Positives

Squat Toilets are useful.

While sick with diarrhea and vomiting at the same time an outdoor charpi (squat toilet) has proved to be very beneficial. You can be squatting and puking at the same time and when it is everywhere all you do is wash everything down the charpi hole. It is brilliant, no need to for scrub bucket or anything. Now the challenge comes in when the vomit and stomach pain starts at 12am and you have to run down the ladder stairs and go outside to get to the charpi with avoiding the massive spiders on the way which still scare the crap out of me every time. Then the later vomiting of putting a bucket by the bed is slightly more challenging when you have to crawl under your mosquito net. Nonetheless it is just making me a more marketable person in life haha. Oh and no bucket included, just a plastic bag. Thank goodness for no holes in the bag.

Alcohol is the cure?

When my host family found out I was sick the night before they thought serving me roxie (homemade alcohol-tastes like moonshine) with my morning dhal baat (lentils and rice) would help. Needless to say I had to pass on the morning alcohol offering, my stomach was still way way too messed up. PS talk about awkward moment trying to explain you have vomit to throw away because you were sick last night when you still have a major language barrier. Funny thing is it was the first night my dad cooked because my mom went to Kathmandu because their eldest son had a baby. Needless to say he was very concerned his cooking made me sick. Had to tell him I am a weak American with a fragile stomach.

I had the opportunity to meet my grandfather here who is 89 years old! That’s amazing for a Nepali to get that old. He still uses a squat toilet and sleeps on the floor and seems to be very mobile. So crazy. He seems very happy and even though I am still super limited on my language skills he seems to enjoy my presence.

All Carb Diet

I must say I will never ever complain about being on a diet in America. Three weeks only of straight rice and potatoes/cooked veggies I will eat protein and fresh vegetables for the rest of my life without complaint. They are always trying to give me more and more food and I continuously am unable to finish my food. I have never thought I would be in the position where I TRY to eat super fast so I don’t realize how full I am and I can eat everything off my plate. Up until now in my life I have always tried to eat slow so I realize when I am full; throw that concept out the window. Rice belly here I come; unless the diarrhea continues (nasty but true).

More reason to work hard

So if anyone feels like contributing to a deprived American feel free to send a girl a birthday/Christmas package hehe. Turkey Jerky, peanut butter, nutela, candy (sour patch kids, milk duds, M&Ms, twix, kitkat, mike n Ike, sour gummie worms,  salted chocolate caramels, skor, reese’s, cookies n cream ect), protein bars, protein powder, nuts, individual powder juice packets, hand sanitizer, bar soap. AND simple letters are just fun to receive. Honestly the food isn’t terrible; I just really miss cold things and a variety in my diet and CANDY. But this is more motivation to promote nutrition; growing in the off-season and increasing in the variety of foods grown locally.

Less wasteful

It is amazing when you don’t have a fridge or much packaged food how little trash one actually goes through. It probably helps not having running water so we aren’t wasteful in that area either. For how little I have come to live with coming from surplus American I feel I am doing quite well and living pretty comfortably. I do miss toilet paper though!!

My daily life

Adjusting to Nepal

It has only been about 2 weeks since I have arrived in Nepal and it is quite a learning process. I am reverted back to my infancy stage. We had to learn to eat, use the bathroom, bath in a bucket, only eat cooked food, and having an early bedtime. Basically I am throwing my American manors out the window and it is kind of fun! When eating we don’t you an utensils it is all with your hands and licking your fingers is encouraged, you don’t want to wipe your hands on a napkin until your are all done eating. We also eat cross-legged on the floor; this can get uncomfortable after a little while. Also you only eat with your right hand, the left hand is reserved for….you guessed it! Wiping cleaning yourself when you go to the bathroom! This is probably one of the biggest concerns our group has had since we came to Nepal. We don’t use a western toilet; it is basically a porcelain hole in the ground that you squat over, aim for the hole and then wash with water and your left hand. It takes a couple times to get it right, I am still unsure if I have it down perfect. Some people say they feel cleaner, yea I haven’t had that epiphany yet, and I’m still waiting for that, I really miss toilet paper. Also with food we are not allowed anything uncooked, as our bodies will not be able to tolerate it with their water and different parasites/bacteria. So everything is soft and cooked. No cold food. L

The first week was simply class on culture and safety and Peace Corps rules/expectations. We stayed in Kathmandu in a training site, we didn’t get to explore much as we had an 8pm curfew and if we left we had to be with a trainer. We did get to go out a couple times and even on the second trip out I asked if we could drink a beer and they actually let us! Everyone was shocked I asked but heck I needed to see what I got myself into and taste the local beer haha. It was actually pretty good too! Huge relief.

After Kathmandu we head to Chautara where we meet our first host families that we live with for the next 9 weeks. We were all super nervous as we have had only 3hrs max of language so huge language barrier. When the families all show up all the Peace Corps trainees are on one side of the room and all the host families are on the other side. Daulet (our training boss man) gives instruction on what they need to feed us, how we like alone time, if we get sick don’t give us any medicine, we can’t speak much Nepalese and be direct with us, ect…. Basically it’s like giving someone a child for the first time haha. Once introductions begin I meet my Baa (dad) who speaks a little bit of English and we have a snack and then head to Bajjo ket (that’s wrong spelling) which is about 40 minute walk from Chautara. At home I meet my ama (mom) who doesn’t speak any English and she basically laughs at me since I am confused all the time. She is funny. They have two sons who are 23 and 25 (he is married) that live in Kathmandu so I don’t get to meet them yet. So when I arrive I get the tour and see my room, which is quite large. The kitchen is upstairs and we don’t have a table or running water but it is sufficient and we also cook over an open fire but we do have a gas-stove top as well which we use for tea. Then downstairs we have my mom and dads room and also where the goats come in at night and sleep in the house. Then outside we have the charpi (toilet) and we also take our bucket baths in the charpi. It has a high enough ceiling so I can stand all the way up which is rare I guess so that is a positive! And actually the bucket bath isn’t too bad, save a lot of water and I do feel clean when I am done. That initial pour cold water on your self is a shock to the body but after the first pour the rest are fine. One major negative about having the charpi outside is that at night having to go to the bathroom there are MASIVE spiders that are crawling around and hanging out. So scary. And they run super duper fast! Oh and I peed on a gecko last night too in the charpi haha. 

My language is starting to come along, I have to remind myself to be patient and remember I have only been in language class for 3 days; I can’t have a miracle over night. The conjugation of verbs is so difficult and there are so many ways to say yes and no and it gets confusing really quick. My mom and dad are quite patient with me though so that is great. My dad has also asked me to cook a few times but I will probably epically fail with this cook stove over open fire so I am holding off and will hopefully be able to help in the kitchen more first. 

Planes, Luggage, Ceremony, Temple

Finally Arrived in Nepal!

So we finally arrived in Kathmandu. Lets just say dirty, craziest traffic I have ever seen, small airport, and very easy customs! I can’t believe we did not lose anyone’s baggage the entire way! We are at a training site until Friday learning basic safety and expectations/rules and then we head off to meet our first host families and are divided up into our clusters of 3-4 volunteers for the next 11 weeks then we get our 2-year site. For the 11 weeks we get intense language courses and technical skill. The staff is all super helpful and friendly, I feel they will make this transition as smooth as it possibly could be.

Arriving at the training site we received a warm welcome and received tika. The red rice on our foreheads which all slid off within minutes. We had a long day of ceremony and meeting people and what do except over the next couple days/years. The next day we got our first round of vaccinations. Thankfully I'm well vaccinated already from my home doctor knowing I travel frequently so I just had to get Japanese Eucalypsasaeithoeiw some spelling like that haha. Others had to have 2 others as well. Haha love seeing the fear people have of needles. Made me think of my sister Nikki :)

So we have learned to eat with our right hand! No utensils. Basically all our manors are out the window from here haha. Its good to lick your fingers, sit on the floor, no shoes, and seldom use your napkin.

We are also currently learning to use the left hand, no toilet paper, washing with a bucket and water technique for going to the bathroom.  Some people are struggling to squat over the hole as well, thankfully growing up in ND I am very accustomed to squatting and peeing. Lets just say I haven’t talked about pooping this much in my entire life (and if you know me I talk about pooping often so this is extreme haha).

I have received my mailing address for my Pre-service training site that is good through November 29th 2013. After that I will get a new address for the next two years. 

Current Address:

Rachel Nolz, PCT
c/o U.S. Peace Corps
Post Office Box Number 15150
Kathmandu, NEPAL

The earliest mail arrives is 3 weeks, so don't expect quick responses. Keep fingers crossed mail doesn't get lost (I feel that may be typical). Also don't mail anything valuable due to people opening mail looking for money frequently I guess.