Only one way to throw a frisbee.

Me with a mangy dog... a staple of this community.

Today I woke up really early and took a bus into Baneshwor. The bus ride was old hat.. crazy, but easy. And inflation has reached Nepal. The price from last year has increased by 4 rupees. I was talking to Sabin, and we figured out that gas here is about $2.20 / gallon. It was a long process to figure that out because they use rupees and liter here, but still. That is super high for this country.

Everything was closed, but I did a couple errands nonetheless. In the morning the weather is perfect. Super humid, but comfortable. I came back in time for our morning meal, Dal Baht. I actually love this. We have it for all our meals, but it’s yummy ( for you first timers to my blog, Dal Baht is a dish with rice and lentils).

Tej took me to the new school that they built. It is so great! Some of the students are sponsored kids (anyone interested in sponsoring, let me know) and some are orphans. The do pre-k through 7^th grade right now, and as the 7^th graders progress, they will take them up through 10^th grade. Sabin is the principal of the school and is right at home. He was my language teacher last year. He says he’s good at this job because he can make decisions quickly and doesn’t get stressed – this is true. However, he is good at this job because he likes to be in charge. It is so fun to see him. He told me, “I have memories of you all winter, Liz.” I gave him a white sweatshirt from Tahoe as a gift, and he said whenever he wore it, he would get lots of compliments and make a memory of me.

On the top floor of the school are three empty classrooms. They are to be a library and a computer room. I think I convinced Tej to make the third one a skills center, so we can have evening classes there for women. We will teach literacy, sewing, etc. So my first project has begun! Hopefully, I’m also going to start skills training classes in Solokumbu, a village in northern Nepal near Everest, as well.

During their recess break, I taught the kids how to play Frisbee. They loved it and played it the whole time. At one point I took the Frisbee and showed one boy how to throw it under his leg. I said, “you do like this.” He did, and for the rest of the game everyone threw it under their leg. They didn’t grasp the concept that it was an option, but I didn’t stop them ‘cause it was hilarious!





The trash is still an issue, and during these warm months, the odor is awesome.


This is me spinning a prayer wheel at the Golden Temple. It is a temple where the surrounding walls are a Buddhist temple and the middle is a Hindu shrine. Our guide, Gelu, is Buddhist. A tourist was spinning a wheel in the wrong direction and after she left, he discreetly changed the direction of the wheel.




We went to Patan, an old Hindu shrine. it was interesting to see everything through the eyes of someone new. They got their first bus ride, first tuk-tuk ride (a three wheeled vehicle about the size of a mini cooper that fits 20 people), and saw their first cremation. In one temple a peddler followed us in and tried to sell us Karma Sutra books. I yelled at him in Nepali and told him to get out of the temple... There are vendors in all the touristy places, but usually their trying to sell jewelry or handmade crafts.

On our way home, we got our first monsoon. It was nice and cool, but an insane flash flood. More later!