TravelNepal2014

A 16 year old girl's travels around Nepal and to Kopila Valley Children's Home. www.blinknow.org

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Krishna jamming out 💕

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Ate lunch with the kids today. Using no utensils is great!!! There is actual a method and rhythm to it that makes it look not gross at all, almost like a finger dance.

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Short update:

Today after my classes we have our final drama rehearsal. In total we've had four or five rehearsals because time has been so restricted but I'm amazed by how fast the girls have picked up their dances and lines. This year instead of doing a full blown play the kids are split into three groups, each doing their own thing. One group is dance/acting the song lean on me while two girls sing and I play guitar. The second group is performing a short skit about a mother who thwarts her daughter dream to dance until a fairy convinces her otherwise. The third skit is a self organized and choreographed dance to a popular Hindu song. Today is our dress rehearsal for some of the teachers, and tomorrow morning is our actual play. Hoping that all goes well!!! After play practice I'm walking with my roommate Suzy to a get together of women that Kopila Valley teacher started. I'm not completely sure of what is to be expected but I'll post an update tonight!

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Ravi the miracle boy

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Ravi's Story

Four days ago, an older woman showed up at school with a baby asking for Maggie. When Maggie answered the gate, to her horror, the woman bore a dying child only three months of age. She rushed him to the hostile, and gathered blankets and a car to take him to the hospital. The baby was covered in his own feces and throw up, his eyes lolling back into his head, and his skin wrinkling from malnourishment. There was a lot of doubt about the babies fate. The hospitals in Surkhet are not in the best shape, and so after being given antibiotics and an IV the baby was returned to our hostile. Taken back by the whole situation we were all stunned and struggling to figure out what to do with the child. He's been given the best of care by loving children and volunteers from the second he arrived, and will be to the second he leaves (in about two months, going to a children's school/orphanage) I can assure anyone. The volunteers and aunties have taken shifts with the newborn baby, feeding, changing, and tending to him. When he first arrived he was consuming roughly half an ounce of formula every few hours. A normal baby his age should be taking about 5 oz. He has a gastric disorder, and can't retain food very well, weighing in at about 2.5 kg, or 5lbs. Today, little baby Ravi consumed about 3-4 ounces per sitting, and is looking livelier than ever before. He is still in need of nourishment and love but he is on his way to a bright future. Maggie Doyne is an amazing woman and no doubt saved this little boys life. She and him both are an inspiration to everybody here.

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Some beautiful little girls

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I would like to say the lack of post has been due to the lack of internet, but it's also due to the fact that I am usually wiped out after every eventful day. I teach three classes usually per day, third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade English grammar and health classes. After school I also teach a fourth theater class to ages 5-9th grade. We should have a performance ready in 10 days, which is incredibly minimal, but not impossible! Orren has successfully translated his bees to the New Lands and I hope to check them out tomorrow on the weekend. Today I went to the market with my roommate Suzy and bought fabrics to make cortas out of, which I am equally excited for. Two days ago was my birthday, but unfortunately I spent it throwing up and in bed reading. However, it has given me time to finish one book and get through a chunk of Game of Thrones book one. Thankfully it was only a 24 hour bug. Tonight for dinner we had a Momo party! (a food resembling a dumpling) I was amazingly surprised by how much some young girls and boys could eat. Overhearing their thrilling shouts of how many they'd eaten was astonishing, some at 30 and 40! The power is often blacking out, and it monsoons every day around 4 but I love every second of it. The rain is the best part of the day. Except for the humidity it brings. Tomorrow I'll be going on another jungle hike and will surely update with photos. I've gotten a bit homesick over the last few days with being sick and all, but when I'm with the kids I forget about it. They are the most cheerful loving people I've ever met, their faces shine with the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen. I love sharing every moment with the people here, for everyone carries the brightest vibes with them, casting light and not shadows wherever they go.

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Jungle Hike

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I couldn't have asked for a better Saturday. The kids have Saturdays off for school so it's more of a relaxing lazy day. I started off today with a lovely hike through jungle accompanied by a woman named Tracy, Orren, and my roommate Suzie. It was about two hours long and we all came back sweating because of the humidity - even though the hike itself wasn't very hard. When we arrived back at home we walked over for lunch, and after when I returned to my dorm I took an hour or two (who knows how time flies) to myself to read and relax. Afternoon tea is something I look forward to every day and is the some of the best tea I've ever had. Tonight was "Family Game," and we played kick ball. My team was being crushed in the first innings but made a valiant effort and ended the game 7-9. Some people went home after kick ball, but most every one 11 and up stayed and played soccer. Some of the boys are absolutely amazing at soccer, and the games were exhausting running back and forth trying to keep up with these skilled Nepali children. I hope there's much more soccer to come. For dinner the fellows and I went out to eat at a rooftop Indian restaurant where we just ordered piles of food and laughed and talked for hours. Some friends from the peace core caught up and talked with us for a while towards the end as well. I am so lucky to be around such passionate and inspiring people all the time, all the children included. I hope I can reciprocate all the love I feel here.

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Finally at Kopila! Today was amazing and exhausting (the good kind) After breakfast (oatmeal w/pomegranate seeds) we headed from home to school and split into groups. Today was community service day. My group took a bus to the jungle, where we made a small climb up some of the mountain planting trees all the way. The children were absolutely amazing and inspiring with their everlasting excitement and passion about planting and being in nature. They showed me one plant, where when you bent it you could blow bubbles and soon bubbles were flying all over the forest. They also showed me a type of fern that had white chalk and if you placed it on your arm and gave it a light slap it would tattoo your arm. We discovered my arm was too pale, so we innovated and rubbed mud all up my arms so the white chalk would leave it's pattern. Upon our return to school we were served lunch. I sat with two lovely girls on the rug and ate our dal baht, while they laughed at my attempts at Nepali. Learning names is a bit tricky, especially because sometimes they tell you their last name as well which can be many syllables. After school Orren invited me to check out some bee hives with him. We both expected to be driven in cars, but to or surprise we both rode on the backs of motor bikes through the streets. At first it was a little terrifying but then I adjusted and it was exhilarating. We had to dodge goats, chickens, pedestrians, pot holes, cows, other cyclists, etc. The bee hives themselves were surprisingly similar to bee hives of america, and should be easily installed in the new land of Kopila Valley. Sunday or Monday Orren has to transport the hives from part of Surkhet to Kopila some how. The ride home from the bee shop was just as fun because the rain had really started to beat down. When we got back home, Orren and my roommate Suzie and I sat down for some tea and coffee, curled on couches on our balcony watching the downpour. The roof that wasn't underneath the balcony began to flood and practically was a swimming pool, which the kids definitely took advantages of. It became a slip and slide water fight extravaganza. Like I said, today was an amazing and exhausting day, and it was only day one. I can't wait to see what else is in store for me.

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Today has been a fairly laid back day. Orren and I left the hotel around 10:30 (it was supposed to be 10 but we both accidentally slept in) First we headed to a beekeeping shop that was about a 30 minute drive away. Orren talked bees with the owner and picked up some bee keeping supples for Kopila. Next we headed to recommended site, Patan Durbar Square. We didn't take very long walking around and checking out temples but it was amazing to see. On our way home we stopped for lunch, and by the time we had finished the sky had turned black and so we walked home before the rain started. Ever since then it's been Monsooning quite hard and we've been relaxing in our room, sleeping, reading, and watching movies. Later we might go back out to the square and practice our sub par bargaining skills while we wait for Maggie Doyne's arrival. We are so excited!! Over all I think that I am accustoming well to the time differences which is nice. Nepal is certainly contradistinctive to the United States. Nepalese people are some of the nicest people I've ever met, people on the streets will wave to Orren and I and ask where were from and talk to us for minutes just wanting a conversation with us. We are offered taxis every few minutes or so. People are in general very gregarious. Obviously there are a few luxuries I miss from home, like my bed and my animals and lovely family + friends, but Nepal has most definitely treated Orren and I with such amiability that no doubt we are passionate to be here. Heading to Kopila tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

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Monkey Temple

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July 20, 2014

Jet lag is a bitch. Yesterday I was up for 24 hours traveling from plane to plane, arriving in Kathmandu around 4pm. Not allowed to sleep until 8pm Orren and I occupied ourselves until dinner. At dinner Orren and I and our lovely hotel hosts went out to a traditional Nepali restaurant. Our host told us about how traditionally there would be 84 courses, but the restaurant had adjusted a special that included 12 courses, each of a small portion. I ate wild boar dipped in 5 spices (my favorite course) mutton MoMos, dried buffalo, lentils, rices, breads, all dipped in spices and sauces I had never heard of before. (Btw Himalayan salt in Nepal is amazing) As you can imagine when I crashed in bed around 9:30 I crashed hard. I woke up a few times but instantly fell back asleep. Waking up around 9am Nepal time, my stomach wasn't feeling too accustomed to Nepali foods yet and I wasn't feeling well enough for breakfast. Orren and I sat in the living room for an hour or two just gorging ourselves by looking at the hundreds of books and movies piled high everywhere. We talked and played some guitar while it monsooned outside, and when the rain stopped we wandered outside for a walk. Orren tried his first bartering skills at a store, and we're not necessarily sure how well that went. We're both pretty sure he was completely scammed. But now he says he's prepared for some hard hitting bartering tomorrow when we go back out onto the streets. From wandering the streets we went to lunch at an Organic Cafe and Farmers Bar where we ate amazing tomato mozzarella salad with ginger lemon honey tea. (My stomach still couldn't handle any more Nepali food for today) over all today has been an adventure already and I am assume based on our agenda that tomorrow will be just as amazing if not more.

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Talk about power lines. Apparently the Nepali people don't check to see which one is broken and so they just string a new one. People hang wires into their house and hijack power everywhere. Not surprised there are so many black outs!

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Kathmandu, The courtyard