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