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.