A Weekly Routine

Walking

View of the Mountains

               

 

          The first week always seems to stretch longer than the rest, maybe because it is full of so many new sights and tastes. Our Fulbright orientation here has proved to be quite thorough, even in just the first week. After a long, and often beautiful walk through Kathmandu streets to the Fulbright office each morning, we grab some tea and coffee to help us prepare for the day's activities: hours of Nepali language training, teacher training, introduction to the Nepali education system, current issues in Nepal, safety briefings at the Embassy, health briefings at the clinic, and discussions of history, culture, and gender issues. The past week has been a wealth of information and has greatly increased my ability to recite "Mero naam Lisa ho" (My name is Lisa) and other phrases with ease. Becoming as fluent as possible in Nepali is one of my dearest goals for this journey. The Nepali people seem to love it as well when we attempt our mangled version of "Ma ali ali Nepali sikchu" (I am learning a little Nepali).

        One of the best parts of our day is when the smells of delicious and authentic Nepali cooking seep in from the kitchen next to our conference room. As part of our grant, we are provided with delicious Nepali food everyday between sessions. Though we have found some good restaurants around where we live, nothing beats the food we get at the office: mixes of vegetables, seasoned okra and potato dishes, lentil soup over jasmine rice, and yogurt sauce to be blended with the spicy dishes. "Dherai Mitho Chaa" (It is very delicious) is understandably one of our most used Nepali phrases.

The Fulbright Office

Our Nepali Lunch

         The week has been full of other little joys: Meeting inspirational Teach for Nepal fellows, Kurta shopping at local, hole-in-the-wall shops, doing laundry on our porch in the coolness of the morning air, and watching kittens play in our garden below.

           We have become incredibly more comfortable stepping into traffic to cross the street, making the okay signal instead of the thumbs up signal (which is for a more inappropriate use here in Nepal), and forming our words into Nepali words and phrases. Even only a week later, Kathmandu is feeling more like home. Some things still catch me off guard of course: the monkeys that walk across the power lines, the power lines themselves, which are almost a bigger mess than the Nepal traffic scene. We also had a bird sized moth make its way into our apartment and terrorize Emily and I at night. Despite the fact that I knew not to be afraid of a moth, the loud flapping of its huge wings were enough to send me hiding under my covers in the dark. Luckily Alanna heard our screams and laughter and came to the rescue.
           Finally, the side to side head bobble that is a signal for "yes" in Nepali culture is something I'm not sure I will ever get used to. I still laugh when I see it. I know there are new habits you form when you cross cultural bounds, but I'm not sure turning a nod into a head bob is ever something I'll be able to do without laughing and thinking about it heavily beforehand. It's quite funny that something so simple can be so ingrained in our daily motion. For now, I'm sure I'll continue to instinctively nod "yes" despite the fact that a nod in Nepal can actually mean "no." Oh me oh my.

        The best of news is that we will be visiting Gorka, one of the villages in the countryside, next week. Three of us will be located there in three different schools. We are all very excited to be free of the city air, the honks, and the concrete blocks. This will all be left behind as we take the bumpy, dirt roads into the mountains. Until then, Namaste.

An Exuberant Weekend

            Despite not yet knowing the language and having limited knowledge of the city, this first weekend in Kathmandu was ours to explore and experience. And quite a weekend it has been. The six of us have enjoyed long breakfasts and lunches together in both beautiful and slightly questionable restaurants. Our first day we weaved through the streets west of our apartment and found the main shopping center for essentials like towels and laundry soap. The day ended with the wonderful experience of shopping for our first Kurtas. The ladies in the shop were so kind and helpful, and the shelves were lined with beautiful beautiful fabrics. To find your Kurta outfit, we each stepped up to this cushioned platform and pulled out fabrics we liked. The ladies would drape it and the sawl (scarf) around you so you could see how the colors looked. The experience was one of a kind, and so fun to do together. We all came away with beautiful outfits that will be sewed and ready for us next week.

(The outcome - one week later)

             Sunday was a bit more chaotic as we tackled the "dreamland" of Thamel, a touristy shopping area where everything you need was supposedly available. Though the streets were beautiful and the shops were extensive, the chance of getting hit by a motorcycle also greatly increased, as did the number of people in such a small area. The day was colored by a fun visit to a Henna shop, in which a very beautiful mother walked us up through a dark staircase to a crowded store room where, after pushed against some boxes to make a tiny bit of room, we all sat down to have our arms decorated with the dark paste.

       
           It felt cozy and authentic and we attempted to practice our Nepali with the lady until at the very end of the hour when we learned that she actually spoke Hindi, not Nepali. The Henna decorating allowed us to sit out some of the rain and enjoy an experience together, while the craziness of Thamel thrived below. Caitlin and I barely managed to stay functional for a late Nepali dinner, but luckily, the long evening allowed me to finally sleep the whole night through, until 4:30 at least. Close enough. Today we start our first day of orientation.

Traffic and Other Things to See

         When I first arrived in Cuzco, Peru, I made it a goal to survive my few months there without getting hit by a car in the narrow streets. More of a wish I suppose. The fast moving cars always flew by extremely close to the sidewalk and often had no perception of pedestrians. I was glad to see my wish came true and thanked the Incan gods that I made it out of Peru alive.
           I'm not sure there is a god powerful enough to pray to for the traffic here. I couldn't have imagined this a year ago, but the traffic is easily ten times worse here in Nepal. Thank goodness we are never asked to drive. Motorcycles and buses follow no rules and they all assume they have the right away. Slow for a second and ten vehicles will quickly swerve around you. The best way to pull out of a drive way is to just go, and slowly plug yourself into the intense oncoming traffic, keeping your fingers crossed that the motorcycles and taxis barreling down the road might slow for your entrance. Learning to drive here must be the most terrifying thing in the world.
         There are very few sidewalks, so we often walk along the side of the road, tensing each time we hear honking from behind and praying that when the five vehicles all come to face off in the narrow road without lines that we don't become the one that is kicked off the road. I've seen two taxis slowly creep just inches past each other on one-lane back roads. Despite the need for defensive driving, every time I get in a taxi, they manage to dodge through other vehicles in the street at the high speeds of a clear wide open US freeway.

         On our first day, despite the culture shock, all I could do was smile as we navigated through the chaotic streets toward our destination. This place is beautiful, in its own way. Culture thrives around us, stores are open are with families sitting in front of them as in Thailand. Trash lines the streets and alleyways, but so does thriving green grasses and trees. The smells of trash and sewer often dissipate into the lovely scents of burning incense outside a shop or in the door of a taxi. The view from our apartment is of gorgeous brick buildings of different colors and small balconies lined with clothing out to dry.

           We met our advisers at Fulbright again today and they were just as wonderful as they had been at our Fulbright Orientation in D.C. The Fulbright office has a great library free for our use and the people who work there were so helpful, taking us to get phones and making copies of all our documents. I have found that I can call the United States from Nepal for just 2 cents a minute, and did so last night, waking up my parents at 3 am their time to let them know I had arrived. I don't think they were too upset.

        After a short lunch we were taken to our apartment, pictured above, which is small but nice. It feels so strange to be at the beginning of this journey, not knowing the city, the culture, or the language, but my hope is that someday I will know it like the back of my hand. Young Nepali neighbors have already greeted us with smiles, asking our names and where we are going. The people are kind here, and none of us can wait to meet our families and schools.

Airplanes and Airport Floors

  Touching down on Nepali soil, I couldn't help but smile. Our travels, though extremely long, had been rather seamless. Despite the fact that security was long and my bag had to be searched, likely as a result of all of the flashlights and random things in it, I made it through to my gate in plenty of time and met Elsie there for our first flight. Nine hours later, Elsie and I slept on our backpacks a bit in the Frankfurt airport and finally met up with Emily, another Fulbright ETA. The flight to New Dehli was seven hours long, but luckily I've been gifted the ability to sleep almost anywhere, including the cramped seats of an airplane. Even getting through the New Dehli airport was easy, perhaps because it was the middle of the night and no one else was coming through. They rechecked our baggage for us without questions and it was here that I found out I had made it through US security with scissors in my bag. India was quick to inform me that these were not allowed on an airplane. I suppose US security isn't always as thorough as we assume. Finally, here in Dehli, we met all of the other ETAs. You should have seen us all asleep together on the floor of the Dehli airport. But it was nice and quiet and fairly clean I suppose. And who cares, this appears to be the proper way of traveling at 22 years old. 

          And then we were on the plane, soon breaking through the clouds above the city of Kathmandu. It finally felt real. We were finally here. I was in love with Nepal already.

How It All Starts

  Welcome to my blog as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Nepal for 2014-2015. The title of this blog is "Kaahaa Maan Chaa" or "Where the Heart Is." I settled on the name after a short week of Nepali classes, knowing that after these next 8 months, my heart will always have a place in this mountainous country with the Nepali people. I am grateful to have the opportunity to share my experiences in Nepal here with my family and friends (and maybe students in a certain fifth grade class - all of whom I am very excited to personally meet).

          Though I got an incredible sense of wonder and excitement as we broke through the clouds layered above the Kathmandu valley and saw the colorful city rooftops below, my journey to and in Nepal has really been long in the process. It started with an encouragement by one of my favorite professors, during a short office hours meeting, to pursue English teaching through Fulbright. It started with friends and family that supported my decision and told me, despite the competitive process, that they "never doubted me for a minute." It started with lots of waiting, and then finally an email that led to some tears and the high pitched exclamation: "I'm going to Nepal!"  It started with the feelings that my wildest dreams were actually coming true. 

               And this journey has also begun with a fabulous ending to what my life was before: enjoying the last few months with my college friends, graduation from CLU knowing I have found my purpose and discovered my passions, and a wonderful two months at home curled up with my cats, eating fresh greens out of our garden, and spending time with family and friends. I am still savoring the joys of what I have left behind and I am keeping my memories of home in my heart for the difficult moments I will find in Nepal. 

This is how it all starts. This is how my journey begins.