Monday 3 February 2014

...I would sometimes just be having a normal day in Nepal

It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted, but now, as the 3rd year Indev students are starting to choose placements, I thought I’d write about what a typical day on placement is actually like here.

A typical weekday:
• I generally start my day waking up around 8:30am. I’m one of the lucky ones because my work doesn’t start until 10am and it’s really close so I don’t actually have to leave until 9:55am to get there on time.

My incredibly long walk to work (not!)
• At 10am I start work. I have my own cubicle there where I sit. How much work I do there typically depends on the week. Sometimes I’m actually out meeting with website developers a lot and some weeks I’m within the office the entire time.

• Generally, I go to lunch somewhere around 12:30/1ish, either staying at the office, or meeting up with friends at CECI office. After lunch I return to the office and work until 5pm.

• Right now, I go to Nepali language class 3 times a week at 6:30pm (2 days for speaking, 1 for learning the script). Generally, I leave early to catch the last TukTuk out of Baluwatar (around 6pm) and hang out at a coffee shop until class.

• After class, we go to dinner somewhere. Right now we are 4 Indev students living at the CECI Passage House, as well as another volunteer, so we generally do meals out together. Most meals we eat out rather than cooking. There are lots of restaurants around where you can get a cheap meal (Some places you can find a full meal for under ~$1, while other more expensive places it can be closer to ~$5). We can cook at home but it isn’t that much cheaper and due to power outages (12 hours a day right now), nothing will keep long in the fridge.

• After dinner we usually just hang out until we go to bed. We might watch movies or just talk, or skype with people back home. I go to bed pretty early here, usually by 10 or 11. In Nepal, most people go to bed by 9pm and we have actually been shushed for talking too loudly in the street at that time.

On the weekends:
• The weekends are when we have the most time to actually do things. We try to get out and do a little bit every weekend (even if it takes more motivation for some people).

Having a relaxing weekend in Nagarkot
• I love getting out of Kathmandu as much as possible. Just to getaway from the pollution and the noise is so nice and I actually find I forget what peace and quiet is until I leave the city. There’s lots of places to escape that aren’t too far away such as Nagarkot, Bhaktapur, etc.

• Within Kathmandu, there’s also tons of hiking to do on the outskirts of the valley. This is one thing I want to do more because there’s so much to explore this way. 2 weekends ago, we walked up to a monastery that was very close to the city.

• I love just walking around and shopping on the weekends when there’s no rush to go anywhere- there’s so much to see and I love the clothing here, it’s so colourful. I’ve bought a couple kurtas and a sari and I’m hoping to buy more before I come home.

• Sometimes we’ll go out to a bar or club on Friday night. There’s not a huge nightlife here but there’s a few places where we can have a great night out.

• Lounging. Probably what we end up doing most is just lounging around. At the CECI Passage House we have an amazing rooftop and I put up a hammock as well. So this weekend, we spent half of it just hanging out together on the roof, playing ukulele, reading, dancing, and chatting. Nothing wrong with a little R&R!

This is just a quick example of the ways we spend our time here on placement. If you’d like more details on any specific aspects of life in Nepal, feel free to leave a question in the comments section.

4 comments:

  1. Hey Darrelle!
    So I'm interested in the Nepal placement options and am wondering about how learning the language has been going for you. Insights around every day language experiences, those while traveling, on the job, and Nepali itself would be awesome!
    -Erin McLaren

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    1. Hi Erin! As far as Nepali language, the language isn't actually too difficult to learn if you put the effort in. For myself, that's something I definitely need to work on practicing more than I am, but I'm still getting there. Now, I can speak enough basic sentences to have basic conversations in simple and past tense. I can have quick chats with people I meet in the street. The nice thing about Nepal is that if I don't know a word, I can usually say it in English and they'll understand and give me the Nepali translation. However, the prevalence of English here can also be a barrier to learning more because it's so much easier.
      In the workplace, I still use pretty much only English because I can't clearly understand specific instructions enough for what I'm supposed to be doing in Nepali, and nearly everybody in the office speaks perfect English as well. The language is really into how much effort you put in. Recently, I've also learned the script used here which is really cool to know and useful because it's the same script used in Hindi as well. I highly recommend learning it, it's not too difficult and fun to read and write.

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    2. For traveling, there's lots of places to see within Nepal itself. During the Dashain holidays in October, I went to Pokhara, and did a 5-day trek out of there, which was fantastic. We took a guide and porters but probably didn't really need them because it's an easy trek. But it was nice to have the lodges and stuff already booked through our guide since it was high season and we watched lots of people wandering around lodge to lodge in the pouring rain trying to find places to stay. There's also lots of places close to Kathmandu to go to and escape like Nagarkot, Bhaktapur, etc. And tons of hiking as well that we've been doing. We also still have plans to go to Chitwan National Park in the south, Pokhara again, and the Last Resort, near the Tibetan border where there's bungee jumping.
      During Christmas I also left Nepal, and went traveling through Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. It was really nice to get out of Kathmandu during that time because it was FREEZING!!! And it's just a nice break halfway through. I did scuba diving in Koh Tao, Thailand which was super cool. I also really loved Penang and Singapore and would highly recommend them. I didn't care as much for Kuala Lumpur. My suggestion if you go away is to plan it between mid- December to anytime in January. It's freezing cold then and trust me, you'll want an escape.

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    3. And the actual job is good. Depends what you want to be doing I guess. I work with IDS Nepal and I've pretty much been doing the new IDS website content. I updated the content that Nafisa created last year and met with the website developer several times to get it all updated. Now it's up and running (idsnepal.org) and I'm pretty much just working to keep it updated and add a few things. I'm also now working on creating a new website for a specific project that IDS Nepal is implementing, Lot VI of the Multistakeholder Forestry Programme. I'm currently creating all the content for it about the project and hopefully the website will be up and running in the next couple weeks. I'm not entirely sure what the organization will need help with next year but maintaining the work Nafisa and I have been doing will likely be part of it. But there is a lot to learn from the people here at the organization, they do some really great work!

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