Two Boys Under a Tree as I Hiked in the Jitpur Mountains

October 25-28

October 25 – 28

A quick sidebar before launching into the next entry: In the previous submission of this blog, I mentioned the total number of folks living in our house as 7 and yet I forgot to mention the 7^th person, the paternal grandmother who has allowed me to call her “aama”, which is a term of affection. The word means "mother" in Nepalese and it is told to me when given the green light to call the matriarch of the family “aama” you are essentially “in”.  Aama knows absolutely no English and yet she has the comic timing of Don Rickles, with her cocked eyebrow look to me when I try to stomach some new rice dish. She is 68 years old and moves like a whippet.

The past couple of days have been unique. Previously I was finding the rhythm of living with the Dahal family as well as adjusting to life in remote Nepal, and teaching my classes, when all of a sudden everything stopped in this country due to the Tihar Festival. This is the second largest festival of the year and it lasts for 5 days. It is devoted to Loxmir, the Goddess of Fortune and is celebrated, in part, by allowing the sons of each family to trounce around the village, on each of the nights, chanting and singing and stopping at each house until the occupants come out and give the young men rupees. All of it has a Halloween feel (Tihar, too, landing at the end of October) kids awaiting nightfall for license  to rumble around the town, in groups, knocking on doors, many feeling, for the first time, the empowerment of being part of the streets with their brethren.  My 13 year old host brother (Bijaya) had that bank robber look in his eye, and could not wait to scratch away from the dinner table in order to go stealth with his friends; no school, no curfew, and no parents. 

I had school, for first period only, on the first day of the festival which was the 25^th and walked in my class and, as is the routine I have taught them, wrote the page number of the English book we have been studying on the blackboard. No sooner had I started to write when the entire class screamed to me “Noooooooooo!!!!!!” and I knew they had me. There was no chance they were about to focus on present and past participles on festival day.  So, without turning around, I erased and wrote again on the board in big letters HAPPY TIHAR!!!! and the class went jail-break on me.  So I told them, “If I give you this hour, what are you going to do? How are you going to use your time?”  For the next hour, those kids danced and sang and clapped and drummed on desks like their life depended on it, all of it traditional Nepalese music which had been taught to them by their parents and grandparents. They remained enthused yet orderly which impressed me as, really, I have not had to play disciplinarian.

For the remainder of the days, while school was closed, I have hiked and hiked and hiked straight up these mountains.  With bottled water and journal in my backpack I crank out of the house after a plate of rice and dissolve into any trail I can find and stay on it until there is nothing left, always keeping the Kathmandu valley in my sights.  The people are my map.  I have no triptik for this part of the world, but know enough now of the area to ask for assistance and, more importantly, how to ask for assistance to the next landmark, whether a temple, or archaic stone staircase which mends my travel to the next ridge, or a switchback that hyphenates a section of the hills, its the people of this land who know how to get me back home.

Week 1 (October 17 - 24)

Week number one was unbelievable.  I was introduced to a family of 6 who are my hosts; the Dahal family. We all now live (until I leave) in a 4 room house which sits across the road from a chicken house and has a chicken house underneath. The running water is a spicket in a room off the back of the house.  We have rice and dahl, or rice and egg, or rice and curry and potatoes every morning and night. There are power outages on a regular basis due to the country's infrastructure, and I have a 45 minute walk straight up the mountain to my school of 6th graders and 7th graders.  I teach English 6 days a week, and through this first week have devised and discovered ways to keep the kids focused while staying on the lesson plans I have created for them.  The days at the Dahal house start at 3:00 am. every morning with sweeping, mopping, and preparing for work in the rice field (harvest time over here too)  The father owns a shop (store) down by the bus station and he is also a head master at a school on the other side of the mountain and is exactly my age, 42.  Both mother and father Dahal are basic in their English and the three kids are relied on by the three of us for translation. They are good with speaking it, especially the middle daughter Suiju.  The days are hot and the nights are getting cooler, we overlook the Kathmandhu valley.  There is dust and dirt absolutely everywhere, as it is farm country.........and the streets are dirt and rock.  The views are great and the foliage is still dark dark green which is odd to me at October 23.  The youngest kid, Bijay (pronounced beezay) locks in  with me for games of chess when I arrive home, he is 13 and very astute.  Ranju (pronounced Ronzoo) is the oldest child in the house and very driven to see the world and asks me many questions.....out of the blue the other night she asked me about the noted self-help book called "The Secret".  She and a friend were speaking about it and it had her curious.......you can sense she is ready to think outside the box.....we have no internet so these blog updates are coming to you from a cybercafe on a street within the underbelly of Kathmandu and the keyboard is frozen with dirt and I am on the clock so i am typing gorilla style as fast as I can go.......you will see mispellings and I will continue to teach English in the mountains of Nepal......

Sunday October 16th

I landed here in Kathmandu yesterday morning at 8:30 Nepal time after 22 hours of flying and layovers.
For the past 48 hours I have been submerged directly into Nepalese Culture at a high rate of speed, both by walking the streets of Kathmandu and going through orientation classes at the VIN office. there is absolutely no way I can find the words or phrases to describe this city..........many use the saying "controlled chaos" and for that i have to agree but there are more words out there and i will seek them out to continue to tell this story of this trip which starts with the explosion of raw life that is Kathmandu..........some images I have seen have dropped me stone still, and all of them have a glimmer of perseverance.  There is poverty, there is filth, there is congestion, pollution, garbage, there are the injured, there are the blind,those without arms or legs..........and all of if, and all of them, just continue forward..........bobbing and weaving within streets, alleyways, culd-e-sacs, and pathways, taking care that the other is not impeded in their travels, where ever they may be going........and where are they going?..........I have video........and photos......will post soon. bandwidth is not too strong over here. the group of volunteers i am with are fabulous, representing sweden, columbia, australia, UK, and US.......we have our last set of classes tomorrow and like buckshot we will disperse into the Himilayas to extend a hand...........

Time to Step Out

Today is Thursday October 13th...........I am a couple of hours from stepping out........will communicate soon.........

The Evening of October 12th: Packing

Jellybean was a huge help with me and the packing this evening. She made this trip in 2008 and was able to lead me through the lay of the land when finally placing all of my belongings into suitcases.  A trick she used, and I will be using as well, is packing everything in huge plastic bags, laying everything flat in the bags, zipping the bags closed ("blue and yellow make green" if anyone remembers that commercial) then rolling the bags so that air escapes through the vents in the rear of the bag, essentially hermetically sealing the clothes.
Wiped completely clean the hooks within the hall closet of all of my baseball caps, so many of them I no longer wear and the word is the children in Nepal love baseball caps. And who wouldn't. Incidentally, while finalizing some to-do lists this evening I have been watchinng the Tigers and Rangers bangin heads in the 11th tied up again, game 4.  Playoff baseball has been really good this year and has accompanied me in each day of preparation for this trip as if it were an older brother.  Tomorrow "we gone" and for some reason I have been hummin' the old Jerry Reed song "East Bound and Down".  YouTube Clip of Jerry Reed's "Eastbound and Down"

Nepalese Home Where I Will Be Living

A Type of Nepalese School Where I Will be Teaching

Preparation Day #3 and #4

Today is Wednesday October 12th and I am 1.5 days away from beginning the Big Trip. Much of Monday night had me at Target gathering items and supplies I will be taking with me to Nepal. Cliff bars, long underwear, batteries for headlamp and for maglite.......etc. I was also dealing with getting the car ready for the winter, replaced the wiper blades, had the brake fluid flushed, and the tires aligned, from there Janelle and I will wait to have the oil changed when I return in December.  Yesterday I was organizing with my lists and making sure all of my paperwork was in one place. This morning I will travel back down to the International Currency exchange for the Nepal rupees they had to order for me. I will be taking $100 worth to start, which should last me a siginficant amount of time. The exchange rate as of this morning (October 13th) is $1.00=77Nepal Rupees.  The family I will be staying with is a couple with their three children and I think the father's mother lives with them as well. He is a teacher too and it sounds as if I will be assisting him in some capacity and in others teaching on my own. The name of this father: Megh Bahadur Dahal and he and his family live 10 KM (6.2 miles) outside of Katmandhu in the town of Jitpur Phedi population of 4000.  Here is a link showing where the town sits:  Google Maps showing the Location of JitpurPhede, Nepal   Today I must also forge ahead with sorting and packing and making decisions on what is necessary and what can be bought once I land. 5:00 flight tomorrow, taking me to London, which then takes me to Bahrain which is in the Persian Gulf right beside Quatar and, the larger country of Saudi Arabia: Wikipedia Article on Bahrain  From there I will have a third flight to Kathmandu. I must register with the US Government today.

Preparation Day # 2

Today is October 10th, a Monday. I have used the morning doing bank business, ordering Nepalese rupees from an International Currency Exchange as well as working with the bank to place a tracer on my card, so they know it is me in Asia who is using the card and not a thief. Janelle and I went to the phone store to deal with creating a family plan for the two of us.  We are up on our existing contracts and looking to save money with another carrier. Verizon versus ATT. Also visited the doctor this morning for second round of Hepatitis injection and also received flu shot. Making a list and then it is off toTarget this afternoon.

Preparations for the Big Trip

Today is Sunday October 9th and my condo is askew with bags, lists, boxes, and suitcases (one I have to select) as I continue preparations for my Thursday departure for Nepal.  I have been looking forward to this journey for some time. My wife, Janelle, was in Nepal for two months in 2008 and returned with stories and ideas that enticed my sensibilities.  This is her blog highlighting her trip:
Janelle Jones' Blog of her 2008 Trip to Nepal
As the year 2010 waned and '11 reared its head I could sense "change" becoming a strong pull into the forefront of each of my days. What felt correct and good, was to channel this sense into an opportunity to extend a helping hand to others.
Janelle and I had many conversations concernng this and from them arose VIN
Volunteers Initiative Nepal Website
I will be teaching English in a village just outside the city of Kathmandu and will live with a host family.
Updates on the way concerning that place and those folk (who I am anxious and excited to meet).