I feel like I haven’t been dutifully updating people on what is going on, but I don’t even know what to update about! I started work a bit over a week ago, and have now been in Kathmandu for 11 days. There are many things here that make communication difficult, and so I apologize now for not being prompt with my responses to emails and FB posts.
Nepal, or at least Kathmandu, is currently in what the Prime Minister has referred to as a ‘Power Emergency,’ and the city is plagued with daily rolling blackouts for 12-14 hours per day. The power goes out every day at two intervals, for 6-8 hours, and the timing of the outages changes each day of the week, according to a schedule that has the city divided up into ‘zones.’ The ‘Load Shedding Schedule’ is posted in Nepali on the internet, and likely other places too, but as I do not speak Nepali, and am not clear as to what zone I am even in, this schedule sometimes feels useless to me, and I just kind of wait around for things to turn on. At work, our colleague has printed out the schedule for us in English, which is incredibly helpful. When we do not have power at work, we ration the precious and expensive generator electricity as much as possible, only using what we need, and then do any tasks that require more electricity during the hours that we have power. The worst are they days where the power is out most of the day, and on all night... The day feels almost useless at work when your laptop battery dies.
I also moved yesterday, and am now staying in a clean (YAYYYY) and comfortable guesthouse in a Tibetan Monk monastery. My room is very large, and I am no longer sharing with my colleague Dustin, so in many ways it feels like a private oasis (a rather sterile one). I have my own balcony that provides me with a stunning view of part of the city, although my sense of direction is all off, so I couldn’t tell you WHICH part of the city! Little boys with shaved heads and red and orange robes run around playing and calling hello, and asking your name. They are absolutely adorable, and I have to say, I am intrigued by their life, and would like to know more. The Monastery is right beside Monkey Temple, a popular spot in Kathmandu, and the guesthouse has posted warnings about feeding the monkeys, and leaving windows open, as the monkeys have become quite a nuisance.
We also are only a short walk from our colleague Prabin’s home. He had us over for dinner last night, and we met his family and had a lovely time. We ate Dhal Bhat, and other curries, and talked for a long time. It was very different to see his home, which is shared with his wife, parents and extended family, and to talk to him and his family about living in Kathmandu. While many share the house, it is divided up in a way that everyone has some personal space, and are not living on top of each other.
As many of you may also know, I was sadly struck down with the inevitable on Thursday afternoon, a good case of food- or water-borne illness! Lucky me! As I sat and ate a shared snack with the youth group who had come to meet us interns at work, I was suddenly struck with feeling terribly unwell. I held it together, and participated with a smile on my face until the end of this lovely meeting, and was glad I did, as many people had traveled from around the Kathmandu valley to attend and meet us. But the second I got home, I was a goner. It took over 36 hours to feel normal again, and I had to miss work on Friday (the office was just not a possibility for me for the entire day on Friday), but I am happy to say that by Saturday I was up and ready to go. My biggest regret was that I had to miss work, but it was not even a remote possibility to go in, and by Friday morning, when I was debating going in, I had already been sick straight for around 17 hours. Everyone at the office was very worried about me, and Prabin even came at the end of the day to check on me, but I tried to convince them that this was not surprising, and really not that big a deal, just something that I would have to bear through. Now I am afraid they are afraid to feed me new delicious foods :(.
This is getting long, and not all that interesting, so I will sign off now. I was feeling a bit of loneliness today, and miss everyone at home, but I am also having a great time, and know that that feeling is only natural :). I have written this post on my laptop, and will transfer it over to the blog as soon as I have power, so I am crossing my fingers that the lights turn on soon.
Hugs and kisses,
k
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