COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Breana Macpherson-Rice
Namaste! Greetings from the second Nepal placement of 2013. We have been living in this beautiful country for just over a week now, although it feels like a lot longer. Already the thought of leaving our new Nepali families is a sad one.
We stepped off the plane into humid summer rain. We were pretty tired by then - having been awake for 24 hours straight - but that wasn't long enough for Ush who ran straight back on the plane to get her phone. Nepal's Tribhuvan airport was the only one where Nat's bag wasn't torn apart to look for a fork, which probably says something about their take on security. Much to his surprise, four days later he found the elusive fork whilst rummaging through his bag for a pen.
Leaving the airport, we found the faded A4 poster saying 'Antipodeans' and had our first encounter with KEEP - the Kathmandu Environmental Education project. Everyone there, especially Kabita, our in-country partner, made us feel extremely welcome and comfortable, which is saying something considering how vastly different Nepal is from our everyday lives. We stayed at Hotel Encounter for the first three initiation days, and all fell in love with their Masala tea - so good! We toured the city briefly one afternoon in a purple bus, seeing the jaw dropping sights of Pashupathinath Temple, where Ruby had to dodge an enthusiastic monkey, Baudrt Nats Stupa, where we got to see mandalas being hand painted, Swymbhu Nats Stupa or 'Monkey Temple' as it is rightly called, and Durbar Square, where we got to see the living goddess Kumari.
These world heritage sites, each hundreds of years older than any building found across our entire country, served as a fantastic introduction to Nepal's extremely rich culture. We also spent some time wandering the shops of Thamel, where we quickly found out that Milly is by far the best at bargaining in our group, which came in handy as we all acquired our own pair (or two, or three) of Nepal's signature 'happy pants', and also discovered that Ellie has a penchant for wandering that often leaves us scrambling through the shops trying to find her.
Before we knew it were were crammed into the back seats of two 4WDs, bumping and twisting up a mountain where our home for the next few months awaited us. The village of Kisandol, much to our amazement, was not quite the typical setting we had imagined - rather, it consisted of a few houses spilling down the side of a mountain, all connected by winding, muddy trails and precariously laid steps, which everyone slips on quite often (especially Usha). We are living in three houses connected via rooftop on a little ledge of the mountain, belonging to the families of Gokul, Bhola and Bhairab. They are unbelievably welcoming. Rather than just giving us a food and a place to sleep they are offering us a place in their families. We are already calling our sisters 'Didi' and 'Bohini' and our brothers 'Bhai' and 'Dahzou'.
On Tuesday we had some variety in our diet, breaking away from the twice-daily dahl baht (consisting almost entirely of food grown, harvested and prepared by our families) as we all shared a massive Jackfruit in Gokul's living room. The unusual fruit, described by Hannah as 'mango-banana flavoured goldfish', was shared between all the families and antipodeans, and truly solidified our comfort with these kind and generous people. That night we all learnt more about each others culture, exchanging songs, anthems, poems, magic tricks and dances (the Macarena falling short when compared to the vitality of traditional Nepali dance).
We're all settling in pretty nicely. We have Gabe to sort out any language issues, as he's picking up Nepali faster than the rest of us, team mum Claire to help organise us and keep us all together, and Jess to keep us humming along with songs from home. Ama has developed a reputation for her riotous laughter, Roo has already braved the altitude and gone for a morning run (which we are in awe from), while Amanda seems to have a talent for attracting massive beetles (of which Nepal has no shortage).
Bre is thoroughly enjoying showering out of a hose in the early morning sun, and Ruby has quickly become the favourite human of the various goats she passes on the way to school, as she gives them each a friendly pat. Much to our dismay, apparently Nat and Gabe have already developed a 'perfect' method for washing, earning them respect from all the mothers in the village. There have also been a couple of rescue moments, with Bre and Jess saving each other from spiders and mosquitoes, and Gokul's household having to chase a mysterious cat from Ellie, Claire and Amanda's bedroom.
Despite that we are all loving it here. We will write again soon, as school and teaching is a whole new story.
Bre and Ellie.
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