Anti-Chex Mix

I interrupt the retroactive research-related blogs with some random stories about life in Nepal...

Nepal vs. America: The Facts

A Fulbright friend posted a link on Facebook to a site that compares statistics in Nepal to statistics in America. The facts are shocking, but so is the comparison of size - I knew Nepal was small, but when you're on the bus for HOURS it seems bigger - it's not. The difference is the ease of transportation... infrastructure makes such a big difference.
http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/NP

Thangkas

Last week, I bought my first real works of art when my friends took me to a thangka shop because they were appalled I had no idea what a thangka was. Thangkas are paintings by created for a spiritual purpose, usually found in Buddhism and Hinduism, and are painted by extremely talented artists in Nepal, where the style originated. Most thangkas are hung in a beautiful silk broadcade, though a few (particularly mandalas)are placed in frames. Typically the thangka paintings depict an image of the buddha or holy being, a mandala (the symbolic representation of the unfolding of the universe as seen by an enlightened mind), or illustrates principals of the dharma like the Wheel of Life. In the Tibetan Buddhist faith it is considered meritous to sponsor or commission a thangka because it's the creation of the image of the buddha or another deity, and the thankga must be treated with serious respect, as if they are actual buddhas or worlds.

When you purchase a thangka, rather than simply picking it out due to its aesthetic appeal, you choose your thangka based on the deity or concept you wish to become more familiar with (meditation is the process of becoming familiar), and also how the painting "speaks" to you. I chose the Om Mandala for two reasons. One, as I'm not a practicing Buddhist (rather, Christian), the Om Mandala is the least "Buddhist" - or Hindu - in a specific sense because rather than depicting a deity, it depicts the sacred sound of the universe. Also, when looking around at all the amazingly beautiful thangkas, none spoke to me like the mandalas did. Ultimately I ended up purchasing two - a yin and yang so to speak. The blue mandala brings me into myself and I meditate inwardly. The pink mandala pulls me back out again so that I can rejoin the world. For me, they were the perfect balance for what I was looking for and I was shocked to see movement as I looked at each mandala, but was assured by my friends and the proprietor that the movement is part of what happens when certain thangkas "speak" to you. All in all, I'm extremely pleased and can't wait to bring them back to America with me!




Christmas Presents! Santa's on Nepali Time...

I just received 2 packages from my family and a friend chock full of warm clothes and amazing food you can't find in Nepal. They were sent with plenty of time to make it by Christmas, but packages and luggage seem to have a difficult time finding me. A warning, I sound like a junk food addict, but you miss comfort food when you're away! My family's package had so many pairs of long underwear in it that I barely have any need for indoor heating anymore, as well as stuffing mix (which suddenly appeared at Bhat Bhateni a week ago, but costs an arm and leg), hot chocolate mix, and some favorite candy. My friend's package had lots of little trinkets and sour punch straws! Also, several Christmas cards appeared too. Thanks to everyone for your thoughtfulness - it made for a wonderful (and extended!) Christmas in Nepal!

Anti-Chex Mix

So the other day, I had a sudden craving for Chex Mix, caused by seeing the "ch. mix" on the custom form. Turns out it stood for hot chocolate mix, but somehow my brain went straight to chex mix. I made a quick run to Bhat Bhateni (literately - you don't drive places less than a mile away here), to pick up ingredients. The recipe called for chex, pretzels, peanuts, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, seasoning salt and butter. I was able to find peanuts, Worcestershire sauce and butter. Not to be deterred, my chex mix became a mix of cheerios, peanuts and cheese balls with garlic cloves chopped to give the garlic flavor, added salt, and some kind of traditional Nepali seasoning I found in the cupboard as well as the W. sauce and butter. If that was all the changes I had to make it would've been too easy. The mix was then cooked in a toaster oven, perfectly timed to outwit the 14 hours/day of loadshedding we have now! Verdict - delicious :) Who needs recipes in Nepal?


By the way - you read that right - 14 hours of loadshedding each day. The 10 hours of electricity are divided up between sleeping hours (most found in the middle of the night), and the middle of day when you're usually not home anyway. Fortunately we do have an inverter which gives us light and internet, though with the extended loadshedding schedule the inverter can't keep up and we're plunged into darkness several hours a day already. Can't wait for 20 hours/day....

More research posts to come, but they'll likely have fewer pictures unless the internet decides to speed up a little!

Random Nepali Language Fact of the Day:

Baahira - outside
Bahira - deaf
*No wonder I get odd stares when I tell people I'm deaf - there's a good chance they think i'm telling them I'm outside! Sign language may be accompanying that announcement in the future...

5 days later...Here's Hetauda!

I sincerely apologize for the "posts in quick succession" that didn't happen. There were several reasons for this. Mainly, our "reliable" internet ceased to be reliable after I praised it on the blog, shutting down for 2 days and then finally coming back even slower than normal, making it impossible to upload pictures. In all honesty though, if I'd had the inclination I could have gone to a place with WiFi, but I kind of disappeared from the society for a few days after returning from the trip. Nepal's not the best place for an introvert. The culture is inherently social, and in the 12 days we were gone, I had maybe 2 whole hours to myself. Since I recharge when I'm alone, I desperately needed recharge time when I arrived back in Kathmandu, not to mention recovering from the physical exhaustion of working or traveling non-stop while we were gone.

So, to continue the story of our journey, after the time in Chitwan, we headed straight to Hetauda in the Makwanpur district. Here, we were fortunate to stay with more family members of Ashok sir, the Birenda Shrestha family, who welcomed us with open arms and copious amounts of food! Hetauda is a large town on the edge of the flat Terai but officially in the hilly region. The result is a beautiful town with many fields and flat areas, but with great views of the "hills". I say "hills", but anywhere but Nepal, the hills nearby would actually be considered large mountains. It's all relative!

Anu and I stayed in Hetauda for 3 days while we visited the Shree Shanti Deaf and Hard of Hearing Primary School (just outside Hetauda). This school was only founded recently (in late 2005), but has already grown from 8 students to close to 100, though it goes only through Class 6. Despite the numbers, the principal and president of the school told us that they know of at least 6 deaf children in the surrounding villages whom they can't reach due to the distance and lack of residential housing at the school or a second bus. There have been attempts to send a sign language teacher to the village to teach the children Nepali Sign, but this only happened a few times before logistics and funding made it impossible. They continue to look for options that will enable them to reach out to all children in the future, but for now, are providing the best education they can to the students who currently attend.



One of the teachers quizzing a student in English spelling. The students in Nepal learn Nepali Sign, written Nepali, written English and international fingerspelling (same as English fingerspelling, with a slightly different "t"). I was really impressed with the teacher's patience and high expectations for the students.


This little guy was the newest student at the school and hadn't had any communication prior to attending school so his behavior left much to be desired. He was far more interested in figuring out who we were and demonstrating what he'd learned (the numbers 0 and 1) than in listening to his teacher. Part of the difficulty in researching in schools is that no matter how hard you try to blend into the walls and not cause a disruption, students (especially those who are naturally inclined to distractions) have a hard time ignoring your presence.


The students in Class 1. Two of the students were deaf plus (had cognitive delays as well as deafness), but the range in ages is also attributed to late admission to the school. Many deaf children begin school significantly later than their hearing peers and without a strong (or even any) language foundation.


The school bus, which was donated by the Indian government, serves as transportation to and from school for both the teachers and students. Anu and I rode in the bus back to our host family's house each day, and the trip was very different than a bus ride in the States! We stopped for reasons such as picking up teachers' spouses, for the bus driver to buy some plants, and for a teacher to buy some eggs. One place where the most students got off the bus was an orphanage for children with disabilities. A number of the students in school stayed at the orphanage so that they could attend.

Faith Like a Mustard Seed

While we were in Hetauda, I had a lesson in faith too. I went on a walk with Anu one day during the lunch period at the school and we walked through beautiful fields with yellow flowers. Not sure what the crop was, I asked, and was told it was mustard. In that instance, surrounded by miles of mustard seed fields, I finally wholly understood the parable of the mustard seed in the Bible. No wonder Jesus wanted us to have faith like a mustard seed - it grows exponentially!

One of the most beautiful things about Nepal is its ability to be universally spiritual - according to my friend Mikaela, there are 'Aha!' moments for every religion.

I can't even begin to quantify all that I've learned during my time in Nepal, or even fathom all that I'll continue to learn, but I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunity! More to come soon(or as soon as I have some semblance of reliable internet)...

Riding Raskumari and Other Chitwan Tales

So our trip was successful, though much shorter than we'd originally planned, as we ran into more schedule changes due to closed schools. We'd hoped that since the Terai is usually fairly warm, the schools wouldn't close for winter break, but due to heavy (COLD) fog in the mornings, many find it best to close for a week or two. Despite this, we were able to visit three schools and conduct the survey for a fourth (we went straight to the source - the Principal's house!). Ultimately, we went to Gaidakot (to a school in Torikhet), Sarahau (Chitwan Nat'l Park), Hetauda, Sarlahi, and Sindhuli.

With everything that happened, I’ve had a difficult time trying to figure out how to tell the story without having a monster blog post. Besides, with so many pictures, the story gets even longer! So I’ll begin at the beginning, even though it happened quite a while ago :)

The first leg of the trip was from Kathmandu to Gaidakot, Chitwan where we stayed with a few family members of Ashok sir (Rotary man from Banepa who’s been a huge help in orchestrating trips!). The Shrestha family was warm and welcoming and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay, getting to know the family, and playing with the resident baby and precious puppies.


Our host mother and the resident baby...we never did learn his name, but had a blast playing with him!


Such a sweet puppy

The first morning, our host asked if we wanted to walk to the temple, so we agreed – not realizing we were in for a several-hour hike up a mountain! Despite the never ending stairs, the walk through the jungle was beautiful.


This tree was found about a third of the way up the hill, where we first stopped to catch our breath. With the early morning fog, it was such a neat view.

The temple itself was fairly basic, but I enjoyed getting to see it, and we received tika and puja from the Hindu priest. Tika is a mark on the forehead made with crushed flowers and given with a blessing, and puja is a gift (in this case an orange shoelace necklace) often given with it as well.


The temple - at the VERY top of the "hill"

The rest of the day was spent at a school in Torikhet that has a number of deaf students and two teachers of the deaf (TOD). The school was far away from the town, out in the midst of some gorgeous fields.


The deaf students and teachers. Everyone was so friendly, and I'm really glad we got to meet them and see the school.

This school was the first that we have observed which is “inclusive” – meaning that the deaf students attend classes with the hearing students with the TODs going from classroom to classroom interpreting and explaining difficult concepts. It’s not an ideal inclusive situation because the students only have full access when the TOD is in their classroom, but given the resources, I was extremely impressed with the school. The teachers (both hearing and TOD), were sensitive to the students’ needs and spent time ensuring that they understood the concepts, and the deaf students seemed to get along well with their hearing peers.


"Inclusive" teaching - the regular classroom teacher leads instruction, while the teacher of the deaf interprets and explains in more depth to the deaf students.

Though we’re on a research trip, after looking at our original schedule and discovering we’d only given ourselves 1 day off in 20, I decided we needed at least 3days devoted to rest or play. We had our first fun day at the Chitwan National Park in Sarahau where we spent all day around elephants!


Me in our ride for the day...a thanka

Transportation was fascinating that day – we rode in thankas (basic horse drawn carriages), buses, on an elephant, and in a rickshaw (bicycle-drawn carriage). Once we arrived, we went to two museums – a biology based nature museum which had all kinds of animals and animal parts in formaldehyde – interesting…but a bit gross - and a museum about the Tharu culture (a cultural group found in the Terai).


My first time around live elephants. The ones in Nepal may be smaller than their African counterparts, but they're still huge!

We also went to an elephant breeding center to see the elephants and baby elephants up close. This was my first time seeing a live elephant outside of the zoo, so it was very exciting! Even more fun, we were able to watch the elephants being bathed in the river. Tourists are allowed to help, but neither of us had brought things to change into, so we settled for watching.


Elephant bath time

It was a surreal experience watching these enormous trained elephants listening so obediently to their drivers and submerging themselves into the water so only their sides were showing – and the trunks, as they came up for air intermittently. Finally, we were hopelessly touristy and went on an elephant ride!


Anu and I riding Raskumari :)

It was great – four people rode in a basket on top of the elephant with the elephant’s driver in front. Our elephant, Raskumari (meaning ‘princess’ in Nepali), was a beautiful 25 year old elephant (a baby – they can live to be up to 200!). During the 2 hour ride, we lumbered through the jungle and spotted a deer, wild boar, peacock, and 3 crocodiles – 2 different types – who were lounging by the river.


Two of the MANY tourist-burden elephants on the elephant ride. When the elephants spotted the crocs they all began to trumpet. Twelve elephants trumpeting makes for some serious noise that even a deaf person can hear!

I was a bit disappointed not to see the one-horned rhino or a bengal tiger, but hopefully there'll be more chances in the future! It was an incredible experience regardless and I’m really glad that we took the chance to see what the area offered while we were so close.


The guardia (sp?) croc we got to see. Apparently they're pretty rare, so we were lucky.

Just to remind those who might be on the fence about visiting – here are a few things you can do in Nepal: Go paragliding, rafting and trekking in the Himalayas, see Mt. Everest, ride elephants, and see crazy animals like one-horned rhinos. Sometime in the next 6 months is a great time to start working on your bucket list…. It’ll make my year too! :-)

Stayed tuned for more posts in quick succession since I finally have reliable internet....

And We're Off!

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let y'all know that Anu and I are heading off on our first big field research trip later this morning. For those of you mapping us, we're headed to the Terai to visit schools in Chitwan, Makwanpur, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Jankapur & Sindhuli. It should be an extremely productive trip and I'm looking forward to it (though slightly nervous!). I'll update as I can, but may not have internet access for quite a while. We should be back in around 20 days so I'll update then for sure!

I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's and that 2011 is off to a roaring start!

And a quick note to put mom's mind at rest - we are taking local buses, but we will be INSIDE rather than on top :)