Hello hello, thought I ought to apologise for the later blogs. They’ve been the hasty kind of minimal quality. To make up, here’s one with a bit more love.
I’m in a bizarre mood I must confess, as is with the Nepali way, we’ve been given a myriad skines of information. Basically we were told as of today we had a holiday (yipee!) this morning whilst preparing for my day off I was told I had to do my forty-five minute hike to school and supervise for the two hour exams and then do my teaching (wah!), got to school and were told we had a holiday (yipee?). I’ve decided to laugh at the ball of mess I’ve curled into, just like my hair in this heat.
Anyway, thought I’d really open the door and invite you in for Nepali tea (complete with salt and sugar). The village we’re living in is called Dadagon (aka Dandagoan aka Dagaduon), it sleeps on the side of a mountain peeping into the valley watching mountains roll by and give birth to mountains. The house I’m living with is a beautiful mud brick lung of air infused with spice and muck. I share a bed with Courtney (who is magical) and at night we leave our door open so we can look out, past the veranda, past a few heads of corn to the glittering web of Kathmandu. We’ve become devotees to watching clouds and Kathmandu, my journal is evidence of this, I’ve poem after poem of cloud watching. To try (emphasis on try) and relay the goregous reality of it all here’s one:
As I were royalty, in this box seat of mine
And, as if that sheet of cloud were the stage curtain,
I look down and watch Kathmandu take its applause
before it is eclipsed by snowy drapes.
We live on the same level as the clouds and every day we just look forward and watch clouds engulf the trees, then the silver paths and then we hold out our palms and let it roll past us. (ah)
Throughout Nepal so far I’ve observed in the web of everything the constant image of opposites in conflict and simultaneously, opposites embracing. While I live in the clouds with beautiful people and sparkling paths weaving through fields of corn, where supposedly the tiger lives and the hens dominate; it’s only a walk down the mountain and I’m in sensory overload of heat, piles of rubbish, tropical trees with dogs and cows panting underneath, saris and tikkas, women washing by the road, men relaxing with their Nirvana shirts and toothpicks hanging from lips in an almost religious gesture to Marlon Brando.
After school I time myself hitting up the mountain, eye on the minute hand, eye on the road, eye on forests and all around me it morphs. Nepal is one of the richest places in terms of diversity – diversity of culture, religions, beliefs, attitudes – but definitely a place of biodiversity. Every 500 metres up a mountain there is a climate change and a new family of creatures and plants. We walk through pine forests, glades of moss and birch and then we hit the more tropics trees. We’ve so far spotted deer and one mammoth of a boar, I’m keeping an eye of for the tigers, monkeys and leopard cats – will report back when I’ve got them spotted. By the way I’m getting gun at mountain climbing, with a bit more grunt I’ve turned an hour walk home to a 35 minute climb – ooh yeah. Sorry for the boasting my friends, I’m a vain imp. Thing is I end up collapsing at home shining sweat and having my bizarre conflict with the bucket shower (we don’t get on too well). About two days ago I climbed the mountain in 39 minutes and was congratulating myself when Prem and Rita climbed in with bags of feed on their backs (roughly 50kg each), I got put in my place that day.
The family is brilliant, I think I’ve already said that, but they are. They’re all ridiculously beautiful and healthy, with low hesitant words of english and quick white smiles. I’m loving lunch and dinner which is just sitting together on our mats and grabbing finger loads of dahl baht. Breakfast is a glass of tea, lunch (at 8.30am) is a bucket load of dahl baht and then dahl baht for dinner. I can’t get enough of it, it is meto chha! Once Prem felt sorry for us and cooked rice pudding for us with chunks of coconut and cinnamon and cardommon, I almost cried for my dahl baht. At night Courtney and I play cards with Elina and Pratima (who usually dominate us), last night we had the whole family in our room. Prem was listening to Courtney’s iPod and Courtney, Elina, Pratima, Rita and I playing a finger crushing game of snap. It was lovely, after Pratima helped us to bed pulling our mosquito net out and tring it up. Our bed is amazing, Nepalese sleep on a wooden bed with a mat of bamboo and a thick, heavy quilt. We have a beautiful old dark wood bed pushed up against the mud walls painted blue, made from local sand which glitters silver and a beautiful painted mosquito net gathering us into the lap of sleep.
Sleep is a great way to axe the thread of this post. I’ll close with a little spell that you’ll all sleep beautifully tonight. I’m off to climb Mount Shivapuri!
Justine
August 24, 2009
Amanzing steph! sounds like you has stumbeled upon a fantastic experience and a beautiful place at that! thinking of you xox jus