...I would get sent right into the field

There’s only one way to describe speeding along a steep, narrow, winding mountain road at 70km/h, playing chicken with cars coming the other way: FUN! That’s how my field trip began a week ago as I made my way to Dailekh, a town in the hills of Nepal’s Mid-Western Region.

Journey to the field

Although I've only even been to my Kathmandu office for one day, I've already had the chance to do a week-long field trip. The field trip started with an hour-long domestic flight from Kathmandu to Nepalgunj, a city along the Indian border in the Terai region. We then loaded our gear into a car and started the ~6 hour drive to get to Dailekh. I loved the beautiful drive through the hills, although at times it was actually a little scary (like when we drove through the clouds along a cliff and couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of us). But I enjoyed every minute of it! Yet, I was still flabbergasted when one of my coworkers slept through most of the ride. Between the bumps and honking as we whipped around every corner, I didn’t think anybody could possibly sleep. Yet, by the time we left 6 days later, I was so used to it that I was the one falling asleep, squished in the backseat of a car with 3 other people. Along the drive, it became clear to me that not many foreigners visit that area. As we drove by, jaws literally dropped, and I received many gaping stares. Children that recovered in time from the shock shouted “Hello” or “Bye-bye” as we drove past.

Views from a temple in Dailekh

During my time at the Dailekh office, I got to experience what life is like for the field staff. Their work and social lives overlap so their interactions are bit different than the Kathmandu office, as coworkers are good friends as well. Despite some homesickness while I was there, I really enjoyed my time there with the staff and learned a lot about the project I’ll be working on over the next months.

During my week, I also got the opportunity to go on a field visit to a small village district called Khadkawada with Rudra, the head of the MSFP project. To get there, I rode on the back of Rudra’s motorcycle and it gave me a whole new perspective on the car ride through the hills. We went off the main road down a muddy, rocky path along a cliff. Luckily, the motorcycle only slipped a few times, and we only ended up in the mud once. The ride was probably also the most intense ab and thigh workout I’ve ever had, trying to keep my body in one position for about 40 minutes each way. It was definitely both a physical and emotional roller-coaster the entire time.

A light taste of my motorcycle trip

Interviewing Santi and Masare

Once in the village, I got to attend a 2-day LAPA (Local Adaptation Plan of Action) workshop for the forestry management project with a group of about 40 local villagers. Although I couldn’t understand what was said, since it was all in Nepali, it was fascinating to watch the interactions of the villagers, and the passionate participation by everyone, and despite the language barrier I learned a lot in the 2 days. I also got to interview five locals for a field placement assignment, and it gave me

a lot of insight into their lives and their opinions on the project. At the end of the second day, I was incredibly lucky and the village performed a farewell ceremony, and Rudra and I received flower garlands and red powder on our foreheads. I hadn’t expected such a ceremony, since I merely a spectator during the event, and it was truly an honour. The entire field trip was an amazing experience and was exactly what placement is all about!

Farewell ceremony

...I would take in all the sites of a new city

It’s now been nearly two weeks since we landed in Kathmandu and I feel like it’s been a month with everything we’ve fit into the short time we’ve been here so far. I came to Nepal with four other INDEVOURS: Chelsea, Rasha, Sumbal and Peter and there are also 6 other CECI volunteers going through orientation with us.

Thali dinner

            When we first got here I was surprised by how comfortable I already was with a foreign place, but, like it was when I went to Madagascar, I seem to adapt quickly to my surroundings. Sure there are lots of things that are different here: constant noise and honking, showers where the water goes directly onto the floor, cows and dogs everywhere in the streets. But generally, life is the same. The people here are the nicest people as well. I think of Nepal to India/China as Canada is to the U.S. The people here are very laid back and friendly

and try to differentiate themselves from the bigwigs north and south of them (they even have their own time zone- 15 minutes off).

            This week we’ve been studying the language of Nepal: Nepali. We got a week of full-day Nepali lessons and I think the week of language has helped ease us into the culture a little more before starting work. I actually started off learning it quite quickly and can speak a few basic sentences. Hopefully I can keep practicing though and ideally I’ll be fairly fluent in the language by the time I leave. A few of us are looking into continuing language classes a couple times a week for the rest of 8 months. When practicing, Chelsea and I have been especially creative in the sentences we make up and it’s helping me remember the language better.

Women celebrating Rhishi Panchami

            In the time I’ve been here I feel like we’ve had a lot of days off already. Last Tuesday was a holiday: Rhishi Panchami. It’s a national holiday for women and we went to the Kathmandu Durbar Square where we got to observe some of the celebrations. As part of the festival, the Kumari made an appearance and we got to see her. The Kumari is a young girl who is said to be the incarnation of the goddess Taleju until she reaches puberty, when the goddess leaves her body. Seeing her was actually pretty anticlimactic but it was interesting to learn about her. We also had a bandh last Thursday. A bandh is a city-wide strike, where most shops close and nobody is allowed to drive on the streets. It was actually kind of nice to take a day to rest and recover from jet lag (it took me a week to recover). So although we’ve been in country longer than most of our classmates, we are the last ones to start work.

Peter, Chelsea, Rasha & I in front of the stupa

            We’ve also had the opportunity to see lots of the cultural landmarks within Kathmandu. On Saturday, we went on a half-day guided tour and visited the Patan Durbar Square, the cremation temple site along the Bagmati River, and a stupa. They were amazing to see and it surprised me that, although these were very tourist places, the locals still use them as normal places of worship.

As much as I’d enjoyed my time touring around in Kathmandu, I’m pretty excited to start with my organization, Integrated Development Society Nepal. Today is my first day of work and already I’m headed for a field visit on Sunday. Although for many people a field visit means a day or two outside the cities, mine means much more than that. The main project I’m working on is a forestry management project based out of the Far-West and Mid-West regions of Nepal, the least developed regions of the country. For me, a field visit means 2 days just to get to the field. For my first field visit, I will be staying there about a week, which will be a great opportunity for me to practice my Nepali and get a taste of the “real” Nepal. My supervisors were warning me that this will be a huge culture shock for me. I’m hoping my experience in the rural areas of Madagascar will help with this experience, but even so it will still be very different than the large city I’m currently living in. I feel incredibly fortunate that I get the opportunity to do this, especially so soon into placement.

            We also are different than most of our classmate’s countries because most of our holidays are right at the beginning. The longest national holiday is from Oct. 5-13 and we’ll have 9 days off to do what we want. Peter, Sumbal and I are looking into doing a short trek in the Annapurna area (out of Pokhara) during this time with a couple of the other CECI volunteers. So, I may be coming back directly from my field visit to more travel. I will definitely be keeping busy though so I will try to update more often on everything I’ve been doing here on the other side of the world!

...I would embrace new adventures!

The day we’ve been looking to for the last four years has finally arrived: I’ve departed to Nepal for placement. I’m currently on the plane from Montreal to Doha, on hour 9 of a lovely 12 hour flight. It seems so surreal to me right now that we’re actually going on placement. All throughout University placement has just been this thing that will happen in the future and it’s weird to me that I’m actually doing it now, but I’m incredibly excited to get there and get started.

Yesterday morning I also received noticed for a change to my mandate. Before I was going to be working as a documentation intern for a climate change project under the Integrated Development Society (IDS) but I am now being moved to a documentation intern for the Multi-stakeholder Forestry Project, a collaborative

project between IDS, CECI and a couple other organizations. The work I will be doing will be preparing reports, promotional material, and creating a website for the project. According to my new mandate, I will also have the opportunity to travel to rural areas for this project, which I’m quite excited about.

I’m actually quite excited about this new mandate. I liked my old one as well but forestry is one area I’m particularly interested in, and have even taken a couple courses in forest ecosystems, so hopefully those skills will come in useful.

However, I also don’t actually start working on the project right away. When we get to Kathmandu tomorrow morning, we get thrown right into three full days of orientation (jet lag should be fun!) followed by 10 days of language training so I don’t actually start with my organization until Sept. 19. Luckily though, there is Internet at the CECI Passage House where I’ll be staying, so I’ll keep you updated!