(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,
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