‘Hey guys – you ready to let the dogs out?’

My summer hat was accidently ripped by a tiger when we went tiger tracking. But now I have a topi. Topi’s are cool.

Things I was prepared for; questionable hygiene, questionable infrastructure and being a foreigner.

Things I was not prepared for; ridiculously mental driving, ridiculously mental honking, regular power cuts, cold water (due to solar-powered hot water and it being monsoon season), and smelling like damp.

Things I have enjoyed adapting to; eating with your hands, speaking fluent Nepali, and being culturally aware.

Things I was not planning on getting used to but have done; being surrounded by wild dogs, being eaten by mosquitoes and squatter toilets (although I still refuse to douche).

So I came here with all intent on keeping a regular blog like the hip young thing I am but unfortunately due to having little to no time and very rare access to the internet I have failed to do so. Still, better late than never.

A regular weekday goes something like this (and oh, they have 6 days week, with Saturday being the only day of rest); 7 A.M. waking up in the morning gotta get fresh gotta go downstairs. LOL! Just joking. Fresh is not a priority here. At first it was 6.30 A.M. start, 8.00 A.M. breakfast, 9.00 A.M. reach the children’s home, 9.30 A.M. set off for Sanjiwani English School, 10.15 A.M. morning assembly, 10.30 A.M. start teaching, 3.30 A.M. finish school (with a 5 minute toilet break and a 40 minute lunch break in between), head straight back to the children’s home after school, set off for home at 7.00 P.M., sometimes stay for dinner and leave at 8.00 P.M., get home, eat, shower and before you know its 10.00 P.M. and we’re ready to sleep. Pretty long days. Although me and the Duke have managed to cut down about 2 hours at the start of the day and now get up at 8.30 A.M., ‘cos we’re resourceful like that. Although we have managed to find enough time to catch Pokemon out here. Denny’s team consists of Ninetails, Houndoom, Sudowood and Ekans, whilst my team consists of Scyther, Pidgeot, Houndour, and a Heracross. Pretty awesome! On another note, we have seen fireflies, a legendary bird with a wonderfully elegant tail, a massive giant ‘F’-off dragonfly about 5-6 inches long (upon which I used 6 Great Balls trying to catch), and a flippin’ snake. Yeah that’s right, a flippin’ snake. I almost stepped on it, but Denny used his Houndoom to protect me then proceeded to catch it. So it was all good. 

We have had time to do touristy things, including some cool visits to UNESCO world heritage sites (one was an exclusive V.I.P. visit to a ‘not-open-for-public’ site). Before we started teaching, we had almost a week free. We have our Saturdays, and sometimes we leave the children’s home earlier so that we have had sporadic evenings free. So we have been sight-seeing in and around Kathmandu and Dhulikhel. Kathmandu is full of hustle and bustle. But I most definitely prefer Dhulikhel, where we’re based. It’s a peaceful, picturesque, green green green little town 23 miles outside of Kathmandu. It is beautiful. 

I won’t indulge you with our tourist visits. I’m sure you can find that on lonelyplanet.com or something. But I am going to write about some of the super-cool/inspiring non-touristy things that we have done here, mainly thanks to Cindy being a Big-Dawg at Dhulikhel Hospital. Within the hospital, we have seen various operations, including laser surgery, and have had sonograms done. Just to clarify, I have bigger kidneys than Denny. Although that could be because I’m pregnant….And just generally being V.I.P. 

Far more importantly though Dhulikhel Hospital is a community hospital. Along with that comes different ‘Outreach’ centres; health centres established in the remotest areas to provide much needed health care, medical advice, health education and even financial aid. Very good. The hospital holds regular health screenings at these centres. We we’re very fortunate to be able to join one such visit to a centre in Dapcha. First and foremost, the drive there and back was pretty damn cool. We were essentially ‘road-rafting’. The sort of narrow, rocky, dirt tracks that transcend up the mountains with a sheer cliff drop on one side and pot-holes galore you see on Top Gear – yeah, it was one of those. The rather rustic looking Toyota Landcruiser we travelled in we have named Blue, ‘cos it’s our boy, (it looks like it has been though more crap than Charlie Sheen’s nose) and our driver deserves only two words. Absolute. Tekkers. It was the sort of location that had it not been for the health centre one can imagine that nothing would ever go in or out. Remote, rural Nepal, rarely touched by the modern world. 

There, we saw proper hardcore elderly ladies, carrying over 20kg of crops on their heads (they use wicker baskets which rest on your back but with a strap to wrap around your head which takes all the weight) walking for miles and miles, and hardcore kids that preferred to carry 50kg bags of cement on his back 150 times a day up a rather steep mountain with only one meal a night, rather than going to school with only enough money and time for one meal a day. How much does dinner cost here? Less than a quid. 

Cindy conducted home interviews with two teenage boys living with disabilities during that visit. It’s not my place to tell their stories, but it is definitely an experience that struck very, very deep. It was uncomfortable. I felt guilty. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I live such a privileged life, I really pitied them. Or maybe I was guilty precisely because I pitied them – at the risk of sounding all pretentious and Gap Yah, who am I to pity them when them and their families were such brave people? They were the ones who had to live that life. I may have thought ‘oh no, that is so sad’. But once I left, I left. I was no more than a 15-minute novelty passing through the village (I think my hat gave me away as an outsider). Guilt – but immense admiration also. When asked what he wants to do when he is older, he said that he just wanted to look after his parents. The other young man, who was unable to speak or walk, relied on his father for the interview. What made this interview particularly uncomfortable was watching the young man crawl (wheelchairs, too, belong to a different universe). When asked if there is anything the hospital could provide to make his living more comfortable, the father simply wanted a bedpan so that his son did not need to struggle down the stairs and move outdoors to visit the toilet. Simple things changes entire worlds. 

Nepal is a wonderful place. We have met some really brilliant people. It's been almost a month and I will defs come back. But next time we will be returning the One Ring, so we're going to need a Fellowship. Any takers?

That’s all for now, I will save my experience at the school and home for another entry.

I will leave you with this delightful joke from Dennis.

‘Mohan brothers? I thought it was the Jonas Brothers?!’

P.S. Me and Denny swore an oath underneath the peach tree. No blood was spilt.

P.P.S. People have noticed I have a big head. I guess I will forever live in its shadow.