My first week

I have now been in Pokhara for a week and I am loving every minute. The kids are so great. We get up every morning at 7:30 have breakfast at the house and leave for the orphanage at about 8:15. When we get there we help the kids brush their teeth and get ready for school. That is always a crazy time because you have to help the little kids get dressed and most of the time they are missing a sock or they can't find their belt so you have to go hunting for it. The girls need to have their hair braided and ribbons tied. This whole process take about 45 mins. When the bell rings we go down with them and help them get their school shoes on and they line up by the front gate. The walk to school takes about 15 mins. On the way the girls have been trying to teach me Nepali songs, I have some of it but it may take me the rest of my time to get it all right. After we drop them off we go back to the orphanage and help the house sisters clean and mop. This takes until 11. Then we have a little time to ourselves. Most of the time we go have a little lunch and sit by the lake. There are so many little cafes and restaurants, we go to a new one most of the time. We head back the orphanage at about 2 to help peel potatoes and cut veggies for dinner. At about 3 it is time to go pick the kids up from school. When they get back we help them change into their regular clothes and they have a little snack. Then they can play for about 30 mins. At about 5 it is time for them to do homework and reading. I have found that I am not very good at math, some of the kids are doing fractions and I have never been very good at them. One night I ended up asking one and then two other volunteers how to do it and none of us could remember how to do it. It looked something like this. [3 x 5 {3/4+5/8} 6 - 2+(3/8 x 6)] so I guess I need to practice my math skills a little. We usually leave during homework time (about 6:30) we have a 30 min walk and it gets dark. But after homework the kids have dinner after dinner some of the kids do more reading. Then they go to bed around 9 or 10.

I have been learning some of the stories about the kids and why they are in the orphanage, and I am amazed by how happy they are after everything they have been through. Two of the girls came from prison, because their parents had been arrested and they had nowhere else to go. One of the girls came because her stepmother killed her birth mother. One of the boys is there because the bus he and his parents were in drove off the road and landed in the river, before it landed his mother threw him out the window into the bushes. He was the only survivor of the crash. So many of them have scares from abuse or neglect. I don't ask them what happened or why they are there. Some will tell you their story and others just don't want to talk about it, and that is fine with me. I feel good knowing that me being there and talking to them or just holding their hand makes them smile.

The local kids around here are great too. When they see us walking down the street they stand on the side of the road yelling "hello! namaste! (Nepali for hello)" and they will yell it until we are half way down the street.

Thank you everyone for the e-mails and posts, it really means a lot to me. Keep them coming!

Love you all

Pictures

This is the guest house I was staying in in Kathmandu.

Just walking down the street you will find little temples are prayer places. I was told if people live far away from temples they will build there own close to there house.

This is a picture of Durbar square, from the top of a large temple.

The monkeys! from the monkey temple.

Me and a monkey

Pokhara

We went to the Buddha Stupa today, I believe it is one of the biggest. We were able to watch some monks making candles, and forming rice into little statures that they us for a service they do. The Stupa it in the middle of a large square with little shops all the way around and you are supposed to walk clockwise around the stupa. You can also climb up to the first level and walk around it so you have a better view of the square from there. It’s strange because the Stupa is in the middle of a very busy part of town and you don’t even see it until you turn down a little alleyway and there it is.

We also went to a restaurant and had an authentic Nepali dinner. We all sat at a long table on chairs with no legs so you are on the ground with a little cushion. You start off with a little bowl of popcorn, and then they bring you three chicken Mo-mos (it’s kind of like a filled steamed dumpling) they are very good. After that they bring you are warm plate and small bowls and men come around a serve you Dal Bhat which is rice, lentil soup chicken curry, spinach, green beans and cauliflower. They finish with a yogurt type stuff. It was all very good. They also had some cultural dancing while we ate, girls with candles on their heads, a man and woman dancing.

I also found out that I will be doing my orphanage work at the place called Namaste Children House, in Pokhara. They have 64 kids there ranging in age from 4 to 16. We have to be up at 5 in the morning to have breakfast and get ready for the 7 hour bus ride. I will be staying in a guest house that is just for the volunteers of the orphanage. Here with me is Natasha from Canada, Gavin from Ireland and Diego from Italy.

That was two days ago.

I arrived in Pokhara yesterday afternoon, and the bus ride ended up being 8 and a half hours. Once you get out of Kathmandu Valley and into the mountains it is amazing, the day was a little cloudy so I couldn’t see as much as I’m sure you can on a clear day. But everything is green and the trees are huge. You have little water falls everywhere, and no matter what the landscape is you have little houses everywhere. It’s amazing where the people will find a place to live. They all have little gardens and goats. We made a couple stops on the way, and at the second one we saw the biggest spider I have ever seen, the body was about 2 ½ - 3 inches long an inch wide and the legs were about 6 inches long. Not even kidding!

When we got here we were met by a man who works with guest house. There are two other girls here one is at the same orphanage and the other is working at a sister orphanage. We went and met with the kids this morning because they didn’t have school. They are so great, they call us auntie and uncle, and they just grab your hand a take you everywhere. I ended up the in library with 5 kids reading them books and trying to explain The Pirates from the Caribbean to them. We all had lunch together (Dal Bhat). After lunch we went back to the guest house because the kids had a meeting with there counselor. The walk from the orphanage to the house is about 30 mins. But it isn't really that bad, Pokhara is a great city it has a large lake and i'm told when it's clear you can see the Annapurna Mountains. It should clear up in a couple days and I can't wait. After about 2 hours we walked back to the orphanage and helped the kids with there home work. They are so smart, the young kids 5 and 6 are read Nepali and English very well. When some of them were done they started teaching us Nepali, and they thought is was very funny listening to us try to count to 10. Tomorrow we will be going back to help them get ready for and walking them the 10 mins to school. I am having a hard time learning names, but they are great.

I will let you all know how things are going in the next couple days.

Love you all

So I have been in Kathmandu for a couple days now and I must tell you, it takes some getting used to. There are so many people and the streets are so small that its hard to fit all the cars motorcycles and people on the street. The sides of the roads are lined with little shops, butchers, and dogs. But it didn't take very long to get the hang of it, you just have to pay attention to everything around you.

The first day I was here I met up with some other people from the program, Gavin from Ireland, Nicole from New Zealand and Patricia from Argentina. We hit it off real well and decided to go for a walk. We looked at a map and decided to go to Durbar square. Durbar is a large area with one large temple and many other small temples, and a large area with people selling stuff. I loved it.

After that we went and had lunch on the top of a building, it was great because you could see most of the city and you could see the monkey temple on top of a hill with haze around it, it was awesome. After that we walked back to the guest house and we all fell asleep at about 6pm.

The next day I got up early and had some time so I got to Skype with my dad, Sarah and my mom! Then we met up with a new arrival, Nick from California and we went to breakfast at this great place down the road from us.

After breakfast we found a place on the map called the Dream Gardens, and decided to go find it. It was a little outside the tourist area and we almost missed it. On one side of us was a very very busy street and on the other was a very large brick wall. All of a sudden in the wall, was a door, when you go through the door you are surrounded but lush trees and plants. There was a grass area with mats that you can sit on, and great old buildings and fountains. It is a very quiet relaxing place. Its crazy how it is right off of a main street like that.

When we got back to the guest house we got our orientation package and met all the other people that had arrived during the day while we were gone. Their are people from all over the world doing the program its great. We have 5 people from the USA me, 2 from Washington state 1 from California, and 1 from Buffalo, NY, 1 from Ireland 1 from New Zealand 2 from Australia 1 from Argentina 1 from the UK 1 from Italy, 1 from Norway, 1 from Canada, 1 from India (I might be missing one). We all had dinner together and all talked about where we live and how thing are different. Its fun meeting all these people and I hope to stay friends with them after this.

Today November 1 we started the day with our first Nepali language class. Haha I have never been goo with learning new languages. But i feel I got the most important parts I think we have a couple more classes.

After class and lunch we went to the MONKEY TEMPLE!! WOW is all I can really say. It is on the top of a huge hill and from the top you can see the whole Kathmandu valley. They aren't kidding when they call it the monkey temple, everywhere you look there is a monkey, and if you are holding anything in your hand that looks like food, they will try to take it from you. At the top you can go in the temple. When we were there the monks were doing a service (I don't know if that's what you call it) but they were chanting and hitting very loud drums, it was amazing to watch. Then just outside of the temple are lots of shops where you can buy stuff, awesome picture and statues. When we were standing there three monkey got in a huge fight and starting howling and screaming at each other, they jumped up on a table knocking it over and climbed up the wall. It was CRAZY!

After the monkey temple we came back to town and got our SIM cards for our phones and got information on any extra activities we want to do. I found a couple people that are going to do the jungle elephant safari with me. I can't wait!

Tonight after dinner we went out to a "club" where there was a band playing all the number one hit from America, John Mayer, The Door, Bob Marley, Sublime. They were pretty good.

Tomorrow we have class again we are going over culture stuff, and then going out to an authentic Napeli restaurant. I also believe that is when I will find out where I will be placed. It is strange thinking that I have not even started what I came out here to do and I am already having such a good time I can't even imagine how much better it is going to get.

I love and miss you all, I am having a great time!!

PS I wrote this over three days so if it changes from past to present that is why. :) Also, I am having a hard time uploading pictures I will get them up ASAP.

LOVE YOU!!

My First Post!

Day 1 October 27, 2011

I went to dinner last night with some of my family and a few good friends had a blast! Visited with my nieces and nephews, Love them sooo much!

Got up this morning to say good-bye to Amber before she went to school. Stopped off and said bye to Sarah. Mom and Dad drove me to the airport were we met up with Kristen, Jaxen, Heather and Zina. (I had a hard time looking at those kids without crying.)

Then with Jaxen and Zina waving and yelling “I love you Mandi”, I made it through the security line. I didn’t have to wait long before my flight from SLC left, headed for Denver. (yeah I hate when you have a flight to LA, but you have to go to Denver first, Really?) When I got to Denver, I found out that my flight to LA was delayed an hour, when I should have had just enough time to get to my other gate. Now what!? Fun times at the Denver airport. Finally made it LAX and had a 6 hour layover. That was mostly a good thing because I have never been to LAX and it took me a min to find out where I was going. It was 7pm (8pm at home) when I got here and I have not eaten all day. So I got something to eat and watched the last 2 and a half innings of the World Series game. I’m not a big baseball fan but I must say that was a fun game to watch in an airport (very loud men here).

It is now 11pm and I am sitting outside my gate, doesn’t board for another hour and a half, trying not to sleep because I have to change my sleep patterns.

This is probably the most boring first post I could have made. But a girl gets lonely traveling alone.

Day 2 (or 3?) October 29 2011 4:30pm Hong Kong time

So I made it to Hong Kong, and the longest lay over I have to my whole trip. I found that the airport has computers set up with free internet so I have been making some posts on FB. Not thinking about getting my computer out and seeing if I can get internet on it. Well I can!

I have been here for about 8 hours and have another 2 to go.

I have been people watching and reading a lot, I think it has been a good warm up for me, being in a place where the first langue isn't English. It's hard to eavesdrop when you can't understand what the people are saying.

The people here are really nice, I asked the man at the money exchange to only give me enough Hong Kong money for a phone call and lunch. haha

Speaking of lunch I had a choice between McDonalds or about 5 Chinese places, so I was brave and had a beef and noodle dish. All they gave me to eat with was chop sticks and a little spoon. I was kind of nerves cause I am not the best with chop sticks especially eating noodles. But I didn't get any funny looks and none of my noodles ended up on the ground so I think I did alright.

I promise my posts will get more exciting as time goes on, I guess I don't do well sitting around airport.

Love you all and talk to you soon!

PS Someone remind me to pack some deodorant in my carry-on on the way home.