Dashain

We finished up week 6 last week with a pancake breakfast and brownie snack during our group training day. It was amazing to see what a bottle of cheap syrup could do to us trainees...these small reminders of our american lives never fail to cheer us all up. I also received my first package from home (thanks mom!), so I've been busy snacking on dried mangos, apples, and trail mix, which is a nice change from the sugary biscuits or donuts that are usually consumed during snack time.

Dashain has been in full swing here in Chhap, with its arrival also marking the start of week 7 of PST. I also woke up today with one of the most gorgeous views I've had so far. I looked out my window at 6:20am and could see snow-covered moutain peaks in between the clouds. I was looking directly north into Tibet and China. It was a nice treat because normally the mountains are hidden by clouds for most of the day.

Today we spent about 3 hours watching raago get slaughtered (male water buffalo). All over Chhap there were burning biles of water buffalo. Once they kill the animal with a swift chop over its spinal cord they drain the blood and then put the whole body into a burning pile of leaves in order to get all the hair and skin off. I watched this whole thing take place and even 5 minutes after the entire head of the buffalo was removed, the body was still kicking and seizing. There was even a man whose sole job was to kill the buffalo. I watched him casually smoke a ciggarette and drink his tea before sauntering over to the buffalo with a giant knife. He put some grass on the ground to get the buffalo to eat and get its neck down than BAM he chopped its head off. After delivering the fatal blow he washed his legs of the blood that had splattered and then resumed his tea drinking/smoking. Besides slaughtering buffalo, Hindus' believe that your body should temporarily leave the earth during Dashain, so a humongous swing was also constructed! Pictures will come, but it was made of four 25-foot long bamboo trees that were placed in the earth and then tied at the top, sort of like a teepee. The swing was then attached. All of us trainees took turns swinging with the kids in the community. You actually get super high and this man kept pushing me higher so I kind of felt like I might die at times because I was standing up on the swing. It was funny because right behind the swing there was a fire with an entire buffalo in it, so you were actually right over the burning buffalo at certain points in the swing. It was one of those moments where I was like wow, i'm swinging on this probably extremely unstable bamboo rod about 20 feet in the air over a burning buffalo carcass in Nepal. Later that night we had a special feast to celebrate Dashain. Now, I normally am really good about trying food and whatnot, but dinner was something else. It was all served cold on a giant banana leaf. It was an interestesting assortment of churaa (beaten rice, which doesnt have much taste, as its literally just dried rice), this sort of spicy trail mix, badaam (peanuts), keraa (banana), shrimp-flavored chips, water buffalo skin, and scrambled blood. YEAH. I couldnt do it. I tried...I really tried to eat it and force it down but I couldnt. There were chunks in it and it looked like dirt. So basically my entire meal consisted of dried rice and a banana. I couldnt manage the buffalo skin either. I could see the pores where the hairs used to be. I also had some other weird looking meat that I can only describe as the meat that you would potentially find around a spinal cord. Otherwise, the meal was really great because it kind of felt like a christmas/holiday meal I would have at home. Thats kind of the same feeling I've been getting with Dashain, which is nice because I wont be really celebrating Christmas here with my host family. My neighbors even have sparkly colored lights on their rooftop. All the older siblings who study in Kathmandu are home for the month and everyone just kind of hangs out and drinks raksi and eats a lot of meat. My siblings and I all sat around drinking beer and Sprite and eating off our banana leaf plates, just talking and joking. All of my sisters guy friends kept trying to refill my beer even though I kept telling them over and over I was full. I ended up going to bed at 10:30 that night....so late for me! It was actually the latest I've stayed up in Nepal too, which is sad because i've become an old person.


More Dashain events: Today I went around from neighbor's house to neighbor's house watching a squawking chicken get sacrificed at each one. They would pull the neck back and then slit its throat, splattering its blood all over their worship area. At each house I was offered the local alcohol raksi after each sacrifice; i politely declined each cup, mostly because it came out of a dirty-looking water bottle, but also because if I had accepted each cup I would have been drunk out of my mind. One house also offered me a cup of chunky milk; it gets awkward here because all my siblings know I like milk, but its really hard to explain that you only drink milk that has been boiled so you dont die. So I had to politely decline the milk as well. Afterwards the day was filled with dancing, "hit the clay pot," and musical chairs! The dancing was really fun to watch, and one of my sisters did 2 dances with her friend. Its so unlike any sort of American dancing...I dont think I could copy it if I tried. After the dancing the community played their version of hit the pinata. They placed a clay pot about 10 meters down the road, blindfolded and spun the person around, and gave them a 4 foot long stick to try and hit the pot with. Literally this game went on for 4 hours and no one ever hit the pot. I tried and made it about halfway to the pot and got completely turned around and almost started hitting some children. Then we played musical chairs. For the music a man was playing a homemade drum, and for the chairs we used bricks that we had to jump and stand on when the music stopped. I think i made it 3 rounds out of about 12. C- for achievements, but A+ for community participation!!

 

Later that night there was a street dance! It took place on the stage where the dancing program was held earlier. It was so fun...probably one of the most memorable nights I've had thus far in Nepal. I went with my sisters and met up with the other Chhap trainees. They were playing a mix of American and Hindi/Nepali music and my sisters taught all of us how to dance like Nepalis (super hard..they dance with their arms much more than americans do), and we taught them how to dance like americans! It was so fun..it kind of felt like a high school dance though because all the girls were in one corner and all the boys were in another. After we danced for a solid hour they served Coke and a cracker/noodle snack and then some drunk men came and it got a little rowdy so my sisters took me home. All of our families here are so protective of us, its actually so sweet. My sisters always hold my arm or hand when we are walking and were trying to shield me from the drunk people. Even earlier today when I was at my friend Andrea's house her dad walked me home when I left because it was dark, even though I live about 100m from her house.

We had another day off to observe Dashain with our families. I posted more pictures on facebook, but today i went around with my family to all the houses we sacrificed chickens at, except this time I received tikka at each one, which is the giant red ball of rice on my forehead. With each tikka I also received some Nepali rupees, some fruit to eat (mostly coconut, banana, or apple) and jamarra which is the grass they have been growing over the course of the holiday. Today was when they harvested it and then you stick a bunch of grass stalks in your hair along with flowers. After 5 houses my entire forehead was covered in sticky red rice, I had an entire garden coming out of my head, and was about 90 cents richer than when I started. all of the families kept giving me Coke to drink as well so I think I may have consumed a liter of that today. Otherwise the day was fairly mellow...I hung out with the other Chhap trainees and we finished up a movie we had started earlier in the week and then went and played on the swing some more. I went with my friend Marvin's sister on the swing. Swinging with a Nepali was 100x scarier than swinging with my friend Andrea. It was terrifying I thought I was going to go flying off the swing into the forest. I then helped cook some dinner. Thank the lord they cooked some saagh today, which is basically a local spinach they have, because I am over eating random buffalo body parts. The last day I have been straight up refusing meat because its been sitting in a wooden drawer in a plastic bag the past 3 days, and i'm prettyyyyy sure its past its prime.

Thanks for once again reading the novel I wrote. Heading into week 8 here of PST....only 4 more weeks left in Chhap, which is crazy because the time has really been flying by lately. I am really excited to have our last week of training in Kathmandu though...super ready to eat some food other than rice. This Sunday we have our mock Language Proficiency Interviews and Peace Corps is bringing in testers from Kathmandu, so I'll be busy studying until then!

Namaste,

Alex

chicken slaughtering and composting galore

I was overwhelmed by the love and support from home after my last rather emotional blog entry! You guys are great and I appreciate every facebook/blog comment and package you are all sending my way (plus the primary literature...thanks Beth!). Its really fantastic to know I am supported every step of the way here and it makes me that much more excited for the work I'm going to do here in the future.

Today our homework assignment was to buy and cook food for our families. We were given 10,000 rupees each, approximately $9, to buy our supplies. I was able to buy 1 kg of bananas, 1 kg of tomatoes, 1 kg potatoes, 1/2 kg lentils, 1 kg apples, 1 fruitcake, and 1 kg of chicken all for around $6 american dollars. Nepal is crazy cheap. It was hard to spend the money we were given! Getting the chicken was interesting....myself and 2 friends went to the corner store to get chicken. I was thinking they slaughter chickens each morning and then sell the meat throughout the day. WRONG. they straight up grabbed a chicken from their house and slaughtered it right in front of me. I watched them saw off the neck, pluck the chicken and disembowel the whole thing. Then I went home and cooked it...probably as fresh as it gets! I ended up cooking dhaal (lentils), baat (rice), kukurako maasu (chicken meat), and tarkari (vegetables: i used potatoes, green beans, and tomatoes). The amount of spices they put on everything is amazing...its literally 3 spoonfuls of salt, 3 spoonfuls of turmeric and cumin, and masala powder. They also add a mashed up mix of garlic/ginger and spicy peppers to everything. Not the best food for a weak stomach but it tastes delicious. Anyways, I guess it was a success! My fam asked me to cook American food next saturday for them! I think i'll try and cook spaghetti..easiest thing to cook with the resources I have.

All 20 of us trainees went on a field trip to Bhaktapur earlier this week!! Its about 20km east of Kathmandu. It was great to get out of Chautara for the day and explore such a historical city where both Hindu and Buddhist religious sites/art exist. Bhaktapur lies along the ancient trade route between India and Tibet and is dubbed "Nepal's Cultural Gem." We were able to see the citiies many temples and its famous Durbar Square. Durbar square has a 55-Window Palace, which served as the seat of royalty prior to 1769. in addition, i was able to eat pizza, a latte, and ice cream all in one day! Bhaktapur was swarming with tourists so the many restaurants there cater to their different needs. I posted an album on facebook with pictures if anyone wants to go look.

Earlier this week my fellow trainees in Chhap and I were able to successfully implement the beginning stages of our PACA activities! PACA stands for Participatory Appraisal for Community Action and is basically the methods we use to assess our community's needs once we're at our permanent site. Well we're basically doing "practice PACA" during PST so we know how it operates. Except instead of 4 months to gather information and resources, we have 3 weeks. BUT the Chhap trainees and I were able to hold a meeting last Saturday (at 6:30am no less) and 50 people showed up! It was great. (Side comment: we passed around a sign in sheet and the illeterate people used We asked them what they thought Chhap's resources were, what is weaknesses were, and what they thought Chhap needed most. After over 2 hours of talking (with the help of our LCF as a translator) with the residents of Chhap, we learned what they wanted most was agriculture training in order to increase crop yields....good thing we were fresh off of permagardening training! We assigned different community members to be in charge of bringing certain items for composting and 3 days later we watched as our plan was put into action! Our composting training was set for 2pm and all of us were nervous if people would actually show up and bring their supplies. Sure enough though once 2pm rolled around we watched as community members slowly trudged up the hill with their assigned bags of green leaves, brown leaves, charcoal, or manure. It was fantastic...we taught a group of about 20 how to make and maintain a compost pile. In about 4 weeks we'll actually start to make the garden, when the compost is almost ready. It made me feel like I was actually accomplishing something so early in training (my exact words were "wow I feel like an actual peace corps volunteer), which was great.

That about sums it up here from Nepal. Not too many crazy happenings this week. Dashain has started, which is a 10 day long festival (kind of like our Christmas I suppose) so I think I have a lot of extended family coming to visit soon. Dashain involves a lot of meat-eating and a lot of raksi-drinking. Raksi is homemade alcohol that they make here using rice and it tastes foul. Its gotten quite cold here in the mornings and at night, and excuse my language, but showering is a real bitch now. Not my most favorite activity. We also have our practice Language Proficiency Exam coming up so I'm really trying to study hard for that.

Namaste!

-Alex

emotions, composting, and more spiders!

So last night probably solidified the fact that I am indeed a child to my homestay family. I got up to pee around 1am and while trying to untangle myself from my mosquito net, i saw this weird glowing bulb on the wall. I turned on my light and the weird glowing bulb turned out to be another tarantula sized spider. No idea what the glowing bulb was but I wish I got a picture. Too bad I was paralyzed with fear in the corner of my room, unsure of what to do. I knew I would never be able to sleep and leave the creature just sitting on my wall so I woke up my sister who came in and killed it. She laughed because she knew I hate spiders with a passion, but I'm sure she also thought I am a child. I couldnt help it though; these spiders are actually the size of my hand. Then, 2 hours later I woke up and 2 rats were hanging out under my bed, squeaking and rustling around. Needless to say I barely slept that night.

 However, my sleepless night was soon forgotten because today we learned about permagardening!!! Permagardens are "permanent agriculture and bio-intensive home gardens." The whole idea behind permagardens are empowerent of the family that farms the land. The idea is that food + nutrition+ income = empowerment. People will have control over their resources. This involves the key word "local:" local tools, local seeds, and local people. The equation is: SDA w/ IMVR = BCA. Small Doable Action w/ Immediate, Measurable, Visible Results = Behavior Change Adaption. PC isnt about to march into a village with shovels and watering cans and attempt to change the way villagers have been gardening. Its about showing people how to build sustainable gardens that can empower them. Also, call me a nerd but I was super pumped when we started talking about photosynthesis and going through all of the biological/chemical reactions happening in a compost pile. Peace Corps had flown in Peter Jensen, an American living in Ethiopia, to teach us all about permagardening. It was great; we learned how to make a compost pile (not as easy as you think...we didnt even use kitchen scraps!), and compost "tea" which essentially consists of the juices that remain from a compost pile. There are specific ways to make a compost pile and it took the 20 of us over an hour to get a cubic meter sized pile going. PC had also reserved us a small plot of land to make a garden from. We took a picture before we started work, and thank gosh we did because after an hour of work the land looked completely different. We had started with dry, scrubby land covered in weeds and rocks. After an hour of laborious digging/scraping with a small hand-held hoe (my back is going to kill in the morning), we had turned our scrappy piece of land into something that resembled soil! We had removed all weeds and roots and came away with a small plot with reddish brown soil that looked like we might actually be able to plant something in. Will attempt to get pictures of it tomorrow. It got me really excited to start gardening/composting at my own site and teaching others about permagardening as well! Its also exciting because our agriculture technical training has finally started, which I have been looking forward to as I am one of 10 agriculture focused volunteers.

Speaking of nerdy things, if anyone finds ineresting bio articles/ animal articles please send them my way!!! my email is alc009@bucknell.edu.  I miss reading scholastic journals/articles! I was not lying during graduation when i said I was not sick of classes...

...And here is my first "emotional" post! Wahooo! Today I missed home. I wasn't homesick necessarily, I just had these pangs that would come and go when I thought about home. I myself was confused. I've been here a mere month, so why was I already missing home. Well my friends I have discovered that what you think you will feel in a situation is not usually how you end up feeling. Before I left home I figured I wouldnt really start missing things until PST was over and I had been in Nepal for 3 months. I went abroad for 4 months and I have definitely been at school for more than that amount of time without going home. Going abroad however, you have an "end" so to speak. Theres a light at the end of the tunnel. You know you will be back in America in 4 months time and so you spend your time thinking about how much America sucks since you are in this exotic foreign place that seems to have better food and more exciting experiences. Here in Peace Corps though, there really isn't an end in sight. Not that I'm wishing this experience to be over...I'm not wishing that at all. But I also know I won't be back in America in 4 months. So when i complain about how shitty my toilet is, its not like I can placate myself by saying "oh, you only need to deal with the lack of toilet paper for a while longer," because in reality, that isnt the case. I think all of these feelings were brought about by my villages discussion of Christmas. The trainees in my village and I were commiserating about how sad our christmases would probably be this year because we would be missing home and missing our family/friends shortly after we are set loose at permanent site. I have no doubt it will be a hard time. Its interesting because at first I thought these feelings were out of place; you want to put on a happy face each day and pretend that you love eating rice and that you love everything about Nepal. The reality is, eating rice twice a day is not fun and having tarantula sized spiders run across your room isnt fun in any country. And then you talk to other trainees and realize that everyone is feeling guilty about these uncomfortable feelings we are having one month in and that everyone is just too scared to talk about them because they think they are alone. earlier this week Peace corps gave us a handout of our "emotional rollercoaster" that we will experience throughout service. Well, lets just say I'm fitting it to a T right now. The honeymoon phase is over and I'm settling in. This is great because I know I'm adusting more, but it also brings about uncomfortable feelings. I do feel extremely reassured to know that even though im halfway around the world from home, I still have my little Peace Corps family here with me. The other 19 people are who I'm going to depend on for support and reassurance over the course of these next 26 months. I got home this evening feeling a little out of sorts but was immediately cheered up by Sunil, my little tagalong cousin who greets me most mornings at 6am when I roll out of bed and is the last to leave my room at night. I taught him and my other cousins how to play Slap jack, which is a card game where you slap the jack card when someone places it on the pile. He's the worst little cheater however because he peeks at his cards all the time. Still entertaining though. Anyways, I'm sure that was a nice little emotional post for you all to read! No worries, I'm doing completely fine...no crying yet :) Missing the cool fall weather at home! Its still around 85 here each day.

Much composting and gardening love from Nepal,

Alex

daal bhaat forever and ever

We'll we've entered into week 3 here of PST in Nepal. Still have infantile language skills but its getting better. The most confusing part of Nepali is the word order. For instance, if I said: "Ma bholi sattiharu saanga Kathmandu jaanchu" it means "I am going to Kathmandu tomorrow with friends." However, it literally tranlsates into "I tomorrow friends with Kathmandu go." SO basically half the stuff I say is in the wrong order. You have to almost translate backwards in order to get the correct meaning of sentences here. Other exciting happenings: i went to the temple today with my sister. Its very different than anything in the states; theres no service or anything and its basically this open air brick building in the middle of a field. I was told the huge tree nearby was the god Puja. You take your shoes off and go into the temple and place flowers and tikaa (the red paste you can also put on your forehead) all over the statues of the gods. My sister also lit a candle and sprinkled water on the statues and rang the bells inside the building. The whole process only took about 15 minutes so we werent there very long. I think Hinduism is very individual...it doesn't seem like they worship with others. In the food storage room in my house my family also has a small corner devoted to worshipping Hindu gods. I'm not entirely sure I'm allowed in that room because of it, but I am always woken up by them ringing the bells each morning while praying. After going to the temple the other trainees and I in Chhap had a relaxing afternoon. We decided not to walk into Chautara to meet the other trainees so we hung out and watched Bridesmaids on one of our laptops instead. It was great and my friend Brandon's mom kept bringing us food! She made us tea (chiyaa), bogote (this type of fruit similar to a grapefruit), macate (corn), and chow-chow (basically noodles). It was a nice change from daal bhaat, which I just finished eating for dinner about 5 minutes ago. It still boggles my mind that Nepalis eat daal bhaat 2x a day every day for their entire lives. Also I'm now an expert on eating with your hands. You have to sit hunched over your plate and use your right hand to mush your lentils and rice together and then you form a huge ball of it using your fingertips, and then you shove the entire thing in your mouth, finishing your half pound of rice in about 5 minutes. They eat SO fast here I am always served first and I am always the last to finish. Belching loudly after eating is considered completely appropriate as well.

I also got a kurtaa suurwhaal made! Google it for a picture. Its the everyday dress Nepali women wear, but I got a slightly fancier one for special occasions. Desain, a huge Nepali festival, is coming up so i wanted to have it for that. I picked out my fabric and took it to the tailor yesterday so it should be ready next week. The design is hard to explain but the bottom pants part are blue, while the top is this sort of rust color with blue flowery designs. I felt ridiculous picking my design out because I have no idea what is "in" in Nepal or what colors Nepali women dont wear as much. I think I picked well though and im excited to see the final product! It set me back about $16, which doesnt seem like much, but right now we get $45 per month so it is kind of a lot considering my financial situation.

quick interjection: two minutes ago a SPIDER THE SIZE OF MY ENTIRE HAND JUST RAN ACROSS MY ROOM. it was literally a tarantula i am not exaggerating. I screamed like a little child and then my hajurama (grandma) just picked it up and tossed it out of my room. it was humongous.

I was thinking to myself earlier this week that nothing super exciting has happened since my last blog post, but then I said to myself "hold up alex..." you brush your teeth in the goat pen, you eat approximately two lbs of rice per day, you have lizards and tarantulas in your room, and you are LIVING IN NEPAL. I guess maybe it is good that my life has gotten more routine here though! I think i have days where nothing of major importance happens but then I have nights like tonight where I actually spoke a lot with my family and then my sister had me try on her clothes and is having me wear her "kurta" tomorrow. A kurta is kind of like a tunic, but the one my sister is having me wear is atrocious. I feel bad saying that but it is literally a top that a 5 year old would wear. Its a bright baby blue and has a silver jeweled design all over. The bottom layer is satiny, while the top is this blue netting. It looks like a dress up Disney princess dress. She told me i could wear it tomorrow since she knows I'll be in town for our group training day and wants me to look nice. Shes 20 and she wears it a lot so i guess it is in style. She also just gave me a reverse manicure and painted all my toes and nails purple, but left the bottom half of my nail natural. Never seen anything like it before...

We had a half-hub day today where we learned all about resilience during our two years here. The acronym used was LIMB because you will feel Lonely, Isolated, Miserable, and Bored throughout service. Our country director Andrea gave us this talk and it was actually really helpful to hear different ways of dealing with the emotional rollercoaster we are currently on. Afterwards we learned about earthquake safety. You're not going to like this mom but Kathmandu is the #1 earthquake prone city in the entire world. Nepal is smack dab in the middle of the Indian and Tibetan plates. Ive actually already felt one earthquake since ive been here but it literally only shook my bed and I barely felt it. Unfortunately, Nepal seems to experience a major earthquake (+7 on the Richter scale) about once every 70 years and right now, they're overdue, as the last one happened in 1934. SO, in order to keep ourselves safe we went over our emergency action plan and what would happen in the case of an earthquake. its actually better for us trainees because Kathmandu will be the least safest place in an earthquake because of the overcrowded buildings and narrow alleyways. At site, we will be rural and out in the open and there wont be tall buildings around.

In other news, please send mail if you're inclined!. Its like christmas day when we get mail here. Also I posted pictures on my facebook page from the first couple weeks here! I can attempt to load some on my blog but it seems to take forever and is way faster on facebook. Thanks for reading!

-Alex