Happy Thanksgiving!

 Hello again, and Happy Thanksgiving!  As I mentioned before we just wrapped up the big festival season in Nepal and had a wonderful Diwali (Tihar in Nepal) with the kids.  I think it’s one of my favorite holidays – second to Christmas perhaps?  The holiday was full of singing and dancing, we had a blast.  The kids broke up into groups, and went “Trick or Treating” from house to house for four consecutive days.  When they arrived at a house, they sang and dance in return for money…Think Trick or Treat meets Christmas caroling you will have a pretty good idea of what goes on during Tihar.  In addition to our group going out into the neighborhood a good deal of groups came to the house.  Some of the older groups brought big speaker systems, and had the most amazing dance moves.  Pretty much every time a good group showed up, an impromptu dance party erupted amongst the kids, staff, and fellows.  One group was so good, that we actually ventured out with them to another house to keep the party going.  To cap things off Calicot (a region of Nepal where lots of kids and staff come from) sensation Cheena visited the house.  This was most definitely the highlight of the week for the aunties and uncles, and we learned afterwards that this singer was famous in their region of Nepal.   In addition to the singing and dancing Tihar is also the brother sister holiday, in which the sister bless the brother and put tikka on their forehead.  In response the boy gives the girl some money.  The fellows were blessed by one of my favorite Staff members Amrika!

Tihar!  Baby Namraj and Sister Kalpana

 Since the end of Tihar things have begun to get back to usual around the house with school starting on Tuesday.  I’m working with a new schedule now which I’m enjoying immensely.  Over the first few days I’ve been waking up at 630 and going for a pre-school run.  Following the run, I will make a cup of coffee, I learned there is a French press at the house and the introduction of a cup in the morning has been a comforting addition.  One of my favorite parts of the day is enjoying an early morning cup of coffee, especially since it’s been getting increasingly cold here in Birendranagar.

 

After the morning routine, I’ve been making my way over to school and working with Lalit the computer teacher with his lessons.  Many of the kids have never been exposed to a computer, so I volunteered to help out with classes.  The first day was a bit hectic, as some of the younger classes didn’t even know how to turn the computer on; however, things have started ease up a bit. For the first few weeks of class, we’re teaching the kids how to type, which has been much easier for some than others.  Additionally, we’re using Mac’s that were donated from the United States, the problem is the curriculum was designed for PC’s and the teacher is well versed with PC’s rather than Mac’s.  Fortunately, I’ve been exposed to Mac’s (despite being a PC person), and we’ve made a good bit of progress working with the kids on the donated computers.

After classes, I’ve been working with the kids after school in preparation for the Extra-Curricular Championship.  In addition to the sporting events, we’re factoring in a Kopila Quiz Competition, Poetry Reading, and a variety of other activities.  We’re only a few days’ back into the sports, and I will provide a bigger update in my next post.  Beyond, the regular sports, we’ve selected 4 kids for the National Badminton Tournament.  Our 4 selectees continue to improve daily, and I’m very excited for the competition.  Just the other day, we had to take the kids to the sneaker store as they were playing barefoot.  It’s been a rough transition for many of them, and 2 of the girls still prefer playing barefoot to wearing their sneakers. I’m crossing my fingers that they continue to warm up to their shoes.

On one last Thanksgiving note…We’re having a big meal tonight to celebrate.  The plan is to eat a Turkey, prepare some mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and stuffing.  As you might suspect we have to get creative in order to make some of those items, however, I think everyone is very excited.   

Well, I miss everyone back at home a great deal, and am very thankful to have such a wonderful family, and friends.  I continued to have an amazing experience in Nepal, and grow a little bit every day, but I think of everyone constantly and look forward to seeing you all soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

John

Kopila Vacation!

As always, I apologize for the delay since my last blog post!  We’ve been out of town since very early Thursday morning, and I’m finally getting caught back up here at the house.  That said, the family trip was amazing, albeit trying at times. 

Our trip began at 6am on Thursday morning for the 350 mile drive to Chitewan National Park.  Due to the fact that Nepal’s highway system is largely one lane, and winds through hills, valleys, and mountains, the average speed for any trip is roughly 30 mph.  That meant that this bus ride, which would be about 4 hours in the states, quickly turned into a 14 hour trip.  In addition to the distance, we also crammed 50 people onto a 40 person bus which led to some cramped spaces.   Unfortunately, there weren’t really rest stops along the way, and despite stopping at “Paradise Plaza” there was not much by the way of food.  We brought juice boxes and snack food, and fortunately Maggie brought some snickers bars for the volunteers to snack on.    After some serious delays on the bus, we ended up getting to the Rhino Lodge at 830 pm, and proceeded directly to dinner.  As I’ve mentioned Dhal Baat is the big food over here, and not surprisingly that is what we ate for dinner.  After dinner we headed to our rooms, I shared with Ben, Matt, and Ian and luckily snagged the single bed, while another person slept on the floor and two in the double bed.  All things considered the hotel was decent and I slept well, in preparation for our big day at the park.

On Friday we all woke up at 630 am for breakfast and preparations before getting loaded on to two people movers, which brought us into the park.  Chitewan is the first National Park of Nepal.  It used to be the site of safari’s and game exhibitions, but has been converted into a habitat for Tigers, Rhino’s, Elephants, and a number of other species.  Our first stop on the journey was the elephants; the park is home to roughly 100 Asian elephants, 46 of which are used for elephant safaris.  All 50 of us broke out into groups of 5 for the trip.  I had the same group from Halloween and as always they were wonderful, fun, and extremely well behaved.  One of my guys got extremely afraid that the elephant was going to fall over, and I had to hold his hand for much of the trip, while reassuring him that everything was going to be ok.  This was in addition to my right hand man, Bishal sitting in my lap for the duration.  I think I was the leader of the “fun” elephant, and we had some songs going and chants.  Initially this was intended to help Hari through his worries, however, it turns out we might have scared off some of the animals…  Despite our group’s boisterous mind set, we had an amazing time, our Mahout (elephant driver) was wonderful with the kids, and they asked a boat load of questions.  In addition the ride lasted for about an hour and a half, so we got to see much of the parks beauty from the back of an elephant.  I’ve actually wanted to take an elephant ride for some time so this was a huge treat and I enjoyed it immensely.

Elephant Trip!

 Following the elephant ride we made our way back to the hotel, where we regrouped and then walked over to the river to watch an elephant bathing.  This is somewhat of a tourist town, so there was actually a bunch of café’s on the river overlooking the animals.  In addition to the elephant bath we went on a long canoe trip down one of the rivers, where some slightly inebriated tour guides gave us a wonderful cruise.  This was a game time decision though; as our principal point of contact explained that the kids had to be absolutely silent if we wanted to go on this tour.  Evidently the crocodiles can be somewhat irritable and screaming kids splashing in the water is not the best.  As a result of this conversation Maggie explained to the kids that if they talked they would get eaten, and that they had best be quiet.  Well, I think her warning was a bit of an exaggeration and it SCARED the kids into absolute silence.  I think this was the most peaceful part of the whole trip, and we got to see some crocodiles, birds, and some beautiful scenery.  After the canoe trip, we got off near the elephant breeding center and to see the elephants and hear more about them.  This part of the trip was extremely interesting and I learned a great deal about the Asian elephants we rode earlier in the day.  We also got to see a baby rhino, and a really bizarre animal museum.  Towards the end of the day, we realized that there wasn’t much space for down time at the park, and rather than staying Maggie made the decision to head to Manakamana temple on Saturday.  Unfortunately, Saturday is very popular at the temple and in order to get tickets to ride the gondola up we needed to arrive at 730 am, which meant a 415am departure from Chitewan.  This reality did not stop us from having a fantastic dinner with the uncles and the volunteers, which was a welcome change from the Dhal Baat.

Scared Kids getting on to the Canoe!

The next morning we woke up at 4am in order to head to the Temple.  Manakamana is a sacred Hindu site up in the sky, which is where people go in order to make a wish and a sacrifice.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the Himalaya’s from the summit, because it was a rather hazy day.  This was actually my favorite stop on the entire trip.  For some reason I’ve always enjoyed cities that are tucked away off the beaten track, and this city was certainly out of the way.  We walked around for several hours, received blessings, and tikka, and ate lunch before deciding to get on the road once again.  We went back and forth on whether we wanted to stay in the park, but after some thoughts we decided to head to Budha’s birth place at Lumbini which was another far drive.  Along the way to Lumbini we stayed at the sketchiest hotels I’ve ever stepped foot in.  This was not a part of the plan, however, at 830 pm we realized we needed to find a place to stay and were still a decent drive from Lumbini.  The place we showed up to had no power, and had some of the dirtiest rooms I’ve ever been in.  The volunteers all stayed in one room, while 11 of the boys slept out on the balcony.  I’m sure everyone would say “don’t let the bed bugs bite” unfortunately they did, and I was ripped apart by those little critters.  Thankfully they didn’t bother me too much the next day, however, my legs and torso were covered with red spots from the bed bugs.  Fortunately, the other volunteers got spared, but I was not so lucky.  In all honesty the bed bugs were the worst part, and I actually had a surprisingly enjoyable time at the creepy hotel.  As with anything I think the key is just having a sense of humor and a positive attitude about it, and the fellows remained very upbeat.  Thankfully we don’t really have too many complainers in our group, and we did our best to make light of an otherwise lackluster sleeping situation.

Gondola to Manakamana

Super sketchy hotel room...good times

Creepy hotel aside, we woke up at 6am the next morning to head to Lumbini, and arrived at roughly 8am.  After a quick breakfast we proceeded to the park, where like Buddha I found enlightenment.  For me that came in the form of coke zero which I purchased near the park’s entrance.  For those of you who don’t know when I’m in the states my diet consists predominantly of pretzel M&M’s and Coke Zero’s…Unfortunately neither of those things really exist in Nepal.  They do have soda, however, it’s mostly Coca-Cola Classic, with an occasional Coca-Cola Light.  Well, you can probably guess that I was ecstatic when I saw the black outline of a Coke Zero in the distance.  Not sure if the other fellows fully understood the reason for my excitement, but my friends from home most certainly would.

Coke Zero!!!

Sorry for my Coke Zero aside, moving on we ventured into the park to see the sights.  This is a sacred spot for a great number of people, and is one of Buddhism’s holiest destinations.  While in the park, we saw the exact site of Buddha’s birth, a sacred Bodhi tree, and a huge number of Buddhist monasteries constructed for worship.  During the day I learned a good bit about Buddha and his teachings.  Following our trip to Lumbini we got in the bus, had a quick lunch and began the long trip home…a trip that could have been even longer had it not been for Maggie and Tope’s negotiation skills.  About 2.5 hours into the drive, we ran into a road block as a result of one towns protest against the government.  The prime minister was in the area, and the locals blockaded the streets to show their distaste for the government.  We could have been sitting there for hours, had we not pleaded to get through.  After sitting in the road for 45 minutes, Maggie came back to the bus and asked all the white people to get to the front.  This was to show who was on board, and the only reason we were allowed to pass was because our bus was filled with white people and children.  After we got through the road block the bus let out a triumphant cheer and we continued on our way. 

Under the Bodhi Tree

Having been home for a day and a half now, I’ve had time to reflect on this trip and think it really exemplifies the best and worst qualities of Nepal.  There is amazing scenery, sites, history, and people however, there is also unrest, a terrible infrastructure, and depilated accommodations.  During our vacation we saw both extremes, which I think is a wonderful thing.  People often visit new countries (myself included), and only see it through the lens of a resort or through a carefully planned itinerary.  I really feel blessed to have seen the real Nepal, the way it is supposed to be seen.  There were some very uncomfortable moments, and I have the bed bug bites to prove it but all and all it was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

 I know this is the longest blog post ever, and each paragraph is really deserving of a new post with more detail, but, I will conclude with one entertaining story.  During our first day at the Rhino Lodge, my little minion Bishal was following me around all day (as he usually does).  Well, when we stopped for a bathroom break, he followed me and kept saying long toilet, not knowing what he meant I let him into my bathroom to do his thing.  Turns out he says “Long Toilet” and “Short Toilet” depending on what he has to do in there…Also turns out her is not used to using a western toilet and accustom to a squatter.  Well about a few minutes into his long toilet, I realized that things were getting a bit gnarly in the bathroom.  After he got up I had to clean him, using a bucket of water, and the rest of the bathroom which somehow looked like a bunch of monkey’s got in fight.  This was my first experience taking care of a small child after they used the bathroom, and man was it a rude awakening.  I continue to say, this fellowship is doing wonders for my future fathering skills, and this was a big step.  I actually had to help out a couple more times during the trip with some kids, and thankfully it has gotten easier with every wipe…probably too much information!

My main man Bishal

 Miss everyone a lot, and will write more soon!  Diwali begins today, and there will be lots to update on!

Cuts, Cockroaches, and Cleaning

Thought I’d shoot a quick update out with regards to the Kopila Valley Badminton Team, the deep cleaning occurring at Kopila, and the nest of creatures from under my bed.

The Badminton Team is looking great over here at Kopila.  A few weeks ago the principal asked me to put together a team for the Nepal National Badminton Associations annual tournament.  Prior to practices I used a bit of the funding provided to me by our fundraiser to purchase new and improved badminton equipment for the team.  We bought three new sleeves of shuttle cocks and 12 new racquets which have been hugely helpful when trying to conduct an organized practice.  Additionally, the kids have been playing barefoot and in jeans, so I’m currently working to design and purchase athletic uniforms and sneakers so we will look like the team that we’re becoming when we get to the tournament.  Beyond these purchases, I’ve been spending a good deal of time researching badminton techniques and drills in order to get the kids up to speed.  Unfortunately, after a week of practice we had to narrow the teams down to two players each.  As the first week wore on, Matt and I discussed in great detail how hard the cut was going to be, and rather than choosing two children subjectively we played a round robin tournament amongst the boys.  Thankfully the girls’ team weeded itself down, and we now have two superstars, Goma and Socializa.  I’m actually not kidding when I say superstars; there are two of the most athletic middle school girls I’ve ever seen (Including at home).  The boys narrowed themselves down to three before we had to play the tournament.  In the first two rounds Avicheck beat Uraj and Arjun to secure a spot on the team.  This development led to a winner takes all third game for a spot on the team.  Uraj advanced in a heated contest, which was hard to watch knowing how much each boy wanted the victory. What made this pill even harder to swallow were Arjun’s tears after he lost his match that combined with the recent passing of his mother, father and brother melted my heart.  All of the boys were working their butts off, and it was a challenger to stomach this cut.  On a more uplifting note I spoke with Arjun and he’s going to come back out as a member of our 1 man practice squad starting tomorrow. This was good news to me, as it gives him an excuse to stay at school and eat a healthy breakfast here at the home.  All of our badminton players have been coming in for tutoring at 6 am during the holiday, however, don’t eat breakfast and aren’t able to eat anything until lunch.  Matt and I found this out last week at practice, when some of the boys were acting sluggish.  We asked if they were tired, only to find out that they were all starving, and don’t eat anything all morning.  After talking with the Kitchen staff, I was able to get breakfast arranged for the entire team before breakfast.

Beyond athletics, things have been very busy at the house.  With the return of Maggie, things have picked up and she’s been working to get the house back in order.  As a result of this initiative we did a “Deep Cleaning” two days ago, where we cleaned out each of the bedrooms washed the walls, and prepared a few rooms for a fresh coat of paint.  You wouldn’t believe the hoarding that goes on at this house; there were piles 6 feet tall of assorted things coming from under some of the kids beds. Thankfully I was in charge of the “pissing room” and they don’t have nearly as many possessions stored.  This made my life much easier than Kelly and Safira, who had to deal with the girl’s rooms.  In addition to cleaning out the kid’s rooms, we also did some much needed upgrades to my room.  We removed the two little beds in favor of one larger one. In hindsight the next development was somewhat amusing, recently the other fellows have been laughing at me because I’ve insisted that there is a snake in my room.  I’ve constantly mentioned how I hear hissing sounds at night, but the other fellows have dismissed the notion as my imagination or from outside.   Well turns out it wasn’t the snake at all, but about twenty cockroaches keeping me up at night.   Much to my dismay, when we lifted up the bed I’ve been sleeping on for the past 7 weeks a swarm of about 20 Cockroaches came storming out. I went on a tear with one of my sneakers trying to kill as many as possible before they could escape back into my room.  I think I did a fairly good job, and I haven’t seen one since we removed the bed.  Hopefully this new bed will treat me better; the carpenters just put some legs on, which should keep them from nesting beneath.

On one last somber note, one of the 5^th grade girls from the school passed away last night, which has been challenging for everyone at the house.  I did not have the pleasure of knowing her, but from I’ve heard she was an amazing young woman.  As you can imagine this has been incredibly tough for Maggie, the children, and staff.  I know prayers are spread thin right now in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, but an extra prayer for some healing here in Surkhet would be much appreciated.

John

Halloween!

Happy Belated Halloween everyone!  The past several days at Kopila have been very exciting.  Since my last post, the fellows have broken out into groups in order to assemble Halloween costumes for the kids.  I was assigned the Beige Room which consists of 4 boys and my shadow Bishal.  Over the course of the past week we went decided what we wanted to be, and shopped for the appropriate material. Sundar chose to be a Tiger, Krishna was Tom, Yaga was Jerry, Bishal was Batman, and Hari was “Super Spiderman” (half Spiderman half Superman).  We had to take several trips into town to purchase the appropriate materials, as the majority of the costumes had to be made from scratch.  I was actually very impressed with my group, and the 5 of us had a super productive trip into town.  I promised to buy them some MoMo’s if they promised to hold hands and act on their best behavior.  Our first stop was the fabric store, where I allowed each of the boys to pick out some fabric that they though would be helpful for their costumes.  Unfortunately, I’m not the most crafty individual, so we also purchased some colored pants, and a Spiderman mask to make things a bit easier.    After getting everything together it was time for costume assembly!

Happy Halloween!

As I mentioned, I’m not the most domestic person alive…If I’m going to be honest, the last time I sewed was for Home-Ec class in sixth grade.  That said I did my best with what I had to put together some stellar costumes.  My favorite was Yaga’s “Jerry” costume.  This initially started out with a brown piece of fabric that I effectively turned into a poncho.  After some cutting and some sewing and making some ears, it actually turned out ok.  I’ve made some jokes to the other fellows, but I definitely think I’ll be coming back to the States with a whole new set of skills that were lacking before I left.  I’m still not sure you’ll want me to sew your shirts, but I think I could make do in a pinch.  As for my costume, I worked with some of the kids to decide what a good costume would be.  After several different thoughts, the grand champion was Aladdin.  After purchasing some purple, maroon, and white cloth I cheated a little bit and got my costume made by the tailor.   Amazing what you can get made for $7 in Nepal!

 

As for the Halloween festivities, they were so much fun.  Granted, it was unlike any Halloween I’ve had since I was about 8.  We started off by getting our groups together at 4:00 yesterday to get them into costume.  You wouldn’t believe how hyper a 5 year old in a batman costume can get.  After some serious wrangling with the boys, I got all five of them and myself ready by 5:00.  After the initial stage we migrated over to the face painting station, where Tom, Jerry, and our Tiger got some amazing paint jobs by Maggie (more on her return later), Safira, and Kelly.   They did such a great job, which I’m hugely thankful for as it really helped salvage a few of our room’s costumes!  After face painting we all went down to dinner, where I collected ears, masks, noses, etc. in order to make sure they wouldn’t be lost.  Then, the real fun started.  The evening kicked off with a big scavenger hunt.  Ben and I were the captains of the two teams, and made sure that everyone got to the clue before it was read.  During the Scavenger hunt, all the lights in the house were turned out and the staff/other volunteers did their best to surprise and scare the kids.  At several points Maggie’s clown costume sent some of my teams younger boys into such hysterics that I was forced to carry them from clue to clue.  This was probably my favorite part of the night, the kids went wild, the volunteers had a blast, and the staff was incredible. 

 

Beige room!  On the way to face painting.

Following the scavenger hunt (which my team won!), we broke everyone out into trick or treat groups.  As I mentioned Halloween isn’t a Nepali holiday, so rather than going from door to door the kids went to all of the volunteers rooms for a treat.  We went out earlier in the day to buy snacks, and I think I had a winner with full sized snickers bars!  In addition to the treats, we all needed a trick too, and each of the volunteers did their best to deck out their room for Halloween.  For my room, I put a strobe light on, some Halloween music, hung long streamers from the ceiling and had them sit down for a story.  Initially I had crafted an intricate story, with three boxes, that they would reach into for a story from their past, present, and future.  It took quite a bit of set up, and lasted for about 4 minutes before I realized it was a bit much for the kids to sit through.  Instead, I came up with the most terrible story ever to take its place…somehow my last minute story turned out to be a success.  For the story, I had the group sit down on the floor and I would start off by explaining “Once a time there was a balloon, a purple balloon” then I would mention how the purple balloon was behind them…they would all turn around to see the balloon.  There was nothing going on with the balloon but when they turned around I would just scream and I’d say about 90% of the time they lost it.  Like I said TERRIBLE story, but I’m pretty sure the kids were so on edge anything would have frightened them.

 After the big trick or treating extravaganza we all went to the satsung room for a killer Halloween themed dance party!  I got a few dances w/ all the beautiful princesses including the one and only jasmine played by Nisha!  All and all it was probably one of the more fun Halloweens I’ve had in quite some time.

Hope all is well back at home, and everyone had a great Halloween.  I will write more about Maggie’s big return, and our tremendous progress with the extracurricular in my next post!

Aladdin and Jasmine!