So I am finally using the word ONLY when I am talking to
people about how much time I have left in Nepal and it feels amazing and kind
of scary. It is amazing in the aspect of how far I have come along living in
Nepal and how fast time really is flying not just for me but for the people
back home as well. It is scary because I definitely do not feel like I have
accomplished as much as I thought I would have and now I have to kick it in
gear because I really don’t have a lot of time anymore. Things get done at a
much slower pace here in Nepal, it still is mind boggling some days how such
simple things are the biggest challenges to get done. Also it is scary in that
I am going to have to start thinking about life back in the States; what job am
I going to get, do I want to go back to school, paying back student loans
again, a car, a place to live, which city do I want to live in, readjusting to
prices in America after living off $100 a month and that being more than enough
for all my wants and needs. There will
not be an easy readjustment that is for sure. But until I actually get on US
soil I will definitely be traveling for a few months before I take the plunge
and hopefully that will ease me into first world life again rather coming straight
back from village.
So what’s left for me in Nepal…….. Hopefully this farmers
market gets moving, the guy who has to organize the group meeting is very,
ummmm, very unmotivated? Yea lets not with unmotivated. Unfortunately we have
to go through him for the initial meeting due to VDC approval rules and blah
blah logistics junk. BUT once we get through this step I think things should
start clicking and moving forward. The two other volunteers and I are pretty
much itching to get this going and achieved especially now that 2014 is over
and 2015 is here with less than a year left we have to make things happen now
or never. New goal is to have this going by April or May (setting an early goal
although that might be too ambitious as well). So currently the guy we are
waiting on is too ‘busy’ right now to write a letter and put it in a mailbox so
he said January 16th come back and he will get it done. (Well not
sure why I have to come back and be there to hold his hand as her writes this
letter but I’lll come back to make sure shit gets done. PS we have been urging
this letter since July. Yup WOW just to give you an idea about Nepali time.)
The next exciting project 6 volunteers in my district have
gotten together and collaborated on is a GLOW camp. This is a Girls Leading Our
World camp which is an all girls camp and we are going to discuss serious
issues that girls never education on including: sexual health, violence, money
management skill, life skills, and women’s’ empowerment. In Nepal, as in many
third world countries, women are not held in high worth. When families have
girls they are usually very disappointed it wasn’t a boy. Girls often will be
sent to cheaper schools if they even get to go to school, often if a girl is
the oldest of the family she will stay home and do the chores in the house and
yard. As soon as a girl is married to a man she moves in with the husbands
family and takes over all the chores. Being a born a girl in Nepal puts them at
a disadvantage in an already poor country. But Nepal is slowly moving forward
from the tradition and slowly more and more girls are finishing high school and
some are even going off to college and getting degrees. The numbers are low but
they are growing. With this camp we will reach out to girls ages 12-16 and
empower them to go on to get educated and make decisions that can better not
only their lives but lives of other girls in Nepal. The camp will be held in
our district capital and we each will select 4 girls from our villages to come
participate in the 5-day camp in April. We are partnering with a local NGO-AWAJ
to help facilitate the camp. There is a curriculum already in place that we are
using as a guide in planning the camps activities that many other organizations
and other Peace Corps countries have used in implementing GLOW camps in the
past. After the camp in the capital the goal is to go back to our individual villages
and with the 4 girls who participated we will implement a GLOW camp at the
village level with the local schools. If you would like to contribute to this
project we are raising money to cover expenses of this camp (it is tax
deductible as well) you can visit and make a donation:
Other small projects…
Rabbit farming is still underway, my rabbits are only 3 and
a half month old so 2 and a half more months and I can start breeding them and
then put on a training on proper rabbit husbandry and can sell the babies at
the training as well. I am currently writing a simple guide and getting it
translated in Nepali script so the farmers can take a guide home with them.
Improved Cook stove time of year again. I am starting up the
improved cook stove project again. My wooden brick molds broke so I got metal
brick frames made and now my main goal for this year is for me to train a
Nepali person in on making the stoves and have this be income generating for
them. People constantly ask me how much I charge, so people are willing to pay,
I just need someone to take over the project. I am thinking they can charge 300
rupees per stove $3 and that will be more income than they had before. If they
get good at it they can make one stove in 1-2 hours! To Americans it sounds
like small amount but in Nepal that is a good amount of money.
Macadamia nut production is my next great idea for a
project. Sometimes I think I just need to calm down and focus on one thing at a
time but Nepal really has a lot of potential for a lot of income generation so
my mind is constantly running on over time thinking of the next good idea. Too
bad Nepali people usually don’t think so….wamp wamp. Doesn’t stop me from
trying! So macadamia should be able to grow in my village AND there is one
farmer near Kathmandu that sells macadamia nuts for 1200 rupees per kg which is
A LOT of money for a Nepali. (Ex my cooperative just sold turmeric, in root
form, for 12 rupees per kg). So macadamia trees take about 5-6 years before
they will start producing but after you have trees they can produce for many
years and there is little labor to maintain them after you have a healthy tree
growing. So in my last 10 months I want to start a macadamia tree nursery, put
someone in charge of the tree saplings and create manuals in Nepali script on
proper care of the trees and harvesting of nuts. I will inform DADO of the
project so when in 6 years down the road and they have a surplus of nuts they
can coordinate the farmers with buyers of the nuts and its income generation.
Also macadamia nuts are quite healthy and this would increase villager’s
protein and healthy fat.
FUN stuff……
So I just got back from India and had a great trip seeing
the Taj Mahal, Amber fort in Jaipur, Hawal Mahal in Jaipur, Kerala, and enjoyed
the beaches of Goa! Below are photos. It was a fun vacation. Indians are
intense people and in Delhi everyone is eager to rip of tourists and are quite
good at it I must say….props to them ugh. Happy I went and experienced India
but it is not a destination I will ever go back to. Below are photos.
Next I am a visitor coming in February for just 3 days in
KTM which will be fun to see a familiar face!
March I have another friend visiting for 10 days and she is
even going to come to my village for a good chunk of the trip and she will be
here for Holi (festival of throwing colors), which will be great fun.
April GLOW camp
April/May my sister Nikki is coming and my friend from high
school Amanda (I went home in June for her wedding in June) are coming and we
are going to Tibet for 9 days and maybe trekking Langtang afterwards. I am
really excited for them to come!!!
July Close of Service training
August going to Malaysia or Bali for 10 days, currently
undecided which place I am going to go.
September/October/November wrapping all projects up!!
GETTING OUT OF NEPAL!!!
So if anyone else wants to visit before the end of this
adventure get your schedules cleared and make some plans ;)
Funny…..
Not sure if I wrote this in one of my blog posts before of
not but this is how Peace Corps life is like a video game. So you are on your
own in a foreign place without anyone else with you. You have long-term goal
and there is a lot of trial and error before you get there. Things are even
broke down into checkpoints. Usually you get like three deaths between
checkpoints and once you hit your next checkpoint you get all three lives
again! So Peace Corps is made up of a series of checkpoints for example IST (in
service training), PDM, MST (mid service training), COS (close of service
training), and vacations/birthdays/friends visiting all serve as checkpoints as
well and all you have to do to make it through Peace Corps is not lose your
three lives before the next checkpoint. If you lose your three lives before the
next checkpoint those are the people who go home and quit Peace Corps. So based
on my upcoming FUN schedule I have a lot of checkpoints to look forward to and
I think the second half of my Peace Corps will go by really fast!
