Namaste Nepal!

COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching and Mixed Health
WRITTEN BY:  Julia Quine

Namaste! Tashi Delek!

After months of preparation the time has finally come! We all arrived at different times at a hotel in Kathmandu, and eventually gathered together on Sunday night to meet the legendary Kalden who welcomed us to Nepal and gave us a run down of the days to come. The next morning, we boarded a surprisingly comfortable bus that would take us on the 8 hour journey to Pokhara, our new home for the next 4 weeks.

There is something inherently magical about being on a bus driving through the beautiful valleys, occasionally catching glimpses of the majestic Himalayas. There is something inherently not magical about this being accompanied by one of the bumpiest bus rides you can imagine. Somehow though, most of us managed to sleep. After a couple of food stops that were accompanied by Dire Straits, Jimi Hendrix and Rodriguez blasting over the speakers at one point, we arrived in Pokhara. We immediately went to Tashi Ling, a Tibetan Settlement about 10 minutes away from Lakeside, and met our host families.

Tibetan hospitality is like no other. The meals are huge, endless and extremely carb loaded. Let’s just say that we’ll need to fulfill our desire to go trekking to balance out all the rice we are eating. Then there’s the tea! To live like a Tibetan, you must drink tea like a Tibetan. ie. All. The. Time. For the tea drinkers among us, it is heaven! The families are all incredibly kind and giving, and have made us all feel like family in just a matter of days. It is a beautiful culture, and we are all feeling very privileged to be a part of it.

On our second day in Pokhara, we had a small tour of some of the main attractions. We visited Devi’s Falls, a beautiful waterfall very close to Tashi Ling, a Hindu temple and then off to Lakeside to explore the many shops and cafes for the first time. I expect many post-work coffees and meals out there!

We have all started our placements and have been there for only two days thus far. The nurses at both hospitals have been visiting different sections of the hospitals and are easing themselves into a routine that they hope will lead to much more hands-on experience.

The teachers at the schools were thrown in the deep end immediately and were teaching on their own on the very first day. The level of English is impressively high, and teaching the children is proving itself it to be tiring, although very rewarding. The shy smiles the children give when you catch them staring at you, and the big smiles they smile when you tell them they are doing well make it all worth it.

This weekend we are visiting the World Peace Pagoda on Saturday and then paragliding from Sarangkot on Sunday. Wish us luck!

Next week I will talk more about our daily life in both Tashi Ling and our respective work places so that everyone can get a bit of a feel for the experience we are having here in this beautiful Tibetan settlement in this beautiful country!