Nepali Seminar

“Travelers never think that they are foreigners.” (Mason Cooley)

Wednesday night I went and had dinner at OR2K with S, Sh, C, and El before heading to Swayambhu. We got to see everyone from Sundrawatti and hang out for a little which was awesome! Then we took showers and went to sleep because we had to leave the house at 5:45 AM to leave by 6 AM (for those of you who know me you can only imagine how happy I was about this). We all piled on but were majorly delayed by one of the Nepali staff. Eventually we took off (only stopping 3 times, twice for gas because one place didn’t have, and once to pick up more Nepali staff). So we didn’t end up getting to Mahadev-Beshi until around 8:30. We had tea and a little breakfast (provided by the group) and somehow all managed to squeeze everyone on the bus. We stopped for lunch at around 10:30 and arrived in Gorkha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorkha_District) around 12:30. When we got there we climbed up for about 45 minutes (steep steps) to the top of a temple in which we could not bring in anything made out of any animal product (leather). The view was really incredible! It looked like the Himalayas were floating in the sky! We stayed there for a while and then came down and got back on the bus and made our way to Bandipur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandipur). We got in around 4 and had a bit of trouble with the rooms. We were not aware that we were not going to be in the same place (actually it was really most of the volunteers in one hotel and only a few of us separated). It was frustrating for everyone and not a good way to start the seminar. However after dinner everyone felt better and much more calm. Then we had an activity. E taught everyone how to salsa! I personally like to dance so this was fun for me. Sm and I partnered up and had such a fun time! E was really great at leading it and I think overall it was a success! When it was over, Sh and I climbed a latter to the roof of our hotel and looked at the stars for a while until we became too cold. We layered up and huddled under the blankets in the cold and fell asleep exhausted.

On Friday I started off my day with a nice walk with Sh and L. Bandipur is really, really beautiful! It’s peaceful and clean and has land stretching out for miles. Then we had our first activity, which was the same as the one M did with us in Kalimati. There were a bunch of quotes on the floor and everyone had to pick one and talk about how it related to how they feel at this point in the program. I chose a Hemingway quote (which for the life of me I cannot remember), which was about writing. Then we walked to this big open flat field and had an activity with the Nepali staff. We played some silly games and then got into groups and discussed the following: what is happiness/love? How are they portrayed? Has your idea of these things changed since you started TBT? It was all right but for some reason my group felt really awkward. After that we had a thematic meeting in which we talked about how the basket money workshop and guide of the guides seminar went and what we were planning on doing for the upcoming guide seminar. Then we had free time until dinner! I took a scalding shower and relaxed for a while which was nice. Dinner was good but afterwards E wanted to do an activity in which everyone picked a name out of a bag and had to say nice things about the person they picked until everyone could guess who it was. O and I looked at each other and thought the same thing, “there are 41 of us…this is going to be a mess and take forever.” But, we were wrong. It was actually really nice and didn’t take as long as we thought. It was also a good way to get to know the Nepali staff we don’t get to work with. When we finished I headed to GB and Al’s room with a bunch of people with some wine and snacks. We had such a fun night! We played jungle speed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_Speed), which turned crazy very quickly, and talked and laughed and then all cuddled up and went to sleep.

Saturday was a free day until 3PM. I slept in, had breakfast, hung out, and took a walk. I was very relaxed! Then we had group area meetings so Kalimati met with M and had to fill out a worksheet (two columns: personal and group and three rows: things to keep, leave, and renew). Then we had to read whatever we wanted to from our own worksheet and fill out a bigger version. Then we started talking about how the last two weeks have not been so good for us. I think my explanation was the best: we are sick of each other! We live, work, eat, sleep, and hang out with each other! That’s enough to make anyone nuts. After we talked there was a good feeling and hopefully things can get better for us in these last couple of weeks. After our area meeting we had another activity with the Nepali staff. We went back to the big field where there was a big drawing of the outline of Nepal with the Nepali staff members standing in different areas holding posters and wearing costumes. So all the volunteers paired up and visited each station to find out about different areas of Nepal. It was really fun and we got to learn about lots of places I had never heard of.

We had to end around 6 because it got too dark and cold so we headed back and had dinner before our night activity; a talent show! Everyone got into groups of what they wanted to do (decorations, singing, acting, dancing, etc.) and we got to work. O and I went with most of the female Nepali staff and learned a Nepali dance! When it was time the decorations looked really nice and S and Sm were the MCs! There was a really funny short skit, singing, our dancing, acrobats, and impressions. It was really fun and I think everyone got into it and participated in some way. The night ended with everyone laughing and in a very good mood. After short star gaze with Sh and GB I fell fast asleep.

On Sunday we had a thematic meeting with N and At. We talked about the Sundrawatti migration workshop next week and then each area met with N. We mostly discussed the guide seminar we are planning for the week of the 20^th. Then we had our final activity of seminar: how to say goodbye. Since we will be leaving our areas in a little less than a month we have to be very conscious about how we leave the people we work with (especially Sundrawatti because they are the last machzor to work there). We got into our areas and talked about positive and negative goodbyes we have had (I talked about Apple Farm goodbye ceremony my first year) and then came back together for closing comments. Then we had lunch and were back on the bus leaving Bandipur. We got to Mahadev-Beshi on time (about 4:30) but then hit major traffic on the way back to Kathmandu. We got back to Swayambhu around 7 and were all pretty exhausted. We ate dinner and took showers, which felt absolutely amazing and then I Skyped, emailed, and facebooked for a while until I had to go to bed.

I can’t believe Nepali seminar is over and we are going to move out of our areas in a little under a month. Soon we will all be back in Swayambhu for the closing seminar and then off traveling. Sometimes the days or weeks seem to go by really slowly but then I look up and see how much time has gone by. I have been away from home for almost 4 months. I have met many new people and made a few very good friends. I am doing work that I enjoy and living in a city that I like. We never know how much we change until we look behind us, which I will be ready to do at the end of this program. I hope I will be able to really live these last couple of weeks here. Life is much more simple in a lot of ways here and I hope I can start to bring these things into my life sooner rather than later. For now I am looking forward to the Sundrawatti workshop this week and will allow myself to live in this moment and not look too far ahead.

Signed,

Simple and Sighing