To Zion

Friday, sept 27th (sukrawbaar)

I found out today that two people died in our area the night when the lightning was striking above us. That was some pretty terrifying real life stuff.

I, with some of the other trainees in Chhaap, ran into some tourists at the main bazaar area the other night. As they passed us we asked them in our Nepali children accents, "What tis  your name?" but I think they thought we were crazy. We think they were Aussies.

I got semi scolded again tonight for coming home late. This time I came home at 6:40pm. Oh nepal. I pretended like I didn't  know what they were saying to me when they said I should come home earlier, because I plan on coming home at about the same time tomorrow night.  Maybe I wasn't even pretending; who knows what they were actually saying to me. Maile bujhina!

This morning I woke up at 3:50am to get to the main office, aka the Hub Site, to use the Internet, to find that the Internet wasn't connected. We made it to the Hub at about 5:10am. The Internet didn't get connected until probably 6:30am. What a bummer that was. BUT I did take a shower there (a real shower!) with warm water (WARM water!!). Ah the simple things in life.

A greyish preying mantis fell on me today and I yelped like a little girl, which I kinda am so that's acceptable right? Just kidding, I'm a grown woman.... but I've been told I'm a hot mess and still a spaz. That title has been with me since elementary. 

And I still don't know what that really means but I'm crossing my fingers that people are laughing with me and not at me (you can lie to me if you need; spare me the broken heart).

Cold showers, warm beverages, stinky gas, flying bugs as toys= my new life.

Also, my current mailing address!

Christine Bora Lee

c/o US Peace Corps

PO BOX 15150

Kathmandu, Nepal

I'm getting pretty jealous of the postcards for the other volunteers, hint hint. ;) Miss you love you all!

Lastly, Last night I dreamt I was having dinner with my daddy. Then my mom came and gave him some rupiya (Nepali currency).   It was a nice dream. I love you dad.

And, I love you mom.

-Bora, aka sack.

Final update: my family has lice. Eggcellent!

Thursday

Thursday, September 26, beheebaar

Dogs, are just dogs.

I hate to use the word rape, but I gotta tell it like it is. I witnessed my dog get raped today. Remember when I said that nasty, black, sick looking street dog followed me into my house the other day (refer to my early post if not)? Well, it wasn't coming after me, but it was coming after our house dog, Popi.  As I'm coming down the stairs from my room today to leave for our training session in BagBazaar (a neighboring village), I see Popi getting raped by that giant nasty black street dog! I try to yell at it and scare it away but it doesn't work. I didn't know what to do cause I wasn't trying to pull it off and get bit. My Didi (big sister) then walks in from outside and sees the scene. She grabs a giant plank and smacks the dog on the back and tries to shoo it off. It tries to run off, but its wiener is stuck inside Popi. This was the most odd and saddest part. Poor Popi is yelping in pain and as the dog tries to run off, Popi is getting dragged behind him; they are butt to butt at this point, but this dog's weewee is stuck inside her! I couldn't stop staring. I had no idea what to do, which there was probably nothing I could do. The jeep was waiting for me so I had to leave and as I'm telling the rest of the trainees, two of the current volunteers tells me this happens all the time in some big cities.

Poor female dogs....

As for the rest of my day, I learned how to bake a cake inside a pressure cooker (hallelujah) and also got to eat Momos for the first time.  Lastly, the whole village (Chhaap) went on a freak out search for us five peace corps trainees who live here because we didn't get back from the main bazaars (Chautara) til 7pm. 

Yeah. 

My host family was on search and hunt mode and asking me why I'm coming home so late.

7pm.

I understand that it gets pretty dark by 7, but it was just too much. 

Anywho, it's just a different side of the world out here.

My belly hurts. I gotta go. 

Miss ya love you all!

-Bora

Wednesday

Wednesday (budhabaar), September 25, 2013

I'm full of bhat.

The title has nothing to do with this post, rather it's just how I'm feeling at the moment.  On a more serious note, one of the grandmothers in the village past away today.  She was a neighbor, and a host grandma to one of the peace corps staff members here in Chhaap (our village). I remember saying namaste to her a few times but other than that no real contact. I think it was the first dead body (covered with a sheet) I've ever walked past. It didn't hit me the way I thought it would. It didn't hit me at all, really. The community is very much effected by it however. The crying from inside the home was heart aching and supportive neighbors and friends looked exhausted. Tonight at dinner time we had two of the neighboring children dine with us as their mother was at the home of the grieving family. My host mom/big sister was out supporting the family all day as well that she didn't have enough time to prepare much for dinner, and so the seven of us ate mostly rice with a side of spinach and some tomato acharr. I ate a ton of rice, thus I am very full. 

Another PCT's host mom is out in the hospital with some serious stomach pains. My 15 year old sister didn't join us for dinner tonight as she was lying in bed as well.  I tried to ask what was wrong but I don't know enough Nepali to understand what they told me. She is definitely sick though, emotionally or physically I'm not sure but I'm guessing physically. She's such a badass girl. I hold a lot of admiration for her. I ran into her room today scared like a little child when two street dogs followed me inside the house (they were growling and definitely looked like they had rabies!). I told her, "bad dog bad dog!" in my crappy Nepali and she chased them out of the house and threw a rock at them as they growled and meandered down the street. Then, even in her poor state she ran out to the local shop and bought me some crackers for lunch. I felt bad that she went so far out of her way, but I was so thankful because I really was starving (and by starving I mean, "American who hasn't been fed lunch for a week").

Namaste my Loves, 

Bora

PS- I tried to get everyone to call me Bora, but I found out it means "sack" in Nepali, so I'm going by Christine.

Tuesday

Tuesday (mangalbaar), September 24, 2013

It's true.

I finally saw my first huge spider today. A lot of the other volunteers have been talking about them but I had yet to see one. Lucky for me it was inside my house on the staircase, just like back in San Jose, except this one is literally the size of hand (like my whole hand, fingers included). I was fascinated by it simply because it was so big but then I realized how fast it was too and that started making me nervous so left to my room. 

Last night was the craziest lightning, thunder, rainstorm I've yet to live through. I sound like I'm full of exaggerations in this post but I promise I'm not! The lightning was definitely striking within the mile if not half a mile if not right outside my room window. If I were meant to be struck by lightning, last night was the night. But you never know, tonight looks pretty promising as well. 

Last night there was also a dragonfly and a butterfly/moth(?) in my room. No wonder people sleep so early here; the bugs go batsh*t crazy over light bulbs. I was pretty tired, studying my Nepali, and was just gonna let them chill in my room but they kept flying in my face and running into everything all noisy so I caught the butterfly in a plastic bag and I grabbed the dragonfly by its wings. Impressive huh? it really wasn't too hard; they were asking for it. Plus, they were too big to feel ok with killing. 

I'm seriously making friends with daal bhat (the staple meal, literally translates to lentil rice) and cheeya (black tea). I'm starting to get used to it, but the no lunch part still throws me off and I can't function in the afternoon unless I gorge on biscuits, cookies, or donuts (all terms referring to the bland-ish Nepali versions, not American).

What else....?

I need to give a shout out to my mom in this one. I called her the other day with my high tech Nokia (I hope everyone is following my sarcasm throughout this blog) and the lovely woman was breaking down. I knew this adventure was going to be tough, but I didn't put in as much thought to how tough it was going to be for my loved ones back home, or the singular person that loves me the most, my mom. So, Mom, I just want you to know that I love you and am always praying for you and you don't have to worry about me because we're going to make it. I will survive! You will survive! And at the end, our perseverance will prove to both of us that we can make it through ANYTHING (and that is not sarcasm).

The greatest trial for me, besides the impoverished conditions that make daily living rough, is knowing I will be apart from my family and friends for so long. Regardless of the new places I get to see, the new people I get to meet, and the new experiences, I truly wish I could share them with you all back home, or simply be able to see you at some point in between the two years. With that said, anyone with travel plans to Southeast Asia or anywhere closer to Nepal than America (Europe, Australia, Middle East, wherever!), do let me know if there's a possibility we can make a trip happen together. 

Can't stress it enough, but I seriously miss and love you all. 

You know who you are.

-Bowa

Lopsee acharr ko swaad amilo chha tara ekdam miTho chha.

Saturday

Saturday, September 21, 2013

This last dance.   

Last night I spent about thirty minutes trying to kill a mosquito in my room. This frickin mosquito was so loud, buzzin up a storm. I think I killed it because the buzzin stopped. My bed was oddly comfortable last night, which was awesome. I think I was just really tired.  I've been having crazyyyy dreams every night for the past week. Last night I dreamt about playing field hockey at an indoor tournament. I woke up realizing how much I'm going to miss playing. I have yet to go two full years without playing since I was 13. Good luck to Ucsd field hockey this season. Bring in another 1st place! 

Today (Saturday) is our one day off of the week. Nepal as a country has six day work weeks. How did I get so lucky? 

But as some of the other trainees and I were discussing last night, we really did get quite lucky in terms of peace corps placement, and then the five of us in particular with our training village placement. The weathers been very nice thus far, the view is incredible, and our host families are great. Each of our rooms are pretty nice as well, compared to some of the horror stories we've heard. 

I've been getting used to the eating, in terms of eating with my hand, but the schedule still throws me off a bit. I eat crackers with tea early in the morning, Daal bhat (rice with lentils) at about 9-10am, I am supposed to catch a snack at a little after noon but I rarely do because of our training schedule, then sometimes tea at around 4 and dinner at 7-8pm. I like all the tea breaks but I get so hungry in the middle of the day and not so much when dinner is served. But when I think about it, the community we live in is an agricultural one, and so families are out and busy in the daytime tending to their animals and crops,which probably explains why they don't have time to prepare lunch.

This experience has been a truly unique one thus far. The lifestyle is so dramatically different from the one I've grown up in at home that at night I sometimes convince myself it's a dream. This might sound anti-uplifting, but sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night from a crazy, often uncomfortable, dream, and when I wake I expect to find the comfort of being at home, but then I realize I'm in some unfamiliar country and I go back to sleep unsettled. There's a lot about the lifestyle I once had that I never appreciated until now. 

I might not be able to post this until a couple days later (actually a week later), but who's keeping track of time anyways. I'm following two, maybe three, different calendars now just to make it that much more confusing. 

Miss you & love you,

Bora

Malaai Rosani bahini ko naam ekdam manparcha. 

Ps- to all who sent me anyway with the wonderful gifts I received, I want to let you know how useful everything has been. You are lifesavers! I would've never bought myself such nice quality stuff cuz I'm a cheapo, but my experience here has been upgraded in large part to all the gifts.

I can't thank you all enough <3

Pps- daal bhat makes for stinky gas.

Whoa

Whoa.

That's pretty much all I've been able to comprehend over the course of the past couple of days. It blows my mind to think I've been here for less than two weeks because everyday has been a journey in itself. 

Some clarifications of misconceptions a lot of people had before I left Cali:

1. The weather has been wonderful. I don't know the exact temperature, but if I were to guess I'd say mid 80's during the day and 70's at night (Fahrenheit). I'll say I'm still pretty nervous for the winter and the monsoon season. With only cold showers/bucket baths, I will be taking very few showers in the winter due to my incapability of handling the cold. And monsoon season sounds terribad. But, what can ya do but embrace what's to come I suppose.

2. To anyone considering joining the peace corps, be prepared to face any and all irrational anxieties/fears you may have. Such as.... Vaccinations/shots, giant bees, giant spiders, giant mosquitoes, cold showers, wiping your butt with your hand, motion sickness, any kind of sickness, getting hit by a truck/motorcycle/moving vehicle, snakes, little kids taking all your cool little toys, eating the same meal for every meal every day (for two years...fml), etc etc. 

Funny/interesting encounters so far:

1. My little sisters found my tampon while rummaging through my things and asked me what it was. I told them it was a pen. But then they opened it and were very confused. I didn't want to explain the real purpose, especially because when women are on their period in this culture, they are thought of as jutho, a.k.a. Untouchable a.k.a. Impure/gross.  Great.

2. I saw monkeys.

3. I ate a fried giant bee, and it tasted amazing. Just like a salty chip.

Notes:

1. Aerin, if you're reading this, I think you broke my toilet. Curse you.

2. I have a toilet and a shower head! This is pretty damn lucky, but I'm nervous for when I get assigned my permanent assignment and have to readjust to using a charpi (squat toilet) and a bucket shower. Oh we'll I'm living the dream right now.

3. I'm living with a SWL fam right now (if you know what I mean). I have 4 bahinis (little sisters), who are 15, 11, 8, and 8 years old. There is also a nini (grandma), didi/bhaauju (older sister), bahje (grandpa), and a bunch of other little kids that run in and out of our house and I'm not sure if they're related to me or not. My daai (older brother/head of the house) is in the big city working as a bus driver but will come back in a month.

4. I never ever finish all my bhat (rice) because they feed me a ginormous amount, but I get to feed it to the chickens or the dog. There's a dog named popi. He's aight. 

5. We drink tea all the time. 

7. The view outside my room window makes it all worth it.

8. These hikes are no joke, which I appreciate but I'm nasty sweaty all the time.

9. Sleepy bora conquers all. I've accomplished to fall asleep in a 5 person class on the second and third day consecutively. Sorry teach.

There's so much more to update you on but I could never write everything Ive experienced. i will say it really is sinking in that this is my new life, at least for two whole years. I have to avoid giant mud puddles for that long? Holy balls!

Ps- hi Jacob :)! (Too soon?) 

Miss you and love you all! Pheri bhetaulaa satiharu. 

Day 3

Hi there,

Today is the end of day 3 in Baktapur, Nepal. We've mostly been stuck on the training compound, but with good reason. Yesterday our training manager took most of G200 out on the street right outside our compound to do some shopping for soap and a volleyball. That was a huge eye opener on what we've all just committed ourselves to. The views were out of this world, from the perspective of a girl who grew up in California her whole life, but I definitely almost got hit by a car about 20 times. The roads are a real life Frogger video game and I'm Frogger, without the multiple lives. I began to feel very thankful we won't be stationed in a big city (or so I think).

Here are some pictures.

PS- I really enjoy the food.

PSS-I'm getting the hang of eating with my hand and doing about everything with my hands.

Gross?

Arrival

Namaste!

After about 23 hours of being on a plane, not including time spent during layovers, G200 (group 200) has finally arrived to Nepal, our new home for the next 27 months, or 2 years and 3 months. There's a final total of 27 volunteers including me. We all met each other for the first time in San Francisco on Sept. 5th for Staging, a.k.a. Orientation, and flew out of SFO together the next morning. 

Saying goodbyes was weird. Watching our plane grow farther and farther away from San Francisco was weirder. It wasn't until that moment that I felt the most anxious about the new commitment I've made. I saw my home grow smaller and smaller and thought, "I'm not coming back for over 2 years?!?" Miniature freak out moment.

Our first layover was in Tokyo, Japan, for only about two hours. This airport gave me such a hard time! First, I forgot I packed my Swiss Army knife and pepper spray in my undies bag in my carry on, so when going through security they confiscated them. Great, now I'm left to my solid punches for defense. This was also peculiar because I got through security in San Francisco just fine. Interesting huh? Then when I was about to board the aircraft, the lady collecting boarding passes refused to let me on because she said I had too many things. I had pulled out my laptop case from my backpack so it looked as if I had three carry on items. Luckily she looked around for assistance but everyone was busy, and I was holding up the line, so she said, "eff it" and let me go. 

Tokyo, you've lost some coolness in my book.

Our next layover was in Bangkok, Thailand. We landed at about 11pm on Saturday and so we spent the night at a nearby Best Western hotel and flew out the next morning. We had barely any time that night so I didn't walk around, plus I wanted to take advantage of one last shower and free wifi. The hotel was faaaaaaaancy (thanks Peace Corps!) and the complementary breakfast the next morning was pretty great. To be honest, being in Bangkok aroused anxiety in me.  The place was so foreign, we didn't know the language, and I was thinking a lot about all the friends and family I left behind. 

The next morning we flew to Kathmandu, Nepal. As we began our descent, my emotions once again flipped 180 from the previous night. Nepal looked beautiful, and it was exciting to finally see the place I've been reading about for the past 4 months; my new home. We were ushered into a VIP room at the airport and shook hands with the ambassador and met the country director of our program. We took a bunch of photos and went on our way to the training site. It was all pretty surreal, and very exciting. 

So, currently it's 4am and I can't sleep anymore. The mosquitoes are very good about stealing my blood, and I took my first squat toilet poop this morning. I'll be real with you all, and for my homies in the States, you can't poke fun at me! But there's no toilet paper so the other volunteers and I are all learning how to clean ourselves with a bucket of water and our left hand. :) am I still datable? I hope so. 

We're pretty frickin lucky here with wifi and showers, so we're taking advantage of it, or I am at least. Gotta go back to studying some Nepali. Love and miss you all back home.

Ma Ali Ali Maatra Nepali bolchhu. 

Namaskar,

Bora