Welcome
While Steve and I are appreciative of the opportunity to grow many new neurons in our brains as we learn the Nepali language, our heads are spinning like a top. The language is beautiful in its many consonants and verbs. The language has 6 verb tenses and each verb tense has another word ending to make it negative. Finally the pronoun is added with 6 options and 3 more if you are speaking about getting something or feeling something. The sentence is composed in the following sequence: pronoun-time-subject and then verb at the end. Prepositions, or sometimes postpositions, are added to the subject. You get the idea that Nepali requires a good memory! We take baby steps toward being able to communicate effectively.
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The pronunciation is another level of the language. Our ears are starting to hear all the nuances. Our mouths are slow to figure out how to form all the sounds. We are meet with many questioning looks as we speak Nepali. Often times we engender much laughter, which makes the learning entertaining.
Our fellow Peace Corps trainees voted Steve to be the person to give the speech of appreciation to our Nepali host families during the goodbye-thank you party as we move on to our permanent site. I am so proud of him especially since the speech needs to be in Nepali.
We have been learning how to grow mushrooms in a plastic bag, make a plastic low tunnel to extend the growing season, vermiculture, composting, and seedling nursery construction. The soil at our training site is mostly clay which requires much manure compost. Everything is done with very few tools and all people power
The pace of life is rhythmic and not stressful, even if the day is long. Most people are up by 6:00 as the sun is rising and go to bed after the last dhal bhaat (yes, their meals are called lentils and rice) as late as 8:30 (after milking the cow). There is always time to visit as you cross paths with neighbors on the road, by your house, in the field or at the market.
Nepal is proving to be a friendly place. Even though our language is lacking, we greet people with a friendly and respectful namaste!
Liisa
Since we’ve been in-country, there was an election that resulted in a shift from previous generations of political leaders to younger political leaders. Time will tell about their ability to change the socio-economic status of Nepal. Nepal has been an elected democracy starting in 2008, with a constitution in 2015. Amongst these early days of democratic government, they have also rebuilt from a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that resulted in 4,680 deaths, hundreds of thousands of homes/buildings demolished and over $10 billion in damages (50% of Nepal’s yearly GDP). What we’ve witnessed in our short time here are people that believe strongly in family bonds and making the best with what you have. Their genuine spirit, hard work, and resourcefulness combined with generous hospitality is truly remarkable.
Secondly, we’ve transitioned from trainees to volunteers. We feel very prepared for our two years of service, not because we’re language experts (very far from it), but that we have support from our host community, host family, Peace Corps staff and fellow volunteers. This entire assembly of support and passion for building peace in the world through friendships (Peace Crops mission statement plug) has been inspiring and humbling. Our host family during our training time opened their home and welcomed us into their family. We’re very grateful for all we’ve learned.
Next, during our first three months at our permanent site, our primary objective is continuing to improve our language skills and getting to know our Nepali community. This will mean drinking a lot of tea (Steve’s working on moving from pop to tea) with our neighbors, community members, and local government officials. We remain focused on learning the language with the assistance of a local language tutor.
We continue to be amazed by what we experience here. Our new village has built some impressive dry stack walls in order to terrace the land. The steps through the hillsides which serve as a sidewalk between homes, have very heavy stones as the steps. We very familiar with the work it takes to install something like that. We are sure the work was done by hand with people power. Being a passenger in a bus or jeep no longer frightens us as we have witnessed the communication between drivers with honking and blinkers as they work together to share the road based on the horsepower of your engine! Daalbhaat is served twice a day and we are loving it. We feel quite healthy with our Nepali diet. Liisa loves the free ranging goats, dogs, and chickens.
We appreciate how a Nepali’s face lights up when we acknowledge them with a bow and “Namaste”. When they dress up they look amazing and sparkly. When they are working, anything goes, fabrics, prints, colors.
A lot of field work and construction is done in flip flops. Nepalis of all ages can walk with such agility up and down the smallest path or balance on the narrowest path. They never seem to be out of breath.
Our permanent site location that we just moved to this week is located in the Parbat district of Nepal, about 6 to 8 hours of bus and jeep ride west of Kathmandu. Peace Corps values privacy, so we’ll not share any site specifics including our host family. We’re in the hilly region of Nepal at 4,200 feet of elevation and on a moderate clear day we can see the Himalayans from our balcony.
It is great to be doing our service together. As older volunteers, we are given much respect and a lot of stares. We’ve been told we are an affable and beautiful couple. Liisa enjoys wearing her Nepali clothes as they are comfortable and practical. Liisa has the common field work style clothing which gets an additional 5 seconds of starring.
This morning Steve went for a run in the new village. Our host father went with him as Peace Corps wants us to be accompanied wherever we go for the first month. Our dear host father ran in flip flops. Dedication.
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We’ve been experiencing some Nepali cultural differences. We hope you will find them enjoyable!
· Goats passing through the house to get to the front of the house to see what there is to eat…maybe there are harvested crops drying on the driveway!
· Our best Nepali doesn’t allow us to always understand what’s being said. Liisa thought she was going to do some garden planting only to arrive at food preparation time in the neighborhood to honor a deceased relative. Liisa was wearing appropriate clothes and had the right attitude. She helped stir a large pot of dough by hand which means you use your hand. People are generally happy to see us and let us join in the activities, even if we have no idea what’s going on. It is characteristic of the Nepali easy-going attitude in life.
· There are many names for how people are related to each other which precisely indicates who that person is in relation to you. For example, your father’s older brother is your “Thuli baa”, father’s younger brother a “kaakaa, and mother’s brother is “maamaa”, all are uncles in English and might also just be called father “buwaa” if the families are close. Most villages are full of relatives. We know how to ask people what their names are in Nepali and also give our names in a complete Nepali sentence. It takes people by surprise that we start with asking their name, rather than their relationship to our host family. One day on a walk we meet two younger men walking with a woman who appeared to be their grandmother. We greeted and asked the grandmother first for her name. She was having trouble understanding us, so the grandsons’ translated for her. We heard them ask the grandmother what her name was, she has always been grandma, “hajuramma”, to them, no name needed!
· We joined our host mother at the village’s yearly celebration of the women’s savings and credit union meeting. We sat in front on the stage facing a room full of women and listened to a 60 minute, impassion speech in Nepali. It was warm. We were thirsty. It was past time to eat. We were hoping we looked engaged. Many photos were taken. If you see any with dazed Steve and Liisa, sweating on a coach on a stage, yes, that’s us!
· Setting up a meeting with the agricultural supervisor was a good lesson in patience. It took three attempts to set up the meeting and then our host mother insisted she come along. She is very well intentioned and wants to be sure we get to where we are going. The trip to the office took 50 minutes to walk down the makeshift steps in the hillside. It was a fascinating walk down the winding, narrow path as it crossed homes and farm fields. Nepali’s have incredible eye-foot coordination which we don’t. We managed to keep up and not fall. The meeting with the supervisor was great, and it was a good family trust building experience. Yes, we had our host mom at our meeting with our boss; we felt so grown-up!
· We ask people to speak slowly which they gladly comply with for the first 3 words, then it is off to the races. Nepali people love to talk and it appears to come naturally to speak fast. We’ll easily be known as the “bistarai” (slow) listeners.
· Coming home from a day at the market means an hour walk uphill om stairs that switch back the entire way home. We did not protest that our host mother arranged for the local jeep driver (think bus) to take us home. The jeep has room for 8 people, but it often accommodates 11. On this day, we were at capacity, but 2 youths were still hoping for a ride. The driver went around the block and let the 2 youths climb on the roof into the luggage rack for the gravel road ascent. Steve could swear he heard them say, no problem!
· Speaking of drivers, the driver is our neighbor. If we are missing an ingredient for supper, we can call the driver and he will pick it up his way home, no app required!
· People are laid back, get their work done, they enjoy tea with one another and want to make sure that you have had something to eat. One of the most repeated questions to any Nepali is “Have you eaten?” If you haven’t, they will feed you.
· No natural gas pipelines come into the homes for hot water or heating. There is well established business in natural gas containers that hook up to the kitchen stove tops. Some homes have solar water heating on the roof to heat the water. On chilly days, you wear a lot of clothes in the house including a stocking hat. You might heat up a tea kettle of water to add to a bucket of cold water so you have warm water bucket bath. Steve’s favorite self-treat is a warm bucket shower, but he is getting used to cold showers!
· All the work is done in flip flops and with no gloves. It doesn’t matter if you are building a road, building a wall, planting, driving a motorcycle, or walking to town. Flip flops get the job done. Even if it is cold out, flip flops are the choice of footwear. We stand out with our tennis shoes on.
· As we walk through the narrow paths of the village, our host mother is on the lookout for things to eat or use. She will pick a thistle, strip it and eat it because it is good for her heart. She will pick mulberries to feed us. She has taken a branch from a plant to propagate once we get home.
The local farmers are getting used to us stopping by to say hello and ask questions about what they are doing. It is currently a transition time with winter wheat being harvested and corn or rice being planted. We have planted 4 vegetable gardens, started 10 mushroom bags, and trimmed diseased orange trees. Steve was able to help a local farmer vaccinate his 3 pigs. We are in awe of how they manage the local produce without refrigeration or canning. There is a lot of drying of grains and some municipal cold storage of the potato crop. We are awaiting the monsoon season in June. Currently it is quite dry.
A reminder of the disclaimer from our first post, any opinions that we may share are ours alone and are not Peace Corps’ position.
Till our next post, enjoy spring and keep your clothes separate from your goats!
