Apologies and Goa

It’s been FAR too long since my last post, and for that I apologize. I’ll do my best to update more regularly. The end of February saw a perfect storm of illness for me, but fortunately March blew in some better health! Recently the biggest happening in Nepal was a trip to Panaji, Goa, India. The Fulbright scholars and researchers from South and Central Asia met in Goa for a weeklong conference filled with presentations about everyone’s work. It was incredible getting to hear peoples’ experiences living in India, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan. Many of these places I had to look up on maps after talking to people who were coming from them, or who had given talks relating to the countries. Definitely time to brush up on my geography! Nonetheless, it was a wonderful time, full of fascinating presentations, new friends, and relaxation.

Goa is an Indian state on the coast, and the wealthiest state in India. Not surprising given all the tourist appeal found there! Goa is known for two things – its churches and beaches. The vast array of beautiful worship places is unique to Goa, and one finds Hindu temples, Catholic churches and Muslim mosques. While I was only able to go to one Goan beach, I have it on good authority that they’re all gorgeous!

Here are a few things about the trip, in no particular order:

We were so fortunate to get to stay in an amazing (5-Star!) hotel where the conference was held. It was comical to see our group arrive, because though the longer you live in Nepal, the less you realize the poverty of the country, or even the need for things like constant electricity and good mattresses. Upon our arrival, a number of hotel staff people came out with hot towels for our face (it was hot and humid in Goa!), and tiny glasses filled with fresh juice. We all thought we’d died and gone to heaven before we saw the rooms! Needless to say, the rooms shocked us as well…we had actual mattresses, fulltime electricity, a door on our shower, and a bathtub. WOW. There was a definite experience of culture shock during our arrival and reverse culture shock upon our arrival back home. The best part about it though? I still love and appreciate Nepal exactly how it is. There are flaws, but it felt great to be “home”.

The purpose of the conference was to provide us with a forum where we could present our research to other scholars, listen to others’ and get feedback. I learned about all kinds of things including modern art in Kazakhstan, business practices in India, the use of Indian music and dance in therapy for autistic children, the consequences of a stroke on a multilingual person and effective language re-learning techniques, and how disaster aid in Bangladesh can be changed to provide people with “homes” rather than “structures”. It was a wonderful learning experience, and the feedback and support I received regarding my own project was invaluable as well. Fortunately, after panicking about my PowerPoint and presentation for quite a while, when it was time to get up and present, all was calm… :) Also, I figured out how to deal with the questions at the end that I normally am unable to understand - I asked people to write down any questions they had for me in addition to asking them vocally so I would be able to answer accurately. This worked well, and I will definitely use it for times in the future when an interpreter is not an option!


Preparing for my presentation


Presenting!

Though the purpose of the trip was the conference, we did have some time for recreation fortunately. I hadn’t realized just how much I needed a vacation until I came back to Nepal refreshed! The hotel had a beautiful rooftop pool that was a favorite hangout place for many of us, and provided both a social time for Fulbrighters to get to know each other, and time where we could relax and forget about life for a while. Also, two “tours” were arranged by the conference – one into “old Goa” where all the churches were, and the other to the beach. After days of constant lipreading, I decided the church tour had the potential for too much talking and opted for the beach tour. There were only a few of us on the beach tour, but we were able to soak up sun and waves (though the water was FAR saltier than other beaches I’ve been to) for a few hours and fortunately were able to see a few of the churches on the way.


The beautiful rooftop pool

I met many wonderful people on my trip, but one in particular stood out. It turns out in the South and Central Asia group, we have TWO deaf Fulbrighters! Emily is based in Kazakhstan and studying the recent rise of modern art as well as doing some painting of her own that is influenced by the culture and art she’s seen in the country. We had the chance to chat for a while, and discovered that many of our experiences have been similar, particularly in regards to communication difficulty. Though we use different degrees of hearing and speechreading (I depend mostly on speechreading, Emily on hearing aids), we have both had to deal with the frustrations of accents, people not realizing the consequence of our hearing losses, and the difficulty of learning (especially understanding!) another spoken language. I’m in awe of Emily’s work, and can’t imagine doing research without the wonderful support of the deaf community that I’ve been so blessed to have in Nepal.

That’s all for Goa, though I’m going to do my best to put my PowerPoint (at least the information) into blog-acceptable notes format in order for everyone to have a more clear view of what exactly it is I’ve been working so hard on! Once again, my apologies for the delay and I’ll do my best to post more regularly.

*Big thanks to Mikaela for the pictures :)