St. Xavier's - My School

Welcome to SXG (St. Xavier's Godavari)! I hope you enjoy the pictures and mini tour of my school. I think it can give you a decent idea of our environment at the school....well, minus the students, but I don't think I could potray that through a blog even if I tried! The sign at the gate.

The walkway entering the school....this is the first building you would walk past and another one identical would be on your right side as well.

After passing the between the first two buildings you are in the main part of the campus. This hall is used for art classes and music. (I think...I have yet to go in it!)

To the right is the building for class 8 and the building at the back is the main office and the staff room. We have staff rooms with our desks because we do not stay in one class room...the students stay put during the day and the teachers rotate in to teach their subject. I don't really like it, but I'm getting used to it....definitely keep the day busy and interesting!

This is one of the oldest and main buildings. This is Xavier Hall and it is now the residence for the six Jesuit brothers and priests and at the back is the teachers canteen (where we eat our dal bhaat for lunch everyday).

This blacktop is soon to become my domain! I will be coaching the girls basketball teams...grades 6-10 and this is our main court. The building to the left has two computer labs and a science lab and at the back is the students lunch canteen.

You can see this wall right when you enter the main capus. Live for God, Lead for Nepal has been the motto for the school since it was started. Many of the teachers and students are very proud of SXG and this saying. A lot of our students do go on to be successful leaders in and around the Kathmandu Valley.

This is the lower staff room, which is where my desk is. It is really close to my homeroom class that I start with each morning so that is nice. Also, this is the second basketball court, but the ping pong tables in the background get a lot more use!

This is the back of Loyola hal, which was in an early picture, and the volleyball court. I think we have a boys volleyball team but not a girls team.

Babu

Just thought I would share a picture of one of my neighbors! This is Oasis...better known as Babu, which is what all little boys are called here as a term of affection for little brothers or sons in the family. As I mentioned before, two Nepali families share our house. Babu obviously belongs to one of them:) He is about 18 months old right now and at such a fun age. He has figured out how to come upstairs to our floor...not always a good thing, but he tends to melt my heart so I don't mind. He calls me Emily Miss and has started giving me kisses on whatever part of my face he can name...ears, eyes, cheeks! I can't imagine what he will be doing and saying a year from now when I'm getting ready to leave.

City Streets

Hey Everyone! Thanks again for checking in on me and sending me emails with updates from home. I feel like I'm always trying to catch up with emails or putting pictures online, but what to do...slow and steady wins the race, right?

I officially live in the village of Godavari which is just south of Kathmandu. The situation with pubic transportation is just a little different from home! I have to go to the city often for my language classes. The Godavari "bus park" (a open area of dirt at a T in the road) is just a 2 minute walk from my doorstep. I hop into one of these micros and am delivered to the Lugenkhel bus park. Now, don't just going thinking the micros are just like a mini-van. These bad boys some how seem to consistently fit 20+ adults, make it up and down the hills to Godavari without hitting any animals, people, or other vehicles, and only cost 15 rupees! Each trip is interesting to say the least.


I get off the micro at the end of the line in Lugenkhel bus park, which is the hub for activity in the south part of the city. The entire south part of Kathmandu is actually really old and used to be an independent city known as Patan. Patan is now considered part of Kathmandu, but if you are in that area...you call it Patan because it is still pretty distinct. Not only can you find buses, micros, and tuk tuks to just about anywhere from Lugenkhel, you can also take care of your shopping at the same time! To the right you can see pictures of fruit and veggie stands, which further down turn into clothes. Then, if you hang a right, you walk into the crowd in the picture below. The whole street is line with shops and street vendors down to Patan's Durbar Square. The shopping area is known as Mangal Bazar, and I have already purchased one sweet pair of chapals (the local cheap plastic sandals that everyone wears for everything) and a great shawl to keep me warm in our chilly house.

Throughout Kathmandu, there are many temples, square's, marque's, etc. Each major area of the city seems to have a main square. (Don't quote me on this because I'm still learning my way around!) But, on my way to language, I run into Patan Durbar Square, which you can see in the picture. There are actually several more really cool building that help make up the whole square but I couldn't fit them in one pictures. If you are interested in more pictures, just look up Patan online and you will usually see pictures of this square.
And, if I need to walk to new places in the city, there are lots of very helpfull street signs that assure I will find my way.

I also get the pleasure of walking down a great little street known as butcher's ally. Early in the morning, I often get to see large buffalo bodies being disassembled or maybe smaller animals like goats, which are displayed for you to view and purchase. Or, if you prefer chicken, you can choose your dinner from one of the baskets below and they can kill and pluck if for you right on the spot.

Picture from butcher's ally.

To the left, is a picture of another main type of public transportation in the city. These little guys are called tuk tuks and run routes all over the city. You can just wave one down and hop in the back, and once you get to your stop, bang your knuckles on the roof and the driver will let you out.

This last pictures is just a typical set of buildings along a main road. The shops usually go up most of the floors.

I hope you like the pictures! Next, I will try to get up pictures from a home stay I did last week. I stayed with a Nepali family in Godavari and experienced much more of how local people actually live.

I still do not know what I will be teaching, but classes start on the 15th so hopefully my next update will also bring news from the school!

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!

Chitwan National Park

My second weekend in Nepal I was very lucky to take a trip to Chitwan National Park. Through a friend of a friend of the JVs...something like that...I met a woman who works at a travel agency and was headed to the park to check out a lodge. I was invited to tag along!! The park is in south central Nepal on the border with India and even though I only got to go for one night...it was AMAZING!

Why am I making this face????

Because I'm was riding this elephant....AND.....

....watching this rhino!!!

On Sunday morning in Chitwan, we took canoes to check out the crocodiles in the river...and saw lots of wild birds like peacocks in the trees.

Then we got to walk to an elephant breeding ground and check out some babies. The picture on the right is a set of twins...the first at the this breeding ground, which is supposed to be very auspicious, and the picture on the left is a 7-month old that was getting brave enough to wander away from his mother. I tried to feed it grass but he threw is on the ground:)

Even though we didn't have much time to venture far into the park, it was a great outing for the weekend! I got to see lots of the Nepal countryside and the big difference between the hill region where I live, which runs through the center of Nepal and the Terai or plains region which is in the south. And, I got to see lots of elephants and a few other exotic animals. The elephants really were cool. They were walking around town, carrying big loads, and we even saw people washing their elephants in the river!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Take care back home and feel free to drop me a note anytime:)

Starting Life in Nepal

Namaste from Nepal! I have officially been in the country 16 days and am going to make my first attempt to get some thoughts and pictures out to everyone back home! As you can imagine, a lot has happened over the past couple of weeks, so I will try to organize my thoughts and update you along the way with what I have forgotten:)

The trip over went great, and I made it with no major mishaps...quite the accomplishment if you know my track record with flights and airports. Over the course of my first week, I was introduced to my house, roommates, Godavari (our town), St. Xavier's (our school), and lots and lots of Nepali culture.


Our house is a mixture of blessings and frustrations. I will make sure to get pictures up on another post. The house is big, especially for Godavari...but cold. We have running water, but only in the bathroom and shower...not in kitchen. (I never thought a kitchen sink could be such a wonderful sight.) The neighbors are great! Two Nepali families live on the first floor of the house and we have the second floor. My roommates have also been wonderful and I am excited to be sharing this experience with people who have already made me feel at home. The school is a very short walk from our house, and my few short visits have already made me love the students. They are full of smiles, Hello Misses, and candies for your pocket even if they don't know you. The food is also good...yummy, spicy, and filling...I just don't know how to cook any of it yet. One major accomplishment was also taking my first try at washing clothes...we have to do it by hand and hang it out to dry, but overall it was a successfull attmept.


Two of the only negative parts of living in Godavari right now are 1) we have major hours of load shedding right now, which are power outages and means we only have power about 4-6 hours a day and 2) our phone line has been cut...literally the physical line in the village was cut and stolen and there has not been very promising news about it getting replaced.


My first weekend, we got to hike to the next village over and spend a night in Lamatar. One of the in-country Jestuits has helped establish a guest house in Lamatar and it is a great treat when we get to be the guests! Fr. Greg has been here for years and filled me full of lots of Nepali history and the food cooked up by Chundra was amazing! I also got my first decent view of the Himals from Lamatar. They are usually hidden from view in Godavari by a massive cloud of dusty, smoggy, hazy, polluted air that hangs over Kathmandu.





THE HIMALS!!!



I have also started language training which has been good because language is a major barrier for me right now, but it is also difficult. The Nepali language has a different alphabet and script which I am trying to learn on top of conversation. It is slow going!



Godavari is about a 30 mintues bus ride south of Kathmandu and it is great to live outside of the city, which can be pretty loud and crazy. Our house is surrounded by a big open lot where the local animals have free run. The only horse in the area tends to just wander to the field eat and wander home each night...we don't really know where he comes from but he lets me pet him. The goats are also quite entertaining at times...getting heads stuck in buckets, climbing through gates, jumping up trees. And, the horse and goats are joined by numerous cows and dogs on any given day. We also have some pretty but very loud green parrots that like to visit our trees during the day.

Overall, things have been going great! With the power outages and lack of computer access, my blog posts and emails may be sporadic but I will do my best. As I get more settled and comfortable, I will also take more pictures and get them posted so you can see the house, school, and village.

You are in my thoughts!
Emily

The Things I Will Miss

As my bags are packed and my plane ticket is in hand, I can't help but think of the things to which I am saying goodbye. I thought I would share with you a little taste of the home I will miss on those rough days.

Family. My mom and dad have always been the incredible support that holds me up through good times, tough times, big decisions, and life changes.

My brother has always been someone I look up to, and he has now started his own beautiful family with his wife Becky and brand new baby Riley.

My Dogs. I love animals and these pooches are perfect to keep me company during a day at home or to go outside and play...and they are AWESOME bird hunters.

Montana. I am more and more awed every time I come home to Montana. The mountains, the sky, the people, and the places are one of a kind. I love the big outdoors here and will miss everything from riding horses and helping my dad with cows to camping and hiking.

The little collection of buildings to the right is my hometown of Moore.

A gorgeous sunset just outside of town. And...I'm not a very good photographer so imagine in person!

Turning the horses out into a new pasture. The sky is hazy in the summer during harvest when a lot of dust gets in the air.

Friends. I will also miss all of my close friends from high school, Gonzaga, my year in Bridgeport, and new ones I have made being back home. I love you all and am thankful for your friendship and support. I will save pictures for another time, but you all know who you are!

Thanks for checking out my pictures. I love coming home to such an incredible place and such amazing people. Even though it's hard to say goodbye, I'm happy to have such great people to miss while I am gone. I am very excited to get to Nepal and will do my best to post some very different pictures in the near future!