The last 20 days have been quite the whirlwind of trekking,
seeing friends from home, seeing PC friends, and spending 10 days receiving
training in Pokhara. Now that I’m back at site I’m slowly adjusting back into
my routine here and trying to process the last 20 days of essentially being a
tourist and dealing with the difficulties that come after being away from my
site for so long. I also found out about the Boston bombing 3 days after it happened which was shocking to say the least. Its never easy to find out big information like that when you are thousands of miles away from home. Sending all my love to friends in the Boston area, and am glad you guys are all safe now!
On March 31st, I set off for Pokhara laden down
with my huge backpack, prepared for almost twenty days away from my site. My
family was sad to see me go, and I had to assure them numerous times I would
indeed be returning. I arrived in Pokhara sweaty from my long bus ride and
wearing a dirty backpack with red tikka all over my forehead and stepped into
the Shangri-La. Let me tell you, the Shangri-La hotel is extremely nice by
Western standards, and for me, it was like stepping into this surreal world I hadn’t
been a part of for many months. I wasn’t meeting my family friends for a couple
hours so after calling numerous PC friends spazzing out about being surrounded
by so many luxuries I finally calmed down and got myself a latte at the coffee
shop and read my book by the POOL. Yes a pool. I could barely comprehend that I
had woken up in my village that morning. I met the Wathen family and their
friends who I would be trekking with later that afternoon and we enjoyed a
really nice dinner at the hotel getting to know each other. The group was very
diverse: all of the dads had met each other and their spouses while working in
Taiwan, and one family lived in Shanghai, while the other lived in the
Phillipinnes. The next 4 days were nothing short of amazing. We started off
early for our trek the next morning and reached our first lodge at about
midday. The lodge was beautiful and situated right along the river. Our whole
group spent the afternoon exploring the river, reading in our rooms, and of
course celebrating happy hour precisely at 5pm (which would become routine for
us over the course of the trek). The food, company, everything was awesome. It
was exactly what I needed after almost 7 months in the village. Our second day
we hiked over 1000 vertical meters to the trekking village of Ghandruk. The
hike was fairly exhausting as it was mostly stone steps the entire way up, but
the views were amazing. The trekking company we were using actually owned the
rights to the trail we were on so it was nice to just have our group, but once
we joined up with the main trail there were tons of other trekkers and donkey
trains going by. The second lodge at Ghandruk had the most spectacular views of
the Annapurnas I have ever seen. Especially since I cannot see any mountains at
my site it was breathtaking to wake up to crystal clear views of Annapurna and
Machapuchhre right in front of me. The third day we left Ghandruk and hiked
down to our third lodge, and I’m not joking, I had my own building to myself.
Since everyone else either had a sibling to room with or a spouse, the lodge
must not have had any more double rooms available so I literally got the
honeymoon suite. Besides the king bed I slept in, there were 2 other beds in
the room. I had a hammock on my front porch and I spent my hours after trekking
reading and napping and just generally enjoying being in such good company. The
last day we trekked about 3 hours out from the lodge where we got bussed back
to Pokhara and spent a night before heading out on 2 days of rafting.
That night I got to see ANOTHER friend from home, Shaffer.
Long story short, Shaffer worked in Winthrop this summer at the bakery I
frequented everyday, and while we never got past coffee shop chitchat, he met
my sister after I left for Nepal, who told him I would be in Nepal for 2 years.
Well wouldn’t you know, he was traveling to India and Nepal this spring as
well! Small freaking world. Would have been really nice to know these things before I left as we
would have had lots to talk about! Anyways, Shaffer came out with the Wathens
and me and the Brooks and Buckeridges and besides finding an entire bee in my
pasta, the dinner was great.
The next day I set off for 2 days of rafting on the Seti
River. The river is fairly low now because it’s the dry season, but our guide
told us that the 4 hours it took to reach our camp would take only 45 minutes
during the upcoming monsoon season. The camp was beautiful…it was designed to
look like tents but inside were full beds and hot showers. That was my last
night with the group, as the next day they would all be heading to Chitwan
National Park and I would be returning to Pokhara for my In-Service Training.
We spent hours around the fire that night giving “down-downs” where you tell a
funny/embarrassing story about another on the trip and it was a great way to
end the past 7 days. So, thank you SO SO SO much Wathen, Brooks, and Buckeridge
family for adopting me into your little family during our time together, and I
look forward to seeing you all again (Wathens I’ll see you back in snowy little
Winthrop in December 2014).
I spent the next 8 or so days in Pokhara getting In-Service
Training with the rest of my PC posse. I feel really exciting and refreshed
after this training, as I feel like I have some concrete stuff to take back to
site with me. We learned how to construct a solar food dryer, plastic tunnel housing
for vegetables, how to make an improved cook stove (probably the coolest thing
I learned about ), and all about micro-irrigation. Additionally, me and 3 other
volunteers were chosen to serve on the Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) which
basically means we help with communication between volunteers and PC staff,
usually involving 3 or so meetings in Kathmandu a year. Since we’re brand new
in Nepal, our first task is to design the bylaws for the upcoming VACs in
Nepal. Anyways, with all the training we received and with VAC duties now, it
should be an exciting next couple months! Our group will all be together again
in July for a weeklong workshop in program design and management with Nepali
counterpants. Besides training, us volunteers rang in the New Year (its 2070
now!) at a local bar, which was wild to say the least. We also randomly met up
with SIT Nepal kids and it was awesome to talk to a couple of them because I
did SIT Tanzania when I went abroad so it was cool to see where they were at in
their program.
I left Pokhara feeling pretty refreshed but also a little
anxious about returning to site, as I had been away for so long. I was excited
to sleep in my own bed again and drink my family’s amazing tea though.
Thankfully Shaffer came back with me for 5 days! It was so much fun showing
someone around my home, and it was actually the first time anyone had seen my
site. I enjoyed being a sort of tourist in my own home. The first day we went
to a mothers group meeting and the second we hiked up to this temple that had
amazing views of the valley I live in. Otherwise we spent our time playing lots
of bananagrams, watching movies, and wandering around and just talking about
everything. It was so nice to talk to someone who obviously understood my
hometown and Seattle and who shared a love for the Pacific Northwest just like I
do. It actually made me a little homesick! We got to witness some pretty crazy
lightning/thunderstorms as well. A negative part of all this rain is that all
the tarantulas are migrating inside, namely to my bedroom. Shaffer and I named
a particularly large one in my bathroom Richard Nixon aka “Ricardo” so
everytime we had to go to the bathroom we said we were visiting Ricardo. Anyways,
if you know me at all, I hate spiders more than anything. Now that my mosquito
net is up its ok but I can hear them scuttle across the newspaper that lines
the walls of my bedroom. Theyre like freaking crabs and they all have these
little things on their back that glow in the dark. Terrifying.
Shaffer and I also walked down to the river, which I
actually hadn’t done before, and I was so glad we did. There was a legit beach
down there and we spent a couple hours just playing in the sand and relaxing. I’m
really excited to have discovered a place where I could be alone if I wanted to
and just go read a book or something.
Shaffer left yesterday, so I’m back to being alone, back to
speaking pure Nepali. Its funny because having him here actually made me feel a
lot more confident in my language skills as I had to do a lot of translation
for him and my family. Its been raining almost straight for the past 24 hours
so I’ve been hibernating in my room quite a book, reading a good new book,
napping, and making posters for a presentation that I’m giving to my ag group
tomorrow on micro irrigation. Making posters in Nepali script takes about 80
times longer than it would in English because my reading level is about 3rd
grade level, but I’m proud with how they ended up, even though my little sister
came by with my permanent marker and added some giant big periods at the end of
each sentence. Tomorrow’s presentation will probably be a bit of a hot mess
considering it will be my first real presentation but I’m excited to see how it
turns out. I’m planning on just introducing the topic tomorrow and explaining
it and then seeing if theyre interested and the hopefully planning another time
where we actually construct the thing! Wish me luck, I’ll need it.
That’s all for now,
Alex
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