INTO THE MYSTIC

Where has the time gone? I have been away for a month now and have settled well into life without all the worries of home. Since moving to Thimi I have done lots, but most have my time has either been at the school or hanging around home with neighbors. I am living in a nice quiet part of town (in fact, Thimi is all quiet) called Sanothimi (sano means small).  I have my own decent sized room in a shared three story building. I have got a room on the top floor with a beautiful, however teasing, view of the Himalayas, when it is clear, that is. When it is clear two spectacular ranges are visible from all across Bhaktapur (Thimi, and Bode [where my school is] are all within Bhaktapur district, however when I write Bhaktapur I mean the city centre, which is about 20 minutes by motorbike). Downstairs live the principal (Rudra) of the school I am volunteering at and his wife (Bishnu) and 8 year-old brother (Sushil), with whom I eat and spend lots of time. I don't know how much I have already written on the culture here but I will try and write some here. We take our meals sitting on the floor and eat with our hands, or more precisely right hand because the left hand is used for cleaning your arse. I still have not switched over from TP thought I have had to make other adjustments. My bathroom, which is shared with the five others who live on my floor, consists of a squat toilet, (as pictured on flickr) a bucket, and a shower which delivers painfully cold water. If anyone wants to give me a welcome home gift please consider a squat toilet. Despite all the negative hype, I have been loving the food here, which 95% of the time is daal bhaat for breakfast and dinner. Daal means lentil soup and bhaat means rice. This usually comes with tarakari, vegetable curry, and/or saag, spinach or similar greens. Daal and tarakari come is a few delicious varieties but the ingredients are mostly the same. There are a lot of other foods eaten on special occasions or for snacks but the most common food after daal bhaat is momos, which are dumplings of vegetables, chicken, pork, or buff (water buffalo). No beef, of course, because cows are holy to Hindus. Many cows and other types of animals (dogs, buffalo, monkeys, chickens, goats) are to be seen walking or grazing, even in the city. The food always comes in great portions and even after saying pugyo (enough) several times you usually get another spoonful. My home is surrounded by fields and there are a few traditional style homes right next door, where they have cows, buffalo, and chickens. These homes are build of clay bricks and shingles, and the walls or fences are covered with drying dung, which is used as fuel for cooking. I awake each day to the sound of roosters, as opposed to Kathmandu where I fell asleep to the sound of dogs barking. My building is on a point at the top of a small hill and the view at sunset is perty. I have spent a couple hours running up and down to hill to get my knees in shape for trekking. The last two days me and Rudra have been teaching Bishnu how to ride a bike. There has been clouds and dust blocking the Himal, but almost every day is a clear blue sky and there have been many t shirt days.
My 2nd last day in Dhapasi was a lot of fun. We hiked up a small peak (2700m is a large bump by Nepali standards) called Jamacho in an area called Nagarjun for some fine views of the Himalayas and a picnic lunch surrounded by Buddhist pilgrims (it was the Tibetan new year called Lhosar). After we spent some time in the most urbanized and tourist area of Kathmandu, Thamel, which I am not particularly fond of, though I met some interesting Nepalis there that day. That night we went to Rajesh's house and learned to make momos, which is one of the funnest foods to prepare, and had a few drinks and then were force-fed far too many momos (around 35). I think I wrote about this day before but anyways, the next day I got myself some custom Nepali traditional clothes (too much effort to explain) with the help of a great Nepali who took me to his house for tea after.
The next morning I left for Thimi, riding on the back of Rudra's motorbike with my 18 kg pack on. I made my first visit to the school and got to meet some of the staff. Some very nice people, though I will say that could learn a few things about teaching. They often hit the kids and most of the teaching involves straight translation from English to Nepali, or copying from textbooks. My school is supposed to be an English-medium school for all courses besides Nepali language but it is far from it, with a lot of kids coming in from Nepali-medium government schools. At times it is hard to co-teach with such teachers (the only classes I have to myself are when teachers don't show up or my grade one math class) but I don't want to step on any toes so I try to To continue on the negative rant, I was welcomed into my building by the 17 year old Kailash across the hall, who within the first 15 minutes of conversation revealed he hates Jews and admires Hitler. This was before he knew my family was Jewish however, and shortly after we talked about it he conceded he didn't know very much about the subject and that he is cool with Jews and his ideas were founded on what he knew about Palestine. Since I have found him to be extremely racist in general, but also a smart kid who is looking for an identity (he's adopted). One of the creepieer characters I have ever met, though.
Besides all that, the school is wacky and the kids have to do calisthenics during assembly and say good morning sir obsessively. The classrooms are about the size of my bedroom and we have very limited supplies. Strangely every kid has a fountain pen. Most of the kids are realllllly slow, even when dealing with the Nepali teachers, but I'm learning how to work with them better everyday and have had plenty of successful classes.
If I keep going on like this I will probably write another thousand words so I will try and cut it short. My second day here was a festival for the god Saraswuti, the goddess of knowledge. Everyone at the school  gave puja (worship) and young children were brought to write their first words, which is supposed to make them grow into scholars. After we went to a neighbors for their sons Brata Bunda ceremony, which can be summed up as the Hindi equivalent of a Bar Mitzvah. The boy, between the ages of 7 and 15 usually, has his head shaved and then receives a bunch of gifts and money, along with some blessings, of course. This is a pre-marraige rite.
I've had many great and eye opening experiences and some less fun ones but to list off some stuff: talks over tea, games of backgammon and cards (usually by flashlight), invigilating exams for 5 days (it was exams when I arrived), an academic forum, trips to Bhaktapur with Rudra and with a neighbor, Givan, a trip to a 3rd century hill-top temple, Changu Narayan, with a teacher, Suman, a feast with my Newari neighbors, some very fun classes, some satisfying classes, some difficult classes, and some frustrating classes, a one night stay at my old home in Dhapasi to get an old bike of Rajesh's repaired and the bike back to Thimi, private English classes for some of my neighbors, walks and bikes through the hills and fields, eating maple syrup with every food possible, playing ping-pong on a public concrete table, teaching kids the moose song and camp games, visits to countless temples. In two weeks I'm planning to go to a place called "the Last Resort" with Rebecca and Helen to do the bungee and go canyoning. I am also planning to do a week of trekking in the Himal but have got to wait for the fuel crisis to get sorted out first. I don't know how much anyone has read or has access to about current affairs in Nepal but there are general strikes (no vehicles allowed, stores closed, curfews) being called in many of the conflict areas in southern Nepal (the Tarai) and a fuel shortage across the country, which began about 2 weeks ago in the Kathmandu Valley and has only been worsening as the government fails to take action. The fuel transporters refuse to operate due to the risk of attack and the lack of protection from the state. The Congress Assembly election is currently scheduled for April 10th. It has been postponed twice already. However the general consensus is (or was before the fuel crisis and the strikes in the Tarai) that the election would take place. The CA, when formed, will rewrite the constitution, which many believe will include the change of Nepal into a republic. Different groups (particularly the Madhesis) are making demands for autonomy prior to the election and crippling the country by preventing fuel transport til demands are met. So far I have not felt the effect of much of this, however I will be unable to visit my friends from the program three hours away because there are no buses running there and even if I could find one a return bus is highly uncertain. Our school may have to close if we do not get more fuel for the school bus soon but right now we are OK because most students do not rely on public bus. I have read today that the school Rebecca is at has closed. I am not particularly worried, as CDN has managed to run for the last 10 years throughout much worse times (the Maoist insurgency) but the future is definitely not certain.
Sorry for the lack of messages or phone calls, the cyber cafe in Sanothimi is terrible and there is nowhere to call Canada from, but I just found an amazing cyber in nearby Bode and will try and get over here when I can. I have written most of this message on Rudra's home computer on Feb 20th and then taken it to the cyber to post. This works well, the only problem is his computer stopped working last night so it may be some time before you get another one of these. I will work on some pictures though my camera has got some weird problem that puts dark spots on the pictures even when the lens is clean. (Marlee I did nothing I swear)
Family and friends I love you all and appreciate all your comments and messages. I'd like to make some phone calls, though there is an 11 hour time difference, so let me know if you are cool with calls at 5 in the morning.