Conversations with Students

While walking to class the other day I had one of my 7^th grader students, Rupa, approach me and say what sounded like, “You are very haughty, sir”

“What?” I replied confusedly.

“Haughty sir, haughty”

To which I wanted to reply: “I am disdainfully proud of what?” Before I could come up with a proper response, my face gave away my complete and utter confusion and she tried to repeat herself slower with more emphasis on pronunciation.

“Hay-tee sir, hay-teeeee” Was she trying to make some analogy, comparing me to a 3^rd world country in the Caribbean?

As I stared blankly at her, attempting to decipher this code, she repeated herself.  This time, raising her hand from her head to the level of mine, “You’re very haytee sir, you have much hate.”

“Thank you Rupa” I replied, “I am very tall.”

As she ran off to class I hesitantly said, “Namaste” now all too aware of some of the problems that can arise with improper pronunciation.

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea who this man or his incredibly cute baby are. They approached me at the temple and asked if I could pose for a photo with them, my only stipulation was that they do the same for me.

Myself at Manakamina Temple

Ian and I lounging around at our conference.

Score (another one) for Gorkha

The Crew at the 8th annual LeBaron Cousins' Sleepover Circa 2008

Although all of my blogposts are inspired by all of you back home (and around the world), this one was inspired specifically by my LeBaron cousins. Let me set the scene:

It was the 8th annual LeBaron cousins’ sleepover. The night was Dec. 26th West Coast time. This was my first (and hopefully last) time that I had missed this event, physically. When it was my turn to do our traditional ‘life update’ I was planned to Skype in (FYI besides this story sharing time, and a uncanny tradition of accidentally breaking something each year at the host’s house there is nothing Skull and Bones about this event. Although we do keep to their clandestine levels about what is said, IE “french-fries”). We had just connected and I had hardly seen all of my beautiful cousins’ faces for the first time in months when the power cut off…

Luckily, eventually the power came back on. And after not having talked to or seen my cousins for over 6 months, some a year, and after having trekked in the Himals and survived (on a daily basis) teaching an class of over 70 students the first thing they say to me is, “How’s the electricity over there?” Not an ‘Oh my god it’s great to see you!’ or even a ‘Hey how are you?’ But rather, a question regarding how the country of Nepal not only harnesses electrical currents and then distributes them to their population but also the efficiency at which they perform this task. . .

Needless to say, there were more important things to be discussed and I brushed it aside, but I could have delved deeper. So here it goes you guys, a much wordier answer to: “Yes power outages are common here.” :

When we were first choosing our teaching placements over 5 months ago (I can’t believe it has been that long!) we had two location options. 1) the southern part of the Kathmandu Valley, called Lilitpur, about 1 to 2 hours from downtown and 2) my current home, Gorkha which is about 5 to 7 hours west of Kathmandu (depending on traffic jams, sleeping cows in the road, and how long it takes to load and offload the livestock from the bus roof).

          

           Both have their merits. Nepalis and Americans alike have questioned why I chose to forgo the more comfortable valley life, with easy access to such creature comforts as warm showers, food other than rice and lentils, and toilets that you sit on.

          Then again, in Gorkha, due to the lack of pollution, I can blow my nose and not have it come out black.

          I would truly be happy living in both but a big variance between the two locations is electricity.

          Tourism isn’t the only profit that the Himals generate here. Hydroelectricity is created from the Himals’ snow melt and counts for a substantial portion of the GDP here as well. In fact, it is so profitable that although Nepal produces enough to supply the entire country 24 hours a day, year round, it exports the majority of it. The upshot of this is that that country has a rotating electrical schedule; this process is called ‘load shedding’. I have yet to visit a region that is not affected by it.  

            Here in Gorkha, we normally lose an hour or so in the morning and then every night an hour or two again. Totally manageable and because this is such a common occurrence we are always prepared with candles and for the kitchen have and inverter which charges when we have power and keeps a bulb lit while Aama cooks. We are the lucky ones though.

           I say that because Kathmandu has the opposite. Or at least that is what it is heading towards. Winter is coming. The monsoon season has ended, which means that the rivers have all but dried up. Kathmandu depending on the day is getting only 9 to 12 hours of power and as we only get further and further away from the monsoon season the government is predicting record setting load shedding with upwards of over 20 hours or more of no electricity each day. To combat this, the government is considering cutting the now current 6 day work week to only 5 days to ease the power demand.

Although at school I don’t use power, being in the situation that Kathmandu is would really put a hindrance onto writing things like this and following my Indian soaps.

Cousins, I’m not sure if this was really the post you expected or wanted to be inspired by you, but I hope it answered your question. And know that even though I do not say it in every post, I am always inspired by, and thankful for your love and support.

Sharing some California Christmas love reading the '12 Days of California Christmas' with our class

Happy Holidays

               After nearly six months of having nothing more than a runny nose, my system was finally hit hard. To put in bluntly, I spent the two days leading up to Christmas within a 40 foot radius of our toilet.  Out of our group, I believe up to this point I had the best health track record here. I now have soooooo much more empathy for what others went through.

                I woke up Christmas morning and felt the best I had in days (read: able to leave my 40 foot radius) and headed to meet the other Fulbrighters, along with all of Krista’s family and Rachel’s dad, to teach our ACCESS Class about Christmas. We spent the morning making paper stocking, drawing a 8 foot tall paper Christmas tree, and of course you can’t have a tree without making ornaments. We taught and sang songs such as ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ and ended with our own Christmas feast Nepali style with rice pudding and curry along with Candy Canes provided by Krista’s family and cups of hot chocolate. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with each other and our host families wandering around town and appreciating the views.

                This was my first Christmas away from home and I really don’t think I could have imagined it to be much better. I think being in a country where Christianity is not a dominant religion helps with the homesickness. I remember, after studying abroad in Beijing in the Fall and seeing very little if any Christmas decorations where I was living. Then, arriving to Hong Kong a few days before Christmas and being bombarded by the holiday from every direction. It was difficult to escape the glow of the multiple 30 plus story tall neon Christmas trees. Upon seeing these, I was immediately overcome with homesickness more severe than I had experienced throughout the rest of my time in China.

But here, I am not reminded of Christmas all the time, the only time I think about it is when I am with the other Americans here or talking to you guys back home (which I have greatly enjoyed).  Although a few nights back I did stumble on Tim Allen’s the Santa Claus 3 on television which was then followed by Tim Allen’s Santa Claus 2 which was supposed to be followed by Total Recall…

                For me, Christmas is about being with the people you love, sharing good times together and of course eating good food.  And for this Christmas, although I wasn’t with you, I was able to share it with people I care about here (although I have yet to give my family their presents, preferring to wait to share them with them when I am fully healthy and can enjoy the American candy with then) And, even if I had had the amazing food choices that you had (which you all have been so gracious to relentlessly remind me) I couldn’t have enjoyed it anyway. Namaste.

Some film shots

 

So, I got my first roll of film here developed and the good news is, that everything worked out. I am at school right now, on a break in between classes, just taught 3rd grade the difference between I and my. Thanks to Fulbright, we are getting pies to share with our host families on Thursday and then the next day after class we head into Kathmandu and on Saturday we get to celebrate Thanksgiving at a home of someone who works at the Embassy. I hope you all are staying healthy and happy, bummed I cannot see you for the holidays, but know that I am happy. Also don't worry about my appearance from the picture above, that photo was taken in my first week in Gorkha and my hair and facial hair are now more properly manicured to fit with my teaching uniform.

Some of the kids who live near my house.

Morning, looking out of my back window.

SHOPPING!

With a sign like this, how could you go wrong?

              As much as it pains me to say it, for the first time in my life, I have found myself enjoying shopping. Shopping in Nepal, like shopping at Goodwill, every crazy pattern and style can be found, and hidden in between the crest green sleeveless and the acid washed booty shorts gems can be found. But unlike Goodwill where these ‘gems’ are only is size 24 or XXL, EVERYTHING FITS YOU! That is because it is cheaper here to buy fabric and get it personally tailored then to buy something that is factory made. The best part about it is not only do you get to choose the style you want and get it custom fitted, but it all come for less than the cost of a burger and fries (or at least at an establishment that doesn’t use pink slime).


           The process is actually incredibly enjoyable. You stroll fabric shop to fabric shop, pulling out sheets of cloth from the floor to ceiling shelves which make up the walls of the shop. You then sit with the shop keeper, normally with a cup of tea, and you proceed to haggle until you both are satisfied then you take it to a tailor shop nearby and within a day or two you got your new threads.

               The sign from the tailor shop above sold it to me, but what was the icing on the cake was when I walked in, and noticed, hanging from above, a pair of pleated camo pants waiting to be picked up.

Since then I have gotten several shirts and pants made and even this traditional number:

And who doesn’t want to see a photo of me in that gear on a ping?



Diwali Festival



Yesterday was my first day off for the Diwali festival. Yesterday was based around celebrating  the goddess of wealth.   I began my day with the typical chiyaa and biscuits and appreciating the dog puja (blessing) which had been given the day before:

Then I went out with some of the men to spruce up our street for the festivities. First off, we started stringing up Tihaar lights on the houses (Tihaar lights, for those of you that do not know, are just like Christmas lights,but used by Nepali for Tihaar). Following that, we began to fix up the temples which separate our badminton court from our cricket court, changing the light bulbs for the next few evening’s festivities.

We spent the rest of the day eating and cleaning the houses and shops for the puja that was to be given that night.

I went to my host father’s office where we gave blessing and then spent the night walking up and down the streets with a band of little children, singing and dancing and blessing the businesses. I went to sleep to the sounds of the children's bands still going around house to house.

This is me with some of my father's coworkes.

The view from his office.

This morning I woke and took a walk to Julia’s house to pick up a sleeping bag because later in this week I am headed to one of my neighbor’s villages about 5 hours by bus to the north. I was told it snows there, so I am, for the first time in Nepal other than my trek and at school, bringing shoes … Truly excited for this opportunity.

I returned home to find this:

Today was cow puja day. Cows are regarded as gods here, and thus their meat is not eaten. This calf was paraded from house to house with each family blessing it, and for an extra blessing crawling under it!

As I said before, soon I will be headed out into the district where I undoubtedly will be the only Native English speaker in the village. All is well here.

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Some Group Photos

 I just dropped off my friend from the swim team Sara Lee, her cousin McKenzie, and friend Maya, at the bus rank; they spent the past 4 nights with my family and me in Gorkha. With them staying with me, plus our election viewing party, a mini-Pitzer reunion (there were 8 of us together in Kathmandu!), and my teaching, I have had my hands tied. I will post more about everything soon. But here are some photos I want to share. 

I took this photo of Julia and her little friend when we first visited Gorkha nearly 4 months ago (sounds crazy that it has already been that long! Past halfway now for my grant!). Little did I know that this would be 5 houses down from where I now live and that this little girl would be my barber's daughter.

This was also taken on our first trip to Gorkha. Robin, who is on the far left, is our director. Also, at this time we had no idea how truly big the Himals, just behind us through the fog, actually were.

Sorcha, Rachel, Krista, and Julia, showing how we typically travel.

The best juice I have ever had.