Alexandra Clayton
Agriculture Service Center
Galyang, Syangja District
Gandaki Archal, Nepal
Hope stuff gets there. Don't send any more mail to the Kathmandu address because it is 9 hours away from me and I would never get mail otherwise!
As I write this blog,
its my 1 week anniversary of being at site! It feels like when I just came to
Nepal...I feel that i've been in my new home much longer than 7 days. I
absolutely love my family though. My sister is amazing...she's so patient with
my language and takes me everywhere she goes, which is great because shes a
very active member in the farmer's group here. I think my sisters are still a
little scared of me as they dont often speak directly to me, but theyre warming
up. I taught them how to frat-snap the other day (Daina/Jenni you will most
appreciate this) and they help me with my language. I've been using tenses in
Nepali that I rarely used in Chhap, so its been a daily struggle to train my
ears to respond to various forms of a verb that I'm not used to hearing. In
addition to the I, you, he/she/it, we,you all, they forms of verbs, Nepali also
has different conjugations for someone who is older or younger than you, as
well as an informal tense. As you can imagine this gets very confusing and I
keep addressing my younger sisters in the formal "you" tense which
they essentially won't respond to. Its a work in progress. Otherwise I've been very busy attending
farmer's meetings and introducing myself to my community. Ive been running in
the mornings which has proved much scarier than usual as there is a large
troupe of monkeys living right below my house. I was sitting by a water tap
trying to catch my breath after my run when about 10 monkeys came out of
nowwhere and scared the shit out of me. They're actually quite a nuisance here
as people are constantly chasing them out of their gardens. I'm not sure what
kind of monkeys they are (language is not advanced enough to ask this
question), but they look to be some sort of baboon to me.
Today was actually particularly hard. I have these days here where I feel
that my language progress is fantastic, and then days like today where I feel
like I couldnt understand a word of what people were saying. I have yet to find
anyone in my villlage who speaks any English.
I was sick of saying "Maile bujhina" , which means
"I dont understand" like 95 times in a row at my relatives house so I
peaced out and headed home where I proceeded to bury myself in my bed and read
Bridget Jones Diary for a solid hour before I finally felt like being social
again. It is so true that in Peace Corps you can be surrounded by tons of
people yet still feel so alone. I decided to drag my butt out of bed and go to
the local chiyaa pasal and get some tea and study my Nepali. Of course
like 10 people came over to see what the white girl was doing so i didnt really
get any studying done, but then I made a friend! Her name's Rita and shes 21.
She started talking with me at the tea shop and even though I could barely
undersand her she invited me to her house for tea and biscuits. Her husband
works in Dubai and she told me she was really lonely so that we should hang out
a lot. Then she painted my nails and put CNN on the TV for me! I havent seen
any American television since I left so watching CNN was like crack to me, even
though it was about some sailing race in San Francisco. Solid day afterall. (Update: my new friend is now pregnant! Not
much we have in common obviously but it will be cool to see her kid grow up a
little!) I feel that mornings are always a little rough here but things tend to
progress throughout the day. Reading has really been my savior so far. I’ve
always been an avid reader but never found time at school to read for pleasure,
and I've missed it. Its nice to unwind each day in my bed with my kindle. I'll
say it a hundred times, but if you bring one thing to peace corps, bring a
kindle.
Update: I’ve now been at site for 2 weeks. Its both flown by and also
dragged on. Some days are good, some not so good. I finally cracked last week
and called my parents crying. There wasnt really a particular reason, and all i
could basically say was “I’m sad.” Felt much better afterwards. Some days are
just frustrating because you feel like you can’t understand anything/are
worthless. I do feel like I've hit the jackpot with my family though; I absolutely love them. Two weeks in I was able to see other volunteers for the first time! I
had a great 24 hours in the district capital with them just catching up and
chatting about our crazy lives at site. It was weird to return home that night
and switch back to speaking only Nepali.My bus ride back was less than fun as
the didi behind me was violently
throwing up the entire 2 hours back into a plastic bag. Nepali women are
notorious for getting sick on public transportation. Not that I can blame them,
as the roads are so windy that its enough to make anyone sick.
Today I watched 19 goats get slaughtered. NINETEEN. I was still not able to
figure out the reason why even after asking numerous times, but apparently they
do this every 5 years, and someone’s son had also recently gotten married so
that might have contributed to the large number of goats being killed. They
would lead each goat one by one into a small clearing blocked off by trees,
then there would be a loud “whack” and then a headless goat body would go
flying through the air and land on the ground outside. I learned today that
headless goat bodies will thrash around for a solid 5 minutes afterward and
will kick you if you are in the way. An hour later 19 headless goats were tied
up on the ground and ready to be cooked. And then we ate them. They gave me organ
meat again and thats really just something I am never going to eat in Nepal or
any other country for that matter. I’ve been really flexible otherwise and will
basically eat anything someone gives me. That butter that sits on the shelf in
a jar for the whole week? Sure, give me some of that. Those potatoes that you
are literally preparing inside of the cow shed? Sure. But no, I will not be
eating organ meat anytime soon.
As I write this update, its December 19, and I feel like I should be
getting in a Christmasey mood, but its hard when its 70 degrees out everyday
and I walk around in a jungle with monkeys everywhere. Not complaining however!
Lets see...other notable happenings this week: my entire pinky nail finally
fell off. I had cut it back during training on my razor while packing and it
finally ripped off while I was washing clothes the other day. So that was fun.
My sister is teaching me how to dance Nepali style because we end each
agriculture meeting by dancing and singing and I really need to learn so i can
stop making a fool out of myself. OH I FORGOT: I made Nepali television last
week!!!!!! I attended a big program for my VDC because we had just been
declared Open-Defecation Free. This is a big deal as this means that every
family in my VDC has a working toilet and no one is pooping out in the open
anymore. Sanitation is one of Nepal’s millenium goals so this is a big step;
this also means I wont be building any charpis
during my time here. (not complaining) Anyways, the guy leading the program
immediately spotted the only white kid in the crowd and made me come sit up
with all the district officials. It was going great and they were feeding me
tea and biscuits and whanot but then THEY MADE ME DANCE. In front of about 200
people. Nepali style. Not that I can dance anyways, but still. It was atrocious and they filmed the entire
thing and I had to re- live the same hell the next night when I watched myself
on TV. My family was ecstatic however and my sister thought it was the greatest
thing ever.
Other things I have learned/discovered this week:
When Nepali women get very excited and happy they like to slap you in the
face. This was very shocking the first time. I’ve met a woman who has 8 grown
sons and no daughters so she told me I can be her daughter which is fine except
that she won’t stop petting me/slapping my face when I go over for tea.
Nepali women like to put oil in their hair immediately after showering
which is really great because after not showering for 4 days its the same effect
for me and everyone thinks my hair looks fantastic.
My water buffalo is about to give birth any second now so maybe I will
adopt a baby buffalo as my first pet in Nepal. There are also 5 adorable
kittens running around the attic of the barn but they wont let me near them
which makes me sad. I’m also a little bitter about it because there are
approximately 100 rats that live in my ceiling and the cats seem to be useless.
Hope everyone is doing well at home. This is my first non-snowy christmas
in a while so I hope that everyone in Winthrop is taking full advantage of all
the snow I have been hearing about.
Love from the Asian continent,
Alex
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