My host family building and neighborhood

My host family is located in the district of Jorpati, Bouddha where the school is. Actually there are several schools in this area. The home stay building has several floors to accommodate the extended family. I had the penthouse, a room at the top with a commanding view of the city and its rooftops.





Pictures coming.

Samata School pictures

The children all dress in a light blue shirt with tie. On Fridays, however, the children can forgo the uniform and dress casual-- rather like our "Casual Friday."





The classrooms are individual buildings surrounding the large Buddha courtyard. Notice that on one side of the building behind the Buddha is the alphabet in Nepali and the other side the English alphabet.

Nepal city pictures

Squeezed in at the end of the alley is where the United Planet and Social Tours--Social Treks offices are located.

My first night was spent in a moderate hotel near the offices. From there I would go to a home stay in another part of the city within walking distance from the school.

Samata School

The Samata School which is a five minute walk from my home stay is a school of about 1700 students. The entire school is made from locally grown bamboo. There are several separate classroom buildings surrounding a large courtyard at the center of which is a large statue of Buddha. I stayed in one room which was the school library. There were only a few hundred books, almost entirely consisting of English books about math and science, as well as some story books and fairy tale books. Since my teaching experience is limited, it was decided that I would fair better with a small group of students instead of the normal class size of 45. I limited my subjects to comments about my own life in the United States, my job as a librarian and my personal home environment with my two dogs. During the last session, the students asked about songs and we sang the Wheels on the Bus. We read the book about Going on a Bear Hunt which I explained was typical of the books I read each week at our storytime.

Kathmandu

After landing at the small airport in Kathmandu, I was taken to the offices of United Planet and briefed on my itinerary. The first night I spent in a small hotel next door to the office in the Thamel area of the city. That night I went to a very traditional Nepali restaurant where I was served several courses of authentic Nepali food. Dancers entertained us with Nepali dances which were originally used during Harvest festivals. About four or five men played unusual instruments that gave the music a minor key sound, quite beautiful, similar but different from Indian music. The dancers, two men and one women or sometimes two women and one man, in folk costumes moved with gestures that sometimes mimicked planting seeds and casting blessings over the future crops. The next day a tour guide took me to two of the most sacred places of worship, one for the Hindu and the other for the Buddhist religions. At the back of the Hindu temple which is sometimes known as the monkey temple because of the proliferation of the creatures a tributary of the Ganges river runs. At this sacred river people bring their departed to be cremated and the ashes thrown into the river. Several cremation pyres were burning and two bodies were covered and awaiting cremation. Young boys wade into the water to retrieve the burnt wood which also falls into the river along with the ashes.
Boudha Stupa and surrounding areas





The Buddhist stupa was less theatrical. Next to the stupa were several shops and also a school for painting the sacred Buddhist Thankas which are used for meditation and prayer in the home. At lunch I tasted my first yogurt drink called a lassi. Very good. We then went to the home where I am to stay during the remaining days of my visit. It is within walking distance of the school where I will be teaching.

Changi Airport, Singapore

I'm almost there. I've been in the air for about 17 or 18 hours. Here I am at the Singapore airport using one of their free internet stations. It's about 1 am Monday, March 15th. My last leg of the trip will begin at about 9 am. So, I'll be kicking around here for awhile. I did manage to sleep about 4 or 5 hours and watched two movies, Precious and Two Moons (?part of the Twilight Saga). The seating was cramped but the food was great and the service terrific. This airport is quite something.

Across the Pacific

The flight across the pacific ocean will be a long one. In fact I've never been so far from home. From Hollywood to Kollywood (Nepal's version of moviedom).

Schools

This is a picture created by the children at Hollydale Elementary school thanking me for visiting their school, reading a story and doing some magic tricks.

Nepali language

I'm trying to learn a few Nepali words and numbers. If I told the story of the Very, very Hungry Catepillar by Eric Carl, I could teach the days of the week and the numbers in both English and Nepali. I had trouble with the script for Tuesday. For some reason it was hard for me to write. Notice the number three and number six. Interesting. To the right of the days of the week, I wrote the pronunciation guide. I didn't do that for the numbers.

Crossing the International Dateline

Until properly understood early explorers who crossed this line found that when they came into port their ship log said one day and the people on land said another.
Going right of the Date Line the day is ahead of the left side. Tonga, therefore, is 24 hours ahead of Samoa. When I fly from Los Angeles to Nepal, I am gaining time in accordance with this imaginary line and when I fly back I will lose time. Very confusing of course.

Thoughts before my trip to Kathmandu, Nepal

Here is a picture of me during one of my Storytimes in the library at which I work. I am a public librarian with the County of Los Angeles. One of the first things I will show the children of Nepal is where I come from, across the wide Pacific Ocean thousands of miles from the City of Kathmandu. Nepal is a landlocked country while I live about a fifteen minute walk to the ocean. Kathmandu is a very culturally diverse city as is Los Angeles. In the city of Artesia (within Los Angeles County) there are many people from India and Nepal. And the city of Hacienda Heights (also within Los Angeles County) has the largest Buddhist Temple in the entire United States. Web address of the temple is http://www.hsilai.org . So, we have similarities and differences. I look forward to sharing this with the new friends I will make in Nepal.

Nepal is getting closer

Soon I will take off for my Nepal adventures. I hope to share my experiences as I learn the way of life in Nepal. This will be very different from the culture shock I had in Europe. Once I went to a hotel room in Italy and found that even though my key unlocked the door, I could not open the door. I was too embarrassed to say anything and stood there for awhile until I finally felt a small button on the underside of the door knob. I pushed it in and turned the knob and the door swung open. I know that Nepal will be much more challenging. I hope I'm up to learning all the new ways of doing ordinary tasks.