Days 1 and 2

The view from my window in Delhi

This is the husband and wife I stayed with in Delhi. He is giving her a kiss!

So I got into Kathmandu about an hour ago. Rick and Sugandha, the VSN director, picked me up from the airport. My flight from Delhi was about an hour. I was in 1st class because economy was sold out. I was the only woman in 1st class. The family I stayed with in Delhi was great. In the morning, their cook gave me a cooking lesson! I'll try to make it for y'all when I get home.
Right now I am just hanging out at the volunteer office. There are about 10 of us... from Italy, US, Canada, Germany, etc. From what I've seen so far it is definitely a third world country. I am staying in an upper middle class suburban neighborhood. I am staying with the director, his wife and daughters, and two other volunteers. My room is really nice. Nicer than I expected.... I should be able to email quite often, so send me a message!

In the mean time know that I am safe and happy to be here!

Sugandha picked me up from the airport. He is the director of VSN and my "dad" while I am here. I am staying at his house. He is so awesome and so into helping the Nepalese people.

View from room in Khatmandu... I live in a neighborhood called Pepsicola. There is a pepsi factory nearby. There are no addresses in Nepal, so if someone asks me where I live, I say in the white house by the field in Pepsicola.

Neighborhood children. When I walk down the street, they all say Hello really loud and follow me. They love to get their picture taken, and even more, they love to look at the image in the digital camera!

Hey everyone! I am currently listening to Hungarian music in the VSN office in Kathmandu. Rick has a million songs on his laptop. Tomorrow we are going to only speak Hungarian and Nepali to each other.

So today was crazy cool! I slept well. Because I'm the doctor's friend I got the total hook up! A nice room (with a key so I can lock it when I leave) I have a hot shower and western toilet that I share with one other person. I expected so much worse, so I am blessed. The director's wife is a vegetarian and she was excited that I am too because her husband and daughters and the other volunteers are not! Needless to say I have had special treatment.

This morning I had breakfast (fried bread and a bean vegi mixture). So far everything I've eaten has been delicious. After breakfast, I went to the VSN office for my 1st language lesson. The office is about a 5 min walk from my house. My instructor is named Sabin (pronouced Saabeen). We work one on one which is awesome. There is currently 15 volunteers here. I learned how to introduce myself, talk about my family, ask for water, etc. [side note: today I went to the store and asked for water all by myself! ... the girl understood me!] Sabin also talked to me about culture and customs.

After my 3 hour lesson... we went sightseeing. 3 other volunteers just arrived - a guy from Germany and a husband and wife from Seattle. Sujan (pronounced suzanne), another Nepali instructor, Sabin and we 4 volunteers were taken to lunch. We ate momo, which is basically potstickers served with hot sauce... really hot. After the momo we went to Boudhana, a Buddhist temple. There were hundreds of monks all ages 4 years old to 90 all chanting. According to our tour guides, it was unusual to see. There were some signs saying that they were saying prayers for world peace.

In order to get to our destinations we got in these vehicles called microbuses. This basically a minivan, but smaller, in which they squeeze 25 people. A young boy hangs out the window and yells the destination in order to get business. Yes, I had a few Nepalese sitting on my lap. We also walked down the crowed streets that are filled with trash, shops, mangy dogs, beautiful people,. extremely poor people, children and of course cows... I had to watch were I stepped... I won't elaborate. There was so much to take in that I can't begin to describe it because my brain won't finish processing it until 2009.

After the Buddhist temple, we took a microbus to Pashupati, the major Hindu temple. It was in a much nicer part of town. We weren't allowed inside because we weren't Hindi... but Sabin and Sujan both did a ritual bow at the entrance. I took a few pictures of the hundreds of monkeys that are on and around the temple.

At the back of the temple I was able to see the Hindi burials... which is where they place bodies on pyres and burn them. Yes I saw about 6 "burial". The mourners dress in white and tend the deceased family member's fire. They sweep the ashes in the holy river below and then drink the water. It was not a disturbing sight. It is just there tradition. Sabin said to me, "when I die, they will do that to me."

I would love to tell you more, but I am off to dinner, so I will write again tomorrow.

Pasupati, the Hindu temple. There is one of the dead being burned. I was a lot closer, but I didn't feel good about taking a picture.

In front of Boudhanath the Buddhist Temple