Calm, rainy day

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