Ada Bhayo

Halfway done with my initial 3 months at site, halfway to to spending almost 2 weeks with my fellow peace corps volunteers, and halfway to seeing my first host family again for a night, and halfway to my second language assessment. I have now been at site for almost 7 weeks! It has absolutely flown by, I can't believe it has been 7 weeks here, and over 100 days in Nepal. In most ways it seems like it has flown by but when I think back to April, to saying goodbye to my family, friends and favorite foods it seems like an eternity ago.

How to capture life at site? We are encouraged to spend the first few months learning about our community, making friends, and practicing Nepali. I am happy to say that I have been making progress in all those tasks! I feel incredibly lucky to have been placed at this site. In my first week here, I met one of the most warm and welcoming people I have ever met, and she immediately embraced me into her family and has quickly become my closest friend at site. She is patient with my Nepali which allows us to go beyond the usual questions of "how many siblings do you have, are you married, can you take me, my husband, my child, to America with you in 2 years." She also makes really delicious khaja, or afternoon snack. I think knowing that I have at least one close friend makes my time here feel much more natural.

Exploring a green tea farm

During our training, the country director talked to us about the benefits of being an English teacher in peace corps, brought in to do a specific job, at a specific time and place each day and the benefits of being a Agriculture volunteer, a job that we are tasked with designing as we see fit to beat improve food security. For teaching English, you are largely spared the awkwardness of having no idea how to fill your days. You can tell people a concrete job that you're doing, and they will understand, and you can feel like a professional. I on the other hand have to tell people: "I'm here to do agriculture and health work" and try to explain that I will try to improve the soil health and access to a variety of nutritious foods, but often this explanation is greeted with a blank stare. Other times, this explanation is greeted with people pulling up or down an article of clothing and asking me to identify a strange looking rash. I am learning my place within the community, just as the community is learning my place within it. As one of my fellow volunteers said during training: "seek first to understand, then be understood." I am patient with myself to understand how I can begin to make strides toward increasing food security in my community, the first step of that being to understand my community itself.

There are many waterfalls near me

And what an enjoyable task that is! Some days I work on this task by hiking, meeting people on the way and going to their house to talk. Some days I work on this by helping my family with farm chores and cooking. Other days I go to the health post to learn about what sort of health problems are common, and to spend time with the great staff who works there, and always make me laugh and feel welcome.

On his day in particular, I am actually leaving my community for the first time! I am going to the district capital, besi sahar, to spend 2 nights with my fellow lamjung volunteers. I am eager to hear about their sites, as each brings different challenges and joys. I am also eager to eat brownies, ice cream, and momos which are all available in the district capital. Just after writing that, I just received a text from my friend who I am meeting there that there is a bhanda on pasals (the shops are on strike) today. So to be determined as to the availability of those treats, but allowing you to read those sentences back to back as I get information allows you to get a sense of what it's like to be here. Unsure of plans, adjusting to new information, and understanding that everything will work out. Even if you may not get ice cream or brownies.

Merro naam Samana Ho

During pre service training, my Ama gave me the name Samana. We were walking together up to the barri (non-irrigated field) to water the cucumbers, and she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and said "you are Samana." The name Samana means one who faces challenges with strength and bravery. It's a name that fills me with power as I remember it's meaning, remember my Ama telling me as I left to permanent site: "Samana, Samana huncha." Samana is Samana, reminding me that she recognizes that peace corps is challenging but repeatedly telling me that she is confident that I am strong and capable. 

My name serves as a constant reminder or bravery in the face of unknown and of all the love I have been shown in Nepal so far. I have been at site now for almost 3 weeks. My site is in the district of Lamjung, which is in the western development region of Nepal. I live in a sea foam green room, under the mosquito net that makes me feel like a princess, my walls peppered with photographs of family, friends, and cards of encouragement (but I didn't bring enough to decorate with, so if you wanna send me photos or things that make you smile...), and my door opens to our courtyard and a view of the Himalayas. 

Learning to plant rice in Panauti

The first week I was here, I attended a 9 day training for the new female community health volunteers. These women are the backbone of health in village, they come from all around the vdc, a section of the lamjung, some walking 3 hours to attend the trainings. Once they have received hear trainings they serve as a liaison between the health post in the bizarre and their own village communities, spreading awareness about preventative and curative health. They're powerful people, and it was a really great group to start my time in village with. Also the kajah (snacks) was always really delicious, which as anyone who knows me knows was a huge selling point. My government counterpart was leading these meetings, and every so often would ask me to contribute where I could to the discussion. I talked about AIDS in America and how it's spread, various immunizations, that I eat bananas and drinks more water if I have diarrhea, among other things. 

This past week I have been planting rice with my family. Rice planting is hard work, first the fields must be prepared: plowed using o

Rice paddies and a peak of the himals in the background

xen, the grass growing in the field removed, holes and passages for water to pass through dug, and walls surrounding the field built. Rice seeds are planted in nurseries, and these seedlings must be collected- removed from the ground beaten against a rock to remove the soil from the roots, and bundled into little handfuls ready for transplanting. Then comes the actual transplanting! Several women stand in a line in about 6 inches of mud and water and plant the seedlings in the khet (irrigated field). The lines must be straight, evenly spaced, and the appropriate number of seedlings added. The first two days it felt like I was never going to get it. My lines were all over the place, I would try to jump in only to become immediately confused, and have to have someone correct me. On the third day however they said: "ropne ayo!" Which roughly translates into "it's a miracle! The American isn't as spatially challenged as we thought! She can kind of do it!" The time in the kheta was a good opportunity to get to know my family better, be present in my community, and assert my interest in krishi ko kaam, agricultural work. 

So there you have it, Samana being Samana. In honor of July 4th, I want to say that I'm thankful to come from a country who's government supports an organization that exists solely to promote peace through cultural understanding and community based development. I'm thankful to be here, it's not without challenges, but I'm surrounded by people who are eager to know me and welcome me into the community. I am Samana 

Mitho mitho ra mitho... Hola

With each entry I write, I have been trying to figure out a way to categorize my experience. I hope that with this blog I can create a bridge between Nepal and America, my two homes, and provide a glimpse into the rich and different culture that I have only just begun to explore. With this entry, I hope to discuss a few of the celebrations I have experienced during my short time here. As I adjust to the diet of daal bhaat, a rice and lentil dish eaten twice a day here, the celebrations are largely marked in my mind by food hence the title of this post which means “tasty, tasty, and tasty…maybe.”

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to go to my first Nepali wedding! The wedding was at my Language and Cultural Facilitator’s host family’s house, and my LCF invited our class to join her. It was a really interesting experience, especially having my LCF there to be able to explain some of the cultural values behind the affair, and how these traditions affect her experience a young woman in Nepal. My language teacher, Oja, is the same age as me, making her observations particularly poignant to my experience.

 The wedding took place at the bride’s house, but there was also a larger party happening at the groom’s house. This is because the groom’s family is gaining another member of their family, the Buhari, sister in law, while the bride’s family is losing a member. Thus, the bride’s house is a more somber setting when it is closer to the actual wedding event. It is still festive and there was really delicious food, but the air was tinged with the knowledge that after the wedding the community and family would be saying goodbye to someone they dearly loved.

When we first got to the wedding we were immediately ushered in and shown to the buffet of delicious food, puffy fried bread, rice with raisins and cashews, a dish with potatoes paneer and green beans, and a delicious chickpea dish. We ate multiple plates, talked with my classmate’s sister-in-law, and then the celebration begun! I was a little surprised that, in contrast to the large number of people at the food part of the wedding, there were not many people at the actually marriage event. Of course though, as the Americans present, we were hustled to the very front and I was actually seated next to the bride…! The ceremony was filled with many traditional blessings and rituals, some of which I understood (thanks to my teacher) and some of which were more unique to this family’s religious practice. At the end of the ceremony my friend and fellow PCT John were called up to give Tikka, a blessing given with a red power/rice mixture applied to the forehead. We did it incorrectly which was fairly embarrassing, but now we know for next time! The couple was generous though, and didn’t make fun of us (to our faces).  

Bride and groom rolling a ball of nutmeg between them 

After the ceremony, the suitcase that was sitting ominously next to the bride and groom was picked up, and the bride, crying hysterically in her brother’s arms, was shuttled into a car with the groom to go to his house. Oja explained that it was the first time she was leaving home, that she didn’t know her new husband, and she would miss her family. As she explained this to me, she grew sad. As we watched the bride leave, neither of us could keep the tears from welling up. It is a whole different kind of tears than are shed at weddings in the United States. I can’t imagine the bravery it would take to make this journey. What she must be thinking as she walked away from her home. I think that marriage always takes courage, the ceremony of saying you will love someone for the rest of your life takes great faith. To leave and hope to fall in love takes a whole new type of faith and bravery.

For the onlookers, after the ceremony ended we ate more delicious food. I didn’t think I could, but there I was with yet another heaping plate. I returned home after the ceremony just in time for dinner.

For more reading into marriage practices, specifically child marriage, in Nepal click here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/24/opinion/24exposures.html?_r=0

With posting this link, I would like to encourage you from holding judgment on any cultural practices I discuss in my blog. I am learning, as are we all. Personally, I have been trying to find beauty and seek understanding while studying Nepali culture. In most cases, this is easy. Many practices are centered around respect for one another and higher powers. In the article above, I am filled with joy to see the photo of Durga holding his daughter and read his high hopes for this young girl. I appreciate Niruta’s strength, and the comradery and she found with Durga’s sister. I remind myself that although I would like to see the practice of child marriage fade into the past, the people in this story and others are the voices of change.

Just last week, was my host father’s birthday! During the day he had

These celebrations all are marked by food in my mind which led to the title of this post, but more than that they all share a deep connection to the family unit that is so valued in Nepali culture, and has been so comforting during my first two months of training. I have felt so welcome, so loved, and so well fed. Attending celebrations with very little language can seem scary, but I’ve learned that possibly even more valuable than verbal communication is the ability to connect through other means.

Bistari, Bistari

Temples in Panauti

Slowly, slowly I am learning! A current volunteer from the N201 group described PST as her childhood years, and her host family as the people who really raised her. As my family helps me learn how to eat with my hands, use a squat toilet, and do my laundry, patiently listens to me stumble through language, and watches me practice agriculture skills they have been employing their whole lives, I really agree with that volunteer’s sentiment. We may be adults, capable of and craving independence, but in Nepal we are still in the infant stage. I will always appreciate my current host family for being so patient and welcoming as I stumble through this growing up stage. This morning, as I ate dhal baat (lentils and rice), my Aama helped me with my nepali pronunciation after I told her that “Pumpkin Tuesday” I would be making compost at our house, when what I was trying to say was “next Tuesday.” She helped me practice the difference to these two (to me) identical sounding words until my pronunciation satisfied her. I told her she was my guru aama and my aama, and she said that I will never forget her when I move to permanent site because she fills these two roles. What she doesn’t know, what I don’t have the language to express, is that I will never forget her for so many more reasons other than that she is guru ama and ama. I barely have the language to express how thankful I am for her in English. This wise, beautiful, kind, welcoming woman who loves me as her own chori (daughter) and has made Panauti feel so quickly like home. Even as I write this now my eyes well up from gratitude. What a sacred feeling.

One week ago we celebrated our halfway point in PST, and tomorrow we find where our permanent site locations will be! We are all eager to know, and my family asks me every day where I will be going next. I will write another update when I find out. For now, join me in anticipation.

PCT has flown by, and yet the little over a month that I have been in Nepal has felt simultaneously like years. Our language is progressing, we are learning more about nepali culture, and becoming acquainted with Peace Corps’ rules and expectations. We have Saturdays off, our phursad (free time). Last Saturday, I went early in the morning with Aama to the Khet (irrigated field) to harvest potatoes. We worked with two other people, first digging up the raised beds, pulling out the potatoes greens, then removing the potatoes from the loosened soil. We took a break for tea, puff (the nepali version of a croissant), and boiled eggs. This was one of the most memorable meals I have had in Nepali thus far, one that I keep looking back on with fondness. Not because the food was that special, but because after working it was such a welcome snack break, consumed together just as the sun was turning from sunrise pinks to daytime heat. We ate together, laughed, then planting rice where there were formally potatoes.

Later that Saturday, Aama took me into town to get my nose pierced! I was nervous, but excited, and the prospect of me having my nose pierced made every woman we passed gleeful. In Nepal almost every woman, except Newari women, get their nose pieced at a young age. It is a sign of beauty here, as far as I know it does not have any cultural or religious connotations other than aesthetic purposes. Sure enough when we came back with my new facial addition, everyone told me how beautiful I was. That night I received a Kurta (traditional shirt for Nepali women that everyone wears daily) from my uncle. It is a really beautiful article clothing, light blue with yellow trim and small white designs. I have found that these small changes have changed people’s perception of me in a positive way. They enforced the idea that I am here to understand Nepali culture, that I am interested in what is traditional for a Nepali woman to do. In America these actions may seem to be cultural appropriation, but Nepali culture really encourages fitting in and sameness. Peace Corps talks about Nepal as a collectivist culture, valuing blending as a society rather than asserting oneself as an individual. While the decision to pierce my nose may seem inconsequential in this blog, its effect on my family has been noticeable to me. It has also brought me even closer with Ama and my hajurama (grandmother) because we all wear the same nose ring. In fact, due to my fat American nose, the nose ring I am wearing is actually my grandmother’s as the one Ama bought me had a stem that was too short. Hajurama told me that whenever I look at my nose I will now remember them, another beautiful and comforting l thought. 

More temples in Panauti!

This past Saturday, I visited another volunteer’s house! A bunch of us made buffalo momos, a nepali dumpling, with his host father and mother. Boy, were they delicious. His family is also from the Newari caste, and are allowed to drink alcohol so we also drank a drink called chang which a fermented drink that I think tastes like Kombucha. Yummy afternoon, his family is so kind, and I ate so many momos. We were coming in on being full, when sure enough his father came home with more buff, and more ingredients to make seemingly hundreds more momos. My stomach happily accommodated though, and after filling myself to capacity, I wandered home for dinner!

PST has been a whirlwind of getting to know our families, learning language and culture, and trying to get to know the people with whom we are sharing this Peace Corps adventure. Thanks to all who have been reading my blog so far. I appreciate your attention and thoughts as I embark on this journey!

Swaagat to Nepal!

Welcome to Nepal!

Hello dear family and friends! I have been in Nepal now for 14 days, not including the 3 days of travel it took to get to this little piece of the planet. It’s hard to know where to begin, how to bring you in to the adventure that I have been having and provide a window into the world of a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) during Peace Corps Pre-Service Trainin g (PST) (Peace Corps loves them some acronyms).

Our first test as a group was navigating group international travel! Our journey progressed as such: Chicago->Hong Kong->Singapore->NEPAL! Highly recommend the floor of Hong Kong airport for a nap, but even more highly recommend the Singapore airport! After trying to figure out if our bags were in fact going to continue with us to Nepal (spoiler: they did! All of them!), we had many hours to explore the Singapore airport! Having seen nothing of Singapore, I would recommend a visit solely to see the airport. There is a butterfly garden, sunflower garden, orchid garden, and a rooftop pool!

When we finally reached Nepal, we were greeted warmly by the Peace Corps Country Director, various staff members, and lots of photographs capturing our weary 35-hours-of-travel faces. We were then shuttled into vans to TiTi Hostel in Bhaktapur to spend our first week as PCTs! I can’t say we saw too much of Bhaktapur because our days were filled with all sorts of safety, cultural, and other preparation meetings! When we did have some time to ourselves to venture out of our compound, we had our first taste of Nepal! Bhaktapur is a suburb of Kathmandu, and the area surrounding TiTi offered much in the way of little urban gardens, winding neighborhood streets, and lots of goofy kids to practice our ~20 sentences of Nepali with. 

The end of the week brought much anticipation as we drove to Panauti to meet our host families for PST (pre-service training again, in case you’re lagging with the acronyms). We each received a little slip of paper saying the name of our “Head of Household,” the number of family members we would be living with, and whether or not we had any pets! It doesn’t sound very climactic now that I have written it down, but as we drove to Panauti we all eagerly discussed the little we did know of our families. At 3pm last Friday, our host families came to meet us at Hotel Panauti! The anticipation from both the host families’ and the PCT’s side of the room was palpable. Everyone was buzzing, scoping out who would be joining their hearts for the next 2 months. For my part, I was eagerly watching a woman with strikingly beautiful eyes laughing and adding her 2 cents to all of our training coordinator’s guidelines. The woman seemed so cheerful, so full of warmth for the American child she did not even yet know. I felt an immediate flood of happiness when the training coordinator called out my name and my host mother’s name, and I saw that this lady bursting with vim, vigor, and love was to be my host mother. If you know me at all, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when my host mother (from now on referred to as Aama) reached out to give me an enormous hug, I was struggling not to cry. All the other host families greeted their American children with “Namaste,” and I was prepared to do the same. It is impossible to capture in writing how powerful of a moment meeting Aama was for me. And not for a moment, have I felt that warmth subside. 

The past little over a week, has been spent adjusting to the busy PST training schedule and spending time with my host family! We have classes 6 days per week from 7-5. This usually includes
~4 hours of language class and ~4 of technical trainings, introduction to Nepal culture lectures, and various Peace Corps safety/security meetings. There are 4 people in each language cluster, and we are divided into two groups of 12 for the trainings etc. Once a week we gather as a complete group for bigger trainings and meetings on what we call

Early morning view from my balcony where I drink tea

“hub day.” My language classroom is right next to my house which is very convenient, but also means that my family gets to hear my class chanting repetitive, simple, words and sounds as we practice our Nepali. It endlessly amuses them, but also lets them know what I have learned that day so that they can easily practice with me! When I feel that I am learning slowly, I think about how all I could say 3 weeks ago was “Three Kiwis,” and am impressed by the progress I have made!

Morning mist lifting over Panauti

There are many other goofy tales I could talk about in this post. Stories of when I have said something ridiculous in Nepali by mistake, gotten completely lost coming home and scrambled up a hill to the amusement of an entire family, dancing at the New Year’s party, getting massaged in ginger cow butter, and the time I got hundreds of kisses by a sweet old lady I thought was my aunt, but turned out to just be an adoring stranger. I will post again soon to share more specifics, but hope this long post can give you an idea of the whirlwind that I have been absorbed in so far.

The beginning of this adventure has been sweet. I feel cared for, happy, and my heart is very full. Full for my family here, the other PCTs I share this experience with, and so many of you from home who’s support I know I am never without.

T-111 hours and 46 minutes

But hey, who's counting.

Welcome to my blog NepALI!* I hope to use this as a way to update everyone I love and share stories from my time in Nepal. As you likely know if you're reading this blog, I am headed to Nepal to serve with the Peace Corps as a Food Security and Agriculture specialist. In T-111 hours and (now 42 minutes) I will be headed off to the airport for teary goodbye with my dear parents to fly off to Chicago! There, I will meet N-203 (the 203rd group of volunteers in Nepal) and spend a night doing paper work and becoming fast friends before heading off to Nepal the next morning! I've spent the last 7 months since getting my invitation being incredibly excited, but the past week or so I've been pretty nervous. I feel incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful loving family and caring (read: goofy) group of friends that make it hard to say goodbye. Without getting sappy or sounding like a complete cliché, I truly would not have been able to do this without the knowledge that I am going with so much support from every corner of my life.

SO! Everyone asks what I am actually doing in Nepal, and this seems like a good opportunity to answer all those questions in a succinct clear way: I pretty much have no idea. I will be ~an hour outside of Kathmandu for about 3 months for pre-service training. During this time, I will be living with a host family and going to Peace Corps language and culture classes to become 100% fluent in Nepal so that when PST ends and I meet my host family, I will be able to communicate seamlessly. Or at least be able to say Namaste! Project-wise I am not sure what I will be doing, and won't until I am able to get a better feel for my village and my place in the community.

Anyway for now, you know about as much as I know! I am excited to keep up with this so that you can get a feel for the culture of Nepal and I can have a large audience to share my excitement with. For now, over and out. I'm going to stuff my face with some pizza and ice cream.



* (clever "blog name" props to Jake)