The day after trekking was the Tij Festival where only woman can celebrate it. It is a day where woman and girls fast from 12am to sunset for their husbands to have long and healthy lives. I tried it, yes, but it was harrd work especially in this heat!!! I bought a nice red and beige Kurta (Salwar Kameeze or suit) and wore tikka (a dot of red paint on my forehead!) then we went with other households to a temple in Lubhoo where it was packed with woman from all over the area. Since my "Mum" was still in her year of morning for her father-in-law, he was not allowed to enter the Temple so I went in with my "Sister". I went round while she touched each ornament and put even more Tikka on her head while saying prayers. We then entered this one building where only woman were allowed in it, even though there were men surrounding the outsides, peeking in.... :s.
Once inside, there was loud religious/Nepali music being played and there were females sitting all around except for the middle where you had them DANCING!! Yes, dancing, and, yes, I was made to dance, in front of a couple hundred Nepali's, including the men outside! It was all of us female volunteers and it wasn't any kind of Westernised dancing, no no, I was TRYING to do the more traditional way everyone else was, yes, cringe. Anyways, the day ended and I got to eat WHOLE lot at sunrise!! Only then I found out that my "Mum and Sister" only ate some fruit and sugared water and were going to be fasting AGAINthe next day, boyyyyy, I was not up for that!
Oh yeah, one of my volunteer friends - Jamie - he lives with a house full of woman so he decided to fast with them, hahahah, it was so cute!
We found out that us volunteers are extremely lucky because we came at a time when all the festivals are happening - Tij, Dshain, Krishnas birth, as well as it being Monsoon season, resulting in a whole lot of days off!!!! Speaking of Dshain, we get 7 full days off -so exciteddd!!!!
So a couple of weeks ago my monthly cycle had to unfortunately play havoc with me, kmt, I came on... This meant that I couldn't enter the kitchen because then I would make the food and water impure..... :| so I had to eat my meals at the doorway.... also, I couldn't touch the well outside to get water, because I would them make the whole well impure!! Great, when it turned out that my "Mum" was on at the same time, leaving us with my "Sister" to help us out (how -when she's at school most of the time!!), oh yeah, another thing, no male member of the family can touch us, hence the reason why my "Sister" can only help us. It wasn't too bad, cos I had my "Mum" to eat with, if she wasn't there, you better believe I would've gone straight to my room!!
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Monday, 7 September 2009
Part 2 - HOTEL IN THE CLOUDS!!
OKAY!! So I haven't even mentioned my trekking experience from like two weeks ago!!! We started our journey at like 7am cos if we'd started it later it would've been DAMNNN hot going up the mountain!! Boyyyy, do I wish we'd had some warning as to what was coming, actually, maybe not cos then we would've chickened out!! Anywayzzzz, we were basically going uphill, like throughout!! I tell you, my thighs were burning - I best have got some toning done!! So, it was kind of ok going up, apparently due to the friction of our footwear paired with going uphill. The guy leading us kept on telling us "15 minutes, 15 minutes!" Believeeeeee he was saying that every half hour - kmttt!!!! Finallyyy, we get near the top about 2 n half hours later!!!! and the guy was like "There's a hotel on top where you can get french fries" - we were like "yea, yea, WHATever!!!" and what's on top??? A DAMN HOTEL!!!!??!?!!!! It was absolutely gobsmacking, We got onto the balcony of the hotel and I was literally speechless! The views were amazing, you could see the whole of Kathmandu Valley, and all the houses looked so miniature!!! The clouds were actually eye level with us, like something out of a film - you felt like you were in the clouds!! We stayed there for abit and yes - we got our french fries, hahaha!!!!
Coming down was TOTALLY different story, the friction with our footwear was no. longer.there. People were slipping left, right and centre!! And who got the brunt of it- yes - me. Cos of my crappy trainers I was landing on my arse a good 7 or 8 times, now, the first few times were hilarious, but after a while, nope, nope, nope, my arse (and my spine) weren't feeling it anymore. I was sooooo pissed off, one of the helpers had to actually help me down, step by step, like I was an Old Age Pensioner- kmtttt!! What made it worst was that we were going down little pathways and literally on the edge, so it was easy to lose your footing, had you not been looking where you were going!! All in all it was a wicked experience and I'm really happy I did it (and that we weren't prepared beforehand!) - but would I do it again - no way in Hell.
Coming down was TOTALLY different story, the friction with our footwear was no. longer.there. People were slipping left, right and centre!! And who got the brunt of it- yes - me. Cos of my crappy trainers I was landing on my arse a good 7 or 8 times, now, the first few times were hilarious, but after a while, nope, nope, nope, my arse (and my spine) weren't feeling it anymore. I was sooooo pissed off, one of the helpers had to actually help me down, step by step, like I was an Old Age Pensioner- kmtttt!! What made it worst was that we were going down little pathways and literally on the edge, so it was easy to lose your footing, had you not been looking where you were going!! All in all it was a wicked experience and I'm really happy I did it (and that we weren't prepared beforehand!) - but would I do it again - no way in Hell.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Part 1........
Soooooooo, yes Iknow it hasbeen a while since I posted....apologies!!
I think us volunteers have kinda morphed our mindsets to those who actually live here - Haha!
Take for example my friend Meena, everywhere we go now, she asks the price of something and straaight away she says "I'll give you 200 rupees!", she doesn';t even listen to the asking price, she goes in head-on! Funny shit! Even trying it in the village when everyone knows you DON'T haggle in villages!! Shame on you Meena!
A couple of weeks ago it was Father's Day here in Nepal, and I was rattling my brain thinkin about what to get for my host dad, turns out, a few sweets is appropriate enough, so I bought a couple of "expensive" bars of chocolate, and then come night time, when he got home from work, my "mum" made me actually "present" the sweets to him, kinda funny, kinda awkward... :s, it was a really cultural thing, then they had some indian sweets and we had to feed him!!
Have I told you that my "shower" consists of a bucket in the toilet...!!! Yes, that it what I have to use everyday, my "mum" gets me a big bucket of water from the well each day and I have to wash myself next to the squat toilet....how nice. I literally have to block my nose and breathe through my mouth, in fear of actually gagging! But I'm used to it now, what I'm still NOT used to is the freezing cold water flowing down my back, you'd think because of the boiling hot weather it'd be fine, but nooooooo, still freezing. Haha, funny story, the other day I was taking my "shower" and realised there was one of those fast, jumping spiders right above my head, yeaaa not nice, so my "mum" hears me screaming , lol, and I run out in my towel and all she does is swipe it into the water and it falls down the drain, believe she told my whole family and they were laughin about it the whole night!
The other day my "mum and sister" took my to get some red bangles for the coming festival, which was nice of them, after I found out that if people see a woman wearing red bangles then it means she is married, I guess it's a good thing considering I really don't want any Nepali guys approaching me anyways..... :D Then my sister took me to visit her school, which was really interesting because she goes to a private school, and I've seen what a government school looks like, and it is soo different! My sister has better, cleaner facilities, whereas the school is made out of clay, with everything a mess, also due to an earthquake which happened in 1989. Back to my sisters school, she showed me her class.... those kids are PACKED in. There's about 50 kids in each class, boyyyyy, and how they are all smart, I have no idea! Back in England a class of that size would run riot!! Also, because she has her SLC's (equivalent to GCSE's) coming up, she has to start school at 6am Sunday to Friday and finishes 6pm, are you maddd!??? It's unbelievable, and people round here go bed late, like 11pm/12am, so she and other kids like her only usually get about 4/5 hours sleep! Wow!! I NEED my 8 hours for sureee!! But nowadays it's more like 10 hours cos of all the work we do!!
Run out of time, have sooo much more to write about, will try tomorrow morning!!
xxxxxxxxx
I think us volunteers have kinda morphed our mindsets to those who actually live here - Haha!
Take for example my friend Meena, everywhere we go now, she asks the price of something and straaight away she says "I'll give you 200 rupees!", she doesn';t even listen to the asking price, she goes in head-on! Funny shit! Even trying it in the village when everyone knows you DON'T haggle in villages!! Shame on you Meena!
A couple of weeks ago it was Father's Day here in Nepal, and I was rattling my brain thinkin about what to get for my host dad, turns out, a few sweets is appropriate enough, so I bought a couple of "expensive" bars of chocolate, and then come night time, when he got home from work, my "mum" made me actually "present" the sweets to him, kinda funny, kinda awkward... :s, it was a really cultural thing, then they had some indian sweets and we had to feed him!!
Have I told you that my "shower" consists of a bucket in the toilet...!!! Yes, that it what I have to use everyday, my "mum" gets me a big bucket of water from the well each day and I have to wash myself next to the squat toilet....how nice. I literally have to block my nose and breathe through my mouth, in fear of actually gagging! But I'm used to it now, what I'm still NOT used to is the freezing cold water flowing down my back, you'd think because of the boiling hot weather it'd be fine, but nooooooo, still freezing. Haha, funny story, the other day I was taking my "shower" and realised there was one of those fast, jumping spiders right above my head, yeaaa not nice, so my "mum" hears me screaming , lol, and I run out in my towel and all she does is swipe it into the water and it falls down the drain, believe she told my whole family and they were laughin about it the whole night!
The other day my "mum and sister" took my to get some red bangles for the coming festival, which was nice of them, after I found out that if people see a woman wearing red bangles then it means she is married, I guess it's a good thing considering I really don't want any Nepali guys approaching me anyways..... :D Then my sister took me to visit her school, which was really interesting because she goes to a private school, and I've seen what a government school looks like, and it is soo different! My sister has better, cleaner facilities, whereas the school is made out of clay, with everything a mess, also due to an earthquake which happened in 1989. Back to my sisters school, she showed me her class.... those kids are PACKED in. There's about 50 kids in each class, boyyyyy, and how they are all smart, I have no idea! Back in England a class of that size would run riot!! Also, because she has her SLC's (equivalent to GCSE's) coming up, she has to start school at 6am Sunday to Friday and finishes 6pm, are you maddd!??? It's unbelievable, and people round here go bed late, like 11pm/12am, so she and other kids like her only usually get about 4/5 hours sleep! Wow!! I NEED my 8 hours for sureee!! But nowadays it's more like 10 hours cos of all the work we do!!
Run out of time, have sooo much more to write about, will try tomorrow morning!!
xxxxxxxxx
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Why, yes Mr. Grasshopper please hide behind my cupboard and KEEP ME UP ALL NIGHT.
As you can tell by the title a grasshopper hid away behind my cupboard ribbeting away all night long!! half the night I had loud music playing in my ears or I was shoving earplugs down my poor earholes!!
So, one thing I'm not going to miss about Nepal is the way the people seem to "hock up" their phlegm and retch it out every single morning, thank god my family don't do it, but everyone else seems to - not a good thing to listen to!
Back in Kathmandu on Saturday, we were walking out the hotel and this woman and her baby were begging in the street, I felt sooo badd, and she was asking me to buy some milk for her baby, showing me her little baby bottle, so I went into the shop she was standing outside and I saw the till guy just smile when we walked in, then the woman takes me to get the biggest tin of milk powder costing like 1000 rupees, and I was thinking whattttt?? then one of the girls in my group told me that her host brother does the same thing, begs for certain necessities and then goes back to the shop and refunds it at a lower price - taking the money for themselves and I just thought nahh mate and walked out. It's really easy for Westerners here to get conned! Imean, I know there are people struggling here, BUT Kathmandu is tourist central, and people will take the damn biscuit, for example, souvenir shopping, I wanted to buy this pretty bag and the woman started off with 800 rupees, thats like someones wage packet for the week, but obviously you need to get the hang of haggling - and I got it down to 400 - HALF PRICE!! But then I got home and my host brother tells me I still got conned and the bag3is worth like 200 rupees, but standard, 400 rupees is pratically 3.50 quid, so I'm not too bothered!
Obviously I told you about "Crazy Burger" - the nicest burgers on this side of the planet!! Yes, I can already tell it's going to be a great pasttime of ours - ahahah!!!
We had a bit of a problem getting back to our village from the city because our taxis were lattte picking us up!! I tell you, drivers here are CRAZY!!! I swear, beeping their horns is liike breathing to them!! Haha!! No-one indicates, people just move in and out of lanes at their own accord!! I soo surprised we haven't witnessed an accident yet!! Although, saying that, my taxi actually tapped a teenage boy's front bicycle wheel when the driver was trying to take a shortcut, and the boy popped out from behind a bus....
I dont't know whether I'm repeating myself, but oh well, when I first arrived at my host family's house I assumed they were vegetarians because they sdaid they didn't eat meat, but a week later and after some clarification it turns out that because my "dad's" dad had died last year and due to cultural traditions (Hindu - Bhramin) the family cannot eat meat for a whole year, which is up in 3 weeks!! Woohoo!! Alsoo, my lil "bro's" birthday is next week and the parents can't celebrate it at all - pisseddd!! I feel bad for him - he's so sweet!! Also, there are a few festivals going on at the moment, e.g. on Sunday where the woman celebrate their father's and husband's lives be fasting all day and going to a temple in the hills and dancing (which I WILL be doing - hahaha!!), where my "mum" will not be able to celebrate - again, pissed.
Back to the construction site, we have a kind of system going now, where some people dig the mud up, then some people shovel up the mud and then some people wheelbarrow it away - haha - pretty good don't you think! Ud. So, we've filled up the ditch and now we've still got all this excess mud, so we have to "wheelbarrow" the rest over the edge! It's going pretty well, but in the case of yesterday, when you have the Sun beating down on you all day long with only brief moments of breezes, it's not good, people had headaches, nausea, lightheadedness, so yeah, we weren't working to our full potential! Also, in the case of today, where I'm somehow able to be sitting at the computer and not working on the site at this very moment in time, is due to the rain pissing down all morning long and ending up with HUGGEE mud puddles on the work site!! Thus, getting the day off - Woohoo to the rain!! To be honest, it's good we had a day today, I don't think anyone would've worked well todayaffter the gruelling session yesterday!!
Mhmmm, I keep talking about Sushi and Dimsum - craving THAT now!
For our tiffin (lunch), most days we get pasta or noodles.... the other day we had chow mein - mhmm with a few bits of hot chillies thrown in - nice. Also, the other day we had fat omelettes inside roti's, ohh, best tiffin yet, by far.
Felt kinda low during the week cos I missed my mates 21st bday - booo! - Can't belive I missed THAT milestone!! All the prezzies, CAKES, photo sesh's, singing, kmtt!!!
Also, got to speak to BOTH my sister's, each living on separate sides of the world, it was nice catching up with them!!
Oh yeah, A BIGGG THANKS to Rachel for the tuness and the jelly beans, they have kept me going mannn!!!!!
love and leave ya!! xx
So, one thing I'm not going to miss about Nepal is the way the people seem to "hock up" their phlegm and retch it out every single morning, thank god my family don't do it, but everyone else seems to - not a good thing to listen to!
Back in Kathmandu on Saturday, we were walking out the hotel and this woman and her baby were begging in the street, I felt sooo badd, and she was asking me to buy some milk for her baby, showing me her little baby bottle, so I went into the shop she was standing outside and I saw the till guy just smile when we walked in, then the woman takes me to get the biggest tin of milk powder costing like 1000 rupees, and I was thinking whattttt?? then one of the girls in my group told me that her host brother does the same thing, begs for certain necessities and then goes back to the shop and refunds it at a lower price - taking the money for themselves and I just thought nahh mate and walked out. It's really easy for Westerners here to get conned! Imean, I know there are people struggling here, BUT Kathmandu is tourist central, and people will take the damn biscuit, for example, souvenir shopping, I wanted to buy this pretty bag and the woman started off with 800 rupees, thats like someones wage packet for the week, but obviously you need to get the hang of haggling - and I got it down to 400 - HALF PRICE!! But then I got home and my host brother tells me I still got conned and the bag3is worth like 200 rupees, but standard, 400 rupees is pratically 3.50 quid, so I'm not too bothered!
Obviously I told you about "Crazy Burger" - the nicest burgers on this side of the planet!! Yes, I can already tell it's going to be a great pasttime of ours - ahahah!!!
We had a bit of a problem getting back to our village from the city because our taxis were lattte picking us up!! I tell you, drivers here are CRAZY!!! I swear, beeping their horns is liike breathing to them!! Haha!! No-one indicates, people just move in and out of lanes at their own accord!! I soo surprised we haven't witnessed an accident yet!! Although, saying that, my taxi actually tapped a teenage boy's front bicycle wheel when the driver was trying to take a shortcut, and the boy popped out from behind a bus....
I dont't know whether I'm repeating myself, but oh well, when I first arrived at my host family's house I assumed they were vegetarians because they sdaid they didn't eat meat, but a week later and after some clarification it turns out that because my "dad's" dad had died last year and due to cultural traditions (Hindu - Bhramin) the family cannot eat meat for a whole year, which is up in 3 weeks!! Woohoo!! Alsoo, my lil "bro's" birthday is next week and the parents can't celebrate it at all - pisseddd!! I feel bad for him - he's so sweet!! Also, there are a few festivals going on at the moment, e.g. on Sunday where the woman celebrate their father's and husband's lives be fasting all day and going to a temple in the hills and dancing (which I WILL be doing - hahaha!!), where my "mum" will not be able to celebrate - again, pissed.
Back to the construction site, we have a kind of system going now, where some people dig the mud up, then some people shovel up the mud and then some people wheelbarrow it away - haha - pretty good don't you think! Ud. So, we've filled up the ditch and now we've still got all this excess mud, so we have to "wheelbarrow" the rest over the edge! It's going pretty well, but in the case of yesterday, when you have the Sun beating down on you all day long with only brief moments of breezes, it's not good, people had headaches, nausea, lightheadedness, so yeah, we weren't working to our full potential! Also, in the case of today, where I'm somehow able to be sitting at the computer and not working on the site at this very moment in time, is due to the rain pissing down all morning long and ending up with HUGGEE mud puddles on the work site!! Thus, getting the day off - Woohoo to the rain!! To be honest, it's good we had a day today, I don't think anyone would've worked well todayaffter the gruelling session yesterday!!
Mhmmm, I keep talking about Sushi and Dimsum - craving THAT now!
For our tiffin (lunch), most days we get pasta or noodles.... the other day we had chow mein - mhmm with a few bits of hot chillies thrown in - nice. Also, the other day we had fat omelettes inside roti's, ohh, best tiffin yet, by far.
Felt kinda low during the week cos I missed my mates 21st bday - booo! - Can't belive I missed THAT milestone!! All the prezzies, CAKES, photo sesh's, singing, kmtt!!!
Also, got to speak to BOTH my sister's, each living on separate sides of the world, it was nice catching up with them!!
Oh yeah, A BIGGG THANKS to Rachel for the tuness and the jelly beans, they have kept me going mannn!!!!!
love and leave ya!! xx
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Just a Quick One!
I haven't got alot of time at the internet shop today, but just wanna say, that the work is looonnnng and tirinnnnggggg, digging in the blazing hot sun, uh uh, a big no no!!! Other than that, I'm having a siccck time, yesterday we had our first Nepali language class, omdz, too funny, i cannot imagine having any other project supervisor than the one we have!!! lolol!!!!!
Also, I'm craving Nando's, badddd!!!!
xx
Also, I'm craving Nando's, badddd!!!!
xx
Saturday, 15 August 2009
First Week Continued....
Heyyyy, I'm back in Kathmandu!!! We got back yesterday!!
So, back to when we were staying at the hotel its funny when we would have to take group pictures because everyone would wanna get one on their camera, so you'd have this one guy taking pictures on 30 different cameras...ahahah!!!! Also, soem of the people kept on encouraging us to eat the "Nepali way", as in with our hands, now I'm allr ight with that seing as though I do that at home anyways, but to see other people doing it was soo interesting... I was quite shocked to see practically everyone having a go at it, somewhat proud even that they were even trying it, I even helped a couple girls, giving tips to make sure the rice daon't fall through their fingers,hahah!!!
Bal Krishna is one of the project supervisors, and he is the most sincere, kindhearted and optimistic person I have ever met, I tell ya! This guy is soo passionate about his work, he really cares about the volunteers getting the most out of their experience, it's a shame he's not with us at Sirutar!!!
We found out that we're here for the Deshain and Tihar Festivals which last for a whole week, and guess what???? We get the whole week off!!! Ahhhh, cant wait!! But I'm a bit miffed that we're not here for Divali, now THAT would have been a experience!!!!
The Monkey Temple was amazinggg, there was this one bit where the stairway up to the temple was realllly steep and like literally 200 metres long, but we didnt get to walk up it, I only took a pic at the top...Haha!
We also got to meet Bal Krishna's son... the sweetest little boy, so cute!!
To end outtime at the hotel and before we separated into the Sirutar and Lamatar group, we all decided to have a "jam session" up on the roof, it was really nice, two of the guys, Tarik and Ben brought along their guitars and we sang Wonderwall, aww!
So. When I got taken to my host family's house, only my "mum" was home, this woman is soooo sweet, all she did was giggle and act shy because she couldn't really understand me, but now I've spoken to her more through the kids and a little bit in Bengali, she treats me like a daughter and tells her kids to call me "big sister", awwwww!!!
I have a nice lil quaint room, simple, a bed and lil corner table and some draws, I'm not fussed, I could have lived out of my suitcase if I had to!! Stuck up pictures of home yesterday on my wall cos I was feeling a bit down and my family saw them and kept on asking me "Do I miss home??", so I felt a bit bad cos they felt like that!
Its amazing how smart my siblings are!! My "sister" was showing me her homework and she is 15 years old.... oh my gosh!... this girl is doing things like compoung interest profit and loss, probability, proofs......THINGS I DID IN MY FIRST AND SECOND YEAR AT UNI!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! Here I am a graduate and this girl is only like a year away from my level....WOW!!
Oh yeah, my "siblings" like to make fun of the fact that I say "wow" all the time!! haha!! They feel they can already start cussin me, feels like home a;ready..
At the site, we are working with THE most beautiful scenerybehing us, justpicture fields and fields of rice paddies and then green mountains as a backdrop!!! b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!!!!
We got given all our work equipment, gloves, helmet, goggles and mask - it was sooo funny when you had all the gear on, look like we were about to go to war!! But we're only usng the gloves at the moment.
We had to first basically fill this ditch with allthis mud we were digging from the other endof the site, which is practically filled now!! Now we have to get rid of all the mud and start the levelling process!! Great - more back-breaking work!!!
It's weird everywhere I go people keep assuming I'm Nepali, so I say I'm bengali, but then that just leads to more questions, so I just say I'm from the UK now, just to save from the hassle. :s
Interesting fact, the village we're staying at, not everyone celebrates the same..... "things". For example, my family are of Chitri caste and there was a festival celebrating the birth of Krishna on Wednesday and we didnt celebrate it, whereas other families of Newari caste didand attanded a ceremony being held in thevillage. That was a bad noght for me - haha - because the house behind my room were celebraing all night, playing banging loud music until 3am - and yes - i didn't get to sleep until 3am. Grr!!
It's sweet, my family spend alot of time with me, say I'm in my room the sibling will come and sit with me and talk about random thing and then the mum would come and sit and join in and even the Dad would be lingering at the doorway, haha!! Funny! And my "mum" is soo sweet she won't goto sleep until I go to sleep - I found this out last night- ooops!!
I brought along with me a 500 peice Simpsons puzzle and started it with the younger boy - "kiss my teeth" - the boy has nearly finished it!! I really wanted to do that!! Damn these smart kids!!
Another funny thing, the boy was listening to my ipod and some grime music came on - Kano, I Like It - and it was hilaaariouss when he started rapping to the chorus!!!
Yesterday, before we left for Kathmandu I had to get some washing done - ONE HOUR!!!!! - because it was all by hand, Ihad to keep re-rinsing my clothes - I had such a backache!!!
I think everyone was kinda relieved about coming to the city seeing as though we've all been living on rice and dhaal the whole week, so the first thing we did - got a cheeseburger and chips - you'd think we were going to a fancy restaurant the way we were acting!!! LOLOL!!!
Anywaysss, until next time luvies!!!!
xxxxxx
So, back to when we were staying at the hotel its funny when we would have to take group pictures because everyone would wanna get one on their camera, so you'd have this one guy taking pictures on 30 different cameras...ahahah!!!! Also, soem of the people kept on encouraging us to eat the "Nepali way", as in with our hands, now I'm allr ight with that seing as though I do that at home anyways, but to see other people doing it was soo interesting... I was quite shocked to see practically everyone having a go at it, somewhat proud even that they were even trying it, I even helped a couple girls, giving tips to make sure the rice daon't fall through their fingers,hahah!!!
Bal Krishna is one of the project supervisors, and he is the most sincere, kindhearted and optimistic person I have ever met, I tell ya! This guy is soo passionate about his work, he really cares about the volunteers getting the most out of their experience, it's a shame he's not with us at Sirutar!!!
We found out that we're here for the Deshain and Tihar Festivals which last for a whole week, and guess what???? We get the whole week off!!! Ahhhh, cant wait!! But I'm a bit miffed that we're not here for Divali, now THAT would have been a experience!!!!
The Monkey Temple was amazinggg, there was this one bit where the stairway up to the temple was realllly steep and like literally 200 metres long, but we didnt get to walk up it, I only took a pic at the top...Haha!
We also got to meet Bal Krishna's son... the sweetest little boy, so cute!!
To end outtime at the hotel and before we separated into the Sirutar and Lamatar group, we all decided to have a "jam session" up on the roof, it was really nice, two of the guys, Tarik and Ben brought along their guitars and we sang Wonderwall, aww!
So. When I got taken to my host family's house, only my "mum" was home, this woman is soooo sweet, all she did was giggle and act shy because she couldn't really understand me, but now I've spoken to her more through the kids and a little bit in Bengali, she treats me like a daughter and tells her kids to call me "big sister", awwwww!!!
I have a nice lil quaint room, simple, a bed and lil corner table and some draws, I'm not fussed, I could have lived out of my suitcase if I had to!! Stuck up pictures of home yesterday on my wall cos I was feeling a bit down and my family saw them and kept on asking me "Do I miss home??", so I felt a bit bad cos they felt like that!
Its amazing how smart my siblings are!! My "sister" was showing me her homework and she is 15 years old.... oh my gosh!... this girl is doing things like compoung interest profit and loss, probability, proofs......THINGS I DID IN MY FIRST AND SECOND YEAR AT UNI!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! Here I am a graduate and this girl is only like a year away from my level....WOW!!
Oh yeah, my "siblings" like to make fun of the fact that I say "wow" all the time!! haha!! They feel they can already start cussin me, feels like home a;ready..
At the site, we are working with THE most beautiful scenerybehing us, justpicture fields and fields of rice paddies and then green mountains as a backdrop!!! b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!!!!
We got given all our work equipment, gloves, helmet, goggles and mask - it was sooo funny when you had all the gear on, look like we were about to go to war!! But we're only usng the gloves at the moment.
We had to first basically fill this ditch with allthis mud we were digging from the other endof the site, which is practically filled now!! Now we have to get rid of all the mud and start the levelling process!! Great - more back-breaking work!!!
It's weird everywhere I go people keep assuming I'm Nepali, so I say I'm bengali, but then that just leads to more questions, so I just say I'm from the UK now, just to save from the hassle. :s
Interesting fact, the village we're staying at, not everyone celebrates the same..... "things". For example, my family are of Chitri caste and there was a festival celebrating the birth of Krishna on Wednesday and we didnt celebrate it, whereas other families of Newari caste didand attanded a ceremony being held in thevillage. That was a bad noght for me - haha - because the house behind my room were celebraing all night, playing banging loud music until 3am - and yes - i didn't get to sleep until 3am. Grr!!
It's sweet, my family spend alot of time with me, say I'm in my room the sibling will come and sit with me and talk about random thing and then the mum would come and sit and join in and even the Dad would be lingering at the doorway, haha!! Funny! And my "mum" is soo sweet she won't goto sleep until I go to sleep - I found this out last night- ooops!!
I brought along with me a 500 peice Simpsons puzzle and started it with the younger boy - "kiss my teeth" - the boy has nearly finished it!! I really wanted to do that!! Damn these smart kids!!
Another funny thing, the boy was listening to my ipod and some grime music came on - Kano, I Like It - and it was hilaaariouss when he started rapping to the chorus!!!
Yesterday, before we left for Kathmandu I had to get some washing done - ONE HOUR!!!!! - because it was all by hand, Ihad to keep re-rinsing my clothes - I had such a backache!!!
I think everyone was kinda relieved about coming to the city seeing as though we've all been living on rice and dhaal the whole week, so the first thing we did - got a cheeseburger and chips - you'd think we were going to a fancy restaurant the way we were acting!!! LOLOL!!!
Anywaysss, until next time luvies!!!!
xxxxxx
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Experience Of A Lifetime - I Shit You Not! Haha!!
OMG!!! I cant believe it's been nearly a week already in Nepal!!!!!!
So much to say in so little time (we've only got like an hour at the internet cafe..:() so I will try and "recall" everything from the beginning!!!
At Heathrow, it was so funny, my sis and bro dropped me off and eveyone started crying, even my brother - I was half crying and half hysterical laughing!! It was an all right flight to India, but our flight was delayed from India to Nepal, so we were waiting around (more like sleeping) for an extra three hours, on top of the two we had to already wait!!
The flight to Kathmandu was a bit rough, but still, we came out all right!!
As soon as we got off the plane, all I had was one word to say - BEAUTIFUL.
We even saw little houses on the sides of the green foresty hills, sick views!!!
We met representatives from Ideal-Friendship Nepal at the airport (Platform 2 's sister partner in Nepal), where they gave us each these nice little scarves - as a welcome present!
Once we got to the hotel, we had a litlle meeting on the roof, and I just kept falling asleep, I dont think anyone really had any sleep on the whole journey! We got given our Nepali sim cards and our first allowance!!!! HAha!! We got 700 Rupees each, which should practically last us the whole week....HAH!...believe when I say most people finished it within one day!! Obviously it could last us the whole week, but I think most of us just went crazy when we got to the supermarket - LOL!
We had orientation sessions for two days and although they were really interesting and informative, it did get tiresome, because it felt like a lecture or class, we just wanted to get started on our work already!!
We also got to vist the "Monkey Temple" and Patan Durbar squre, the first literally had monkeys running about everywhere and the second had the most beautiful temples!!!!
Fast-forwarding to yesterday, we separated from the Lamatar froup and the rest of us set oiff to Sirutar!!! Was really apprehensive about meeting my host family!! I have a mum, dad, two brothers and a sister!! The siblings all speak english, so I guess I'm all right communication-wise, alsoooo they gave me a Nepali name!!! Upsarra!!! which means "Fairy of the Heaven".... aawww!!!
We started working on the project site today!!! Basically starting with the levelling process - I tell you - HARDDD WORKKKK!!!! - my body is literally killing right now!!! I'm dreading tomorrow when it's gonna be huurrttinn!!!! Anyways, my time is nearly up at the internet shop, and I'll try to post something on Saturday when we have a day off and we get to go back to the city!!!!! ekkkkkk!!!
Until next time xxx
P.S. to all my friends and family - FACEBOOK WILL NOT LOAD UP ONTO MY COMP - therefore I am not able to update anything!! i know, im gutted too!!! I'm gona send my sis some picsa, so i'll tell her to try and send to you's lot as well!!!
Love u and leave you!!!!!
So much to say in so little time (we've only got like an hour at the internet cafe..:() so I will try and "recall" everything from the beginning!!!
At Heathrow, it was so funny, my sis and bro dropped me off and eveyone started crying, even my brother - I was half crying and half hysterical laughing!! It was an all right flight to India, but our flight was delayed from India to Nepal, so we were waiting around (more like sleeping) for an extra three hours, on top of the two we had to already wait!!
The flight to Kathmandu was a bit rough, but still, we came out all right!!
As soon as we got off the plane, all I had was one word to say - BEAUTIFUL.
We even saw little houses on the sides of the green foresty hills, sick views!!!
We met representatives from Ideal-Friendship Nepal at the airport (Platform 2 's sister partner in Nepal), where they gave us each these nice little scarves - as a welcome present!
Once we got to the hotel, we had a litlle meeting on the roof, and I just kept falling asleep, I dont think anyone really had any sleep on the whole journey! We got given our Nepali sim cards and our first allowance!!!! HAha!! We got 700 Rupees each, which should practically last us the whole week....HAH!...believe when I say most people finished it within one day!! Obviously it could last us the whole week, but I think most of us just went crazy when we got to the supermarket - LOL!
We had orientation sessions for two days and although they were really interesting and informative, it did get tiresome, because it felt like a lecture or class, we just wanted to get started on our work already!!
We also got to vist the "Monkey Temple" and Patan Durbar squre, the first literally had monkeys running about everywhere and the second had the most beautiful temples!!!!
Fast-forwarding to yesterday, we separated from the Lamatar froup and the rest of us set oiff to Sirutar!!! Was really apprehensive about meeting my host family!! I have a mum, dad, two brothers and a sister!! The siblings all speak english, so I guess I'm all right communication-wise, alsoooo they gave me a Nepali name!!! Upsarra!!! which means "Fairy of the Heaven".... aawww!!!
We started working on the project site today!!! Basically starting with the levelling process - I tell you - HARDDD WORKKKK!!!! - my body is literally killing right now!!! I'm dreading tomorrow when it's gonna be huurrttinn!!!! Anyways, my time is nearly up at the internet shop, and I'll try to post something on Saturday when we have a day off and we get to go back to the city!!!!! ekkkkkk!!!
Until next time xxx
P.S. to all my friends and family - FACEBOOK WILL NOT LOAD UP ONTO MY COMP - therefore I am not able to update anything!! i know, im gutted too!!! I'm gona send my sis some picsa, so i'll tell her to try and send to you's lot as well!!!
Love u and leave you!!!!!
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Au Revoir!
Finally, the day has come!!! I'm gonna be leaving home in just under two hours, packing nearly done, just worried about the weight though :s.
So the next time I blog, my ass will be in Nepal, hopefully it won't be raining!!
See you on the other side.
Over and out.
So the next time I blog, my ass will be in Nepal, hopefully it won't be raining!!
See you on the other side.
Over and out.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Nepal Here I Come!!!
Sooooooo, tomorrow is departure day!! Finalising all little bits & pieces today, well, I'm trying to at least!!
Had a very nice night out last night with a couple of my girlss!! A night I will not forget for a while!
Aww, they gave me a good sendoff, a nicely packed few hours of ghetto-lingo, giggles, outbursts and......smoke?? hahah!!! inside joke i guess! Will miss my friends a hell of alot!! (not to mention my familyy!! :'( )
Anywaysss, flight is at 20:45, and i'm making sure i get a good last family lunch in me before I leave!!! I'm thinking either a very delicious spaghetti bolognaise courtesy of my lil sis, or a good ol' hearty shepherds pie courtesy of me big bro!! mhmmmm!!! decisions, so many decisions...lol.
Over and out, 'til tomorrow...hopefully.
Had a very nice night out last night with a couple of my girlss!! A night I will not forget for a while!
Aww, they gave me a good sendoff, a nicely packed few hours of ghetto-lingo, giggles, outbursts and......smoke?? hahah!!! inside joke i guess! Will miss my friends a hell of alot!! (not to mention my familyy!! :'( )
Anywaysss, flight is at 20:45, and i'm making sure i get a good last family lunch in me before I leave!!! I'm thinking either a very delicious spaghetti bolognaise courtesy of my lil sis, or a good ol' hearty shepherds pie courtesy of me big bro!! mhmmmm!!! decisions, so many decisions...lol.
Over and out, 'til tomorrow...hopefully.
Only One Week To Go!!!!
(Thought I lost this post a week ago, but found it again, so here it is, 1 week late!)
Ahhhhh, my first ever post!
So I have started my very own blog, :] , which is funny because I never thought I'd be one of those people, you know, people who write about their everyday lives, who have other people who actually read about their everyday lives, well, that's what I hope, that I will have others who are interested in the "adventures" in which I am about to embark on (most prob. only Rach - haha! - please let that not be true!!!).
Anywhoooo, back to the reason why I actually started this thing!!! I am off to Nepal next week and have decided to document my journeys - yes -you will get to find out what I get up to in this beautiful and amazing country - hopefully daily, if not then at least weekly!!
My adventure is only possible due to a random conversation I was having a friend of mine, about how I wanted to go travelling after uni (oh yeah, I am a Queen Mary Graduate in Mathematics - yes, boffin, I know.) and not go straight into work (not like there was any chance of that happening!) and so my friend told me about a friend of hers who was in India volunteering and how it was completely free. I thought to myself "Wow, travelling for free?! No Way!" so did some research on this organisation - Platform2 and it turned out yes, she was right!!
Platform2 is a global volunteering scheme for 18-25 year olds who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to visit a developing country and get involved with global issues of jusice and poverty. It is fully funded by the Department for International Development.
So basically, Platform2 helps young people to visit third-world countries and enables them to "help out", such as, teaching children in schools, building schools, helping out in orphanages, environmental restoration, ect. Platform2 and the DID works in countries such as Nepal, Peru, India, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, in addition to that, I think I heard they will be working in Tanzania also!
I applied back in March for the August departures (lol, they wanted applications to be in 3 moths beforehand, but me being an eager beaver, got it in like an extra 2 months earlier..) and then got a reply in June, I think, for an interview. It was a pretty standard interview, they just wanted to know about me and just wanted me to be as honest as possible about myself. I then heard back from them about a week and a half later saying I got accepted!!!! Woohoo!!! And to Nepal as well!!! And from then on it was practically 'all systems go', like they wanted me to start preparations straight away, I was thinking, 'crap! i only just got accepted, and you want me to start getting injections, filling out forms, ect.' haha! funny thinking about it now, now i've got it all done and just waiting to leave! But it was all worth it, because I'm about to spend 10 WEEKS IN NEPAL - ARGGHHHHHH!!!!
I just read a testimonial on the Platform2 website from two of the guys out in Sirutar, Nepal right now (who were the first batch of people to go there btw!!) and it sounds absolutely amazing!!! Eeeeekkkk!!!! (That's me making a really loud and annoying noise showing how happy I am!!)
That was my first EVER post - over and out!
Ahhhhh, my first ever post!
So I have started my very own blog, :] , which is funny because I never thought I'd be one of those people, you know, people who write about their everyday lives, who have other people who actually read about their everyday lives, well, that's what I hope, that I will have others who are interested in the "adventures" in which I am about to embark on (most prob. only Rach - haha! - please let that not be true!!!).
Anywhoooo, back to the reason why I actually started this thing!!! I am off to Nepal next week and have decided to document my journeys - yes -you will get to find out what I get up to in this beautiful and amazing country - hopefully daily, if not then at least weekly!!
My adventure is only possible due to a random conversation I was having a friend of mine, about how I wanted to go travelling after uni (oh yeah, I am a Queen Mary Graduate in Mathematics - yes, boffin, I know.) and not go straight into work (not like there was any chance of that happening!) and so my friend told me about a friend of hers who was in India volunteering and how it was completely free. I thought to myself "Wow, travelling for free?! No Way!" so did some research on this organisation - Platform2 and it turned out yes, she was right!!
Platform2 is a global volunteering scheme for 18-25 year olds who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to visit a developing country and get involved with global issues of jusice and poverty. It is fully funded by the Department for International Development.
So basically, Platform2 helps young people to visit third-world countries and enables them to "help out", such as, teaching children in schools, building schools, helping out in orphanages, environmental restoration, ect. Platform2 and the DID works in countries such as Nepal, Peru, India, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, in addition to that, I think I heard they will be working in Tanzania also!
I applied back in March for the August departures (lol, they wanted applications to be in 3 moths beforehand, but me being an eager beaver, got it in like an extra 2 months earlier..) and then got a reply in June, I think, for an interview. It was a pretty standard interview, they just wanted to know about me and just wanted me to be as honest as possible about myself. I then heard back from them about a week and a half later saying I got accepted!!!! Woohoo!!! And to Nepal as well!!! And from then on it was practically 'all systems go', like they wanted me to start preparations straight away, I was thinking, 'crap! i only just got accepted, and you want me to start getting injections, filling out forms, ect.' haha! funny thinking about it now, now i've got it all done and just waiting to leave! But it was all worth it, because I'm about to spend 10 WEEKS IN NEPAL - ARGGHHHHHH!!!!
I just read a testimonial on the Platform2 website from two of the guys out in Sirutar, Nepal right now (who were the first batch of people to go there btw!!) and it sounds absolutely amazing!!! Eeeeekkkk!!!! (That's me making a really loud and annoying noise showing how happy I am!!)
That was my first EVER post - over and out!
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