. their average age, 5-9, the 2 oldest girls are 13 and they help to take care of the younger kids. there was so many of them, really disciplined. once they came back, they hung their bags on nails that were surrounding the dining area and went to wash their face and legs, changed out of their uniforms and sat at the dining area. we were a bit lost, coz we didnt know what we were expected to do. and we were still overwhelmed with the condition of the place. den we started distributing the bananas ,2 each, which they rather quickly gobbled up. dont think they get to eat a lot. all very polite and sweet kids. den we just pretty much played with them for a bit, got them to do their homework and had to leave coz it was getting dark.
my goal is to remember all their names in 2 days which will be a challenge coz their names are all so long!!! (like pupalama, gotharinda, etc) suzana was telling us that the lady running the orphanage was relying only on a handful of rice given by the lamas to feed the kids and there was no other orginisations supporting the place. BUt sugandha told us that VSN is gonna provide them with a year supply of vegetables and fruits.
thankfully we brought supply of pencils, books, colour pencils, erasers etc which we wiill be giving out to them today. me and chase were also thinking of buying rice and food for the kids.and probaby on one of our off days (Saturday) which the kids don't need to go to school, might try to arrange to bring them out to the zoo. but that is gonna take serious planning coz there's too many of them and too little of us. might try to work out something with brian and anne. and furthermore, i'm really not too sure if the cash we have on us is enough to do it. but we'll try to work something out and keep u all updated. really regretted not doing a fundraising before comig here.
we could really see the joy on the children's faces when we were there, coz i think they really lack attention. also another challenge is how to spend time with all of them because there were a few that were really shy and quiet and the louder ones were getting all the attention. there's just too many kids to handle. but they're so obedient and so lovable, not like the spoilt brats we get at home. anyways, gonna head back to the house soon coz brian's coming over to our house to go with us to the orphanage. he was posted to a different smaller orphanage but they have school today till 5, so he'll only go there later.
till then....
First update from nepal
today's the 3rd day, am staying at sugandha's family's house (the coordinator of VSN), with his wife and his 2 daughters (susana and sophie), they're really nice people. the town we're in is called pepsicola town planning- simply because this is where the pepsi factory is, and the govt has decided to plan a town in this area. well...at the moment its far from reaching a town coz there's no tar roads leading in the area so we had to walk bout 20mins to the main road to this internet cafe. The houses around us are all half built and pple are just building their own houses, or farming etc. I think the house we’re staying in is considered one of the richer houses in the area coz at least we have flush toilets and even cable tv. But the sad thing is, there’s no hot water. And the water’s freaking cold….so bathing has sort of turned into a chore for us. We didn’t know there wasn’t hot water, so on the first day we arrived, Sunday night, we decided to have a shower after dinner….no joke…u start to regret having put so much soap on you. The quickest shower I’ve ever had. having a cold shower in hot weather is fine, but not when the weather's like almost 15 degrees or less at night and in the mornings. i've develoiped a routine of taking 2min showers at night and only washing my hair in the afternoon before languege classes, and will stand in the sun to dry my hair and thaw frm the freezing water. The weather here is rather cold, but in the afternoon under the sun, it gets rather warm. But at night, it starts to freeze again. Thankfully we got really thick blankets.
There’s also 2 other volunteers staying in this house. Sylvia –frm London, been here 2mths (teaching at a monastery) and then there’s marty – frm US, been here bout 2 wks (helping out in a community clinic). they’re really nice pple. Sylvia’s very funny, been talking to her a lot and she’s been telling us all her stories from traveling. there's allso brian (korean born US dude) who stays in sugandha's sister's house just 5mins walk frm our house. he came wif sugandha to pick us up at the airport when we arrived. very nice guy..does teaching at the monastery as well. we havent started any volunteer work yet bcoz we're having language classes for 2 hrs a day . its kinda hilarious coz both of us start to lose attention after the first hour and suddenly all the words dont make sense anymore. we're being taught by sophie and susana. and after the class, we do a bit of sightseeing.
Will only be starting volunteering work in bout 2 days time. on monday, after class, we went to new road, thamel and durbar square. new road's a shopping street where the locals do their shopping. thamel's the touristy area, with all the hippies and backpackers. this area would be sort of considered the main city area, but its really really really really dusty and dirty. there's no rubbish bins and u just chuck ur rubbish whenever u see a pile of rubbish on the road. we travelled back by bus which only costs 9ruppee. the bus ride was surprisingly quite tolerable. i think after a while, u sort of get used to the dust and dirt. the highlight of the day was when the bus was nearing pepsicola town, we realized a lot of the houses were in the dark, only lit by candles, so I asked sophie if these ppl were really so poor that they didn’t have electricity. Then she said that every Monday there’s a powercut for bout 2 hrs. so I thought we’re really lucky to be staying in their house. Only to realize when getting off the bus, that even their area also has a powercut. Darn…had to eat and pee in the dark. But it was all good…u don’t really need electricity here coz most activities don’t revolve around electricity. Everyone just sort of sits around to chitchat after dinner. And they go to bed at like 8 or 9pm. We’re also getting used to it coz we wake up at bout 6:30 or 7am just coz u start hearing pple waking up, doing things so early in the morning.
On Tuesday (yesterday), we had classes again, and suzan (sugandha’s nephew who works at VSN office as a language trainer), brought me, chase and another new volunteer (Anne from US) to Pasupatinath and Bodnath. Pasupatinath is a Hindu temple where pple do cremation. It’s a kinda weird place, there was a cremation happening when we arrived, and they just burn the body on this platform with wood and its open burning. If anyone ever asks how a burning body smells like…it certainly doesn’t smell like charsiew..its a weird weird smell. After the burning, they just sweep the ashes into the river where the platform is next to. And the freakiest part is, further down the river, kids are just playing in the river water. The water’s this gray tinge…and rather filthy, but apparently its supposed to be holy water. there was sort of this weird taste in our mouths after leaving the place…yeeks…but well…just had to ignore it.
After that, we headed to bodnath. Walking into the entrance, it was quite breathtaking. Saw the world’s biggest stupa and it had such a calming effect. This is a Buddhist / Tibetan place. (pls forgive me if i get some facts wrong). A great difference from the previous place. This place was really clean and very calming. Lots of pple holding beads walking around the stupa. And there’s this constant music chant playing from the surrounding shops “om ma ni pek me hom?” it was kinda familiar coz I think I’ve heard it been chanted before. Anyways, after that we had a quick bite at a restaurant which only had deaf and dumb pple working there and headed back on the bumpy bus back to pepsicola town. Had our dinner, and spent the whole night talking and laughing with Sylvia.
So that basically sums up our 3 days in Nepal. There’s so much more things to tell but I think such a long blog can get kinda dreary. The experience has been great. Nepali culture does require some time to get used to, coz they’re so laid back and u don’t really know whats supposed to happen until u ask. as for food, we just eat a lot of rice and daal baat (lentils curry sort of thing), with chillis and barely eat meat. i think we're both gonna lose a lot of weight...hmm...but maybe not, coz we bought biscuits and chips and stocked them up in our room coz we realised we get hungry quite fast here..heheh.,.... anyways, will upate again soon...here's our tentative routine till we start volunteer work in 2 days time...wake up in the morning at 7am, have chiyaa (nepali tea), then head to the internet cafe to type emails (8am-10am), then head back to the house for lunch, then llanguage class, sightseeing in the afternnon, and dinner and bed after. chase is surviving very very well....and cutting down on the ciggies...i think if anyone wanna quit smoking, they should come to nepal...the air is so perpetually dusty that she doesnt even really feel like smoking. we both dont really change much as well, coz trying to avoid washing clothes, coz i think looking at the conditions where they hang their clothes out to dry in the dusty roads, it probably doesnt make a difference not washing at all. =p
There’s also 2 other volunteers staying in this house. Sylvia –frm London, been here 2mths (teaching at a monastery) and then there’s marty – frm US, been here bout 2 wks (helping out in a community clinic). they’re really nice pple. Sylvia’s very funny, been talking to her a lot and she’s been telling us all her stories from traveling. there's allso brian (korean born US dude) who stays in sugandha's sister's house just 5mins walk frm our house. he came wif sugandha to pick us up at the airport when we arrived. very nice guy..does teaching at the monastery as well. we havent started any volunteer work yet bcoz we're having language classes for 2 hrs a day . its kinda hilarious coz both of us start to lose attention after the first hour and suddenly all the words dont make sense anymore. we're being taught by sophie and susana. and after the class, we do a bit of sightseeing.
Will only be starting volunteering work in bout 2 days time. on monday, after class, we went to new road, thamel and durbar square. new road's a shopping street where the locals do their shopping. thamel's the touristy area, with all the hippies and backpackers. this area would be sort of considered the main city area, but its really really really really dusty and dirty. there's no rubbish bins and u just chuck ur rubbish whenever u see a pile of rubbish on the road. we travelled back by bus which only costs 9ruppee. the bus ride was surprisingly quite tolerable. i think after a while, u sort of get used to the dust and dirt. the highlight of the day was when the bus was nearing pepsicola town, we realized a lot of the houses were in the dark, only lit by candles, so I asked sophie if these ppl were really so poor that they didn’t have electricity. Then she said that every Monday there’s a powercut for bout 2 hrs. so I thought we’re really lucky to be staying in their house. Only to realize when getting off the bus, that even their area also has a powercut. Darn…had to eat and pee in the dark. But it was all good…u don’t really need electricity here coz most activities don’t revolve around electricity. Everyone just sort of sits around to chitchat after dinner. And they go to bed at like 8 or 9pm. We’re also getting used to it coz we wake up at bout 6:30 or 7am just coz u start hearing pple waking up, doing things so early in the morning.
On Tuesday (yesterday), we had classes again, and suzan (sugandha’s nephew who works at VSN office as a language trainer), brought me, chase and another new volunteer (Anne from US) to Pasupatinath and Bodnath. Pasupatinath is a Hindu temple where pple do cremation. It’s a kinda weird place, there was a cremation happening when we arrived, and they just burn the body on this platform with wood and its open burning. If anyone ever asks how a burning body smells like…it certainly doesn’t smell like charsiew..its a weird weird smell. After the burning, they just sweep the ashes into the river where the platform is next to. And the freakiest part is, further down the river, kids are just playing in the river water. The water’s this gray tinge…and rather filthy, but apparently its supposed to be holy water. there was sort of this weird taste in our mouths after leaving the place…yeeks…but well…just had to ignore it.
After that, we headed to bodnath. Walking into the entrance, it was quite breathtaking. Saw the world’s biggest stupa and it had such a calming effect. This is a Buddhist / Tibetan place. (pls forgive me if i get some facts wrong). A great difference from the previous place. This place was really clean and very calming. Lots of pple holding beads walking around the stupa. And there’s this constant music chant playing from the surrounding shops “om ma ni pek me hom?” it was kinda familiar coz I think I’ve heard it been chanted before. Anyways, after that we had a quick bite at a restaurant which only had deaf and dumb pple working there and headed back on the bumpy bus back to pepsicola town. Had our dinner, and spent the whole night talking and laughing with Sylvia.
So that basically sums up our 3 days in Nepal. There’s so much more things to tell but I think such a long blog can get kinda dreary. The experience has been great. Nepali culture does require some time to get used to, coz they’re so laid back and u don’t really know whats supposed to happen until u ask. as for food, we just eat a lot of rice and daal baat (lentils curry sort of thing), with chillis and barely eat meat. i think we're both gonna lose a lot of weight...hmm...but maybe not, coz we bought biscuits and chips and stocked them up in our room coz we realised we get hungry quite fast here..heheh.,.... anyways, will upate again soon...here's our tentative routine till we start volunteer work in 2 days time...wake up in the morning at 7am, have chiyaa (nepali tea), then head to the internet cafe to type emails (8am-10am), then head back to the house for lunch, then llanguage class, sightseeing in the afternnon, and dinner and bed after. chase is surviving very very well....and cutting down on the ciggies...i think if anyone wanna quit smoking, they should come to nepal...the air is so perpetually dusty that she doesnt even really feel like smoking. we both dont really change much as well, coz trying to avoid washing clothes, coz i think looking at the conditions where they hang their clothes out to dry in the dusty roads, it probably doesnt make a difference not washing at all. =p
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