A week with a Nepali family

After 8 weeks of learning Nepali, I thought it was time to put my language skills to the test and so, I spent a week living with a Nepali family.I arrived after my language class on Monday evening and after some introductions by my language teacher, I was left to fend for myself. I sat with the mum (Manju) as she made Dahl Baht for dinner and asked her about her family and the food she was making. After dinner, we sat around in the living room and talked a bit, getting to know each other.The family of 4 was made up of Manju, her husband Mahendra and her 2 sons - 1 son was studying in the States, and 1 son was living at home. I sure was glad to have Sanjil (the younger, 17 year old son) around because he could speak some English which was very...

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Home away from home

I write this from my new apartment which I moved into just a few weeks ago. I feel like it's been a long time coming and I'm so stoked to finally be settling into this new pad.After a few weeks of looking around at not so great apartments, a little over a month ago this apartment came across my path as a family from school were moving house and were looking for someone to move in. I checked it out and really liked it, but needed some expert advice on whether this really was a good apartment or not. You see, in Nepal, it's not just about whether you like the look of a place. You've gotta take into consideration what the water supply's like (by February, Nepal will be short on water so working out if you'll need to truck in water and who pays...

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The Last Resort

I just spent a week with Grade 9s from KISC at 'The Last Resort' - an adventure camp about 4 hours out from Kathmandu.We set out early on Monday morning, and after arriving at the Resort, we found our tents and began team building games. The guys leading our camp group were amazing at keeping the kids engaged and challenging them to stretch themselves and work better at communication and teamwork.That afternoon, we walked to the centre of the bridge and we all had 3 goes at absailing down it - the first time the camp guys lowered us down, the 2nd time we lowered ourselves and the 3rd time we raced to see how fast we could go.Day 2, after a fantastic breakfast (how many other camps cook you omlettes in the morning!) we split up into 2 groups...

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Out of the Comfort Zone of the Classroom

For the past 6 weeks I've spent 3 hours a day, 5 days a week learning Nepali. It's been lots of fun and I've slowly been able to communicate more with Nepalis at school and in the wider community.As part of my language learning, my teacher's got me doing a thing she calls 'CLL' - Community Language Learning. This started a few weeks ago where I would find a Nepali who worked at KISC and have a 10-15 minute conversation with them using only Nepali. I asked them the usual questions about their family, where their house was, what foods they like etc, and they would answer using words and phrases I didn't really understand. Even though our conversation was limited, I enjoyed this time as it gave me an opportunity to get to know some of my colleagues.Then, about a week ago, my teacher decided it...

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Pokhara

I recently got back from an awesome few days chilling by the lake in Pokhara.Pokhara is the 2nd biggest city in Nepal and also the starting point for many treks in the Himalayas. Since I only had a week off from language classes, instead of going trekking, Trish, Esther (also KISC teachers) and I decided to spend a few days chilling out instead. Our holiday started with a 6:45am bus trip, and after taking 2 hours to get out of Kathmandu, we finally arrived in Pokhara around 3pm. The rest of the day was spent settling into our guesthouse, walking by the lake and checking out a few shops.On Friday, we took it easy, walking up and down the main strip of shops, stopping regularly to see what was on offer.On Saturday, Trish, Esther and I headed...

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realestate.com - Nepal Needs You!

Just this weekend, I moved out of the house I'd been staying in since arriving in Kathmandu.The KISC hostel was a great place to stay upon arrival in Nepal, but hearing that I would be sharing a bedroom with another girl and a bathroom with 5 others for the next 4 months quickly put me on the look out for somewhere else to live.Luckily, an Australian named Antonia (also a teacher at KISC) had a spare room at her apartment and so, I decided to move in with her...for the time being.Although Antonia's apartment is nice, I want to find a place that I really like that I can set up as my own, and so, began the search for a place to call home.Now if I were to search for an apartment back in Melbourne, I would jump on realestate.com.au, domain.com.au...

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Missing Bek

I miss Bek.I'm sad that I can no longer go grocery shopping on her behalf, help her finish a loaf of bread or a carton of milk, or keep her company after watching a freaky episode of Criminal Minds.But I love it when we talk on skype and she tells me all about her day, or plays me her favorite Flight of the Conchords song. I also love it when she starts skype conference calls and I get to talk to a bunch of people all at the same time.I miss Bek (and lots of other people too...

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1 Bag, 2 hours and 720 Rupees Later

Today I went to Kathmandu's Cargo Storage building to pick up a bag that I sent over.We (I went with a Nepali man from school named Bukta) arrived at 10:30am and were quickly surrounded by a group of men. One man asked for my documents and a copy of my passport. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought a copy of my passport so he brought us to a building to make a copy = 5 rupees (7 cents).We were then told that the building wouldn't open til 11am so we stood around the front of the building while others arrived. It was interesting to watch the Nepali men interacting with each other, smoking, spitting and shooting snot our of their noses. Gross.At 11:15am the building opened. The man with my documents was already inside and told Bukta and I to wait on some seats. We waited. 1/2 hour later, we were...

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Kathmandu - My New Home

It's quite late at night but I can hear the animals in the zoo nearby going nuts! There are elephants, lions, monkeys and a random dog barking. Welcome to Kathmandu!I was sitting in the middle section of the plane totally engrossed in a movie I was watching when we landed in my new home, so I didn't even catch a glimpse of Kathmandu as we were approaching.The airport was pretty average (what you'd expect from an airport in a developing country) and a little chaotic, but I found my way alright, picked up my bag without any hassles, and was met by someone from KISC (Kathmandu International Study Centre) - the school I'm teaching at.I was then brought to the KISC guesthouse where almost all new teachers stay when they first arrive, and after settling...

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Koh Samui = Island Paradise

I started this blog to keep people up-to-date on my adventures in Nepal, and now that I've arrived, I thought it was about time I posted again (sorry for my laziness over the last few months...now that I'm here, I'll endeavour to post a bit more regularly). But before I write about Nepal, let me tell you about the awesome holiday I just had... Oh my gosh! If you have ever want to go to an island paradise, then Koh Samui is it! It was amazing, from start to finish!!!!!Hannah (my friend that I was travelling with) and I were met at the airport by someone from the Samui Reef View Resort where we were staying, and after unpacking our stuff a bit, Hannah and I went and lounged by the pool for awhile, had some lunch, then headed into Lamai - the...

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A Walk In The Park

Just 1 week ago, I found it harder than usual to get off the couch due to my extremely sore leg muscles...I'd just walked 50km.On Saturday 1 May at 7am, Cassie, Hamo, Bek and I lined up at the starting line of 'Go The Extra Mile' - a 50km endurance walk to raise money for Dalit (considered the 'untouchables', lower than animals) children in India (www.walk4charity.com/vic).We'd spent the last 2 months training for the event...going for shorter walks during the week, and blocking out a day on the weekend to do a longer walk.Through our training, we'd tried to cover most of the trail that we'd be walking on event day. I'm glad we did as some of the terrain, especially in The Dandenongs, was really steep. It was good to have an idea of what we'd...

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Chuffed

Thanks to those of you who have emailed and let me know that you will be praying for me as I prepare to go, as well as while I'm in Nepal. Prayer is powerful and I know that God will work through you in awesome ways.After sending out that newsletter, the responses I received were mainly from friends and family who I had emailed, although I was quite chuffed when I received an email from my friend's parents. I have known this friend for around 5 years, and only met her parents a handful of times. Anyway, they wrote, saying that they heard that I was going and that they were commited to praying for me. I guess I was just excited to know that God is bringing people outside of my 'circle' to support me and that I don't need to worry about having enough prayer or financial support because God's...

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It's really happening

As I prepare to send out my first newsletter in just a few days time, I can't believe that once I hit 'send', it's really going to be happening...I'm really going to be on my way to Nepal.Sure...I've been preparing for this forAGES. I've done short term mission trips, read missionary's biographies, gone to every mission conference or meeting possible to learn more about where God might want me...but now that I've got my support card ready to send out, and people might actually respond and feel led to support me on this journey, my hopes of going somewhere long-term will begin to become a reality.I actually set up this blog a little while ago, knowing that when I'm away,I want to have a place where people can come and see what I've been up to,...

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