Day 2 in Nepal

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In my second day in this wonderful country, I am deeply in the midst of culture shock - the phenomenon where you lose all familiar cues that you're used to and need to adapt to new surroundings. Kathmandu is very different from any city I have ever been in, and the people here - how they live their lives and carry themselves - is so different from Canada.

My initial reactions to this place - with its semi-paved streets, few or no sidewalks, hundreds of random stray dogs, motorbikes that constantly sound their musical honks, "flexible" prices, and many other things which struck me as odd - were, I'm sorry to say, of shock. It is difficult to accept that there are ways of living which are so different from the Canadian standard! However, continuing to interact with the people here, walk the streets and learn a tiny bit of the language, it becomes obvious that there is tremendous beauty here. I'm not talking about the mountians and forests, but rather, on the simplest level, the amount of colour there is here. People burn incense on the street, sell embroidered things of every shape and colour, and it seems that when someone decides to build a building, absolutely no attention is paid to its surroundings - hot pink houses sit beside pale yellows and deep greens. Every building seems to have a rooftop terrace, which are constantly adorned with clothing drying in the breeze (or sometimesin the rain). The homes across the bazaar from us are adorned with engravings of Shiva and Indra, while others bear beautiful gold engravings of Buddhist or Hindu symbols. I'll upload pictures in the future. Also, the advertisements here can be hilarious! There is a scarf/fabric store which tries to entice customers with a sign on their 100% yak wool scarves which reads "Feel me, dear human!" Makes me laugh every time.

I haven't been able to interact with the people very much yet (having been here a total of two days), but I have gotten a chance to know the others in the house a bit. In a foreign land, it is such a gift to be able to live here with Canadians, all around my age. It's a safe place, from which we can learn and explore the surroundings. I would highly reccomend going through an agency like Volunteer Abroad for your first travel experience. I really can't speak highly enough about the warm greeting I recieved from the other volunteers, or about how supportive they have been thusfar. I look forward to getting to know them more, and welcoming the rest of my volunteer group as we slowly trickle in, anticipating our start date of June 5th.

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