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

Gorgeous Scenes and Jungle Steams

It's hard to believe we haven't even been here for 2 weeks! We've seen, explored, and tasted so many new things already. Thankfully, we still appear to be healthy despite some of the worrisome things we've consumed. Our experiments with cooking for ourselves are looking more and more positive, and the best part is that we just bought 20 lbs. of produce for the equivalent of  $5.5! We've also been practicing our Nepali with teachers, students, and friends. We are finally able to decipher the once foreign sounds and pick out a couple words from conversation. The good news is that we have 8 1/2 months left to learn!

Nepali girl tending to her goats. This is only a 15 minute walk from home! In a couple weeks we should be able to see the Himalayas from here.

Another gorgeous day in banepa.

The women here are superheros! They make food for the entire family, clean the house, do the laundry, take care of the kids... Oh and they work in the fields all day with 50-100 lb. baskets that they strap to their forehead. Needless to say, Elliott and I feel pretty weak in comparison.

This year we are based in Banepa, but we will be doing a lot of traveling to more remote villages to do various types of outreach. Last Sabbath was our first village trip. Elliott went to the village of Capin and I went to Kosideka.
We started the morning an hour later than planned for the 2.5 hour bus ride. We crowded onto a local bus with about 30 too many people inside. Naturally, every person in the bus had to stare at the American giant clumsily towering a foot over their heads. We were glad to have a relatively uneventful ride to the end of the bus route where we proceeded to walk for another 2 hours to get to Kosideka. While walking down the trail I went to take a picture of this mud and bamboo shack only to realize that it was the Kosideka church. We had a great time at the church in Kosideka but had to leave in a rush to catch the bus home. Somehow the village kids figured out that the huge pair of shoes outside the church belonged to the American, so they filled them with a parting gift of dirt clods! We hiked out a different way than we had come. This time, we were in for a HOT and SWEATY hike out through the jungle. When we finally made it to the bus stop, we were stoked to end up on the same bus as Elliott and the Capin group! We all shared our snacks and told stories about our adventures.

The Kosideka Church

Kosideka Girls

The hot and humid hike out with my buddy Alex.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully the next post should have some pics of the school kids!!

We have arrived, and I must say that Nepal is probably one of the greatest places in the world!

 Arriving in Kathmandu was an unreal experience. Despite the big, polluted, and crowded city, I found the place strangely addicting. The driving is insane (but very enjoyable with a local driver)! In the picture above we have what looks to be an alley. However, it proved to be a 4 lane road instead! On the drive to our home in Banepa we saw cows on the highway, scooters with 4 people on them, and public buses with goats tied to the roof.

 We arrived at our apartment in Banepa and were greeted with beautiful views of the rice fields and the Himalayan foothills. I have to say that I am going to love calling this place home for the next year!
The people here are amazing. Many people in around the town will greet you with folded hands, a smile, and "Namaste". Most of the children love to practice their English on us. Some shyly wave their hands as we pass them on the street, while others may shout from windows in their homes or schools: "Hi! Where are you from?". We've also been blessed to have made some local friends our age that have been kind enough to show us around town and take us on hikes.

The town of Banepa. The Brownish building on the right is our apartment, the long red roofed building is Scheer Memorial Hospital, and the other red roof next to the pine tree is Esa Memorial School.

We had our first full day of school today. The kids call us Andrew Sir and Elliott Sir. They are probably the coolest kids I've ever met, and they absolutely have a blast at school. When one of the teachers was asking questions, kids were so excited to give answers that they would jump out of their desks, run to the front of the room, and shout answers at the teacher's face! We've also had a blast playing football (soccer) and basketball with them. There are already a thousand great stories to tell and just as many pictures of the kids, so I'll have to save that for another blog post.


While all of these great things are going on, Elliott and I have still found ourselves in a completely foreign land. Every day we are learning more about Nepali culture, we are exploring new places, trying new foods, and most importantly trying to stay alive! We discovered throughout this process that we say some pretty funny/naive things. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to share a "quote of the day" as often as possible. We hope you enjoy.

Me- "Elliott, what was that noise?"
Elliott- "That's the sound of my body running on rice!"

Hey friends and family,

My friend Elliott Berger and I are grateful to have somehow found ourselves away from school and on our way to Nepal as SMs this year. I've created this little blog to help document our adventures and hopefully entertain you. Thanks for checking it out!