About Elephants

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

-disclaimer: I have not slept at all since 6am yesterday morning, so please excuse any incoherencies, and the fact that this is so short, and more of a boasting post than anything else - I feel fine but I don't think my brain is working as usual, but as usual I have no time!-

I know I'm going to be gushing a bit but they are so cute!!!!!!!!!!

After getting the visa process started on Monday (fingers crossed it'll all be ready tomorrow!), we had 3 days to spare in Kathmandu. In the usual way, we decided at the last minute Monday afternoon to spend those 3 days in Chetwan Wildlife Park, where we could go on an elephant ride. That we even managed to find anywhere open was lucky, as there was a strike happening on Monday (still don't know why, despite making several inquiries). Anyway, it was amazing!!!! Yesterday, we played in a river with the elephants, got to see the breeding centre (they had 2 twins and a baby elephant that was only 6 months old! So tiny! And we were able to hug a baby elephant!!!!!!!) That afternoon we went on an elephant ride (on the same elephant we met that morning in the river - her name was Punam Kali, and she was so lovely and calm), which was actually not the most comfortable 2 hours of my life, but an unforgettable experience. We also saw rhinos that afternoon, which was absolutely amazing, and when I have more time to describe it fully, I will but for now I will just boast!

Another week goes by…

Meaning we have less time here! I knew that this would happen: I would get lulled into thinking that I’ll be here for ages and then suddenly there’s only a few weeks left before we have to go. I’m still shocked by it. Time is now going far too quickly. I don’t want to leave here. I must come back, as soon as possible.
This is a long post, to make up for last week’s being really uninspired.
This week was the last week of teaching. Classes went really well – I think everyone knows that it’s the end of term, and they were all on their best behavior, which only encourages my memories of them to be even more rose-tinted. I’m going to miss them all so much!!!!!!!!!
This week we’ve been mostly concerned with teaching, spending time with the boarders, helping out with cooking (Saru left, so now Mrs Thapa has to do all the cooking as well as all the other things she does), and typing up exams (there are roughly about 75 exams to type up – a big job). It hasn’t been all work though – on Monday we went to the wedding of the sister of one of the Blue Diamond Teachers. The most exciting thing about this was that we were able to wear our saris again!!!! Second best part was the food – absolutely amazing. I ate so much (I love how here it’s encouraged to pile your plate high with food and then go back for seconds – or thirds) that I felt ever so slightly ill the next day, but don’t regret a bite. If I don’t have an Indian wedding, I’m definitely having it catered Indian-style. It was a traditional Nepali wedding, but we were there purely for the food (as usual).

The rest of the week passed by in a blur of photo-taking (I made all of my classes decorate pretty nametags for themselves, and took pictures of them all, the plan being that I will never forget their names) and games (there was no way I was actually going to do anything but fun lessons in my last week!). I'm going to miss them all so much. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's true. They are so, so sweet!
And for those who are interested, a quick description of the food at the wedding:
The tamarind chutney they had was the best I’ve ever tasted (tamarind chutney being one of my new favourite foods), with chunks of ginger and peanuts (no seeds even) – I definitely need to learn how to make it. There was also veg biryani (had multiple helpings of that), a chicken and veg curry, mutton curry, deep fried fish, paneer curry, dal (soooooooo good!), tamarind chutney, celroti (we’ve seen that a lot at weddings), cucumber, deep fried bread with sesame seeds on top (incredible), and gulab jamun (Indian sweet – tasted kind of like a doughnut hole that had been soaked in sugar water so it was all gooey and delicious inside). I think I might be forgetting a dish. But it was all absolutely amazing. Just the memory of the food lasted me throughout the week.
Last weekend we stayed at a monastery near Pedong (where the dance festival was), where one of the other volunteers is teaching. It was really special, and I’m so glad we went. The monastery is tiny (there are only about 30 monks), and near a collection of houses that are too small to even be considered a village. It was really quiet (no trucks!) and peaceful, especially at night. The area is absolutely stunning – they’re surrounded by mountains, so the view is outstanding, and the land is really lush (all the plants are this brilliant shade of green). And it was wonderful to be able to spend time with the monks, who are so special. Because the monastery is so small, and the monks are all quite young (the oldest ones are early twenties, the youngest ones about eight or nine), it has a family feel to it.
The monks are all so sweet. They’re really happy and lighthearted, and so generous. When we first got there they were a bit shy, but several games of Junior Uno (not as much fun as regular Uno, I have to say) later, they all opened up and were cracking jokes all the time from then on. I don’t think I ever saw them not smiling or making jokes. We went for a walk in the evening, and it was just like a walk with the boarders – jokes, races, singing songs, making fun of each other – except that it was all 15 – 20 yr old men, as opposed to 12 year olds. They were all so, so nice. I feel so lucky that we were able to meet them.
This weekend we are in Nepal!!! Our journey worked quite smoothly - the 16hr bus ride was a bit of a bore, but had incredible views while we were in daylight (some of Nepal is really flat and hot, and then when we woke up this morning, we were in the mountains, and they completely magical). I'm liking Kathmandu so far. It's HOT here though - good practice for when we go off to do our "proper travelling". As much as I wasn't all that keen on going to Nepal (hassle, time that could be spent enjoying my last few moments in Ghayabari), I'm enjoying it now that we're here. I think it will be a good way of easing into the whole rhythm of travelling as well.

What we've seen so far of Kathmandu (not much), is that it's very touristy (I'm still finding that a bit of a novelty, and so quite enjoy it - I always play "guess the nationality" when I see biggish groups of tourists walking about), very dusty (lots of people walking around with those medical-looking facemasks - a little reminder of Vancouver), and full of little stupas (gompas/temples) everywhere. They all blend into the background, so you don't notice them at first.

Indian Embassy was closed this morning, so fingers crossed everything will work out smoothly tomorrow. I have a bad feeling that we'll have to be here for about a week (HOPEFULLY not longer - am desperate to get back to the school), but we've got a few ideas of what we'd like to do here in that time, so it should hopefully be a good one.

Pictures to come...later!

Quick, boring update

Really quick one this week. We're in Darjeeling right now, and are going to go stay in a monastery in Pedong (near Kalimpong) for a night tomorrow.
This week hasn't been all that eventful. I'm so (SO) glad that there's only one week of teaching left! I feel a bit bad about that, but my inspiration suddenly died this week, and I'm finding it really difficult to come up with anything that remotely resembles creative ideas. The students have exams starting on the 15th, and we've started to help with typing them all up. It sounds like we won't have so much to do once exams do start, which is why the current plan re:visa problem is to head off to Nepal next weekend. I'm not really looking forward to it, but hopefully it will all work out smoothly.
It seems my inspiration for blog posts has gone the way of my lesson planning, so I'm going to finish now!

Long gap!

Something Anila (runs the teashop) always says when we haven't been for a few days!

It's big though, to make up for it.

So, what have I done in the 2 weeks since the last time I posted?

Lots and not much, in the usual way.
Last week (ie, 2 weeks ago), passed by in a mad blur of song and dance. We taught a (Western) song, and learnt a (Nepali) dance to perform for the opening of a children’s park in Tindharia. It was frantic, it was stressful, but we managed to pull it off, and it was really fun (in the end).

Teaching the song was quite fun. The students learnt “We are the World”, which the teachers chose but which we ended up teaching (I’m sure I remember the other teachers asking us to *help* teach the song, not teach it on our own! It was fine, and we didn’t mind at all, but their idea of “help” is clearly different from ours). Because they had so little time to learn it (less than a week), we ended up teaching it to them instead of our afternoon classes (all of our loud, noisy classes with the younger ones are in the afternoon, so this was a welcome change!). And since the general order of things is to be as last minute as possible with just about everything, everyone was quite used to the pressure, and they learnt the song really quickly.
Learning the dance was a wee bit more stressful. I am not a natural Nepali dancer (actually, I’m not much of a dancer, period. I’ve got to say, I’m quite disappointed by the fact that my years of synchro experience have not crossed over into a natural aptitude for dance). And our dance teacher is a natural dancer of all styles, and couldn’t quite understand why I didn’t remember every step she did (after only demonstrating once – grumble grumble). Nepali dance is easy, if you’re Nepali and can understand the lyrics (and have been doing Nepali dance since you were tiny, like most of the people seem to have done here). However, I am not Nepali (and my understanding of Nepali is shockingly bad), so I did find it quite difficult. On Saturday I was frustrated (I’d actually really wanted to learn a Nepali dance, but not in so little time), on Sunday I needed a drink more than I ever have before (would I ever learn it?), on Monday I had a tiny glimmer of hope that I might actually manage to do something vaguely resembling a dance on Friday, but on Tuesday I sunk back into depression (practice did not go well, and we only had a few days left). Somehow, however, I managed a breakthrough, and by Thursday felt ok. We certainly weren’t going to be perfect, but at least I could go through the dance without blanking out and staring desperately at our teacher (who never looked impressed). We did a dress rehearsal on Thursday for the school, and it went well.

Our dance teacher wasn’t nearly as horrible as I’ve made her out to be. She actually is so sweet, it’s just that her style of teaching is very different from anything I’m used to, and she wasn’t into baby steps when it came to learning the dance. She also knew very little English (so she actually taught us more Nepali than anyone else has done), which meant that everything she said was really blunt and exaggerated (“That’s WRONG!” accompanied by semi-disgusted laughter)
The programme itself was a typical opening ceremony – lots of speeches (made even more tedious by being in Nepali, so we had no hope of understanding them),and dances by other schools. The big event was that BBC World was filming it – the announcers made the poor camerapeople (man and woman) come up to the stage to be acknowledged – they were clearly more comfortable to be on the other side of the camera! The students sang really well though. It dragged on for a bit, and we were to be the special event at the end, which made it feel even worse (it was really hot, and the speakers were really loud = splitting headache to accompany the boredom). Our performance went really well though. The students all cheered really loudly. The event was pretty much over after we danced, and we had masses of people coming up to take our picture. It was all really fun in a slightly embarrassing way (I was dressed as a Nepali man, complete with facial hair).
We went to a student from Regal Academy’s house to have tea straight after (still in full Nepali dress). It was quite funny – he did NOT recognize us, and looked completely terrified to see these strange people sitting in his living room. Apparently after we left, he told his parents: “those are not my ma’ams”! So funny,
We then headed straight off to Darjeeling (after quickly changing out of the costumes, and washing off the mustache). It was just us two, hanging out, eating lots and doing some shopping, and it was the perfect way to end the week. That evening we went to a posh hotel called the Windamere for a pink gin. It was pricey, but so worth it, and we ended up meeting a guy there who goes to UBC! Love the random connections. He was really nice and we ended up meeting up with him the next afternoon.
On Saturday we went to the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre in the morning. It was really interesting, and lovely and quiet. We poked our heads in a few of the workshops, and it was really nice to watch everything being made. The carpet workshop stood out - it must take so much patience to make them, as hours of work goes into them. The gift shop was a disappointment - bit of a missed opportunity there - after spending time watching people make gloves and carpets and shoes, we really wanted to buy something to support them, but everything was hidden away in piles behind glass, and staff weren't exactly jumping to show things either. Funny moment in the shop though - we walked in and there was this large family of Bengali tourists, who immediately all wanted to take our picture (and kept thrusting forth small children to pose with us). Apparently I was "Barbie". Not sure how to take that!

Sunday was also a slow day, but we were incredibly lucky as Mrs Thapa happened to have come up to Darjeeling so we hitched a ride back with her in the school van (well timed, as we'd run out of cash!).

This week has had its events as well. On Monday a cyclone hit Kolkata, and the storm made its way up to us on Tuesday. This meant no school (howling winds and pouring rain all day) on Tuesday, but also no water and no electricity for 4 days. The past 3 evenings we ate by kerosene lamp. It was really nice actually, and slightly disappointing when the power did go back on! New house shirts arrived for the students this week as well, and Mr Thapa (so generous), gave us a shirt each. I'm now a member of Orchid house, and am very proud of my green and white shirt. They look really smart, and the students all look really good in them.

This weekend we're at the school. Didn't really feel like going anywhere, and travel would have been difficult anyway. Our area was fine after the storm, but there've been lots of landslides, and I think over 60 people have died due to the storms in West Bengal (with some still missing).

The big thing for us now is: only 4 weeks left!!!!!! Can't believe it! And only 2 weeks of teaching (actually, I'm quite pleased by that) - they have exams in the last 2 weeks of June, which we'll be around to help.

You're lucky that the UBC Courses website is so slow to load

And that I'm a compulsive multi-tasker.

Very basic, barebones update of the weekend:

• Friday: found out that there is to be a programme in Tindharay in which Blue Diamond is going to perform an English song and dance on the 24th. Guess who's been asked to teach the children the song? Thankfully, the other teachers came up with the song they'd like to be taught, and then chose the children to sing it. Also managed to download it successfully - Michael Jackson et all's "We are the World". Started learning a Nepali dance, which is also to be performed at the programme. Because of the height difference, we're performing a love duet, and guess who gets to be the boy? I feel like I'm back in gr 6, learning dance in a class where there are almost twice as many girls as boys.
• Saturday: Start teaching the song to the children. Goes well, until we find the programme's been moved to Friday. Oh, and did I mention that BBC World is apparently filming this? Stress!!! Especially when that means we have less than a week to learn a 5 and a half minute Nepali dance routine. And I've found out that learning Nepali dance is not one of my strong points (far from it!!!). It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the disgusted looks the dance teacher gave me every time I asked her for any sort of clarification or repetition of steps... having looked forward to learning the dance, it was a bit of a let-down.
• Sunday (today): woke up in a foul mood and experienced major panic stations and stress in the morning as I attempted to learn my steps from a recording I made on my camera when the camera battery ran out. Had a really really nice day though - went down to Jogmaya tea estate, where Mr Thapa grew up and where a lot of the students are from. Visited one of the teachers and some of Mr Thapa's relatives, as well as took a personal tour around the factory to watch the tea being made (took lots of photos, so hopefully will be able to post something related to that at some point). Practiced Nepali dance for about 5 hours in the afternoon, and now think that I just may be able to pull this off without standing blankly onstage or anything like that. Phew! Had a really nice evening after that.
• Tomorrow: help! Haven't planned for lessons! And it's late here so ending now, without the photos I'd hoped to post...
• 6 weeks left! Oh no!

I hate computers and how they crash

Or rather, I hate how patchy voltage makes them crash. Had a wonderfully long post half-written (making myself hungry writing about food), but think I may've lost it, which is annoying. I'm trying to upload photos instead, and since pictures can be worth a thousand words, hopefully this will be a suitable replacement. Having spent close to an hour on my lost post, I don't really want to spend more time on it, and I need to do fun (and mildly stressful) things like choose courses for next year and figure out what to do about my visa. It worked though! Woohoo!
Pankaj's birthday party

I really want to go to more Indian weddings

This pretty much sums up life at Regal Academy

Another Quick Blog Post

Just trying to make the most of internet at the school while the connection appears to be working, but in the usual spirit of things, I’m completely pressed for time! I don’t know how it seems to be getting worse, but it is. My list of things I need to do on the internet grows longer and longer, and things get checked off it less and less frequently. But enough complaining from me, and more news instead.
Last weekend I left the internet café more frustrated than usual (slow internet connection can sometimes make my blood boil), but Mr Thapa is full of surprises and has an uncanny way of making the day turn around. After having a quick cup of tea and samosa in Kurseong, we headed back (“we have to be back for lunch”, he said) to the school. On the way, however, we made a quick stop at a tea estate that’s about halfway between Kurseong and Ghayabari. The quick stop for Mr Thapa to drop off a few letters turned into a 2 hour visit with some of his friends. They were so incredibly sweet. Being in the middle of a tea estate, we had a cup of some of the best tea I’ve ever tasted (I may have said I’ve had incredible tea before, but this really was the best), and they kept serving us more and more snacks. They then took us all out for a walk through the estate, which is absolutely gorgeous, with amazing views. It had rained in Kurseong, so the air was really clear, and we could see for miles (absolutely kicking ourselves for not bringing a camera). We walked for about an hour, through the village, the tea, a bit of jungly bits, and past a few waterfalls. It was so beautiful. It seems to happen a lot here, that we’ll spend a bit of time in an area that we may have passed through many times before (many times have we passed that bit of road on the way to/from Kurseong, but had we ever given it a second glance?), and find that there’s a whole world that we had never seen before.
Anyway, we missed lunch obviously, coming back just in time for another cup of tea (I never say no to tea, so I was happy), before going back to visit Shanta Bawan (the Mother Theresa home), which is always wonderful. The second nun in charge is Nepali, and she is actually one of the nicest people ever. There are some people who just leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling, and she’s one them.
This week has gone quite well. It’s been very much a “just plugging along” sort of week, but that’s ok. I appreciate how normal it feels, really. Today we had a poetry recitation competition. In the usual way around here, even though it’s scheduled in the diary, the students were only told about it on Tuesday, so only had 3-4 days in which to prepare for it. I’m surprised anyone managed to memorize anything, but they all did really well, especially given that they were reciting a poem in their second language!
Tomorrow we’re going to visit the family home of the family who run the café up the road, which should be quite fun. It was another very last minute invitation, but I’m getting used to how everything around here is last-minute!
I feel like this is really badly written, but I can’t really be bothered to make it better I’m afraid!