Namaste

Namaste...

So that last picture of the girl and the cow is quite a common site here in my little suburb of Kathmandu. Where I am staying is called Pepsicola...how convenient...because there is a Pepsi bottling factory down the street. We went shopping yesterday afternoon on the public buses and to get home we just had to yell pepsicola-pepsicola to see if the bus was heading our way!!!

But that is jumpin' ahead. My flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu was quite uneventful. I was privileged to watch Happy Feet and it provided sufficient entertainment for the 3 hour flight. We touched down and that is when the fun began. I had forgotten to take pictures with me for my visa, so I had to use airport Polaroid. But of course the camera guy only takes Rupes, so I had to change some money. I packed most of my US dollars in my checked bag, so I just figured I would exchange all I had. Big mistake! When I got to the front of the visa line I was informed that they only take foreign currency to pay for the visa. He told me I would have to change what I had back into US dollars. But no way did I want to pay the commission two more times on the same $40. In the end he let me go get my cash from my bag while he held my passport. And it all worked out in the end! But I may suggest to bring more cash with you and not to change all of it into Nepali Rupes.

After getting my bags I met up with Sugandha. He is one the co-directors of Volunteer Society Network of Nepal or VSN. We went off to his place where I am staying for the next few months. I have my own room on the third floor of his house. It is pretty big and furnished with a pretty decent desk a bed to place my head! Sugandha has a wonderful family of two daughters and his wife. I eat with the family and hang out when I have down time.

This is Sugandha's house where I am staying...

We eat two meals a day of DahlBhat. Basically rice and lentil soup on top with always something to put on it. Either veggies or meat of some type. The two meals are at about 9:30 AM and like 8:00 PM. When I heard the schedule I got worried that I would starve throughout the day. No worries though as they eat snacks a few times a day as well. Either momos, which are dumplings filled with veggies but usually water buffalo meat, or some other type of food. So really we eat at least 3 times a day. I have not been hungry while I have been here. And of course I have been buying little candies and food from the never-ending number of local vendors whenever we are walking somewhere.

I have been buying a liter of water every morning from one store every morning. The girl who runs it is named Sarmila, and gets a kick out of my little Nepali. I can say water and give, and that is basically all that I need to buy my water.

My orientation schedule-

7:00 or 8:00 AM –wake up and I study my scriptures or read a book.
9:30-- we eat breakfast
10:30—my language class starts
12:45-- we head out for the afternoon
5:00-- return home and use the Internet and chill with the family or some of the othervolunteers.
8:00-- Dinner
9:00 or 10:00 go to sleep

My afternoons have been spent out doing things. I have seen some of the sights around town and have walked to see some of the surrounding areas of the city. My language teacher Sujan (pronounced Susan) usually goes with me to wherever we are going for the afternoon and gives a bit of background of what we are doing. Sometimes he even fills me in on some of the Nepali delights...yesterday we had some really yummy sour milk and curds. He loved it...I could only eat/drink about half of my small glass. It cost us about 30 cents of the two glasses. Sujan is studying at one on the Universities here in Kathmandu. He has classes starting at 6:00 or 6:30 AM (not an error) and then comes to start the teaching at like 10:30. Crazy huh??

I will have this orientation schedule for the next week or so and then I will start with my volunteering at the local community hospital. I have yet to check it out, but I think I will in the next couple of days. Today, I am going to one of the orphanages that VSN helps to support, and also where I will be doing some check-ups and immunizations.

If you have any questions then go ahead and email me or leave them in a comments. Thanks for reading...

Here are some other pictures...


These two are at Darbur Square

And this last one was taken by a very excited Nepali kid and is out almost past the city boundary.