I’m sitting here on my low to the ground bed, candle ablaze beside me and a view of Swayambunath outside my window, held suspended in amber light against the dark backdrop of the night sky. It almost looks like it’s levitating outside my window…
With this as my vantage point whilst laying in bed, I decided a week ago to start sleeping with my blinds open & so I fall asleep to this view each night (subject to load shedding) and then I wake up to the temple’s white-washed facade in daylight.
I feel very lucky to have this view from my bedroom window, in fact I feel pretty lucky full stop! Although it can be tiring here at times & work is very full on, I don’t regret having come back for a second and am loving every minute of it.
So the last week has been jammed packed – I must try to update this blog a little more regularily, as so much happens in even a few days, it’s hard to report on everything! Unfortunately load shedding determines the extent of my internet usage however, as we are now up to 6 hours a day, with different areas of the city affected at different times, so I am often at work with no electricity & then by the time I walk home it’s our neighborhood’s turn!
I can confirm that the doctor saga as reported in last entry still continues…during our second round of health checks we were preparing to leave the office in the jeep with ‘The Doc’ to follow on his bike. Of course I took a little too long upstairs & as I just made it to ground floor I see the jeep taking off. I motioned to Marnie & Andrew (couple from Melbourne who are the health check Vollies) to wait, but MB (the driver) stood on the gas as I’m running after them trying to get them to stop…The Doc appears beside me on his ‘gallant steed’ (motorbike) telling me to climb on back *initiate 80’s porn music here*. So I reluctantly climb aboard, making certain to grab a hold of the back of the bike this time as we take off from the office!
Luckily Marnie had managed to get MB to pull over around the corner & I wasted no time in jumping off the back of the bike & hauling butt into the jeep! Through a big cheeky smile and in his broken English MB says ‘I thought you going on bike?’
Marnie later confirmed that MB & The Doc had been conversing in Nepali shortly before I arrived downstairs & just before MB put pedal to the metal…hhmmm, I smell a rat…a big Nepali one who drives a motorbike in fact!
In all fairness he’s actually a very nice man who genuinely cares for the children & I’d say he’d be quite a catch, but alas I’m not interested in serving dal bhaat for the rest of my life!
So it was kind of lucky that I didn’t end up on the back of the bike because due to a Maoist rally in Ratna Park that day, the city was not uncommonly, grid locked. The next three hours were spent sitting in the jeep attempting to maneuver our way around the city in time to get to the two homes we had health checks on in that day.
Several hours of exhaust fume inhalation and a massive head ache later, we finally arrived at Unity to do the Vollie visit (The Doc & Andy having gone ahead on the bike in order to complete the two health checks). So I met with Monty who is from the UK and Belinda who is from my neck of the woods in North Fitzroy (Melbourne).
After the home visit I then popped into Belinda’s host family, which was across the road) and left with a tummy full of roti and takari (vegetables) and a tikha on my forehead. Her family was so excited to have Belinda’s saarti (friend) visiting they would have kept feeding us if we hadn’t have said ‘peugyio’ (enough) before heading back to Thamel.
Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn (6.30am) to meet Marnie & Andrew in Chakrapath (north of the city & opposite side to where I’m living) in order to get to Shining Stars for their health check. We stopped for a quick chiya (tea) and discovered Nepal’s answer to potato cakes – sliced potato dipped in a curry batter & deep fried. Not the healthiest of breakfasts I know, but they were delicious (I ignored the man standing dangerously close to the vat of batter with his burnt cigarette threatening to drop ash into it)!
In at Shining Stars The Doc, Marnie & Andrew completed health checks on the 28 kids in residence, whilst I sat cuddling a little 3 year old girl named Mina who seems to have taken a shine to me and me to her. I have visited that home three times now & the minute she sees me she comes running up & latches onto me like a little Koala and doesn’t let me put her down until it’s time for me to leave. She’s adorable and I find myself growing more and more attached to her with every visit.
Sunday, after doing a bit more work in the office I managed to grab some free time & headed to the Indigo Gallery with Cindy (housemate) and Jenny (a Physio from Yackandanda who is staying with us for a few days until she heads home….Shelly I’m sending some pressies for you to distribute for me!). Anyway we grabbed a bite to eat at ‘Mike’s Breakfast’…I’m not sure who ‘Mike’ is, possibly he was the man with the big fringed, orange toupee on top of dark brown hair (noice) who was serving coffee, but I can’t be sure!
We then reflected on the photographic images taken by Achinto Bhadra in the ‘Another Me – Transformations From Pain to Power’ exhibit in the gallery upstairs. The girls and women depicted in these photographs had been in the care of Sanlaap, a NGO in India which assists females as young as eight and up to twenty-five, who are survivors of sex trafficking, rape or abandonment, or are the children of sex workers.
The girls and women were assisted with a counselor to narrate their personal histories and identify an imaginary being into which they most wanted to transform in to. I found it interesting the different perspectives given and how on one hand one was quite vengeful, wanting to ‘hunt down & kill those who have hurt’ her as Ma Mansha The Snake Goddess yet another was wanting ‘to give the shelter of a flowering tree to any girl who needs it’…it made me wonder how I would feel if I had come from the same experience…
- Next day continuation…(I got tired and had to go to sleep!)
So yesterday we had planned to revisit Brighter Futures in Bistachap, however due to a ‘bandh’ (strike) all transport was halted so I spent the day in the office clearing out the messy store room and attempting to ignore the rat droppings all over the place (flash backs to my last rat experience in my room in Bistachap). Monty & Belinda dropped in and I ended up going to New Orleans for lunch with them. I actually had better run because I’m meeting B for breaky again this morning!
I hope this finds you well & thanks to everyone for your updates on the blog. I love getting messages & hearing your news so please keep it up!
All my love, Eve xxxx
