Namaste!
Before we begin, let us make it clear that the E on this keyboard is really quite finicky, so we cannot be held responsible for typos of that nature. We will, however, take the blame for the rest of them.
This past week, we have undertaken a bunch of activities which have taken us up high and down low. The first of these was Paragliding. We had booked this adventure waaaaayyy in advance, but it kept getting canceled because of the weather (obviously, no one will ask you to jump off a cliff if the wind is bad). Then, out of the blue one day, our volunteer coordinator was at our door at the orphanage telling us that we had to leave right now to go Paragliding. We hurried into appropriate flying gear (i.e. real shoes, with socks and everything) and rushed out the door. Then, we waited 45 minutes at the paragliding office, of course. A somewhat sickening 20 minute drive later and we were at the top of a hill in Sarangkot, ready to leap off, entrusting our lives to a very pretty parachute. The flight took us over the town of Sarangkot and gave us great views over Phewa Tal, the lake that defines Pokhara. We flew and flew for about 30 minutes (just enough for Steph to start feling nauseous) then landed right on the edge of the lake. Very cool, indeed!
A few days later, we packed up our stuff and headed to Chitwan National Park for the weekend. On the way there, we got dropped off on the bank of the Trisuli River. There, we were supposed to go white water rafting. Unfortunately, Kas was unable to join us because he had some kind of weird finger infection/ingrown nail/puss-filled fingertip and he felt sick from it. He told Steph to go on without him, so she did and, though she tried to not fully admit this to Kas (to make him feel better, you know), it was freakin' awesome. Because we are in the middle of the monsoon, the rapids were at their highest and fastest. One minute, we were sitting in the middle of a nice quiet pool, floating along nice and slowly, then suddenly the water seemed to want to swallow you whole and huge waves were being thrown your way. Although we nevr actually feared for our lives, there was a fair amount of screaming involved.
Chitwan was a furthr hour down the road - an hour which Kas chose to spend on the roof of the bus, at the expense of his hair and (relative) cleanliness. When we arrived in Chitwan we were spoiled with a very tasty dinner of God-knows what vegetarian dish, then we just went to bed for the night. Finger infections and rafting can really knock you out.
The next day, our day was completely action packed. We started out at 6 am with a canoe ride. This would have been uneventful if one of the othr volunteers hadn't been freaking out (in a funny, not annoying, way) about the integrity of our boat (fair enough) and the fact that there were crocodiles in the water. Sh kept saying "Oh no... alligators!", to which our guide replied patiently "No, no, they're just crocodiles". When we exited our canoe, we headed out on a jungle walk, but not before hearing a short security briefing - "If we come face to face with a rhino, run". Fortunately, or unfortunately, no such thing happend, but we did get to see a rhino from a distance (big enough that we didn't have to run!).
The jungle walk took us to the Elephant Breeding Centre, which was cool because we got to meet a set of 1 and a half year-old baby elephant twins. They are th first elephant twins born in Nepal, th second in Asia, and the third in the world. Pretty sweet.
From there, we took a jeep to the lake, where we got to participate in elephant bathing. SO FREAKING COOL!!!! The elephants come down to the lake evry morning to wash and, when there are tourists (probably always), they take them on their backs and into the bath. As we sat there on their backs, they would gather a trunkful of water, then splash it onto thir backs and us. It was incredibly rfrshing and probably the best way to shower evr of all time. The only problem is that, when the elephant has had enough, it just plops itself down in the river, letting you tumble down as well... it requires some pretty quick thinking to get yourself out from under th elephant before it's too late!!
That afternoon, we got back on the elephants for a safari. At first, it was very calm... a slow stroll through the jungle, spotting a few rhinos, taking a few photos... whatever. Then, in the middle of the jungle, the elephants stopped. We heard a huge roar, then saw a bunch of deer run frantically our of a clump of trees. Th elephants started freaking out, trumpeting, stomping the ground and turning in circles. Our guides also kind of started to freak out and so, needless to say, did we. Much as we would have loved to see a tiger, a nice, sleeping one would have been fine for us! Unfortunately, or fortunately, we didn't actually see this one, but it's pretty certain we won't be forgetting its voice!!!
The next day, we headed back to Pokhara on the roof of a different bus to finish off our volunteer stint. On Friday, our last day at the orphanage (already!) we took all th kids out to a restaurant. This seems lik nothing, but for most of them, it was their first tim ever. They were so cute... they got all dolled up in their Sunday best (genitalia-free clothes) washed their faces and started asking us if it was time to go as of 2 o'clock in the afternoon!! At the restaurant, we ate buffalo momos (dumplings), pizza and onion rings. Most of the kids had never had any of this, so it was pretty funny to watch some of them... try to imagine Manoj, putting his entire slice of pizza on his fork and trying to eat it sideways... priceless! At the end of the evening, we got a big THANK YOU from the kids, which is really something sinc, in Nepali culture, peopl don't say thank you unless you've really done something exceptional for them. When we got back to the orphanage after dinner, we put the kids to bed and said our final goodbyes. Much to our surprise, these had to be hurried a little at the end, because we wer getting all choked up and teary-eyed. We're really gonna miss those kids!!!!!
We're hanging out in Pokhara for a few more days (in a hotel with actual SOFT beds), then we'r back to Kathmandu for some serious shopping, then off to India before coming home.
We'll lt you know how it goes!!!
Steph and Kas
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Meet Our Orphans (or at least read about them)!!
Namaste (that's the one word we know, so you better get used to it)!
So we arrived in Pokhara on Sunday and went straight to the orphanage where we will be volunteering for the next little while. There are only 7 kids living there, but it took us little to no time to figure them out. Here's a very high school yearbook-style rundown of who's most likely to do what:
Most Likely to Work in the Sex Trade (of her own free will) - Susmita
What to say about Susmita? She loves to straddle things... it's a little shocking. More often than not, she is not wearing underwear (most of them don't) and rubbing her crotch up on the corner of the table, on our legs, or any other place she can find. She also likes to breatsfeed the other children for no apparent reason.
Most Likely to Walk a Marathon - Shristi
Slow and steady wins the race with Shristi. She does everything the other kids do, but waaaayyy slower. This works out in her favour, though, as she generally has more energy than the rest of them at the end of the day. Our favourite thing to do is watch her eat. While the others are shovelling food into their mouths as fast as the posibly can, she is slowly eating her rice. Only thing is, she probably eats twice as much as anyone else! Trixy little minx!!
Most Likely to Win and Ironman Contest (or grow up with brain damage) - Samrat
The reason we give Samrat both of these "most likelys" is because of how he gets manhandled by the other kids. Samrat is 1 - just had his birthday on Monday - and the other kids love to pick him up... they are not, however, very gentle at all, so he often gets pulled up by the armpits, dragged along the floor, or dropped on the head. Most of the time, he doesn't even make a sound... and when he does cry, it's for a total of about 3 minutes. This is why we reckon he'll either win the ironman competition, or be dropped on his head one to many times to make it that far.
Most Likely to Wind Up in Jail (or a Mafia Boss) - Biraj
Biraj is definitely the ring-leader/shit-disturber at the orphanage. He's always doing mean things to the other kids and somehow managing to get them into trouble for it. It is also worth noting that Biraj absolutely does not an indoor voice. He yells. Always.
Most Likely to Win a Beauty Pageant - Mamata
Not only does Mamata have gorgeous eyes, but she walks and talks like a beauty queen would. She's slow and graceful and always seems to be considering you, whether you are eating your daal bhat, playing with the other kids, or talking to her straight on.
Most Likely to End up in Anger Management - Manoj
Manoj is a real cuddlebug. He's loves to sidle up to us and cuddle... which is awkward because he's always really wet and he has a very warm crotch. Other than this, though, Manoj has quite a tendancy to freak out at the other kids and hit them out of the blue. We try to stop him every time, but seeing as how he doesn't understand a word we say, this is a bit difficult.
Most Likely to Break Steph's Heart with the Things He's Seen in his 10 year Life - Narayan
Narayan is the oldest kid at the orphanage. He is ten, and helps the house mother run the place. He makes us sad because he is always being asked to do work, while the other kids play around. Also, up until recently, Narayan was living on the street, so you have to know that can't have been easy and that he's seen way too many bad things for his age. Narayan is awesome, though, and if we were going to sneak a child home in our suitcase, we think it would probably be him.
So those are our orphans. We love them to death. Aside from how lovely they are, there are two other things worth noting.
1) Kasra has a sinus infection which has caused his nose to swell up to twice (maybe three times) its normal size. He looks like a caroon character who has been punched in the nose. If he wasn't in so much pain, it would be really quite funny. He's on at least 7 different kinds of medications, so he should be ok in no time.
2) We see waaaayyyy too much genitalia at the orphanage. The girls never wear underwear under their dresses, so Kas is always freaking out. The boys like to whip our their junk and pee at every opportunity. The baby has at least three pairs of pants with holes running from one knee to the next, which, of course, means that his penis is hanging out all the time. On top of that, they are always sitting him around the place like this... on the table (where we eat, by the way), on the floor, on the balcony. We're pretty sure his package has touched every imaginable surface of the place.
The genitals thing has become so blase that, the other day, Steph was sitting at the kitchen table, while two kids sat on top of it. The girl decided to sit cross-legged, exposing her hoo-ha. Before she had a chance to cover it up (which she did - good for her!), the boy stuck his fingers in it!!!!!!!!!!!! We couldn't even make something like this up, it was so shocking!!! Steph didn't know what to do (certainly, in Canada, it would have been a huge deal!), so she quickly moved his hand from there and then washed her hands. So weird.
Well, there's your genitals story for the day. Have a good one!!
Steph and Kas
So we arrived in Pokhara on Sunday and went straight to the orphanage where we will be volunteering for the next little while. There are only 7 kids living there, but it took us little to no time to figure them out. Here's a very high school yearbook-style rundown of who's most likely to do what:
Most Likely to Work in the Sex Trade (of her own free will) - Susmita
What to say about Susmita? She loves to straddle things... it's a little shocking. More often than not, she is not wearing underwear (most of them don't) and rubbing her crotch up on the corner of the table, on our legs, or any other place she can find. She also likes to breatsfeed the other children for no apparent reason.
Most Likely to Walk a Marathon - Shristi
Slow and steady wins the race with Shristi. She does everything the other kids do, but waaaayyy slower. This works out in her favour, though, as she generally has more energy than the rest of them at the end of the day. Our favourite thing to do is watch her eat. While the others are shovelling food into their mouths as fast as the posibly can, she is slowly eating her rice. Only thing is, she probably eats twice as much as anyone else! Trixy little minx!!
Most Likely to Win and Ironman Contest (or grow up with brain damage) - Samrat
The reason we give Samrat both of these "most likelys" is because of how he gets manhandled by the other kids. Samrat is 1 - just had his birthday on Monday - and the other kids love to pick him up... they are not, however, very gentle at all, so he often gets pulled up by the armpits, dragged along the floor, or dropped on the head. Most of the time, he doesn't even make a sound... and when he does cry, it's for a total of about 3 minutes. This is why we reckon he'll either win the ironman competition, or be dropped on his head one to many times to make it that far.
Most Likely to Wind Up in Jail (or a Mafia Boss) - Biraj
Biraj is definitely the ring-leader/shit-disturber at the orphanage. He's always doing mean things to the other kids and somehow managing to get them into trouble for it. It is also worth noting that Biraj absolutely does not an indoor voice. He yells. Always.
Most Likely to Win a Beauty Pageant - Mamata
Not only does Mamata have gorgeous eyes, but she walks and talks like a beauty queen would. She's slow and graceful and always seems to be considering you, whether you are eating your daal bhat, playing with the other kids, or talking to her straight on.
Most Likely to End up in Anger Management - Manoj
Manoj is a real cuddlebug. He's loves to sidle up to us and cuddle... which is awkward because he's always really wet and he has a very warm crotch. Other than this, though, Manoj has quite a tendancy to freak out at the other kids and hit them out of the blue. We try to stop him every time, but seeing as how he doesn't understand a word we say, this is a bit difficult.
Most Likely to Break Steph's Heart with the Things He's Seen in his 10 year Life - Narayan
Narayan is the oldest kid at the orphanage. He is ten, and helps the house mother run the place. He makes us sad because he is always being asked to do work, while the other kids play around. Also, up until recently, Narayan was living on the street, so you have to know that can't have been easy and that he's seen way too many bad things for his age. Narayan is awesome, though, and if we were going to sneak a child home in our suitcase, we think it would probably be him.
So those are our orphans. We love them to death. Aside from how lovely they are, there are two other things worth noting.
1) Kasra has a sinus infection which has caused his nose to swell up to twice (maybe three times) its normal size. He looks like a caroon character who has been punched in the nose. If he wasn't in so much pain, it would be really quite funny. He's on at least 7 different kinds of medications, so he should be ok in no time.
2) We see waaaayyyy too much genitalia at the orphanage. The girls never wear underwear under their dresses, so Kas is always freaking out. The boys like to whip our their junk and pee at every opportunity. The baby has at least three pairs of pants with holes running from one knee to the next, which, of course, means that his penis is hanging out all the time. On top of that, they are always sitting him around the place like this... on the table (where we eat, by the way), on the floor, on the balcony. We're pretty sure his package has touched every imaginable surface of the place.
The genitals thing has become so blase that, the other day, Steph was sitting at the kitchen table, while two kids sat on top of it. The girl decided to sit cross-legged, exposing her hoo-ha. Before she had a chance to cover it up (which she did - good for her!), the boy stuck his fingers in it!!!!!!!!!!!! We couldn't even make something like this up, it was so shocking!!! Steph didn't know what to do (certainly, in Canada, it would have been a huge deal!), so she quickly moved his hand from there and then washed her hands. So weird.
Well, there's your genitals story for the day. Have a good one!!
Steph and Kas
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Nepal > India
Namaste!
So, it would appear that Nepal is India cleaner, greener, cooler, and altogether more bearable nieghbour. Good for us!
We got here on the 28th, and immediately went out for drinks to celebrate Steph's birthday. We got there ten minutes before happy hour ended (because we got distracted by the excellent shopping on the way down!), but with a smile, an "It's my birthday!" and a Coke bought for the waiter, we got in six drinks (times 2) at happy hour prices. Whoop whoop! On the way back to the hotel, we kinda got scammed by a little Nepali boy on the street, but we're not going to go into that here because it's a little embarrassing...
The next day we went to the Monkey Temple (it has another name, but we can't spell/pronounce it). It was slightly scary for those of us who have a fear of primates, but the monkeys were generally pretty calm. We walked all the way up to the temple (365 steps, to be exact), then had a little spin on the prayer wheels to stock up on good karma for the rest of the trip. We were contemplating leaving (Steph thanking Bouddha that she had not been attacked by anything!) when a monkey strolled up to Kas and grabbed hold of the Fanta he had in his hand. At first, Kas put up a fight, but then common sense kicked in and he figured he'd rather spend the 70 rupees on a new Fanta than have his eyes clawed out for this one. We proceeded to watch as the monkey took the Fanta up onto a roof, ripped off the label, tried to open the cap with its teeth then gave it up as a bad job and left it on the roof. Jerk!
The next day we started orientation for the volunteering. Turns out we had 3 days of orientation! Eessh... We've met some good people, though, so it's been pretty cool. On our first day of orientation they gave us a Nepali culture class (1 hour, not very useful) then took us to... the Monkey Temple! Damn... now we had to climb those super-steep steps again!!! The next day, we visited Durbar Square, which makes for a good photo op but is really not that interesting to talk about.
Last night, we went out to an outdoor sports bar to watch the Brazil vs. Netherlands World Cup game. One of our newfound friends is Brazilian, so it was really very entertaining to watch. He was quite upset about the loss, but afterwards he got to drinking and he seems like he'll be alright! By the end of the night, it started pouring rain (one small section of the bar was uncovered) and our big group of volunteers (who have been sweating like mad for a week) decided to take our dancing into the rain. It was really fun, but the locals were giving us some rather unflattering looks... that is, they think we're nuts.
Today, we went to Bodnath Stupa, another Buddhist temple. It's basically a giant Buddha head sticking out of the nd, with eyes on every side looking out over the square. It's really hard to describe, so you should all probably just Google it! We spent most of the day there, then back to the hotel to pack our stuff for opur 6:30 departure tomorrow morning. We will be going to Pokhara, where we will start our orphanage placement on Monday.
On a final note, here are some words of wisdom heard just outside Bodnath in an incredibly beautiful moment. They were delivered by a little boy, maybe eight years old. He stood before Steph, his head precisely at chest level. He stared... and stared... and stared... then, he looked her in the eyes and said: "BOOBS!"
Miss you all,
Steph and Kas
So, it would appear that Nepal is India cleaner, greener, cooler, and altogether more bearable nieghbour. Good for us!
We got here on the 28th, and immediately went out for drinks to celebrate Steph's birthday. We got there ten minutes before happy hour ended (because we got distracted by the excellent shopping on the way down!), but with a smile, an "It's my birthday!" and a Coke bought for the waiter, we got in six drinks (times 2) at happy hour prices. Whoop whoop! On the way back to the hotel, we kinda got scammed by a little Nepali boy on the street, but we're not going to go into that here because it's a little embarrassing...
The next day we went to the Monkey Temple (it has another name, but we can't spell/pronounce it). It was slightly scary for those of us who have a fear of primates, but the monkeys were generally pretty calm. We walked all the way up to the temple (365 steps, to be exact), then had a little spin on the prayer wheels to stock up on good karma for the rest of the trip. We were contemplating leaving (Steph thanking Bouddha that she had not been attacked by anything!) when a monkey strolled up to Kas and grabbed hold of the Fanta he had in his hand. At first, Kas put up a fight, but then common sense kicked in and he figured he'd rather spend the 70 rupees on a new Fanta than have his eyes clawed out for this one. We proceeded to watch as the monkey took the Fanta up onto a roof, ripped off the label, tried to open the cap with its teeth then gave it up as a bad job and left it on the roof. Jerk!
The next day we started orientation for the volunteering. Turns out we had 3 days of orientation! Eessh... We've met some good people, though, so it's been pretty cool. On our first day of orientation they gave us a Nepali culture class (1 hour, not very useful) then took us to... the Monkey Temple! Damn... now we had to climb those super-steep steps again!!! The next day, we visited Durbar Square, which makes for a good photo op but is really not that interesting to talk about.
Last night, we went out to an outdoor sports bar to watch the Brazil vs. Netherlands World Cup game. One of our newfound friends is Brazilian, so it was really very entertaining to watch. He was quite upset about the loss, but afterwards he got to drinking and he seems like he'll be alright! By the end of the night, it started pouring rain (one small section of the bar was uncovered) and our big group of volunteers (who have been sweating like mad for a week) decided to take our dancing into the rain. It was really fun, but the locals were giving us some rather unflattering looks... that is, they think we're nuts.
Today, we went to Bodnath Stupa, another Buddhist temple. It's basically a giant Buddha head sticking out of the nd, with eyes on every side looking out over the square. It's really hard to describe, so you should all probably just Google it! We spent most of the day there, then back to the hotel to pack our stuff for opur 6:30 departure tomorrow morning. We will be going to Pokhara, where we will start our orphanage placement on Monday.
On a final note, here are some words of wisdom heard just outside Bodnath in an incredibly beautiful moment. They were delivered by a little boy, maybe eight years old. He stood before Steph, his head precisely at chest level. He stared... and stared... and stared... then, he looked her in the eyes and said: "BOOBS!"
Miss you all,
Steph and Kas
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