Homestay/Volunteer

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It's been a while! We don't really keep track of the date here, just the day so I didn't even know it was the 26th until I got on the computer. 3 weeks yesterday since I left Alaska!
Life here has been mostly the same: living with our host families, helping out some, working in the orphanage and on the conservation projects. We started painting the new classroom at the orphanage so we've been working on murals in there the past couple days.
One evening we helped our family husk corn. They just harvested TONS of it! But they don't eat any of it fresh, they save it for winter. Dori (my roommate) and I wanted to grill some and eat it with butter and salt and pepper. I also got to help chop veggies one evening for dinner and yesterday we planted rice! It's rice planting season so for about the last week all the women have been planting rice. They do one or two families' fields every day and everyone goes to help. It's really a community project and it's nice because then each field gets done in one day and they get to talk while they work to make it more interesting. We started at 6 in the morning after tea and biscuits/crackers at 5:30. We first picked the rice plants from where they had started growing in their garden and then started planting. Our family's dad and a couple other men (uncles, cousins, etc.) plowed the field first to get the mud and manure all loosened and churned up and there was a constant supply of water so that by the time we planted it was mud with about 4 inches of water on top. To plant the rice we basically just stuck about 3 plants together into the mud. That doesn't sound too difficult, but it was hard to pull the plants apart into exactly the right amount and then when we put them in the mud they would often fall over. So we were kind of slow. The Nepalese women on the other hand were ridiculously fast and skilled at rice planting! I guess that's what happens when you plant rice for a couple weeks every year for most of your life. I don't know how much we really helped because it probably wouldn't have taken them that much longer without us, but we at least provided entertainment!
We had chicken for dinner again one night. With the skin still on of course. It's not just the crispy skin that's sometimes on chicken in the states, it's about half a centimeter thick and kind of like blubber. I prefer the vegetables.
A couple nights ago our host sister put mhendi on our hands. It's basically like henna. She did some designs and wrote our names. On my hand she drew a heart and then said that she gives me her heart. It was really sweet! I showed them the pictures of Alaska that I brought along which was fun and gave us something that the whole family could do together, even the ones who can't speak english. Pictures are always good for that kind of thing.
Another day all the volunteers went in to Rampur to the cafe and some of us took our host sisters along to eat momos. They all love them but almost never get to eat them so it was a big treat for them!
The electricity is still extremely sporadic, but I think we're getting used to it. It's still extremely hot when the fan goes off, but in the evenings we have our candle all set up for when we need it.
One afternoon some of us went on a tour of some Hindu temples in the area (Debghat). One had a school for young boys who are studying to become priests. We also went to a place where 2 rivers converge, one from Pokhara and one from Kathmandu. It is one of the most holy places in this area. Nepal's main religion is Hinduism and then Buddhism is second. Hindus have one main god, determined by their family, but then they can change if they want to. Each temple is for a specific god and all the temples for the same god are shaped in the same way.
Today we showered out of buckets for the first time on this trip. Normally there is a hose that comes out of the wall part way up but now all the water is going to the rice field so we used buckets. It was fine, not hard at all, and it was cold water which was really all we wanted!
Ok, well, until next time!

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Comments

[tosha]

ha
Bucket showers my favorite!!!!! Ha your trip sounds like so much fun and you seem to really be enjoying it. But i dunno about that chicket.. i must say it sounds kinda gross