A brief tour around my neighbourhood

At the moment, I am renting a room in the home of an extremely hospitable family who live in Bharatpur. This is a rapidly expanding municipality with a population of 300,000. It is about 7km from where I work in Rampur.

Most of the buildings are predominantly concrete. Like the one where I am living ...

The design is typical with shops on the ground level and a couple of apartments above. My room is in the middle level. Can you see my laundry hanging on the top floor balcony?

Here are the girls selling their products in the shop below ...

Here is the cow I see when I look out my side window ... !

The cow belongs to the people who live upstairs ... so we have fresh milk every morning!

Some of the dwellings that were built before the city expanded into the rural area are still inhabited ...

... and draw their water from a well ...

Other houses are still being built. Many of these have a forest of bamboo cane to support each floor level ...

This is what the finished product will probably look like. Note the large puddle of water that has collected during this morning’s downpour of rain. (The monsoon season lasts another 3-4 weeks).

Bamboo supports are also used in buildings with several levels ...

Bricks are often imprinted with a holy symbol; presumably for protection ...

My walks around the area are an interesting rural/urban mix. Here is my favourite road. Let me know if you know what kind of tree is growing.

... and here is a goat grazing the verge ...

Vacant land is often invaded with lantana ... just like in Australia.

The Narayani river runs past the city. Here is a Buddhist shrine with early morning mist over the river ...

This is the Hindu temple, Radha Krishna Mandir, where I attended my first yoga class in Nepal. The class started at 4am!

I will finish with a photo of some Nepali emblems painted on a local school wall.

More ramblings on my wanderings another time ...

Namaste!

What is Homesickness ... ?

So ... what is homesickness?

I never feel homesick when I am away from home. Except if it is for a long holiday. Then, I usually look forward to returning home after about 6 weeks.

So ... why am I feeling homesick now? ... after leaving Australia only 2 weeks ago!

Perhaps stress contributes to the onset of homesickness?

Today was a busy day. I met the main people I will be working with over the next 12 months. We reviewed my assignment and went over our expected outcomes.

I felt overwhelmed.

There is so much that could potentially be done to here.

The vet faculty is only a few years old. It is under resourced and understaffed. It has limited access to modern technology. Its facilities need to be upgraded and equipment needs to be purchased. Research projects have to be developed and service to the farming community needs to be improved.

Have I taken on more than I am capable of? Perhaps I should have stayed at home in familiar surroundings with friends and family to enjoy?

Instead of this, I have chosen to live in a foreign culture for one year. To work in a country that speaks a different language.

My attack of homesickness was acute. I brought a small photograph album with me to Nepal. It contains pictures of places, friends and family in Australia and Scotland. I was showing these photos to new friends when I suddenly felt a constriction in my throat and tears in my eyes. I couldn’t speak.

... but why is this called homesickness? It is not a sickness.

Homesickness is a feeling that develops when absence makes the heart grow fonder.

In reality, I was feeling a deep love for the family and friends I was missing from home.

This love is not diminished by living in a foreign country. On the contrary, it is enhanced.

What a revelation! My head now knows why my heart feels the way it does.

So ... homesickness is not a malady ... it is an expression pure love.

In the future, I may still feel a constriction in my throat when showing my photos. But this will upset me less. Because I now recognise it as a sign of a deep and powerful emotion ...

... love.

Learning Nepali

I have been booked in for 3 two-hour sessions in order to learn Nepali. I don’t suppose that is too much to expect!

I have always had difficulty remembering people’s names. I have tried the trick of associating the person’s name with something that might help me recall the name. But then I have trouble remembering what the memory jogger is.

Learning Nepali is causing me similar headaches. It is not like learning another European language. Because there is rarely any similarity between the English word and its Nepali counterpart. 

Fortunately, the first lesson involved introducing myself; and the Nepali word for name is naam. That should be easy.

Mero naam Douglas ho =  My name is Douglas 

However, things got a bit tricky when I had to ask what your name is:

Tapaai:ko naam ke ho?

I am trying to learn how to say that I like chocolate very much:

Malaai chocolate ekdam man parcha

... but it may be more useful for me to admit that “I don’t know” whenever I am asked something in Nepali:

Malaai thaahaa chhaina!

Anyway, here is a photo that I took of the whiteboard during my first lesson. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you some more.

It is one thing to know how to ask a question in a foreign language. But the real problem is being able to understand the answer! There is not much to be gained from asking how much the carrots cost (Gaajar kiloko kati ho?) if you haven’t already learned numbers.

... and what about asking for road directions? I have never been able to see the point in asking that question ... unless you already have a good understanding of the language.

I think I will book myself another 3 lessons. I don’t want to get lost anywhere.

Tour of Kathmandu

The AVI arranges an In-Country Orientation Program for newly arrived volunteers in Nepal. This includes meeting the staff who arrange the volunteer placements (their roles and responsibilities), a security briefing at the Australian Embassy, gender and social inclusion, transport orientation and a tour of the city so you don’t get lost. I will be working 6 hours from Kathmandu ... but I still scored a free tour.

The city is rich in what can probably be best described as medieval architecture. Ancient buildings of small red bricks crowd over twisted narrow lanes that were never intended to carry motor vehicles. Every so often, these lanes converge on a chowk (marketplace) or Hindu temple. One of the oldest areas is Durbar Square in Patan (on the south side of Kathmandu) with several 15th and 17th century Hindu and Buddhist monuments.

Hindus and Buddhists both worship in each other’s temples. How is that for social and religious integration?

In addition to the small red bricks, another feature of the local (Newari) architecture is the intricate wooden carving. This appears mostly around window frames, roof struts and the tympanum of temple and shrine entrances.

The same heavy, dark hardwood is used to make furniture. In fact the dining room chairs in my hotel are so heavy that I worry about popping a hernia every time I move one!

Another worry is whether the wood is sustainability forested.

Pashupatinath Temple complex is a World Heritage Site. It is a huge collection of 518 temples and monuments. Hindus are cremated at one of the temples that is situated on the banks of the Bagmati River. 250 kilograms of wood are used for each pyre and the remains are cast into the river which eventually makes its way into the Ganges. The atmosphere here is reverent, quiet and peaceful; although there were hundreds of people attending several concurrent cremations.

Boudhanath is also a Word Heritage Site. It is one of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world.



One of the features of Buddhist temples is the line of prayer wheels that worshippers turn as they approach the temple.



One section of the huge mandala on which the temple sits, contains row upon row of bowls of water with floating flowers.

Of course we passed a few cows on the road back to our hotel ...




Namaste!

First impressions ...

So. I arrived safely at Kathmandu airport.

My friends, Kathy and Gary describe the city as being peacefully chaotic.  This is pretty accurate. The population of Nepal is over 30 milllion, and growing. That number doesn’t include the odd cow that is found foraging in the streets, or the multiplicity of stray dogs that seem to be common in Asian towns and cities.

The city is still recovering from the devastating earthquake that struck the region 3 years ago. There are also major road and infrastructure improvements being undertaken at the moment. This, together with new building and maintenance work explains the appearance of the front of my hotel.

Fortunately, my room is at the rear and the view of the swimming pool from my bedroom window is very inviting.

The shower is a bit challenging because the floor slopes slightly away from the drain. I have found that the best way to remove the pool of water that collects, is to repeatedly sweep it towards the drain with my left foot while using the sole of my right foot to intermittently act as a pump over the drain in order to unblock it. This action is a bit like giving CPR: alternating between sweeps of one foot and pumps of the other foot. Instead of pumps to the chest and blowing into the lungs

I will spare you from a photograph of the procedure.

What to pack ... ?

So. What do you pack when travelling overseas for a year?

I started packing several weeks before leaving. The total weight came to 30kg. That is exactly the same as the airline allowance.

BUT ... I had asked people at the vet school if they wanted me to bring anything with me for them. I told them I had some textbooks as well as veterinary equipment that I could donate. Yes, they said. So I checked the weight and found I had another 20kg of books and 10kg of equipment. So ... how much would that cost me to take as extra accompanied baggage?

The answer is at least $30 per kilogram!

Ditch the books, they said, and bring the rest.

I wasn’t sure my equipment was worth paying over $300 in transport costs, so I did more thinking about all the stuff I had packed in my case. Did I need to take all these shirts? What about these trousers? Do they not sell clothes in Nepal? Of course they do ... and much cheaper than in Australia! So why take them there? Chuck ‘em out! And I did. Everything except the bare essentials. That left me with much less including a few changes of clothing, a water filter, sandals, homeopathic first aid kit, half a kilogram of dark chocolate, and toiletries including half a dozen packets of dental floss tape (!) since I wasn’t sure I could find them in Nepal.

Oh, ... and a motorcycle helmet since the insurance policy said I needed an Australian standard helmet if I wanted to ride a motorcycle overseas.

... and so I managed to reduce the weight to within the standard allowance.

The moral is ... why pack something you can buy at your destination?

Pre-departure to Nepal

So ...... I am working in Nepal for a year!

This is a volunteer position with Australian Volunteers International (AVI). It is funded by the Australian Government. I will be helping the only government vet school in this country to develop its teaching, diagnostic, surgical and extension capabilities. The correct jargon for this is ... capacity building, skill exchange and institutional strengthening!

The vet school is called the Faculty of Animal Science, Veterinary Science and Fisheries (FAVF). It is part of the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU). This is located in the Chitwan area. That is in the southern central region of Nepal, about 6 hours drive SW from Kathmandu. You can take a coach for less than $20. (This includes a complimentary bottle of water and a newspaper!) ... or you can fly for about $150.  The weather is described as humid subtropical... so fewer people travel in the monsoon season (June to September).

Chitwan National Park is the only place that the One Horned Rhinoceros lives. It is also the home of the Royal Bengal Tiger, the Sloth Bear ... and heaps of other wildlife and birds. Not sure if I will be treating any of these ... but I will certainly have a field trip there. Do you want to join me?

Before leaving Lismore, I stayed with friends Kathy and Gary. Here is a photo taken during one of our frosty morning walks.

The last weekend was spent with Phoebe and Eric on the Sunshine Coast. Henry took us camping on the Great Walk where we slept under the stars after watching a gorgeous sunset over the Mary River valley.

This is my first attempt at writing a blog. So I will stop here now. Any comments gratefully received ... as long as they are helpful! The next blog entry will be about preparing to go to Nepal. Bye for now!