My Placement Begins.

Friday morning saw me on the back of a motorbike going to pick up my computer and then back to the hotel to take a taxi to my home for the next 4 months.

It was funny watching me get on the bike for the first time as Kahmal who is the lovely Nepalese working in the office; he said stand on the pedal and then put your leg over! 

Sure!!! 

I told him that I was too heavy and that I would rather reach over from the ground. 

Well, you know what happened, he ended up with the bike on top of him and surrounded by locals who were laughing their heads off.  The bikes here are bigger than in Cambodia and I really have to stretch to get there.  All was good after that.

I now live at Basundhara Heights which is about 20 minutes from the centre of Kathmandu. 

The taxi stopped at the bottom of a staircase that went straight up and I had 25kg bag, 10kg parcel, my huge coat, cabin bag and hand bag.  

Poor, Kahmal ended up carrying most of it and I thought I was going to die.

The house I am living is, is a family house, Father, mother and sister & husband with baby on the top floor, I am living with a wife, 7 year old daughter and a cousin on the 2^nd floor (husband is working in Dubai) and the ground floor has yet another family.

I have a room to myself and the toilet (not squat) is outside my window and the shower is there too.  I think everyone shares the shower and yes it is cold although I have been promised that they are getting gas.

A bit more about the family later.

We dropped (literally) my gear and Kahmal walked me to the community centre where I will be teaching.  

Sue and Waiana were already there and I was given a very warm welcome by the ladies.  About 20 were squashed into the room and they are aged from about 40 to 60.  

Not sure how much they know as everything is rote and the 2 paid teachers spend then next 30 minutes repeating everything we had done.

We stayed there until about 1330, we start at 1200 and we called in at a small café and I bought a bowl of noodles and naan bread and it cost less than 30c.

We walked to catch the local bus/micro and went to the second school, which is about 20 minutes away and it is a 15 rupee trip.

Balaju is a much poorer area although the women are no less enthusiastic.  

This is a smaller group and the community room we teach in is much smaller and stinks but you don’t notice it after awhile.  

This class starts about 1445 and goes until about 1630 and we then go back home, by this time the chill has set in and on goes the jacket.

Every Saturday is a holy day and we don’t have to work (it is our only day off) so I caught a taxi into the main centre of Kathmandu, it cost 300 rupee and I went to the hotel I left yesterday and wandered around the town with Waiana, bought some trousers and a bucket so that I didn’t have to unlock the house and go to the toilet in the middle of the night and of course the power goes off at 2000.

I wanted to buy a jacket that I could wear and tried a number of the but soon realised that of course I was too big so am getting a nice thick cotton jacket made for me for 2500 rupee which is roughly $25.

It was a lovely day and Sue joined us in the afternoon and we sat in a coffee lounge for awhile as the weather had turned cold.  

Sue went home to her flat and Waiana and I split a pizza and I tried the local beer which came in a huge bottle and was OK.

I love walking around the main city as it if bustling but no one pushes themselves on you although as I found out the scams are here.

The shops are full of trekking gear, especially boots, jackets etc., they are quite cheap but not great quality. Lot of trekkers get their gear here. 

We left the hotel about 1100 on Sunday and caught a taxi to the school where we had to teach.  

I didn’t go to the other school as the family was celebrating the 6 month ceremony for one of the children.  It is to celebrate the first solid food which off course is rice.

When I got home the whole area was full of ladies dressed in a sari or their national dress and I went upstairs to give a gift to the baby.  

The poor little beggar was dressed up in traditional dress and everyone put a dob of paint on his head and gave him a small spoonful of watered down rice.  

Can you imagine how much rice he had shoved down his throat over a period of 4 hours?  

I stayed around to eat because guess what, there was meat!!  Chicken curry, I had two servings.

It was really quite warm out on the veranda and everyone was still wearing at least 4 layers of clothing and one poor baby who was crying because I think that he was boiling inside of all the clothing and then a huge blanket.

There was dancing until about 2030 and then everyone went home as most Nepalese are in bed by 2100.

Life has now settled into a routine and it hard to believe that I have only been here just over a week.  I am picking up a bit of the language and will do so in the classroom as even though I try to keep it English only, it doesn’t happen.

On the trip back home from Balaju we were on one of the susses and a lady came on with a goat and she tied the goat to the arm of the first chair and then went and sat down.  I was sitting the first chair and before I knew it, there was a goat comfortably sitting on my foot.

On Wednesday Waiana left to go on her travels so it was her last day and as she had been here for 2 months it was sad for her to go and the ladies were all upset and bought her gifts.  They are lovely and very generous.