I don’t have any good excuse for my failing to maintain regular blog updates!! I’ve just been busy & then lazy by the time I get home. Also, you know when you leave something so long that it turns into this big deal & a bit of a monkey on your back…so tonight I shoo the monkey off!
Also I guess I have settled into live in Kathmandu now & what seemed like a life less ordinary in the beginning has now become the norm…
So typically my day begins at 6.30am. I wake up (of late with mozzie bites from top to toe!) and ease into the day with a few tunes from my ipod…Shirley tends to feature quite prominently in these little sessions – ah ‘Big Spender’…always puts me in a good mood!
I then make my way to the kitchen to fix myself an omelette or eggs of some variety, making sure to stop via the bathroom to switch the hot water on – very important!
At around 9.30am I make my way down the four flights of stairs and out the gate, where my day really begins. I come out onto the road near the ‘Shree Bijesowri Secondary School’, to manoeuvre past the noisy school kids. If I’m not expected to respond to any exclamations of ‘Namaste’ from the children, I continue on down the road between the chiya pasals and Buddhist prayer beads shops heading towards the steps of the temple.
Before the decline, I might be lucky enough to receive a confession of love from the little 10 year old boy who has taken a shine to me. I’d ordinarily respond with ‘I love you too’ before proceeding down the steps leading to the main road into town…I think his feelings for me have grown over time, as of late he has been saying ‘I love you so much’, as opposed to just simply ‘I love you’. Ah cute!
Once below, I then cross the Bungmati River, taking special note to suck in as much air as possible before crossing & trying hard to hold my breath until I’m on the other side in safe distance from the stench of the sewage & garbage which has been left to flow into the waterway.
I then continue on up the road, passing the children having their morning karate session and people preparing their morning vegetable stalls with produce yet unwiltered from the muggy heat. I pass the gentle old man selling his bamboo wares, whom I bought my 150 rupee bargain laundry basket from. He’s usually falling asleep on his belly, but on the odd occasion he’s not we exchange a familiar wave.
Eventually I make it to Chetrapati Chowk, an intersection of six separate roads all melting into a mess of rickshaws, taxis, bicycles, pedestrians & car horns. If I am not held up in a traffic jam (yes, even though I’m on foot!) I reach the entrance to Thamel to make the final leg of my journey.
Each time I pass this point I am reminded of a game I played one day on the way into town with Jenny…when we reached this point she said lets see how long it takes before we’re asked if we want 1. A rickshaw, 2. Tiger balm and 3. A pashmina. No sooner had she finished her sentence did a rickshaw sail by us with the driver asking if we wanted a ride, we were then met by a man coming the opposite way, selling his Tiger balm, enquiring as to our need for it & then we were abruptly ‘finished off’ by a pashmina selling shop owner! Too funny! We were both in hysterics by that stage!
Once in at the office, unless heading out to one of the homes, I tend not to leave it until about 6.00pm, when it’s time to repeat the reverse journey home.
Any additional field trips have been a welcome relief, such as the night Cin, her man Jeff, Sujan (12 y.o boy who lives in the apartment below us) & I headed up to Swayambu to engage in the ‘Kora’ around the base. It was a beautiful balmy evening with hundreds of Tibetans out improving their karma by completing the suggested 13 laps of the temple which takes about 30 minutes each.
Sujan & I partnered up and found ourselves giggling at each other when we nearly stood on one of the monks who had dropped to the ground directly in our path to complete his prostration (apparently you can elect to ‘prostrate’ your way around the base once instead of walking it 13 times). Oops, that would be definite bad karma if I had stood on the monk! Yeeks!
So we completed one lap & elected to head home as it was way past our bed time (10.30pm!). The rest of the people we left there doing the kora until 7am, including Kali (our new Health Coordinator), so we found out the next day. She eventually confessed it wasn’t so much her desire to improve her karma, but rather to kill time as she had been locked out of her hotel!
The 5th of June, being World Environment Day was also a notable occasion. We organised a tree planting activity out in Bistachhap which all VSN staff, current & new Volunteers, the BFCH children and many people from the local community got involved. We planted 140 trees around the perimeter of the soccer field after a rather official ceremony where my baa (council elder) and Emma (director of VSN) planted a tree each together, once Devendra had delivered a speech.
I then spent the next 30 minutes planting trees on a 60 degree slope! The first five minutes of which had me holding onto Little Bishnu (an 8 y.o girl from BFCH) who was threatening to tumble down the slope on top of the recently planted trees below – not a good look!
So now with Kali coming on board as the Health Coordinator, I’m happy to be taking my first official break since arriving, as up until two weeks ago I was the temporary Health Coordinator as well as the Vollie Coordinator. I’m really excited & looking forward to having Jacs & Brett (two friends from home) arrive this Friday before heading overland via jeep to Tibet for 8 days…with any luck, the anti-altitude Homeopathic I have will work its magic as we make our way across the highest plateau of the world. Yeehaa!
I will report back on the trip in my next blog update…reluctant to promise when that will be!!
Much love to all, Eve xxxx
