The parentals come to Nepal!

I sent my parents back to the states today L We parted ways at the Kathmandu Airport today, me off to the domestic terminal, my parents off to the international to begin their 3 day journey  home. My parents so nicely flew me back to Pokhara, which was a 25 minute flight! The bus I normally go on takes 7 hours… So now I’m hanging out in Pokhara for the day, doing laundry, writing Christmas cards and catching up on emails. I’ll head back to site tomorrow.  Oh also my camera decided to crap out on me literally the day my parents got here so the only pictures I have are from my mom’s iphone.

halfway up to the Peace Pagoda

Dad and I at the Peace Pagoda

12 days flew by, but we had a great time and I really think my parents had a good glimpse into what my life was like here. I picked them up in Pokhara and we spent the first 2 days hanging out in Pokhara and hiking up to the Peace Pagoda and just catching up from the past year! It was so surreal just seeing them in Nepal with me. We headed to my village on public transportation and my parents were real troopers about it. The trip went fairly smoothly but in general the buses are always way overpacked and some lady started throwing up next to my mom. We were welcomed into my house by no joke, 90 people. I might have mentioned in my last blog, but my uncle was getting married at my house during my parents visit. So it was quite overwhelming walking into that many people, not to mention that my entire house/courtyard had been transformed. They had strung up banners and a massive tarp over the courtyard making it into a sort of tent. Due to the 20 people sleeping in my house that night, my parents and I all squished into my tiny room and I curled up on my cow-shit floor. Literally 3 days before my grandma re-coated my floor in cow poop so it was nice and fresh for the parentals arrival. So nice. The next 2 days at village were a whirlwind. The wedding party left early the next morning so it was just me and my parents about about 30 women at the house cooking up a storm. My parents and I took a 3 hour walk through my village where I showed them the map and all the kids at the school and my agricultural group’s fields. We had 3 little boys follow us the entire way. When we got back my parents and I made a donation to the women’s group who had come to dance and they went crazy! They made us all dance for a good half hour, smearing us in red tikka and weighing us down in flower necklaces. The wedding party came back with the bride that night around 11 and the next morning the big feast began. All of the men slaughtered two goats and cooked massive amounts of rice and vegetables. My parents and I headed back to Pokhara after the feast. It was great having them in my village, but I told them it was definitely not a “normal” couple days for me. The wedding made everything that much crazier and it was hard to get some alone time, but I’m glad they got to witness a Nepali wedding!

Receiving tikka upon arrival

We spent the next 2 days in Pokhara having Thanksgiving with everybody. All of the volunteers in 199 came in and cooked a huge feast! Seriously, it was legitimate Thanksgiving food except that we had bbq chicken instead of turkey. I was amazed at the pies, casseroles, cornbreads, and mac and cheeses that were cooked up from scratch. I donated wine to the party but unfortunately my Nepali script reading isn as good as I thought as I ended up buying Nepali cooking wine. It tasted like crap but in true volunteer fashion we drank every last drop. This Thanksgiving was actually the first time in 5 years I spent it with my parents, as I never went home during college because it was too far, so I was really thankful to have them there.

199 volunteers at Thanksgiving in Pokhara

Sadly my dad ended up getting a bit sick for a couple days so he missed out on some things. My mom and I watched sunrise at Sarangkot which was beautiful! We left Pokhara at 4:30am and hiked for almost an hour to reach the top of this small mountain where you can watch the sun come up over the Annapurnas/Himalayas. I had never been and it was definitely worth it. My picture below doesn’t do it justice.

After Pokhara we headed to Chitwan National Park for some safaris! My mom and I left my dad in Pokhara for a day (sorry dad) to recover a bit and sadly he missed out on all of our activities in Chitwan. My mom and I ended up doing an elephant safari, elephant bath, and half day jeep tour! The jeep tour was the best, as you get to go deep into the jungle. Didn’t see any tigers, but we did get to see one rhino, which we tracked on foot and then all went running (me screaming) back to the jeep because we thought it was going to charge us. We also got to go to a gharial breeding center ( a type of crocodile) which was probably my favorite part of the trip. My mom’s was getting to bathe the elephant. We both rode the elephant into the river and then it lays down with you on it and you fall off and get to bathe it and then it sprays you all over with its trunk. It was pretty neat. My dad joined us the next day after we got back from our safari and we headed to Kathmandu to begin the final journey of our trip. Also, small small world but my mom and I were talking to some Americans around the fire at our hotel in Chitwan and one of the guys there grew up in Seattle and his mom lives in Winthrop! My town of Winthrop doesn’t even exist on a map I don’t think. It was just crazy. Him and his girlfriend are actually going to Winthrop in 3 weeks for Christmas so my parents are going to meet up with them again and share pictures. We had shared an elephant with them in the morning and they got much better pics on their camera than we did on our iphone.

Elephant bath!

Made a new friend

Since my dad missed basically all of the Chitwan activities, the 2 of us got up nice and early in Kathmandu and did a mountain flight! We got to see around 7 of the highest peaks in the world, including Everest! It was great…the plane flew parallel to the mountain range and they let us go into the cockpit for better viewing. We lucked out and had a completely cloud free day as well. The rest of the time in Kathmandu was spent visiting the monkey temple, the Peace Corps office, and wandering the narrow streets of Thamel. My parents were pretty wiped out at the end of our trip and I didn’t blame them! We packed a lot in. I’ll see them again in a bit under a year for Clayton family Christmas after PC service in Switzerland (time to visit Taylor this time).

Kind of living the high life the next month…I have about 10 days at site in which I’ll be cramming for the GRE, then a Bucknell friend comes to visit for a couple days, then I head to India for Christmas vacation! I take the GRE on the 19^th, then head to India the morning of the 20^th! Looking forward to some beach time.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!