A trip to Langtang and Lumbini

May has been a weird month…full of highs and lows and everything in between. Maybe its been unexpected because at this point in service, 22 months in, you wouldn’t think to experience feelings you felt your first 6 months here. But it happens. I had a pretty crappy day earlier this month that was basically a build up of small moments throughout the day that exploded towards the evening. It was a scenario I find myself in frequently: surrounded by over 100 people I didn’t know who stared at me shamelessly, followed around by a gang of kids who mimicked everything I said in English, and just not being able to escape. Normally I am ok with this but it was just one of those days that I could not handle it and ended up breaking down in front of my sister, saying I had to leave immediately. Not entirely sure she understood exactly what happened (as it is hard to explain when it just becomes too much), but I basically told her sometimes being in Nepal is hard for me. My little sister came to the rescue and said she had seen the little kids following me everywhere, so maybe they had some insight. Who knows, but I think the part I was most frustrated about was the fact that I had such a crappy day this late into service, when I feel like I’m supposed to have my shit together.

Soon after this day at least, I had some vacation! I traveled to Langtang National Park with my fellow volunteer friends Chad, Nate, and Tia. We had a fairly terrible 9 hour bus ride to get there, where many points during the ride I thought I was going to die. This was due to massive landslides and the road being about 1 bus wide with a sheer drop off on the other side. We spent 7 days trekking in the park and it was pure bliss. Langtang was so beautiful and unlike any other part of Nepal I had seen before. Parts of it felt like another world We took 2 days to get up to the top, a place called Kyanjin Gompa. The way up was beautiful; the path winded along the river and finally up to a big plateau. The plateau’s trail was dotted along the way with prayer flags and clumps of rocks with Tibetan inscriptions. It felt like we were the only people on Earth up there. The Gompa was about 20 miles south of Tibet and actually all the Nepalis up there spoke Tibetan, which has a very distinct Chinese sound to it. I had never heard it before. We spent our 3^rd morning trekking up to the summit of Kyangjin Ri, a 15,600 foot peak!

Summit of Kyanjin Ri- 15,600 feet!

 I had never been that high before and did pretty well on the way up, except for a couple moments of vertigo because we were hiking straight up a section and I had this irrational fear I was going to fall off the mountain. We spent our nights hanging out around the fire, drinking hot chocolate, chatting with other teahouse guests, and going to bed at 8pm. It definitely was very relaxing.  We spent 2 days getting back down, and the first 2 hours my friend Tia and I rode some Tibetan ponies! I grew up riding horses, but these ponies were definitely taught things that were completely contradictory to anything I had ever been taught. For instance, to “go” you had to yank up on the horses head. I finally figured this out after about 20 minutes of solid kicking on my tiny fat pony who wouldn’t go faster than a walk. After and Tia and I got the hang of it though we spent our last hour trotting full speed down precarious hills and almost crashing into numerous tourists coming up. It was super fun. We also had our massive backpacks on so it was definitely a tipsy ride.  Unfortunately I am an idiot and forgot my camera on this trip, but my friends got amazing pictures and I have a bunch up on my Facebook.

After Langtang, I headed straight down to Bhairahawa, about 10 miles north of the Indian border. I basically traversed the country north to south in 2 days. Bhairahawa was not exactly my favorite spot….Peace Corps put us up in a nice hotel, but the town was kind of one giant bus stop, extremely dusty with cows and rickshaws all running around. Sleeping in air conditioning was luxurious though. I was there for 2 nights for one of our tri-yearly VAC meetings (Volunteer Advisory Council). It was fun to see some of the N200s, who I hadn’t seen since October. VAC had a really productive meeting with our interim Country Director and it was nice to have the new volunteer’s input.

I travelled back to site after the meeting and was promptly told by my sister that we would be returning to Bhairahawa in 2 days for a trip to Lumbini with the mother’s group! So much travel. And so many Nepali buses. I spent my 2 days at site doing much needed laundry and checking in with the school and my agriculture group. The trip to Lumbini was fantastic. The whole bus ride down the 60 women I was with sang and danced and chanted, which was pretty impressive considering we were sitting 3 or 4 to a 2 person seat and the bus ride took 4 hours. Once daal bhat time came and went, I figured we would stop and get food on the road, but nope, this one lady busted out a massive metal container full of rice and beans and ladled the whole mixture out in leaf bowls to the whole bus. Once we got to Lumbini it took a while to mobilize 60 people in the right direction but we finally found our way. Lumbini is massive…I had no idea.

Taking selfies in line

We probably walked for a straight mile down the edge of a brick-lined waterway just to reach the main temple. Lumbini is famous for being the birthplace of Lord Buddha, and Hindus from all over the world flock here to see where he was born. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside the main temple, but they had ruins from I believe the 3^rd century BC (?) and the exact spot where the Buddha was born. Pretty cool. Additionally, Lumbini also had about 8 other temples donated from many South-Asian countries. My group and I visited the Korean temple, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, and India’s. There were more, but unfortunately you had to take your shoes off at each one and it was about 96 degrees out so my feet couldn’t handle the hot bricks. We were all a big sweaty mess at the end because the distance between all of the country temples was again probably half a mile. We walked from 11am until 5pm and I was exhausted and extremely sunburnt. This one lady in my group kept grabbing me every time we passed any white person and saying to them in Nepali “THIS IS OUR DAUGHTER,” which resulted in some strange looks, one because they did not understand Nepali, and two I was surrounded by 60 women all in pink saris. It was hilarious though. I feel like I really got to connect with some more people in the mothers group that I normally don’t interact with that much at site, so that was nice. Since PC has a policy against no night travel, I actually had my group drop me off back at the PC hotel I had been at 2 days earlier to spend the night and travel back the next morning.

With Bishnu and Oshmita

My little buddy

After my whirlwind 3 weeks of travel all over Nepal I’m finally back at site for an extended period of time. My neighbors baby (who I have previously blogged about) learned to sit up by himself while I was gone so I was very surprised to see him propping himself up on our porch! Its very cute, and also makes me realize how much time has passed. I’ve started another map at the local school. This time it will be of Nepal only, with all the districts drawn in and named. I spent 5 hours at the school today priming the wall and gridding the whole thing. This time around I think it will go faster though; I know what I’m doing and I also found a place to buy water-based paint…no more smelling of petrol or kerosene!

Our collection center is coming along nicely and had the second floor poured recently! We celebrated by slaughtering a goat and busting out about 50 bottles of Coke and Fanta.

Collection center

Sorry goat

Celebrations!

Weird, but I learned recently that Nepalis won’t shower naked, even if alone. At least this holds true for village Nepalis. This may be a strange topic (probably not weirder than blogging about your time of the month?) but I thought it kind of fascinating. I know everyone wears a cloth dress (petticoat) while bathing outside for obvious reasons, but when my sister wanted to borrow mine to shower inside our bathroom, I had to ask. I was confused because our bathroom has a door, roof, and 4 walls. You are alone. I guess culturally though, its not ok to see yourself naked, especially if you are married. My family was shocked when I said I showered naked….Sorry family, more things for you to add to the list of weird things Americans do I guess. I’m sure my whole village knows about it already. Yesterday, while alone (or so I thought) a monkey jumped out of a tree and scared the bajeesus out of me so I dropped my water pail. Today one of the school teachers asked me why I dropped my water pail down the hill…how she knows this I have no idea, especially since she lives a 15 minute walk away from my house.

With July and monsoon season right around the corner, the rains are slowly starting to fall more and more frequently. Its become hot enough that I cannot sleep without my fan, and if the power goes out, its pretty miserable. The corn is getting taller and taller which just makes me more and more scared because the snakes start hiding in there. We’ve already had a couple 5 footers in our yard already. I am excited to eat corn though! Oh, its also litchi and mango season! I had never eaten a litchi before Nepal, but let me tell you, they are fantastic. Theyre tiny and you can eat about 15 in one sitting. I’m trying to eat as many as I can before they’re all gone.

At the local pasal

So this is also weird, but I have 5 months left in Nepal. WHAT?! Its crazy. I have my COS (Close-of Service) Conference in exactly a month, something I never thought would come. Whereas in past conferences we have talked about upcoming projects and trainings, at COS you talk about your return to America. Its just that, a “close” of service. You learn how to put PC on your resume, how to talk about it in interviews, fill out a million pages of paperwork, and how to deal with life back home. You reflect back on service in Nepal and learn ways to close this chapter of your life. PC worldwide is known for putting volunteers up in pretty swank hotels for COS as a “thank you” and let me tell you, I am stoked for ours. Theyre giving us free yoga each morning and there is a pool and hot tub.

I  know these last 5 months are going to fly by…its scary and exciting. Even now I have moments in the village where I get a twinge of sadness, knowing that going to the school and seeing the kids or meeting with my ag group is not going to last forever. You start PC thinking that 2 years of your life is forever, that your life in Nepal is how its going to be for now on. And that mindset sticks with you for a while, but now with COS rapidly approaching, I think more panicky feelings are setting in since you realize none of this is permanent. The light at the end of the tunnel is rapidly approaching. For instance, thoughts of “oh crap, I have about 10 grad school applications to finish before I leave,” and “maybe I should look into jobs so I can not be homeless” fill my head.  Volunteers here are already interviewing over phone and through Skype for opportunities back in the states. Its all becoming a little more real. I’m at site for June, but July I have COS, then our long-awaited GLOW camp in Pokhara, then its August and rice planting, then festival season starts, and then we are done. We can start leaving country starting November 1^st.  

Well I realize this blog has run away with me a little bit, but last but not least, Taylor, my twin sister, is arriving in Nepal in 36 hours!!!! So excited I cannot even begin to explain. Unfortunately I wont be able to meet up with her until 4 days after her arrival but I anticipate it will be a teary reunion.