Namaste

The Beginning of the End

On Saturday January 3rd, at high noon, I officially left Canadian soil to begin my journey overseas. Exhausted from a whirlwind of last minute details and emotional goodbyes, I climbed aboard the plane that would take me further from my home then I've ever been before. I had hoped to sleep away the majority of the first 15-hour leg of my journey, and in fact stayed awake pretty much all night to help me do just that, however unfortunately it was not to be.

Lesson #1 from the Year of Jen: Never request a seat at the front of a transcontinental plane. This is where they put all of the passengers traveling with babies.

I ended up sitting immediately behind a kid with the strongest set of vocal cords I have ever heard. I would have been impressed with the fortitude of his temper tantrums, if I hadn't been so sleep deprived and cranky. I'm talking about screaming fits to wake the dead here...a couple of times I had to sneak a peek to reassure myself that his mother was not in fact amputating his index finger...

I landed in Abu Dhabi only 2 hours behind schedule. Luckily I had a 6-hour stopover and so had plenty of time to find my next terminal. When boarding the plane to Nepal, I realized that I had been upgraded to first class! I'm pretty sure that the only reason this happened is because I was one of the few white people boarding the plane. The reason for this suspicion is because all 5 (count'em 5) of the white people physically boarding that plane were upgraded to first class with me. It was fantastic! Cushy chairs, reclining seats (ones that actually inclined more then 15 degrees, complete with foot rest), hot towels (what are you supposed to do with those anyways), and all of the booze I could drink. Not to mention the most amazing plane food (if not any food) that I've ever experienced! It was a 4 hour trip and I spent the first 2 hours eating and the last 2 hours sleeping.

I met up with my in-country coordinator Chris Fraser at the airport and he arranged for a taxi ride home. It was dark by then, which was probably a blessing in disguise, as Nepalese drivers are slightly crazy. Nobody wears seat-belts, adheres to the rules of the road, or takes their hand off the horn. We pulled into our guesthouse at about 9pm - it's situated right next to a Brothel. You really can't miss it. A stroke of good fortune occurred later that night in the form of a police raid next door. It's nice and quiet over there now...apparently it used to get pretty loud in the middle of the night.

My room is basic but clean. I have a Western style toilet, which I am inordinately pleased about, and a bed that Fred Flintstone would feel right at home on. There was a power outage right when I began unpacking, which meant that I could whip out my handy headlamp. Apparently the city is divided into 7 zones and each zone experiences power outages over the course of the night (and sometimes day), as the country is experiencing a water shortage right now, which is impacting the amount of power available. Internet cafe's have a backup power source, so I normally either just go to bed early, or head out for some email time when this happens.

Monday was my first full day in Nepal, and I spent it with the other volunteers, two in particular:
Katherine: 23 years old and from London. She's here for 2 weeks before joining her boyfriend in the Annapurna region for some trekking. Apparently she's been traveling the world since she was 18 years old, and the longest amount of time that she's spent at home since she hit adulthood is 16 months.
Elizabeth: 19 years old and also from London. She's volunteering in Nepal for 2 months before traveling to Vietnam, Australia, and Morocco.

The city is even crazier and more chaotic then I expected! Only some of the roads are paved, and even those are treacherous to walk on. You need to continually alternate between looking down for potholes, and looking over your shoulder for oncoming traffic. I'm proud to say that I've only been hit by 1 motorcycle so far...although the traffic is so congested that they can never really gain enough speed to seriously injure you. We spent a good portion of the day exploring the city - with a small break in the middle to eat lunch at Helena's. This is the tallest building in Kathmandu (equivalent to about 5-6 stories), and so provides a great view of the city. Or it would be a good view if the smog didn't completely impede your vision of the surrounding mountainside. Kathmandu is in a valley that is ringed with mountains, however despite being here for 3 days now, I've yet to see any. I'm sure I'll get my fill of them when I travel to Pokhara in a few weeks though.

That night, the hotel staff took all of the volunteers out for dinner and drinks. We ended up being at a bar called Tom & Jerry's which played 80's rock and really reminded me of home. I imagine that I'll be back there again before I leave...

It's so cold here! I've spent the last couple of weeks bragging about the fact that I would be escaping the fierce Canadian winter - only to find that I'm much colder here then I was at home! During the daytime it's beautiful - at least 15 degrees and sunny every day so far - however as soon as the sun goes down it gets cold fast! And it feels even colder because none of the buildings have any heat (most of them don't even have power at night). Our guesthouse is made up of nice marble floors, which I'm sure provides a lot of relief during those long hot summers, however it gets really nippy at this time of year. I've been sleeping with EVERY single long-sleeved shirt I own on, plus buried beneath about 10 pounds of blankets - and am still freezing every night. I've requested a heater for my room, however since the power goes out every night anyways, I'm not sure how much that will help. Since I'm the only Canadian staying here, I feel ashamed of my lack of fortitude where the cold is concerned...I've got to tough it out to save face I suppose! haha

Today I went to my volunteer placement at the monastery in Bodor. There was a transport strike on the way there, which I'm told is a frequent occurrence, and so we had to walk part of the way. The monastery was beautiful and the monklets were adorable! I'm going to be splitting the class with Helena for the rest of the week, and then take over the kids when she leaves on Sunday. We had 2 classes - the first class had about 15 beginners aged 8-10. Their English was very elementary, however they were eager to learn and very well behaved. Our second class had about 15 students who would probably be classified as early-intermediate. They understood the majority of our instructions and could move on to more advanced activities. Strangely enough they were more rambunctious then the little ones, however it might have been because their activity was a lot more interactive. I was a bit worried about tackling the volunteer placement on my own, but I think I'm going to really enjoy it. The kids are wonderful to work with, and I could not ask for a more peaceful surrounding.

I haven't decided yet whether I feel as though the past 3 days here have gone really quickly, or not. I've already done and seen so much. I am surprised at the lack of culture shock that I've experienced so far. Kathmandu is so very different from anywhere that I've ever been, and yet I've been able to roll with the quirks and challenges without incident. Yet.

Well, I need to start devising a lesson plan for tomorrow's class. I believe that Helena is handing me the reigns tomorrow so that I can get my feet wet while she's still around to help me out.

I hope that everyone is doing well back home. Thanks to everyone for their emails
Jen

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