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Hello everybody, and happy Fourth of July!
I don't have much to say because life in the village hasn't been all that exciting, but I wanted to update so no one got worried by my silence.
I'm spending a few days in Kathmandu helping another volunteer finish up her project before she heads home. We're visiting three orphanages in the city to assess the needs of the orphanage and the needs of the children, as well as take pictures of the kids and make mini profiles of them. We've found out that orphanages don't tell you what they really need and they often report an incorrect number of children. So, we're spending time playing with the kids, taking pictures, and seeing what needs to be done at the orphanages and what supplies they desperately need.
There's not much else to report. They've started changing some of the money, so now it's got Mount Everest on it instead of the king. Also, the garbage collectors are on strike. We thought the streets were filthy before, but apparently that was nothing! We've started marking distances by garbage ("Just walk past three trash heaps, and then turn left!") We also discovered
a bakery that sells REAL Baskin-Robbins ice cream. Mint chocolate chip has never tasted so good!
I had two brief encounters with Nepali bureaucracy, and well, I hope that's all I need to experience before I leave! Getting my visa extended was an expensive, time-consuming process. They moved the Immigration Office out of the tourist ghetto and put it behind a restaurant, down a dirt path, down a hill, about an hour's walk away. Makes perfect sense, right? I had to go back a second time because apparently it takes four hours for them to mark my passport number on a sticker and put it in my passport. And then today, I had to go to the foreign post office to pick up a package. It was sort of like deja vu from Africa, but not quite as stressful or expensive. They made me pay three random fees (no one spoke English well enough to tell me why I was shelling out more rupees), cut my package open, then made me sign some forms. At least it got here in one piece!
I'm not sure what we're doign tonight to celebrate the Fourth, but there's apparently an American
bar/restaurant having a DJ for a small Independence Day party, so we might check that out. Enjoy some fireworks for me!
Stay tuned for the next update - I'll be able to tell you all about the janko (old age ceremony). All I know right now is that my host mom's grandmother is celebrating 77 years, 7 months, and 7 hours on July 10th, and that I am going to be required to wear a Newari sari (I can already tell you that I will look ridiculous). We (the three volunteers in my village) will join dozens of other women wearing the same outfit and parade the grandmother around to all the local temples. Should prove to be an interesting day...
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karin
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cuties
Any chance you could bring me home an orphan? They are adorable. Do you know anything about their histories? What are their chances of being adopted?