Random Observations: Part 1

Let's start with traffic and driving. I have never seen anything like it. I thought I had witnessed some pretty crazy manuevers in Italy, but they've got nothing on Nepal, especially in Kathmandu. First off, you have to reorient yourself because they follow the opposite right-of-way rules, and the steering wheel is where the passenger normally sits in America. There are no lanes and I think I have seen about 3 traffic lights total in the whole country. People are forever weaving in and out in the crazy mess of buses (loaded so full that passengers are hanging onto the back and sitting on the roof), cars, people, motorbikes, rickshaws, cows (cows are sacred animals here and they are allowed to roam wherever they want), chickens, ducks, and dogs. I believe they invented the game of playing chicken with each other; it looks like you're going to batter another car head on and then they both intuitively know at the right moment when to get out of the way. Then there's the horn. Now this part actually makes sense to me. I hardly ever use my horn back home, and even then it's usually too little too late---the guy has already hit me. Drivers here are constantly laying on the horn, but they are warning people that they are coming. Some friends and I recently took a trip up to a remote mountainous area and the road was all narrow hairpin turns and switchbacks and the horn of our van was broken. We were totally freaked out, even after just a week, because we knew just how crucial that horn was so we wouldn't die!

There is a terrible gas shortage here in Nepal. You can see vehicles stretched out forever just waiting for the petrol stations to open. My last day in Kathmandu, I was in a taxi and the driver said that he had gotten in line at 8:00 the night before, slept on the roof of his taxi, and then finally got gas 13 hours later at 9:00 in the morning. Gas here is probably running at the equivalent of $4.25 a gallon, but $4.25 US is a LOT of money to a Nepalese person.

I will write soon about the awesome family that is hosting me, but for now, I'll just say that I think I have a pretty nice situation considering some of primitive things I have seen in such a short time. That said, my toilet is a hole in a closet that I have to bascially steady, aim and fire. I have become a pro at it in a relatively short time as I have been a little sick. I am still a slave to my toilet paper---most people do not use it here, but at least you can still find it, though it is like GOLD once you have it! There is a little faucet in the corner where you wash yourself with your left hand. Because of this, the left hand is considered very dirty and you should never extend it to anyone or eat with it.

Yes, we eat with our hands. . . well, the right hand. I eat rice and curry and potatoes all with my hand now. The Nepali look like pros as they do it; I look pretty much like a dork, but am developing the technique. And speaking of eating, they eat SO much. These tiny little people---especially girls, and I have seriously seen them lay waste to enormous plates of rice. I am in awe. The food is very good, but it is very much the same all the time. It is a vegetarian diet, heavy on the, you guessed it, rice. Heavy on the spices too. It is also the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I am a huge fan of breakfast for dinner back in the States, but much less into the whole dinner for breakfast thing.

Back in the saddle again. . .

Yesterday I finally got to go to the school where I will be teaching this summer. I was so scared for some reason, you'd think that I'd be used to "first day of school" jitters by now. I have seen so many COMPLETELY precious school children all over Kathmandu during the past week and these children were no different; perhaps a little poorer than some of the others I had seen, but still so adorable. In fact, the children here are simply beautiful. To school the boys and girls alike wear long-sleeve button-down shirts (pink and dark blue on alternating days at my school) with striped ties. The boys wear slacks and the girls wear pleated skirts with knee socks and bows in their hair. Just so cute. Especially the little ones. But that is really all of them, because all the children are just so tiny (most of the grown people are very short too). However, in my limited experience here, it is very obvious that the personality traits of the ages and grades are the same here in Asia as they are in America.

Either it is because it is a disorganized school or it is because many of the secondary classes (classes 7-10, translating to roughly the same grades in America) have been taking monthly exams, many of the students have had an inordinate amount of time to make me their new pet. The combined class of grades 9-10 (which is the class I will definitely start teaching first) has been most busy with exams, but truthfully, they have seemed the least impressed with me, like "Yeah, we've seen an American before." Class 7 thinks I'm just terrific though. Almost a little too terrific, as they very very clingy and needy, with the girls being especially possessive of me. They lead me away and stroke my white skin (they love white skin here!) and play with my hair and plant kisses on my cheeks and ask for me to sign my autograph on their hands. It's CRAZY!. Frankly I'm exhausted after just a few hours. Class 8 likes me too, but it's toned down to a manageable fever pitch. They are "cooler" about their teacher worship. They are more interested in helping me with my Nepali and their personalities are hilarious. You can tell that in this class the girls and boys are already less scared of each other. It really is just the same in America.

Right now I am hopelessly trying to memorize all of the students' names in classes 7-10 and it is nearly impossible. All the children still look so similar, and the names are SO SO foreign. They don't resemble anything that we have in America, and I am drowning! I get a pretty funny reaction when I tell them my name too, as Camila (as they say it) means "ant." You would crack up to hear me speak English to them; it is so slow and I think I am picking up a weird Nepali/Indian accent (I was hanging out with an Irish girl last week and her accent was rubbing off on me, so I suppose I am more easily influenced than I thought!).

I have so utterly crazy and bizzarre things to tell you and I can't wait to hear your reactions. I am missing home probably more than I ever have in my whole life because everything is just THAT different.

Be patient with me!

Hey everyone! This past week in Nepal has been a little crazy so I haven't posted anything on here yet. I will actually arrive at my teaching project tomorrow and then I will have more control over my time. . . meaning that I can update you all on the action. I've been keeping a journal so a promise you won't miss anything.