so as some of y'all know, i went to nepal last december for my ocip. spent 17 days building a library, refurbishing the school and teaching english, yes, english, at janata primary school. i was surprised at how big english played a part in nepal. apparently, its even part of the government's education curriculum. so anyway, we kinda expected to rough it out there, i mean, mountains, hills, no electricity, cold water and NO PLUMBING during the winter.. BUT the village we visited (armala v.d.c.) has never had foreign visitors before. we were treated like vips the whole trip insetead. sweet huh?
landed to a great and cloudless skies and a comfortable twenny-something degrees ground temperature. plane ride took a good six to seven hours including transfers to kathmandu, plus another ten-hour bus ride to pokhara. the whole village came down to give us a heeeewge welcome. it was nice to have a traditional nepalese welcome of redd tikkas, garlands and loose flowers. for those who dont know, tikka is this redd loose powder made of some kind of ground grain and they thumb it onto your forehead. they villagers were all-too-eager to get to us and adorn us wit garlands and loose petals, to the extent where we couldnt balance holding flowers and carrying our twenny-something heavy bags. oh, and struggling to namaste the rest of the villagers wit our full hands. namaste (nahh-mah-stay) is the nepali greeting by the way, and you do so by putting your hands together, and maybe, a slight nodd, and of course say namaste. (that isnt me by the way...)
we trekked slightly (uphill, urgh..) to the school. mind you, the roads arent muddy. they're the very rocky kind. here's the rickety bridge we gotta cross to get to the school.
and the school itself...
had a song and dance welcome ceremony, of which, many of us were invited to take part in. amazingly, culture is so rich there that kids as young as 4 can sing (in perfect tune) and dance to their traditional choreography. we were also joined by special guests from the pokhara chamber of commerce. after all the formalities and the settling down, we found out something very intriguing... the children there are major photowhores. haha. they'll tug at your sleeve, gesture at themselves for you to snap a picture of them and hog the camera while they check themselves out in the lcd screen. major competition among the kids to get their photos taken. of course, there was ALOT of pushing and shoving.
the village culture there is extremely strong, that is, everyone's uber gum wit everyone. they treat you like their sibling and they love holding your hand. ohkay, in other words, theyre really warm people... sometimes, a little too warm. what i love, though, are the many faces i got to meet. the nepalese have this distinct semi-indian look: strong brows, deep-set eyes that come in all sorts of pretty colours, skin chaangru can only wish he could have, and for the ladies, long silky and never-at-all black hair. my favourite: her name's angie for short, and i was most mesmerized by her eyes:
but for most of you who cant see this clearly, theyre a hue of blue-grey lining that contains her outrageous eye colours, which slowly lightens to an explosion of orange, then to shades of brown and abruptly halted by her a black pupils. angie's eyes are so glassy-clear, its as if you could look right through them and find a different world in 'em altogether. this was especially so, when the first time i caught sight of her. i watched her prance around barren lands wit a few of her other girlfriends, wit that famous bundle in her hand. of course, she was more than obliged to let me take this picture of her.
set up camp by the river in a large clearing, just one slope away from the school. we didnt have much to do after that, other than await the second half of gracing other official events. seriously, we didnt expect to play the diplomat. it so wasnt in the job scope. the school stood on higher ground, just half a minute's walk from the river. decided to chillax on one of the rocks in the middle of the almost-dry winter river and just, well, observe.
breathtaking innit? the afternoon was cool enough to ward off the sun. the afternoon was warm enough for famous tshirt/fbt fashion combinations. i fell asleep till dinner duty. that day, we killed our first chicken, of which, i dont think i'll put up the morbid pictures, or worse still, the video of the slaughtering. i promise you though, it was quick and clean. ohh, the chicken weighed three kg btw. mudder heavy wit hardly any fat!
dinner was prepared just before sunset and just before it started to get cold. huddled by the river wit the rest of the team before a lovely sunset and an even lovelier dinner, thanks to our master chef. and yes, its true that the sun does set behind the mountains. its a calm yet anticipative feeling, when you watch the sun creep behind the mountains. and the thing is, the sun doesnt bluff you bout its setting. sunsets there are absolute and you literally see the rays disappear. temperature dropps to a good 5 to 10 degrees at night.
so that was my first day in nepal and already, i was already in love wit the whole concept of hills, rivers and nature. haha. oh anyway, if you tell a nepalese that theyre mountains, they'll retort that mountains are rocks wit snow; hills are green wit trees.
day 2 of nepal, soon.
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