The Challenges of Dolpa

As many of you knew just getting the permits to come to Dolpa was an adventure in itself. The rest of the journey started March 24 at 5am. Jake and I were up and out the door to the bus park by 6am. We met Shivani and boarded a 730am bus to Nepalgunj. This bus ride is suppose to take 11 hours but has been known to take as many as 20 hours. The bus we took was luxury for Nepal standards and besides stopping to eat I slept most of the 14 hour bus, with the aid of narcotics. Once in Nepalgunj, its 930pm, we eat and find out there aren't any flights out of Nepalgunj to Dolpa for a entire week! So! We get up at 330am the next day to take a 3 hour bus ride to Surkhet, where we (YAY!) get a flight to Dolpa.
The flight to Dolpa is in a small twin engine plane, everybody made a big fuss before Jake and I left that the flight is really scary. The flight was AWESOME!!! The views were amazing, just wait until I can post photos.
We land in Dolpa, get all our stuff, meet Tarak (the manager of the "hotel" we are staying in), and head off to the hotel. Once we get our room (which is simple and clean) and settle our things, Jake and I head off on a mission to walk to the river. The walk down to the river was BEAUtiful and I took a ton of photos. The mountains and hills are just AMAZING here. At the river we walked around, splashed in the water and then headed back. Well....The walk back wasn't so pleasant. I noticed we had not headed up the hill enough, but I assumed (wrongly) that Jake knew this. Then we got to this point where we HAD to TREK up this really steep incline...then another steep incline...and another! Finally! We were back in Juphal (the town we are staying in)....phew! That evening we just hung out and relaxed preparing for our first day of school...the next day!!!
Our first day of school was a Friday, so a short day. We just taught UKG (upper kindergarten) and classes 1 and 2 (which are in the same classroom mind you). It all went quite smoothly, though the "principal" was with us all day. Then as a Friday special, the kids all gathered in one room and sang danced, and played games. It was too cute!
Saturday, Jake and I had planned to hike to these really cool hot springs, but he wasn't feeling well. I just bopped around the hotel doing laundry, reading and writing in my journal. Getting ready for teaching on Sunday.
Sunday, at school they start everyday with "assembly." Which is where they stand in straight lines (which takes forever in itself) and then say a pray in "English" (doesn't really sound like English) and then the Nepali national anthem. It is soooo adorable. I have video that I hope to post once I am back in the capital. Teaching was okay...it is really difficult with the younger kids LKG (lower kindergarten) and nursery. They are so young and they don't understand us most of the time and they are suppose to sit for 45 MINUTE LESSONS!!! Hello! What 3 or 4 year old can sit for 45 minutes! Other than that, the teaching is out of an English book and it is pretty straight forward.
Sunday night....something awful happened, I don't know what but I got really sick. Nausea and stomach issues, BAD! So no school Monday, I spent most of the day in bed. I just couldn't knock my urges to puke everytime I rolled over. I took some stomach medicine and drank some pop, that seemed to help. But poor Jake had to teach by himself and I guess LKG was terrible...sorry I was sick Jake! But Monday night while I was still sick, Jake went to a festival honoring some goddess and partied down with Tarrick's family. Lucky!
Tuesday, I went to school even though I still wasn't feeling myself, because I only had one week left of teaching. April 7th Jake and I are going on a 5 day trek to Puksundo Lake! Teaching was pretty good, LKG still naughty and nursery still too young to really understand ANYthing. Although, one of the Nepali teachers (she is a doll!) helps me translate English story books to the nursery students, which really helps pass the time and I think they actually learn something!
Wednesday, school was good. The kids are sometimes a real challenge to teach, but then they can be SUPER endearing. Jake had his camera out and was taking pictures and all the little girls were so cute! Still wasn't totally feeling myself, but hopefully on the road to recovery. Although the thought of Dal Bhat (Rice and Lentils) is enough to make me want to puke!
Today! Ho Hum! Jake was sick...so I had to go to school all by myself! I was already worried about teaching Friday all by myself because Jake is going on a day trek. Now I was just thrown to the wolves! It actually wasn't too bad. I covered a lesson in all my classes and felt relatively accomplished...YAY! Except nursery is always a bust, they really don't ever understand me. Thank goodness for that nice Nepali teacher who helps me! My stomach is still not 100% but I think it is because I can't get into eating rice at this moment. It just sounds so gross! I better get over it, I still have two weeks in Dolpa!
I have been thinking about home alot, especially when I was sick in bed. I miss you all! Until the next adventure from Nepal.

RIP 3-22-2010 Devin Calliau
You will live on forever as my "teenager." I miss you Dev!