1 week into training

All is well here in Nepal! Here are some small excerpts from Pre-Service Training:

I am literally in the most beautiful place on the planet. I thought the North Cascades were breathtaking (not saying they are not beautiful, because they are) but Nepal is something else. I'm only at 1400m, but i feel like im up in the sky. my homestay town, Chhap, is directly on a mountain ridge. I will try and upload pictures to show, but I feel that they wont even do it justice. I don't think I will ever tire of sticking my head out my window and just staring at the countryside. The hills are all terraced, which must have taken hundreds of years to finish, and most mornings you can barely see around you because of the fog, but when it clears up in the afternoon it is amazing. In the distance I can see two huge mountains covered in snow. I now realize why I received a blank stare when I asked my family if i was looking at the Himalayas. Himal simply means mountain in Nepali, and himalaya means mountain range.

My homestay has been great so far. I walked into my room for the first time yesterday and it smelled strongly of paint...they had just painted my room turquoise and purple just for me!!! They are also in the process of building a new charpi or pit latrine. This seems to be common among all of the trainees families; these people are so welcoming and are putting so much time and money into making us feel comfortable, even though im sure most of us would have been perfectly fine with less. I will say though that going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground and only using water to clean yourself takes some getting used to. Still cant get over the "just wet your pants" feeling that I get afterwards. I also have 85 spiders living in my bathroom and bedroom. The spiders here are massive. I hate spiders so this is an issue for me. they are literally as big as my palm.

We've been learning Nepali slowly, and today we learned the beginnings of Devanaagarei, which is Nepali written script. It is one thing learning a whole new language but another learning to read and write all over again! Google Devanaagarei and its a form of Sanscrit...completely different from anything I am used to. Its like we are in first grade. I'm not used to not being able to read. Communicating has been extremely difficult but my homestay sister, who is 20, has been very helpful as she can speak some English words, basically enough to tell me what words are in Nepali. I have an aamaa (mom), baa (dad), 2 bahini (younger sisters), and 1 baai (younger brother). however, my uncle lives across the street so my cousins are in and out of the house all day. Right now my best friend is Sunil. He's 9 and hes alwways waiting for me in my room and helps me read and write, except hes way more advanced then me. My LCF (language and cultural facilitator) lives directly across from me which is nice because I have been bathing over at her house since mine is still being built. Showering is now my least favorite activity, as i have to psych myself up just to get under the water. its FREEZING. really not sure how im going to deal with this once winter comes. will update you all on how my hygeine is doing later.

UPDATE: I have now learned every consonant and vowel used in Devanaagarei!! so technically i can read any sign i come across, except the problem is that even though i can now read i still dont know what it means. Also, fun fact: this script is also used in India so if I travel there at least ill be able to read and communicate a bit. The language is very similar in India too, except for how they conjugate their verbs.

Eating with your hand takes lots of practice too. Its super messy and feels so unnatural but kind of fun as well. You basically mush all your daal (lentils) and bhaat rice) together and shove it in your mouth. Manners don't exactly exist, and its not uncommon for everyoone to burp and spit all the time. They feed me enough rice for 5 people so I never finish my food but I think they are slowly learning that I physically cannot eat that much.

my family also has 5 goats and 1 buffalo which I highly enjoy petting, even though all the baby goats try to headbutt me all the time, probably because every other kid here smacks them over the head with a stick when the walk by. The tiny goats reject my love but i will keep on trying!!! I also discvered a baby buffalo in the back of my house (how i did not notice it was living there is beyond me) and I was petting it and my host father came up and asked if i ate it. That is literally the only interaction i have had with him.

Today we observed "Teej" in our homestays. Teej is a woman's festival that celebrates the god Shiva and his wife Parvati. My family is Newar (Nepal has a caste system) so we dont technically celebrate Teej, but all of us PC Trainees got to go into town and observe the festival. All the women/girls wear red saris and dance and sing. Some trainees who are in Chetri or Brahman families (other castes) were all dressed up with red saris. I however was in my blue pants and a tshirt, but I still received tikaa, which is the red paint/dot that is placed on your forehead. its basically for good luck. I also got to eat 3 donuts in town today which was a nice treat away from the 5 lbs of rice i consume daily. The donuts cost 5 cents and theyre more breadlike than sugary but they are still good, and even better dipped in milk tea.

That's about it from Nepal!!! My language slowly gets better each day, although its still a struggle to communicate my basic needs and I mess up all the time. For instance, I saw a root looking vegetable on the floor and wanted to know its name, but ended up asking if it was a dog because I accidentally added an "r" to the end of my word, and then yesterday I asked if my grandfather's name was "grandchildren" in Nepali because thats what I thought he said when I asked him his name. I also showed my family all the pictures on my iphone...didnt realize how many pictures of my cat and dog are on there, so they probably think im insane, especially since i told them my cat sleeps on my bed. Animals here arent beaten or anything, but they arent highly regarded, and they certainly dont sleep indoors.

Thats all for now!