I'm not very motivated at the moment and my mind has been doing an awful lot of wandering the past couple of days, so I'm not sure how this update is going to turn out. Today is a good day to do an update for a couple of reasons though. One, it's been about 2 weeks since my last update and I don't want to get too far behind. Two, I haven't had much free time until now with final exams occurring all week at the school. And three, I left the school today and come tomorrow will be moving to a Buddhist monastery for 10 days.
The past two weeks at the school have been enjoyable but also a bit sad. Last week was rather uneventful. At the moment I can't think of anything really worth mentioning. Just working at the school, and spending time around the neighborhood. I did start feeling really comfortable where I'm at last week. It's been a bumpy adjustment, but last week I realized how much I like this place with all of its noise and bad smells.
What to say? What to say? This week was packed with dinner dates. From Sunday until last night my nights were packed with dinner invitations. On Sunday I went to Ganesh's house for dinner. He is the school's math teacher. His english is quite far from superb, so the conversation wasn't dynamite, but he is a really nice guy and smiles a lot so the evening was very enjoyable.
On Monday night I went to the school's landlord's house to eat. She lives above the school with her husband and two kids. They are quite a bit wealthier than most of the Nepali I've met and have a nice house. It's very surprising seeing the contrast in living arrangements. Most people are just barely getting by. Her family is really fantastic. Her daughter is 15 years old and extremely smart. Her son is 10 or 11 and very funny. The landlord herself always seems to have a smile on her face and has a very delightful laugh. Eating there was very uncomfortable though. In their house they let the guest eat before anyone else can, so I just sat and ate while they all watched me. Very strange. After eating we took some photos and looked at pictures from their trip to Japan a few years back.
On Tuesday night I went to Sumitra's house. She is the school's Nepali teacher. She definitely the biggest jokester out of the teachers but I don't understand most of her joking due to the language and cultural differences. People laugh a lot when she talks and she's always making funny faces, so I'm really just making a presumption that she is the class clown. Her husband and two brothers joined us for dinner and we had lots of fun talking half the time in Nepali and the other half in English. My comprehension of the language has gotten much better in the past two weeks. I can understand a good deal of what is said, but replying is still very difficult. It's frustrating knowing what is said, but not knowing what to say back.
On Wednesday night I went to Laxmi Didi's house. I'm not quite sure what her job at the school is. She does some cleaning and disciplining. Kind of a jack (or jane) of a few trades I guess. When I first arrived at the school I was a bit terrified of her. She looks mean, but after sometime I began to see a sliver of a soft side. She has a great family. There are about 16 people total consisting of grandparents, parents, siblings, and a bunch of kids. The food was great.
On Thursday I went to Kolpana Didi's house to eat. She is the woman that has been cooking for me most of the past month and a half. I've been to her house many times to eat and always enjoy playing with her children and engaging in a bit of small talk with her husband and father. They are very poor, so for a gift I bought some goat meat to eat for dinner. It had been about 2 months since they last had meat due to it's high cost, so they enjoyed this small gesture.
Last night I went to Padam's house. He is the school's english teacher and the one who basically runs things at the school since the principal is quite lazy. He's also a person with whom I've enjoyed many great conversations with and is probably my favorite person in Nepal at the moment. He is a different kind of Nepali. He disagrees with many of the conventions and traditions that hold this country back such as the caste system and arranged marriages. We talked about many of the problems in this country and pondered ways that they could be solved. No solutions were figured out, but we both remain optimistic. The food was even better than the conversation. He's a great cook.
In each of the previous paragraphs I have said I went to people's houses, but in Nepal house usually means room. Most people, even families of 4 to 5 people live in one room. They cook, clean, and sleep in the same place. Very tough living conditions.
During the daytime this week the students at the school took their final exams. The education system and structure here is much different from what I'm used to. Every grade, from nursery school to grade 8 take final exams. They are not graded on a daily basis and according to performance on homework assignments. Everything rides on their midterms and final exams. There are many faults in the Nepali education system, and I may elaborate on this in a future journal entry. But for now...
My job during the exams was to be an "Invigilator". This is what they choose to call a proctor or simply a guard here. Being an invigilator was an easy job and the days went by quickly.
The last day of the exams was Thursday and yesterday was a national holiday, the festival of colors. It's basically an excuse for the whole country to engage in water ballon fights. People fill water balloons with colored water and throw them at anybody who is walking by. Mostly, adolescent boys throw them at girls. I played for about half an hour with some of the neighbor kids. I didn't venture out of my neighborhood, but from what I've heard the whole country turns into a water war zone on this day.
Even though I will be returning to the school after my 10 day stay at Kopan Monastery, saying goodbye to people yesterday and today was not easy. I've gotten pretty attached to the people and surroundings and have to admit that I'm a bit hesitant about moving on. I've learned so much from these people in such a short amount of time. Patience, understanding, compassion, trust, and so on. When I return to the school in 10 days it will only be for one week. Then I will be leaving Kathmandu and starting the trekking portion of my trip here to Nepal.
Well, I have managed to squeak this update out but now it's time to say goodbye. Goodbye.
Thanks for reading.
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