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Published: January 12th 2009
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Bodor Stupa
This is the big stupa in Bodor. My monastery is around the corner from here Teaching and the Monkey Temple
Due to an innumerable number of obstacles, ranging from transport strikes, school holidays, and pesky visa trouble, my first solo teaching day at the Monastery was Friday. I couldn’t believe that I was already halfway through my volunteer placement term with only 1 day in the classroom under my belt. I was feeling rather guilty at this point and very anxious to begin. I determined that NOTHING was going to keep me from the Monastery today. It ended up being a rather difficult resolution to keep.
I was still trying to get my Indian visa sorted out (a ridiculously slow and torturously bureaucratic process), and so determined that I had to be at the gates of the Indian Embassy right when they opened at 9:30am so that I could get out of there in time for my placement. Now getting to the Embassy is an adventure in itself, as you need to cross 3 “Nepalese highways” (equivalent to a 2-lane street back home, but crammed with about 6 lanes worth of cars that are all doing their best to cheerfully disregard any rules of the road). You really do need balls of steel to
View of the Monasteries
Here's the view of some of the Monasteries in Bodor. I went up to a rooftop restaurant to try and find my Monastery. cross these roads, or else you’ll end up standing on the sidewalk wringing your hands in anxiety all day while looking out at the writhing wall of cars, bikes, and tuk tuks. I normally attempt to attach myself to a local (preferable a monk, as I would imagine that it would be exceedingly bad karma to run over one) and stay as close to them as physically possible without them noticing. So far so good.
When I got to the Embassy (at 9:20am no less) I was dismayed to realize that there was already an alarmingly long line. These people must have shown up hours before in order to claim their spot in the queue. I took my ticket (number 36) and sat down to wait. About an hour later they were only on number 4, and so I decided to try again (earlier) another day. I also knew that I had to give myself plenty of time to get to the Monastery, since I didn’t really know where I was going. I briefly contemplated going back to the Guesthouse to get directions and the name of the Monastery from my in-country coordinator, but decided that I would trust
Walking to the Monkey Temple
The poverty in this area of town was unbelievable. We were smelling the sweet stench of burning rubbish the entire way. my memory and figure it out when I got there.
Big mistake.
I managed to dodge the glue-sniffing street children and hail a bus ok, and even managed to get off the bus in the right town. But after that things began to go awry. As I descended from the bus (which is really a hollowed out mini-van crammed full of wooden bench seats) the driver yelled out “Bodor Gate” (which was my destination) and then drove off. I was standing in front of an alleyway, with a vague memory of going down an alley the last time I was here. I set off, but after about 10 minutes of watching the buildings become more and more dilapidated, I realized that I had to be in the wrong place. I retraced my steps back to the main road, and walked a bit further down, quickly locating the “real” Bodor gate. Inside, there’s a beautiful courtyard, surrounding an enormous white Stupa decorated with hundreds of prayer flags. People walk around the Stupa in a clockwise direction, spinning the prayer wheels. I knew that the Monastery was somewhere nearby, and had given myself almost 2 hours to find it. Luckily
Top of the Monkey Temple
Prayer flags flapping in the wind.... I did, as I used up an hour of that free time attempting to retrace my steps from Wednesday in the hopes that it would jog my memory and allow me to find the Monastery. It didn’t help that I didn’t even know the name of it and so couldn’t ask for directions.
But, it all worked out well in the end and I was able to sit up on a rooftop terrace in my spare hour and enjoy a pizza and coke for lunch while I did some last-minute revisions to the lesson plan. The first class was with the little ones, and we worked on animals and animal noises. The class was a fantastic success and the little monklets had a great time singing Old McDonald and reading the Ugly Duckling. The next class was with the older boys and it was considerably more challenging. For one thing, they’re not as well behaved. It’s quite common to have all-out fist fights erupt in class (where you’re supposed to grab each boy by the scruff of the neck, separate them, and then resume with the lesson). Also, it turns out that a previous teacher had already done one
Prayer wheels
You need to spin them clockwise. We got a very disapproving look when we accidentally spun them counter-clockwise.... of my worksheets with the class, which ended up cutting my lesson plan down by a third right off the bat! Finally, this was their last class before the weekend and so they just wanted to GO. My personal goal for the class changed from teaching them something new, to merely keeping them under control for the hour-long lesson. I managed to meet that goal…barely. Overall though, I found the day really satisfying, and learned quite a bit that will hopefully make future classes go a bit more smoothly.
I had planned on taking a taxi back into the city, but wasn’t able to bargain them down from 200 rupees, and so jumped on a bus instead. I swear the driver was 14 years old; but despite his youth, he was a maestro of the road. We were weaving in and out of traffic at ridiculously speeds, and through ridiculously small gaps. It was the first time that I had an unobstructed view through the windshield and a few involuntary gasps, screams, and prayers slipped through my lips as we made our way back to Kathmandu.
Lesson #3 from the Year of Jen: Never trust anyone who’s trying
And of course...a monkey
The monkeys were surprisingly well-behaved. I was worried about them picking my pockets looking for food to sell you something.
When I boarded the bus, the reason I boarded this bus, is because the driver claimed that it was going to the Thamel region. It wasn’t. I suppose that I should count my lucky stars that it took me to the right city, albeit in the completely wrong area. Oh well. I only got a little bit lost before finding my way back.
Well, that was it. I survived my first week! I promptly went out and bought a bottle of wine to celebrate. Elizabeth, Katherine, and I were doing a weekend trekking tour through a nearby national park, while Kevin, Helena, and Amy were visiting the hometown of one of the hotel staff. We decided to sit out by the courtyard and play some cards and drink some wine before bed. Fun fact: due to the high altitude of Nepal you get drunk very quickly. It only took 1 glass for me to start feeling tipsy. Probably my diet of dhal bhat and vegetables didn’t help either.
Anyways, I’ve posted some pictures of the monkey temple on here also, although since that activity passed largely without incident, I decided not to write
Sunset from the Monkey Temple
It was gorgeous up there when the sun went down. Everything seemed to glow about it in the blog. If I had to summarize it quickly, I would say that while the trip there was mildly disturbing due to the extreme poverty in that area, the monkey temple itself was quite entertaining. I did have a Nepalese gentleman ask whether he could take my picture. Apparently white people are in such a minority in Nepal that the locals get quite excited when they see one.
Well, that’s pretty much it for my first work-week in Nepal. I’m going on a weekend trekking trip and so will post a blog entry about it when I get back.
Signing off,
Jen
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