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Hi everyone!
I have quite a lot to update y'all with as I've been fairly busy since the last time I posted. So I did another day of teaching, but still haven't met my second class as they were still in Puja so hopefully tomorrow will be my lucky day! I had a lesson all planned out for Friday but apparently Friday is fun time so we spent the day watching the Lord of the Rings and coloring in. :) It was a lot of fun... but the odd thing is the monks were only interested in films with violence in! They asked me if Oliver Twist had fighting in it, and when I said 'no' they wouldn't even consider watching it! (My monks obviously aren't as peaceful as you'd expect!) On the whole they are very good! The youngest in my class is 5 and he just sits at the back sucking his thumb telling me the colors of the rainbow. (which is fine by me) They do chatter quite a bit but it's hard to tell if their just chatting, or if one of them is explaining what I want them to do in Nepali. I'm reluctant to get them to shut up incase its the latter.
Tenzing lama (the monk head teacher) asked me for lunch on Friday with Peter another of the volunteers, and we ate with the elder monks in the 'special' dining room. The meal we had was spicy potato curry and rice with coffee and ice cream. It was all very good and the monks are very welcoming and generous. One of the monks told me that the kids were very excited by my arrival as I was a white lady teacher. (Quite a rarity in Nepal) So tomorrow with the younger ones, I'm going to get them to write a sentence of 'The very Hungry Caterpillar' and make them into a poster with lots of pictures.
So on Saturday I got up early to go to Gourka which is where the Gurkha soldiers get their name. The Gorkha District, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal and has a population of 288,134 aprox. I took a bus which was quite an experience! I had a seat but those that got onto the bus later rode on the roof, hanging onto the side etc. The buses drive really fast and it's pretty scary but I had the views to distract me. They were absolutely beautiful. Just lush green high hills and mountains as far as the eye could see. What I saw on the way to and in Gourkha was the 'real' Nepal; I don't think I've seen such incredible views!
I traveled out there with 4 other volunteers and we stayed overnight in a 'luxury' hotel. (prob 1* in the UK) We walked up to the top of this really really high steep hill. (1,500 steep steps in the blistering heat whilst trying to avoid leeches!) It was a really hard walk but it was worth getting to the top because once I was there I could see the Himalayas. (all these pics will get put up....eventually) Besides the gorgeous views there was a temple, royal palace and fort which are all aprox 500 years old and architecturally beautiful. As we were climbing the steep hill the children would stop us and ask us to take their pictures. All the locals were incredibly friendly, smiley and greeted us with 'Namaste!' which is their greeting and means 'I honor the God within you.' By the time we'd come back down the rain had started so it was back to the hotel for food and sleep!
Generally all the food has been very good, though I am getting a little sick of rice! I can't believe my first week has gone by already meaning I'm a quarter of my way through the trip! Crazy! I think that's all I have to report today. I have lots more things planned for this week but I will write about them after I've done them.
Love to everyone back home! It's raining today so it feels a little more homely already! :P
Laura xx
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