Training in Bistachaap

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Once you get out of the bustling maddness of the city, it is so beautiful out here. The land is green and lush this time of year, with it being the tail end of the monsoon season. The rough bus ride out to the village was quite an experience in itself- think very poorly maintained paved and dirt roads at 50mph- so bumpy and hilarious!
White people draw quite a bit of attention out in the villages, where we are few and far between. My host family was absolutely darling, and they had so much patience for my very poor Nepalese at the beginning of my stay. But you'd be surprised, by the end of the 6 days I was speaking complete sentences and they actually began to understand me a lot more quickly! They knew extremely little English, so I was a bit at a disadvantage compared to the other volunteers who had older children in their home. My kids were 5 and 7- knew the English words for colors, numbers and letters, and that's about it. Needless to say, they didn't particularly come to my assistance. However, they were extremely sweet and constantly craved attention from 'didi' (the Nepalese term for older sister). I chased them around the house, played airplane, carried them on my back and reviewed English homework with them. Of course, I did have to hide on the roof once when they refused to leave me alone for 5 minutes. In order to optimally utilize space, most of the homes here have flat roofs.
The first two nights in Bistachhap were absolutely horrendous due to the massive amount of dust and dust mites in my bedding. Instead of mattresses, a couple blankets are simply folded and placed on top of the plywood bed. These blankets never get washed so they are dust mite haven. I actually contemplated returning home during that misery because I felt so awful. But I used this bed spray that kills all kinds of bugs including dust mites, and that helped a bit. Also went on a DayQuil/NyQuil regimen and purchased face masks for sleeping. All of this put together put me on the fast track to success and a couple days after arrival I felt better! In fact, that continuous exposure to massive amounts of dust mites may have actually helped me in the long run. Since I was forced to get used to those lil guys, I may not be as sensitive to them any more. Because I did not even mess with the mites in the bed right next to mine and I was healed with flying colors! A HA!
People back here in town are absolutely astonished when I break out the Nepalese- I guess they don't expect tourists to know the language!
Because of the intermittent rains in the village, leeches were out with a vengance. Just when I though I had survived training without a leech encounter, my language teacher nervously pointed out my bloody toe in the middle of our last class. Those things make quite a mess for the extremely small wound they leave. I never even saw the thing, apparently he just had his fill and moved on. Good thing, because he wouldn't have had a fighting chance if I would have caught him. Or perhaps he just died sucking my blood because it's so rediculously salty. And to everyone who makes fun of all the salt I eat... I have become a natural leech repellent- Muahaha!
My placement begins tomorrow! During training, we visited each of the 4 children's homes VSN is involved with so I know where I'll be. I'm in Kathmandu, but on the complete other side of the city from where I am now. So it will be nice to have easy access to hot showers, food other than daal baat, and the office, but the village was so much more beautiful than where I will be (which is on the side of the road in Kathmandu). Air pollution cough cough! However, two of the other volunteers will be either in my house or the house next door, so it will be nice to have them around. Everyone is so great here, it really makes a difference having a bit of a support system if you will.
Well I am absolutely exhausted from being out late last night, and must get some beauty rest so I can wake up early to get everything together prior to them shipping us off to the children's homes. And I have clean clothes now! Yeah laundry service!! SO EXCITING!

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