Name: Becky
Occupation: Student/Occassional Auxiliary Nurse/ABA Therapist/Serial traveller/owner of itchy feet
Home Towm: Bangor, North Wales
Current Location: Bangor
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Ben
Carl
Harriet
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Lou
| Saturday, October 20, 2007 |
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Argh I'm old!
Not 25 years old though as one of my children suggested! Have had a very pleasant birthday so far- was woken by a text from 'All your brothers at MSCC' at 6:30, followed by the youngest girl shouting 'appy berday aunty' through my window! Have just been to my travel agent friend's house for tea and to confirm all my activities. Tomorrow I head back to KTM for the night, before being wisked off to the Tibetan border in the (very) early hours of the morning, for two days of "100% Adrenaline'" rafting. Then back to the city for some day trips around the valley and a four day hike around the valley rim. At the start of November I'm off to Pokhara with two Finish girlsa who visit the orphanage. They are staying for 9 days and I'm staying on for another few days before a two day journey back to KTM. The following Monday I go to Chitwan for four nights, coinciding with the World Elephant Polo Championships, followed by a couple of nights back in KTM before a possible trip to Tibet for two weeks! After that back to MSCC and then maybe I might think about coming home! The past few weeks have not been quite as exciting, but very interesting. Have ventured back into the smog of the city a few times- went to Swaymbounath with two of the girls as it was Sunita's 21st, yesterday went for a wander around Tamel with another two girls just for fun. The streets were packed with goats, ducks and chickens all being sold as sarificesas its a big festival time here at the moment. One of our Hindu neighbours was partaking in this custom yesterday morning in the middle of the road, so I had the delightful pre-breakfast entertainment of seeing a goat beheaded! Also spent a morning in Thamel with Kumar- one of the older 'children' (he's 25!), but works for a charity (that Bishnu is president of) working with street kids- and another of the not quite so old boys, Dinesh. We were meant to be findinmg kids to take to a street kid centre, but they all seemed to be hiding. If I have any spare time might be going again. When I haven't been galavanting around town, an average day is something like this: 5 am: kids get up, and try not to wake me 6-7:30: If I'm not already up Tika comes and bangs on my door shouting 'Ista, Ista- kum' followed by "How are you?" when I let her in. 8:30: Wash outside under the hose followed daal bhat (see below) eaten with my hand- I think I'm now making less mess than Niki (aged 2, been feeding herself for about a week) does! 9: Every few days have a (hopefully) hot shower, arguemnts follow over who's turn it is to do my hair! 10:15: walk the children to school with Tika(one of the other little girls and my new sister!). 10:30-1: Lessons for either Tika or Suntia (21 but needs help with her written English and is learning to use the computer) 1-2: Lunch of dried noodles, noodles soup, or biscuits of some sort and tea. 2-4: Do work for Bishnu 4-6: Help the kids with homework, apart from Nepali- still getting to grips with that. 6-6:15: Devotion 6:30: Second meal of daal bhat. 7-8: Watching Nepali TV, chatting to the kids in their rooms, or playing 'Find Tika/Becky' (like hide and seek but only one of us is hidden by everyone else and the other has to find them!) 8: Chase Tika and Niki around outside with the boys and try to shut them in the house, before going to my room! 8-10: Write in my diary, make/recieve phone calls if I'm lucky, read (Currently on 'What Maisey Knew') and listen to my Zen- I'm working my way through every album in alphabetical order, currently on 'Debut'. (thank you for the speakers Luke!) As you can see I've been eating lots of daal bhat (lentil soup and rice) and veg curry(they makes chilli a la Luke seem bland!), often with extra pickles or relishes which the children take great delight in feeding me! Other favorites include something like rice krispies and dry super noodles mixed with chillies (usually about 4 green and a red for a large cereal bowl of rice stuff), tomatoes, onions and lime juice, and chrushed chillies (see a pattern here?!) mixed with sugar and a fruit thats like grapefruite but bigger and green! Other Nepali habits I have adopted are using squatty tolilets- not as bad as you might think, except at 4 in the morning when I can barely stnd upright let alone squat!- and a Nepali name -Ful Maya- prize if you know what it means! Photos will hopefully be coming tomorrow- watch this space! 10:39 AM Comment (3) ... PermaLink |