The Year 2064 - New Beginnings

Never let it be said that Nepalis are behind the times - it's now the year 2064. We celebrated with a 'party', but it was a little different to my last New Year - though perhaps that's a good thing! Our volunteer group went to Rajesh's house and ate really nice food, drank whisky and were home by 10.30pm. Livin'it up in Kathmandu!

Sunday was my last volunteer class day, and on Monday the Founder of my school ('Dev'... though at first I thought he said Dave, which didn't sound very Nepali and confused me slightly) came to collect me. I said goodbye to my family, and my Ama (Mum) gave me a massive tika and the most gorgeous bunch of flowers. Everyone kept asking "when are you coming back, when are you coming back?" - it's funny how things develop so much in just a couple of weeks. Now I feel that when I go back they will welcome me with open arms, and that feels great! And I'll be able to eat some more of Ama's spicy potatoes yum...

So, off we drove to the school...we went through Bouda, the Buddhist area where my favourite Stupa is (where I am currently as there's no Internet in my village), through Jorpati, which is kind of suburban and really dirty and not that nice! A little while after that I could see the massive Gokarna forest in the background, and I got more excited.

I'm now living and working at the Manakamana English Boarding School, based in Gokarna Dakshin Dhoka, which means 'South Gate' - basically, at the south gate of the forest. The school has kids from nursery right up to Class Ten. There's also a secondary school in the nice bit of Jorpati, for Class 11 and 12 (nearer the mountains and away from the horrible bit I drove through!). The Principal of the school (a really jovial chap with the funniest chuckle) took me there early this morning, which was great. It's more picturesque there, with good views of the forest and mountains in the background. We also went to the Gokarna temple, which is very famous with heaps of statues of Shiva and Parvati.

So, as to the school...well, I have my own room, which is good - and it's really big! The bed is rock hard, but that's ok. There are lizards living with me (they make me jump when I see them and I'm not expecting it) and a dog that howls at night like a wolf (actually, maybe it is a wolf, eeek...). My room is quite high, with a street outside with some shops, including a chicken shop (and we're not talking about the frozen variety here). My room is positioned in the middle of the classrooms, so it's not at all private in the day. But at night I'm the only one in the whole building, which is kind of weird - but I quite like it (the security guard is downstairs, and don't worry Mum, my door is always locked!). The bathroom is a little walk away, and it smells...not nice. That's where I take my showers, and it's a major operation - though I'm getting used to the whole freezing cold water concept. Well, when I say used to, I mean I can tolerate it - and it feels so good afterwards.

So far, I've made some friends among the teachers, staff and kids. The kitchen staff are really sweet, but most don't speak English and there's not much space in my head for Nepali at the moment - but that doesn't seem to matter too much. The food is generally pretty good, with a few things other than rice, like samosas and weird pancakey things - woohoo! They are still trying to fatten me up like a pig at Christmas though, and it makes me feel bad that sometimes I have to be really firm to get the message across!

It's been a real roller coaster this week - I had some real lows when I just thought "What am I doing here, I must be insane" and wondered if I was doing the right thing, and some real highs when people seemed to appreciate me and be pleased I'm here. Yesterday, one of the kids gave me a red rose, and another spent hours drawing a picture for me. The kids are definately the best thing and the hardest thing about being here - more on that later...