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So here it goes….. my last ever travel blog from Nepal! :'( [makes me feel so so sad!]
So since the last time I posted I have been crazy busy and I will try to put it in to a coherent blog! J
Since I last posted…..
Monday: It rained and rained and rained some more! The road was so flooded I had to wade through about 4 inches of water. It was the first time in a month I was really pleased to have my walking boots and geeky Peter Storm anorak! The journey to the monastery was treacherous as it was so slippery! (but at least the rain meant no monkeys!) It was Sonam's first day of teaching the class that Peter had and he did a great job. After class I drank tea with Sonam and Tenzin (it was a tea that helps prolong life….there was a dead fly floating in mine… wonder what that could mean?!)
I was due to meet Rita, Janice and Chunchun [;)] for lunch and was running late…. So Sonam kindly offered me a lift on his motorbike! (The ride was pretty scary!) In Nepal the roads are a free for all and I wasn't wearing a helmet and it was raining. All in all I was being pretty stupid. But hey I lived to tell the tale!
I then spent the afternoon in the children's home where we did more origami made the Nepali flag out of paper and tape, and Hedy and Sharon gave them a very important lesson on nutritional value of food. : )
Then Joe, Imelda and I went for farewell drinks with Peter. It was nice to have a drinking session at last! Cocktails were cheap and lush at Bar Maya. : ) But then I did have teaching in the morning……
Tuesday: Woke up, didn't feel great because of the night before, but still managed to pull myself together to teach J It was a good thing I showed up as Sonam was indisposed so I had to think fast and plan a lesson. We ended up doing birthdays which was pretty difficult as the Western calendar with 12 months doesn't exist in Nepal! I then I spent the afternoon shopping for gifts for various lovely people. There are lots of little embroidery shops in Nepal that just take a picture of anything you want and put it on a t-shirt, or cap (etc) It's the kind of thing I love so I spent some time just printing out various pictures and using a Nepali dictionary to design my own t-shirts. It was so cool all the sewing takes no more than 20 minutes per t shirt and they cost less than three pounds. Tuesday was a day of relaxing and I spent the evening watching Slumdog Millionaire with the staff at the guesthouse and Hedy and Janice.
Wednesday: As per usual got up to teach. Realized I was becoming way to attached to the monastery and panicked about actually leaving Tenzin and the lads (as Peter would say) at Sangye Choling gompa. I did my teaching and gave Tenzin an English lesson and then ventured into town for lunch. The food in Katmandu is truly amazing and so inexpensive. I don't think I'll ever be able to justify eating out in England again! I had a steak sandwich in roadhouse café and it was the first proper meat I'd had for AGES. Alas I don't think this vegetarian diet will continue when I'm back home! I then did more present shopping and began to plan the painting for the children's home. We were painting the girl's bedroom so we decide on a colour scheme of white and pink (of course! Everyone knows Pink is the best girly fabulous colour!) We really didn't have time to paint a mural in two ish days so kept it simple!
Thursday: By far Thursday was the busiest day I'd had in Kathmandu I didn't seem to stop all day! So (you know the drill) I taught! Then made the quickest getaway I could to meet Hedy for lunch. We then spent the afternoon doing activities which was great! Lots of games, coloring and giving out farewell pressies to the kids. Then without a minute to spare after saying goodbye to the kids we were straight onto the task of painting!
Painting in NEPAL IS HARD! Firstly we don't speak Nepali so getting instructions from the man at the paint shop fell on deaf ears. Apparently you have to mix the tin of paint with oil and water! Well we didn't know this. (When I painted before in ENGLAND! You buy paint and it's all mixed up and you put the brush in the pot and away you go! BUT OH NO! Not in Nepal where life seems 10Xs harder!!) So after spending half an hour being really confused at the thick paint Mr Oli and Uncle , (staff at the children's home) came to help us! And the made the paint thinner with oil and water! (I bet your so proud of my DIY skills Dad! :S) We didn't get much paint on the wall but the main thing was to get the first coat of white on so we did this as fast as we could, made an absolute mess, got covered in paint and were utterly exhausted.
BUT there was no time to rest as we were out for a leaving meal for Joe and Imelda. We went to Fire and Ice a really good pizza resteraunt and I had the best pizza ever (cos sweetcorn was one of the toppings and I didn't realized I'd been missing it so so much!) The meal was bittersweet as the company and food was great but saying goodbye to even more volunteers just made it so sad : '(
Friday: Teaching apu, told the monks we'd be having a 'birthday' party on the Sunday (my last day) then legged it back to Thamel. I had lunch then met Suresh (staff at the guesthouse) and we both headed off to start painting the bedroom at the children's home. It was so much fun. We got to paint over the horrible walls in fantastic bright Barbie pink! J The colour put me in such a good mood! It was really good having Suresh there as well as he was able to talk to the kids for us and translate. We were mucking about chasing the kids, painting their faces if we caught them. It was my last day at the children's home and I was so gutted to be leaving. The kids love anyone who will come and just talk to them. They only want friendship, love and some attention and it annoys me that there is only one of me and 50ish of them! : ( It was sad to leave of course, but I am so proud of that bedroom it's like a little boudoir and so much prettier than it was before. We painted pink hearts onto the white and the girls seemed to really like it. The little ones kept saying 'Miss it's like a love story! Beautiful!"
I then headed into town to do some serious bartering on bulks of pashmina scarves and had dinner with Hedy and Janice at café Kaldi (it was good! J)
So that brings me to ….
Satuday: Woke up headed to the monastery (even thought it was my day off I just can't keep away!) with Chunchun and Janice. We played a game of pingpong with Tenzin. It was a right old laugh! Then watched Tenzin bless Buddhist statues that Chunchun had bought for her Dad to take home. It was very calming to listen to him bless and prey. We then went to Sonam's who had very kindly invited us over to his house for lunch. He showed us around and we saw photos of his family. He made us Italian style pasta and it was really good!
Janie and I then met Suresh and we climed the monkey temple. It was hard work! Climbing loads of steps, in the heat, avoiding pilfering monkeys and dodgy necklace sellers. It was worth it though the view from the top is amazing! You can see right over Thamel and view some of the beautiful hills.
Then surprise surprise more shopping (which will probably tip me over the 20 kilo allowance!) Then off to the last farewell dinner (mine!) at OR2KS! OR2K is an amazing restaurant, it's vegetarian and you have to sit on the floor cross legged and remove your shoes. The atmosphere is great and the hummus and mint lemonades are amazing (Jim can vouch for that!)
All in all Nepal has been amazing, the people I have met have been incredible and I hope I never lose contact with anyone. I am so sad to be leaving but I'm already planning my next trip back and volunteering option! I will post one final blogs when I get back to England on all the things I have learnt and experience in Nepal!
Not looking forward to returning to dreary England but can't wait to see my friends and family. Love to you all!!!
Laura xxx
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