Namaste!
We have been so busy with our preparations for our project and also the Weebly website editor is a pretty heavy loud for this Nepali Internet connection, so just now getting around to updating everyone on how the trip is going so far. There is a lot to tell!
We arrived safely in at the Kathmandu Airport on June 12th and were greeted by Sunil and Saurav Bhandary, two nephews of Hari Bhandary, founder of Clinic Nepal and currently visiting sponsors all over Europe for the summer. Saurav attends Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama and has not been back to Nepal in three years, but came this summer so that he could be part of our team and now we cannot imagine the trip without him.
We have been so busy with our preparations for our project and also the Weebly website editor is a pretty heavy loud for this Nepali Internet connection, so just now getting around to updating everyone on how the trip is going so far. There is a lot to tell!
We arrived safely in at the Kathmandu Airport on June 12th and were greeted by Sunil and Saurav Bhandary, two nephews of Hari Bhandary, founder of Clinic Nepal and currently visiting sponsors all over Europe for the summer. Saurav attends Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama and has not been back to Nepal in three years, but came this summer so that he could be part of our team and now we cannot imagine the trip without him.
Advice for anyone traveling to Kathmandu: Don’t let yourself get swindled by the tourist trap helpers who will grab your luggage and pack a taxi for you without even asking and then demand tips. If you didn’t request a service, and moreover if you refused a service and it was forced upon you, there is no reason to feel guilty for not tipping. Acting awkward and passively avoiding the conversation by rummaging around in one’s bag does not help! Once out of the parking area of the airport, speeding along the unmarked and almost entirely undirected roads of Kathmandu is a culture shock in the face right off the bat, where the traffic is made up of swerving cars, packed buses, motorbikes (Sunil road along beside our van), scooters, bicycles, vendors, students, workers, cows, dogs, and more.
Our first few days in Nepal were spent in Kathmandu and were a mix of project planning and preparation and sight-seeing. Saurav and Sanjay took us to Bhaktapur Durbar Square on our first day.
Our first few days in Nepal were spent in Kathmandu and were a mix of project planning and preparation and sight-seeing. Saurav and Sanjay took us to Bhaktapur Durbar Square on our first day.
Next, we visited Boudanath and Swayambounath, more commonly known as the Monkey Temple, and Sunil took us to try some Nepali fast food, including samosa (large fried vegetable and chick pea wontons) and tarkali (spicy vegetable soup), which had us sweating on a hot day from the spice but afterward we bought a couple kilos of sweet and juicy lychee fruit and washed it down with more cool lychee juice.
The next evening, we went to Pashupatinath, the cremation temple dedicated to Shiva, the god of destruction, and afterward we all shared a meal at Sunil’s restaurant, Café Wether Spoon, where we took a break from the traditional Nepali diet of dhal bhat (rice and lentils) and all agreed we picked the perfect team.
We spent one day unable to do much outside plan and prepare for our implementation of a summer school in Meghauli because we learned by word of mouth that there was going to be a strike (bholi bhanda cha), meaning no transportation and no open businesses for the day. Fortunately, our friend Keith, an FSU alumnus working as a consulate in the Kathmandu embassy, was able to come meet with us at Hari’s house and share his stories as a consulate as well as his insight into how he was accepted into the foreign service.
Just before we left for Meghauli, Srijana Bhandary, Hari’s wife and also super woman power mother, bargained down the prices of wholesale school supplies at the local bazaar for our donations to the Wolfgang Linke Kindergarten, Friendship Scout Troop, and Asha Kokiran Children’s Hostel. Srijana has been an amazing didi (older sister) to all of us and made sure we always had delicious Nepali food (mitho Nepali khanna) and boiled water (tato pani). We will miss her very much and hope to see her again before we leave Nepal. We also hope we get to see Pulga (means flea in Spanish), Srijana's younger sister, Anjana's adorable pug!
We arrived in Meghauli on June 18th and met Meagan, a Canadian medical student studying in Ireland, and Gabby, a British student using her gap year to study abroad before she returns to join the army as a nurse. Even though we have now only been in Meghauli for five days, it feels like so much longer due to how much we have accomplished every day. More to come on that later!