ITS SO HOT!

The hot months have begun. Afternoons easily reach 100 degrees and I am so thankful for living near a big river that I can go swim in whenever I please. I have started to adapt the slow/laid back lifestyle of working from 7am-11am then napping in the afternoon and then working from 4pm-6pm; having a real job when I come back might be a slap in the face for a bit. But along with hot days I now shower daily because the cold water feels amazing! But ironically as I had started showering daily I got scabies and ring worm within the same week-I guess daily showers only go so far in this country.

I am still making lots of cook stoves, makes the time pass quite fast. Also I have introduced my family to strawberries that I purchased while at the last group training we had. Unfortunately I generally don’t get to eat them because they pick them prematurely when I am gone and steal them away. I can’t even be mad, totally understand, they are delicious!

I also made some organic pesticide for the garden so the bugs will stop eating all the veggies. It is called jholmol. Made of leaves, cow urine, cow poop, ash, and then a liquid form of bacteria that you would find in yogurt. Smells absolutely terrible! This stuff better work wonders!

I also started worm composting, seems to be the easiest/least amount of work to make compost possible. And my host mother looks at everything as profit; after the worms reproduce she is excited to sell the extras-haha she is always thinking of a way to make a rupee or two.

Before the rainy season comes I am planning on conducting a plastic house training with the farmers cooperative. We (the other two volunteers in the neighboring VDCs) are trying to form a weekly farmers market: it’ll encourage farmers to produce more vegetables, increase varieties (they like new things to plant/sell), increase income, also can sell crafts, and then people don’t have to walk so far to the only farmer who, for example, produces mushrooms. Another project we are thinking of working on is introducing moringa olifera trees – so healthy and everything can be used. It’s referred to tree of life! Its pretty spectacular if you have time you should look it up.

How to deal with situations that make you uncomfortable:

When your host mother thinks you should be doing even more chores around the house on top of all the other things you have going on you should vomit in the middle of the garden while watering all her plants. She will then realize this American person cannot take the heat and should remain indoors during the hours of 11am-4pm and shouldn’t be doing so much of her work.

If you end up getting served food with a lot of oil, after words just tell them it gave you diarrhea and the next time you will be served with less oil. (Talking about poop is just normal and any time you have diarrhea the entire town will know anyways).

When talking on the phone with a Nepali person try to take over the conversation as much as possible-they have just as hard of a time understanding me over the phone as I do understanding them, so eventually they will stop calling so much because it sucks on both ends for understanding the language.

When constantly asked why you are not married point out all the positives of a single life (they start to feel jealous and really have never contemplated the single life): My money is my money, I can wonder off to visit other countries, I don’t have to cook for a husband, I can have boyfriends and then throw them away when I decide I don’t like them anymore, I don’t need permission to do what I want, and I don’t have babies-aka A LOT of work feeding them, cleaning up poop, cooking for them, holding them, listening to them cry. In the end they generally understand why I enjoy the single. But of course still want me to marry and live in Nepal.

When constantly told you are fat and yet they don’t understand why I don’t want to ever finish my food and I want to exercise explain to them. When I go to America and I get off the airplane my family will see me and say, “Who is this fat person? This is not my daughter this person is moto (fat) and kalo (black).” They hate that my skin is getting dark and when I explain to them people in America pay a lot of money to get dark they are just shocked. Tanning beds and self-tanner are mind boggling to them.

Cook stove at my uncles house I made.

Womens group making nepali stools.

Classic Nepali T shirt

The cooperative is building a collection center building and it was a hard days labor so we had a picnic complete with fresh goat meat!

MN friend at her site-made an over so we can make some fire roasted pizza hopefully!

This is how you make homemade alcohol!

Visited a school founded by an American (Kolpla Valley School) where orphans are taken in and get an education. 

Being around kids wasnt even too too painful for that hour. They were cute.