On to the next one

Hi everyone,


On November 3rd, 2015, I officially took a one way ticket out of the mountainous country of Nepal.

I've both triumphed and failed on many occasions over the last two years living in Nepal as a Peace Corps Volunteer. There were days where I felt fully alive, like when I found myself standing under a beautiful starry sky in a jungle in Nepal, and other days when I felt truly alone. I've pushed myself to my limits and beyond, and by doing so I understand better where I have limitations and where I thrive.

I am afraid and excited to return home. I am curious to see what will flower over the next few years. Nevertheless I am excited to be near familiar loved ones, and hopefully stay nearby for some time.

As I wrap up this "new journey", the road continues. Thank you for spending time to come here and read what I had to share about my experience. If possible, let's spend some time together and catch up on one another's stories.


With love,

Christine Bora Lee

So I ride

I've lost the use of my heart
But I'm still alive
Still looking for the life
The endless pool on the other side
It's a wild wild west
I'm doing my best

I'm at the borderline of my faith,
I'm at the hinterland of my devotion
In the frontline of this battle of mine
But I'm still alive.

EEEskuurt

My time in Nepal is rapidly coming to a close… sort of. Lots of uncertainty still left in the game with a fuel blockade on the India-Nepal border, causing a major shortage of petrol for vehicles and the potential for me to be flown to Kathmandu a bit earlier than originally planned. Eagerly waiting to hear the verdict, and so is my host-family with Dashain (like Christmas for Hinduism) coming up.

In the meantime, I’ve applied to my first job for my return! I’m looking into a few other postings and hopefully will be unemployed for only a short amount of time when I get back (in December—I bought my plane ticket home too!).

Onto the meaty stuff, my reflection:

As much as an over-analyzer and over-thinker I am--a quality I became aware of a few years back—I am finally taking steps to counteract it, or handle it in a more feel-good way. I’ve become largely aware of the fearlessness and confidence Nepalese people carry (most of them). Situations I often panic and stress over they mosey on through. When I think, plan plan plan! They think, I got this. And I’m starting to find a better, more comfortable balance between cautiousness and recklessness. Regardless of where it’s rooted from, I’ve been a “better safe than sorry” kinda gal for a long time, and I’m beginning to see the value and potential gains of taking more risks. It’s still scary, but I’m reassured by the rollercoaster this journey has been and I believe the truth in the saying, “We win some and we lose some”. Whatever happens, it doesn’t end there and we got to keep on rolling the dice and playing the game.

Today in and of itself was a roller coaster. Had some good moments (ate a Fiber One bar) and some bad moments (got nearly completely trampled on the bus) then another good moment (ate a boiled egg) then some more bad moments (tried to apply to a job then the internet cut out and lost my whole application then got stuck in the rain waiting for the bus) then some more good moments (made it home and finished my job application!) and now my butt is on my bed in shorts ready for sleep (a good moment) while the ants infiltrate my room (…yeah).

Anywho… the journey continues. On to the next one.

Love,

Bora

From 22 to 25

I’ve celebrated three birthdays while serving in Nepal and went from 22 to 25 years old. I’m whelmed with reflection thinking back at how Nepal has given me a place to evolve and grow. I’ve learned so much over the past two years and gained a bucketful of new memories—some interesting, scary, frustrating, defeating, breathtaking, meditative, amazing—all with exclamation marks.

I want to give thanks to everyone who’s supported me. To all who’ve sent me off with gifts, mailed a care package(s), sent letters, phone calls, words of kindness or thoughtful messages, you have all carried me to here. Whether our friendship is new or old, long or brief, I’m thankful for our relationship, and I’ll live to pass the love and kindness forward.

So, during my moment of introspection I reflected upon these life lessons learned.

1.       Take risks

We can only gain what we risk to take. It’s a phrase so easy to say, and so difficult to do sometimes. I’m not saying to gamble all your money away or go bungee jumping, but I believe there is much to gain from challenging yourself and building practice by taking one small risk every day. I’m neither saying the risk will always pay off. But by putting something you earnestly care for on the line—money, effort, time, your heart or your happiness—you invest in the outcome and it may make life that much more vibrant and meaningful.  

2.       Be vulnerable

 This goes alongside taking risks. Personally I have a knee-jerk reaction to vulnerability to always do the opposite. It’s frightening to let yourself open up to humiliation or heartache, yet, a life lived behind closed doors is not very fun either. Walls, too, can be important to have and it may not be wise to open up to everyone you meet, however, I believe life will find wholeness when you find ways to connect and to embrace vulnerability.

3.       Love yourself

 The two ideas above are easiest to do when paired with a deep, deep love for yourself. I’m not talking about a love based on selfishness or domination—the kind where others need to be lowered in order for you to feel higher. I’m talking about taking the love you have for your mother, father, best friend, role model or someone you admire, and seeing yourself in the same light. Treating yourself and believing in yourself the way you treat and believe in those you love, and anchoring that love towards you.

Shout out to all the Virgos, September babies, and September 11^th babies! Happiest birthdays to my partners!!!

Less than two months left in Nepal. The bittersweetness of another big life transition is underway.

Thank you all again for the well wishes on my birthday. I had an amazing day.

lovelovelove,

Christine Bora Lee

Chain of Fools

"May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy."

-http://www.upmoments.com/she-tells-her-grandma-that-shes-just-been-cheated-on/

The Safest Place

August 23^rd, 2015

I have been bouncing around hotels in Kathmandu for the past week, quietly searching for meaning and fulfillment for my days as the political protests and road closures continue throughout the country. Seven volunteers, including I, have been unable to return to our villages because of these road closures, or bandhs. Overall I’ve done a decent job of keeping busy and making the best out of my time, but today left me a little cracked. Anxiety about the road ahead—life beyond Peace Corps service—continues to rise to the surface and my life as a villager recedes to memory the longer I stay out of site. I find myself floating around in a murky sense of being.

I’m hopeful everything will work out. In the meantime I’m doing my best to tread through another life transition coming up very soon, full of important decisions and open doors, with a longing for guidance. 

At home in the world.

About an hour and a half ago I arrived back into Nepal after taking three weeks of vacation days traveling through Singapore, Malaysia and a bit of Thailand. Taking a deep breath, I'm trying to prepare myself and ease back into the lifestyle of my home in Nepal. 

A very brief summary of my trip (and feel free to comment or message me with questions if you are planning to visit any of these stops):

1. Singapore: Excellent public transportation, yummy and affordable street food and kaya spread is the sh*t, hotel/hostels are pricey but I recommend Green Kiwi on Lavender as a hostel option (~$25/night), Gardens by the Bay (at night) is beautiful, and Wednesdays is Girls Night Out (discounted/free drinks and entry at many bars). I was very sick for most of my time here, but the toilets around the country are of great quality :) .

2. Malaysia:
         a. Malacca/Melaka: I recommend taking the river cruise or walking along the river to see the art against the building walls, Jonker's Night Market on weekends has good street food and souvenirs, and poh piah lwee for nyonya food.
         b. Penang: My friend Jewels and I went to the Penang National Park which I recommend. Entry was free and there are many cool day hikes. Georgetown has lots of interesting street art and culture. We stayed at Roommates hostel which was in a great location and had great showers!
         c. Kuala Lumpur: The Petronas Towers are impressive. 
         d. Kuching: Very relaxed and easy-going with yummy street food in Chinatown. One of my favorite stops in Malaysia. There are many day trips out to nature from Kuching.

3. Thailand (Bangkok): Food food food I can't believe how much food exists here. Ayutthaya was beautiful (take time to ride a bike through the city) and the boat ride through amphawa floating market was fun. 

I will be in Kathmandu for a few days as there are bandhs, or road closures due to political protests and rallies throughout the country in opposition of decisions made in writing the country's constitution. In less than two weeks I will return to Kathmandu from Dang to attend my Close of Service (COS) conference, where the volunteers in my group, G200, and I will begin the end of our service: our last three months. 

My last day of service is on November 6th, 2015.  

All we do is plant rice rice rice no matter what

daalbhaat

If only I could portray all the sights, feelings, sounds, emotions, scents, and sweat of the transition from California, USA to Dang, Nepal.  If only I could give you all a virtual tour of everything I've seen and experienced in the past few days.  Jumping back into village after a semi-long break in the States has been a wild ride.  My naniharu are walking and gabbering a storm when just the other day in May she wasn't even potty trained enough to avoid pooping in front of the home.

Coming back to earthquake ridden Nepal is very different from the Nepal I knew before April 25th.  Tourists are no longer to be found and NGOs have popped up tents all over parts of the country.  

The destruction of my former village where I lived during my pre-service training back in 2013 (wow I'm old) is a different place now.  NGO tents are scattered in the little spaces between corn fields and schools, and most families are now living in temporary shacks nearby their former homes.  It's tough stuff to bare witness to, but the spirit of the villagers are still alive, and that is a great feeling.  My former neighbors and family continue to force upon me tea and chiso (soda) and food even though I came back to visit with the intent to be of aid to them.  They continue to badger me that I've only come for a few hours and not for the night, and the next time I visit I must sleep over.  I'm grateful for the offer, and before the earthquake I would have made sure I kept my promise, but now I am compromised by the fact that they are burdened with living in a shack and that they may overwhelm themselves in the attempt to please an American with their wooden beds.  

The monsoon season has begun before my arrival.  When I pulled up to my home in Dang, the surrounding area was lush, muddy and beautiful.  My room is swollen with insects (and a rat that took the pleasure of sleeping in my bed while I was gone).  All is different, yet wildly familiar.  It's a fascinating feeling to feel at home in two very different parts of the world.  In my opinion, two completely different worlds, in fact. 


Keep in touch, 

Bora

No Looking Back

I've been toiling this past week over what I want to write as a "good-bye America/return to Nepal" post.  Ideas have sparked in my mind and fizzled away as soon as I begin to formulate my thoughts onto (digital) paper.

I want to come across as "articulate enough" and not "sound like a dodo head".  But on the real, I have some real life attention problems and small obsessive habits that stumble me often (as well as an extremely temperamental short-term memory).  But... that's besides the point.  That's my warning to you, reader, as I finally get some thoughts across today.

Returning home has been a blessing in many ways.  I was able to witness the Golden State Warriors rise to a NBA championship title for the first time since 1975 (we been waiting for this!), I ate free and delicious homemade Korean food almost everyday, and (TMI, but...) I had the most solid poop I've ever had in a long while.

Concerning the Warriors, I was elated to find out that no matter how long the finals series went, I would be home for game 7 if needed.  Then I was even more thrilled to watch the game 6 victory and know that the celebratory parade in Oakland will be held on my last day in the United States before I leave to Nepal.

I woke up this Friday morning early, before my alarm went off at 7am, feeling energized and well-rested.  I was all ready to go out and celebrate with all of the Bay Area, yet despite this, I've made the decision to stay home today. 

I woke up this morning with a change in spirit, and a very realistic sense of grace and thanksgiving.  I woke up realizing that I've spent the last five weeks at home in more turmoil with my family than I ever felt before.  And it's unfair to them. When I landed in America on May 10th, my brother was there to pick me up from the airport.  My mother prepared for me a bed to sleep in, cleaned the home, and continuously cooked food throughout my stay.  I woke up realizing that today may be the last moments I share with my mother and brother, and that they have been the few, if not the only, constants in my life during this time of great uncertainty.

I've had my moments of joy, celebration and laughter while I've been home, however I remember all the moments of frustration, anger, and pain just as well.  In my times of pain, I know I had the ability to cause pain in others, especially to those who are close to me, such as my mother and brother.  Yet, no matter how much turmoil I/we created for each other, they never once doubted themselves in their sacrifices and care of me.  This is why today, I decided there is no place I'd rather be (not even the Warriors victory parade) than getting brunch with my mother, dinner with my brother, and spending some last moments of quiet and rest in the home that provided me shelter from the heat, rain, and especially the cold.  

As I sit here, a heavy reflection washed over me reminding me tomorrow is never promised.  We are undeserving of such a promise.  Tomorrow may never come, so why wait to do tomorrow what we have the opportunity to do today?  

So, what have I learned?  Love God, be loving to each other (that means giving and receiving love), and always try to be only yourself (once you have a good idea of who that may be).  Prioritize your values so that you can prioritize the goals you want to accomplish and the time you spend in your efforts to achieve that goal.  Find humility in your sacrifices.  You don't have to be perfect; being good enough will do.  And America/California, walk around once in a while, and enjoy it!

One love, 
Bora

Here We Are

On May 10^th, 2015, I arrived home in California.  Peace Corps volunteers and trainees have been temporarily evacuated from Nepal due to the great seismic activity that destroyed many homes and took many lives, and continues to shake the Himalayan country today.  Please continue to pray for those who still mourn the loss of their friends and family members, as well as all the families still without shelter.

Since being home, I’ve been chanting to myself to take life “one day at a time”.  How important a simple phrase has been in guiding me throughout this crazy journey we call life (jivan).  Every single day has been different.  Every new or repeated thought in my head takes me down a different road of feeling. 

This past weekend I made a loop of the Bay Area.  This area, so familiar yet still so mysterious to me, is full of culture, inspiration and excitement.  This is an area I’ve identified with all my life.  It’s where I was born and raised and refer to as home.  This is why I find it so incredible that a mere 20 months living in Nepal has changed so sharply my perspective of “home”.  There has and still is a part of my heart that longs for a life lived in this area.  There is so much left here for me to discover, explore, EAT, and strive for. 

Yet, when I walked into my physical house after a (more than) relaxing weekend, I felt a pang in the other side of my heart—a side that didn’t exist until the past few years.  My best friend in Nepal will turn three years old in a month, and today I crave her company.  I miss being her auntie, as well as the few but very strong relationships I built with some incredible people in Nepal. 

And still yet, although I know I will most likely be able to return to Nepal on June 20^th, I’m anxious, which I hope others can understand.  I mean, unfortunately I’m not very thrilled to get dropped off into a life of cold baths, crammed buses, and moldy sheets all over again.  I’m anxious that once I begin to gain a sense of acclimation to California, I will find myself needing to readjust back to a much more devastated world. 

I’m learning, I’m challenged, and I own a greater understanding of gratitude.  I’m honored and thankful.  Here I am—a part of my heart here, a part of my heart there—a little stuck in the middle of somewhere. One day at a time. 

Loss of control. Letting go of control.

The past couple of days, if not all of the past 21 months I’ve been living in Nepal, has taught me a lot about control.  In American society, having control over one’s situation, circumstances, means of living, money, career, family, etc. is something valued and desired.  Western culture I believe idealizes a sense of control over one’s life—the security in the knowledge that you know what will happen tomorrow and what consequences or rewards are paired with certain actions.

Living in Nepal and working for the Peace Corps has shown me how little control one really possesses over one’s own life.  The struggles that come with uncertainty vary from trivial to significant.  Will I have something to eat tomorrow? Will I be hungry tomorrow or overfed? Will I be able to complete my work tomorrow or will the weather disrupt my plans? Will I be stressed? Bored? Happy? Content? Lazy? Overworked? Lonely? Depressed? Busy?

I never realized to what extent I value ownership and control over what happens in my life until I began my life here.  And although I still enjoy the moments when things work out “according to plan”, I’m beginning to learn how to accept, even embrace, the fact of life that no matter how far in advance I prepare and how well I plan out my life, my life is not my own.  I am not the sole writer of my life.  I will not be able to predict where I die, how I die, whom I marry, if I get married, where I will live, what I will do as a career, what I’ll eat tomorrow. 

So in a sense, it’s not as much as a loss of control, because I never really owned it in the first place, but letting go of control.

An American villager's account of the past few days

On Friday, April 24th, I woke up at 5am and left my home at 6am to walk over to Tulsipur bazaar, a somewhat large market area roughly 6.5 kilometers from my village.  

It was a beautiful walk between homes, across a dried out river, through a forest, and ends in a beautiful and green clearing before reaching the bazaar area. I usually enjoy such walks, but this time of year is much hotter and drier than other seasons, and although I left my home in the wee hours of the morning I was pretty tired once I reached my destination.

I met with a Nepalese woman whom I often collaborate with on projects, and after we ate breakfast together we hurriedly left to our first village of three spots we had to make that day.  I didn't realize how dehydrated I was until after we left for the bus, not realizing I had gulped down more than half of my water bottle.

After our bus ride we had to walk roughly another 40 minutes to reach the community women's meeting.  By the time we reached out destination, I was very tired. I began to doze off a bit during the meeting, but afterwards we stopped by a villager's home where the young housewife fed us tea and crackers.  It was a much needed and delightful treat. 

We walked the same distance back and beyond and grabbed a coke cola at a local shop.  I chugged the drink as I was feeling very tired and dehydrated.  We reached our second destination shortly after and I was still dehydrated but had no more water left.  Although it is not safe for foreigners to drink the local water, I prayed for safe tummy travels and filled my water bottle up with the local well water before we left for our third and final destination of the day.

As we set off again on foot the weather had dramatically cooled off.  This felt like a real treat as the sweltering heat of the morning through midday was very exhausting.  However, moments after we reached our final village, lightning and thunder began to roll in the distance.  We got the work done we intended, creating the beginning stages of a nursery farm for trees and monitoring the construction of two new wells, but as we thought to set off back to the main road the rain began to pour.  We found shelter in a local villager's home and decided to wait out the rain before heading back as we were an hour's way away from the main road.  

Quickly the rain turned into hail. The hail then turned into very large balls of hail, maybe 1-2 inches in diameter! This was the first time I've seen ice in a while and it excited me, except for the fact that this would mean we might have to sleep in this village for the night. I began to doze off in the dark room I was sitting in and woke to the family serving us tea.  Soon after the family quickly prepared a meal for us.  It was a beautiful gesture and sign of hospitality often found in these remote villages.  The family spoke in a local dialect known as tharu, in which I've only learned how to say "hello" and "tasty!" so I couldn't communicate with them much.  

We peeked outside and found that the rain was beginning to thin out, so we made a game time decision to try and make a break for the main road.  One of the ladies of the house borrowed umbrellas from her neighbors for us to use and walked with us up to a swing bridge she knew of as she predicted we would not be able to walk out the same way we came in because the river water will have risen from the heavy rains.  She was right.  This detour we had to take to the swing bridge was much longer than we predicted, and we had to walk through a shallower end of the river to get to the larger swing bridge.  The walk was difficult to say the least, but after we crossed the bridge the kind lady took the umbrellas but let me wear her shawl which was wrapped around me as she knew I would be cold the rest of the way.  I promised to return the shawl the next day and she began her journey back to her own village by herself.  

After the bridge, our journey was not complete. I had to take off my flip flops and walk barefoot through the muddy substance that used to be the road, mixed with debris, rocks, and poop of all sorts.  The shawl wrapped around me and over my head was quickly getting soaked through as the rain began to pick up speed.  After approximately another 50 minutes-1 hour of walking in the rain and lots of mental exercise, we made it to the main road.  

I caught a ride to finish my journey home, but along the way I passed a tree up in flames.  As I was approaching the tree I thought, "who would light this tree on fire in the middle of a storm?", but quickly realized with the background lightning and thunder that a lightning bolt must have struck the tree.  The branches were ablaze and a large crack was noticeable through the center.  The next morning the tree was still burning, however all the branches were burned through and it was merely a stump.  

April 25th, the next day at approximately 11am the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal in/around lamjung district.  

Peace Corps volunteers are all on stand-fast since the earthquake, meaning no travel within the country.  Large aftershocks and tremors are still being felt.  Many Nepali families have moved their beds outside to sleep in fear of the danger of their homes collapsing in the middle of the night.

All in all, it's been a wild past couple of days and there has been a lot of destruction, but lots of luck as well.  All Peace Corps staff, volunteers, and trainees in country have been accounted for and are safe; quite lucky considering the circumstances.  

I am safe and unharmed and so is my host-family and village.  Thank you all for keeping in touch! 


With love,
Bora

a real blog post :O

It's been a while since I've posted a decent size post. Here's a (hopefully) fuller account of life, events and passing thoughts:

1. Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World): The volunteers in Dang district and I got together and put on a Camp GLOW project for a total of 25 girls ages 12-16 (5 girls from each volunteer's village).   The program was conducted in conjunction with a local NGO, WOREC (Women's Rehabilitation Center).  The camp was over five days and the themes of the days were Empowerment, Health, (Women's) Development, and Careers (but ended up being more like a Personal Development day).  The camp was held from April 6-10th, 2015, and was a great success. The sessions were taught by WOREC facilitators while many of the activities were conducted by Peace Corps Volunteers.  Thank you to all who donated financially to this project (as it was funded via a PCPP grant, which requires donations from friends and families).  Being a part of this process was one of the most fulfilling experiences I've had in Nepal, and perhaps in all my life, as I was a firsthand witness of the joy and change being created within our participants and the Nepalese staff we worked alongside with.  This project reminded me of the once in a lifetime opportunity I have here to directly work with people who are beyond deserving.  

2. Tibet:  On the morning of April 28th, I'll be headed out in a jeep (or microbus) up into the Himalayan mountains and over to Tibet!  I'll be going with a group of 10 other Peace Corps volunteers in my group and 2 persons from the States.  We'll be returning to Nepal on May 7th.  I just finished watching Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt and am re-invigorated to see the temples and bazaars of Tibet.  On the way back to Nepal our tour will make a trip to Mount Everest Base Camp (from the Tibetan side of the mountain).  I'm excited to get up and into the mountains! Wish me warmth and I'll try to take clear photos to share.  

3.  Village Life:  For the past 1-2 weeks, village life has been oddly different.  Not much has changed in terms of the way my host-family interacts with me, but I feel I've changed the way I interact with my host-family. I feel I've been more irritable, less patient and ultimately less kind.  I witness myself act this way and try to compel myself to act differently, but upon interaction I fall back into these automatic ways.  A part of me sees this as me becoming more integrated into the family, perhaps literally feeling comfortable enough with them to be me (flaws and all), but another part of me wishes I could regain the decency a guest has inside someone else's home.  Because, as much as I've been told I'm a daughter to this family, I will always be somewhat of a guest.  I come from a different country and I can't speak fluently with the family members as they can to each other.  Language barriers cause me to be suspicious of laughter and whispered words at times.  "Are they laughing at me or at something I said?".  I will be leaving for Tibet soon, but when I come back to village afterwards I hope my mental and emotional state becomes reawakened with more joy and less irritation.  

4.  A Farmer's Life:  It's the time of year when farmers must harvest their wheat, meaning there is a lot of work to be done.  The wheat must be cut and bundled meanwhile keeping the goats and other nearby livestock away from eating it and hoping that the rain doesn't pour to ruin the crops.  In my host-family, my host-mother did most of this work solo.  On Nepali Mother's Day, I spent an hour of my day cutting the wheat with my host-mother, and it was tough!  Together in that one hour we might have accomplished cutting about a half of a half of a half of a plot of land, and our home own four full plots of land full of wheat.  My host-mother woke up early the next morning to cut more wheat and finished all four plots of land in the next day and a half.  Afterwards, host-mama walked around the village (side note: it's in between 95-100 F nowadays) gathering cow poop and smoothed over a 20x20 ft area of land where the wheat will be harvested. The laborious life of a farmer caught my heart and attention.  I wanted to help her in some way, but I struggled with thinking, "How can I, someone who's grown up in a city in California all my life, help these farmers with the skill set that I possess?"  Perhaps to honor and respect each other is a first step.  

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! It's always a weird feeling when an American holiday passes by here with barely a mention on these streets.

Us volunteers in Dang (besides Nekeia :P ) are working on a girls' empowerment camp which officially begins tomorrow and goes for 5 days.  Wish us luck!! I'll try to post an update on how the camp goes once we're done.

Woof.

-Bora

A quote

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

-Miriam Beard

Jack and John saving the day

I ate some sort of special dutch waffle today-that was nice.  I'm spending the day relaxing and working in Kathmandu before I leave for village tomorrow.  This morning I was able to enjoy a farmer's market held in a restaurant near my hotel (that's where I got the cool waffle).  It's always a pleasure to take part, even if I can't afford much of the merchandise.  The atmosphere is worth the time spent.

I so luckily got to spend a week with the newly arrived group of volunteers (N202) and co-facilitated trainings on topics such as sexual assault, unwanted attention, gender considerations, and stereotypes of Americans in Nepal.  It was a joy to spend time with the Peace Corps Nepalese staff and help answer any questions the new trainees had.

An interesting paradox I find myself  in Nepal: you know how you grow up being taught (at least if your a female) to never follow a stranger down a sketchy and dingy alley, or into a creepy abandoned garage, or if not taught, intuition tells you NOT to?  Well I just did that.  I'm sitting at a cafe using the free wifi, and after so much coffee the bathroom calls thy name. I asked where the bathroom was, then found myself following one of the boy workers out behind the shop, down a dusty driveway into a dark and abandoned looking garage, and up a creepy staircase.  As I was walking up the stairs, I thought to myself, "I can either end up at the bathroom, or end up... someplace bad".  But it was the bathroom :) .  The bathrooms just need to look less creepy.

-Bora

Jhaga's video placed 5th!!

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I guess this embedding doesn't work... but it was announced on the Peace Corps Facebook page on March 3rd. Scroll down the posts to see it, and check out the other video winners as well!!!

I got everything-I got you

I’ve been pretty sick the past couple of days.  That “rainy day” inside my body kinda feeling.  The feeling is probably being helped by the sudden storm that came about two nights ago.  With a swift and humongous crack of thunder, the storm came and has yet to leave.

So today after visiting the local school and a nearby village, I’m in my room listening to Jack Johnson.

The diversity of obstacles people face in Nepal continues to surprise me.  Leeches in the hills, mold during the monsoon season, the sweltering heat in the terai (southern flats), sharp cold (in the mountains in particular), unrelenting mosquitoes, flies, landslides, floods, avalanches, windy and difficult roads; it’s all in a day’s battle here in Nepal.

In other news, time is flying by and I’ve started a new journey in my mind: “OMG WTF am I going to do after PC”.  But worrying is unhelpful; whatever will be-will be.  I’ve been busy traveling for committee meetings (I’m a member of the Volunteer Advisory Committee a.k.a. VAC and the newly created IDIC or in short, Diversity Committee), Peace Corps trainings, prepping for our district GLOW camp (girls empowerment camp), finishing up my mushroom farming and improved cook-stove projects, and waiting ever-so-patiently for my SPA grant money to come in so I can start my proposed sewing training and community library project.  I’m also looking forward to vacations I have planned for May with other volunteers and also in August with my San Jose cuties!

In the meantime… Jack Johnson, take me away!

Love,

Bora

 PS- Thank you all who have supported my video of my Nepali little sister, Jhaga.  Cheers to Peace Corps Week 2015 and we can’t thank you all enough for the warm regards!!!

It seems like 2013 was just yesterday

It’s quite incredible the speed in which the future is coming, or in a way, has already arrived.  Today is March 1^st, 2015.  Can it be so?!?

Living in Nepal has taught me many lessons.  Here are a few.

1.       Drama be witcha wherever thou be-est.

Drama, mainly concerning hurt feelings, sometimes exaggerated emotions, and more often than not brought about by feelings of boredom, spite, or jealousy.  No matter how down to the basics your life may seem or how much you want to avoid it, there’s always an opportunity for drama to enter/re-enter into life.

2.       The quality of a human’s life may be determined by his/her access to shelter from the cold.

a.       Although I’ve never been a fan of the cold to begin with, living in Nepal has forced me to realize the ease in which a person can be stuck in a storm without proper shelter, and the inevitable suffering to come if not found in time.  I hope to always remember how dangerous Mother Nature can be and to never take advantage of the comfort of a safe and warm home.

3.       You may not be able to evade life’s ups and downs, but you may be able to control which ups and downs your life will take.

a.       Coming into my second and final year in Nepal, I have begun to think about my options for after Peace Corps service.  Listening to the stories of counter-culture-shock Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) experience upon coming back to the United States does not sound appealing or easy.  No doubt I am excited to get back home to be with family and friends, however I know life does not end with my Peace Corps service and I will most likely have to work hard, struggle, and endure some tough transitions before I find “my place”.  “Life is life, fight for it”.

4.       Work hard, play hard, but never forget what’s most important in your life.

a.       When it’s time to get work done, I think it is an important quality to be able to focus on the task at hand and do your best.  At the same time, life for me has never been 100% about work, and I believe it is important to find time to “be alive” while you are.  And while a “work hard play hard” methodology rings true to a way of life I consider valuable, at the end of the day I find neither work nor play ringing true to the rhythm of my soul.  Neither ‘being the hardest and best worker’ nor ‘being the person who had the most fun’ would fulfill me in the end.  But remembering to love, to care, to forgive, and to carry on when the going gets tough, keeps me in beat with what’s real and what’s important.

Peace and love and warm blankets to all,

Bora

PS- to Bear and Meg: The turkey jerky you sent from Chevron was quite possibly the most delicious, comforting, amazing thing I’ve eaten in the past 1.5 years.  I made it last as long as I could. BIG HUG!!!

Cow posts

On my walk home from the bus stop to my village, I passed by some boys playing soccer.  Funny thing was they were playing right next to where some cows were tied up to graze.  Upon closer inspection, I realized two of the cows were the goal posts.

Unfortunate for the cows, but very, very funny for me to watch.

-Bora

PS- Please continue to share and watch Jhaga's video that I submitted for #PCWeek2015!!!  The link is below.

#PCWeek2015 Host Country Hero

http://youtu.be/QdCYnFJnWuA

Simple Happenings in Life:

1.       Last night we were finishing up our dinner of daalbhaat (rice, lentils, and saag—it’s like spinach with a spicy flavor) when our saani naani (the younger of the two babygirls) had to poop… or started to poop.  My bhaauju (sister-in-law) grabbed saani and ran outside.  A couple moments later she comes back in and we can see saani standing at the door with her pants down.

“Did she poop?” we ask.

“She did but she has to go again and I’m scared,” bhaauju replies.

“Scared of what?” we ask.

“Outside. It’s dark outside and I’m scared so I need this light because it’s brighter. I’ll leave this other light here,” she replies.

“You’re scared?!” my mom says and starts laughing. “Samikshya (that’s me) always goes out to the toilet at like 12 or 1 am and she’s not scared, right?” as she turns to me.

“Yup…” I say, thinking, “Actually…. I never usually go out to the toilet at that time, I just pee in a bucket in my room (TMI).”

“Whatever, I’m scared and I’m taking this light,” says my bhaauju and she leaves for the toilet.

                Some footnotes for this convo:

-          The electricity was out, so the lights I’m referring to are rechargeable electric lamps.

-          Our bathroom, or squat-toilette, is behind the house; a separate entity if you couldn’t guess.

-          My nepali name is Samikshya.

I just thought this was funny so I wanted to share.

2.       After dinner, I went upstairs to my host-parents’ bedroom and sat around with them.  The electricity was still out, so I read a book by my battery-powered lantern while saani was scribbling on a notebook with a brown marker I gave to my aama (mom) earlier that week.  Saani and my bhaauju left for bed and I stuck around to finish the chapter I was on.  I looked over and saw my aama writing in Nepali, or trying to (I’ve never asked her if she was literate or not). Then I realized, I don’t know my aama’s name.  I know everyone’s name in this household because they have phones or I’ve needed their information in the past for whatever reason, but I’ve never needed to know my aama’s name. I just call her aama. So, I asked her, “Aama, what’s your name?”  She smiles and my baa (dad) replies, “Pabii Bhandari”.  I smiled. I continued to read my book when I looked over at my aama again and saw she was trying to write her name on the notebook. When my baa noticed what she was doing he stepped in and began teaching her how to write her name in Nepali script.  He gave her all these shortcuts and tried to simplify how to write it, but I think it confused her.  She turned to me and said, “I think I’ll stick to cutting the grass and feeding the goats. It’s easier than this, isn’t it Samikshya?”  I laughed.  My aama is 63 years old.  It brought a smile to my face to see my aama bent over the notebook, writing the same letters over and over again as I left the room for bed. 

the art of warmth and light

1/18/15

(I think I pulled my butt muscles…)

As I’m re-living another winter in Dang, Nepal, I've been able to make many of the preparations and precautions I failed to make last year to avoid another trying cold season (such as double blanketing, taking showers during the noon-afternoon hours, wearing layers, fuzzy socks, etc.).

Currently, if you’ve noticed I’ve been posting many blog posts, it’s because I don’t have much work to do because of political “bandhs”, which shut down the government schools, vehicular traffic on highways and roads, and many businesses too as they must close due to these circumstances. I am also waiting for my grant money to hit the bank so that I can begin my 6 month project to create a community library and an advanced sewing training targeting socially disadvantaged women.

Anyways, what I came here to tell you all are the simple joys of village life during the winter while I have nothing to do:

-          -Sitting by the fire, warming my hands and feet after the tarkari (veggies) is done cooking

-          -Doodling/being artsy by candlelight at night when there’s no power

-          -The feeling of a warm cup of cheeya (tea) in my hands and on my lap

-          -Cuddling under the warmth of two blankets at night to fight the night’s cold

Although I miss all the fun and luxury I could be taking part in back in the States, it’s been a joy to be able to live this slower-paced lifestyle without many worries (or perhaps a different set of worries).  And although I can start a fire back at home and enjoy it’s warmth, maybe it’s a new feeling to sit by the fire here and not have thoughts in the back of my head about finals, bills, or any of those other stressors.

Namaste,

Bora

a bike and a book

1/17/15

Today is Saturday, meaning it’s the one day in the week where stores are closed and people stay home and rest.  It’s the official one day weekend of the work week.  Earlier in 2014, I had a most rewarding experience biking around my VDC (village development committee, which is sort of similar to a county back in the States), finding shady areas under trees, and reading a book.  If I had completed my “day’s work” or had the whole day free to myself, I could bike for an hour or two and stop at about four different shady areas on my way circling back home.  Today I decided to indulge in such an adventure again.  I rode my bike to Ward number 2 in my VDC, an approximate 1 hour walk away but around 30 minutes on a bike, and stopped by a mother’s group meeting.  I shared with them some cookies that were sent to me from Cali (Thank you annamay!!! The mamas say thank you too! They loved ‘em.), talked about the basic how-to’s of mushroom farming, and after about an hour of “chalphal garnuing” I rode away.  I took a road I didn’t recognize but after a short 10 minutes on my bike I ended up at a familiar school; a well-known geographic landmark in my mind.  I found a large tree where I parked my bike and laid upon its roots as I read my latest book.  After an hour or so, I got up and rode back towards my village, an approximate 30-40 minute bike ride away. I pasted the standard scenery of goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, ducks, an angry turkey, and crossed many rivers and rivulets where families were found washing dishes, clothes, and/or themselves. 

In the words of Ice Cube, today was a good day.

-Bora

Pockets aren’t for coins, they’re for popcorn!

I still can’t get over the fact that it’s 2015, but it’s typically a difficult change for me to comprehend during the month of January. I’ll probably be used to it come February.

There were many highlights in my day today.  I’ll begin by indulging in two of them.

1.         1. After spending some time at my village health post lazing under the sun in our bright blue plastic chairs, I walked with one of the health post worker’s to her home across the river, about a 10 minute walk away.  She invited me over for tea and popcorn in return for a gift I brought her from my last trip to Kathmandu (she had been raving about my water bottle the previous month and I caught the hint). I sat on her bed while she began cooking the popcorn on her stove top.  This one room is her kitchen, dining room, living room, and bedroom all in one (and no, it’s not a big room).  A few minutes later a man walks up to the door with a small, metal jug with enough milk to fill about three cups of tea. He pours the milk in her personal-size, wok-like pot and in return she fills a bowl with popcorn and hands it to the man (who she refers to as bhinaaju, meaning elder sister’s husband). Rather than taking the bowl with him, he begins grabbing handfuls of popcorn and shoving it into his pant pocket. He cleans out the bowl, places it on the ground, and walks away. It’s quite common to see kids eating popcorn that’s been stuffed into their pockets, but this observation was new to me as it was a much older man, probably in his 40-50’s. I don’t exactly remember what my initial reaction was to the observation, but perhaps it was something in between sympathy and compassion and the thought of how frickin’ cool that was.  I loved the contrast of the fact that pockets back home are usually used for I-phones, credit cards, chapstick, or cash, but in this pocket of the world they are most useful for much simpler and essential things, like popcorn.

2.      2.  Later in the evening, I was sitting on the balcony area of my home with everyone in my host-family: aama, bubaa, my two naaniharu and my two bhaaujuharu (respectively, mom, dad, two baby girls and two sister-in-laws).  Nighttime had arrived, and we were huddled around a small fire where my aama was cooking sel roti (deep-fried rice dough in the shape of a circle) for the upcoming Nepali holiday known as maagi.  I was sitting, reading a book when I took a break to look up to see both my bhaaujuharu breastfeeding and talking to their respective naani next to me.  Both my bhaaujuharu (sister-in-laws) are my same exact age, 24, and this thought made me chuckle to myself to see both of them breastfeeding and me babying my latest novel.  Observing myself in this context, I thought, “I am soo American”. 

Lots of other interesting stuff happened today, but I won’t bother you all with that excessive information! Muchos kisses to my ladies out there working hard for the money.

Always,

Bora 

Are we out of the woods yet?

It’s 4:00pm and I’m currently sitting in my room surrounded by my stuff scattered around my room.  I’ve just returned from a stay-cation in Nepal where I celebrated the New Year in Pokhara followed by a dental appointment in the capital, Kathmandu, thus I’ve been gone from site for a good, little while.  I realize at this moment in my life I often have many, MANY thoughts running through my head, as this is not the first time I’ve been surrounded by tons of things I have to get done but decide to drop everything and write a blog post.  It’s always a whirlwind going away to see life outside of village, then to come back.  I wanted to write a to-do list of everything I want to get done this next and month, but then I realized I quite often do that. So I thought, perhaps I shouldn’t make a to-do list, but just… DO.  I’m happy to say I didn’t come back to site empty handed, as I brought a bundle-full of workbooks and books written in the Nepali language, 3 new novels to read for myself, GRE study books (in case that needs to happen again), and 22 soccer/futbol jerseys.  The Nepali workbooks will be placed in a new community library I am helping to kick start with a local Nepali counterpart and the soccer/futbol jerseys will be donated to the public school in my village along with four soccer balls. With the help of the school staff, I’m looking forward to working on establishing a soccer/futbol team as an organized recreational option for the students.

And the books I brought back for myself are… Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay, and I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. I have a large book list after that, but one (or three) book(s) at a time.

PS- I still have Shantaram waiting for me to finish. I’ll get to it soon Reynold!!! J

Onward to 2015.