Family

Right after returning from Jhapa I headed to Godavari for my home-stay. To be honest it was something that I was not looking forward too, I was really nervous about staying with a family I did not know for a week, especially since my Nepali is still weak. But after about an hour with my family, I knew it was going to be wonderful! My family has three children all who go to St. Xaviers Godavari, where the three JV’s teach. The oldest is Sujhana who is in level 9, Pouja who is in level 6, and Shrimat who is in level 3. They are absolutely fantastic children and enjoyed all the time I got to spend with them. My bua (father) is a chief inspector for the police and spends most of the week at work. My aama (mother) is a beautiful woman. She works at home and like most women that means she does everything. She speaks little English, but I still felt very connected to her. Their house is about a half hour away from school on top of a hill that overlooks a valley of rice fields. For the first few days I hung out with the kids, playing cards, games, and the girls even got me to dance. Though I now know why Nepali women are such good dancers, the girls have choreographed dances for all the songs. It is what they do for fun, and even the little ones can shake their hips. It was a lot of fun, and taught me a lot about not being self-conscious and to just have fun! Then on Friday I was able to help harvest one of the rice fields that the family owns. It was a great experience. To harvest rice you use a machete like knife to cut the stalks at the roots, then the piles of cut stalks are beating over a drum, causing the rice to fall of f onto tarps. The rice is then bagged, carried up the hill to rooftops where it is laid out. Once laid out it is re-bagged, stored or sold. This is all done by the women. I think that is why I enjoyed it so much, because I was able to bond with my aama, aunties, and Sujhana. One thing that fascinates me here, especially in the villages is the bond between women, it is more then just this idea of being in it together, it is their life. Many of their husbands work outside the valley or even home like my bua, so it is the women who run everything, and they do it together. It is such a beautiful connection that they all have, mothers to daughters, sisters to sisters, everyone. I really enjoyed being able to laugh and talk with them. Though I was fired from banging the rice, though my Nepali was not good enough to know why…. Something about a head covering or not hitting hard enough? The rest of the week was filled with good memories and experiences. It also gave me insight to how Nepali’s live. For example, Pouja, gives Pouja (the offering to gods) twice a day, for the family. They have a room that is meant just for offerings, in which they have a small alter under pictures of various gods and goddess. Within the offerings there is Ahrwati, which is the ringing of bells and lighting of incense. It is also the Nepali name my aama gave me. She also blessed me with Thika, recognizing me as her Thulo Churi, or eldest daughter. It is just nice to have a family connection here. Though, there are definite differences in lifestyles to state the obvious, but I think one of the funniest ones I experienced was the use of oil. After washing my hair at the tap, I came home, and the girls asked if I wanted to put oil in my hair. I asked what that does, and was told it is what makes their hair black. They believe that by putting oil in their hair it makes it black, so I was like sure why not, thinking maybe it’s special oil, but nope it is the same oil that we use for cooking. So there I was in the kitchen, with freshly cleaned hair, rubbing sunflower oil in my hair. I laughed to myself and stayed away from the fire. Though that night as I went to bed, I just reeked of the oil, so I open my trusty purrell poured a little in my hand and ended up with a fresh rubbing alcohol smell to my hair. It is experiences like this that remind me how far from home I am. But oil aside, it was one of the most wonderful things I have done since being in Nepal, and I am incredibly grateful to have a family like them here in Nepal.


Fields I helped harvest

Lets Go Trekking

For Dashain break this year, which is the big festival here, the JV’s headed out to Jhapa which is the southeastern district of Nepal. I was excited to finally get outside the valley for a little bit! We took a 17 hour bus ride, which was insane. With in the first hour of the bus ride, a window had fallen out and shattered and the driver didn’t even blink let alone stop. It usually is only a 15 hour bus ride but because of an accident we got stuck at 2am for 2 hours. So I took advantage of this break to stretch out and sleep on the road for a little bit, in which the charming Nepali men around us referred to us as dogs, even though they were doing the same thing. Though alas we arrived at 7am in Jhapa. After spending a night at the Jes Res there, Fr. Bill and the six of us headed out for our trekking adventure. We began at 90m and by the end of day one were at 3000m, it was absolutely exhausting, and my asthma became an issue for me, one that frustratingly slowed me down. The second day was hard because the morning was filled with going downhill which was nice, but then in the afternoon, we made a went straight up. Though we did have fun at the India border. The trek we took was along the Nepal India border so we weaved in and out of Nepal and India, fortunately we only hit one check-post, which is where we discovered my visa was about 2.5 weeks expired. Fr. Bill was not concerned, and once we discovered that the guards were smoking up, I realized technicalities were not an issue. So on we went. We made it about half way up Sandakphu, which was our goal. But we were able to stay at a beautiful lodge, where we were lost among the mountains and fog. The next morning we headed out early and in 3 hours we had reached the top, which was ahead of the 5 hours, Fr. Bill thought. On the way up the views were beautiful, we were literally among the clouds. It also was the first time that it smelled like autumn since being in Nepal. It was wonderful! Though it did make me miss home and the changing colors. Once at the top it was too cloudy to see the Himalayas (which mean snow capped mountains) views. But the lodge was so cozy, though it was honestly the coldest I have been since being here! That night it rained, which was good because it cleared away the clouds and we had absolutely breathtaking views of the Himalayas. We woke up at 5 am and watched the sun come up around us, that with the mountain views was fantastic! I even saw Everest for the first time, and after this trek, I have realized I will leave it to the real trekkers and just enjoy the sight of it. After about 1.5 of watching the range we had a good breakfast and headed down the mountain, which was the desolation of the trip for me. Since, it had rained the night before the dirt path had turned into a slippery clay or brown death as I think of it. I spent most of the way down on the ground; it was incredibly frustrating. So needless to say it was quite a relief when then next day we were finally down the mountain and in Illam our final destination. From there we rode a bus back to Jhapa, spent the night and next day touring around the Jesuits projects, and then at 4 am we took a bus back to the Valley. It was a good trip, regardless of how challenging, and it was nice to be able to take the time and reflect and be away from “normal” life. It was also good for me to see what life is like outside the valley. It is easy to think that all of Nepal is like Kathmandu, because of how massive the city is, but in reality things are very different. We were able to have chiyaa with a tea-worker’s family whose children go to St. Xaviers school in the valley. How the tea gardens work is that you work in the fields and then you are provided housing and a salary. The housing is multiple houses placed together on a small compound. For example, the family that we visited had three houses (and by houses I mean concrete one-two bedroom shanties) with 10 people living there, which Fr. Bill said was small. It was remarkable. I am often amazed at the different levels of poverty that are found in Nepal. Overall the trip was wonderful and a perfect way to spend my first Dashain.










Katie and I


Prayer Flags













The JV's and Fr. Bill


Himalyas