Final days in Kathmandu

June 12
This will probably be the last post of our trip. Excited to come home but sad to leave...it will be nice to have the conveniences of home and to see family and friends. It will also be nice to have the fresh air that we have back home, and not the dirty/smelly/dusty air that is clogging up our sinuses, and making my eyes incredibly irritated. haha oh and also the heat the last week has been ridiculous, i think mostly in preparation for the monsoon season, so it is super humid...so not only are we getting allergies but I have also gotten some weird rash all over my hands. I went to a pharmacy and they gave me some meds for it, not really sure what it is, but i think its from the humidity and heat.
Today we planned a field trip/day trip with the orphans. We rented a bus and took them all to the Childrens park...which is like a mini-PNE. but wayyy more ghetto and all the games/rides are much smaller. Then when we had the bus drive us home, we stopped a pizza hut and ordered some pizzas togo and brought them back to the orphanage. They loved it. They eat dhalbat (rice and a gross soupy sauce) 2-3 times a day so pizza was definitely a treat. The kids are very iffy with rides though and they have a lot of motion issues...haha if that makes sense. They are not used to riding in cars/busses and so going on spinny rides or anything high up, makes them sick. Like for example, in the bus on the ride home, whcih was a 20 minute ride if that, one of the girls started barfing because she is not used to the motion of the bus. and at the park, the kids wouldnt go on rides that were similar to the pirate-ship at the PNE, or the Ferris wheel...AND these rides are MUCH MUCH smaller than those back home. the park is tiny and it really isnt very nice at all haha...pretty grungy. Their favorite thing was the bumper cars, and the younger ones liked the horse ride (that one that spins around, while the horses move up and down).
We are going to this little city called Baktapur tomorrow, which is a very old place with lots of old architecture and temples. SHould be cool. Weve been wanting to go for a while, so we are getting a ride tomorrow morning early with the woman who Bridget has been working with who runs the HIV orphanage. Her and her husband offered to drive us, and they wanted us to come and meet their family or something too en route haha. So, thats our plan tomorrow and we will probably bus home in the evening.
Anyways, going to go relax for a bit. those kids wore us out!

The Trek

Have just arrived back in Kat. The trek was amazzinggggggg. We arrived in Pokhara on thursday and then spent the day/night there and left for Beshi Nagar, which took another 5 hours from Pokhara. Pretty brutal bus rides. We started the trek at about 1:30pm on Friday (it usually starts to rain around 2:30...really intense downpour, not just a light drizzle...it is the beginning of the monsoon season right now) so anyways, the first day was supposed to be a 2 hour walk to this town called Bhule Bhule...it was more of a walk along a dirt road and within an hour it started to POUR with rain...bridge and i wore our flip flops cuz it wasnt too intense, and had our matching rain jackets (and matching umbrellas that we snatched up) and were attempting to cover our backpacks. it was hilarious, and of course we all bought umbrellas from town, whcih are CRAP made and within the hour were turning inside out from all the wind. We took a pit stop in a town before Bhule Bhule for a drink while it was pissing with rain, and as a bus drove by (literally JAMMED packed with people) we decided to hitch a ride for the next 30 minutes of the walk...not a normal bus ride though...we rode on the roof of the bus along a road that shouldnt even be considered a road, because it is so ridiculously bumpy/muddy/rocky (with boulder rocks, not small pebbles)...so 6 of us westerners and some random Nepalis were sitting on the roof rack for the rest of the ride untill the road got too bumpy and we had to come down and get jammed into the bus. at the point where we transferred all our stuff into the bus, it was pretty packed. a bus that should comfortably" sit like 16 people, had about 35 at the time...and we'd approach these groupings of people standing inthe rain waiting for a bus to come by and we would all be like to eachother "oh shit that sucks, theyre gonna have to wait there for quite some time for the next bus" but noppeeeeeee....the bus pulls over and picks up all 15 or 20 people waiting...people are sitting on top of people, and hanging out the door on the side. hahah it was hilarious and this happened more than once. so anyways we arrived in Bhule Bhule and stayed the night. Because of all the rain/monsoon season coming, trekkers are warned of the leeches that fall from trees/linger in the puddles/etc...so we stay the night at a guest house in this little town, and right before we all decide to go to bed, one of the girls we are with screams, and so we all start freaking out cause this place has no power, and there were weird creatures haha, and it turns out a leech has somehow landed right on the veins between the forearm and the upper arm (where you get blood taken from) and it is latched onto her...soo gross! the only salt we had was our oral rehydration salts for in case you get sick, so we busted opena pack of those and dumped nearly the whole thing on her arm! the next day was much more intense...since you go to bed around like 9:30pm (cause there is nothing to do with no power and these "towns" are really like 4 houses/huts with maybe liek 20 people there) we woke up at about 5:30 am and had breakfast and then started the longer day of trekking. we also had to leave early because the rain starts in the afternoons and we wanted to get to our destination before then. That day the trek took 5 hours...supposed to take 6 -8 but we kept a steady pace. it was pretty f-ing hard! there were parts that was like climbing the grouse grind, they didnt last for long but it was definitely tough considering the heat and the altitude. The most amazing views though, everywhere, the pictures can not do justice to it at all. Bridge and I both wished that we couldve stayed longer or done the whole thing but we had to be back in Kat for this last week of work. the place we stayed the second night, after our long trek was soooo much bettter than the first, in this beautiful little town called Ghermu, it was so quaint, and so nice, and so rural. all of these places we pass through were. It is sooo different, its hard to even describe. Some parts of the trek were so ridiculous too haha, we would get to parts where there had clearly been a mudslide and taken out like a portion of the trail, so we had to like physically get into the dirt to climb up this hill which used to be a trail, but was now just straight mud/dirt...the locals working on the roads were just laughing at us cause it was clearly a struggle, but something that they deal with regularly. Returning home today was pretty ridiculous too. Basically everything in this country is, we have learned that you really cant go anywhere with any sort of expectations because really, everywhere you go and anything you do is NEVER what you expect...even if you are warned or told the details by someone else. Today we had to catch a jeep from the last town that is accessible by car called Syange, and in the lonely planet guidebook it warned us of this 'uncomfortable ride' back to where we started the trek, but even that cant warn you of what to expect. so we get on the jeep, and of course everything here is inefficient, and nobody is under any time constraints, so the jeep driver would just stop in the little villages and linger for what felt like sooo long. Meanwhile, there is this old woman (maybe not old, it is really hard to tell how old Nepali people are because the work that they endure could age them or their health, or they could just be old) but anyways, she was suppppperrr sick, and something was definitely really wrong with her back/stomach region and she had to endure this 2.5 hour jeep ride from hell. she was laying in the backseat on her daughter (or maybe granddaughters) lap, while we were in the back part of the jeep. I felt like i was in the Jurassic park movie on this 'highway' of a dirt road that is no more than 12 feet wide, following the river, along the edge of a cliff, with this woman moaning the entire time, f, it was just ridiculous! Then once we got to where we started, we had to get on another bus back to Katmandu...and after that production we got on what they call a microbus...a van that is SUPPOSED to fit 16 people...but again they love to ram them full, so it probbaly had maybe 25 on it...all smooshed in this stupid bus with no airconditioning, in like 45 degree weather all through the mountains, and us in the backseat. Nepali people are really funny that way, they havea completely different sense of space than westerners. They have No problem whatsoever with being right up next to you, right in your face, or squished between like 10 people. meanwhile me and bridge and this other girl are dying from overheating and sweating profusely. hahaha so funny (at the time, maybe more annoying, but still you cant help but laugh because everything about this place is just soooo ridiculous/unpredictable/inefficient BUT somehow it is absolutely amazing at the same time, its weird. Anyways, this is getting pretty long. but we are home safe, back in dirty, dusty, and loud Kat with a week and a bit left before we head back home!
xoxox

June 2

We are going to Pokhara tomorrow morning to start our trek on friday. we are doing a 2 day trek of the Annapurna Circuit. The first day of trekking is 2.5 hrs and the second day is about 6 hrs...haha, should be pretty entertaining. Our friends that we are going with are pretty big trekkies (mostly just one) and so he knows his stuff! There will be 6 of us in total. 2 boys, one of their sisters, and then me, bridget, and another girl from our house. We should be back by sunday night, maybeeee monday but they have internet up in Pokhara so if we have time we will try to update.
Today was pretty awesome at the monastery. Yesterday I bought the monks in my class these little handmade and really nicely decorated notebooks for them to write and draw in (they told me they like to draw/write in English/Tibetan). So I gave them these gifts yesterday and they were pretty confused by it aha they thought I was just showing them the notebooks, and when they realized it was a gift they were sooo appreciative and soo happy. THEN today, they show up to class and I didnt even notice but they had this big robe covering something in the classroom, and when we all got in there they said that they got ME a gift! definitely wasnt expecting that...and it was soo cute, it was all wrapped up in wrapping paper with a card that said "best wishes...your best students". Inside was a photo album (cause I always show them pictures of what I have been doing in Nepal so they know I like photos), and they got me a pink bracelet, and this little dangly thing, that is a high-heeled shoe, to attach to your keychain/camera/cell phone. hahaha it was so cute! They also showed me around the monastery today, it is unbelievable, we went into the temple where they pray and it was stunning, I will try and post pictures at some point. THey also invited me to go swimming with them this weekend/next week (have no idea where this pool is they speak of cause we definitely havnt seen one but anyways), so i asked them today what they wear swimming (they call it their "water costume") and they drew a pair of shorts, just like men wear in america, and then for the women they drew this dress-type thing haha (they thought this was funny) and when they asked about what north americans wear i drew a bikini and they said that "it is ok to wear that, miss" (all with giggles of course)...clearly not going to be wearing a bikini in Nepal haha!
Bridget spent the day at the HIV/Aids orphanage today...2 of their teachers quit because they got offered better jobs elsewhere, so they asked bridge to teach the classes there. the kids speak 0 english and she speaks 0 nepali so she says it is pretty hard, and doesnt really know where to start. she said that today went well though, she bought some books and stuff for them because they are very undersupplied and they were really appreciative of that. They also asked her to write a proposal for them...about what sort of funding they could use and for what programs etc...pretty intense stuff, but really cool! So she is meeting with them on tuesday next week i think to talk about it.
Will try and give updates on our trek, not really sure what the internet status is at these guest houses/villages we stay in, but if I find internet somewhere ill try and write something quickly! xoxo
2 weeks left here!

May 30

Bridge has started working at this HIV/Aids orphanage-daycare-school type thing, we were going to go there today but it is a holy day so we couldnt. She said it was really sad, the kids there either suffer from HIV/Aids, or someone in their family does. They have been expelled from school because of it too, and htey are basically looked down upon within the community. The woman who runs it also told Bridge that they are in need of volunteers and the last one they had there was too afraid to play with the kids...very sad. Bridge likes it because she is needed there much more than the hospital which she is also doing. The HIV orphanage also asked her to write a report on the status of their school/learning facilities, so that was pretty cool. The orphanage that we both work at has been good too, the people are so nice. we are thinking of planning a little day trip with the kids (there are only 13 there), where we take them to this zoo which is like 100 rupees a person...a little over a dollar. The kids have never been, and never really have the opportunity to go so we were thinking of doing something like that for one of our last days here.
Were going to do a portion of the Annapurna circuit next weekend with a few of our canadian friends who are doing the whole thing. We will bus to Pokhara on either wed/thurs and then leave the day after and do the first couple days and then bus home from one of the villages. So that should be exciting/interesting...haha we arent really the typical trekkies that you see here! everyone is so hippy-ish/trekky-ish haha.
This weekend we just stuck around in Kat, worked and puttered around. We had a pretty sweet day today...relaxed, and then went to Thamel and walked around and then 4 of us went and found a spa where we got full body massages, soooo great! and it only cost us about 10$ for an hour.

Orphanage may 27...really frazzled!

NOW Everest and the Monastery

Monks and Everest (the tip is covered by the cloud)

Pokhara and Annapurna mountain range in background

Orphanage May 27

Today is a holy day in Nepal (celebrating Buddha's birthday) so all the kids at the orphanage didnt have school (thank god, cause we didnt have to help them with their homework that is too hard for us!). Instead we went to the orphanage at 930am (usually we got at around 330-4) and before we went, me bridge and our friend Angus, went to the supermarket and bought a few games for them to play. We bought Guess Who, a jewelry making kit, a skipping rope, a soccer ball, and a painting game. Alot of their games are really worn out and ratty and when they dont have to do homework they arent really left with that much to play with. so when we showed up with all that stuff, they were sooooooooooo excited! "thank you sistaaaaa, sistaaa helpp me, sistaaaa how do you do thisss, sistaaaa come play" haha it was pretty overwhelming for the 3 of us, and after a few hours we were beat. They loved it though, it was awesome. They are so appreciative and so cute. Usually when we go there, every fwe days we bring a little thing, like some chocolate/bananas/lechees (fruit), just because it makes our day cause they get so happy and their little 'thanks you sistas' is soo great!
TOmorrow is the 28th and the due date for the Constitution, we still dont have word about what is going to happen, but I think that is pretty likely that they will not have come to an agreement (seeing as nothing here is ever on time EVER), so it is probable that there could be a strike or at least some protesting. The last thing we want is to be stuck in a volunteer house full of like 20 people and not be able to go onthe streets or have any space orrrr not be able to work.

The Monastery

Today was a pretty cute class at the monastery. Put all of our practice playing boardgames/charades back home, into use over here. I got them playing charades to learn different words/actions and they were laughing so hard because each one would act out different actions (like lazy, sleeping, bored, ashamed, angry, etc) and they were soo cute. Yesterday was funny too cause I got them playing pictionary using different English words so that was prety funny too. I find that they learn really well with games, and they really like them. Its really impressive how fast they pick up English too, they just retain everything. Thursday and Friday i am not teachign because they are going to a temple/stupa to pray starting tonight (wednesday) BUT they invited me to come haha! I had to reject the offer because I couldnt really understand what the explanation of exactly what it was they were doing there other than praying, but i thought that was pretty awesome. They are celebrating the birth of Buddha, which is this saturday...and I think it might even be the same day of his death but Im not really sure. Anyways, a lot of people here will be celebrating on saturday.
Gotta hit the orphanage!

Everest

We have officially seen Mount Everest and 7 other of the tallest mountains in the world. Yesterday (may 25) we did a Mountain flight, and flew by all the Himalayas and Mount Everest. It was pretty sweet, didnt get superrrr close but definitely cool to see, and got some good pictures. They are insanely massive, Everest is over 8500 meters. I cant even imagine how anyone could climb that thing. I read in a paper here the other day that there was a record for youngest person to climb to the top, and he was thirteen i think. no idea how a 13 yr old could do that.
Bridge and I are thinking of doing a trek this coming weekend, or mabe next week. We want to go with a couple of the volunteers weve met here cause we dont want to go alone, so I think were going with these 2 guys from Canada, and one of their sisters and another girl frm our house. We are going to do a couple days of the Annapurna circuit, which is normally a 20 day trek but we are just going to do 2 days and then bus home cause we have towork and are definitely not that intense! We may not go though sort of depends on the weatehr and stuff...its moving into monsoon season so it rains (ie downpours) at night and massive massive thunder storms, its pretty cool to watch. Oh and also depends if we can even get up north because we are expecting a strike at least on the 28th...so maybe wwe wont be able to. Well find out in the next couple of days!
ANyways, were off to work! xox

May 24

We are back in Kathmandu after suchhh an awesome weekend. Sensory overloadddd here...it was so nice being in the mountains, the air quality was so much better, and not nearly as much noise. Kathmandu is just so noisy and so polluted. Coming back yesterday was such a pain too, we took a bus which should normally take 6 hours but actually took 12. There were protesters on the highway (the highway is like 10 feet wide with cars driving however,wherever they want (no lanes, no street lights). so the protesters stopped traffic completely for about 2hrs, then driving the rest of the way was just bumper to bumper (AND these cars/busses are the MOST UNenvironmentally friendly vehicles ive ever seen) so taht was pretty annoying. luckily we "splurged" and got air conditioning on our bus cause it was about 45 degrees in the mountains. But holy,, the Himalayas were the most unbelievable mountains. and driving home yesterday was rainy and thundery (which is great cause then you can actally see the mountain ranges). But the coolest mountain range we saw was teh Annapurna Mountain range...they are these hugely rigid and snow capped mountains...they were absolutely unrealll, we were blown away. I have never seen anything like it. It was a pretty great weekend...while me, bridget, and our friend Layla went paragliding, the 3 other volunteers we went with rented motorcycles (pretty ballsy considering the way people drive here - me and bridge arent into that, dont worry momma!). Anyways so they rented 2 motorcycles and both boys drove, ad then the girl was on the back of one of them, and they went up the mountain to where we were paragliding and i guess onthe way down (it was a pretty windy road), steve (a korean friend, who didnt have anyone on the back of his bike) drove head on into a military truck...he was fine, got a cut on his leg, but VERY VERY lucky. and the military men like paid for everything (it was like 800 rupees...which is sooo cheap - like 12$...to be completely treated and xrayed at the hospital). But ya, pretty scary to hear about when we got home.
oh haha and also bridget and I have somehow managed to get ourselves nepali clinger boyfriends. (not actually but they are very very eager to hang here)...they legit want to get married haha. last night wewent to this bar/restaurant that weve been going to for food and to hang and stuff and our server, his name is Bupal, wants to marry me, introducing us to his brother and following us...(not in a creepy way, he is friends with one of the boy volunteers) but Nepalis just LOVEEE white people haha he was saying he wants a traditional Nepali wedding in the country and I would wear a Sari haha. Bridget also has a jewelry man who wants to marry her and move to Canada. He sold her some earrings (this is the matching discount guy) ahah she also may ave another boyfriend from last night who let her go behind the bar and make drinks, he wants to marry her too, he said hed give her a job as a bartender if she watned it haha.
Anyways thats the update! Gotta go to work!

Adventures

We took a bus (it was 7 hours) through the Himalayan mountains into Pokhara yesterday. Arrived at about 11pm, the city was shut down (there is a curfew here too of 11pm). WEve had a pretty awesome couple of days...yesterday we went rockclimbing AND repelling (when you shoot down a rope down the side of a cliff/rock)...pretty f-ing scary. it was only 30meters but its pretty wild when all that is below is a bunch of rocks. that was just outside of Kathmandu, and today (in Pokhara) was even moreeee coool!!! we just got back from paragliding! we ran off a mountain starting at 1400meters and then the parachute or whatever you want to call it, catches the wind and then pulls you up (you go with a pilot too). we reached up to around 2100meters above the ground...SO exhilirating! we did a half hour flight but it was probbaly more like 45 minutes in teh air. we did this really cool thing too where you get reallly really high in the air (in the clouds and above the mountains) and then the pilots drop the shute so that you spiral down at intense speeds, about a 1500 meter drop...you really feel that g-force where your cheeks kinda blow up a bit and your legs feel like they are like 400pounds going against the wind. Makes you pretty dizzy after too cause you drop so fast and as you drop you are spinning pretty fast. SOOOOO cool though, probably the funnest thing ive ever done. we got a certificate for paragliding too haha!
It is nice to be here in Pokhara because it is alot tamer and calmer than it is in Kathmandu...and the air is sooo much cleaner cause of all the mountains. there arent horns honking every second like there are in Kat, and you dont have to worry about crossing the street because there isnt as chaotic of a system, even though there are still no rules, there are alot less cars on the road. It was pretty funny though, we were expecting to come here and have this nice little getaway on the lake and go swim and what not...hahah but as with everything else in this country, the lake isnt the typical lake that we see in North America..pretty polluted (actually really gross) haha and the "beaches" (cant even really call them that but for lack of a better word) are green and muddy and not pretty. so, so much for that! Its still amazing though.
anyways! Off to go for a hike, will be back in Kat tomorrow for work on monday. Will try and upload some pictures if we go into a cafe where the internet isnt ridiculously slow. I dont know if ive already mentioned how everyday there are 12 hours of when the city has no power. divided into 6 hour intervals. so we basically have to work around those times that the power will be out. its pretty frustrating at night. Its wild too cause Nepal has enough hydro electric power to supply the whole country but I think what happened (so i hear) is that they sell alot of it to other countries (part of their corrupt system) and make profit from that.

May 20

Work is going well over here. Bridget has been at the hospital the last couple days, still a bit disappointed, but she did get to watch a few surgeries (an apendectomy, gall bladder removal, tendon repair, and more things but we dont know what the procedures were called). She says that it is kinda hard to watch because it doesnt seem like the doctors are doing really precise or gentle work, and their instruments are not that sanitary, nor are the rooms that they are doing the operations. SHe says that the doctors wear like flip flops around and like floral shirts haha. Definitely not a formal, north american hospital.
The monastery has been awesome the last couple of days...i made a bunch of different topics to teach each day, like the other day we covered body parts and clothing, and then we did colours, and the 5 senses. The monks are awesomeeee! Today I think we are going to cover the months and the days of the week...most of them know numbers and the alphabet, its a bit tricky though because there are a couple veryyy beginner monks and it is hard to move at a speed that doesnt bore the other ones, and isnt too fast for the slower learners. I went to the orphanage yesterday with one of the other volunteers...the kids are awesome, we mostly just worked on their homework. I dont know if i already wrote this but the Nepali people call eachother brother and sister (in their accent it sort of sounds like brothaaaa and sistaaaa). At the orphanage yesterday i was helping this girl, Copila (she is 7 but is smaller than a 4 year old), with her computer science homework and she was asking me to check her work, and i guess in her exercise they were to label the different computer parts...so as im reading down her list and checking things off i stop one of her answers because she has written "hard dicks" and im like sort of boggled and trying to figure out what part of the computer she is even referring to, so she was sorta hassling me being like "sisttaaaa what is the matta sistaa, it is hard dicks" haha, its hard for them to put the 's' before the 'k' so even when i clarify it still sounds like that haha. Pretty funny. Its pretty interesting/sad though because they go to school 6 days a week, and they do dictation (like spelling tests) and they are taught words the way that their teacher believes them to be spelled, so the teacher sometimes teaches them the wrong spelling and if they spell it properly on the exam then they are marked wrong. Just part of the confused system here though I guess. Nothing is perfect.
Tomorrow (friday) we are going to Pokhara with 3 other of teh volunteers. On our way there we are doing a rock climbing thing for 4 hrs (thats including like all the training/equipment/lunch/lounging haha there is no way we would be able to climb for 4 hrs straight). Should be a nice weekend though, it is on a lake in the middle of the mountains and hotels for the night are like 8-10$. and the bus for 5 hrs is like 5$. We are going to come back on sunday, im not sure what our computer situation will be like there so i donno when i will be updating, may not be until sunday.
Bridge and I found this massive disgusting beetle-looking/cockroach-looking bug in our room 2 nights ago... sooo gross, we were not having it! we tried to kill it but it was soo fast and ran underneath bridgets bed. There are 4 beds in our room (2 of them unused until the end of the month when more volunteers show up) so we just slept in the beds that were farthest from the roach!
anyways gotta get ready to go to the monastery.
xoxo

work

May 18
we have officially began our work here. Bridget is working at Helping Hands in the hospital and has been there the last 2 days...she finds it a bit frustrating because the doctors do not pay much attention to the women volunteers, and they arent as helpful or "teacher-like" as they should be. Today she saw a couple surgeries but was a bit disappointed because they didnt really describe what they were doing and the diseases/injuries they were curing. Her and a couple other of the volunteers went and checked out this Lepracy clinic to see if they could maybe volunteer there too, and they were interested, but the hiring process is a bit long, and in Nepal they dont really rush anything so it will probably take acouple of weeks to get anything going, in which case it doesnt really make sense for her or the others to work there. Well see though!
Today was my second day teaching in the monastery. the first day i just sat in on a class which one of the other volunteers taught, and listened, ad then today i taught my first class. "class" at the monastery is more of a small, probably 12ft by 12ft room, where the monks sit on the ground and I sat either in a chair or on the ground also and teach basic english. Today i only had 5 students because we divided the class between beginners and intermediates, and they are also in a 15 day thing (I cant remember what it is called) where they pray almost 9 hours a day. but today was SOOO great! tey are sooo excited to learn english and are so polite and kind and friendly. they call me "our miss", and they are so curious about us white people, so they ask so many questions. Today I was going through comparatives with them (like young vs old, big vs small) and I asked them to make sentences and they told me taht i was big, and old, hahaha in Nepali standards I am (i clarified the old part though). It is a very satisfying feeling though to teach them something that they value so much. One of the monks today (who was TWELVE--my youngest student) wrote a sentence for me saying "today I am happy because I have got this golden opportunity from our miss to learn english"...he is the best at writing and spelling in English. I nearly cried it was so cute! Later today I went to a different 'orphanage'but this one was more of a daycare for single parents. all the kids are around one or 2...it was pretty heartbreaking...they all have the little ethiopian potbellies that are from being malnourished and dehydrated. They were super cute though, so many of them are just tiny though, this little girl i picked up was probably 5 pounds. I think i am going to alternate between working at this daycare and working at the orphanage that me and bridget have been going to. Afterplaying with them for so long though you start to feel pretty dirty, they all have really typical colds (like coughing and running noses--and they have no tissue or toilet paper or medication so it just runs and runs), alot of them have had lice too so they have recently had their heads shaved so its hard to distinguish little girls and boys. So bascially when we come home from work, after being outside in all the pollution and playing with the kids you really really want (And need) a shower.
This weekend we are planning a trip to Pokhara with a couple other of the volunteers, it is a 5-6 hour bus ride (around 5$ canadian) I think North of Kathmandu. It is apparently beautiful. We are also looking into a group flight over/around Everest at some point on this trip.
We are expecting a strike in the next couple of weeks at some point, as the Constitution is due on teh 28th, and the people want to make sure that their wants and needs are included by that date. Nothing serious, and surprisingly it doesnt really worry anyone (us included). There is word going around that the strike may not even occur because they are reaching agreements, whcih would be nice too because that way we will be able to get to work (if the strike happens, our work is too far for us to walk, however i may be able tow ork at the monastery because it is within walking distance...but Helping Hands and both orphanages are probably over an hour walking, and most likely closed.
Anyways, time for bed over here!
xox

May 16

Weve had a pretty cool last couple of days. on the 14th me and bridget went to the orphanage that we will be working at. there are 13 kids and it is a bit of a trek from our house but we just take the bus and then walk. The kids are sooooo cute...they range from like 3-15, but the 3 year olds look pretty young because they are so small (most nepalis are really small but i think its especially true when they are malnourished and what not). they are amazing though, they speak english so well. when we first arrived, they all formed a line around where we were sitting and came up to us and said "namaste" while bowing, and then introducing themselves and asking our names and where we were from. and then they are just so curious about us and our interests and canada and literally everything. they go to school 6 days a week until 330 so we will be going to the orphanages at 4 each day. we just play with them and they read to us (in english) or teach us nepali if we ask. were basically there to just be their friends. its super cute and impressive. People here LOVE when foreigners speak or even try to speak their language. They get very excited and smiley, its so great. ive learned how to say "may name is kaylen" and count to three, and thank you/please/your welcome/ and sorry. they thought it was pretty funny when we asked how to say sorry because your always bumping into people here and we always say it but i guess here they dont really use it. sort of wierd. yesterday was really cool too we went to this temple that is one of the most improtant temples in nepal (and asia) where they cremate people i cant remember what it is called...it was insane...they had all these pits everywhere and in one vicinity you have just the everday nepali who was to be cremated there, and then in the other vicinity was where the political leaders and elite and stuff are burned. and we saw it all! there were like 4 fire pits going and we watched them bring someone to one of them for burning, it was wild. Nepali's when they are dying some of them go up to this temple and just wrap themselves in blankets and then wait to die, doing this means that they basically get a direct passage to heaven and dont have to worry about coming back as anything weird. So that waas veryyy cool, you would think it would make you feel sick to look at it or see that type of thing happening, but it doesnt seem that weird when you are there, i guess its because its part of their traditions and cultures. wetook a bunch of pictures so ill try to upload some later on. We have started using the public transportation here too which is pretty hilarious....its basically a bunch of busses, or vans, or tuktuks where someone is leaning out of the door the whole ride yellling a list of places it passes (all in nepali and veryyy fast so its pretty hard to understand) and then you have to yell back and tell them where you are going while the bus is still in motion and if your lucky it will stop and get you. then they just cram them packed too so like 20 people arejammed in this small van. Bridget just left for her first day in the hospital, I may go there one of these days (there really is no system here, you just kind of go where you want when you want), I am going to the monastery for my first day of teaching pretty soon. Waiting for someone to show me where to go...haha no training needed for this either apparently...so I may pick up some books and stuff to make lessons for them after today.
So! theres the update!
xox

Namaste

May 14
Bridgy and I just moved into the volunteer house, it is really cute but a bit further away from where we were before. there are i think about 11 other people staying here, and we just found out that one (actually maybe 2) of them is actually from vancouver, but haveyet to meet him. We passed out last night at about 8pm, sooo exhausted from walking around and checking places out and the heattttt! its so hottt! Today we walked around Thamel some more, you cant ever really get bored of it cause its always buzzing, and there is the coolest gear to look at. we woke up at about 5:45 this morning too so we also had time to go and visit this monkey temple. Pretty cool, but we the monkeys arent actually that cute, theyre pretty mangy and they come pretty close so we tried to keep a distance so we dont get rabies. They all look like theyve been bitten at by other monkeys or animals and their asses are all pink....really arent the cutest creatures. The pictures we have taken are UNREAL, its not like we are good photographers, but it is so easy to catch a pic of the coolest people. They wear teh most beautiful colors and the women's saris are stunning. Its wild cause this place is so poor and the people have next to nothing, but they look so amazing all the time. Usually we have to ask people if we can take a picture before, so that they dont get offended. There are also these people who dress up alot and really work it so that they can get tourists like us to take their pic...then they want money. pretty typical work. There are women who walk around with babies in their arms too and an empty bottle and pretend that they need you to buy them milk, but apparently they sell that milk back to stores or something, its sad. We went to Durbar Square yesterday too and walked around snapping pics. I just noticed that most of the pics i tried to post the other day didnt work, so i will try and post my more recent ones later on today (theyre better anyways). We are in love with this country, the people are so friendly, even though a lot haggle you they are a very 'peaceful people'. There is the coolest stuff that they sell in their little stores, I am going to buy some stuff towards the end of the trip, bridge and i have become pretty good at haggling with them and bartering haha. Bridge is working on a guy right now for a pair of earrings...she tried to get the "matching discount" cause they were both wearing purple...he liked that. Theyre pretty bad at bluffing too, when we dont get the price we want, usually we just walk away and then they come runnng back. some dont bluff though, those ones are annoying.
anyways weve made friends with some peeps in the volunteer house so i think were going to explore. I think that bridge is going to start in the hospital tomorrow, and I will probably go to the orphanage tomorrow. I start teaching on monday. It is a very open schedule and we basically have full autonomy for our schedules. (except the teaching that is set), haha should be interesting considerin i havent taken english since grade 12, and i am supposed to be teaching english (with very minimal structure!).
Will try and post pics tonight, this computer seems a bit slow, but if im feeling patient i may uplaod the best pics we have so far.
xoxox
kk and bridgy