January Ramblings

Sunsets serve as a good distraction from politics

One of the benefits and the disadvantages of Peace Corps is the sense of disconnect from the America. January found me feeling that in a big way. The inauguration of Donald Trump blissfully passed me by, and the subsequent women’s marches filled me with a sense of pride for the strong women in my life, both those who marched that day and those who march for human rights every day of their lives. Thank You. The other side of that disconnect is the difficulty of translating my experience of living in Nepal back home to friends and family. Yesterday was a really hard day for me. At the end of the day I spoke to my friend here, who told me “Nepal is a country which wears its challenges on its sleeve.” I felt overwhelmed with sadness for people who I’ve come to deeply care for, witnessing them struggle through things that would be challenging in the States, much less in Nepal. At this time, I am still processing things that I have seen, things that people have told me. I’m happy to talk about it with those who may be interested, but for now I am not going to go into that in this blog.   I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to present my experiences.  I feel that is a valuable opportunity to answer some questions about a country and that is so foreign to so many, and I welcome any questions or topics that may be of interest. I have noticed recently that I am pretty used to living here at this point. Experiences that once struck me as strange, have now become mundane as I have fallen into the Nepali pace of life and that can make it challenging to find focal points for blog posts.

Mushrooms at my house

One the work front, this past month I led several mushroom trainings, and have continued working with the pregnant ladies on nutrition and cooking classes. On the more fun front, I've been reading a ton, and went to a soccer game with my little host cousin. I'm not usually a big sports enthusiast, but it was a pretty big deal in my village, everyone every single day asked me if I had gone to this multiple day long tournament. So I figured I would give it a shot. It ended up being a really cool day, I spent most of it talking to people I hadn't spent time with in a while and tracking down snacks at booths that were set up for the occaison. Another big development in my life is I started cooking for myself! This has given me more freedom in my cooking, as well as the opportunity to get to know how to cook Nepali food for myself. Possibly the most important advantage however is getting over my fear of pressure cookers.  My host mom had to come in and teach me step by step how to make rice in the pressure cooker, and watch me carefully lift off the little top to let the steam out. She does it with her hand, I do it with a spoon because I’m still not there yet bravery wise. My family makes a lot of fun of me for not cooking my vegetables to the point that they lose any sort of structural integrity, and not using enough salt.

I realized I'm more into sports when there are Himalayas to look at

Today, I had a site visit from our country director, his wife, and the Peace Corps doctor. It was nice to have them in village. On the way to my bazaar three different people called me on the phone to tell me that my mom and dad had come to meet me! The country director and his wife are both American and don’t speak Nepali, and it was funny to watch my friends talking to them in Nepali, forgetting that it’s a pretty weird thing that I speak this language that is only spoken in this very tiny country. One of my most outgoing friends started telling them that I have a boyfriend in our district capital (I don’t, for the record) and that I am going to marry a Nepali and live here forever (also not in plans). I teased her back saying that she hasn’t found any men for me yet that meet my high standards, and she told my country director that I expect so much from men and that with my weird habits I can’t expect much I have to settle soon. She then proceeded to start pointing at things and saying what they were in Gurung language. I don’t speak any Gurung either, the country director certainly doesn’t, but this woman suddenly felt the need to hold a language lesson. She ended the conversation by telling me that my pimples are clearing up because I am eating less oranges. An old woman who had been listening the whole time told us that “Ali hamro gau ko mache ho, hamro dherri kaam garne manche” which translates into Ali is our villager, our very hard worker. That was the only part that the doctor translated for my country director.

Continue fighting the good fight my friends. I’ll keep fighting off marriage proposals.