Big Welcomes and Big Spiders

After a three-day adventure over the pacific ocean, Nepal Peace Corps group 204 arrived in Kathmandu exhausted but elated to be in our destination after hours of delays. However, after waiting patiently by the luggage conveyor belt for half an hour, my enthusiasm started to wane when one of my bags didn't show up. Thank goodness I had the bag with all the bird-books and chocolate in it, but my bag filled with clothes and backpacking gear was MIA. As I filled out the lost luggage form, I held it together by chanting "they are just things" in my head and convincing myself that loosing half my possessions would be a good character builder. At our hostel, I borrowed a shirt from my roommate and passed out at 3:00 am for 4 hours before it was time for breakfast. ***My bag eventually showed up at the airport the following evening, and I was happily reunited with my sleeping bag and pants. Our first few days in Kathmandu were a mix policy and safety presentations given by the support staff who, for the most part, are Nepali. Our teachers are inspiring, to say the least, and represent well the diversity of Nepal. One of our coordinators was taught by a Peace Corps Volunteer when he was tiny one and has been working for PC Nepal for over a decade. Many more of our teachers have their Master's degrees, and some have left their families for three months to live at our training site and prepare us for life Nepal on our own. Sometimes, their dedication to, and undying faith in, our success as volunteers, is the only thing that convinces me I will be ready to graduate from trainee to volunteer in 80 days.

The policy pressantations were interspersed by very raw sessions where we stood up in front of our 37 peers and told the story of why we are here; why we chose to be volunteer farmers and educators in Nepal. All I can say is that I am humbled to be part of group with such spirit, generosity, and love.

Kathmandu- a place I had only heard about in songs and seen in action movies, was even more roudy and wild than I anticipated. Traffic lights? Not a thing. Staying on your side of the road on the freeway? Yeah, right. But the people...even though we are a big gawky group of "tourists", when I smiled at the women who I passed in the street, they looked me right in the eye and smiled back with their whole hearts. When they reply Namaste, I feel like they really do recognize and honor the god inside of me, the god inside us all (This is a translation of Namaste, the traditional greating in Nepal, and not neccesarily my belief).

Just as we got comfortable enough to take a jog through the city and patches of urban farmland, it was time to move camp to a mid-hill town an hour and a half outside of the city that would serve as our language and technical training site for the next two months. Within 15 minutes, the din of Kathmandu was behind us and our bus driver shift into the granny gears to get up the steep hills as well wound our way out of the valley and into the hills. Brick houses, some destroyed by the earthquake, sprinkeled the landscape of potato fields and terraced hills.

This would also be our first experience living with a Nepali host family. That afternoon, somewhat like a dating game, they sat us PC trainees on one side of the room, and all the Nepali families on the other. Both sides nervously smiled at the other, and some snapped a few photos of the slightly akward setup. On the family side, in the front row, sat an older women dressed in a colorful sari with her grandson clutching her arm. Even from across the room, she commanded resect while at the same time laughed and cracked jokes with the staff. I hoped with all my heart, yet already knew that she would be my host mother. When our names where called together, I was elated, not shoked, but was struck by how much she reminded me of my host mom in Costa Rica. From town, our house is a 15 minute walk up the road that paralleles the River Roshi. It is a grand 4 story building that overlooks the entire valley, the surrounding hills, and the mountains in the distance. When standing on my rooftop during the golden hour as the cool evening winds bring sweet relief, I give thanks to the paths that have led me to Nepal. This is the image that keeps me smiling all day long even as I keep a nervous eye on Charlotte, the 3 inch wide wolf spider with whom I share my bathroom.