Good evening citizens,
How's everyone doing out there in the land we like to call the west? Well I hope. Last week was an incredible week as I had the chance to meet so many new and different people in many different organizations.
I started Nepali classes on Monday...they're about a 15 minute walk down the road. Limbu sir is our teacher's name. While walking there, on the final straight away before his house, I was greeted by what appeared to be a floating mountain range. The hills around the valley were visible, but above them a thick layer of clouds filled the sky. Above that however, so freakin' high up were the tips of three mountains, Himalchuli, , some other one, and Peak 29. Peak 29 is the 8th largest mountain in the world, but the tiniest one from my vantage point, which means two things. It's freakin huge, and the visibility was super clear. I can't stress enough how much it looked like they were floating, it was crazy.
Monday night was Monica's birthday, and we celebrated at our house during dinner. Good times. Afterwards I went up to school because the boy scouts were having a campout, which actually meant they would be sleeping on top of the desks in one of the classrooms. Anyways, I thought it was just like a troop meeting, but it turned out it was a large gathering with many scouts, boy and girl, coming together for the end of the mela. They older scouts, rangers and rovers (boy/girl) were in charge of the younger scouts for the whole month while they provided crowd control and additional help throughout the month long celebration. It was estimated that over 2 million people pilgramaged to out village just for the chance to bathe in the 5 taps. So the scouts definitely had their work cut out for them, and the campout was just a chance to get together as everything wrapped up. Different groups of kids would lead songs, dances, skits, typical scout stuff. Right when I got there they asked me to play a song, so I totally rocked them with Raining in My Head. Kidding, that's not really a rockin' song, but I played it and afterwards a group of 8th graders came up to me, grabbing their hearts, saying "Sir, soooo nice, sooo wonderful." It was neat how appreciative they were and how easy it was for them to give compliments. After the entertainment we crossed a soccer field and had dinner in a bungalow, even though I had already eaten. I was pretty much forced to take more food, which I'm learning will be a regular occurrence during my stay here. They love to serve you food. After that, I walked back to the classrooms where the boys would be sleeping, and they had all arranged the desks like beds so they could sleep on top. A group of kids were playing guitar in the back, so I went over to listen. I was requesting the few Nepali songs I know, and they would sing them. It was really neat, and a pretty big group of kids came over to sing and smile in the back corner of the room where only two fluorescent lights were working. They gave me the guitar, and the remainder of the night we just sort of traded songs. It was so wonderful...that group of kids, the 8th graders, were awesome. I really hope I get to teach them.
The next day, after school, we went to Ama Ghar (Motherly Home), an orphanage that takes in children from all over Nepal to help give them educational, living, and health opportunities. It's actually based in Berkeley...Srawan, 
the man who started it, was an orphan himself back in the day, and two peace corps volunteers brought him over to the states when he was 18 so he could go to college. He lived there for 18 years, and decided to change career paths and begin his own non-profit, and so he started Ama Foundation. Ama Ghar is their first venture, and it's working out really well. There's something like 35 kids who stay there, play there, eat there, and study there. So they were having their grand opening, and we attended. The US ambassador was there, but we got their too late. Would have been cool to meet him and say something like "Dude, we're from the same country!" Anyways, the day was great, and the children performed dance numbers, musicians played, singers sang, and everyone had a grand ol' time. They had a giant tent set up for us to sit under, and a highly decorated stage. It was a pretty big deal, and I was actually surprised at how professional it all looked and sounded.
Later that night I went back to the school for night two of the scout camping, and got there for more skits and dances and songs. They asked me to play again, same song, so I did. It was fun, it was nice to sing in front of people again. One funny thing I've noticed so far: they seem to be pretty open joking around about the things we consider vices, i.e. smoking, drugs, and alcohol. At a class 6 Parent's Day, one of the skits had a child walking around with a cigarette pretending to smoke it, at class 4 parents day one of the skits had a little boy walking around with a half empty, or full, bottle of whiskey, pretending to be hammered, and this scout event had a skit which featured marijuana and a group of stoned 8th graders. It was a little disturbing at how well they acted, not sure if it's talent or experience. At any rate, wasn't too sure if it was neat that they could deal with these subjects without them being totally taboo, or if it was sad that they've already had the experiences to know what a totally drunken father acts like, or a stoned person, and for them to be so comfortable with it. Hmmm...
Wednesday was Geraldine's birthday...I swear I've celebrated more birthday's in this past month than I have in my life. I haven't even written about half of them. Anyways, it was the last day of teaching before the bundh started, so we decided to go out with the guys to a local restaurant in celebration and as a treat for a very grueling and difficult three days of teaching. Kidding about that last part. The restaurant was at some giant house which converted its patio into a dining area for the mela, and was still serving even though the mela finished. Great food, nobody there, and the same damn Shaggy CD was on repeat. We got a tour of the house, and we were sitting up on the third floor, on some indoors hanging chair, and Deeraj explained to us how the house was probably built on corrupt money. Isn't that cool? Wonderful.
So the bundh was relaxing, slept in, did my exercises for my knee, sat around and enjoyed the quiet yet trash scarred Godavari (the mela people didn't really mind dumping or leaving all their trash spread out about the giant field outside our house), played guitar, went to Ama Ghar, and had a get together one night...more singing, laughing, and eating. It's fun now that we know some Nepali, cause the guys get a kick out of us trying to use it, and it's been a blast incorporating this new language into the wonderful world of puns. International pun, two points! Ama Ghar was nice. We walked there, due to the absence of transportation during the bundh, and it seemed like every 30 feet, I mean meters, we'd run into our students playing in the street, or they'd run down from their home to greet us. Miss! Sir! Got to Ama Ghar, and children were playing around, flying kites. Everything was really peaceful, the polar opposite of when the Mela was here. After about ten minutes of teaching the kids to make sounds with their faces, like the water drop sound made by flicking the underside of your chin, or the pop sound from the lollipop song, we were called in for tea. That's another regular occurrence. Everyone is so worried about whether or not you've had your tea, your chiyaa, and if you've eaten. So we sat in the kitchen eating and drinking, and then Ama (mother), the lady who inspired the Non-profit, woke up from her nap and came down to have her tea. She thought it was too hot in the kitchen, so she told us to go outside with her while she finished her pick me up. Spent the next hour or so talking with her...she's pretty rad, a little old lady who always seems to be wearing a beanie. We talked about America and Nepal, and I tried my hardest to break some of her American stereotypes that she developed from news and stories. She was telling us that in America no parents care about their children after they turn 18, and how they don't love their children that much. She was basing most of her opinion on the Columbine incident from a few years back. Kind of interesting the impression our country leaves on others. I helped peel potatoes for that night's dinner, and Ama picked up a peel that had dropped in the bucket, calmly looked up, and said to me, "Too thick." Oh man I was so nervous for the rest of that bucket, dropping potatoes, worrying what sort of impression I was leaving on her and what judgments she was making based on my poor peeling techniques. At the end she told me I did a wonderful job, and I realized that I hadn't been breathing that whole time. It wasn't that intense, it was actually pretty relaxing. The whole time the sun was setting and an awesome breeze was blowing over all the rice patties. That was a great afternoon.
Later that night we went to Rabin's house for a "jam up," as they like to call it. Sat around drinking and eating a pretty big array of Nepali food, laughing the whole time. I ate something, I really don't know what it was, but it definitely had some chili's in it, and I definitely got all of one, cause a few seconds later I broke out in a full sweat, tears coming down my face, and had a mouth that felt like a million degrees. Of course they all thought it was funny. They have this word for a beautiful girl, something that sounds sort of like "Chwaac," but said totally nasally. You also give the OK sign, touching your index finger to your thumb simultaneously. Well, I found out that it actually means a piglet, and that another saying, of which I forget, means a moneky's wife. So all of their sayings for a beautiful girl, actually refer to animals. I guess we do that too, but a chic and a fox are world's apart from a pig and a monkey. Does anyone say fox anymore? Hmmm, anyways, I told them I was changing the Chwaac expression to that of a snorting pig, for accuracy's sake. Not sure if that will stick, but I'll keep you posted.
The next morning was parent's day, which is the main reason why this letter has said nothing about my last few weeks of teaching. Every day was spent in the hall, rehearsing and practicing and going over and over and over the songs and skits and dances. I was getting pretty tired of it actually, as every day pretty much consisted of me yelling at a bunch of fourth graders to sit quietly while we ran the "Golden Goose" for the 20th time, or while Elina sang Tracy Chapman's "Talking 'bout a Revolution." Man, nothing funnier than a little 4th grader talking about welfare and unemployment lines, and calling for everyone to rise up and have a revolution. So Saturday was the actual performance, and it all went off without a hitch. Pretty glad that's over, as I'll finally get to teach and have a routine now.
After parent's day we rushed into town to make a benefit concert that Ama Ghar was putting on. It was at the city hall in Kathmandu, and we got their a few hours late, but were given probably the best seats in the house, center center. It was an evening of dance, singing, comedy, and speeches which piggy backed the open house and was also used to help raise funds. My favorite part was probably sitting through a 20 minute long comedy routine, of which we understood nothing. The whole crowd was roaring and we were sitting dead center with that "I'm confused but I should half smile to make it look like I'm enjoying this" sort of look on our face. Their was this great Michael Jackson impression, lip sync and all. I officially decided I do not like traditional Nepali/Hindi music. The women singers are wonderful, but man, the songs are all so long and hard to sit through. Nepali rock though, man, I love that stuff. Anyways, children were dancing on stage, everyone was having a good time, and I got to see Ama without her beanie for the first time. We rode home on the bus with all the children, because all of the micros stop running when the sun goes down. I'd have to say the bus ride was probably the most amazing experience I've had so far while here. This little girl, Menuka, who wasn't very warm to me when I last went to Ama Ghar, was all of a sudden really friendly and grabbed my hand while we waited to get on. I gave up my seat to some lady who had a child, and found myself standing in the back of the bus. Menuka refused to sit, and gave me the seat instead, but later I realized that was only because she wanted to sit on my lap. The whole way home this little 8 year old was correcting my Nepali, conversing in English, and asking questions about my family and myself. She wanted me to sing to her, so I sang her "Fight Test" by the Flaming Lips. It's such an amazing song, but I got a kick out of the fact I was singing the Flaming Lips to a 3rd grade Nepali girl. All the kids on the bus were practically passing out, as it was getting late, and it was neat to see the older children take care of the younger ones. This is the only family they know, and it's neat seeing these little children express a love that probably hasn't been shown to them by their own parents. Menuka fell asleep for a while, and I spent that time being entertained by a girl who was showing me how she remembered all the ways to make noised with her face. By the time we got back to Ama Ghar it was really dark, and I traded a little girl my jacket for the sleeping girl she was trying to keep from falling on her face. Stepped off the bus with her over my shoulder, and was met with one of those scenes that instantaneously burns itself into your brain. All these little children stumbling down the long driveway while this amazing canopy of stars (one of the first I've seen since arriving here, monsoon season has thick layers of clouds almost the whole time) lit the surrounding hills and rice patties. It was amazing...for that bus ride alone I was so happy we decided to go to the music program.
So that was that, a really good week. Had my first real day of classes today, and I had a good time walking up and down the aisles of 45 children, in a tie, pretending to be a lot older than I really feel. It's my turn to cook tonight, so I should probably wrap this up and get to the market before it closes.
Thanks for reading, thanks for writing.
Love Kvin