In My Element

Again my apologies folks for my lack of blog entries, but the time is absolutely flying by here! I can’t believe I’ll be home in 2 weeks. Six weeks is barely enough to really start feeling comfortable and immersed the culture of a foreign city. Man, do individuals make an impact?! As much as I am appreciating the incredible landscape, stupas, food, and wildlife, it’s the individual interactions that have defined my experience here.

Last week, I was lucky enough to connect with some good family friends of the rocking Furbush family who were passing through Kathmandu after a long, successful season of guiding treks. The couple welcomed me into their home, as if they’d known me for years. We watched the sunset over one of the largest stupas in Kathmandu, the eyes of Buddha glimmering, visible from all corners of the city. I sat down for the largest, most delicious meal of my whole trip. At a restaurant, I’ll order momos, like chicken dumplings, and get 6, well aside from the mound of dal bhat (rice and lentils), and vegetable curry, I was given 10 momos!! Every few bites I took, my plate was refilled. Eight momos, what seemed like a few pounds of rice and vegetables, and 3 glasses of Mountain Dew later, it was time for dessert! This is just a demonstration of the kind of hospitality I have been offered during my stay. I am so grateful for yet another, incredible connection!

This past weekend we took a little vacation within our vacation and headed to Chitwan National Park, where a birder can fine 566 of the country’s 867 species of birds! Let’s just say, aside from being a bit overwhelmed by the sensory overload or new sounds, colors, and names, I was in heaven! After an 8 hour bus ride over the hills of the countryside, we were greeted by our rockin’ tour guides of the weekend, Krishna (my bird friend) and Arpan (the stud). We all took an evening stroll through the rainforest to a riverside hang out to watch the sunset. I was holding up the rear of the group, working on my Nepali with our guide Krishna, when he began pointing out the birds flying by. I practically froze in excitement and pulled out my binoculars and bird book as a sign of my approval! I’d met my match! This guy’s obsession with the birds of Nepal gave my interest a run for it’s money. He knew every call, every nest structure and the number of birds of each species to be found in Chitwan. Ya…we were buds for the whole weekend. While we struggled to communicate in everyday speech, ornithology was our common language.

Our guides: Arpan (left) and Krishna (right)

That night we attended a local dance performance, and boy were they amazing! Watching these boys interact with each other, feeding off one another’s energy and just having a blast made me miss being on stage. Lucky for me, they invited members of the audience to stage with them for the last piece. I felt completely at home, and in my element dancing around this circle of live musicians, surrounded by strangers who share a common passion for the art!

The next morning we all mounted elephants for a jungle safari, where we walked aside rhinos weighing up to 4000 lbs. and sloshed through crocodile infested rivers! Man, is that a way to see the jungle!! After our walkabout, we headed to the river to help bathe the elephants…and by “help bathe” they meant bath WITH the elephants! We rode the beasts into the river and then they were told to get down on their knees and rock side to side until we all fell off. Once all competitors were in clear view, the water fight was on! No Super Soaker will ever compare with the force of the trunk of an elephant blasting from 3 feet away!!!

During our 4 hour break some friends rented a few motorcycles to cruise around the city. Ya…ok so I don’t have the best sense of direction, and neither did my driver, because we ended up about 25 minutes down the road and realized it was time to turn around before reaching the Indian border. Not 2 minutes later our tire blew out….ya you should have seen the stall of traffic as every passing tractor, bike, bus, and taxi felt the need to slow down and take a good long laugh at the beet red Americans pushing a motorcycle down the side of the highway. I’m sure we provided a great story for that evening’s dinner table! We ended up finding a gas station, who didn’t have any gas or way to fix our tire but helped us to call 5 different hotels with names one word off from ours. They then walked us to the nearest tire repair station, where a 12 year old boy, who spoke impeccable English, helped us find our bearings and get things squared away. It’s always an adventure!


A sight to see...

We survived!!

That night, we all walked back from a local restaurant and were headed to bed when we were intercepted by our awesome guides and hotel workers sitting around a table, just chatting and rocking out to music. “Oh my goooood (God) it’s my bird frend! Come sit down!”  What was meant to be a 10 minute conversation about birds turned into a 3 hour music exchange and dance party in the courtyard of our hotel with 6 Americans and 4 Nepalis! These are the evenings I love the most, the unexpected, low key plans that turn into some of the most fun, laughter filled nights!

We received our wake up knock on the door at 6 am the next morning for our bird walk, which was so kindly arranged around my passion for birds. This may be one of my favorite mornings so far: sun rising over the river where the elephants prepared for their day, Kingfishers swarming the river bank, flashes of blues, golds and whites identifying their presence, binoculars gripped in hand, ready for any action ahead, and my bird friend, Krishna, giddy at the spotting of any species that I’d never seen (even though he sees them every morning), violently flipping through his bird guide to read my the species in English. Only in Nepal.

Well I’m off to my second to last day with Ishwor. I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown but I’ll try to post again soon before heading off on our week long trek!

So much love to you all,

Al

My Daily Dose of Humility

I have a few more excursions and days at the Koseli School worth blogging about. Last week a few of us volunteers took a flight at 6am over Mt. Everest and surrounding peaks. I am not even going to try to paint a visual, because the magnificence and sheer size of these mountains is indescribable. But when we went to book the flight I took the meeting as an opportunity to practice the few Nepali phrases and questions that I’ve learned. Shocked by my attempt and curiosity with his language, the travel agent sat down and preceded to give us a half hour long Nepali lesson. By the end of our morning, the man looked as though he was going to cry.  “Proud, I am so proud. Every customer I work with expects me to speak their language (English, French, German anything) nobody ever tries to speak mine. Thank you. My country is proud of visitors like you.”

My friends and I sat in silence.  It was a very touching, humbling moment and if I were one to cry when it was naturally appropriate, this would have been a good time! But here we were, 4 Americans and Canadians that just hopped onto planes and dropped into this man’s country, his home for the past 30+ years, and he is thanking us for our oh so poor attempt at speaking his native tongue.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been very grateful that almost anywhere I end up, lost on the bus, in dire need of a toilet, or dodging cows along the streets, I’ve been able to find someone that speaks at least a bit of English, but it’s disturbing that as English speakers we really can get by with little to no attempt to immerse ourselves in the culture of these generous hosts. We are so fortunate to be even welcomed into this country as foreigners. The least we can do is show some appreciation for their lifestyle and do all we can to not impose.

Ok, my apologies for the language rant, but here are some photos of the Everest flight.

Dorje-Lakpa, 22,854 ft. (far left) and Phurbi-Ghyachu, 21,775 ft. (far right)

On the theme of cultural appreciation, Ishwor has really started opening up to me. The 4 hours I spend with him each day are my highlights, no competition. After spending 20 hours a week with someone, one on one, you get to know one another quite quickly. As I have mentioned in blog entries before, there is a mutual respect that has been established between us. Yes, I can assist him in perfecting his English conversation skills, while he attempts to teach me basic Nepali, but it’s more than language instruction. According to our standards, Ishwor is living in extreme poverty. By age 10 he was working 18-20 hour days in the mountains until age 14, just to help support his family. I’m not sure how comfortable I feel posting many more details as he has shared his story with me in confidence, but let’s just say this kid is one of the strongest, most innovative, optimistic individuals I’ve met, even though all his paths in life have directed him otherwise. I am humbled every day by his modesty and laughter.

Thanks to the wonders of the cyber world, I was able to watch Brian’s high school graduation live from my roof in Kathmandu at 5 am Monday morning. Congratulations again!

So much love to you all back home. Thanks for reading,

Al

A Rush of Adrenaline

Well... when it comes to adventure and adrenaline rush, I am generally always up for the challenge. But ask anyone, bungee jumping is the only thing I’ve ever said I would NEVER EVER do! For some reason the thought of territorial cows, mobs of Nepali bus riders, and even hurling myself out of a plane at 12,000 feet sounds more appealing to me than jumping off a bridge at 530 feet over a ravine with nothing but an elastic cord strapped around my ankles and a “back-up” waist harness. The company slogan reads “Imagine a bridge over a 160m high tropical gorge with the Bhote Kose, one of Nepal’s wildest rivers raging river below…Now JUMP!” We also did the canyon swing, which includes a 7 second free fall from the same bridge before your body is hurled toward sheer rock cliffs straight ahead and then violently yanked backwards!!! Talk about a wild ride! But man is that  a way to see a new perspective of Nepal!

We all hopped into a bus at 5am and drove 4 hours through a number of villages placed strategically on the steps of their farm hills. I saw more of the Nepali countryside in these 4 hours than the rest of the trip! After coming close to a few flat tires, 2 head on collisions and taking a break to load hand made fence to be installed at our destination, we arrived at the bridge…dun dun dunnnn. I could sense the fear of everyone in the group as we inched our way across this bridge, which we were soon supposed to be hurling ourselves off of?! I have to say, it was comforting to see so many of my friends, all as adventuresome and fearless as me for most things, cringe at the thought of this jump. It was a bonding experience for sure, and we all survived the day!!

My last moment of reflection...Tom Petty's Free Falling playing in my head to get PUMPED! 

The JUMP!!!!!

Cooling off after our jumps:

"Dude...we just jumped off that...."

Yesterday we headed to another monastery out of town. We hiked this hill with strings of prayer flags guiding our way. The view was spectacular and we all practiced our Nepali with the young monks. Today I am headed off to the Koseli School again. Ishwor and I have such a blast that I always look forward to my days with him, despite the trek to get the school.

Some shout outs back at home: my little brother Brian graduates today! B-I’m so proud of you and wish so badly I could be there. What an incredible accomplishment?! I’ll be watching it live online tomorrow morning at 5am! Sending love all of you. Thanks again for following along!

Namaste,

Al

Love you boys!