Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Life in Gorkha


Life has been busy here, to say the least. Pair that with inconsistent internet and as you can tell it has been difficult to find time/the resources to update. But thanks to one of the many holidays, I have some time this morning to write. Probably the best way to get you guys up-to-date would be to give you a semi-typical daily schedule for me.
5:20 - I wake up to Taps being played from the Gurkha army base down the street.  Gurkha soldiers are famous for being one of the toughest fighting forces in the world; besides fighting for Nepal, they have been used heavily by the British for over a hundred years. They are also are in the Singapore Police Force and are the personal body guards to the Sultan of Brunei. The Indian army values them incredibly and several of the other ETA's host fathers are either in India currently or have served.
Then for the next hour or so I doze, with some sporadic interruptions by roosters, shops opening, or the honks of motorcycles, which consistently do that to alert pedestrians they are coming, or making a turn on these tight old cobblestone streets of my neighborhood.
Around 6:30, I am up and out of bed, in some state of dress and head downstairs to the mud floor kitchen that is the oldest part of the house. One of my uncles, who I met two weeks ago during the cow festival, gave me the brief run-down of my Nepali family house’s history. It has been in the family for over seven generations, whereas, the majority of people living in Gorkha have probably moved from the neighboring villages (read: villages within a few days walk) in more recent decades. It was the first house in old town to get stories added through reinforced concrete, but the old kitchen was kept. On the first floor is the shop, which sells everything from grains and eggs to soap and cell phone cards and fanta. I spend a lot of time there practicing my Nepali. When I practice the written language it always draws a crowd, all with their own opinions about how letters should be written. The second floor is a set of four rooms that each have a family of two or three living in them, and then the top two floors are us, with a kitchen as a side attachment and a small garden of corn and other plants out back. 
At this time, the family normally sits down (minus the person who is tending the shop; it is open from before I get up, right until dinner, every day, all day, even on holidays) for chiyaa (tea).  We either have black tea (khalo chiyaa), which according to my calculations is 1 part tea and 3 parts sugar, or milk tea  (dudh, pronounced dude, chiyaa) which has a good melody of spices added. Each family has their own recipes and own special spices they add. Julia gets her milk from her family’s water buffalo, which she regularly milks. We have this with either biscuits or bread.
Then I have a few hours before we eat our large meal. During these early morning hours, I normally split my time between reading, writing, studying Nepali, and watching badminton (emphasis on watching). I have been playing a lot with the afternoon crew - kids, ETAs, and men in flip flops - but one day I got invited to come at 7am to play. I strolled up in my cotton t-shirt, jeans, and Chacos (my typical playing wear) and was instantly even more out of place (which is saying a lot considering my pigmentation and that I am about a foot taller than most people here). These were the men who were ready to play, all wearing athletic shoes, shorts, and shirts; Premier League jerseys seemed to be the norm, and they divided the men into doubles teams (my dad here is on the black Chelsea jersey with orange hue squad). After watching their play, let us just say, I need a lot of work before I could even compete.
Also during this time, I have been walking a lot, the clearest time of day has been the early hours and that has been when I have gotten the best views of the Himalayas (photos coming when I can get good internet access)!
Around 9, we have dhaal bhaat which is a BIG meal of rice and lentils which I have too many stories to share about this and will save it for a following blog post.
My school begins at 10, so I spend these last moments getting prepped and making the ten minute walk down to school. My routine is becoming more regular and I am getting to know some of the shop keepers on the way, buying fresh fruit most days (best mangos I have ever had). Also on the walk, I pass the steps to the palace and the hotel and normally run into sweaty tourists on their way down from their morning hike up and have met some characters, to say the least.
School begins with the singing of the National Anthem for the whole school in the courtyard, which I have been told that I will lead very soon (I have already had to sing it in front of the entire teaching staff), then off to class.  I sit in the teachers’ lounge, which is a long rectangular room, with chairs lining both walls and a long series of tables in the middle with Niraj, the headmaster at the head. Some periods I have off so I just talk with other teachers, learning more about Nepal and practicing Nepali and in turn answering their questions they have about America. We also have more chiyaa, which I never can deny. The best way to describe my teaching role at school is through that of a "Utility Player". I wait basically to be "pulled off the bench", because I have no set schedule. So I wait for one of the English teachers to request me to go to their class with them, which I always accept. Sometimes for class, I just am instructed to sit and watch. But for most times, in the lounge, I am asked something like “Do you know rhymes?” or “Can you do introductions?” where I am put in front of the class for most of the period, providing native speaker (or as some call me a ‘Native American’…) pronunciations or insight.  My classes range from a 74 student grade 7 to a group of 11 of the cutest 3rd graders ever (reflecting on that, how could one not find a cute group of 3rd graders?). Still getting my footing in the classrooms, but the teachers seem truly excited to have me there, and in turn I am excited to learn from their far many more years of teaching experience.
Then around 4, I head home to normally have pre-dinner or pre-pre-dinner depending on things (I am still figuring out). This normally consists of either a bowl of noodles, veggies, an egg, or bread similar to naan, and beans. Then I normally study more Nepali and then either walk to a friend’s house or head to the courts. Then I get back and hang out at the shop until dinner around 9 and by that time I am so spent and in such a food coma that it is normally hard for me to keep my eyes open, even for the Olympics. To be fair though, it seems that all ESPN India is interested in is weight lifting (which I didn’t know there was more than one way to throw roughly your body weight over your head), men’s field hockey (which I didn’t know existed), air pistols (which rivals curling in the title for “sport” with most Olympic athletes who are overweight), and dressage (does it make me pompous just to know what that is?). Then I hit the pillow and start again - days mixed with new stumbles with practicing Nepali, more Nepali challenging the westerners to Badminton, and more fun.
This is a rough schedule for when I do not have holidays; which while I am here, more days have been holidays than not.  For those days, I fill in the time I would be at school with more exploring of the town, hanging at the shop, and gorging on endless plates of food.

1 comment:

  1. Very cool, sounds like they are keeping you busy. Stay safe and write a lot, for yourself if nothing else. Memories fade when you get old like me.

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