You can take the girl out of the city...

I will be the first to admit I am truly the definition of "city girl." My idea of an outdoor adventure is walking down 5th Avenue for a bit of shopping (it's outdoors!). In fact, the closest to nature I'm willing to get is the park down the street from my house, and I try to avoid sitting in the grass if I can. Most of you already know about my distaste for the outdoors, but only a few know my feelings about less-than-5-star accommodations. I haven't verbally complained about any of the places I've been staying, but a tiny voice in my head cries every time I take a cold shower or sleep on a hard mattress. I've been good, I don't even mind the uncleanliness anymore, but oh, how I miss those days of daddy and me vacations; staying in gorgeous hotels and perusing the city streets, peeking into shops and wandering around local sites.
It turns out that even halfway across the world, the daddy and me vacations live on. Dad has booked the Hyatt Regency Kathmandu for me until I leave for Thailand on Thursday. It was quite a shock for me when I arrived there yesterday. I was promptly greeted by a bellman who took my bags and paid for my taxi, the man behind the desk referred to me as Ms. Cantrell (it was rather strange to hear my last name, the kids call me Maya because it's easy for them to remember. Maya means love in Nepali.), I was offered a free drink, and my bags were brought up to my room for me. I had completely forgotten what it was like to be waited on. The hotel itself is palatial, in fact, I think it's the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in! It's definitely going to be hard to leave and go back to reality. But for now I'll enjoy every minute of the enormous pool and the hot showers.
My fellow volunteer, Cathy, left yesterday. It was so so sad to say goodbye to her since we've been living and working together for 3 weeks. I don't think we've ever been apart for more than an hour or two! The monks gave her some parting gifts, and she burst into tears, which of course made me cry too. I walked her down the road to the taxi and then walked back to the monastery for the last class of the day. Teaching alone has been challenging. Usually, when one of us can't think of something to do or can't figure out how to explain something, the other one jumps in, but now I have to do everything on my own. It hasn't been too bad, but I've only had two classes on my own, and both of them are fairly easy classes to teach. The junior class (the youngest boys) are quite difficult, and I'm not sure how that's going to go, but I'm sure they'll be fine.

This will probably be my last post from Nepal since I'm much further away from the internet cafe now. I'll try to update from Thailand!

Monk Football (and other surprises)

Whatever idea about Buddhist monks I previously had is completely gone now. I mean, our monks are the kind, short-haired, gold and maroon robe-clad boys that I pictured, but they're also shockingly "Western." They love Chris Brown and Akon, they talk about how the email past volunteers, and they even have Facebook! Most surprising, though, was their love for football (soccer, as we know it). They even have their own team, and despite the fact that the head teacher has forbidden them from practicing, they're quite good. So good, in fact, that they came in 2nd place out of 9 teams during a monastery football tournament. They even have matching Barcelona uniforms. Impressive, no?
I was surprised with how excited about the game I got. I was definitely one of the loudest spectators at the game, and my voice stood out amongst all the others since it was only one of two female voices in the crowd. Even though our team didn't win, one of our players got a prize for scoring the most goals in the tournament. He combined his winnings with the team's prize to buy meat and soda for dinner the next night. Yes, our monks eat meat. Yet another surprise for me, but apparently only some of them take a vow to be a vegetarian, and they don't have to remain vegetarians for their whole lives!

Thursday night I left for Chitwan with the other 4 volunteers on this trip. Chitwan is in southern Nepal, and is basically one big, steamy jungle. We stayed in a nice little resort just outside of the park, and on Friday morning we went for a jungle walk. I know, I know. Right now you're thinking, "Maya Cantrell? On a jungle walk? NO!" But I did! I went for a 3 hour walk through the jungle and grasslands of southern Nepal. I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would, and by that I mean I didn't cry the whole time. There were a lot of bugs, and I wasn't so hot on all the nature touching my skin, and I had never gotten so dirty in my life, but it wasn't awful. We saw some deer running around and heard a lot of birds and monkeys. After the walk, we went for an elephant bath, which basically entails going into the river on an elephant, being thrown off, and then climbing back on for some more. It was REALLY fun, and I was so so so happy to get to ride an elephant. And, as if one elephant ride wasn't enough, we got to go on another ride through the jungle. Since the elephant's smell masked our own, we got to see 3 rhinos and a ton of deer wandering around the jungle. It was such a cool experience! This morning we had an early breakfast and then went on a canoe ride to do some birdwatching. Along the way we saw a huge crocodile sunning on one of the beaches. Pretty awesome!
The bus ride to and from Chitwan, however, were not so awesome. A trip that would take about 2 and a half hours in America took 8 hours on the way there and 5 and a half on the way back. The roads are ridiculously rough. I can't even describe how bumpy the ride was, not to mention how awful the traffic was on the way there. Despite the awful ride, the views were gorgeous. Sadly, the rough ride didn't allow for any pictures, but the hills and mountains are absolutely breathtaking. It's like Hawaii, but 100 times prettier.

Anyway, my time in Nepal is almost over, and I'm actually really sad to be leaving this week. I've grown so close to the monks that it's really hard to imagine not coming back, which is why I think I want to rearrange my trip so I can come back to Nepal next year (surprise, dad!). I don't think I've ever felt as attached to a place as I am to here, and I will definitely be sobbing on Thursday afternoon when I have to leave!

Puja, Paneer, and Prisoners

Cathy, the other volunteer working here, and I finally made it out of our guesthouse to our monk's morning prayer session (called puja). Getting up at 5 was quite a struggle, but it was definitely worth it once we got to the temple. We were allowed to actually sit on the floor cushions with the monks while they chanted their Tibetan prayers. The people who walked in and out of the temple to pray and make offerings of money to the monks couldn't stop staring at the two of us! It was clear that our presence was typically not allowed, but no one made us feel uncomfortable. A man that was offering each monk 5 rupees even gave us some money after some brief hesitation, of course. The puja was two hours long, with a break for breakfast. I don't know how it's possible for them to sit with their legs crossed for that long! Cathy and I were fidgeting after about 30 minutes. The experience of sitting in the temple, surrounded by huge, ornate statues of Buddha, detailed paintings, and the flicker of butter candles while listening to the Tibetan chants was unforgettable. Hopefully our guesthouse will be unlocked more often so I can go again.

The monks get half of Friday and all of Saturday off as a holiday, so Cathy and I had a bit of free time this weekend to do our own sightseeing. We went to New Road, which is an Indian-dominated shopping road. We quickly found that most of the clothing stores were very male-oriented, which is because the women here typically wear traditional Indian, Nepali, or Tibetan clothes rather than "Western" clothing. We ended up giving up on the shopping and going to the 5th floor of a nearby hotel for lunch. It was SO GOOD! I had paneer (a type of Indian cheese) masala curry with rice and garlic naan. I can't even articulate how much I love Indian food now, especially since it's so delicious here. The best part about eating here is how inexpensive everything is. A coke is usually 30 rupees, a meal at a nice restaurant is around 350, and a meal at an inexpensive restaurant is usually about 80 rupees. One dollar is about 76 rupees, so you can have lunch at a very nice restaurant for the price of a McDonald's combo meal. I'm definitely going to miss all the inexpensive food when I leave.

After our rooftop lunch, we perused through Cathy's Nepal guidebook to find something to do. We ended up finding an interesting section about the prisons of Nepal, and how many Westerners are held without trial for years in terrible conditions. The Nepal government expects the family members of prisoners to essentially pay for their release with no trial, but this is obviously quite difficult for Western prisoners, as their families aren't here to help. The guidebook suggested that we bring some food, toiletries, clothes, or money and visit a prisoner in one of the three jails in Kathmandu. We went and bought some food and went on our way to the prison, only to realize that the guidebook was written a few years ago, and things have changed very much. There is no longer a list of the current detainees on the wall, and in order to sign in we have to say the name of a specific prisoner. The main office was closed, so there was no way for us to know the names of any English-speaking prisoners, if there were any at all. We resolved to check online to see if we could get a name, but no such luck. It was pretty interesting to see the compound though, despite the bizarre looks we received for guards and visitors alike. It is clear that the prisons are in terrible conditions. The buildings look far too small to house all the prisoners that we know are in there, and most of the walls are crumbling anyway. We may try to go back to the administrative offices to see if there are any prisoners we can talk to, or at the very least, leave the food and soap we bought so that they can be donated to one of the detainees. I read up on the Nepali prisons, and found that people are held 50 to a room with no clothes, bedding, or toiletries provided. They eat black rice (fermented rice) and daal (lentil soup) everyday and are given a few rupees to buy vegetables at the prison stores. There are several human rights organizations here working to fix the poor conditions of the jails, but change is slow here.

But on the bright side, I found a post box and sent of the postcards, but mail takes at least 10 days, and, unfortunately, they may never make it to their destination.

Nepal

I've been in Nepal for just over a week now, and besides a few (enormous) disasters, everything has been really nice.
For the first few days, 3 other volunteers and I had a Nepali language course in the morning followed by lunch and sightseeing. I'm nearly conversational in Nepali, and if I practice a bit more, I could probably have a full conversation with someone.
On the first day of sightseeing, we went to the monkey temple, which is a Buddhist temple just outside of Kathmandu. We had to climb up about a trillion stairs (not an exaggeration), but the climb was definitely worth it! Besides all the beautiful statues, we had a fantastic view of the Himalayas and all of Kathmandu valley. I'll post pictures as soon as I get to New Zealand. It's called monkey temple because there's 100s of monkeys wandering around the temple and the jungle that surrounds it. For the most part, they stay away from people, but one of the monkeys nearly attacked our guide while we were walking through the jungle!

The next day, we went to Pashupatinath and boudhanath (where I'm currently living, but more on that latter). Pashupatinath is a Hindu temple along a river (forgot the name, sorry!). It's probably the most famous temple, considering this is where Hindus are cremated after they die. Further downstream, the river is lined with cliffs and caves, where people actually live.
Boudhanath is another huge Buddhist temple. The building itself is a large, round stupa (like a steeple), and shops and restaurants circle it. The monastery I'm living in is just a few feet away from it, and I have a gorgeous view of the stupa from my room!

I moved in just a few days ago, and began teaching English to 3 classes of Buddhist monks. In the morning, we teach the middle class, which is about 15 boys ages 13-17. In the afternoon we teach the junior class who are 7-12, and then the senior class who are 17-19. They're all pretty fluent in English, especially the senior class, who really enjoy listening to Cathy and I talk about our home countries. None of them had met an American before, so they were all quite excited to hear about my life back home. So far, the classes have gone well and I'm really enjoying my time here. In the mornings, we wake up at about 5 to go to prayer with the boys at 5:30, but often the gates are locked and we can't get to the temple! I also eat every meal with them, but we tend to sleep through breakfast which is at 6:30. Breakfast is just a piece of bread with Tibetan tea (The worst thing I've ever tasted. It's tea with salt and butter.), lunch is usually daal baaht which is rice with lentil soup and curried vegetables, and dinner is usually a noodle soup. Everything is vegetarian, which I really like since I was a vegetarian at home.

I recently went out and bought postcards, but I'm having trouble finding a post office here. Hopefully I'll send them off soon!

On The Bright Side (South Africa contd.)

Just after I posted my last update, I realized that I pretty much only talked about all the negative things about South Africa. There were plenty of amazing things about my time there too.
Even though we had a class of 50, Chris and I made a lot of progress with them. Every morning, they write in their diaries about what they did the day before or that very morning. In the beginning, they didn't write very much and they often used the wrong verb tenses, but by the time we left, most of them were writing at least a page a day with correct grammar!
I could even see a change in the kids in the homework club. Especially with a boy named Shawn, who knew the alaphabet, but didn't know the sounds the letters made. Two of the other volunteers worked with him everyday, and he now understands the letters and their sounds.
Outside of volunteering, I had plenty of fun. On one of the rainy days, our project coordinator took us through Wynberg (literally translates to wine mountain), for a few wine tastings. It turns out I'm quite a fan of the Sauvingon Blanc variety. We had a tasting contest where the team that correctly guessed the different flavors in the wine (ie. peppery, melon, nutty, etc.), got to sit in the front of the truck, rather than the oh-so-uncomfortable back. My team won, but I still ended up in the boot.

All in all, South Africa was an incredible four weeks, and I really miss all the other volunteers and my host family!

Also, sorry that I haven't been updating much. I've been quite busy, but I really will try to post more often!