I'm quite sure a disclaimer is not needed to accompany this journal, but I just feel better putting one in. Therefore, whatever follows is merely my way of letting the people I know and love know how my travels are going. I am not much of a writer so don't expect correct grammar, correct spelling, or a diverse vocabulary. In fact don't even expect to be entertained. Only if you possess no expectations should you proceed. With that being said, I feel ready to write freely.
On January 12th, 2005 at 9:15 am Pacific standard time I left my family and loved ones to travel and be a citizen of the world. For approximately the next 3 years I will be travelling through Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. (That is if the money doesn't run out early) I believe that a man who believes himself to be only American or British, only Chinese or Ethiopian is only half a man. The other half that beats with the life of humanity is yet to be born. I could ramble on about this, but I have other things to write about.
It was not easy leaving Oregon, especially after spending a month there and getting comfortable. I had to go though. Walking through the security checkpoint at the airport felt like crossing the dividing line between the limited world of my youth and the eye opening world of my future.
After a day of sleepwalking through airports (I was exhausted after only sleeping one hour the night before) I stayed the night in a HoJo's near JFK. Burger King was the only thing open at the time, so my last meal in the states ended up being truly american. A cheeseburger and fries.
I checked out of the hotel around noon, and spent the rest of the day in JFK waiting for my flight to leave. It was scheduled for a 7:00 pm departure but didn't end up leaving until around 9:00. Later I was to learn that delays are quite common with Aeroflot, the airline I was utilizing. (Insert joke about post communist russia here).
The inflight movie was The Princess Diaries Part Two. The movie itself wasn't any good, but watching a bunch of sullen russian faces during a cheery disney movie was kind of entertaining. Made conversation with an Argentinian trapeze artist about rock climbing, of which I do none of but always wanted to start, and a vietnamese american about founding the worlds first all nudist country where child labor is smiled upon and encouraged.
This first leg of my overseas journey took me to Moscow. We arrived 2 hours late and I missed my connecting flight to Delhi. Now I would be waiting around the airport for a few hours before going to my new intermediate location, Mumbai.
Aeroflot lives up to its reputation and departs 1 and a half hours late. About 3 minutes after I sat down and put my seat belt on I was out cold. 6 and a half hours later I woke up and we started our descent into Mumbai. I don't want to go in to details about the problems I had in Mumbai trying to get a flight to Delhi, but I will say that there were many. About 8 hours and a stiff drink from a prophet later, I was on my way. Other than some great curry, nothing from the flight is worth mentioning. That curry had my nose running all the way to Delhi.
Delhi was also very frustrating to get out of but after only a 6 hour layover, I was finally on my last leg. it tonly took 2 days and 18 hours of flying to get to Kathmandu. In retrospect not too bad. A representative from the volunteer organization was waiting for me and before I knew it (that's a really stupid expression) I was sleeping in a relatively soft bed.
I slept for almost 11 hours. After finally dragging myself out of bed, I had a honey pancake and some coffee on the roof of the hotel. Not exactly slumming it, I know. Around 11:00 a.m. I met with my Nepali contact, Sovita. She told me about the program and what I could expect in the next 3 months. A little change in plans as well. It turns out that they have more than enough volunteers for the orphanages, but are desperate for teachers. Now I'm a 3rd grade teacher. poor kids.
After our meeting I took an aimless walk through the streets. Kathmandu has so many distinct smells. Very few however are good smells. Merchants are not very pushy and most people greet me with a smile. I can live with smells, and I'll probably end up missing them some day.
I watched the sunset from the roof and took a few pictures of the surrounding hillsides. A startling amount of crows take flight during sunset and create quite a spectacular scene in the sky. Cities always have a tourist epicenter, and sadly, I was right next to it here. Thamel is a section of Kathmandu consisting of countless vendors, bars, and fluorescant lights. I took a quick stroll through, but was not initially amused or charmed by any of it. Maybe another time. I finished the night with a little reading and some stydying of the language.
I woke up the next morning to a much quieter Kathmandu than the day before. Usually the streets are congested with all types of vehicles, cars, buses, tuk tuks, all honking at one another. Now there were only people walking and a few motorbikes. I later learned that Kathmandu was declared closed for the day. Nobody seems to be sure who makes the deciosion to close the city, whether it be the government, Maoist Rebels, or some other faction. When Kathmandu is declared closed all transportation, business, everything but the religious temples must not operate for the day. If they do, they take the chance of getting stoned or bashed up. Who does the bashing? I'm not sure. The streets are quiet however, and this makes walking around quite pleasant.
After a light breakfast, and a short conversation with two of the hotel employees, Hari and Uki, I met with Sovita again for a discussion on Do's and Dont's here in Nepal. I learned that sneezing is considered bad luck, one should never step over anything, and a number of other superstitionss and traditions to be aware of. She also told me that I would be leaving the hotel in the morning and moving in with a village family outside just outside of Kathmandu for the remainder of my 2 week training period.
The weather was quite nice and the streets were relatively clear of traffic so I decided to take a walk to the bhuddist temple of Swayambhunath. The temple resides on a hillside just west of Kathmandu. It is popularly know as "The Monkey Temple" due to the many mischevous monkeys that call the hill and temple their home. As soon as I arrived at the foot of the long stairway leading to the top, I witnessed one of the monkeys knock a whole bag of peanuts out of a german tourist's hand. It was fun to watch as a swarm of monkeys descended on the scattered peanuts and then scurried off.
The temple was extremely beautiful and the view from the hill was spectacular. I could see all of Kathmandu from there. (Or at least as much as the polluted air allowed me to see.) The temple and its immediate surrounding are quite peaceful and I was starting to relax and soak in the healthy atmosphere when suddenly a large BOOM! sounded in the distance. It turns out that every afternoon, the Royal Army has target practice with big guns. The next hour of my walk was complimented by periodic explosions. This afternoon really illustrated the troubles this country, which is peaceful by nature, is facing. I would go on about the political turmoil Nepal is currently dealing with ,but I'm writing this journal to tell people about my travels, not educate them.
There are many vendors surrounding the temple, and I talked to one for about 30 minutes. I told him I was a volunteer and he told me about a drug rehab center that he volunteers at. He offered to take me there sometime and I readily accepted his offer. Drugs have become a major problem here over the past few decades, and it will be interesting to see how the problem is confronted.
Watched another stunning sunset from the roof top while enjoying a warm cup of tea. For dinner I decided to eat some daalbhat since Sovita told me that's all that I'd be eating at my host family's. Daalbhat is rice mixed with Nepali curry and vegetables. It tastes great, but is kind of tricky to eat since utensils are not used. Everyone eats with their right hand. It may sound simple enough, but it isn't.
Decided to relax in my room for the rest of the night since most places were closed anyway. After a small pot of milky Nepali tea and a few chapters of a book I fell asleep.
I awoke around 6 a.m. to watch my first Nepali sunrise. Almost exactly as I stepped out of bed I heard rain start to fall outside. So much for that idea. Instead of falling back to sleep, I decided to take a walk through the drizzly morning streets. It was interesting to watch the streets slowly gain momentum and come to life.
I had tea around 8 and then met Sovita downstairs. She had a taxi waiting. I put my single backpack with all of my possessions in the back and we were off to my new temporary home. The weather by this time had gotten worse and the streets were a flooded mess. We passed a petroleum queue which was at least a mile long. Gas is very scarce these days and the prices outrageous.
The taxi broke down only once, and 50 minutes after leaving the hotel we arrived at my new home. My Ama(Nepali for mother) showed me to my room and then I sat down to have some daalbhat with my new temporary brother. He is called Dai, which is Nepali for older brother. Names are not commonly used in Nepal and people are usually addressed by a label.
After breakfast, Dai took me for a motorcycle ride through the streets of the city. He drove very fast weaving between people and other vehicles. We stopped by his friends place and had tea. We talked about school, Nepali politics, and I tried to explain why Bush was still in office. I didn't have any good answers to this question since I am still a bit perplexed by the outcome of the elections.
When we returned to the house, I sat down with Ama and Dai to watch some strange Hindi movie. (Later I would find out that all Hindi movies are strange.) My language tudor Reecha arrived in the afternoon, and I amazed her with my uncanny grasp of the local tongue. Well, not really, but she was impressed that I taught myself to count to ten.
Later that afternoon I walked into the nearby town, Gwarko to check my email. The connection speed was surprisingly quick, but still painstakingly slow after being spoiled by a cable modem for so long. I managed to write a few emails, but had to hurry back before dark so my Ama would not worry. It started pouring during my walk home and I got soaked.
Watching TV is a large part of the daily lifestyle here. Not exactly what I aimagined village living to be like. American professional wrestling is very popular here and I sat down to watch some with Dai. He really gets a kick out of it, so I pretended to like it as well.
Around 7:00 pm we had some more daalbhat. In Nepal it is customary to eat just twice a day. The food is quite filling so I don't have any problem with this. Buwaa (Nepali for Dad), Ama, and Bai watched a little more TV while I did a little studying, and then we went to our respective rooms to sleep.
At 4:00 a.m. the dog started barking and literally did not stop until about 6:30. I managed to fall asleep a few more times, but everytime I woke up, that dog was still going like mad. He was going crazy about something. I like to think that maybe he sensed a Yeti nearby.
For breakfast we had another satisfying meal of daalbhat and tea. I'll probably grow tired of it eventually, but for now I need nothing else. After breakfast, a woman came by to educate me on personal safety. Pretty basic stuff. The most interesting tip she had was about crossing the street. Traffic lights were only installed 3 years ago so many drivers don't know what they mean and how to use them. Little things like that really make me dig this place.
I spent the rest of the morning reading, and then took a walk into the outskirts of the village. I got loads of smiles and laughs. Perhaps they thought I was lost. I did look quite out of place. Anyhow, it was a nice walk.
When I returned to the house, Ama had some fruit and tea waiting and I sat with her as she showed me some pictures. It was at this moment I really started to feel comfortable here. Soon, my language tudor arrived and filled my head with a bunch of silly sounding words.
I spent the rest of the day and night getting to know my host family better. We looked at more pictures and I spent quite a while talking to the son about a variety of things. He speaks english quite well thank God, since my Nepali needs much improvement. After some more daalbhat, I retired to my room feeling quite at home in this unfamiliar land. And that is all for now...
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