I arrived in Kathmandu with no hiccups. Going through the Delhi airport was an experience though. I went through the sliding door and was stopped immediately to get my bags screened. Okay… I then wait in line to get my boarding pass. There are agents standing at the front to check your ticket before getting to the counter, only to repeat the same thing again. I wait in line to go through security. When get to the front of the line, I find out it’s a customs guy, checking your passport and boarding pass. THEN I go through security (you know, where they screen your carry on and you have to take out all electronics and go through the thingy that beeps?). The thingy did not beep, but I get patted down (apparently routine). I go pick up my things on the other end, and security guy is tagging my carryon backpack, purse, camera bag with stamps saying I went through security. I go for dinner (I had a shwarma. The chicken was really good, but it was not an Ottawa garlicy shwarma!) and then go to the gate. I wait in line to board the plane. Guy like normal check ID and boarding pass and then I get to the front of the line and ANOTHER security guard is checking to see if all the tags that the first security guy put on my bags are still on my bags. I finally board the plane. Wow.

In any case, things are well here. I’m settling in fine although I like the Jaipur volunteer house better. It is not only nicer but it has better food (although it doesn’t compare to the food in the Delhi house!) and the volunteers there I clicked better with. I think I am the oldest one here… everyone seems to be 20 or 21 and still “figuring stuff out.” I told Guillerme, a volunteer from Brazil I was 33, and he was in shock. He kept saying, “No, no! You look 20!” haha. Thanks! But I feel freaking old.

I also started my stay with two others in the room and I had to have the top bunk because I arrived last. I didn’t like that. My roomie Lea from Germany has left, so I took her bed. Now it’s just me and Leila from Switzerland in the room. I do love the view from my room though. You can see the Himalayas and it’s beautiful.

On the first day I had to get up at 6 a.m. to do yoga… it was good, but damn, they love their early morning yoga classes here (and in India!). We then had breakfast and got started on “orientation” stuff. We went over the house rules and then went to visit the projects that Idex works on here. We visited one school where volunteers teach children and women, one school where volunteers are doing “beautification work” (painting and refinishing walls and cleaning off the desks etc…), an orphanage and then walked by a home for the elderly where volunteers are feeding and bathing disabled seniors or doing their laundry. We then walked around Kathmandu a little and stopped for some tea, but it was super hot out so I didn’t have any.

When we got back after lunch and talked about what our assignments would be, I spoke to Niv, the manager here (who happens to be the son of Sudha from the Delhi house!) about my experience in India. I told him I was disappointed and was looking for something else to do in Nepal rather than working with children. I showed him some organizations I thought might be interesting to work with (communications and women’s rights related). I told him my background and said that I wanted to be in an organized environment where people tell me what they need me to do, rather than coming up with an inefficient lesson plan with no resources to teach. I told him I’m not a teacher and want to do something that I’m skilled in. He said I could teach the women’s class anything I wanted, not necessarily English, but I said for what purpose? I’m only here for three weeks and I don’t want to be teaching random things with no purpose. In any case, at the end of our conversation, he asked me if I wanted to work for him instead, helping with social media and marketing. I said sure.
So far, it’s been good. I started this week on creating a newsletter. I will also be visiting all of the projects to write about them and taking lots of pictures, of course. I’ll be writing photo captions for Facebook posts, and I created a video about a city called Pokhara because Idex is launching an Experience Nepal Program which includes a stop there. He also wants me to write a few blogs for them (got that covered!) and a travel guide for volunteers. I can do this!

As for the city itself, it is beautiful, but very polluted. Strangely, there is not as much garbage on the streets as in India (there is still a lot though) but it is smellier because of the pollution and the exhaust from very old cars. A lot of people wear face masks and I should probably invest in one, as we are walking distance to all the projects and a supermarket. It is so bad that the face masks can be colour coordinated with outfits. There are plain simple ones, or ones with fancy designs, or just regular medical ones. The altitude here is about 1,400 kilometers. I thought I might have a problem with altitude sickness, but so far so good.

I feel a lot safer here than in India. Walking along the street, no one really harasses you or calls out to you. They do stare, but I guess that’s natural. When walking along in front of shops, no one tries to get you to go in and pesters you to buy anything. I’ve been told a few times I look Nepali and locals are surprised when I say nope, Canadian.

It is not as loud or as chaotic as it was in Delhi or Jaipur, but the drivers are crazy and don’t stay in their lanes either. They drive quickly, even over speed bumps!

I went to a touristy area called Thamel last night for dinner at an Italian restaurant which was really good (I had the amatriciana. East Side’s got nothing on this one, and we’re not even in Italy!). It is a nice area though and will have to frequent it often.

Oh, during our orientation week, we went to see a Bollywood movie at the theatre. The theatre was nice (very western look and feel) and served regular popcorn or popcorn with cheese. I loved it! It was a spicy cheese, something you would get at Kernels. It was actually very good and sooo cheap. We saw the movie Queen, and it had NO subtitles or translation. Despite the language barrier, it was a great film. I’m going to have to look for it in Canada with subtitles because I would like to get the full meaning of everything, but it was amazing that just through pictures and emotions you could really understand what was happening in the movie. I even cried a few times.

We also had a Nepali language class, and it’s very similar to Hindi, so I had a good head start. I will have to study some of the phrases. I started getting pretty good in Hindi because the only words I could teach the women in English were the ones I learned in Hindi as well to make sure they understood what I was saying.

On Monday we went to a host family’s house for dinner, the family who owns the volunteer guest house. The man, whose name I now forget, is a Sherpa who comes from close to Mount Everest. The dinner was really nice, and we had good conversations about Nepal. I learned that climb Mount Everest, it costs about $25,000 for a permit and that’s not including gear, guides, Sherpas, food, oxygen etc… He said that on average, a Sherpa can climb from Everest Base Camp to the peak (17 kilometres) in about 18 hours. Foreigners who try usually take about a month to do it, trying to acclimatise and such. That is simply crazy. Before I came here, I thought I would be able to go to Base Camp (I didn’t do too much research) as one of my major trips just to see it (not trek obviously LOL)… I found out it’s a $1,500 flight (haha) and not even close to Kathmandu. Oops. I guess it’s not a day trip. Yes, that’s the non-climber/non-outdoorsy/city-girl-thought-it-would-be-cool-to-say-I-went-to-Base-Camp-but-has-no-idea-about-it talking. 😛

That’s about it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and keeping warm back home!!

–Bea