Ode to Bus

 Ah, the buses. Over the course of this year Elliott and I have spent a significant amount of time riding in buses (we've basically attained our 10,000 hours). We use them to get to villages, job sites, festivals, everywhere. A few weeks ago, we were riding on a very crowded bus and our friend Binod leaned over and said, "In three months you guys won't be able to do this anymore." Now, most Americans riding on a bus that crowded would probably be thankful to hear that news... But not us. Some of our best (or at least our most significant) memories have come from riding on the buses. This is a random compilation of memories from the buses.

-Seeing a herd of goats riding on the roof of a bus for the first time.

-Discovering that 3 hours on a bus costs less than a dollar.

-Riding on the roof of a bus for an hour. In the rain. At 6 AM. After only 2 hours of sleep. And a 12 hour bus ride the night before.

-Being ripped off by the bus boy, and then arguing with him in Nepali about the bus fare while the rest of the people on the bus were giggling as the two white kids laid down the law in Nepali.

-One bus, 34 seats, 95 bodies.

-On that same bus: I was standing in the stairwell with 9 other people. It was a really cold and rainy day and the bus door was open. My hands were super cold, but all of a sudden one hand felt warm, then it felt wet. I looked at the hand and discovered that a 10 year old girl was vomiting on my hand...

-Meeting some of the nicest strangers in the bus seat next to me.

Those are just a few of the fun bus stories from this year. Hopefully, there will be many more to come!

In other news, today is a giant legalized marijuana holiday in Nepal.

Blurry rooftop bus ride.

Rainy Rooftop Bus Ride

Switching Gears

Hey friends, I'm sorry I haven't been posting as much as I should! We've been really busy lately, but here's an update from the last month:

Right after Christmas, our friends Cassie and Elise came to visit us for a couple weeks. They have been serving as SMs in Bangladesh this year (http://theadventuresofcassieandelise.blogspot.com/). The four of us got to hang out at school for a couple days before taking some time to travel to the beautiful tourist destination of Pokhara. After that, we went to Chitwan National Park to do an elephant safari before the girls left. Here's a couple pictures from our time with them.

Phewa Tal

Fish Tail

Chitwan Elephant Safari

For those who don't know, the plan for this year was to teach at Esa Memorial School the first half of the year and do village outreach for the second half of the year. Our last "official" week at school was right before we went to Pokhara and Chitwan. It was a pretty sad week for us, realizing that we wouldn't be teaching these kids anymore. But the good news is we will still be able to see our kids when we are at home between village trips. Even though I already miss our kids a ton, I'm excited to see where God takes us the second half of our year.

We've already done one village trip where we painted a church in the village of Thumpakar. It is very different being away from our apartment because we have nowhere that we can go to be alone. This can be somewhat exhausting, but it also allows us to be that much closer with the people that we are helping.

I also finished a little video about the first half of our year. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out! https://vimeo.com/84515154

God Bless!

Holidays in the Hills

Merry Christmas! It's been a while since the last post, but it's been a busy and fun holiday season here in Nepal! Our foreign and Nepali friends have really made us feel at home during the holidays. We've been here for 4 months now and although there are still a ton of things that make no sense to me, this place feels more and more "normal" each day.

Early in December, our Pathfinder and youth groups split into 8 teams to go spread some Christmas joy to different villages. My group was going to the village of Sirubari on Saturday. Friday night we agreed to meet at the hospital gate at 7 o'clock the next morning. At 6:45 Saturday morning the phone rang:
     -Hello?
     "Andrew! Come out to the gate quickly. Your group is waiting for you!"
     -What!? I thought we were meeting at 7? Just let me brush my teeth and I'll be out there soon.
     "No, come now or else your group will think you don't want to go!"
I think about how strange it is for a whole group of Nepalis to be on time to anything. I skip brushing my teeth and run down to the hospital gate. But when I arrive, only 1 of my 6 group members is waiting... Long story short, we didn't end up leaving until 8 o'clock. We were running late enough that we thought we'd miss the bus, so my group and another group hired a vehicle for the day. Needless to say, we maximized our savings by piling 15 of us into the Tata Sumo for the 2 hour drive.

I know it only looks like an 8 passenger, but trust me...

 We arrived in Sirubari, and church only started an hour later than planned. After church, the pastor invited us to his house for lunch. The only translator in our group ate outside, and I was inside. After sitting on the floor of their mud and stone home, eating Dal Bhat with my hand, and using every bit of the language that I know, the pastor said to me in Nepali, "Brother, you were born in Nepal, and then went to America." That was probably one of the happiest moments I've had yet this year!

After the trip to Sirubari, there was only about 2 weeks until Christmas. It was at this point that we found out we were supposed to help set up a Christmas drama that involved employees from the whole hospital. Only a couple days later, we found out we were doing a second Christmas drama that involved the church youth. A couple days after that, we found out that we were going to practice with the Pathfinders for a Christmas caroling program. Finally, a couple days after that, we found out we were doing a third drama.

Needless to say, the last 2 weeks have been a little crazy. There were play practices that we thought were supposed to happen, but never happened. There were other times when we showed up to practice "on time" but nobody was there, so we left. Then half-hour later the phone would ring and they'd tell us we were late for practice. And there were times when we thought there was no practice, only to find out later that we had missed a practice. But by the grace of God, everyone came together and we successfully finished 3 dramas and a Christmas music program. 

Chilly early morning practice

Soldiers and Shepherds

Little King Herod

Christmas Eve Program

Christmas Day Party!

Christmas isn't really celebrated here in Nepal. We only have the 25th as a holiday from school. But, the school sure knows how to throw a great Christmas Eve party. Elliott and I got to help cook a feast for the kids and we got to see all of them get a new beanie and coloring book for Christmas. It's hard to explain with words how great it was, so I'll just show pictures! It was definitely one of the happiest days for myself and for our kids!

So Much Stoke!!

Little Ashish

Happy Subekchya

Everyone with their Christmas gifts!

Sabina is loving the feast!

Manisha and Menuka

All of the wee bits and their feast!

Clear skies, apple thieves, and foodstuffs

Finally, the weather is clearing! The hot, rainy summer has passed and so begins the cold, dry winter that we've been praying for. The classrooms at school are chilly even during the day, but it's perfect outside. As soon as I walk into class, "SIR!!! Andrew Sir! We go class outside!?" Well, that's a wonderful idea, let's have class outside. But one must be careful, the warm and welcoming outdoors are frequently conducive to behavior such as running, jumping, tagging, and swinging. But then again, calisthenic activities like this will just help our brains be more active in the next class!

 The beautiful weather has also been a good excuse for us and our friends to  make frequent trips to the hilltops for camping and some of the most amazing views in the world!

Moon-set at Sunrise

 This week Elliott and I decided to experiment with fruit drying. For our test run we filled a big plate with apple slices and put it in my tent (to keep bugs off) on the roof of our apartment. I came back a few hours later to check on our apples and saw that half of them had been eaten! "Elliott, we've got an apple thief on the loose!" I proclaimed as I entered the apartment. I proceeded to launch a campaign of child interrogations. But, it seemed as though the trail had gone cold. Just as I was about to give up, an anonymous witness came forward with a name: "Priska". I instantly recognized the accused as our 5 year old neighbor. In the end, I decided not to press charges based on the defendant's overwhelming cuteness and giggles that are happy enough to make Chuck Norris feel weak.

Half-eaten plate of apples...

In other news, it has only taken Elliott and I three months to perfect our Dal Bhat recipe. We eat Dal Bhat at least 2 meals per day and we're still not sick of it. We have some really great people that have taught us about Dal Bhat, and they're willing to teach us more! Next up, we're going to learn to make Thukpa (Tibetan soup) and MoMo's (vegetable dumplings).

Dal Bhat with Spinach and Potato Curry

The Annapurna Circuit

Well... I didn't get to write this blog post as soon as I would have hoped. The day we got back from our trek I was demolished by a fever, and just now I'm feeling up to writing about our adventures.

We had a 2 week holiday from school for the Dashain festival here. We decided to take advantage by embarking on one of the most beautiful and diverse walks on Earth! The Annapurna Circuit offers everything from Hawaiian jungles, to Colorado foothills, Pacific Northwest forests, Nevada deserts, and the incomparable high Himalaya.

Our journey got off to a little bit of a rough start. We got into Kathmandu too late, but thankfully we found ourselves a bus. The guy told us , "Yes, the bus leaves in 15 minutes, and you'll be to Dumre by 10 pm." Great! We can probably still find a lodge open that late! Unfortunately the bus didn't leave for 2 hours and the ride took twice as long as planned, putting us in Dumre at 2:40 AM. Thankfully the friendly neighborhood armed police found us a place to sleep for 3 hours before we had to wake up for the bus to the trail head. At 6 AM the same police showed us to our bus which was already full, so we snagged spots on the roof, in the rain, for the next hour. BUT we were stoked to hit the trail!! 30 seconds after starting, we made our first wrong turn, but thankfully the Nepalis are friendly and they redirected us onto the real trail. And off we went!

The only plan we had was to be back in 14 days and hike as far as we could (there is a road on the 2nd half of the trek so you can catch a ride out). 

Along the trek we experienced:
-Some sketchy muddy hot springs, followed by a leech-filled death march back to our lodge.
-An ever so friendly German named Moritz.
-Some not-so-sketchy hot springs with the locals, and they laughed at us when we would hop in the cold river.
-The glory and magic that is Seabuckthorn Juice.
-A high mountain Buddhist monastery with free lemon tea.
-"Rapp Mix": a home-brewed concoction of granola with a variety of artery clogging additives.
-"Denro": a local buckwheat delicacy that is more dense than a black hole and takes weeks to digest
-A frigid dip in Ice Lake above 15,000 ft!
-A great group of Israelis that somehow ended up in the same lodge 5 times!
-Being spanked by a young Nepali girl because I wouldn't give her chocolate. I should have just picked her up and carried her a mile or two so she wouldn't do that again!
-Thorong La Pass at 17,769 ft.
- And one more hot springs for good measure.


And after only 13 days we ended up completing the entire Annapurna Circuit! Definitely one of the most fun things I've ever had the privilege of doing!

I'll be back to do it again someday! Hopefully on a bicycle!

Elliott happy to be alive!

Stoked on views of the Annapurnas

Ice Lake

On top of Thorong La Pass!

Hooligan Herding

Teaching is a pretty sweet gig here. Mostly because of the hooligans that I get to hang out with all day, but partly because school doesn't start until 10 A.M.! In theory this would allow me to sleep in until 9:55. However, the friendly neighborhood Hindu temple finds it necessary to start ringing bells, singing songs, and blowing horns at about 5:00 A.M. No matter though, I now use it as my morning reminder to go shoot a sunrise time-lapse, spend an hour stretching, or waste time with a multitude of other tasks.

At 10 we make our way to the school where we are greeted by 60-70 smiling kids in their school uniforms. Most of the kids have a either a torn up backpack, ripped seams or shredded holes on their shirts and pants, or shoes that are falling to pieces. But, this doesn't phase them. They are HAPPY; happy to be with their friends, happy to see their teachers, happy to kick a flat soccer ball, and happy to learn! It's a little reminder that a life lived simply is a life lived happily.

The bell rings, the kids line up for assembly. Songs are sung, jumping jacks are jumped, and fingernails are checked for length. The kids are dismissed and file into their rooms. Here's where the real fun begins.

Assembly

I open the door to my first class and hear a collective "Goooooood morning teeeeechaaarrr." That part always puts a smile on my face! Before I can sit down, I'm being swarmed by the entire class. "Sir!! Sir!! Andrew Sir!! Sir!! Andrew Sir!! Homework Homework!" A flurry of homework papers are being flung at my face to grade. "Hold on, Hold on. Everyone sit down!!"  We have prayer, more songs, and a memory verse. Now I check homework. Yesterday everyone told me they understood what the assignment was and how to do it. Today, I'd be lucky to find that half of the class did half of the assignment! Ohhhh well... Time to learn!

2nd Grade: The Energizer Bunny on RedBull

Sometimes teaching in English doesn't bode well for me. Like last week. We were forming sentences about a steam engine. "To start the fire you would shovel _____________ into the boiler."

OK guys, to start the fire in our train what do we need to shovel into the boiler? It is a black rock...
 Of course I got the blank stare. Then one girl shouted proudly, "CHILDREN!!!"
I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. Noooo! We don't burn children!
"Brains?" shouted another student. 

The knowledge will fall into my mind.

Lately I've been trying to use as much Nepali as possible since the kids don't seem to understand much of what I say in English. This often proves to be an unsuccessful tactic since the kids like to teach Nepali more than they like to learn English. Either way, it is an absolute blast hanging out with these kids. Lord willing, we will soon find a balance in which we can both learn from each other!

More to come! (I could write pages and pages about these hooligans)

 

A life lived for...

It seems like every time we walk out the door here there are so many things to discover and so many lessons to be learned. Yesterday was no exception. A couple Nepali friends told us that they were going to take us on an all day hike to some Buddhist sites.

The first site was a 1000 step staircase to a massive Buddha statue and temple. It reminded me of something similar the temple staircase in "Kung Fu Panda". It was as if it were intentionally made that way in order to evoke an awareness of our journey in life (the journey to enlightenment for a Buddhist).

The way to Enlightenment

Big Buddha

The second site, called Namo Buddha, is a spectacular sight and one of the most sacred Buddhist pilgrimage sites. It is known as the place where the Buddha, in a previous life as a prince, gave his body to a starving tigress and her cubs. While there, we saw many pilgrims as well as Buddhist monks, both young and old. These people have dedicated their whole life to achieve a better understanding of what they believe in. They know what they believe and they live a life centered around those beliefs. Despite our many differences in lifestyle and religion, these people are spiritually inspiring. I hope that we all can live a life fully dedicated to what we believe in.

Namo Buddha