...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!