Peas and Kittens

  

Ruthie, Emma and I visiting Nuwakot and painting the town bright orange.

I know you are never suppose to have "favorites", but what can I say, I'm a rule breaker. This is Abhishek.

Akshant, Anish and I going out for a night on the town.

This sums up our English class: full of joy, fun and always accompanied with laughter.

My Nepali aamaa (mom) and aapaa (dad). Always a joy to be around.

Sooo...about those four months since the last time I blogged...hmm....where did I put them? Where did they go? Oh that's right, I remember now, they just flew by. Well that explains why I currently am writing you from the capital of Qatar, Abu Dhabi. I'm just quizzing all of you and seeing how well you did in geography. I'm actually in Doha and have a short seven hour layover here. I'm headed on my way back to the States, where I'll be staying for the next seven months. I'm a little sleep deprived, so forgive me if any ridiculous ramblings that include sheep, fences and Batman costumes come up.

First, I want to apologize for my lack of communication, if I could sum up the last three months in one word it would be "whoosh". My friend Ruthie's friend Emma came to visit from the States, so we showed her the town, which included riding on top of the bus, hitch-hiking with motorcyclists, swimming across a river and attempting to climb up a cliff. A good time was had by all and no one lost any limbs or died of dysentery. Also, if you ever ride on top of a bus please remember, even though the scenery is amazing there most likely are branches lurking ahead ready to smack you in the face. 

Another highlight, was that I got to spend a month tutoring a boy, Abhishek (shown in the photo above), at Guardian Academy, which was a blast. It always brought a smile to my face when he would confuse peas with kittens. Guardian Academy is the school connected with my church. There are two hostels, a girls and boys hostel, that house about fifty children total. Most of the children there are orphans or at-risk children. Last month some church members were on their way back from a village when they stopped at a restaurant and noticed an 8-year old boy working there. They asked about the boy and found out he had no parents and the villagers sent him away to work. The team worked on getting paperwork together, so they could take him back to Kathmandu to house him, give him an education and a loving family. The restaurant owner said the team had to ask his older brother first, so the team went to the other town, where his older brother was, only to find a 9-year old boy working in a different restaurant. I'm happy to say that now both brothers will be staying with us. Whenever I see them they always bring a smile to my face. It is such a joy to be a part of these children's lives.

I also spent roughly two months teaching English to seventeen students (shown in the photo above) with another teacher from the U.S., helping them prepare for the IELTS (an English proficiency test). You can never fully understand how crazy your native language is until you try to explain how a child is seven years old and there are seven year olds. The students endured, though, and have come out victorious, with the added perks of learning Johnny Cash lyrics, how to play the ukulele and learning what a fu manchu is. What more do you want from an English class?

Another exciting thing that happened in the last week, was that three of my Nepali friends came from the States (and Canada) to visit Nepal. It was so much fun to catch up and reminisce about old memories and new ones. I got to show them around Kathmandu, help them brush up on their Nepali and introduce them to Nepali cuisine. Or maybe it was the other way around? Well, whatever way it was, we had a lot of fun and ate a five different restaurants.

Well, now on to the part of my life called visa mishaps and what not to do. In all honesty I don't want to go into great lengths about this. The short version is this: I tried to apply for a work visa, that didn't work. I tried to apply for a student visa, that didn't work either. I didn't marry a Nepali guy, so I'm coming home until January. I learned a lot and also learned where every Nepali Department is located. Fortunately now I have some more optimistic leads in regards to how I can stay more long term, however these leads just happened a little too late, which is why I'm waiting to go back in January. Well, my computer is on the verge of death and I don't understand Qatari electrical outlets, so I guess that concludes my writing for now.