We have met a lovely community of
volunteers through VSN. They are all young and intelligent 19 or
20-somethings open to learning about new cultures, a new breed of travelers with a conscious wanting to do something good for the
world. It has been exciting being around this youthful energy. One
particular volunteer, Darcie, who shared our homestay, is a year
from becoming an MD in Australia. She left today, leaving us with
sweet words on a card. She states she has optimism for adults now,
after seeing that our family has picked up our lives to travel
around the world for 9 months. The young volunteers have had the most
impact on Raven. Darcie, Karen and Vincent have been so great with
her, treating her better than a little sister. I think she can relate
to them better than she can with the Nepalese kids her own age. This
may be in part due to the language, but also the shared western
cultural values. Visiting Nepal this way has been excellent, as we
can make semi permanent homes and relationships. Pepsi Cola is safe
enough that we can leave Raven to walk to the school, shops or the
VSN office by herself, or go out for lunch with another volunteer
without us. This gives her so much needed independence in a country
that had we be visiting in the traditional way, we would never let
her out of our sight!
I have started teaching at the school
in the mornings. This school is so rich in resources when compared with the empty classrooms of Salleri.
There is paint on the walls, books in the libraries and even a
computer lab. Tej, the director of VSN, wanted me to have some input
on how the school functions here- and I can honestly say it is a good
place to be. The teachers care about the kids, and while there is
still the emphasis on rote learning, there is no information that I
can impart as a 'quick fix'. Change has to be wanted by the teachers,
and put in place in a non threatening and positive way. His school
program is his baby, and he has just hired an experienced volunteer
coordinator to better meet the needs of the volunteers so he can
focus on the management side of things. It is nice to see such a hard
working forward thinker in a traditionally laid back- don't fix it if
it ain't completely broke- kind of culture.
The 21st, Friday, we got up
early to go to the Indian Consulate to get our visa process started.
We knew we had to make 3 visits, as Vincent had let us know how he
did this last month. We took a taxi and got there by 8:30am. While
talking to a tourist in line we were informed us that they had just
changed the process. Last night we should have downloaded and printed
the online visa application form. We couldn't even get to an internet
cafe and do it this day because the forms are dated, and it had to be
done exactly the day before. We realized the passport size photos
that we got done yesterday were also not the correct size, so we had
to get re-dos. We had a bit of a shopping trip in Thamel, instead of
waiting in the Indian Embassy for hours. My other goal for the day
was to locate the Bikram Hot Yoga studio. I found where it WAS, but
could not locate the new location, if there was one. The phone number
on their facebook page was outdated (I had our host family call the
other day) and I was wanting to find out when classes were, so I
could participate in a heated cardio yoga session. No luck. It seems
nothing is easy here!
On our ramble to search for the studio,
Raven did find a Baskin-Robins, and ate candy floss ice cream, which
tasted fairly authentic! She had the tiniest little scoop, but I
think it was worth it. Frozen items are not plentiful in a country
where the power goes out daily because of load shedding. We also
stopped for lunch in Mandala Street at a western style bakery. We ate
tasty little bakery pizzas, heated in the microwave. The cheese on
the pizzas here is yak cheese- think a harder parmesan style cheese,
not quite as nippy. It doesn't really melt, hence the pizzas are not
greasy like when made with Canadian cheddar or mozzarella. This deli
was selling some kind of Christmas fruit cake and we saw Butterball
turkeys in the freezer! I hope they have a backup generator! Since we
are not planning on celebrating Christmas until our return in July we
didn't bother enquiring about either items.
Friday night we went out for a
traditional 'goodbye volunteer' dinner in recognition of Darcie
leaving Nepal. There is an Indian restaurant nearby that 11 of us
went to. We ate tasty Indian food at the Manohara Restaurant and
Party Palace! I expected the restaurant to be indoors, but we had an
outside concrete hut with a tarp roof. The table was low, Japanese
style, and we sat on pillows. It was pretty chilly, especially as we
had to take our shoes off at the door. The waiter seemed pretty
confused by serving so many westerners, but got most of the orders
correct. Surprisingly, none of the volunteers ordered rice with their
curries! We watched the chefs make our fresh garlic naan instead.
Saturday is the only day off in Nepal.
Since we took yesterday off for visas, it felt like an extra day
today. Raven wanted to hang at home, as she had fallen and hurt her
tailbone and wrist while roughhousing with the orphanage kids. She
wasn't into traveling today and Heath has been fighting dizziness
and diarrhea, so he was also content to stay home. I wanted to have
a 'me' day and visit the Garden of Dreams and practice hot yoga, but
that wasn't going to happen. When we went to go on the internet and
skype at VSN in the morning, I couldn't find the new Bikram Hot Yoga
location, if there really is one . The Garden of Dreams is a garden
in the Thamel area. It costs 200R (2$) to enter, but doesn’t seem
to be amazing enough to justify a bus trip on it's own, especially as
it is winter, and most of the flowers won't be in bloom.
Tina, a volunteer from Belgium who
practices yoga in the mornings with us, had mentioned a local run her
host father had told her about that was happening in Pepsi Cola at
2pm. We flip flopped over whether we wanted to go or not- it sounded
like a 'fun run' but we didn't want to be the only western women
there, especially since neither of us have had any cardio exercise
for a few months. At the last minute we decided to go. The deal
sealer occurred when we were sitting in the LTC Fast Food an open
garage door style restaurant opposite the football field waiting for
lunch when another westerner approached us and asked “Are you here
for the hash?” We all looked at him with confusion- this was a
pretty brazen drug transaction! He meant the Harriers Hash- the
Kathmandu running group that had today's run scheduled for this area.
Restaurant food always takes ages, so we ended up scarfing some
chowmein super quick before walking to the meeting site to sign up.
200 R for the non alcoholic run or 500R for the beer run. I figured
that since I haven't run for 3 months, nor drank much alcohol in the
same amount of time, I'd better choose the beer option. We had no
idea how long the run was going to be, only an estimate of 5 km, with
a beer stop en-route. Apparently, the Harriers used to have an actual
hash smoking stop along the way, hence the name, but not any more. I
was certain these people weren't elite athletes as a few were smoking
cigarettes pre–start. This also lessened our anxiety abut the
competition!
The small collection of runners were
from many nationalities, mixed genders and abilities. After a quick
introduction to the rules we set off. Apparently the run usually
happens in the forested areas around Kathmandu, so the participants
were a little upset about the 'ugliness' of this area. The route was
marked by flour. Until we saw the first marker, Tina and I weren't
sure if the organizers meant 'flower' or 'flour'. It was a little
like orienteering. There were little sprinkles of flour along the
route, but sometimes you'd have to route find because the flour
sprinkles could be placed up to 200 meters apart. This was
challenging when we came to an intersection. We were told to yell “on
on” when we saw these, so no one got lost en-route. There were also
designated 'wait' spots- the lead runners would wait for the slower
ones to catch up before continuing. This ensured that no one got left
behind. Sometimes the 'rabbits' would be busy running or walking
ahead trying to find the flour markings, while us slower runners
would wait, glad for the break while they 'caught the trail'.
don't miss the flour markings...
bridge
view of Pepsi Cola
We wove through the agricultural area
near the garbage strewn river, crossing a rickety bamboo and
corrugated iron walking bridge, then through the 'slummier' areas.
People live in small shacks in this area of no running water or sewer
systems. It wasn't stinky, and I am sure they live quite well, given
the circumstances. Nepalese people are clean and give high priority
to cleanliness. Perhaps not to western levels of hygiene, but clean.
We ran through their fields, on narrow raised pathways between the
rice paddies and spinach and greens gardens. We were given some
pretty strange looks- which we countered with a pleasant “Namaste!”
as we continued along. This is one of the reasons I haven't yet gone
running solo in the mornings- I don't want to flout that my life is
so privileged that I need to invent a way to sweat and work! I guess
I am afraid of being judged.
One of our 'catch up' breaks was in an
open sandy area- apparently a few months ago an air-plane had missed
the runway and crashed here, leaving 19 dead. Apparently this is a
fairly regular occurrence.
At the end of the event (probably 5
km?) we all stood in a circle and toasted the newcomers and the
virgins. The others sang a song, then we had to drink an allotted
amount of beer from a brass cup. If we weren't finished in time we
had to poor it on our heads. Luckily there were snacks to absorb the
alcohol with- potato chips and carrots with dip, and banana bread.
Hot momos arrived, and I ate one, thinking they were vegetarian, but
it was saltier, and browner. I had consumed a buff momo. Oops. Good
thing I'm not allergic!
beer stop en route
Needless to say, I was fairly loaded by
the end of the 'ceremonies'. I opened a beer for the road (big 650 ml
beers) and started walking. I was chilled after standing around in
sweaty clothes. Unfortunately I ran into my house mother sunning and
chatting while sitting on her friend's shop steps on the way home.
How to explain this- a Tshirt wearing woman in lycra pants stumbling
down the road with an open beer?! I greeted her and told her 'not to
ask' and continued along my happy way
No comments:
Post a Comment