Disain

Hello and Happy Belated Dasain.  We just celebrated the largest holiday in Nepal, Disain!  The past few days have been very very interesting.  Disain is celebrated by Nepalese Hindu all around the world.  The holiday is known for its emphasis on family gatherings and the renewal of community ties.  That was evidenced in Surkhet, where many of the Aunties and Uncles had relatives in town visiting.  Further, based on conversations I’ve had it sounds like the Kathmandu clears out during the holiday, as 2 of the 4 million residents return to their villages for holiday.  In addition to visitors to our home in Nepal, we’ve also lost lots of kids to their villages for the week.  Slowly but surely about 15 kids trickled out to visit grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  That said, we’ve still managed to have a great time around here…

On Monday night we watched Home Alone with the kids, and they LOVED it.  I don’t think I’ve heard that much laughter since I’ve been to Nepal.  Not only did they love it, but so did I.  I haven’t seen Home Alone in ages, and it really got me in the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately Christmas is over 2 months away and we don’t celebrate it in Nepal.  That said it was great and we all had a wonderful Monday night.  The excitement of the week trickled over into Tuesday, when I had one of the most interesting experiences to date.  The plan for dinner Tuesday night was lamb, and in order to eat lamb you need to kill a lamb.  At around 11 Tuesday morning a lamb was brought into the compound…and lamb that would become dinner Tuesday night.  To this point that volunteers haven’t been witness to any animals getting slaughtered, that changed on Tuesday, when Tope told all of us that we were welcome to watch.  I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but for some reason thought there would be a prayer and ceremony around the killing.  Rather, the Uncles met outside to do the deed.  On uncle grabbed the legs and the other wielded a giant machete like knife.  Before I could even brace myself there was a lamb head flying across the yard, and blood squirting violently from the neck.  A few moments late, the body began running in place as its nerves shot off their final impulses to the muscles.  What happened next was fascinating, the next steps occurred like clockwork, and we soon found out that everyone plays a different role in the preparation process.  Almost immediately after the lamb was dead, they were burning off the hair and skinning it.  Afterwards a team of aunties and uncles were in the kitchen butchering the meat, two other uncles were cleaning out the intestinal tract, and 1 was in the side yard cleaning and preparing the bones.  I’ve often read about the way certain people prepare meat, and how they leave nothing to waste.  That said, I was shocked by what I saw.  Literally everything was used, including the raw skin which Tope enjoyed feeding to me.  Since I’ve arrived in Nepal, I’ve promised myself that I would try everything at least once.  As a result, I sat with Tope trying out different parts of lamb skin, and disliking all of them equally.  Until I tried one last peace, which was bigger than the others and coated in fat, that one I disliked far more than the rest!  It was about 1 minute into chewing that I almost lost it, and had to spit it out.  The one thing I haven’t tried yet is the fried intestines…hopefully that isn’t offered to me or my “promise” to myself will likely kick in again.  I could go on and on about the lamb, but I’ll spare any more details and get on with the rest of Disain.

Before

After

Working on the Lamb

The rest of the day was rather laid back.  I went into town with a few of the other fellows to by some treats for Disain.  I ended up picking up 2 kg of cookies from a stand set up specifically for the holiday.  Following that trip, we had a big game of Frisbee up at school which as always was a blast.  Unfortunately, my team has not been on a winning streak recently, but I think that is about to change.  Following dinner, Tope encouraged the other volunteers to eat dinner on the roof and enjoy some time away from the kids to celebrate the holiday amongst ourselves.  We had a beautiful sunset dinner, and the lamb was delicious!  After eating we were joined by one of the other uncles, which turned out to be a very interesting experience.  He serves us dinner every day, and for 5 weeks I didn’t think he spoke English.  It turns out I was very wrong, and we had a several hour conversation regarding his road to Kopila Valley and his life prior to now. He has two kids and a huge amount of responsibility at the house…and is 29 years old.  At 25, I look to some of the people here and am floored by some of their ages.  I have decided I am not very good at figuring out how old the Nepalese are.

Finally there was Disain…we began the day with a light breakfast, and conversations with the fellows.  Following breakfast we celebrated with Tika and Jamara.  Tika is a combination of rice and red dye which is put on by our elders on our foreheads to bless us with abundance in our future years.  Further the Jamara is a green colored grass which is placed behind the ears for blessings.  During this ceremony, the aunties and the uncles were busily preparing a large lunch for everyone still at the compound.  We had all sorts of food, which was a welcome treat for everyone at the house.  Granted, there was a ton of fried food and by the end of the meal, I was ready for some of the staples.  After lunch, we watched rise of the planet of the Apes in the TV room.  The uncles just installed a new satellite on the roof, and we now have a bunch of new stations including some English movie channels.  The holiday essentially peaked at lunch time, and the remainder of yesterday was largely Status-Quo.  

Fellows on Disain!

Looking forward to this evening…Matt Falk’s mom and dad arrived from the states yesterday, and are bringing the fellows out to dinner.  Should be a nice treat, and as I’ve mentioned before any excuse to get out of the house for a change of pace is always welcome.

Hope all is well!

The Beach...and then some

First off I’d like to wish two of my great friends from home some congratulations!  Bill ward and Jamie Shubert-Yanicki got married yesterday!  As much as I love it over here, I am so sad to miss events like the wedding.  While I know that a great time was had by all, it’s still hard to be 10,000 miles away on a day when two of your friends are getting married.  That said, based on some initial reactions it sounds like a great time was had by all!

The past few days have been fun over here…and we’re approaching the heart of the break and the Dashin holiday is coming up right around the corner.  To celebrate we have several things planned, which include some exciting meals, parties, etc.  Two days ago, we actually took a group trip down to the “beach” which was a ton of fun.  The bus right was interesting to say the least, and I felt like we were about to go sliding off of a mountain about 10 times.  Further, in large part the roads are not paved here so motion sickness became an issue for several of the kids.  Fortunately, most of the throwing up managed to occur once we got off the bus, with one exception.  When we got to the beach, we had it to ourselves for the first hour, which was so peaceful and relaxing.  Initially we thought the water was going to be freezing, but it turned  out to be perfect.  Not surprisingly, bathing suits aren’t too prevalent over here so there were tons of naked kids running around.  They had a blast though and so did the volunteers.  About an hour into our trip, roughly 100 people showed up to the beach, and we were not sure why.  We had heard that it would be quite quiet, and knew that it was remote after that bus ride!  It turns out that there was a funeral being held by the water’s edge, and they were doing there farewell blessings.  Following, the funeral they left and we once again had the beach to ourselves.  For a snack we had some “Fruiti’s” (Mango Juice boxes) bananas and oranges.  Following the snack, I went for a long walk to explore the forest, and this really awesome foot bridge that went over the river.   We then played some more by the water’s edge, and managed to get a Frisbee game going with some of the kids.  After Frisbee we had the most delicious lunch.  The aunties and uncles spent the afternoon preparing “Puri” which is essentially deep fried roti (think funnel cake) and mutton.  We have meat once a week, and this was a huge treat for everyone.  After lunch, we washed the pots and pans off in the river and hit the road for home.  By the time we got back everyone was spent and I was BURNED.  For some reason, I thought I would do better with the sun over here, sadly that was not the case and my back has been hurting for the past two days.

Bridge over Troubled Water

View from the Bridge to the kids

Beyond, the trip to the beach we’ve started some new things at the house.  For example, Safira has been leading Yoga every morning which has been wonderful.  Historically I’ve not really had the patience for Yoga, however, I’ve really started to enjoy it.  It’s a great way to start the day, on a peaceful and fulfilling foot.  Additionally, we just introduced Kickball to the Kopila kids.  After some serious patience, and  a steep learning curve, we had our best game to date last night.  It’s really been a wonderful game in terms of getting everyone involved…(some of the children are very young or have physical handicaps).  Also, despite some initial hiccups and frustration I think the volunteers are really enjoying it as well!

On one final note, practice has begun for the “Kopila’s Got Talent” talent show!  The kids took some time thinking about what they’re going to do last night, and we’re having our first rehearsal tomorrow.  I think I’m going to do some sort of song and dance, but have yet to decide exactly what.   Stay tuned….

1 month

Today marks my one month anniversary at Kopila…I jokingly suggested that we should all gather around, and have everyone share what their favorite thing about having me here is.  So far I don’t think there are many takers, always the two month anniversary to look forwards to though.

The past month has been filled with its fair share of ups and downs, whether experiencing the opulence of Dubai or the poverty in Surkhet, this journey has been an eye opening experience.  As the fifth poorest country in the world (in terms of imports and exports) Nepal is right there with Somalia with regards to wealth.  This desperate poverty presents itself daily, and for some reason I’ve reflected on this a good bit today.  I went for a long walk yesterday, and got some real thinking about what I’ve seen thus far, and the impressions it had on me.  While, Maggie has not arrived yet, I actually spent much of my morning observing a site that brought her to Nepal in the first place.  Just down the street from where we live, there is a dried out river bed.  It is in this dried out riverbed that Maggie met a young girl toiling for hours on end breaking stones to make ends meet.  While I’ve heard this story, the reality of this situation hit me today while I was one my walk.  I stopped at a bridge over the riverbed, where I saw about 15 girls no more than 15 years old down amongst the rocks.  It is here where they work every day for 10-12 hours breaking stones in the hot sun.  After a long day’s work these girls will collect there stones, and put them into a large pile.  Ultimately, they fill up a large bag with their stones and bring them into town where they can hope to fetch as much as 70 rupees.  For those of you don’t feel like jumping on Google to see the conversion rate that is roughly 70 cents.  Then I took time to think about what I was doing when I was 10 or 11 years old…things like going to soccer practice, playing video games, and hanging out at Chucky Cheese.   I have never been one to reward laziness, or endorse handouts, but at this moment I finally experienced what Maggie felt 7 years ago.  Maybe everyone isn’t destined for a six figure salary and a corner office, but at the very least I would like to think that we can provide a basic education and quality of life for some of the worlds most vulnerable and at risk individuals.  That we still live in a world where children are forced to work in a dry riverbed for 10 hours a day to achieve their most basic needs is an extremely sobering reality.  At the very least, Kopila Valley is providing hope for the 300 children involved, that they can escape this life that many of their peers are forced to endure…I know the likelihood of eradicating childhood poverty sounds a bit idealistic, but for the lives of these children it has become a reality.  Which triggered thoughts of a story I’m sure many of you have heard, but seems very fitting to me in this situation:

"One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide. As he walked he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one.

Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, "I'm saving these starfish, Sir".

The old man chuckled aloud, "Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?"

The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water and turning to the man, said, "It made a difference to that one!"

Dry Riverbed with Piles of Stone

Stone Pile...Sold for 70 rupees

 

I was asked before I left whether I thought this experience would change, me, and having been here for a month I can say with certainty that the answer is yes.  In addition to providing a perspective that I would never see in the United States, I’ve also been forced to grow into this role quickly.  As I sit here typing, I’m looking down from the third floor of the home at a young girl (probably 5 or 6).  Just the other day, I was playing Frisbee at the school with her during the afternoon.  I usually go over from 4-6 and the kids all know that I will be there eagerly waiting.  Unfortunately, a couple of days ago, the girl I was playing with decided to take a few seconds away from Frisbee to go on the monkey bars.  Thinking nothing of it, I tossed the Frisbee to another child and continued on with my afternoon.  That was until about 30 seconds later, when I heard the most unbelievable scream. …Since my arrival I’ve learned that some children are criers, and some are not.  Well, this girl is not a crier, and immediately I knew something was wrong.  Hearing the scream, I sprinted to the monkey bars to see what was wrong.  One of the older boys kept telling me: “she broke her arm, she broke her arm”.  Not knowing exactly what to do, I ran through some basic checks that I learned while wrestling to examine for injuries.  Initially, I couldn’t really identify an issue until I turned her arm over, and reality hit.  She had completely snapped the bone in her forearm.   It was then, that I sent one of the older boys racing for help back at the house.  Thankfully, Tope (the co-director of the house) was available to drive to the hospital.  2.5 hours and 4,500 rupees later she had a cast on and was taken home.  Her parents are both HIV positive, and did not have the means to pay for the cast, which was paid for my Tope.  Not to say, I’ve become some extremely mature or wise, person, however, having been here it is easy to see how and why the children are forced to grow up so fast.  Amazingly just one day after this fall, she was back playing in a little sewage stream around the corner from the home.

I feel like my blog posts typically begin with one sobering item, followed by a more uplifting piece of information so I will do my best not to disappoint today!  As I mentioned during my last post, exams are done!  To celebrate we really had the dance party to end all dance parties on Saturday night.  We just acquired some awesome new speakers which made for the best dance party ever.  On top of that we Safira and Kelly picked up cookies, juice, and decorations for the big fiesta.  We literally danced for two hours straight, and by the time it ended I was spent.  I learned some killer new moves, which were great for the Hindi songs.  In addition, I introduced some spins and some of my moves to the group.  While they may have been learned in the frat basement, the kids loved them, and we spun the night away.  Also, I know Gangnam style has been big for a while now, and people are probably getting sick of it…but we just heard it for the first time over here and it was superb.  After a day of practicing the horse dance, we chose that song to conclude with for the night.

End of Exams Dance Party!

 

Hope all is well at home…and that the next month is as rewarding as the first (ideally with a few less illnesses and bugbites!)

Exams, Love, and Spiders

Hello everyone and Happy Friday.  For all the DC/Bmore Sports fans Go Nats/O’s.  I’ve been following closely, and the late games have been concluding while I eat breakfast every morning.  While, I don’t have TV I’ve been able to see what’s going on via gamecast.  Game 5’s tomorrow, should be exciting. 

As for things over here, today is the last day of exams for the Kids which means tomorrow is the beginning of holiday.  That means that the kids will be off for the next month, which means lots of fun for the kids and lots of needed energy for the volunteers.  I think all of the volunteers agree that we love the kids dearly, however, the reality of having to entertain and keep them busy all day every day for the next month is a daunting thought.  We’ve already begun brainstorming, and every volunteer has decided to come up with four ideas.  So far we have skit day, a talent show, singing contest, a day at the lake, and some other activities planned, however, if any of you have any great ideas please send me an email or leave a comment!  As for exams, it appears that they are running smoothly, I mentioned in a previous post that the principal was a general.  During exam time, that side of him comes out and it has been made quite clear that cheating will not be tolerated.  Further, it sounds like the majority of kids I’ve talked to are confident in how they’ve done which is great news.

Drying laundry on the roof

 In addition to exams, this week has had it ups and downs.  While I thought I was fully recovered from the bites and the allergies, they came back with a vengeance and I’ve faced another slew of sleepless nights.  I don’t know what it is but the bugs here Love me and if I don’t coat myself in bug spray I get obliterated…The weather is cooling down though, which hopefully will lead to less mosquito…On the note of bugs we went out to the site of the school yesterday, and it was beautiful, nestled up in the hillside about 20 minutes from the school and house.  We explored the new grounds, and saw some amazing sites, including some of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen in my life.  It did not take long for the other fellows and some of the staff to realize, how uncomfortable I was around these GIANT spiders.  I think the final 30 minutes of the trip, entailed one of the Aunties chasing me with one of the spiders, as I sprinted away.  I think fun was had by all…except for me, who had one of the more traumatic experiences of my grown up years.  Beyond that yesterday was actually my best day in about a week, with regards to how I was feeling.  The cooler weather led to one of my best night sleep yet over the past month, and honestly I think probably my soundest night of sleep since being in Dubai.  I think restless nights are one of the worst things, and have been my least favorite thing about the trip.  In all honesty, before coming here I thought I would be feeling great.  Between eating healthy all the time, barely drinking, and having such an active lifestyle I really felt that I would be operating on all cylinders.  Unfortunately, that has not been the case, and the adjustment period has been longer and more uncomfortable than I expected it to be.  I’m really crossing my fingers that I’m finally out of the woods, but by now I’ve become accustomed to taking two steps back after every step forward…

Giant Spiders...

 

As for LOVE…we’ve been teaching the kids the song L.O.V.E by Nat King Cole over the past week which has been one of the most amusing and cutest things ever.  Every night before bed, you can hear kids practicing their words, and just the other night I wrote out the lyrics for one of the guys.  Next thing I know, he was making copies of it for all the boys in his room.  That night, I just sat that for an hour, as each kid took turns singing it for me, as I corrected them here and there.  Slowly but surely they’ve been catching on and last night was their best performance yet.

One final thought for the day…is the answer I gave to my little brother when he asked “what do you miss about your life in DC so far” here was my response:

“I enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city, and always being able to do things at a moment’s notice.  That is not so much the case here, as every day is essentially the same with regards to what I do, what I eat, etc.  For food, we tend to have some sort of potato and veggie for breakfast, then everyday lunch is the same with Rice, Potato, Veggie, and Beans, and then dinner is the wildcard, but tends to be potato, Roti (like a toritilla), and some veggie.  We have meat once a week on Saturday night, which has been tough for me and I think the lack of protein in my diet is part of the reason why I've been run down.  I'd say what I miss most about DC is 1) the people and 2) just the busy lifestyle.  I'm not really used to free time, and we have almost too much of that here.  I've tried to keep busy, whether that means reading or writing, but it can be tough.”  

#1 thing I miss...The people

Sleepless Nights

First of all, apologies for the long delay since the last blog post.  It’s been about four nights since I’ve slept, which has led to a very tired John.  I think a combination of an eye infection, terrible allergies, and some homesickness have led to me going stir crazy every time I lay down at night.  Thankfully, I was able to find some antibacterial eye drops in town recently, and have been using Benadryl heavily so I think I’m on the road to recovery.  I actually just got in from a nice long run, and am finally feeling like myself again.  Despite being a bit sick, I've still managed to do some exciting things this week! 

The first story I’ll bring up pertains to my dinner with the principal of the school on Wednesday night!  We went to the towns new restaurant, where they remembered my name from my night out with the fellows on Saturday!  I think they’re excited that we are live here, and even more excited that we will likely spend plenty of money in their establishment.  Getting back to dinner with the principal though, it was fantastic!  Since I showed up I knew I wanted to bring him out to dinner, and hear a bit about his life and his road to Kopila.  His wife lives in Kathmandu, and he lives by himself just down the street, so it was a good excuse for both of us to get out of the house and get something different for dinner.  The principal, started 4 months ago after serving in the Nepali army, where he was a general and spokesman.  Not only did I hear a wonderful history of his life, and time in the military I also heard a very interesting history of Nepal.  While I was very interested to hear about the old Kingdoms of Nepal, what I found most interesting was the more recent history beginning with the King stepping down in 1990 through modern history which trickles through to current events.  Of particular interest was the conflict with the Maoists, which ended just a few years ago and is still the source of a friction.  This friction is the major reason for Nepal’s painstaking constitution process, a constitution which has still yet to be ratified.    When talking to the principal, more so than the economy, or developing industry, he is a firm believer that the next step for Nepal is to develop a sound constitution and a more cohesive group of leaders in Kathmandu.  As for dinner it was delicious, like me the principal is a big eater and we did some damage to the menu, which was a very welcome change from the status quo.  The most unique thing we ordered was “Nepali Pizza” which is a crust made of rice, with fried egg on top and ground up mutton (Mutton = Goat).

Out with my fellow Fellows at Sukhet's newest hot spot!

In addition to dinner with the principal, we had an eventful night on Tuesday when one of the local girls showed up at our house.  She was dealing with trouble at home, and did not want to go back.  This resulted in some drama when her cousin showed up to get her, and she refused to go back.  Ultimately, some of the older Nepali speakers spoke with the cousin and addressed some of concerns, while we talked to the local girl.  Eventually, she returned home and things seem to be going well.  This incident, was gave me just a quick glimpse into what the Staff deals with at Kopila Valley regularly.  There are so many children here desperate for help, and simply not enough resources to help all of them.  The longer I’m here the more my eyes open to the struggle that the children and families deal with in this country, alongside Maggie and the rest of the staff.

ON a more uplifting note, things continue to go really well with the other fellows.  Another fun fact about me is that I’m really into musicals.  Well... Kelly (from Seattle), found a 4 pack of Musicals in her room the other day, and we just watched Fiddler on the roof, on the roof of the house!  The longer I’m here the more I realize how much I need to enjoy some of the simple pleasures in life.  Things as silly as watching a movie with some of the other fellows is a great break from the norm and puts something on the calendar to look forwards too.  I was actually downloading Moulin Rouge (another favorite of mine) from ITunes for next week’s movie, however, the movie stopped downloading, and seems to be lost somewhere on the internet…where I’m not sure.  On another fellow related note, our newest arrival just got here.  Ben is from just outside of DC, and we actually got the chance to meet up before my departure for Nepal.  As expected it was great to see a familiar face, and he’s been a great addition to the group. 

Further, since he left about 2 weeks after I arrived I was able to request some things brought from the states, which are in desperate need over here, some personal (i.e. Bugspray) and some for my extracurricular role with Kopila.  We now have more badminton supplies, pinnies, and a new and improved pump for balls.  I’ve actually started differentiating between recess supplies, and resources we intend to use for the extracurricular activities.  It’s a slow process, and quality goods are tough to come by in Surkhet, however, I have  a growing stockpile in my room which is already leading to much more fun and effective practices.  Currently we’ve, been focusing only on sports, which contrasts with my original intention of taking a more holistic approach to the program.  That is in large part due to my thought, that baby steps are necessary at first to get this program moving in the right direction.  It’s already been a shock to some of the boys that they can’t use the soccer field every day.  Additionally, the concept of team, taking turns, and organized practices, has been a handful as is, and after conferring with some of the other fellows; we’re pretty much all in agreement that we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.  As the expression goes, “Rome was not built in a day” and I hope to get momentum with the programs we have going right now, prior to expanding.  On one last note, I have been blessed to have some awesome help thus far from the other fellows.  Kelly and Safira have been fantastic with the girls, both getting them motivated about coming out to play, and providing a positive role model.  Matt and Ian have been great with the boys especially with regards to soccer, which can be a zoo at times.  With over 100 kids playing at any time, I’m beyond thankful that the others have been so willing to help, and realize, this would have been nearly impossible without all the extra support. 

On one final note, last night we celebrated Ian’s 23^rd Birthday!  Not quite the same as if we were in the states, but the boys went out for some dinner, and then we all came back for a great satsung where we sang some Happy Birthday and gave Ian some much deserved gifts.

Miss everyone increasingly!  More soon.

Ian's Birthday!