Friday, December 28, 2012

Funny Face Field Trip: Part 3

Behind those funny faces, there is quite a bit of cuteness. 





But behind the innocent looking cuteness, there are sneaky germs galore. 

And now I am sick. 

As sick as a dog dinosaur. 
Sicker than the dinosaurs on Asmita's sweatshirt. 
Bleeeeeeeh.

But oh how I love these little ones! I am head over heels for them!

Loving them and holding them and walking down the street hand in hand is worth the germy mess... because someday, I will speak Nepali well enough to tell them why I love them so much. 


Thursday, December 27, 2012

Funny Face Field Trip: Part 2

 This is the actual field trip part of the story.

After we got bored of taking funny face photos, all of the kids decided to show me around the neighborhood so that I could take photos of cool stuff. They pointed out the football (soccer) field, the big tree far far away, and the little hen out on the horizon. When I explained that the tree and the hen were too far away for me to photograph, they decided to take me to the local temple. 



The big kid with the rubber band around his face was the ring-leader, pointing out each little cage thing and making sure that I took a photo of each one. I'm not sure what the significance of the cage is... maybe to protect the gods or the offerings?

I do know that people put offerings inside the cages, and then ring the bells to let the gods know that an offering has been made. I can hear those bells from my bedroom early each morning. 


Look! Asmita found some tikas. 

Asmita is the little girl who wears boy clothes. Last week she wore this awesome dinosaur sweatshirt all week. This week she is sporting a yellow Snoopy hoodie. 

(Tikas are those red dots that women wear between their eyebrows.)


More nasty idols... in a cage.  

Then, the ring-leader set up all of these kids so that I could take a nice photo of them all together. 
Baaah! I love them so much, gang signs and all. 




Sunday, December 23, 2012

Funny face field trip: Part 1

*Viewer Discretion is Advised*

Warning: This post contains excessive amounts of snot, crusty noses, and snaggle teeth. I cannot be held responsible for nausea, feelings of grotesqueness, or other side effects that may result in viewing the following photos. 




Sooooo, yesterday I went out for a walk, with the intention of taking a few photos...  but then I was aggressively acosted by several children.
  

I started out taking photos of the kids, and then all of us together....


...and then the following photo happened. And all craziness broke loose.

Check out the little guy in the middle.  Ha-larious.

Once I showed them that photo, they all started seeing how distorted they could make their faces look. Please enjoy the results.




And the winner...


...for the most silly faces...


...is...



(by a landslide)




 DALMATIAN BOY!

  

The End.





Join us next time for Parts 2 & 3.
Because these kids are much cuter than their distorted faces and snotty noses let on. 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Typical Nepali dinner.

Tonight we went next door to our landlord's house for dinner. It was surprisingly not awkward at all, and was actually kind of fun. 

Yesterday they invited us over, and when I asked what time we should come his wife said, "I will call you."

Cool. So this evening we waited for the call. I was expecting her to send one of her sons over to get us, but at around 7 o'clock my phone rang.

"Hello?"
     "Hello!"
"Krishna!"
     "Dinner is ready!"
"Ok, we are coming now."
     "Ok, Hurry up."

Haha. I love Nepali phone conversations... simple and direct. Just my style.

We walked over and his son was standing outside waiting to walk us up to their flat. As soon as I walked inside, I saw Krishna and I busted out laughing. I have zero self control in the laughter department sometimes and tonight I could not get myself to shut up. Krishna was wearing a huge, fuzzy, cheetah print hat that started from his eyebrows and worked itself straight up for about 9 inches.

photo cred: google.com

That's the exact moment when the line between my imagination and my giggle box could not be stopped. All I could see was this tiny Nepali man sitting beneath a huge-changing-of-the-guard-cheetah hat. After about 3 minutes of me laughing he took his hat off. Hmmm. Smart man, that landlord.

Then we were wisked away into the kitchen... but before we could eat, we had to go outside to wash our hands. Duh, Beth, you live in Nepal. Then we went inside and ate Everest sized mountains of rice, with a side of lentils, veggies, and lots of different kinds of chutney.

And by we ate I mean that Cynthia and I ate while Krishna and his wife watched. It's actually really polite, what they were doing. They were making sure that their guests had enough to eat, double checking with us after each bit of rice. After about thirty meals eaten in this fashion, it has become much less awkward.

Then, we went into the living room while Krishna and his wife ate. Again, not awkward.

After dinner there was the typical conversation about America vs. Nepal, made complete by the 60 second intervals of silence. Seriously, though, its not awkward any more.

And then it was time for Krishna to walk us out... and then the hat came back. Bahahahaha.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

around the neighborhood



My very favoritest part of the day happens every time I go outside. 

"Deepa! Deepa!"

 I love hearing the kids on the street calling my name (Deepa is my Nepali name). Tonight when I came home the girls down the street were calling me. I ran inside, grabbed my camera, sprinted up to the roof and snapped this photo before heading back outside. 
The view of the Himalayas from my roof. 

I have been wanting an excuse to take some photos of my street, and tonight the mountains gave me a perfect excuse to go outside with my camera.
Football!

Check out the mountains behind those houses!

Then, Laxmi, who talks SO fast that I never understand a single word that she says, wanted a photo together. She is so cool with her little peace sign.  

Laxmi and myself just outside my house.

And then out of nowhere, her friends showed up. So I took a photo of all three of them. 

Laxmi, Ekta, and Shrezana. 

And then this old man, who's name I do not know, was standing there the whole time and kept wanting to see the photos. Somehow, I communicated that I would take his photo if he would like...

He was thrilled with that idea.


So there you have it. A sneak peek at my favorite part of the day: hanging out with my neighbors.


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Oh Christmas Tree!


I am writing tonight with a happy heart. I recently received the package that my home-front team worked so hard at putting together for me.


As I was opening the package, Prativa came into my room. She and I gathered Cynthia and we all moved into the kitchen. We put the tree together and C and I got to explain why we celebrate Christmas. It was such a joy! Thank you all for the love that you put into that box!    

When I looked at all of the photos that you guys sent in, I was overwhelmed by your graciousness, generosity, and faith in the One who has us on this journey. Thank you so much for who you are and what you are doing for the Kingdom.
p.s. These are terrible photos of all three of us... but I wanted you to see our tree! Charlie Brown ain't got nothin' on this little guy!


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Language lessons learned.

I have reached that point in language learning where I know just enough to be really confused.

For instance, this morning I was waiting for Cynthia so that we could cross the (really busy) street together, so I started talking to a man who was standing next to me. We were standing along the side of a dusty, dirty, busy, dusty road, and He kept asking me to sit down. "Um, clearly there is no place to sit sir." I was really confused.

Theeeeen, about 45 minutes later, we were sitting in language class, and our teacher used that same "sit" verb in a sentence that was not at all about sitting. Woa, Krishna. What the heck is going on with this word today?

Turns out that verb means "to sit," "to stay," and "to live."

Ahhhh! The man on the road was asking me where I live. Hahahaha! Isn't that funny?!

Ok, I guess it's one of those "you had to be there" things....

In other news, I have been romping around the country in my PAJAMAS(!) for the past three months. 


 Yesterday C and I went for a walk around the neighborhood to practice some of our new phrases. We stopped in a tailor shop to say a few things and ask some questions. We were asking about the different kinds of pants and discovered that there are three kinds. The big poofy ones are called 'punjabi pants.' There is also a skinny jean style that I forgot the name of. These two are the most common types of pants for Nepali women. Then we pointed at our straight leg, loose pants that our old tailor made for us and asked him what they are called. "Those we call pajamas."

Wonderful. No wonder everyone laughs at me. I have been wearing green pajama pants all around Nepal. Lesson learned.

And on a final note, I did attempt to take some photos, but I forgot to put my memory card in my camera, so.... yah. No photos.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Photo bomb.


There are exactly two things that you should know about me.

Number 1. As I am walking down the street each day I think to myself, "Self, that thing that you are looking at is really cool. You should take a picture of it."

Number 2. I hate taking out my camera in public. Nothing shouts "FOREIGNER!" to my neighborhood like whipping out a Cannon and snapping a photo of their funny __________. I might as well dress like Zorro and speak Portuguese.

So, consider this my sincere apology for not posting very many photos. I rarely take any pictures in public. Buuuuuuut.... today we went to the tourist part of town.

We needed to get some shawls, and the best deals are downtown. So off we went. And guess who came with? My Cannon.

The tourist area is full of everyone from left-over hippies, ambitious Everest seekers, and skinny Europeans who come here for vacation. Since I don't live near this area, I knew that I would automatically be labeled "tourist" upon first glance. So my camera got to come out to play.

And I took a picture of... drum roll, please...

a sock.

I know.  I know.

You are spending your precious time reading this blog, and all I show you is a sock!? What the hecky-darn? I'm sorry.

But you have to admit that that is a funny sock.

I promise to take some pictures of real life cool stuff this week.

But I have some good news!

Remember why we went to the tourist area?

Well, let me just tell you something. I totally got the best deal ever on my shawl. There was this old man smoking a cigarette, sitting on the top of a stupa. Cynthia was on the other side looking at some shawls over there. So I walked up, looked delightfully at the rows of shawls hanging down from the stupa, and said (IN NEPALI!) "Honorable shop owner, you have a nice shop." I know, I am a suck up. But let me just tell you that I got a killer price on my shawl. When I showed Pratibha (my Nepali housemate), she was like, "What?! That's a good price! Where did you get it!?"

So yah, all of that to say that I will try to take more pictures this week, if I am not too busy studying language... because I am really really loving being able to communicate a tinsey bit in Nepali!




Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Pariwar

I almost cried when he said it.

"Pariwar."

Here, we call it "pariwar." In English, we call it "family."


This story started a few weeks ago. Cynthia and I have been having some difficulties with our front gate. Someone is always either locked out or locked in. Literally. It is due to bad engineering and no foresight on the landlord's part. For instance, last week we got locked out like three times. And each time got worse. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so bad, but it was getting really bad.

 For instance, it's not like we can just ring the doorbell and have Auntie* let us in. Nope. The 'doorbell' is just a facade. So we tried knocking on the gate. Nope. She can't hear us from the back of the house (which is beyond me because I can hear my neighbors hawking loogies all the time! I am not convinced that loogie hawking is louder than our gate knocking.). Then we yelled "Namaste!" "Hello?" "Helloooooooooooo?" Our neighbors and passersby were even getting involved, shouting out advice in Nepali. We looked like crazy people. And we both had to pee.

Needless to say, we needed to sort out this mess.

So tonight we went downstairs and had a talky talk with our housemates. We discussed what we should do to solve the problem. It was pretty simple. Uncle* had an extra key to the other lock! Done.


We have a great relationship with Pratibha, the daughter downstairs, but Uncle gets home late, and we got to bed early, so until tonight, we hadn't even met him yet. And Auntie does not speak English, so our relationship is based on smiles, greetings, and a few conversations translated through Pratibha.

I guess that's why I was so surprised when Uncle said it. 

"No need to feel hesitation in speaking with us. You are not on the outside. We are pariwar."

Ahh. They were words of golden honey. It's funny how a sticky situation can turn out so sweet. We never would have wanted to get locked out of our own house. We never would have asked to be forced to have a talky talk so soon. We never even would have picked this family to live downstairs. But someone "upstairs" knew exactly what He was doing.

So that's it. That's the story of how we became pariwar with the pariwar downstairs. 




*Uncle and Auntie are the Mom and Dad of the family who live downstairs. Culturally, I call older men and women Uncle and Auntie.


Sunday, December 2, 2012

Nuwakot


Last week Cynthia and I traveled with our friend to a district called Nuwakot.

We had heard rumors (and read newspaper articles) that this village is a highly trafficked area, so we went to see what it is like. Our goal was to assess the situation and see if it is worth going back to to pursue long term work.

It was sobering.

As we walked through town, I was kind-of in denial. I thought that maybe it was my imagination playing tricks on me. Like, maybe since I have heard all of the rumors and stuff, I was just imagining it all. Maybe it wasn't really as bad as it looked.

But it was.

There were men for miles.

There were women too, it wasn't a ghost town or anything, but they were few and far between. However, most were either married or still in school.

It was a completely different experience than where we have been before, where the villages are made up of mostly women. In those villages, the men have left the country to find work so that they can send money back to their families.


We spent one day walking out to a village to teach English in the village's school. We learned a lot about who we are in the culture, what we have to offer, and what some people are already doing to help their own communities.

I told you this 'kid' was cute!
We still have a TON to learn- we don't even speak Nepali or understand the culture yet. So for now we are learning everything we can and trying to make good friends... I will keep you guys updated... but until then, I will lighten the mood by sharing a photo of a really, really, really cute kid. Enjoy!