Leprocy & TB in the air but that won't get us down.

Hailey went to the Leprosy hospital today. Leprosy is completely curable if it is caught and treated early. Unfortunately most of the people in Nepal cannot afford to go to a doctor. Out of all of the cases of lepr0cy all over the world, 60% of the cases originate in India.

TB has been the other major topic in the volunteer house “In the mountain kingdom of Nepal -- one of the poorest countries in the world -- almost half of the over 20 million population are infected with TB. Of these, up to 90 000 people have active TB and there are 44 000 new cases of the disease every year.” Scary!

Cost of Living:

I know I’ve mentioned the bus and the taxi’s I have been taking while I’m here but I haven’t really talked about the cost. We pay 15Nrs (Nepali Rupee’s) to take the bus, this is equivalent to about 17 cents Canadian. We pay 250Nrs to take a taxi most places of course this varies depending on how far we are going, what time of day/night and how good our haggling skills are but this is equivalent to about $3Cdn.

My friend down here from Perth asked me why I’m not just taking a cab everywhere because it is so cheap and I would be spared being squished onto a bus like a sardine. To say that I enjoy the bus would be a lie but I can say that I came to Nepal to experience Nepal. I didn’t come here to be a tourist. People don’t come to Nepal because the air is clean or the beaches are beautiful (there are no beaches). I can’t speak for everyone but I came to Nepal because in the face of everything these people are dealing with, the dirt, the poor living conditions, the overcrowded everything, the insane government, they are happy. They take care of each other and the people around them. If I tell the bus driver where I want to get off, he will go out of his way to find me on the bus and make sure I get off at my stop (OK with the exception of my first day but that was as much me not knowing where I was). One of the ladies in our house wrote on her fb “The smile on my face doesn't mean my life is perfect ..It's means I appreciate what I have and what god has blessed me with .“

Fun Facts:

-It is Fathers Day in Nepal tomorrow. Happy Fathers Day Dad!

The value of Personal space

Did I mention that the water I use to make my tea is slightly off color? I usually put the tea bag in first but the other day someone passed me a cup of hot water so that I could make my tea and we all realized that the water we are using for our coffee and tea in the morning is not clear. Hmm… wonder when that’s going to start affecting the internal system? (I spoke to soon…today was the day!)

As I walk down the streets of Nepal I notice there are holes in the paved road. I am assuming that this is some form of sewage or drainage system for the roads. Nobody seems to know what it’s for or where it leads LOL

Today was another crazy day at the Orchid Garden. I am getting use to the routine and the teacher and I are somehow managing to work one on one with the kids despite the incredible amount of noise and fighting that the remaining 20 kids can generate.

Hailey is now (or maybe always was) completely independent of me down here. She has a great group of friends that work with her at the hospital and they have now taken to going out before and/or after work without me. I’m now wondering if it is me who needs her more than she needs me.  The good news is while she was out shopping she bought me a beautiful new top and left it on my bed as a surprise. The girl has great taste!

I heard from Douglas today. I’m not entirely convinced it was Douglas on his own as his message was very well written but if it took prompting I guess I should at least be glad that I heard from him. I do miss my boy :) After spending my days with 22 - 2 & 3 year olds I may never complain about him being loud again.

Five of us went into Thamel tonight. We all crammed into one cab. To put this in perspective, the cabs in Kathmandu are all Suzuki Maruti’s (google that), they are about the same size as Le Car, remember those. Anyway, so picture five of us plus the driver; that was still not near as packed as the bus during rush hour!

When I got back Hailey told me about her day. She was able to sit in on several surgeries and a birth. She was very excited about it and said “It’s just like Grey’s anatomy only dirtier.”  (Hey Sio, she is loving the births, we may need to talk to you when we get home :) )

I learned today that the reason the streets all seem to be under construction is because they are. Apparently very recently the government decided that the roads should be widened and everyone was forced to accommodate this at their own expense. I will post photo’s later but essentially the sides of the roads are full of bricks and sidewalks being constructed or possibly re-constructed. Many of the buildings look like they are part of a war zone. They literally took off the front section of many buildings and are re-building them in order to make the street wider. It is the equivalent of removing the living room from your house and re-facing it. The pictures speak volumes so now that I understand what’s going on I will take a walk tomorrow and post photo’s.

Garbage & Passover....

So further on the topic of garbage – someone came to the house yesterday to collect our garbage. I asked one of the girls about it and I was told it isn’t the norm in Nepal and that Scott, the man who runs the Mountain Volunteer Program is most likely paying a high price for this service. The sad part is that nobody knows what actually happens to this garbage once it is taken away. In all likelihood it ends up in the river with all of the other garbage. When I asked what other households do with their garbage I was told that most would burn it, all of it, including plastic bottles, bags, etc. What doesn’t get burned is out on the street, in the gutters and in the river. In fact when we were visiting one of the historical temples on Saturday we stopped to watch for awhile because there was a river beside the temple that is considered very holly and people come from all over to dip their hands in, wash in it, splash it on themselves etc. While we were watching someone emptied a bag of flowers etc into it as an offering but then threw the bag in!

Today was a good day at the school. For some reason the ladies decided to rip apart our classroom, take out the carpets, clean the floor and clean the one or two shelves in the room. This was right up my alley, I love organizing and cleaning. We also did the usual ABC’s and 123’s. I stayed at the school until 5PM tonight because Chimmi, the teacher that I work with wanted to bring me to her church. This was quite an experience. She is trying very hard to convert me, as she is very enthusiastic about her religion. She says she is Protestant but they practice Passover and they were trying so hard to convince me of their view/interpretation of the bible it was almost like being ganged up on by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Dust in my eyes, garbage all around :(

Every morning when I wake up now my eyes are swollen. My guess is it is from the incredible amount of dust and exhaust fumes in the air everywhere we go. Many of the roads are still dirt or have so much dirt on them that the traffic stirs it up.

They do not compost or recycle in Nepal. You see garbage everywhere in the streets and people won’t hesitate to just drop their garbage where they stand. There are areas where it appears the garbage has been collected on the road and yesterday we saw a truck and man collecting it (with a shovel). I’m wondering if this is their idea of garbage pick up?

The battery on my computer is not staying charged for very long. According to Hailey I have killed the battery by leaving the computer plugged in all the time or not letting the battery deplete completely before plugging it back in. In any event what use to last most of the day is now only lasting me an hour or so and given the constant power outages it is very frustrating.

Today was a slow day at the school. I enjoy my mornings with the younger children but my afternoons I do not feel very productive. I left early today as I felt I was just standing around while the older children worked on their Nepali printing.

Tonight a few of us met up with an acquaintance of mine from Perth, now that is a small world! He brought us to a Puja (this is an expression of honor, worship and devotion). It was a chanting and drumming ceremony by a group of buddist monks at a temple in the Boudha district.  Afterwards a group of us went out for a fabulous dinner, had some laughs and finally stayed out a bit later than normal.

More fun facts:

• - All women are referred to as Mam or Sister. The children at the school call me Mam and the other girls in the house call me Sister.
• - Charlie got lost going to the school yesterday. At least it’s not just me 

Massage and Mindi

Today was a great day for mom and daughter. After walking for hours and hours yesterday we had a relaxing day today.

The banda (transportation strike) was off today and we are getting better at figuring out the bus system so we hopped in a tuktuk (3 wheeled truck?) and headed to the Lazimpat area where we had massages. There is a place called Himalayan Healers of Nepal Massage Therapy where a man named Rob, from the US, has set up a business training the untouchables to do massage. The untouchables are the lowest caste in both India and Nepal. Those that still follow tradition will not hire them, one of the only jobs they can get is in cremation. Anyway, Rob let us have a 90 minute massage for the price of 60 minutes because he knew we were volunteering in Nepal and it was a friend of his that sent us there. OH yeah and best part…it only cost 1,300rps=$15Cdn!!! I spoke to Rob about Taxes, running a business and the corruption in the government in Nepal. Very interesting to talk to a local business owner.

After our massage we walked to Thamel where we had an amazing lunch, purchased some postcards and a camera. No great bargain considering how close we are to China! Then we took a Rickshaw to the Monkey Temple because there were lots of people giving mindi’s (hand painting) there.  We got a bit lost so climbed a few hundred more stairs than we needed to because we got a bit turned around which added a bit of stress but we only bickered a bit and moved on.

Other fun facts:

• We do not have air conditioning in our room but the nights have been cool enough that I really wouldn’t want one. OK yes we all know that I don’t use my air conditioning in Canada either but truthfully the evenings have been cooler here.
• We did laundry again today but did not make it back home before the daily rain storm knocked it all down. Back to square one!
• One or two of the volunteers have been mildly sick but nothing major so far and Hailey and I remain healthy but tired.

Exploring Kathmandu Valley

Today is Saturday, the only day off. Kids here go to school 6 days a week.

A group of us from the house (Joanna, Charlie, Michael, Hailey & I) decided to go sight seeing today. I suggested we hire a driver for the day rather than attempt to continually negotiate prices and attempt to explain where we wanted to go. I think it cost us a bit more money but in the end we were all glad we did this because the private van did not fall under the banda/strike and was still able to drive us.

We visited: 

Pashupatinath Temple - is considered the most sacred among the temples of Lord Shiva (Pashupati). Only Hindu’s are allowed to enter the temple.

Boudhanath - A world Heritage Site in Bouddha. It is one of the largest spherical stupa’s in Nepal.

Bhaktapur – the old city & Dubar Square (Layaku). It is the third largest city in Kathmandu Valley. 

Seto Gomba (White Monastery) near Monkey Temple (Swayambhunath Stupa)

The driver left us at the Monastery as he did not want to wait for us to walk up to it and back which was supposed to take an hour each way. As it turns out he drove us all the way to the top so I’m not sure why he couldn’t just wait for us but that is what we agreed to so he left. It started to rain when we left the Monastery around 2:30PM and it didn’t stop. It took us until 7PM to walk back to the house as the buses and taxi’s still are not running. We were soaked right through by the time we got home. I am exhausted and every muscle is screaming at me.

Kathmandu Valley is made up of Kathmandu District, Lalitpur District and Bhaktapur District. Each has its own Durbar Square and we have now visited all of them.

More random thoughts:

•      When I turn the tap on to rinse my toothbrush my feet get wet because the water leaks out the bottom pipe.
•      The only mirror is in the bathroom. Hailey is missing her mirrors!
•      Nepal has an entirely different calendar than we do. It is actually Shrawan 28, 2069 in Nepal!

Accounting in Nepal!

There was a banda (transportation strike) again today, they say it will continue until the prime minister steps down. Hmmm… That meant we had to walk to and from work and had to cancel our plans for this evening because we were not energetic enough to walk to the next town. People are a bit concerned about how long this one will last because it makes it difficult to get anywhere including the airport for those who are leaving.

I was speaking with the woman who runs the school a few days ago. She found out that I am an accountant so today after working with the kids all morning I was asked to help her with her bookkeeping. I always knew it was a profession that would allow me to get a job anywhere, I just never figured I would be doing books in Nepal! 

I am too tired to write too long so point form instead tonight.

Weird unimportant info:

•          the blanket on my bed is a superman blanket!?*
•         I washed my clothes today. Only option – by hand on the roof, hang to dry. Pray it doesn’t rain before they dry.
•         It is monsoon season in Nepal. It does rain every day however most days not until after we have gone to bed. Last night I’m not sure it stopped all night but the sun was shining all day today. It is overcast again now (dinner time) so it will probably rain again tonight.
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     Trying to establish better habits:

•         Hailey and I have been listening to Deepak Chopra meditations every morning.
•          I started doing sit ups in the morning
•     I forgot to pack a yoga mat but so far I have been too tired to go to yoga in the park with the locals. It starts at 5AM!