My Journey to Nepal: 06/20/14

Buddhist Prayer Flags

Traditionally, Buddhist prayer flags can be found in the Himalayas Mountains, along rooftops, even embedded in the flora of a country. They are hung to bless the countryside, those that are living nearby, and serve many other purposes. They traditionally come in five colors, which represent the Five Elements: sky (blue), air/wind (white), fire (red), water (green), Earth (yellow). Tibetan Buddhists believe that once all of the elements have reached a balance, good health and harmony will follow. Although many believe that the flags carry prayers, that is a common misunderstanding. In fact, there are mantras written across the prayer flags and in addition to saying the mantras, prayers are offered up for those that hang the flags for lifelong blessings. The best time to hang the flags is in the morning, preferably when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing; therefore the wind can carry compassion and good will to all within its reach. After traveling through Buddhist communities, I noticed that some prayer flags looked brand new while others were old, tattered, and faded. Just as Buddhists have accepted the journey of life through aging, so the flags are treated the same. Alongside of old, faded flags will hang new ones. The old ones are not taken down, burned, or thrown away because of the sanctity of the mantras and symbols. Each colored flag has an image or a name of the four powerful animals, better known as "Four Dignities". Perhaps you can see them on various Buddhist flags, but they are the dragon, garuda, tiger, and snowlion. How colorful and beautiful!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Perhaps too much is never a good thing!

As I need a little more time to reflect on yesterday's very cultural and amazing observations, I figured I would take a moment to say: oy vey!

So I am always open to trying new foods, new drinks, the locally fermented beverages (rashki), and never refusing a dish that is genuinely offered. In fact, I can be a human garbage disposal when it comes to food. I simply enjoy it and the effort that is put into the dish and, most of all, the company that surrounds me while eating.

However, food has not treated my sensitive stomach too well these past few days. In fact, it has felt like a curse! Imagine the pain of a cramp and then magnify that by 10, feeling your stomach bloat beyond your pants' line and then your head feeling so consumed by nausea that your entire being is so irritable. Oh yeah, and sit in a very erect chair for a 2.5 hour Nepali lesson, wondering when your next escape to the toilet will be.

Urmila, our beloved Nepali teacher, is very intense and if you lose her lesson for just one moment, it is hard to regain your footing. Lost did not describe my state of mind. She called on me so many times that even my volunteer friends felt bad for me as they knew I was feeling so miserable. In fact, one noted my face looked so pained. I was off my Nepali game and confusion set in and I could not keep up with her today. I kept chewing on mint to calm my stomach cramps, took two Pepto Bismol tablets, and skipped lunch with the exception of some lemon soda (which is supposed to help calm your stomach) and a tall glass of hot lemon water with honey. Very lethargic and feeling miserable, I bucked up, dug my heels in, and finished the day. I was up around 06:30 am and returned to the hotel by 06:15 pm. As many of the group members went to purchase phones and walk around Thamel district in Kathmandu until our dinner time of 07:00 pm, I "took care of business", if you will, laid down for a little and then registered for safety precautions with the U.S. Embassy; God forbid anything occurs while we are here, or family needs to know our whereabouts, the Embassy can swoop in and locate us for safety.

I took my first Cipro pill today as the Pepto Bismol proved ineffective. We'll see what happens. I'm a little nervous about feeling so rotten right before I move into my host family's home and being in such a troubled physical state. Trying to think of the culprit, it could be the condensed milk in the Nepali tea, the ever-present curry, cardamom, chili powder and assortment of spices that are iconic of Nepal and India. Back home in the states, I can eat a spicy meal for a couple of days and feel fine, but the constant immersion of spices and curry ever present in every meal, every side, every day, may, indeed, have proved to be too much for my high maintenance, sensitive colon.

Now is not the time to be reserved and 'private' as we are so used to back in the states about our own physical condition and the unmentionables of colon issues, diarrhea, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), or anything of the sort. The locals and our leaders, and fellow volunteers need to be aware of all conditions because if intervention or medical assistance is needed, you cannot wait until you're glued to the bathroom floor in a fetal position, crying because the pain won't stop. Be smart. Be proactive. Take care of yourself while traveling abroad.

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The Book Bus has finally arrived!!

The Book Bus came and offered many different programs such as book reading, film presentations on climate change, art workshops focusing on the environment, and students were even taken outside of the school campus to collect ground, flowers, plants and learn the importance of them as well as how to plant flowers, etc. Students had such fun with the Book Bus and what it had to offer. Teachers became curious and excited about its programs as well! I hope they continue to bring the Book Bus to Godawari!

Mehendi Henna Art

Upon returning home from my adventures with Brittney and Samantha in Kathmandu on Saturday, Didi created her own designs on my arm and hand with Mehendi. Can you see the two peacocks she has incorporated amongst the flowers? After waiting about an hour for it to dry, she dabbed it with mixed lemon juice and sugar to help the ink absorb and come out darker. When that dries, she pulled off the crusted layer of the ink and rubbed the skin down with mustard oil. If I washed my hand and arm within that time frame, it would not come out very dark and it darkens over time. Upon arriving to school, many of my girls pulled on my hand and arm to tell me how beautiful the art was and how nice it looked! A young man in my level 12 told me it looked beautiful! This is the month for Mehendi. As Mehendi Henna art is a cultural component of India, its popularity continues to grow throughout Nepal. Mehendi is a type of plant found in India, rarely spotted in Nepal, which where the dye comes from. It has a nice, herbal scent, I think, and is completely painless. It is not permanent and can last around three weeks, dependent on how much your art has been exposed to water, and soap of course! After we do our trekking week, we'll return back to our host families before departure and Didi will do a final masterpiece on both arms and hands and possibly on the tops of my feet. I'm very excited!!

Care for a Mo mo??

Mo mos are very similar to pot stickers or dumplings back in the States and other international communities, except they are healthier and, I think, they taste so much better! Rather than dipping them in some sort of soy sauce, they are accompanied by achar, which is spooned out on the side of your plate. Ama asked how many I wanted for dinner and, knowing that five would not be an acceptable number, I replied 'das!', which means 10. When I looked at my plate, Ama had given me 12 and later 4 more, so, for dinner, I had 16 mo mos. I think that is the most I've eaten in one sitting since I've been here! Oh my goodness! Another cool part about today is the fact that I've been invited into the kitchen to help prepare the meal, which exhibits a true acceptance within the family. I was very elated I could participate in this rare meal preparation. Kabita and her mother worked all day long preparing to serve mo mos. See some of the materials used, above, showing some of the ingredients and tools.

My very first Mo mo!

I can't imagine how many Heather, Kabita, Ama, and I made, but when one makes mo mos, there is no dhal bhat for the evening and no other snacks. You just gorge yourself on tasty mo mos, plain or dipped in achar sauce, which is made up of seasonings, spices, chopped garlic, chile peppers, tomatoes, etc. to give it such a flavorful taste! Perhaps Heather and I each consumed close to 30 mo mos between snack time and dinner time and then we sat around with our gorged bellies, feeling quite lethargic!

Tradition doesn't die very easily...

As I've just read about this superstitious and very traditional component of Nepalese communities, I've witnessed it first- hand with Didi, my host sister. For four days, she must avoid entering the kitchen, almost spending her four days in hibernation in her bedroom or outside, washing her dishes outside as she is seen as impure and can inflict bad luck and misfortune on those she touches or serves food. When it's time for her to eat, my Ama, her mother, will place a small bowl of plain rice on the floor and Didi would pick it up and take it to her room. Even if it was a cup of tea, it must be placed on the floor first before Didi can pick it up. This way, there is no direct contact between the 'impure' and the 'pure', taking no risk of a superstitious, bad omen to transpire on any of the family members.

As you may read in the article below, many of the rural communities send these women outside of the house to spend the next four days, which proves to be very dangerous and unhealthy for that female. However, Didi was not sent outside, but spent most of the day in her bedroom.

Even some of the WorldTeach volunteers experienced this type of ostracism during their stay with their host families and, being so culturally different, felt as if they'd done something wrong, enduring what our country teaches as a very normal bodily response for females, a sign of fertility. An extreme contrast in culture, but one that is still very much alive here in Nepal, whether in the city or in the countryside.

The culprit!!

Do see how feisty he is? He's the village menace and just arrived about 10 days ago with two of his brothers- the new gang of Toukhel, Godawari. Be careful! He plays all day long, meows when he is hungry for chicken and eggs, and may follow you a third of the way to school before returning to his turf! I have been very careful not to touch any of the jungle plants here as my knowledge of them is very limited, however I woke up on Thursday with poison ivy on my finger and I think I narrowed it down to this conniving trouble-maker! Just kidding- he's very sweet and cute and we may name him today!!

Load-Shedding.

Load shedding is something I've experienced in Lesotho, Africa, which I'm also experiencing in Nepal. However, it was much more predictable in Lesotho because load shedding occurred at nighttime and ended around 06:30 in the morning. Load shedding in Nepal is dependent on the district and the times are inconsistent throughout the day and evening. Sometimes I wonder if load shedding in Godawri corresponds with the most popular competitions of the World Cup. What is load shedding? Load shedding is the solution for a country that cannot afford or supply sufficient electricity and power to all of its country's demands at one time. So, while some districts have power, others do not and it sort of alternates and shifts the power throughout the country at different times. What also sets Nepal back in their abilities to provide power is that some of the power and electricity must be transferred to India to help them meet their needs, leaving the Nepalese with less to work with. I adjust pretty quickly to power outages, but wonder how many 1st world citizens could cope, being so dependent on technology, the Internet, power, light, etc. So, to cope, Nepal arranges their schedules around the power. What they do when it's in their homes and what they can do when it's out. There is no frantic outcry of "what shall we do!!!!", but rather they conduct their lives as if it never existed before and have no need for it.

Do you have 15-25 Rupees? Care to cram?

So the micro-bus is quite common, crowded, and can be the site of pick-pockets in Nepal. Not only do you hear their obnoxious horns telling you to get off the road, but they can be quite dangerous even if you think you're far enough away! Didi told us last night that if a micro-bus hits a pedestrian and only injures them, they may just back up and run the person over to kill them for one reason only. It's not that they have a vengeance against the pedestrians; they don't exhibit road rage; it simply comes down to money. You see, if the driver hit someone and only injured them, they would have a very unaffordable price to pay to cover therapy, rehab, surgery, hospital costs, etc. Whereas if they killed the person in the accident, there is one set price to pay for the loss of that person's life. Last Thursday, when we traveled to Dhulikhel, our bus had to pull over because the road was closed off and the drivers went on strike. A truck struck a motorbike and killed the man. After the man is sent to the hospital, and he is identified, if he was killed in his own village, the community and family protest (sometimes for days) to bargain an adequate amount to compensate for the death of that individual and the roads remain closed until the price is settled. The truck driver is always considered guilty no matter the scenario and is arrested and imprisoned. It could be for 10 years, but many are released much earlier, sometimes as soon as 2 days. If the person who lost their life was not killed in the village to which they belonged, the roads will open shortly after and the protests rarely occur. On Friday, I will need to figure out the bus system to get into Kathmandu for our weekly meeting, which is about an hour away from me. My Dai has been helpful already and may bring me home from Kathmandu when he closes his shop. I am completely enamored by my host family's kindness and they really exhibit a love and concern for our well-being.

Our first departure and my first cup of Nepali tea!

So the WorldTeach volunteers and Ganga-ji have, essentially, become one big family, all excited (and nervous) about our roles to serve here in Nepal. Today, after many long, intense sessions and always on the go, it was time to say goodbye and new our new host families! We are the families' new daughters, and son, respectively known as Chhori and Chhoro. For a moment, I felt homesick from my family away from my family and I missed them before they even left. Once host families picked them up at the hotel, it was official and there was a void in my heart. However, that void continues to be replaced and filled by the genuine spirit of Ganga-ji's home, family, and the sincere welcoming of my host family. The view from where I am staying is a paradise and such a serene utopia that I have to question whether this is real or whether I am dreaming...again! Upon arriving, my host Didi (elder sister) and Ama (elder mother) have welcomed me with a signature cup of tea after showing me my room and allowing me time to settle down. I've heard that another American is staying here, Heather, who works with a children's place nearby. This is her second summer staying here with this host family, so I have much to learn and always be thankful for. Today is the first day of monsoon season and, so, from my room, I see lush green trees, bushes, plants, and all I can hear is the pitter-patter, dripping of the rain, hearing it softly falling in the distance with birds elated at the coming of the rain and singing their finest songs. I feel so welcomed here and I look forward to the beginning of my next journey in the schools!

U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu.

This protocol went much smoother than when I went to the U.S. Embassy in Lesotho, Africa. After having a meeting already scheduled with Ambassador Sara Bolton, two of us gave our passports,a long with our Nepali leader's Nepali passport for the first checkpoint of security. Following, two at a time, the guards wiped a security sheet that detects foreign powders and then we had to claim anything electronic that could be disturbed by the scanners. We were then exposed to the wand, front and back, and when that was clear, we could enter the next checkpoint in the main entrance where we had to pull out flash drives and put everything in a container and send it through the scanner. Then we stepped through another security point and we were allowed to take our notebook and pen and had to leave our bags behind with a token that would claim our bag upon our departure. From there, we were allowed to exit the main entrance into the beautiful gardens within the Embassy gates, ask guards where we could find the Library and continue asking guards until we were at the door of the library where you had to be checked in by another guard. Upon arriving in the Library, there were many young Nepali men studying SATs, studying for other exams that is administered through the Fulbright program that has a deep network within Nepal.

Lalitpur District, Nepal

Update on Mt. Everest

You may have heard about the tragic events that have occurred on Mt. Everest on April 18th, 2014. This has led to mourning the deaths of fallen Sherpas, cancelled climbs to summit this topographical giant, concerns for the upcoming climbing season as more than 400 Sherpas have banded together and quit, and rising challenges to government compensation allocated to the Sherpas' families, which pales in no comparison to the multi-million dollar industry. Take a closer look. Tell me; where do you stand on this issue in Nepal?