When Nepal becomes home...

COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Nathan Pauletto


Things feel like they've finally returned to normal for us. No more strikes, very little sickness and everything seems to be falling into place.

Every morning we wake up, sometime between 5:30 and 7 to take our morning meal of tea and biscuits. It's blessedly cool this time of the morning, it's been getting into (we estimate) somewhere between the 25 and 30 degree rage during the day.

From what we can gather the monsoon is late this year, causing the flies and mozzies to stick around. The school is a leisurely one minute walk from the house, we can just lounge on the day bed and go when we hear the morning bell!



We come home for lunch, usually eating roti, a flat bread, or some sort of dry snack food. School ends at 5, and between then we teach classes 1-5. The younger ones don't really understand us all too well, so those classes are filled with games, dancing and singing. Dinner is around 7, so those two hours we have free we spend reading, exploring the town, cooling off at the waterfall, chilling at one of the numerous houses we are invited to after school for tea, or (mine and Bella's personal favorite) indulging in our new found love of knitting.

Mum's care pack was possibly the best thing from home. We had a Mi Goreng cook off one night for dinner, and everyone loves the muesli bars and photos.

Walking through the sleepy streets of Banepa, the crazy, death streets of Thamel or taking the that leads to our house all feel so normal now. It feels like home. I can't believe what we like when we landed here, like lost little lambs! We could barely navigate two streets from our Hotel, now it seems though there isn't anywhere we can't go. Learning the language has plaid a big role in that. We can get to the 'Nepali' districts, away from the tourist area and manage a brief conversation with the shop keeper, and we can usually get a better price if we haggle in Nepali!\



Kabita visited us two days ago and we told her of our plans for the school. After much, much deliberation with ourselves and the school we've decided to spend the bulk of the fundraising on a brick wall for the school, real stairs and a gate to keep the "riff raff" out. Leftover money will be spent on furnishings like maps, more supplies for the kids and little left over the orphanage in nearly three weeks. Yikes it's gone fast! This weekend we'll travel to Thamel to pay for all of this and hopefully have everything finished 20 days from now.




Right now I'm sitting in a teacher's house, using the internet and I'll have to leave for school soon, so I'd better stop and send you more this weekend.

Nathan.