Chetana Kendra training institute

Thanksgiving party....

Two of my Nepali teachers -Udaya and Krishna.

My neighbors....

More of my neighbors.

We wash our laundry outside.

A) Helen and Lorraine playing ping pong.
B) View from my back window. Note the vegetables drying on the rooftop.

The road to our insitute.

Tonight I’m sitting here in a very cold room that is warmly decorated with Tibetan prayer flags, some balloons left over from the Thanksgiving party, and some early Christmas decorations that someone found in Kathmandu. I am sharing this room with four others in my groups, and despite all of our worries that it might be hard to live together in such a small place, so far, we’re doing quite well.
There is no internet here, but I figure I can write out this post and then figure out a way to get it to the computer somehow when I have time. I swing between feeling reaaaaly frustrated about communication outside of my immediate surroundings being so incredibly difficult and so grateful that finally my life is not spent on a cell phone or a computer these days. After so many years of incredibly difficult and stressful work (albeit wonderful work that I loved very much and was passionate about and also often enjoyed), I feel kind of like I’m taking a vacation. I have time to do yoga in the morning before I go to class. We get lots of tea breaks (hmm….can someone ever drink too much tea?), and end the day early enough to have time to socialize a bit and for our homework not to feel too rushed. Walking into town where there is internet ends up meaning there’s not much time to do anything else that evening, but when I do make it in, I am always so grateful to feel connected to home – even if I only have time to read emails.

My dreams are strong here. I know it is partly the newness of everything. But I also believe they are vibrant, because I have time to think, process, and unwind before I sleep.

Today I got moved to a language class that is moving quicker. It's challenging, but as someone who will be living in a town outside of Kathmandu – my language ability will be quite crucial to enjoying daily living and to being effective in my work. It’s good to be in a quicker class, but with that comes tons more vocab to study every day, much more homework, and more pressure to have coherent conversations with people in class. We are all pretty funny as we clumsily put together very simple sentences. But it is really satisfying once I figure out how to say something.

We are kept good company here by a cow that sometimes has quite a lot to say in the middle of the night, chickens that don’t seem to belong to anyone (but of course they do), and sheep that lay lazily n the sun right on the side of our path into town in the afternoons. They are so comfortable they don’t bother to move as we wander by. And dogs everywhere. Most of them incredibly skinny. The other morning I walked to town very early to make Thanksgiving phone calls. There was a group of 7 dogs huddled together in the middle of a large field, simple 2 story houses at the skyline far in the distance. They seemed to be masters of the land, surveying their domain, meeting to decide who would take which territory for the day….At least for a few more moments until children started to go to school, and the fields were plowed.

We had a presentation by VSO staff last Friday. 10 years ago 95% of Nepali were farmers. Today around 85% are involved in farming. People are moving to the cities and abroad when they can these days (sometimes successfully and sometimes not successfully at all). 85% Is still quite a huge percentage of the population, however.

There are many demonstrations these days. Our Nepali language and culture teacher, Udaya, gave us updates last Friday on demonstrations that are planned already in December. December 1st: student/educational system strike. December 4th: Dalit Bandhaa (srike). December 10th: national assembly general strike. December 21st and 22nd: general strikes (Maoist). This means most of Kathmandu will shut down – and definitely we will be unable to travel anywhere those days. In addition, there are strikes in other regional areas. Our schedule is constantly changing based on the strikes. It is interesting to be in a country that is undergoing such a huge and crucial amount of change. I wonder what Nepal will look like in two years – at least politically speaking.

There seems to be plenty of calm amidst the upheaval, however, for daily life still goes on. The water must be brought in. The fields must be sewn. And people open up their shops in the morning at daylight, closing them when the sun goes down.

Tomorrow I’m back to language classes all day. Luckily, with plenty of tea breaks.