Marching on, Nepali style.

Michael (aka Michelle) after the daughters in our host family gave him a makeover

As we approach the one month milestone since our arrival in Nepal, it is staggering to consider everything we have learnt and experienced so far. Our daily Nepali lessons are slowly (very slowly) but surely acquainting us with the language, with all its intimidating linguistic and grammatical complexities. Customs and cultural beliefs are gathered daily, and awkward accidental breaches of these (such as the shameful act of touching food with our left hand, something easily done by myself during lapses in concentration at dinner) are becoming less frequent.

Will and one of his classes

 Our teaching abilities are also developing, enabling (hopefully) something valuable to be instilled in our students, however recent attempts to teach mathematical concepts like long division and prime numbers, with no translators present, have proved challenging to say the least. Games like snakes and ladders on the other hand are universally understood despite language barriers, and are always big hits in the classroom. But despite everything progressed, some things remain the same in village life. Daal baht still appears twice daily on our household menu, the monsoon rains can be reliably depended upon to thwart afternoon plans for walks and unfortunately, knocks to the head from low hanging door frames do not seem to be subsiding in the boy’s house.

A glimpse of the Himalayas through the cloud at Nagarkot

Our last weekend was spent on a weekend trip to Nagarkot. We travelled to the 2500m high town on foot, ascending up our district’s hilly countryside in a slow march (made slower by colds among the majority of our group, as well as the emergence of blisters from Meg’s new hiking boots) with the route guided by the trusty sense of direction of our host father. As our altitude up the mountain increased, so did the fog, which made for some amazing scenes of mist laden peaks.

Four of us at a local Nagarkot tea cafe

Our lodgings were fairly expensive (especially in comparison to our trusty $3 each p/night Kathmandu hotel) but sported an amazing view of the area. The following morning, a break in the thick cloud cover even revealed a cluster of snowy Himalayan mountains in the distance, which was quite a spectacle. The day here was spent exploring the town and sampling local teas and cuisines (especially our favourite - deep fried chicken momo dumplings), and our final night treated us to a roof top dinner atop our hotel, where we built a bon fire to keep us warm from the cool Alpine night.

The march home

All in our, our group still manages to coincide peacefully and fun is always had. Our perfect record of health has since been broken by a few bouts of stomach bugs - today I write this entry alone as Will rests up from his recent virus, but a speedy recovery looks optimistic.

Our village Dulal, as seen from above

Until next time, Aidan.

The 1950s Jeep we were given a lift in up to the lookout