Trekking!!!!

Alright, I know these pictures have been a long time coming....but hopefully they are worth the wait! Before school started, I was able to get in my first trekking experience in Nepal. My roommate Pat and I went trekking on the Helambu circuit which is just north of Kathmandu. I was very, very happy to be trekking with someone who had already been out on the trails. Figuring out the transportation and lodging was a little intimidating, but Pat handled it like a pro, which made everything work out great. The trek took us 6 days and to be honest, it kick my butt pretty good. But, no matter, the sweat was worth it, the views and experience were great, and I can't wait to do another! So, let's get right to the pictures....


After taking three micros and a bus we arrived at the start of our trek and were met with a decent set of stairs (which I later realized was nothing compared to he next day). The start of the trek cut through the Shivapuri National Forest.

After trekking for most of the day, we made friends on the trail with a family walking up to their village. Let me preface this picture by saying that women in Nepal are awesome. They do most of the work in the fields and work incredibly hard. A teenage girl was carrying this bag of rice on her head up the hill to the village....we were told it weighed 30 kilos! Carrying heavy loads with a strap over the head is how almost everything is transported here....vegetables, wheat, bricks, dirt, and rice, and notice the huge pipe being carried by the Nepali man in the background whose load wheighed something close to 50 kilos. Pat wanted to try it out and carried the load for the last few hours of our hike...up a very steep climb! I barely made it up with my backpack and after a full day of walking was very happy for a rest.

We stayed with the family with who we were walking. Most of the village was related somehow. Chipling was just a small group of houses up on top of the hill surrounded by terraced fields. Villages on trekking routes usually have "lodges" like the picture here. The family usually has a few extra room in the house for trekkers. They provide tea, dinner, and breakfast...and you can usually negotiate a price around 200 or 300 rupees per person.

These are the kids of the family we stayed with. The oldest girl with the blue headscarf was the one carrying the bag of rice up the hill! The whole family was really nice, and we sat with them to share our rice and some very tasty meat with spinach!

The view out our window on the first morning. We had climed up through these fields the day before!

The next morning we set out for another long day of walking. After having a little confusion finding the trail, we reached the top of one of many hills and found this small temple, which I think is called a gumba surrounded by prayer flags. The prayer flags are Buddhist, but some places of prayer seem to have a mix of Hindu and Buddist symbols here.

After hiking out of the Shivapuri Forest, we were inbetween two different park areas. We reached the Langtang National Park during our second day, and our trek took us through the southern most part of the park. We did get some good views, but further north in the Langtang Park the Himals are really impressive.

We hiked on into the late afternoon on the second day, and I was beat! This small lodge we finally reached had never looked so good! I even fell asleep before dinner, but the lodge was nice and we had a good sleep.

Waking up to a view of the Himals the next morning was well worth the extra hours on the trail the day before!

Helambu Trek - Part II

Sorry to leave you hanging....here are more pictures to finish off the trek!
Alright..... our third morning on the trial got a some great views of the Himals. Although they were short live it was well worth it.

Beautiful!

This little lodge/stop was the highest point on our circuit...I think was over 10,000 feet. We did walk through some snow to get there. But, after a quick snack we headed on down to the next village for the night.

Taking a break on the descent down....although the hikes up the hill were tough, the downhill was pretty rough on the legs, knees, and feet. This is a good view of the village we stayed in.

The suspension bridges were pretty cool, but also a little scary. I didn't look down for too long!

This was one of the nicest places we stayed. The food was great and the town was in a beautiful setting. They also had an adorable puppy that I think they would have let me take home! I could even see the straw through the floorboards and smell the cows that stayed under the room we slept in....almost like home, but we usually only smell the cows when we are outside.

Some awesome prayer flags on our way out the next morning.

One of our only signs that gave directions. We were headed to Timbu, but unfortuntely the arrows pretty much pointed in random directions. At least that's what it looked like to us!

I don't have any pictures of our last night on the trail, but it is probably better left forgotten. The people weren't so nice, and our sleep was accompanied by rats. I never saw one of the little (well, I'm hoping little. the rat we found in our attic could have eaten a cat) buggers, but I definitely listened to them all night. Needless to say, we were out of there more than early the next morning, but this was the view from the next little village were we stopped for breakfast.

A cool looking part of the trail on our last day going down.

Most people use water buffalo here for farm work and we saw a lot of peole plowing fields on our last couple of days. It is all done by hand. So the man is using his weight to push a wooden or metal rod down into the mud (the fields are flooded first) behind the buffalo.

Well, that's all for the trek! We are heading out tomorrow for a reatreat in Lumbini - famous as the birthplace of Buddha. It is supposed to be hot and full of mosquitos this time of year but we are still looking forward to the rest and days off from school. We just finished our Term 1 exams and Pat and I both spent the last few nights correcting well over 300 tests!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

A Little More About School

I realized that neglected to mention the classes that I am teaching! The school system here is different and I could barely comprehend my schedule when I first got it, but I will do my best to make sense.

I start each day with Class 4 Science (Class 4 would be equivalent to 4th grade). The school has about 900 students and in the younger classes there are 3 sections for each grade. So I have science with all of Class 4, sections A, B, and C. I teach each of them 4 days a week. Then, my afternoons are crazy. I teach everything from Class 1 General Knowledge to Class 2 Library, and Class 4 Art. In all I see 12 sections of kids a week....if you think I know all of my kids names, not even close yet!...working on it though. One of my new favorites is a little boy named Brihat...he is in Class 2 and looks like an old man with chubby cheecks!

The building in the picture is where most of my classes are. My homeroom class is section 4B and they are in the downstairs hallway of this building.

So, my classes:
Science: Class 4 and one section of Class 2
Library: once section of Class 2, all of Class 3, and two sections of Class 4
Art: with my homeroom 4B
General Knowledge: all of class 1 and 2

You might be wondering what General Knowledge is....well, it is a wonderful subject that they have here, that involves me teaching everything from names of fruits, to which directions the sun rises to a room full of tiny children for 40 mintues. Let's just say it can be INTERESTING.

We are done with a month of school and I have given my first set of mid-term tests. The kids did fairly well, and I am confident that term tests will go even better now that we are used to each other. With classrooms of 32 kids, I'm getting a crash course in classroom management, but nothing to crazy has happened yet!

Sorry the blogs have been so sparse these days, but we have been having lots of difficulties from busy days at school, to no power, to transportation strikes. I will keep doing my best. Thanks again for all of your notes and love from back home. You are all in my thoughts!

Happy Memorial Day!

How You Can Help

Many of you have asked if there is something I need or something you could send that would be helpful. That is a difficult question to answer because there is often a difficult distinction between something I NEED and something that would be nice to have. However, now that I have started school, I have quickly come to realize that although we have some resources, we do not have an abundance of materials at the school here. The lack of materials, especially for the very young classes will definitely be stretching my creativity skills this year.

I have very few materials to keep the younger students busy in a constructive way. Plus, if I do find a good activity such as a dot-do-dot coloring work sheet, I usually cannot get enough copies or crayons for all the students.

So, here is how you can help:

First, find a good worksheet or activity that would be appropriate for approximately 1st and 2nd graders. Examples would be a coloring activity, dot-to-dot, naming and labeling, or a matching game.

Make 100 copies of the activity, which will be enough for all 3 sections of one class. If you have 2 activities, make the worksheet front and back! Twice the work occupies twice the amount of time.

If you do not have access to school materials such as worksheet, a set of coloring books would also be useful.

Also, I need crayons to hand out to the children. Take a set of crayons (used crayons will work just a good as new) out of the box and put them in a zip-lock bag.

How to get it here? The mail is somewhat inconsistent here, but we have good luck with the large, first class envelopes from the post office. Boxes do not seem to find their way to us. Put the papers or coloring books, plus the crayons (this is way I said to take them out of the box and put them in a zip-lock) in an envelope and mail it to:

Jesuit Volunteers International
Emily Roche
GPO 50
Kathmandu, NEPAL

Thanks so much for following along in my adventures. And, for those of you who decide to take on the challenge and mail me stuff for school, I will be indebted to you!

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!