"Whoooooo, jungle!"

I had the opportunity to attend a Nepali marriage ceremony, or junta, about two weeks ago. Three of the teachers at the school were going and they invited me to join them. The night before the wedding I stayed at one of the teachers' homes and instantly became friends with his daughter (18) and daughter in law (21), both of whom are married. They of course asked me, "are you married or single?" a question that i am constantly asked here. People are very martiage-focused here, at least in the village. We visited the bridegroom's home, where lots of music, dancing, and feasting was taking place. The next morning we walked uphill for about thirty minutes to reach the main road, where two buses were waiting to take friends and relatives to the bride's house for the wedding. Let me just say that taking buses in Nepal is much scarier than taking buses in India, because they are just as crowded but the roads are not at all paved, and the bus has to go up and down hills on narrow roads for the whole journey.

During the two and a half hour bus ride:
-Everyone was singing and clapping, and musicians played their instruments in the crowded bus
-The bus crossed three rivers, and by that I mean there wasn't a bridge so the bus just drove through the water
-It was so crowded that someone placed a bench in the aisle for people to sit on, but there were still people who had to sit on the roof
-At one point the bus couldn't make it up a steep hill, so people got off the bus and walked for some time
-We stopped for a snack break - people like to eat instant noodles dry from the package here

But finally, we reached the bride's home and everyone got off the bus. A huge meal was prepared for everyone, and afterwards the wedding ceremony began. It was fun seeing how different weddings are celebrated in Nepal, and being the only foreigner at the village wedding, people were very happy to see me and kept making me dance with them (not that I minded!). After four hours or so, we got back on the bus. The journey back to Parawadanda, the village I stayed in, was like the journey there, full of narrow, windy roads, music, and singing. Whenever we went through a forested area - they call it the jungle here, which makes sense because tigers live there- boys would tell, "whooooo, jungle!"

The terrors -and joys- of teaching

I was supposed to volunteer at a small community hospital in Lamhjung, Nepal but because I couldn't speak English and there were only 5-10 patients a day, I spent my time sitting all day. Also, the walk there was a one hr trek by myself each way and involved forging rivers and wandering past endless corn fields. So, I began teaching at a nearby secondary school that is government-funded which means they have English language cassettes but no cassette player, and have to keep the chalk in a small bucket in the office as there is not much to begin with.

On my first day I met the principal, other teachers, and students. I was then thrown into teaching - in one class the teacher simply handed me the textbook and left! What?! I teach three classes: English (year 9), grammar (year 8), and health/population (year 7, the subjects are on alternating days). During breaks, I chat with the teachers who want to improve their English - they don't always understand me so I am never sure how much the kids can follow me!

Teaching is fun but terrifying. The kids are so sweet -outside of class, ha!- and like to teach me simple Nepali phrases. I can now name the animals on the farm and the foods we eat -dhal baht- and I'm working on basic conversational phrases. I like the kids and the environment at the school but I'm never sure if what I'm doing is getting through to them or not. It's quite an experience.

Also I'm the only volunteer/white person in the village so if I walk somewhere people are constantly telling me namaste, or hello.