two umbrellas and a book

Over this past month I have managed to leave in Taxis two umbrellas and a newly purchased book. You may be thinking "three things in one month...thats not so bad." The problem comes when you throw in the fact that I drive a scooter.

On a totally different miscellaneous note I took a picture of a sign that I go by on the way to language school.

My response to this Travel Agency's sign is: feel us all over? um...no thank you.

...like I do today

There are days when I am prepared to miss home and days when I’m not. Most of the time I am excited to hear what friends and family are doing…or eating. If anything I live a little vicariously through them.

There are times however when I’m not prepared and that “missing home” feeling will hit me like a ton of bricks. Usually it is something small and I just get over it. Like the time a friend mentioned on line that he was going to a bakery for lunch. My initial response was “cruel cruel friend…if you only knew how much I miss pastaries and baked goods in general…why would you tell me such a thing.” Now I know my friend meant no ill will but there was a moment when I was full of envy and a little bit of longing for a cupcake.

Today I was not prepared and the longing for home that was triggered when a friend posted pictures from the summer. At first it was nice to reminisce but then I noticed more pictures…pictures showing that life was going on without me. I know, it sounds like I want my friends to be devastated that I am not there…well I don’t. Its just I don’t think that they feel the devastating longing to be with those who know you best…like I do today. I knew what I was getting myself into when I signed up to move back over seas again…I just conveniently forgot this feeling.

So what does one do when they are homesick in Nepal?...eat Mexican food! “I’ll have a large beef nacho and a diet coke…and yes, I’m eating alone.”

Sure, it’s not smore by the campfire with friends but it will do for now.

Reminiscing

Reminiscing about college

Me:“On Fridays I would come home from class and always had a message on my answering machine telling me what my friends were going to do that night.”

Young man of early twenties: “ha ha ha, you had an answering machine…I did not even have a home phone.”

Me: “believe it or not I did not even have a cell phone in college.”

Young man of early twenties: (silence)

**needless to say this conversation made me feel old**

Locked Out

The other day I locked myself out of my house. Now, for those of you who know me, specifically those who have lived with me know that this is not the first time that I have managed to lock myself out. This was however the first time that I did this while living alone in a foreign country.

The whole thing started when I left my house to go to language class. My housekeeper was still working so I did not need to lock the door behind me, thus throwing me off of my routine, thus me forgetting key. Half way through language class I realized my mistake and knew I needed to act. Nermala, my teacher thought that she should stick around to make sure that the problem would be resolved. In other words I had an audience for this whole locked out debacle.

My idea for retrieving the key was to drive to the street that my housekeeper lives on and start yelling her name for I was not exactly sure which apartment is hers. My thought process being a white girl in a lower class part of town hollering has got to eventually get me to Didi (the housekeeper). Nermal, my language and culture teacher thought this not the best of ideas. She suggested we go to the landlord and ask if Didi might have left it with them. What this means in Nepali culture is that soon the whole house would know of my absentmindedness.
                          (me and Didi)
When my landlord found out that I was locked out he did just as I had anticipated. He called everyone who lives in my building to see if Didi had left the key. To no avail the key was still missing. At this point I was now very anxious to get to Didi’s street and start yelling. My landlord however had other ideas; instead it was time for tea, snacks, and talking. I gave Nermala a questioning look of “can we get out of this” and her response was “we must go and take tea, this is the Nepali way.”

Fast forward two hours later. I now have met the majority of my landlords family for they all live on the top two floors, I have had my fill of yak cheese and Nepali tea, and Nermal has officially set up a time and day when I will go up stairs to the landlords to practice my Nepali. 

As Nermala and I excited the building the phone rang. It was Didi calling to tell the landlord where she had put the key and that their housekeeper took it for safekeeping. As it turns out the landlords’ housekeeper was walking Grandma around the temple during my two-hour visit upstairs. As I walked Nermal to the main road sure enough we ran into the landlord’s housekeeper who deposited the key into my anxious hand.

As Nermal climbed into her taxi to head home she was satisfied that the situation had been resolved and that I now had a local family to practice my Nepali with. As I walked back to my apartment I thought about the past few hours. Here are a few of my conclusions:


*I am now very good as saying “chabi chi na” …I don’t have a key.

*I’m glad that Nermala was there to help me through it all

*Walking the streets and yelling for Didi was a bad idea because “didi “ in Nepali means sister.
*I need to find out my Didi’s real name.
                                                                        
*God chooses to show himself to me the most when I am at my least.

walk carefully

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my road turning into a river. Since then I’ve been caught in the rain but it was never as bad as the “river” day that was until yesterday. On my way home from language school it started pouring down rain.

The road to my house has sunken in leaving it impossible for a taxi to pass through. I knew it was bad when my taxi driver looked at me basically said “walk carefully and good luck.”

Upon exiting my cab I saw that my road had become a small waterfall that eventually turned into a river. There was nothing left to do but roll up my pants and take pictures of the experience. As you can see I was not totally alone in my plight. There were a few young girls that were trying to get home as well.

You may be wondering what one does after wading through the waters...wash your feet in the squaty potty of course.

Once I was done with the foot washing I decided to take a few more pictures just to show you the futility of rolling up my pants.

"the strange"

For my job I had to take a psychological test. One of the questions on the test was “do strange things happen to you?” I answered “yes” and later had to explain my answer. The guy who evaluated my test was thinking “yes, I have voices in my head or I’ve seen aliens.” When he asked me about it I said, “well Mr.X, I work at a nursing home and I lived in South Asia. All kinds of strange things happen to me.” To my surprise I had to continue to explain “the strange”. Now that I am back in South Asia the strange continues to keep on coming.





In the middle of my language class today people started walking by as they went up the stairs of my language teacher’s house. “Nermala, why are all these people going upstairs into your house?” I asked. Nermala responds non-calantley “they are filming a movie on my roof top garden.”…”would you like to go and watch?” I replied with “yes.”



Sure enough we get up to the roof and there are three Nepali actors. The premise of the movie is that this guy is dating two women at the same time. The director was cracking me up when in his Nepali accent he would yell “action!” and then say “ you are angry…very very angry” (actress face is expressionless) “now you are jealous!...very very jealous” (girls face continues to remain expressionless)


This went on for a good 15 minutes. Needless to say those of you in the states will never see the results of the shooting but I’m sure it’s gonna be a big Nepali hit.

familiar

Being back in Nepal is often a mixture of foreign and familiar. The foreign part is frustrating. The language is foreign, the streets are foreign, and the lack of feeling at home is foreign.

There are however moments of sweet familiarity. I might actually understand what is being said to me or share friendly greetings with the storeowner on the corner. And every once in a while I happen upon a place that I use to frequent back during my first trip to Nepal.

The other day I was in a part of town called Thomel. As I was walking by shops my memory took a hold of me and led me down a street that I recognized. I then took a right at the “bong” store and kept walking. Before I knew it I was standing at BK fries.

My old roomie Andrea and I use to frequent this place all the time. It truly has the best fries in Nepal and possibly on this side of the world.

When you have that foreign feeling…like you don’t belong there is nothing like a hot plate of freshly cooked fries to make you feel at home…to make you feel familiar.

Happy Birthday Shawn

I can’t believe that it has already been two years since the day that you were born. I remember that summer vividly. My job had me working near your mom, my sister, and so I was blessed with the opportunity to watch you grow inside your mother

Early in the morning I received a call saying that you were on your way. I took my time getting ready, I then stopped at work to let them know I was not coming in, and of course I had to pick up some flowers. You see I was expecting you to be tightly rapped in a new blanket laying in bed the first time that I lay eyes on you BUT God had different plans.

As I drove up to the hospital my dad, your grandfather, was standing at the doors hollering at me to hurry up. I followed him running through the halls and next thing I know I’m walking in on my sister trying to push you out.

“He’s almost here…he was just waiting for his aunt” said the doctor. I walked over by your mothers head and minutes later there you appeared. At that very moment you took a piece of my heart and filled it with a love that I cannot explain. Yes, you are your mother and fathers son but you are also mine. You are my nephew, a part of my family, and you will always be mine.

I’m sorry that I could not be there for your birthday party but know that I’ve been thinking about you all day. My birthday wish for you today is and always will be that your life will be full of love and adventure. May our Lord bless you and keep you, May His face shine upon you.
Love your aunt Jess