Home Away From Home

Time for a quick update and some pictures of my new home! Life has been going great here...an already going by so fast! Language is progressing, and I am feeling more and more comfortable in Godavari, and getting a little better at navigating the city. Final exams were just held at the school, so now there is a month break for my roommates until we start school again in mid-April. The next month has a number of things in store for me. I will do my homestay with a local Nepali family to give my language progress a boost and to experience the culture and Nepali life more intenstly. There are also plans in the works for trekking around the 1st of next month so I will keep my fingers crossed for that!

This is our house! It was orginially built as a summer palace for a wealthy family. The botanical gardens spread out behind our house so it really can be a haven for people who live in the city. We live on the top floor and two Nepali families share the first floor.

These pictures show off our kitchen! Above is our fridge/food pantry! We usually go to the local shops for fresh vegetables and fruit is available in the city. You might notice the lack of refridgerator, but with fresh produce and powdered milk there isn't much that would go in the fridge. Things like eggs and cheese really don't need to go in a fridge...but I think right now our house stays cold enough that it almost acts like one in the kitchen at night. We do not have running water in the kitchen so this is our sink! We use the buckets to wash dishes with and the water just drains out to the yard. To the left of the sink we have a stove top with two burners...but no oven. However, volunteers over the years have figured out how to use our biggst pots as a sort of dutch oven that cooks up tasty brownies!

And last, a picture of one of my first attempts at hand washing laundry. We have a shower/laundry room that works for the job. Just soak the clothes in buckets, scrub out dirt and stains with soap and a brush on the floor, rinse with the shower tap or in buckets, hang on the roof...and you have clean clothes!!

Thanks for checking in! I hope everyone back home is doing well and I appreciate the emails I have been receiving from you!