Saturday Adventure

So this past Saturday I had a little adventure that involved a lot of walking.  I left the house with one of my fellow volunteers around 7:15.  No one else wanted to go, which was very fine with me because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to reach my proposed destination and a big group is WAY, WAY slower.  A few days earlier, I’d spotted a little temple when I was further down the valley way up on the tip of a ridge in the distance.  Really, all I saw was the glint of something in the sun, and asked what it was.  Someone said it was a temple, so naturally I wanted to go!  I envisioned a beautiful temple on a precipice overlooking the river. 

A stone carving at a little temple on the way up.

We headed out with a very vague idea of how to get there.  We hiked up to the top of the ridge the short way which is really cool.  It is steep and towards the top you get into a coniferous forest of sorts.  We reached the ridge in about an hour, and wandered over the top of it until we got to a road which we followed for a while.  At one of the forks about a half hour down the road, I randomly decided that the left fork would take us to the temple.  Of course, I was right!  First, we climbed up one of the hills near the path/road we were on and found a mini temple with some flags lazily blowing in the wind. 

Mini-temple

We split one of my friend’s Clif bars and after a short walk down the hill we reached the temple I had seen.  It was very much on a precipice, but did not overlook the river.  You could see and hear the river very well, but there was another steppe below the temple before the cliff dropped off into the river valley proper.  I spent some time sitting in the sun in what I would describe as “great napping weather,” and then we headed back the way we came.

Good Napping weather at the temple

Looking down from the temple

On the way we stopped at one of the millions of little tea shops along the road and had some tea as we as some very delicious curried garbanzo beans.  I also spotted an ice cream type cone that was packed with what appeared to be frosting.  I was right!  It was pretty yummy, and also a little bit nauseating.  I am big fan of ordering things when I don’t know what they are.  There is definitely some interesting food out there!

We hiked back into the town of Chautara, and met up with a bunch of the other volunteers. 

Along the road to Chautara

 

Some of them claimed that on the drive in a month ago they spotted a pizza and burger place on the road somewhere.  The issue was that no one knew how far back down the road this restaurant is.  A lot of us decided to hike down the road to find it.  But first, we stopped by the local bakery which is very yummy.  I had some cake that was over-priced for the taste, but the cream filled donuts are a nice treat.  And off we went…several hours later we were still walking and we decided to turn around.  On the way back we stopped at a little place and I promptly ordered something off the menu that I didn’t know.  It said it involved peanuts though so I went for it.  I got a plate of roasted peanuts with some spices, onions, and chiles on it.  YUM! 

A pleasant forest on the way back to Chautara

Two volunteers strolling down the streets of Olde Towne Chautara.

A temple in Chautara

 

Then back to Chautara where some people got some ice cream which is pretty legitimate ice cream and I opted to sample the samosa place.  I’ve never had one and boy they are super tasty.  It was a very flaky pastry with curried potatoes on the inside.  I also bought a little round ball of dough that turned out to be sweet and have some pieces of fruit in it.  After that we had an uneventful walk back to our houses and I went to bed early after walking all day.

My Family Thinks I am Sad

So I only have a brief story to tell about life here in training.  As you can imagine the initial excitement about being in a new place is naturally wearing off after a few weeks of being here, and my host family has found this very alarming.  To add to this, the constant language classes are very tiring, so I come home at the end of the day very beat and frankly not ready to interact with people in my family right away.  I’ve going off and playing soccer most days almost right after coming home, and after soccer I am usually rejuvenated and ready to handle everything.  Sometimes though, I am just not interested, and want to be left alone.

Anyways, I’ve had several family members come up to me and ask me what happened, and I had no idea what they were talking about.  My host sister-in-law walked up to me once and told me, “Ethan, your face is SO sad.”  I felt worse for her than I was feeling.  I wasn’t particularly sad, just tired.  Then my host cousin, who speaks English quite well, told me that everyone was concerned because the first week I was here I was super enthusiastic and laughing a lot, and now I just look really sad all the time.  Again, I just said I was tired.  Of course, I miss home sometimes, but I didn’t really know how to explain that the first week I WAS super enthusiastic and excited about being somewhere new.  But now new has become normal, and I’m still enthusiastic but I’ve just leveled out.  Also, class is REALLY tiring.  To be fair, I get asked if I am sad in the states a fair amount 1) when I am tired and 2) when I am super content and relaxing.  I think when I am totally relaxed my face relaxes, and I guess most people interpret my lack of smiling or other facial expression as sad.

I felt sort of bad that they seemed to be taking my leveling out like they were personally doing something wrong.  They kept saying I could talk to them, which I appreciate, but they just wanted to fix a non-existent problem so badly that it was on the verge of being…cartoonish.  Occasionally they would hover over me for about 5 minutes just waiting to see if I needed or wanted anything.  This of course didn’t really help when I was not up for interacting with anyone.  I think they’ve accepted the change finally, and also I’ve made an effort to smile more at them even when I’m tired…or maybe I just played more soccer this week and since I’ve sort of established a semi-routine I’m able to deal more easily with not understanding what is going on around me, and my host-mother’s obnoxiously loud voice at 6 AM.  Anyways, my fellow volunteers and I had a pretty good laugh about how sad my family thinks I am.

Pictures...Hopefully I can get these into posts in the future

Sunset from my house



An interesting house while driving to training site

A FRUIT STAND!!! Look at all the fruit!!!



Some rice terraces on the walk to my house (seen in the distance)

Some bigger hills in the distance, no mountains yet

Some volunteers at the Teej festival in Saris

A shrine at Teej festival

Hiking down to the river through the rice paddies

On the hike down to the river

The river.

My house

My room.

My room, notice the light

A nice patio in Kathmandu

One of the waterfalls on my waterfall adventure

Walking down to the creek is a pretty steep endeavor

Ther prettiest area of waterfalls

Looking down on the waterfalls pictured above.

Some very green rice terraces near my house

Training Adventure

I’ve had a couple of small adventures recently.  The other day I walked down to the creek near my house with one of my fellow trainees; I was very interested in getting to some waterfalls that I’ve seen from my house.  I had tried previously but I took a fairly direct route and ended up getting stopped at the edge of the rice paddies due to some pretty exciting stinging nettles.  They hurt!!  And the next day my leg was really numb.  We took a sort of short cut down a few steep gullies through the rice paddies.  My plan was to get to the river, and then follow it up to the waterfalls.  Based on my previous experience I figured this would involve wading up the river to avoid stinging nettles.  I was right!!  At the river, my fellow hiker decided going up the river was not to her liking, and decided to bail.  I continued on, and after an hour and a half or so of walking up the river, I got to the first waterfall.  I didn’t completely manage to avoid all the stinging nettles, and I walked headfirst into a number of very thick spiderwebs with some big spiders that did not appreciate my head in their home, I’m sure.  I made sure to duck under them as much as possible.

The first waterfall off the main creek bed on a little tributary and was very pretty, but was not the one I wanted to get to.  I continued up the creek and got pretty far and then was spotted by some people in the rice paddies who immediately panicked and started whistling and waving at me to get me to come up to them.  I wasn’t quite satisfied with my expedition, so ignored them and continued on.  I scaled some steep rice paddies to another tributary and found another pretty fall which was not quite the one I wanted to get to, but they were in levels, and the next level I could not reach.  So I continued up the main creek, and shortly got to a little canyon.  This was the prettiest area.  There was a waterfall at the end of the canyon, and another coming in over the right side of the canyon, and a bit above the fall at the end there was another little fall tricking over the cliff.  This canyon also contained a lot of spiders, but was very beautiful, so worth the effort.  At this point I walked back out of the canyon and up a little trail in and around the rice paddies until I reached the people who had been whistling at me.  I told them there were no problems, and that I was just taking pictures…and by people I mean 13 year old boys.  They still decided I was hopelessly out of my league and horribly lost and so guided me back through the rice paddies to my village.

The next day was Saturday and we had the day off, so a bunch of other volunteers came down to see my village and the one down the road from mine in the afternoon.  I spent the morning washing my clothes and cleaning my room…and by that my host sister and law helped me…a lot.  She just could not bear to watch my struggle with my clothes, and then decided to start cleaning my room so I had no choice but to follow and help. Later, all of us volunteers walked down to the real river.  We took a shortcut through the rice paddies down to the creek I had gone to the previous day.  The Nepali boy who was guiding us brought us to a crossing, and shortly after that we reached the road that we had started on.  We had just cut off a bunch of switchbacks by going through the rice paddies.  And a little after that we reached the river.  It is a pretty good sized river: a bit bigger than the South Platte in CO.  There were a bunch of local men bathing at the bridge.  Public bathing is popular in Nepal.  You have to leave some sort of underwear on (preferably shorts or boxers), and women wear some sort of dress thing.  I went down to where they were, stripped down to my undies, and jumped in the river.  Towards the center the current was really moving and it was pretty deep so I decided to swim across to the other side where there was an overhang that runoff water was cascading over, and when I stood under this overhang it was sort of like a shower.  I was quickly joined by another volunteer, but no one else was quite as into playing in the river.  I swam back across, re-dressed and we all hiked back up.  This was a very hot and humid experience, so we stopped at a little tea shop on the way up which had cold cokes and it even had ice cream!  I didn’t partake as I am trying to hold off on the soda and stuff until I am really desperate.  I learned that soda can be pretty addicting in Mali, so I’m trying to stay more on top of my “flavors of home” cravings. 

Training Adventure

I’ve had a couple of small adventures recently.  The other day I walked down to the creek near my house with one of my fellow trainees; I was very interested in getting to some waterfalls that I’ve seen from my house.  I had tried previously but I took a fairly direct route and ended up getting stopped at the edge of the rice paddies due to some pretty exciting stinging nettles.  They hurt!!  And the next day my leg was really numb.  We took a sort of short cut down a few steep gullies through the rice paddies.  My plan was to get to the river, and then follow it up to the waterfalls.  Based on my previous experience I figured this would involve wading up the river to avoid stinging nettles.  I was right!!  At the river, my fellow hiker decided going up the river was not to her liking, and decided to bail.  I continued on, and after an hour and a half or so of walking up the river, I got to the first waterfall.  I didn’t completely manage to avoid all the stinging nettles, and I walked headfirst into a number of very thick spiderwebs with some big spiders that did not appreciate my head in their home, I’m sure.  I made sure to duck under them as much as possible.

The first waterfall off the main creek bed on a little tributary and was very pretty, but was not the one I wanted to get to.  I continued up the creek and got pretty far and then was spotted by some people in the rice paddies who immediately panicked and started whistling and waving at me to get me to come up to them.  I wasn’t quite satisfied with my expedition, so ignored them and continued on.  I scaled some steep rice paddies to another tributary and found another pretty fall which was not quite the one I wanted to get to, but they were in levels, and the next level I could not reach.  So I continued up the main creek, and shortly got to a little canyon.  This was the prettiest area.  There was a waterfall at the end of the canyon, and another coming in over the right side of the canyon, and a bit above the fall at the end there was another little fall tricking over the cliff.  This canyon also contained a lot of spiders, but was very beautiful, so worth the effort.  At this point I walked back out of the canyon and up a little trail in and around the rice paddies until I reached the people who had been whistling at me.  I told them there were no problems, and that I was just taking pictures…and by people I mean 13 year old boys.  They still decided I was hopelessly out of my league and horribly lost and so guided me back through the rice paddies to my village.

The next day was Saturday and we had the day off, so a bunch of other volunteers came down to see my village and the one down the road from mine in the afternoon.  I spent the morning washing my clothes and cleaning my room…and by that my host sister and law helped me…a lot.  She just could not bear to watch my struggle with my clothes, and then decided to start cleaning my room so I had no choice but to follow and help. Later, all of us volunteers walked down to the real river.  We took a shortcut through the rice paddies down to the creek I had gone to the previous day.  The Nepali boy who was guiding us brought us to a crossing, and shortly after that we reached the road that we had started on.  We had just cut off a bunch of switchbacks by going through the rice paddies.  And a little after that we reached the river.  It is a pretty good sized river: a bit bigger than the South Platte in CO.  There were a bunch of local men bathing at the bridge.  Public bathing is popular in Nepal.  You have to leave some sort of underwear on (preferably shorts or boxers), and women wear some sort of dress thing.  I went down to where they were, stripped down to my undies, and jumped in the river.  Towards the center the current was really moving and it was pretty deep so I decided to swim across to the other side where there was an overhang that runoff water was cascading over, and when I stood under this overhang it was sort of like a shower.  I was quickly joined by another volunteer, but no one else was quite as into playing in the river.  I swam back across, re-dressed and we all hiked back up.  This was a very hot and humid experience, so we stopped at a little tea shop on the way up which had cold cokes and it even had ice cream!  I didn’t partake as I am trying to hold off on the soda and stuff until I am really desperate.  I learned that soda can be pretty addicting in Mali, so I’m trying to stay more on top of my “flavors of home” cravings. 

Training Adventure

I’ve had a couple of small adventures recently.  The other day I walked down to the creek near my house with one of my fellow trainees; I was very interested in getting to some waterfalls that I’ve seen from my house.  I had tried previously but I took a fairly direct route and ended up getting stopped at the edge of the rice paddies due to some pretty exciting stinging nettles.  They hurt!!  And the next day my leg was really numb.  We took a sort of short cut down a few steep gullies through the rice paddies.  My plan was to get to the river, and then follow it up to the waterfalls.  Based on my previous experience I figured this would involve wading up the river to avoid stinging nettles.  I was right!!  At the river, my fellow hiker decided going up the river was not to her liking, and decided to bail.  I continued on, and after an hour and a half or so of walking up the river, I got to the first waterfall.  I didn’t completely manage to avoid all the stinging nettles, and I walked headfirst into a number of very thick spiderwebs with some big spiders that did not appreciate my head in their home, I’m sure.  I made sure to duck under them as much as possible.

The first waterfall off the main creek bed on a little tributary and was very pretty, but was not the one I wanted to get to.  I continued up the creek and got pretty far and then was spotted by some people in the rice paddies who immediately panicked and started whistling and waving at me to get me to come up to them.  I wasn’t quite satisfied with my expedition, so ignored them and continued on.  I scaled some steep rice paddies to another tributary and found another pretty fall which was not quite the one I wanted to get to, but they were in levels, and the next level I could not reach.  So I continued up the main creek, and shortly got to a little canyon.  This was the prettiest area.  There was a waterfall at the end of the canyon, and another coming in over the right side of the canyon, and a bit above the fall at the end there was another little fall tricking over the cliff.  This canyon also contained a lot of spiders, but was very beautiful, so worth the effort.  At this point I walked back out of the canyon and up a little trail in and around the rice paddies until I reached the people who had been whistling at me.  I told them there were no problems, and that I was just taking pictures…and by people I mean 13 year old boys.  They still decided I was hopelessly out of my league and horribly lost and so guided me back through the rice paddies to my village.

The next day was Saturday and we had the day off, so a bunch of other volunteers came down to see my village and the one down the road from mine in the afternoon.  I spent the morning washing my clothes and cleaning my room…and by that my host sister and law helped me…a lot.  She just could not bear to watch my struggle with my clothes, and then decided to start cleaning my room so I had no choice but to follow and help. Later, all of us volunteers walked down to the real river.  We took a shortcut through the rice paddies down to the creek I had gone to the previous day.  The Nepali boy who was guiding us brought us to a crossing, and shortly after that we reached the road that we had started on.  We had just cut off a bunch of switchbacks by going through the rice paddies.  And a little after that we reached the river.  It is a pretty good sized river: a bit bigger than the South Platte in CO.  There were a bunch of local men bathing at the bridge.  Public bathing is popular in Nepal.  You have to leave some sort of underwear on (preferably shorts or boxers), and women wear some sort of dress thing.  I went down to where they were, stripped down to my undies, and jumped in the river.  Towards the center the current was really moving and it was pretty deep so I decided to swim across to the other side where there was an overhang that runoff water was cascading over, and when I stood under this overhang it was sort of like a shower.  I was quickly joined by another volunteer, but no one else was quite as into playing in the river.  I swam back across, re-dressed and we all hiked back up.  This was a very hot and humid experience, so we stopped at a little tea shop on the way up which had cold cokes and it even had ice cream!  I didn’t partake as I am trying to hold off on the soda and stuff until I am really desperate.  I learned that soda can be pretty addicting in Mali, so I’m trying to stay more on top of my “flavors of home” cravings. 

Training...

I’ve started homestay for training.  So far, so good.  I must say, for the most part, this set up is much, much nicer than what I had in Mali.  First, the food is good.  It is basically the same every day, but it has flavor… mainly curry, but it is tasty.  Dinner usually consists of rice with lentil sauce, and some sort of curried veggie like spinach and carrots.  Sometimes they throw in these piping hot peppers that really give me a run for my money.  Occasionally we get chicken, and also sometimes dessert.  My favorite so far is rice pudding, but I get banana mushed up in rice that is topped with fresh water buffalo milk.  It is so good.  Fresh milk is super rich and yummy though drinking it is probably a bit of a gamble.  So far no major problems.

My house is a three story house with very low ceilings, but we have pretty constant electricity and a squat toilet inside the house!  Food is eaten with my hands, but not out of the same bowl which is quite a bit more hygienic that Mali.  Obviously it is best not to compare experiences, but that is impossible.  That said I am having a much different experience here.  I am much closer to my host family this time, but that is because I am making an effort to do so.  My host family in my house consists of a mom, dad, younger brother, his wife, the wife of another brother who lives in Kathmandu, that brothers daughter, a great uncle, and a great grandmother.  The little daughter is adorable.  I don’t usually find kids that cute, but this kid is adorable.  She is a happy, happy kid and clearly well loved.

The area is beautiful.  My house is on a ridge, and going down the mountain side on each side are tons of super green terraced rice fields.  I’ll try to post some pictures now.

And of course, that didn't work so I'll try again later today hopefully.