Today is a rainy Saturday in Manpur, Dang. It is monsoon season, which I was told was
going to entail rainy nights and sunny-ish days, however this season has been
playing out differently than most years, the villagers have said. The rain was expected to begin in June, yet
most of June was very hot and dry. Now
that the rain has started to make its way through our part of the country, it
is still less of a downpour than what was expected. However, today after 11am
the rain has been consistent. As it is
my “weekend”, or one day off, it’s been very nice and calming hearing the rain
outside my room while I relax and read my book.
Sweet segway Bora.
What book am I reading you ask? It’s a book I purchased while on
vacation in Cambodia, and the title is “first they killed my father”. It is a memoir of one child’s account of what
happened to her and her family during the Khmer Rouge regime and genocide of
the Cambodian people. During this period
of time, around 2 million people died, out of a total population of 8 million
people. I’m almost finished with the book (plan on finishing it today), and I
must say, it is quite the emotional ride. Her story is powerful and the events
her and her family endured and survived through are beyond my imagination. If
you are in need or curious of a reality check on genocide, I recommend this
book strongly.
Now, back to Nepal. I heard word of a school settled just
1-2 kilometers behind my home that houses orphans of the People’s War that
occurred in Nepal just a few years back.
This morning I decided to pay the school a visit and introduce myself to
the staff and students there. There are
about 400 students residing at the school, and when I showed up there were kids
playing soccer, doing, laundry cooking, eating, and farming. They were scattered and running around busy
all over the place. I was very impressed
and quite overwhelmed at all the work that needed to be done around the school
in order for it to function effectively, but overall the children seemed quite
settled in. The school opened up 5 years
ago and has a staff of 15 teachers. I
sat with a group of about 25-30 teenage girls and compared life in America to
life in Nepal for them. They asked me to
sing America’s national anthem, but after my first attempt my voice cracked, I
got shy, and bailed out. I ask them to sing me the Nepali national anthem. This was quite a magical moment in my life as
all 25-30 young ladies began singing their country’s anthem with pride and in
unison. It was amazing!! I applauded and
gawked with astonishment at how beautiful they all sang. They pressured me to sing America’s national
anthem once more, and I made it through the song half way until I stumbled on a
line and started laughing at myself.
They responded with warmth. Then
they told me to dance, and then I left haha.
However, I left on the promise that I would return and dance not FOR
them, but WITH them.
Lastly, an update on the poop status. Knock on wood, but everything has been going
pretty well nowadays in that department of my life. I think I’ve swallowed my fair share of
bacteria finally and my body has adapted to most of the diarrhea-causing
particles in the food and water I eat.
Still gotta be careful around the chowmein down the street and the goat
meat at weddings though.
Additionally, today I have been a mosquito killing machine,
thank you, thank you, yes, I am quite proud of myself. The house, charpi (squat toilet), and
bathroom are all densely populated with mosquitoes these days, but I think the
house mosquitoes are tired of my blood and have gotten used to my company. I don’t get eaten up as badly as I used to.
Yippee!
<3 Everything is going well on my side of the world. I hope everyone I know and love is taking
care of themselves out there!
Sincerely,
Da stink aka bora
