Kathmandu Home Stay and Volunteer Work
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Pokhara, Nepal
Hello,
So here we are sitting in a tourist trap of a restaurant in Pokhara listening to live Nepalese music that's too loud (and honestly pretty bad) but the wifi is excellent . We have had an eventful past week which we would love to share with all of you.
It started in many different homes with new people and it was hard to adjust, but thankfully we had 5 days to somewhat figure it out. When we first arrived at our homestays, it was uncomfortable to be in other people's space and to be reliant on complete strangers. This last week we learned at our home stays that Hindi soap operas are really bad and that refusing food is literally the meanest thing to possibly do ever. The families had us eat SO much food and we felt bad if we didn't finish everything on our plates and sometimes when we did it would be immediately replaced with double the original quantity. Smiling we would shovel the food into our mouths. One struggle of being in a different family for so long is maintaining the happy guest vibes. A lot of energy goes into being happy and showing the family that you are satisfied, but it is totally worth it for the experience. They are overjoyed to help you in any way.
During the week with the families, we would walk to Shram Jyoti Public School everyday to help at the school and also experience what school was like for the kids .
There were small, eager fists prodding us in different directions and high pitched voices reprimanding friends for trying to play the wrong game with us. Entering a classroom felt like entering a club except replace the adults with children demanding that we be entertaining. There was almost as much dancing. Grabbing and stroking were common occurrences. I personally was stroked at least 657 times.
When we weren't playing with children we were helping to build a pathway out of quite heavy hexagonal cement blocks. MA went HAM on this project. Mad respect MA, it was cool to see such hard work. We also were painting walls white and painting murals.
It was a super cool and fulfilling experience and even when we were relaxing with the kids it meant so much to them and to us.
At the end of our time there they had a special closing ceremony where we were given scarves and shown a bunch of dances and songs . Some sweet break dancing for sure.
After we left the home stays we went white water rafting. After sitting on a bus for a few hours we got into blue and yellow rafts on a slightly green river. When it got white that's when things got interesting. The raft with Sophie and the bros was completely capsized. It was quite a thrill.
We got back on the bus and after some more treacherous driving through the mountains we arrived in Pokhara.
Pokhara is much different from Kathmandu. We can cross the street without almost losing an arm and the overall mood here is a lot chiller. Today (Tuesday, September 29th, 2015) six of us (Katherine, Sophie, Austin, Griffin, Tim and Anna) hiked up to the Peace Pagoda. The hike up was pretty easy and it was really beautiful to be there, but to keep things exciting we chose a different path for the way down. We were joined by some new friends that attached themselves to our feet, ankles and calves . Leeches. We screamed and kicked our way down the mountain. Not our favorite experience but definitely a learning one.
We are looking forward to the next adventure that looms over our heads. The mountains.
Tomorrow we start our trek. Wish us luck!!!
Goodbye, namaste, peace,
Anna, Sam, Jeremy and Maiti
PS - A special thanks to our friends at Adrenaline Rush Nepal (www.adrenalinenepal.com) for providing Youth International with the photos of our team's white water rafting day, and for running an incredibly fun, and safe, day of rafting for our team!
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