Ek barsa bhayo. 1 year done. Can’t believe a whole
year has passed since I first arrived in Nepal, and now there are 27 new
volunteers in country. My group, G-199, are the “old volunteers” now. Sixteen
of us have made it this far, and im hopeful the 16 of us will all be together
at our close of service conference next year.
Honestly, there were times I wasn’t sure I was going to
reach the year mark. Then again, there have also been times when 2 years
doesn’t seem like enough to get done what I want to accomplish. This past year
has been filled with such highs and lows like I have never experienced. Its
crazy to think what has become “normal” for me, and I feel like I struggle more
and more to write blogs because my day to day life isn’t that crazy anymore!
After
spending almost 2 full weeks in Kathmandu last month, I was seriously ready to
get back to the village. I loved eating awesome food and hanging out with my
friends all day in the city, but I kind of missed the slow paced village way of
things. I hadn’t read my book in over a week or really had a lot of downtime
for that matter. After a week of American type foods, my stomach actually
wanted daal bhaat, something it was used to. Most of all, I wanted to sleep. I
do not sleep in Kathmandu. None of the volunteers do. I was craving crawling
back under my mosquito net and sleeping a solid 8 hours. Kathmandu is extremely
fun and crazy, but overwhelming, exhausting, and extremely polluted. This moral
of this little story is that I missed the village. I think after a year in
Nepal, and 9 months in my village, I consider it home.
I feel that my language still continues to improve, although
quite slowly. I still struggle with work
related conversations, but day to day interactions are second nature now and I
can laugh and joke with my neighbors quite easily. My clothes are definitely
struggling however. A year of being handwashed on a rock and sun dried has left
my wardrobe looking less like the REI/North Face store I brought with me and
more like the homeless man on the street corner. Kidding, its not that bad, but
they are definitely looking a little ragged and need to be swapped out soon
when my parents come in November!
This year has definitely been quite a learning experience,
not only about all things Nepal related, but about myself as well, and how this
experience might fit into my future plans. Believe it or not, I think a lot of
us are starting to slowly prepare for whats next. We’ve turned the corner and
are heading into our last half of service and I think its finally dawned on us
that this experience isn’t forever. The light at the end of the tunnel is
approaching. Yes, we have about 14 months left, but compared to the 27 we
started with, it isn’t a lot. Not to mention if the second year goes as fast as
this first I’ll be home in no time. Us volunteers eventually have to join
society as productive human beings eventually. Wearing the same clothes for 3
days and showering once a week just isn’t gunna cut it J I’m signed up to take the GRE
the day before I fly out for India this December, and I’ll be finished applying
to grad schools when I get home next winter.
Anyways, enough of this future talk. I’m supposed to be
analyzing my last year here. Sometimes I look back at the last year and think “what
just happened.” Seriously, sometimes I don’t know what I have done in the
past year to make it pass by this quickly. Its like when someone asks me what I
do each day here. I don’t know, but somehow I manage to pass the time. I think
most of the people in my group (including me) don’t particularly like analyzing
our last year here, especially since a lot of us don’t have a lot of
work-related products to show for it. We have friendships and relationships
with our community and host families, but no real “concrete” results that we
Americans love to base our work worth on.
You know what I do have to show for 12 months in Nepal? A
word document listing the 38 books I have read thus far, numerous empty peanut
butter containers, a bottle of flea medicine
leftover from my 24-hour kitten, a closet full of very worn clothes, 10+ badges
from agriculture programs I’ve attended, countless Pepto Bismol wrappers, long
hair, a pierced nose, and what I feel to be a very good relationship with my
community. And that I think, is what is going to keep me going. Knowing I have
people who care about me here, want to know where I am at all times, want to
know what I’m always up to. At times feeling like I’m stuck in a fishbowl, I
realize my frustrations are based off of other people’s genuine concerns. I get
frustrated with people because they care about me, and then I feel like an
idiot. I cant say Ive really made a huge difference in Nepali agriculture
practices here, but I do feel good about the relationships I’ve built in my
community and with my family. I have to constantly remind myself that my
community doesn’t hate me because I haven’t drastically changed their lives. I
most likely wont, and theyre not expecting me to. I sometimes feel that they
are expecting more out of me, but then I realize that most of them are very
content with me just coming to their houses and having snack and talking with
them, not furiously planting a new improved garden in their yard.
My map project, which I had thought would take 2 months max,
has turned into a 5 months ordeal due to all the random holidays and exams the
students have. Not to mention my being in Kathmandu a lot due to trainings. BUT,
I reallllllly think we can finish this thing within the next month. My friend
Kerry (also my closest volunteer-2 hours away), came down last week to help me
re-do the grid on my map. We locked ourselves in the 7th grade classroom
for 6 hours and erased, re-drew, erased some more and drew some more until we
had a satisfactory grid. I think we went through about 8 erasers and 6 pencils,
ending with almost half an inch thick of eraser shavings on the floor
afterwards. I realized the root of my problem the first time is that the school
walls aren’t straight. You cannot assume anything built here is actually
straight. I stuck a level against the wall and the little bubble was nowhere
near the middle. The first time I based my measurements on the walls themselves
which proved problematic. Kerry and I had to devise a plumb line using my room
key and some of her yarn to find “true” straight and let gravity do the work. Once
we had one straight line it was fairly straightforward after that, just quite
tedious.
Anywho, grid is done, now its time to start drawing the
countries! Unfortunately school is now out for another week due to exams and
Teej, the upcoming women’s festival. The construction and planning of my
villages collection center has also been put on hold for a month due to Teej
and Dashain. I guess I’ll be doing a lot of GRE studying over the next month…
Want to finish this blog off by just saying thank you to all
my friends and family who have supported me along the way, sending me letters,
emails of encouragement, and American food! Ma dhanyabaad dina chahanchhu. I
want to give my thanks. Couldn’t have done it without you guys. Looking forward
to the next 14 months of service!
Love from Nepal,
Alex
