The bus trip from Pokhara back to Chitawan wasn't much fun. My allocated seat on the bus had a back that would spring back and forth on the tiniest of bumps. Apart from feeling like an unwilling passenger on the world's shittest rollercoaster it also made a loud creak every time it moved (which turned out to be about once every second over the 5hr trip). I tried to sleep but the seat kept talking to me - It had nothing interesting to say. In fact it had a limited vocabulary and was rather repetitive.
I endured that contraption for about the first 3 hours until I got an opportunity too good to miss - a chance to move from the worst seat on the bus to the second worse! This seat was in the back row and had an opposing problem to seat-horror number one. The seats in the back row had no tilt function whatsoever and remained in their (very) upright position.
*this days journal entry ended ubruptly here. . . recalling the seat and writing about it probably rendered me far too annoyed to continue writing*
You'd think that after an eventful day and a night of drinking that I'd sleep like a log - I didn't. My sleep was on and off and not in the least bit revitalizing. It was probably the sleep deprivation that made my hangover today so dreadful. For breakfast I had a plate of scrambled nausea gulped down with a steaming cup of pain. I followed that with several hours lying about pondering self-termination and at about 3pm (when I felt almost human again) we caught a taxi back to the school in Parsha.
The evening was a little odd. I had my second bout of homesickness and it hit me hard. I spent a lot of time on the roof my myself and a lot of time whinging to Guy. In retrospect my worries at the time were petty (lost car and scooter keys/financial situation etc) but an accurate account of my Nepal experience deserves the mention of the aporia I felt this night.
It did not help that the daal baht served this evening had graduated from the class of 'uncomfortable' into 'painful' territory. I was not a happy chappy.
It's uncharacteristic for me to stay in a bad mood for long and this time it was Guy that helped to lift my spirits. He shares a similar sense of humor to me and he couldn't have picked a better night for joke telling. 3 Jokes I'll take home to Australia with me.
1) Vicious Circle (Just ask)
2) Dead Thing (again, just ask)
3) A man walks into a bar with his pet giraffe. He orders a drink and the giraffe curls up on the floor asleep. The bartender quips while pointing to the animal 'you can't leave just leave that lyin' there!' To which the man replies indignantly 'It's not a lion, it's a giraffe!'
^So maybe it doesn't work as well written down. :P
Today was our first day of actual volunteer work. We were shown some half completed classroom foundations and instructed to fill them with gravel.
The work was difficult but it could have been far worse. When I had heard that we'd be shoveling gravel I'd imagined lots of small rocks - in reality it was half sand half medium sized rocks. After a while you forget that you are shoveling and settle into a rhythm.
A 13 year old Nepalise boy helped us shovel for a while and did so with incredible vigor and strength. I struggled to keep up with him despite his tiny frame.
We ended up finishing about half the shoveling today, putting us far ahead of shedule (Bal planned for 7 days of shoveling).
In the afternoon we played hacky-sack with the children (a game they play a lot of in Nepal). The hacky-sack is made out of a small bunch of rubber bands. Some of the children can kick the hacky-sack into the air 20-30 times without having it hit the ground. I struggled to get 4-5. Nepalise children play very co-operatively I have noticed: both in the volleyball and the hacky-sack.
Next we played around doing cart-wheels and flips and walking on our hands.
A girl named Supi (who has VERY good English skills) had transcribed the Australian National Anthem in english in preparation for my arrival. Given her efforts I could hardly refuse to sing it for her. This led me to being brought back to their dorm rooms and having to sing it over and over again. It was a small price to pay for the privilege of being invited into their dorm rooms.
In the girls dorm room Supi tried her best to teach me Nepalise and I feel that I am slowly learning. The children are good teachers and are very patient.
That's Supi in the middle ^^.
Later on Guy and I rushed into town to have a quick beer before dinner, stopping on the way to buy some candles (to get us through the nightly power cuts - 'load shedding' as they call it). On the way home, however, Guy and I hit a crossroads - Both literally and figuratively speaking. He was certain that we should take a left and I was equally certain that we should take a right turn. It didn't help our decision that it was pitch black apart from our measly torchlight.
I gave Guy the benefit of the doubt and we went left only to find ourselves lost in the dark at night in the Nepalise countryside. We were both becoming quite worried. In an incredible stroke of luck we came across a local who was not only friendly but spoke english. He escorted us back home and explained that in Nepal "guests are gods" so tourists need not worry in Nepal. When we arrived home we tried our best to express our gratitude to the friendly local. I kept repeating "dahnyabahd" (thank you in Nepalise) and Guy gave him cigarettes as a parting gift.
Our Nepalise family was not very happy with us because we were home an hour past dinner time. We offered them the candles we'd bought as a sort of reconciliation gift and they served us our daal baht nontheless.
Overall and interesting day.
Today we got up at 5:30am to get to Kathmandu so that we could catch the bus to Chitawan. The bus ride was long (6 hours) but we stopped for lunch (daal baht or course) along the way.
The school in Chitawan (or more preciesly 'parsha') is lovely, as is the rest of the landscape in Chitawan. Unlike Kathmandu there are many trees in Chitawan and it is common to see fields of grain and vegetables.
On arriving at the school Guy and I were bombarded with excited children who fired questions at us in astonishingly well spoken English. Because both Guy and I have long hair they think we are rock-stars and actors; they also call us 'sir'.
We played volleyball with the kids and were amazed at their skill level. They play better than most of us did back at school (in grade 12) and they are, on average, about 8 years old. One boy called 'Ramesh' became particularly attached to me and promptly declared that I was his best friend. He followed me around all afternoon, it was kinda nice.
We wandered into the village and had a beer and then came back to endure a daal baht thats heat rivaled the sun. Lava wishes that it was as hot as this daal baht. . . ok, so it probably wasn't that hot but still, far too 'piro' ('spicy' in Nepalise) for me. Other than that it was definitely the tastiest ('mitho') daal baht I'd had since being in Nepal.
<----- That's daal baht. We ate it twice a day, everyday.
It's quite warm in Chitawan, t-shirt and shorts weather.
