Goat neighbors

I’m spending the next few weeks in a small (2,000 people small) town about 3-4 hours from Pokhara, Nepal. While in the village of Pawedanda, I’m volunteering – teaching English, Grammar, and Health/Population at a middle school as well as volunteering/observing the goings on at a rural hospital about an hour’s walk (or should I say trek) from my home, where I am staying with a host family. The family is very nice, and though the mother can’t speak English, we are beginning to learn to communicate without words. There is also a daughter, Susmita (12) who speaks English and understands me most of the time, and her brother Kshitize (sa-tease) age 6, who is like a baby monkey and goes through my things looking for ‘candy’ (tic-tacs). There are several children who live nearby, and if I leave my door open, suddenly there will be three of them sitting on my bed looking at me.

The house is very basic – concrete walls, dirt floors, etc. but I have my own room which is nice. It consists of a mosquito net, a bed, and two windows that don’t have windowpanes - so spiders, cockroaches, and mice (!!!) sometimes keep me company at night. Outside of my window, three goats sleep, eat, and make goat noises (let’s be real, they fart a lot and try to eat the bars of my window). Behind them there are two water buffalo, and if you keep walking around the side of the house you’ll get to the back which features an outhouse (squatting toilet), some vegetable crops (corn, rice, cucumber, tomatoes) and a back porch, where we eat meals together of dal bhat (lentils and white rice) in the morning and evening. 

Also, I’ve only taken one shower in the past week, because taking a shower is done out in the open here! People usually go bathe in the river, but I chose to shower behind some trees outside of my program coordinator’s house. Cool. So yes I have goat neighbors and I’ve stopped taking regular showers. I’m livin’ the life, let me tell ya.

The house where I live with my host family (right) and their neighbors, also family

My Nepali sisters - Susmita and Kanchan

Proof of goat neighbors (this was taken outside of my window)

Another view of the house as well as the neighbors' homes

My host mother Laxmi (left), Ashika, me, and Susmita

Susmita: take my photo! take my photo! 

Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Darjeeling

For the next 2 months I'll have limited internet access because I'm only using internet cafes, so this is a brief update on my travels in Northern India. I'm currently in Darjeeling; I'll be here until May 7, when I will go to Kolcutta for two days with Liz and Jackie before flying to Kathmandu, Nepal.

On my trip so far I...
-Had food poisoning so bad on my birthday that I spent the whole night throwing up. Happy 21st birthday to me!
-Saw 6 palaces/forts: Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, Amber Fort, City Palace, Water Palace, and Fateeb Sigfreed
-Visited 6 temples: Sikkh, Muslim, Buddhist (two), Hindu (two)
-Saw the Gandhi memorial and museum in New Delhi
-Checked out a 15th century observatory/astronomy center with crazy curvy, spiraling architecture
-Drank many, many cups of chai (remember, I'm in Darjeeling, land of tea)
-Had my first "of age" drink, as it is legal to drink when you're 18 in India. I got a Mai Tai. At a Chili's. At a mall in New Delhi that was nicer than malls I've been to in the U.S. -and just as expensive.
-Went on a tour of an organic tea factory, a nerve-wracking 3.5 hour journey up narrow mountain roads in the back of a shared jeep, saw a view of Mount Everest at Sunrise on Tiger Hill

The Taj Mahal at Sunrise, Agra

Walking a cow, Jaipur

In Jaipur

Amber Fort (in the background), Jaipur

Visa problems and last days in Pondi

I had one week at the university before I left to travel up North, and in that time I had to take 6 tests, pack, say goodbye, etc. So it was a bit of a stressful time, not to mention I had to run all over Pondicherry (the town) because on Wednesday (left Friday night) I realized I'd lost my important 'certificate of residency' form that I needed to leave India. Also it had expired so I needed the date changed.

Getting a new form with the new date was not simple - it never is here. The extent that Indian bureacracy is so...bureaucratic blows my mind. Everything needs an official signature and stamp, but to get one it takes time because if things get done too quickly - dare I say efficiently - it looks like whoever did it took a bribe. Awesome. So I had two days to get a new form and long story short it was a terrible time spent running from university registrar to visa office to police station then back to the police station then again to the visa office...then finally to the visa office one last time (and all they did to change my form was sign and stamp the back of it with a new date!). There were some tears of stress shed on my part, Indians around me telling me not to worry (which was frustrating to say the least, I need to leave the country!) but I got the form and that's what matters.

My last day at the university was Friday, April 26, and thank goodness all the visa issues were sorted out by then. I took a final in the morning, had lunch, packed everything, and then went to the Rock Beach with Arun. Later, we met up with my friends at Nalla, a popular bar/hangout...between 22-24 friends were there, French, Canadian, Indian, American...we just talked and took silly pictures, it was nice but sad as well, the feeling of leaving hanging over us. Arun and Ravi left for a bit, and when they returned Arun took me aside, saying he had a friend he wanted me to meet...but then we were "looking for a cute dog he saw" at which point I'd become suspicious - are we looking for a friend or a dog, and why did we leave my friends? Then we walked back to Nalla where I was surprised by a birthday cake and my friends all singing happy birthday! It was wonderful, I'd never had a surprise birthday before, and sharing it with friends right before I left was great. It's an Indian tradition to feed everyone your cake, so I walked around the table, giving everyone bites of cake, getting icing smeared on me by friends in the process (thanks, guys). Basically, it was the perfect way to end my time in Pondi, with friends and with icing all over my face. At one am that night, we left for the Chennai airport to fly to Delhi.