Ramro Sathi!

Hellloooooo everyone!

        It is currently 8:30 am here and I just walked into my room to discover the WiFi is finally working! But probably temporarily. This is the start of my second day here at the orphanage and things are going really well. But lets start at the beginning.

        Rajendra's brother Bijendra picked me up at the airport with his nephew and we drove back to Ramro Sathi, if you can call it driving. It felt more like a thrill ride at an amusement park. Traffic here is not really governed by any road rules. Dividing lines separating traffic don't even exist as suggestions and most drivers take whatever path is most convenient for them. At one point, we were one of three cars driving side-by-side on a two lane road serving traffic in both directions. Oddly enough, I felt perfectly safe. It's almost as if the constant expectation of an accident makes them less likely to happen. 

        Anyways, we got to Ramro Sathi around 9 pm. It's actually a very comfortable place. We are at the edge of the city (I mean the very very edge-- the forest begins two houses down from us) and I have a beautiful view of Kathmandu from my window. There are five floors. The first floor is the boys floor and the kids kitchen, the second floor is the girls floor, the third floor is for the volunteers, and then Rajendra and his family live above us. Bijendra brought me to the volunteer floor, where I met Rajendra and the two other volunteers. Maika has been here for one month already and Artur has been here for two months. They are both from France and are very friendly. I talked with them for a little while and then went upstairs to eat dinner with Rajendra and his family. They are so welcoming and keep telling me that this house is my house and I can ask them for anything. After that I met some of the older kids but they were pretty engrossed in a movie so we didn't speak much before I went to bed. My bed has the comfort level equivalent to a mossy rock, but my room is fairly large with access to a porch. Currently my only roommates are a few cockroaches, but within the next week this place is going to get absolutely packed. I'm actually pretty bummed about it. Rajendra had a scheduling mishap so soon four more volunteers are arriving, making 7 volunteers for 14 children. It isn't a very good ratio for bonding, or feeling helpful. But, it is what it is. It might be fun to have that many people, especially since it will give me someone to do touristy things with. Maika and Artur are pretty tired with the tourist attractions. Speaking of tourist attractions, I will be going to Thamel later today. It is an area of the city with a lot of shops and cafes. More on that later.

          Since yesterday was Saturday, we spent the whole day in Ramro Sathi with the kids. The main meal of the day here is breakfast, which is always dal bhat (beans, rice, chicken, curry). I've been getting used to eating it with my hands, which actually involves a surprising amount of etiquette and dexterity. We ate around 10 and then spent an hour or so making bracelets with string Artur bought in Thamel. Some of the kids are shy, but a few of them were very open. Most of them don't know how to pronounce my name, which I find amusing. I am so used to having such a standard Anglo/American name that it is refreshing and funny to suddenly be somewhere my name sounds so foreign. I am called Katee, Miss, or Ket Miss.  I'm still trying to get everyone's names down but I'm not struggling as much as I thought. After bracelets some of the kids watched a movie and others practiced karate and goofed around. Unfortunately, it was raining on their only day off so a lot of energy had to be expended in the house. It was crazy. They all treat each other as siblings so there was a lot of fighting, crying, comforting, and laughing. Lunch time is snack time, and Artur and Maika spent almost the whole day making crepes for everyone. It cleared up a little after lunch so I played some games outside before Rajendra came home. It is so funny to see how they act around him. As soon as he walked in the door they fell silent or grabbed a book and started to read. They clearly have a lot of respect for him and he treats them as his own children. I ended up taking a nap in the afternoon and when I woke up it was time for dinner, which consisted of bitter rice (prepared in a way so that it looks like corn flakes) in yogurt with cut mangoes. The mangoes here are delicious. We made some more bracelets and then I went to bed.  I woke up at 7 this morning and then walked the kids to school about 15 minutes away. Soon I will be going to Thamel. Sorry my writing is all over the place-- I have so much to say I can't organize my thoughts! I will try to write again soon.

-Kate

The views from my window!

Ramro Sathi! (Green)

Maika and Dip making crepes

Where the kids play badminton 

Shiva using my toe as an anchor for his bracelet

View from the Monkey Temple

Monkey Temple!

Monkeys at the monkey temple!

Me at the monkey temple!

Departure Day/ UAE!

Hey guys!

      So I'm already a terrible blogger because I didn't even manage to make a good-bye post....I thought I would find WiFi in the airport and I didn't. But I left from JFK yesterday (?) at 11 pm and arrived in Abu Dhabi, UAE at 8:30 pm. So this has been a veryyy long night for me. My dad's college friend Jo met me at the airport and drove me to her home town of Al Ain, which is about an hour and a half from the city. She took me to one of her favorite restaurants for a late night dinner (although I get the feeling "late" doesn't mean much here) where we had stuffed grape leaves, a platter of vegetables, and hommos beirut served with an unspecified meat that we used to stuff pita bread. Jo taught me how to scoop the hommos onto the pita using only my right hand (the left hand is considered dirty) and ordered us "juice cocktails," which were an interesting mixture of thick strawberry, banana, avocado, and mango juice (See photo below). After eating we drove through downtown Al Ain back to Jo's apartment, where I am now!
Tomorrow we are going to get breakfast and then head back to the airport at 10am for my 1:55 flight to Kathmandu. It is incredibly generous of Jo to host me, especially since she has a flight to Maine at 1:30 am tomorrow so she will have to make the drive to the airport twice tomorrow. But I am thrilled to be here. She is a fascinating woman with so many stories to share and her apartment is filled with trinkets from her travels (she said her friend once described her apartment as "a badly organized ethnographic display"). It would be nice to stay here longer and learn more, but I guess there is plenty to be learned in Kathmandu! I'll try to check in with you all as soon as I can after settling in at Ramro Sathi.

Love,
Kate

Welcome!

Hello friends and family!

Welcome to my blog! Thank you all for (virtually) travelling with me. It will be amazing to be able to share my experiences with you as I go along! Since departure day is in exactly TWO WEEKS (when did that happen?!) I figured I might as well start posting and give you all a little information about where I am going and what exactly I will be doing in Nepal.
I am volunteering through an NGO called OCEAN Nepal (Orphan and Children Education Association of New Nepal). If you are interested, this is the website where they have a photo gallery and a lot more information: ww.oceannepal.org. OCEAN Nepal founded an orphanage in Balaju, an area of Kathmandu (which is the capital of Nepal). The name of the orphanage is Ramro Sathi, meaning "best friend" in Nepali, and it is where I will be living and volunteering for four weeks! There are currently fourteen children living in the home, ranging from age five to mid-teens. My job is basically to be an entertainer and English tutor. My average day will probably look like this:

1.    Wake up at 7am
2.    Have tea and then later breakfast with the children.
3.    Help the children with some studies and to get ready for school.
4.    Between 9 and 9:15am the children go to school.  They are finished about 4pm; therefore you will have 5 to 6 hours per day of free time to do any sightseeing in the Kathmandu Valley or to relax as you wish.
5.    After school is done you may want to walk home with the children or meet them at the house. Once at home, the children will change out of their uniforms, relax a little and then begin their homework.
6.    We take a tea and biscuit break after school and then eat dinner at about 7:30pm.
7.    You then have the opportunity (your choice) to spend more time with the children during their free time after dinner.  Often this is spent studying on school nights. 

Saturdays are the only day Nepali children have off from school, so on that day the volunteers usually take the children on a day trip somewhere. I believe there will be at least three other volunteers with me, but I know nothing about them. Apart from my daily duties as a volunteer, I plan on taking three days off to trek through the mountains. Rajendra Subedee, the president of OCEAN Nepal and coordinator of Ramro Sathi, also runs a trekking business to support the orphanage and he told me he will arrange a trip for me and three other volunteers with his brother as the tour guide. I can't wait. It's expensive (though Rajendra gave me a good deal) but I figured I can't go to Nepal and not see the Himalayas! Hopefully I'll be able to share some incredible photos with you all. In addition to trekking, I asked Rajendra if it would be possible for me to get out of the city and spend some time in the country. I had originally planned to do this through another organization (like WWOOF Nepal), but Rajendra said he would arrange for me to go to Dhading, an area two hours outside of the city, and help a French woman named Christine who is trying to set up an elementary school there. I would probably stay there for a week or less-- none of these plans are absolutely solidified yet because I would like to get to Ramro Sathi before I make plans to leave it and the children. But Rajendra has been incredibly helpful and has made it clear that he will do as much as he can to help me do what I want to do.
So, for the next two weeks I will be spending time with family (the six of us are leaving for our annual vacation to Lake George on Friday) and getting ready to go! I just did some shopping for long skirts to wear in Kathmandu and I'm trying to brainstorm a gift I can give to Rajendra and Ramro Sathi...if you have any suggestions let me know!
My flight leaves at 10:40 pm from JFK on June 26th. My lovely father will be driving me down to the city. Then I have a thirteen hour plane ride to Abu Dhabi, UAE, where I have an 18 hour layover (ugh). BUT, it turns out my dad's friend from college actually lives an hour outside of Abu Dhabi and she has graciously agreed to host me for the night. She seems really cool and I can't wait to meet her. Then on Friday, June 28th at 2pm my flight leaves for Kathmandu, where I will arrive around 8pm. Rajendra will pick me up at the airport and bring me to Ramro Sathi. My first day there will be Saturday, the kids day off from school, so it will be good to have some bonding time with them (although I am expecting to be completely overwhelmed at first). But I am becoming increasingly more excited! I will post again before I leave. The orphanage has WiFi, but I don't know how good it is. I will try to post at least every three days after I leave, but I'll let you know if something changes.

I'll talk to you all soon! Thank you for all your love and support.

-Kate