Settling down in Kathmandu

We are just about to start the 7th week of our Nepali language and culture training and this week will be one with a difference as we are leaving the class room behind and going to stay in a village in family homes. This is going to be challenging for our language skills to say the least. In spite of the tremendous efforts of our teachers conversation is still pretty limited so it could be rather boring for our families. We are also somewhat concerned about the cold. The day time temperatures in Kathmandu are good, a warm English summer day but inside, in the shade and particularly when the sun goes down it is pretty cold. Retreating to bed early is most people’s option as long as you have a layer of thermals under your pyjamas, some nice thick blankets and a hot water bottle or two. We are hoping that we will manage to stay warm in the village, the plan is to delay washing until the afternoon when the sun will be shining on the cold water tap !!
When we come back from the village we have only three days more of language classes and then we will be going to our placements. We are looking forward to this but it is also rather daunting. We have met our partner organisations but until we have had a bit of time with them it is hard to know exactly how your time is going to be spent. The organisation I am going to, JUP, has not had a volunteer before so I will be starting the whole process of accessing what VSO can work with them on from scratch.
Vegetarians can survive very happily in Nepal I am pleased to say and I am really looking forward to being able to cook when we move in to the dhera( rented flat) on the 8th as the availability of fresh vegetables is really good. Lots of people keep a kitchen garden and then sell the surplus on street corners. The fruit is good too. At the moment we are getting lots of lovely Nepali oranges, bananas of course, pineapples, imported apples mainly from China and fantastic pomegranates. Walking past the butchers is a bit of a challenge however, I am not sure that people buy cuts of meat in the same way here as the whole animal is usually visible on the slab and pieces are simply cut off. The heads are always available so you know what you are eating but I find this particularly unsettling with goats who you often see tethered to the butchers shop one day and looking at you from the slab the next.Furnishing a home from scratch is something I haven’t done for a long time but that is what Anil and I have been doing for the last week. It has been interesting and exhausting but we have met some great Nepali people in the process. We have also found people to be very trusting telling us to take the goods and come back and pay tomorrow even though they had never seen us before and didn’t know our address

Christmas Day in Kathmandu

After six weeks in Nepal we are having a day of Xmas celebrations, our one day off. Although the Guest House staff made a point of saying Merry Christmas to us there is very little by way of Christmas visibility. I am sure those of you at home have had an overdose of the Christmas hype by now and would appreciate the low key here.
We spent Xmas eve doing the first bit of shopping for our new dhera ( rented flat) and delivering out newly acquired bedding which includes a Nepali quilt or sirak which we are hoping is as cosy as a european duvet as the nights here are pretty cold and with no heating you at least need your bed to be warm. The only furniture in the dhera is two beds so we are now trying to buy everything we need before next Monday when we go off to stay in a village for a week as part of our language and culture training.
Namaste
Julie