My trip :)

Pheri betaula Nepal :(

alyx — Mon, 5 Oct 2009 11:27:00 GMT

Namaste everyone,

I thought I'd write one final blog before leaving Nepal, I'm not really sure of its purpose, maybe to act as a summary or evaluation, or maybe just to express how ten weeks can teach you more than years of conventional education.

It’s so surreal sitting here and thinking of what Nepal’s done for me. It really has been, excuse the cliché, lifechanging. I think i’ll look back upon my Nepal experience and see two sides to the apple. Firstly, the platform2 element. The volunteer work has been so fun, manual labour has been tough but has made me realise how capable i actually am. Through P2 we've had global discussions in which I've learnt about a range of global issues. We watched DVDs such as Baraka, The End of the Line, Life and Debt, The Yes Man (all AMAZING). It's been a somewhat school-like element to the programme, but one that I've thoroughly enjoyed. I've now got notebooks full of statistics and facts about Nepalese history, culture, language- all issues that I've been experiencing first-hand out here too. P2 has also enabled me to meet some of the most amazing people. It would be no exaggeration to say that we are a family. We're all from completely different walks of life but have bonded together. i really don't know how I'm going to cope without these people and all of our private jokes. For all these reasons I feel I owe Platform 2 a massive thank you for giving me the experience.

The other side to my Nepal trip is how I've changed, and that isn't specifically due to Platform 2, but rather just having ten weeks to reflect and to grow as a person. I'd be lying if I said that I'm returning as the same Alyx, because I',m not. I have changed but it's completely for the better. i now feel so comfortable or 'balanced', I really just know myself, my ambitions, my strengths and my flaws. Again I've learnt that I can be independent. The world isn't always such a scary place. All you need is a plane ticket and things will fall into place as fate intends. I realise that this is a very romantic notion and practicalities such as a visa may be required, ha. But yes, I'm going to travel again. Getting out of the UKs 'school, uni, career' structure has made me feel so young. I'm 19 and really do have my life ahead of me to do these things. It's exciting and I believe that anyone can do it. Taking just a year out will be the most beneficial thing you could ever do, that's a promise. I've also realise though how much I love learning, learning about religion, culture, society, history. it's this that's reinforced my excitement for university, it'll give me life skills that'll be advantageous all through my life. i may sound naive but academia/a career and travelling will not be mutually exclusive in my life. In ten weeks I've learnt that I'm a lot stronger than I thought and I know that whatever life throws at me- I can deal with. Things do happen for a reason, even if you can't see it at the time. I've learnt not to be fazed by petty 'problems', after all they just take away valuable time of our already short lives. I'm aware all this sounds so idealistic but it genuinely is the effect of my ten weeks in Nepal.

What other things have I learnt?! Well, I'm pretty certain I can count the number of 'showers' I've had on one hand (God bless wet wipes). I can now eat three chilli's without breaking into a sweat or my (amazing) nepali family having to get lots (and lots) of water for me. Nature really is a healer- watching a sunrise makes a day. I actually quite like rice, even after eating it three times a day, and it is possible to live without a mattress, a hot water bottle and a kettle. Additionally I feel no guilt in having approximately 5 tablespoons of sugar in my tea now (Nepali style). My morning meditation is better than a cup of tea. But I have realised just how much I love and miss my family and friends. So I'll be making many pitt stops during my travels.

I’m not sure if i’m ready to leave this beautiful country, my amazing host family and my new best friend, 9 year old Kshitiz, but i will without a doubt keep in touch with everyone i have met on this amazing journey.

I feel that I should apologise for such a self-obsessive blog, but if it plants the travel seed in one persons head then it's been worth it- go do it! I will definitely be returning to Nepal. Without a doubt, these have been the best, most life-affirming ten weeks of my life.

...Now to see if I ever make it back to little England with my nepali family saying Im not allowed to leave.

It's still Dashain!

alyx — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:31:00 GMT

Namaste everyone,

I wasn't sure whether to blog again or wait until closer til "leaving time" but here I am. It's crazy that I'll be returning home so soon, in all honesty I'm petrified. Life here is like a bubble, it's laid back with plentyof time to reflect and gaze at the mountains, coming home is going to be so overwhelming.

This week has been much of the usual stuff. Work has been a bit boring, making cement and wheelbarrowing rocks and sand is getting a tad repetitive.

On Friday morning myself, Meena, Pratik, Ba and Sundar all walked to the temple at 4.45am. It was about a 45 minute walk, plus a casual 178 steep steps to the temple, but the temple was amazing. And I enjoyed chatting to the Nepali scouts, obviously, about what they get to do in their scouting organisation, I had my scout scarf with me from home so managed to swap it with one of the scouts there :)

After visiting the temple some of us went to Kathmandu for the day with Holly and her host sister. The buses were absolutely packed because of the festival and the whole journey to the city was looking out of the window at the goats and chickens near the temples that were about to get killed. During Dashain the families buy goats, chickens, ducks etc to kill to eat; my family bought 4 chickens for the festival which Meena, as a vegetarian, is dreading meaning I having to kill the chickens *gulp*.

Yesterday and today have been the most important days of the festival for our Nivari family. They have to wake up at 4 everyday and walk to the temple, they can only eat beaten rice (which I hate!), we have to take dinner at the old house (which is obviously built for Nepali people as Meena and I cannot stand up straight in it) and it's just very family orientated and reminds me alot of Christmas back home!

Yesterday evening when we took dinner we couldn't use plates (due to the festival) so we had our dinner on banana leaves. They also had to put dinner out for 4 Gods and for my host fathers brother and sister (which today my older brother delivered to their house). We had beaten rice, some type of curry, 2 slices of apple, a banana (which I now LOVE!) and some other snacks! My family also grow their own rice and make rice wine and rice beer; last night I tried both - rice wine is very strong, the alcohol here is much stronger than it is in England! I didn't like the wine, but the beer was quite nice! Meena loves it hehe. Sundar and his brother also came to our old house last night - our families keep making a big deal out of me and Sundar chatting as they aren't sure whether I actually like him or not - haha! Sundar's father came round last night too and I was made to call him father-in-law, very embarrassing! Meena and Jahira found teasing me hilarious though!

This morning Meena and I had to wake up at 7 to go to the old house for breakfast. Before breakfast my host father had to put red tica on everyone's forehead, give us a banana, some holy grass and some money each. My older brother then had to do the same. After breakfast we then had to go to the project office to have the same done by our deputy project supervisor. I then visited Harriet's house after as Meena had gone out with our host brother and had the same done at her house! I have a very red forehead at the moment! All the volunteer's are thinking of ways we can include this little ritual at home now though - free money? yes please haha.

One last thing - when I was at Harriet's earlier (her family are also Nivari) I was talking to her host sister and I said something in Nivari and found out that Nivari's from different counties speak a different version of Nivari! I was quite upset to find that out because I'd tried so hard to learn it! Hehe but her sister said nivari's can understand the different versions which is good, kind of, I guess :)

So yep that's about all I can think about to write at the mo! I was going to upload some photos onto this blog too but I left my camera wire in the house. Apologies for the very brief blog!

Hope everyone is well, looking forward to seeing you all in just over 2 weeks!

Lots of love,

Alyx xxxx

Dashain Festival

alyx — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:15:00 GMT

(Picture - Ramdevi, Meena and I in the old house *the house I cant stand up straight in* having dinner)

Hi everyone,

So on Saturday it was the first day of the Dashain Festival. The festival lasts for 15 days and is pretty much the equivalent of Christmas but without giving out gifts. The children don't go to school, it's very family orientated (I woke up at 6 today and my family were outside playing badminton!) and the men have to buy a new item of clothing. We were meant to be off work from the 24th - 30th so we could celebrate with our family and have a break from work because we work Sunday - Friday, but Platform2/IDF decided to shorten our holiday from the 26th - 29th so not many of the volunteers are happy at the mo, especially considering we're already ahead of schedule on the project!

On Wednesday there were only 5 girls at the project site (the others were wheelbarrowing sand and rocks to site) which was really fun. We were only really making cement for the skilled man power but it was good. In one of our breaks this (very scary looking) priest walked past the project site and Bharat got his future read (in Nepali) not sure whether I believed him but it was fascinating to watch! Meena also got our future read, apparently she will be getting married in April next year! haha

On Thursday we worked until 11.30 and then had to walk to Lamatar for a talk from DFID. We all learnt alot about development in Nepal and it was really interesting.

Key facts -

Social exclusion - Muslims, women

Annual income - 250 pounds

14th poorest country in the world

Poorest in Asia

Girls are 1 and a half times more likely to die before they are 5 then boys

After the meeting me and Holly were talking to Susan Clapham about our experience - esp. from teaching. We've been teaching in both a government and a private school and we've noticed that a much higher number of boys attend private schools. Some families in my village will only send their sons to private school and possibly their daughters to government, or no school at all.

We then caught up with the Lamatar volunteers for a bit and then went back to Sirutar - we went via Lubhoo so we could buy the paint we're going to use to paint a classroom in the local school during our holiday. That evening I was a bit upset about some things and went home and straight to my room. Meena explained to our family what was wrong and that night they made me my favourite (Nepali) meal for dinner - very sweet!

The following day we had work in the morning and then at 12 we were getting the bus to Nagarkot for the sunrise/sunset! The journey took about an hour and a half and was rather bumpy! When we got to our hotel (7400ft high) our hotel was in a cloud! Me and Harriet were in the highest room and that was ABOVE the cloud! That afternoon/evening was very cloudy and so we didn't get to see the sunset :( However the following day we woke up at 5am and we got to see the sun rise above Mt Everest! It was beautiful; but very cold! It was my first experience of cold English type weather in just over 2 months! We then travelled back to the hotel for breakfast before being dropped back in Sirutar. That evening me and Ben 10 watched the Aston Villa match whilst my older sister randomly walked in and started putting my hair in a french plait - very strange.

On Sunday it was back to work and me and Meena were absolutely knackered because we'd got up on Saturday at 5 and then on Sunday morning our sisters woke us up at 5 to go for a walk! After work we had a venture meeting and then after seeing Holly & Annie's eyebrows after they had them threaded I decided to brave it! - for 25 rupees!

I've been learning lots of Nivari this week because my family are Nivari so speak more Nivari then Nepali, so I can now communicate with my brothers wife/bhauju who doesn't speak much English!

Hope everyone is well and happy! I'm a bit gutted because since Nagarkot my camera is playing up and the flash just won't flash :( Hopefully it will still take some ok pics in daylight!

See you all in just over 3 weeks!

Pheri betula,

Alyx

xxxx

One month left....

alyx — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:23:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

So in the last blog entry I completely forgot to write about my host sisters birthday! She turned 7 on the 7^th Sept so our host family had a big party for her! Me and Meena got her some bangles and had also planned to play pass the parcel and had got some gifts and everything! I was still ill the night before though so was lying on the sofa leaving Meena and Ramdevi the job to put the parcel together - which turned out to be an awful idea. We went to play it on the Monday and Meena had wrapped each present individually and three times without any gifts in between – I don’t think she understood what pass the parcel was haha. Luckily our family have not heard of the game so didn’t realise her mistake! Lucky lucky lucky. I was in hysterics for about an hour – oh dear. Hina, Jahira and Harriet also came over for the birthday party and got Princess some lovely gifts! I think Princess was LOVING the attention!

For most of last week I wasn’t allowed to work as the doctor said I had to take 5 days rest so I was very bored! On the Wednesday I was very excited to FINALLY be allowed out! Both sets of volunteers were meeting up to play a ‘friendly’ game of football! It was great to see the other volunteers as we hadn’t seen them in five weeks, it wasn’t so great to lose though! 8 – 6! We used the excuse that we had to walk an hour and a half to their village to play though! You can tell it didn't end up being a 'friendly' game, peoples competitive sides definitely came out!

The following morning Bharat told us that our planned trip to the slums had to be postponed which was a bit annoying so we decided to go to Kathmandu instead which was fun! We got there on Friday afternoon, had some dinner, had a look around and then went to this live music place called Lhasa – the music was amazing! The following day for breakfast we went to this place called the Bakery Café which is run by deaf people. I only ordered some juice and cereal but the service was amazing! We then continued to look around Kathmandu before getting the bus home – worst journey of my life. Surrounded by sweaty Nepali men and getting my legs continually slammed against the bus door – not fun. The guys that are in charge of letting people on and off the bus find it hilarious to completely overcrowd the buses, I cant even explain how packed they make it. Literally passengers are hanging off the bus..it's crazy.

Since Sunday we’ve been back at work, the project is going really well – have sent some pictures in an email, if you didn’t get them just send me your email address and I’ll send them.

On Friday we’re going to Nagarkot, then next Thursday the festival starts! We get a week off so are hoping we’ll be able to do some fun things!

I hope everyone is well and enjoying September! I’m looking forward to seeing you all in a month – not so much looking forward to leaving my bedroom window view of the Himalayas though!

Love you all,

Al xxx

Private school, orphanage, hospital trip & Maiti Nepal

alyx — Tue, 8 Sep 2009 20:49:00 GMT

(Picture - the girls and Cha Cha at the project sight)

Hi everyone, so here's the next blog entry - a lot has happened in the past 6 days!!

On Friday after work and tiffin a few of us went for an interaction session with the teachers of Sirutar private school where we discussed the education systems of Nepal and the UK. When we arrived at the school a few of the students gave us some flowers each and the teachers applauded us as we entered the classroom which was a bit embarassing as we weren't expecting that at all, but lovely nonetheless. They talked for a while, teachers gave a quick intro about themselves (they all looked very young!) and then the headteacher asked us to each say a few things about ourselves which I found kind of scary! We then interacted with teachers, they asked us lots of questions! We were suprised to find out that the school fee is 300 rupees initial fee and then 500 rupees a term (123 rupees = 1 pound). We were also shocked to realised that attending school is not compulsory to anyone of any age in Nepal. I found this quite shocking; I've noticed that some children just come and watch us at the work site alot but just assumed that they were too young for school or had been to school already but it's just because they don't want to go to school because their family don't see the point when they will just stay in the village for the rest of their lives.

We are all aware that in Nepal there is a lot of discrimination against women and this became quite evident during the session as the male teachers sat at the front of the class and asked lots of questions whilst the females sat at the back and didn't ask one question. So yep, we all learnt alot about the education system and wrote alot down!

On Saturday we all met at the project office at 10 to walk to the orphanage. When we arrived we were greeted by Sunita the orphanage's supervisor (who we later learnt used to live at the orphanage herself) who told us the history of the orphanage. We were then taken on a tour of the orphanage - we saw their canteen, their rooms, etc. The children are 6 years and older and have to do their own washing, are given chores, to make them become independent. After the tour we went to the playground area and met all the children who were all absolutely lovely! Some of the volunteers and the older orphans had a game of basketball too. I sat and talked to these two young sisters who were so sweet, when we had to leave I was a bit teary and they asked me for my email address :( When we left two of the girls took us to the orphanage's organic farm which they use to generate money for the orphanage which was great! The two girls took me off and let me hold the cutest tiniest bunny rabbit! And Harriet and I tasted the yummiest tomatoes ever! Oh how I miss BLT's and Chicken salad sandwiches!

That night I went to bed pretty early because I wasn't feeling very well and that night I had the worst nights sleep since I arrived in Nepal :( I woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold, but my head was boiling. I ended up calling my Nan in the UK because I was feeling so terrible. The next day I decided not to go to work and stay at home and sleep it off but that didn't work. That afternoon Bharat had to take me to the local hospital as my temperature was 100C and I still wasn't well. My didi's and dai were getting very worried about me. The hospital was very small and the doctors all wear jeans and sandals - casual! They took my temp again, blood pressure, urine sample and blood sample. 45 mins later I was told I had gastroenticitis and a blood infection and got given lots of medication. I have to take 5 tablets after every meal, not nice! And I am just feeling pretty lousy at the mo! and useless really because I can't work for 5/6 days.

Yesterday we went to Maiti Nepal! However as the bus wasn't big enough for us all to fit into we had to go in groups. When we arrived we had to wait for an hour for the others to arrive so we went to Pashpati temple and there was a cremation taking place. They take place outside and you can see the body being prepared for cremation, and then the cremation itself. We were all very shocked to say the least and couldn't tell whether we wanted to look, take pictures, run away, or anything. I don't even know what else to write about it now just thinking back about it.

Maiti Nepal wasn't as good as I hoped it was going to be. We got there, had a quick talk about trafficking in Nepal and then were shown very quickly around the grounds and taken to the shop were the women sell the jewellery they make. I was quite disappointed :( But it was nice to see the work the organisation are doing to try and reduce traffiking in Nepal.

And today was back to work again! The wall is looking great now. Hope you're all well, looking forward to seeing you all in approx 5 weeks time! :)

Al xxxx

Missing you all!

alyx — Wed, 2 Sep 2009 22:08:00 GMT

(Picture - Two boys in mine and Meena's class at the school, Picas and Denis)

Hi everyone,
So on Saturday a few of us got up early to catch the public bus to Kathmandu - one of the volunteers host sister Sabina came with us to help us haggle and make sure we didn't get lost - a very important job! The bus journey was certainly a very interesting one! We were all dreading it because we'd heard lots of stories about it being very busy and there being lots of pick pocketers; but luckily we didn't have that experience. The buses are much much much more different to English buses - there are no official bus stops, just a start point and an end. There is a boy who hangs out the door yelling in Nepali that the bus is going to Kathmandu and you can get on if you want. The roads are pretty bad - we were jumping all over the place! On the bright side, it only cost 12 ruppees for a 30-45 min journey! (123 = 1 pound). Anyway, we arrived in Kathmandu and WOW it was soooo hot! I don't think I've ever experienced heat like that before - but that wasn't going to stop us shopping! We shopped for a few hours, stopped for lunch at "Crazy Burger" who must be making serious money from some of the volunteers thanks to us all missing english food!
We then continued shopping and decided it was probably time to catch a bus back. However before that some of us (very stupidly) decided to risk having an icecream before we left...which I later regretted when I was ill overnight and for the whole of Sunday :(
On our journey back from Kathmandu to Sirutar we go through slums - people have built "homes" on the side of a VERY polluted dirty river where people put their rubbish. We've seen the slums before but we've never stopped in the middle of them - we were all silent the rest of the journey back. I think in a few weeks we'll be visiting them too which I'm sure will be a very emotional trip for all of us.
When we arrived back in Sirutar I put my bag down and Gyanu (my older sister) quickly told me I'd be walking to Lubhoo with her so off we went to pick up some clothes that had been made. We came back and then me and Meena played Ramu and Ben 10 at Badminton - I'm proud to say that England beat Nepal! Haha.
The following day I was ill so didn't go to work, was feeling a bit better after tiffin though so went to our weekly venture meeting. Every week we have a different chairperson so this week I decided to volunteer to be the chairperson so we had the meeting, I sent the minutes off to Platform2 and then it was time for Meena, Harriet, Jamie, Hina, Jahira and I to go to the local school for the first time to teach/interact! It was so scary. As we were walking to the school most of the children were outside practicing this march type thing for a competition, the children and the other volunteers laughed and took many photos when I decided to join in :) I think I was pretty good at it too!
We did eventually get into a classroom with the children. Meena and I were paired together and were so scared! We decided to first all of go round the class and ask them their name and ages...and they were all very polite and stood up and answered. We quickly realised we had two VERY confident 13 year old boys in our class called Dennis and "Because" (his name is pronounced because but I don't know how you spell it) who asked us a lot of silly questions, told us we were beautiful and asked us to sing and dance - oh dear. We taught them about English festivals because they have a major festival coming up and then let them ask us questions. At the end of the lesson they all stood up and sung their national anthem to us.
After the lesson we were all pretty much dead so went to the project office and watched a good old girly film!
When we returned home our older sister gave me and Meena a present each - it was really cute heart keyring that had our name engraved in it - dunno what the occasion was but it was sooo sweet! After dinner I found out I could watch Aston Villa on tv at my homestay and was very excited when I found it on tv...only to be heartbroken when 10 minutes before kick off there was a powercut - I was not a happy Aishwarya haha! But my host brother called his friend who managed to record it for me so I watched that yesterday! :) It's crazy how I'm not that committed to the football at home, but here it's become kinda important because it makes me feel kinda closer to my dad and brothers.
On Monday we had our mid term seminar from 10.30 til 3pm. It was actually quite fun although each groups presentation was meant to be an hour long and everyones ended up being about 15 mins long! Woops! My little group were responsible for talking about construction and we (Holly) drew a rather beautiful poster of us all on the work site! It should def. be put in a gallery.
Yesterday we had a full days work again which was pretty difficult because we haven't had a full days work since Wednesday and it wasn't very interesting at the work site! After work I had a shower - there was the biggest strangest looking bug in my shower EVER - I screamed for Ganu to come save me! Her and my little niece Princess laughed at me for a good ten minutes! After that eventful shower, I went to my Nepalese lesson and received post (thank you to everyone who's sent me a letter - I reeeally appreciate it!) and then I went home. Jahira came over for dinner which was fun and I think my Nepali family (especially my Ba and Dai) love interacting with the other volunteers.
Today we finally finished levelling the ground! I'm absolutely knackered! My right hand is covered in blisters from wheel barrowing so much! We have even started building the inner foundation wall of the school; we've had some problems though because the rain keeps causing land slides which are a pain!
Gonna go now because other people want the computer, but I'll update again soon! Going to the orphanage on Saturday and Maiti Nepal on Monday which will be emotional!!

Lots of love,
Alyx
xxxx

Start of week three!

alyx — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:05:00 GMT

(Picture - us in the hut where we have tiffin every day playing black jack...again!)

Namaste everyone!

So not much has happened since I last updated this. As I said on Sunday there was a festival for some families in the village where women wear red sari's and fast for 36 hours to 'preserve' the life of the men in their families so some of the girl volunteers had got red sari's and looked dherai ramro (very beautiful). My family don't celebrate the festival though, however Ramu didi and Meena dressed me up in a sari a few nights ago which was fun :) In a few weeks there's the Dashain festival for 6 days so me, Meena and our sisters are going to go and get a sari. So yep, my family don't celebrate that festival so I went to Harriet's house for a little while (as her family are also Nivari and don't celebrate either) and then we went to the project office and watched some films.

On Monday we were all strangely looking forward to going to work because the rain kept us all off work for a few days last week but yet again it was raining! Its so hot for our days off but when it's work it gets rainy! So we had a meeting with Bharat and from now on if we have a day off because of the rain we're hoping to go into local schools and paint the classrooms which should be good!

On Tuesday we started work again finally, two of the volunteers were ill though which sucked, one of them keeps getting ill and then better again and then ill again, and might have to go home if they don't get better soon :( Hopefully that won't happen though! I don't think me telling him the Aston Villa vs Liverpool score helped considering he's a Liverpool fan! :)

That afternoon I was starting to feel ill so had to go home early. I had a nap for most of that afternoon, got up for dinner -BUFFALO!, and then went back to bed. When I woke up on Wednesday morning I still felt pretty awful but didn't want to not work so went away...got to the site and was quickly sent home though :( The project supervisor was worried because so many people are getting ill and having to go to hospital!

Ooh about the project, we've nearly finished levelling the ground! Yay! Today it was just the girls digging, barrowing, etc, and the boys were moving stones. So nearly ready to build the wall! :) I am very excited because the work is starting to get a bit repetitive!

On Tuesday on the way home from Nepalese lesson, me and Meena saw this big group of Nepalese women having an argument! Apparently they were fighting over some land and PUNCHES were seen! So the police had to be called. It was crazy!!

Today we have a half day and after tiffin some of us went to look at a local school that we're going to teach in and "do up" which should be good!

So yes, that's the past few days for you! Tomorrow I'm going to Kathmandu with Harriet which should be good :) On Monday we have our mid term seminar, next Monday we're going to a trafficking centre (Maiti Nepal) where rescued women and children are, and the weekend after to a hotel to watch the sunset/sunrise :)

Missing home lots! But only 6 weeks and 6 days left!

Lots of love,

Al xxxxxx

PS Funny story for you all...the other day I was walking home from work and was so tired that I forgot that Dhanyabaad means thanks and Namaste means hello, and I walked the whole way home saying "Dhanyabaad" to everyone and kept getting such funny looks...it was terrible!

Leech bite...

alyx — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:19:00 GMT

(Picture - At the "Hotel in the clouds")

Hi everyone,

So, on Friday morning I awoke after an eventful night of sickness. I have now decided that my body just refuses to like the street bought somosas, even if they are amazing and cost about 5p!

Yesterday was our day off and 5 of us decided to go trekking up a mountain/hill haha; the rest of our group had stayed in Kathmandu overnight. We trekked up 1800 metres and it took us about 2 and a half hours. We left at 7am thinking it'd be cool outside; but it wasn't! Yesterday has got to have been the hottest day since I arrived here in Sirutar! The views on our trek were amazing though and well worth it, as was the view of the floor we got on the many occasions we fell over! It was so slippy.

We thought/were told we had reached the highest point we could walk, when one of the guys Uttam who came with us said "No no no..if we carry on for 15 minutes we'll reach the top" ....an hour later we still hadn't reached the top. So when the guy again said "if we carry on for fifteen more minutes we'll reach a mountain top hotel" you can imagine that we didn't believe him. But we carried on and 30 minutes later we had reached the hotel and it was amazing! We sat there for about an hour and ordered some chips - I think I must have had about 3 plates of chips! Haha not enjoying the rice and curry at the mo! And then we went back down the mountain...mostly on our bums thanks to the amount of times we fell over.

I was also lucky enough to notice half way down the mountain that there was a leech on my ankle - lucky me! I calmly (which I'm rather proud of) said to Uttam - "there's a leech on my ankle, please get it off" and he did. He put some sort of liquid on it which I stupidly thought would stop the bleeding...when we returned to our homestay me and Meena quickly realised that my sock and shoe was full of blood - how lovely :S

So yes, that was yesterdays trek. After the trek I had a cold shower and desperately needed to wash some clothes (when I get home I will never take a washing machine for granted.) I am getting the knack of hand washing though!

Went to project office for a bit, nearly finished watching Marley & Me, played black jack - again, and then back to host family for the evening.

Today there is a festival for women called Tij so we don't have work today, only certain casts in the village celebrate the festival (my family don't) and they wear red sari's and fast all day, whilst dancing/singing all day too. It's lovely, and everyone looks beautiful.

Anyway I'll stop rambling on now, hope everything's good in England!

Enjoy your last week of Aug, can't believe how quickly August is going!

Pheri betula xxxx

Nearly two weeks here...

alyx — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:47:00 GMT

(Picture - My 2 host sisters/didi's (Ramdevi and Gyanu) and my sister-in-law Bhauju.)

Hi guys, haven't got long left on internet now - spent too much time on facebook chat to Dad and Ashlee!!
So on Friday we went to Kathmandu for Holly's birthday and to have some food that wasn't rice! It was a really good night and I think Holly had a good time too which is fab. We stayed at the hotel we stayed at during orientation. On Saturday morning we went shopping and to the internet cafe before we had to get the taxi back to Sirutar. Driving in Kathmandu is not like UK driving and on the way back me and Harriet were talking about how suprised we are we haven't seen a crash yet...and then our taxi hit a boy on a bike! It was soo scary, luckily the boy was ok but we were all so scared. It was horrible.
We got back to Sirutar and there had been heavy rainfall and the whole village was pretty much flooded - our project site was a mess! There's been a lot of rain this week but today it's sunny again so we've caught up on the work we think!
On Sunday we had work in the morning, then venture meeting and then Harriet, Jahira and Hina came to meet mine and Meena's family :) They were so suprised to see how modern our house is compared to theirs! Our family are so friendly and as soon as they saw the volunteers offered them tea and biscuits! :)

On Monday work finished early because of the rain so we went to the internet cafe in Lubhoo and on the way there I lost my flip flop in a rice field! I had to run after it...everyone found it so funny, but trust me- it wasn't funny!!

That evening at home I taught Meena and Ben10 how to play black jack - now we play it every night, I think I might regret that in 8 weeks time! Ben10 has not beat me yet, i'm sure he will beat me before we leave though, he's learning fast!

Um...yesterday we had to finish work early again - we are all starting to get a bit worried about these half days because we really want to finish this project! We had a nepalese lesson in the afternoon which was good - I can now write Alyx Pleaden in Nepali :) And my nepali family gave me the name Aishwarya and I can write that in Nepalese too! The leader of IDF gave me a phone so I can finally use my nepalese sim! Yay!

Today we've been working all day and are all absolutely knackered! I was on wheel barrow duty this morning and that may sound easy, but trust me it's not! I was then on the shovel and digging duty...not fun. Have got lots of blisters on my hands!! Oh and this morning on the way to work I fell over twice...scraped my hands and knees...not fun. So I'm in a lot of pain! However the village people found it hilarious - typical!
Hope everythings good in England! I've heard its sunny - wow!

Sorry this post is very vague - not much time! Will write more on Friday hopefully...maybe Sat but we're hoping to go trekking then!! And I'll try put some photos on this blog page then too!
Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!
Miss you all, keep me updated! xxxxx

Namaste!

alyx — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:52:00 GMT

(Picture - All the volunteers at Patan Temple)

Namaste, tapalai kasta chaa?

This is the first proper chance I've had to go on the internet since we arrived in Nepal. I tried to update this on Wednesday when we made our first trip to Lubhu but the connection wasn't great at all - and when it finally got better and I was just finishing the entry - HELLO powercut! And we left to walk back to Sirutar in the dark (having to avoid some very drunk Nepali men in the rice fields - ha ha!)

Anyway so I'm finally in Nepal, and it still feels quite surreal! This is going to be my home for the next nine weeks!

Sooo I left Heathrow on the 6th Aug and was extremely nervous(!) but all the volunteers at the airport were lovely :) The plane journey via Delhi was better than I had anticipated, watched lots of films and chatted to a fellow volunteer, Harriet, quite a bit which was nice. On our flight from Delhi to Kathmandu we went over the Himalayas and the views were incredible. Most beautiful scenery I've ever seen in my life. I took some photos but I don't think they'll really show just how beautiful the view was (very lucky to have had a window seat!).

We finally arrived at a very rickety Kathmandu airport on the Friday afternoon, collected our luggage and went outside to find our project supervisors waiting for us. Just walking from the airport to the (unroadworthy looking) bus was a slap-in-the-face experience. There were lots of beggars and disabled people surrounding us, asking for money. There was one man who looked quite old who was pulling himself along the ground after us, Bharat (proj supervisor) later told me that the man had broken both his legs and arms and he had not been to the hospital so his legs/arms had been left to "heal" and so were bent in very "odd" positions, it was heartbreaking to see. Bharat and Bal took us to the bus where we had a welcome ceremony and had lots of photos taken.

We eventually got on the bus and were taken to the Tibet Holiday Inn where we would stay for the next four days. The journey was crazy - everything was so loud and dirty. Children were rooting through the rubbish, no-one drives properly - they drive on the pavements and beep loads at everything and anything, and cows and goats walk in the road in the capital! The coach couldn't drop us at the hotel so we had to get off the bus outside the American Embassy and walk the rest of the way, I also had a bit of shock on the walk to the hotel - me being a bit of an idiot didn't realise that we weren't allowed to film/take photos of the American Embassy so I was filming our walk (completely unaware that the US embassy was to my left anyway) and was very quickly confronted by two Nepali soldiers with guns. My camera was QUICKLY put away!

Eventually we arrived at the hotel which was very basic. We were assigned rooms and I was sharing with Frankie and Holly. At 7pm we had another welcoming ceremony on the roof which was nice (I found it so difficult to adjust to the heat, food, everything though). After the welcoming ceremony we all got our weekly allowance and our nepalese sim cards! And we were then finally allowed to our rooms to catch up on some sleep! It was so noisy all night and the city doesn't seem to sleep at all.

On Saturday we had orientation for the day and were given the project briefing for Sirutar:

- Second group

- 100km away from Kathmandu

- Poor infrastructure because of earthquake

- Building Sirutar secondary school

- 2 storey building with 12 rooms

- Will be in a homestay with Meena at Sarad K Shrestha's house

We also had talks on a brief intro to Nepal, health & sanitation and the education system in Nepal - 70% of children go to primary school.

After the talks we got taught a Nepalese song which I'll teach you all when I'm back :)!

We then went on a city walking tour which was very interesting. We went to the ex royal palace and got told that the Nepalese people no longer want a royal family as in June 2001 the King Birendra and 8 other family members were shot dead in the palace - an investigation concluded that the Crown Prince Dipendra killed his family in a drunken rage and then committed suicide. I had a long discussion with Bhagwan ('boss' of IDF Nepal) afterwards which I really enjoyed. We were all knackered after orientation/tour so had dinner and went to bed.

On the Sunday we had orientation talks from 9.30 til 5 again and on Monday we were lucky enough to visit the Monkey Temple which was amazing! I enjoyed every second of that trip, the views were amazing and the monkeys were very funny. Afterwards we went to Patan Square where we visited another temple. In Patan a 14 year old street seller kept trying to make me buy a necklace off of her, her and her friend must have followed me for a good hour or two so I eventually gave in and bought a necklace. It's crazy how persistent some Nepali people are here. We then went back to the hotel for lunch before going to a huge Nepalese supermarket!

The day after we were all very nervous as we had to say goodbye to the other volunteers going to Lamatar and travel to Sirutar to meet our new families for the next 10 weeks! As we all arrived in Sirutar we were all suprised by how big the village is! I think we all expected a few houses that were quite close together; thats what I was expecting anyway! We got our luggage off the bus and waited outside the project office until Bharat took us to meet our new family. Meena and I were taken to our house and were suprised by how big it looked! Only our didi (older sister) and niece Prakriti(we call her Princess...she's 6) were home. The older sister had to go help plant rice so we were left to look around the house. We have a two storey stone house - downstairs there is our bedroom, a shower, a squat toilet, a kitchen and two storage rooms. Upstairs there are two more bedrooms and a living room and another bathroom with a western toilet (which isn't used!! and has no door). I was shocked by how nice the house was, not to sound condescending or anything! But it really wasn't as bad as I expected it to be! Later on Ramu devi (sister) explained that herself, our host father, our nephew, Meena and I live in this house, and the rest of our family live in the 'old' house a few minutes walk away, but they all eat/"live" in this house.

At lunchtime we had to walk to the project office and the walk was our first experience of the village atmosphere - everyone wants to say hello or namaste to you, and little kids run up to you and say "hello what is your name?". I walk to work and every morning little kids scream "Hi Alyx" and I have no idea who they are. We had a village briefing and were then taken to meet everyones host families. Me and Meena (girl I'm in a homestay with) then went back to our house and watched Nepalese art attack! There was a powercut from 8 til 9.15 (which we are quickly having to get used to as powercuts are daily) and we had dinner and then our brother(dai) Basanta(hes about 30) took us onto the roof - the view was amazing. Oh and about my host family -

I have a dad (Ba), a older brother (Dai), 2 sisters (they are older than me so didi), 1 sister in law (Bhauju) and a niece and nephew but only my dad, nephew and 1 sister sleeps in the house with us, the rest leave the house at around 9.30 and go to the familys old house. The sister in law cooks all the meals but she's not allowed upstairs and no-one talks to her - gender inequality right there for you! The next day we woke up at 7.45 am, had breakfast and washed some of our clothes. We start work at 9.30am so we arrived at the project site (after getting very lost, even though the proj site is a 5 min walk from our house!) and were assigned our helmet, gloves, goggles and mask. For the next week or so we're levelling ground - there's a massive hill, its hard work!!!

On Wednesday we worked til 4, went home to freshen up and then went to an internet cafe from 5-7, but we didn't arrive til 5.30 and that day had to be the one day the internet was being COMPLETELY rubbish in Nepal! My computer finally managed to work and I was just finishing my blog when there was a powercut - I was so peed off.

When we got back to our host families (we have a curfew of 7.30pm) I met my nephew Pratik and he is SO like my brother Aston! He loves Ben 10 and colouring and is quite quiet! Although this is probably just because he's only just met us. From what I've gathered he was quite close to the volunteers who were here before us so that's prob a factor too.

Yesterday was my didi's birthday but an 18 year old boy in the village had killed himself after an argument with his dad so our family had just been to see his family and weren't up for celebrating her birthday which is COMPLETELY understandable. It was so horrible to hear of that story though, and from what my sister has told me he was related to us in some way.

It was also the festival of a Gods birthday and our family still wanted to take us to the festival which was lovely of them in the circumstances. Afterwards we had dinner which was SPICY and I even had seconds - big shock for my host family!

Today is Holly's birthday (girl in my group) so we have come to Kathmandu for the night and tomorrow to celebrate (we have Fri afternoon and whole of Saturday off)....

I think i've missed out loads - sorry/maph garnus! And i'm terrible at writing.

Any questions just comment and i'll answer them :)

Love you all and missing you soooooooooooooooooooooooo much,

xxxxxxxx

Thursday!

alyx — Tue, 4 Aug 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

So I'm off to Nepal on Thursday - aah! Quite scared, and nervous, and excited, ah!

Please keep me updated with everything going on here in England - letters/emails much appreciated :)

Alyx Pleaden, Platform2

Ideal Friendship-Nepal

Subithanagar,

Kathmandu

Post Box No. 13842

Nepal

See you all in ten weeks time!

Lots of love,

A xxxx