Jan5/6

Jan 5 (Tues) 7:43 PM
We went on a city tour today (Andrew and I). We went to a famous/important Buddhist temple and Hindu temple. They are very different from each other. The Buddhist temple is also known as “the monkey temple” because there are a lot of monkeys there (lots of dogs too). The flags (5 colors) represent the five “parts” of humans or 5 “parts” of the earth. For instance, the blue meant sky and the yellow meant the body…I think. The guide spoke goo English, but not great English. The Hindu temple area you can’t go in so we walked around the area. The river going past is said to be holy water so they burn bodies and put the ashes into the river. It was overwhelming to watch people being burned even though they were pretty much all the way covered. They are dipped in the water until the entire family has gathered around and then placed on five levels of wood (that each represent something) and then burned. And people just sit and watch. And tourists take pictures.

After the tour, Andrew and I were taken to our host families. Mine is only 5 minutes from the school so I can walk there. Only the son knows English so he translates. He showed me around today and we are in a very neat part of town. I will enjoy walking around and exploring. My room is bigger than any other room I have had before with only a bed, bookshelf and closet. Pretty nice. Right now I am writing by candlelight because the city turns off lights for 8 hours a day. It is split into two 4-hour sections. It is fun because when the lights come back on everybody does a quick “yeah” and then continues doing whatever. I really like it here so far…and this home has real toilets!

Jan 6 (Wed) 8:45 PM
Today was the first day of school. It was stressful but fun. They wanted me to teach today but I have no idea what the students do and don’t know. It makes it difficult for me to teach productively. So today I just had a question/answer session in the classrooms about life in USA. Each class had one of two interested students. The rest like to make jokes and laugh in Nepali. I can’t tell if they like having me there or are simply unimpressed. I went to the market (fruit and veggies along the sidewalk) and saw that they measured weights by placing known weights on one place and hold up a balance to estimate. I am still tired but they don’t eat here until 9:00 PM. I think I might try and shower in the morning. Before I give my first actual lesson on the atmosphere.

They always ask my age, my family, and if I am married. When I tell them my sister is they get excited. Then they ask if I “have a partner.” One girl asked for David’s name and what qualities he had.