First day on the “Job”

Today Kathleen and I got a little sleep in. At 0830 we were making our way outside for our morning dal bhat….again Rebecca smashed the kitchen with yumminess.
After the dishes ….. Bucket of water and a small scouring brush in the garden, it was time to head to school.
Sanjiv our village coordinator picked us up on his motorbike…..I’m sorry mum but no helmets in Chitwan…but we didn’t go more than 20 km speed wise I’d say. A short 5 min bike ride and we were shaking hands with the principal and meeting one of the schools English teachers….today we would be shadowing to see how it’s done here and to gauge what to expect in the classroom.
NOTHING close to what I’m used to doing! They read….read again….listen….write and answer questions on comprehension from text. Today we were I year 10 And 8. Their English was surprisingly very good. They could pronounce well and read well from the passages. We did a little correction of pronunciation and demonstrated a lot…..that was about it…..
I feel like standing and talking with them repeating what I say doesn’t go very far….but they say I’m helping so ill see what happens next time.
Saturday is the only day school free here, but this week our school is doing lots of free time extra activities because….the teachers need to mark exams finished last week….and parents day and the school anniversary is approaching.
SO … We have half day tomorrow then Saturday off…then the following 3 days over Christmas will be pretty much no teaching with all the activities in school happening. So I’m feeling a little useless here at the moment.
Therefore Kathleen and I are planning all of our adventures for while we are here. She leaves on the 7th of jan and I am leaving with Hayley to go back to Kathmandu on the 10th. Before we all leave we are planning…..Lumbini, birthplace of Buddha, Chitwan National Park and Pokhora for New Years.

Kathmandu to Chitlang

First day of orientation….breakfast followed by a short cultural information session. Woman are inferior and not allowed to smoke, drink, and we have to clean and Cook while the men Drink and play cards haha.
Afterwards we went for a joyride from our hotel. ( all 20 volunteers) in 2 buses for the beginning of an adventure that would be Overnight to a place called Chitlang…..
The crazy streets of Kathmandu I saw poverty and contentment if at all possible…..kids running around smiling and washing on the sides of streets……but then rubbish filling the waterways and sides of roads…dirty and rundown shacks.
The roads are chaotic but somehow they make it work….beeping to let others know they are overtaking or about to squish u between another bus ( almost saw 2 moped pancakes!). I was about half hr into our “1.15 min” trip when I realised I should be afraid for my life but ended up laughing instead. To get to our mystery village we had to climb a mountain In our very old, beaten up bus that probably wouldn’t even be street legal in Australia. On the climb we broke down a total of 10 times….at one stage rolling back far to close to a cliff for comfort….the girls on the bus I swear I’ve never seen people disembark so quickly! After that we rock propped the wheels for safety. If you think the NZ access roads are bad or 4wd tracks ….they ain’t seen anything on this Nepalese mountain!
On the 10th breakdown we were told it would be faster to walk. A 15 min trip uphill to the top of the mountain and then a quick slide into the village from there…..following the track with nothing but our 8 year old guide we finally arrived over 2 hrs later.
After lunch we had to do a short speech about ourselves then it was game time 🙂
A game called kill the evil……2 teams trying to get a blindfolded teammate to the other end….while blindfolded you hold a long stick that you have to hit a pot hanging on a pole…..I managed to get down the end and hit the pot winning myself a delicious scarf for my troubles 🙂
Then a very competitive game of Nepalese soccer….needless to say I was USELESS but having a blast while I was there, and we won 🙂
That night we had a giant smoking campfire and we played charades…..mine was.. legend of the fall…..fall was easy to act out but the rest of my attempts were fruitless…..we had about 15 local men and women come to sing and dance for us for about an hour we watched and joined in until there were all of us dancing around. Pretty cool to listen to them…starting with a sound and then rhyming it.
Our accommodations were nice but freeeeeeziing I shared a floor with 3 other girls ….hunkering down in my cocoon sleeping bag I was snug as a bug 🙂 there was a roof over our heads but holes all thought the walls and into the hut. So much better than tenting as I had a toilet in the room for my 2am wake up.
Dal bhat is the staple diet in Nepal…..rice and lentil soup…..cooked early in the morning it didn’t sit we’ll on the stomach but I made it out of bed and was ready for action.
A short hour ride in the back of a jeep ….. 10 per jeep, we trekked out to a large lake where we took a boat ride …. I had a dream about this boat ride the night before….. Narrow boats that were full of people and very prone to capsize! …..my dream came true…..except the capsizing part which was narrowly escaped…..across the lake we all went, at the other side we disembarked to climb another hill to a suspension bridge which was 300 metres long (apparently…..) it was a sight to see in the middle of rural Kathmandu, it was metal and modern looking more than any other structure I had seen up till that point. Jumping and bounding we went across, then back into the jeeps and back for lunch….
The back of the jeeps were dusty from the roads….being open we had everything coming in so my bandana saved my life this day! After lunch we had to take to our transport again to get up and over the mountain and back to our hostel in Thimal. The choices…..a nice mini buss or the back of a jeep again…..Kathleen and I braved being the 2 girls to take the jeep with the boys and it was a rocky, bumpy, entertaining, scary and painful ride back 🙂
Battered and aching with a smile on my face I made it back to see my girl Gracey waiting for me 🙂 🙂 🙂