Two days to go

I have two days left at the monastery. By this time on Friday I will be saying my final goodbyes. 

The last couple of days have really been very peaceful. The monks all know that I am leaving soon and they are all being really attentive, asking me lots of questions about what I will do after I leave, whether I’m excited to see my family again, how my packing is going and whether I will come and visit the monastery again.

Tenzin, one of my students
who protested the first class
saying "I no good draw"... Now
2 months later he brings me this.
This possibly makes me more
proud than any English
class did...

Since we finished all the projects (we finally finished the biographies!!!) the lessons haven’t really been lessons but just catching up with each other, drawing, playing bananagrams and talking about the goodbye party (which is tomorrow!). Adorable things continue to happen, from monks giving me drawings as gifts to the youngest monk coming up to me at the end of yesterday’s class and whispering in my ear “thank you, I love you” I could’ve cried, maybe I did a little once they all left……

Getting my nails didddd

I have been spending most of my time writing letters for all of the monks and yogis like a mad woman. I brought Burj Khalifa postcards with me to Nepal (gosh I’m so forward thinking) because I knew that I wanted to give the people something when I left. But the cards are way too small and the writing won’t fit on it so I’m giving each of them a hand written letter, the card separately, a mango and a pomegranate. I’ve also written a really, ridiculously long letter for the next English teacher. VIN doesn’t have anyone lined up yet (because of the low numbers of volunteers signing up due to the website problems) for the monastery so I have no clue who it will be but I decided to write a letter anyway because when I got here the previous teacher had left me nothing and as a result there was little continuity in the lessons. I also wrote a couple of tips, but not too many because figuring it all out by myself was one of the things which taught me the most and I want to give that opportunity to the next person too… Oh when I think back to my first bus ride alone in the cramped microbus…… Walking up to the village, figuring out where the good food was (I hope the next teacher finds Ramsaran-ji’s place…) Going through this wild Tulku Jigme/Buddhism experience… oh I wish I could be a fly and watch what adventures the next English teacher goes on here at Nyingmapa Wishfulfilling Monastery…

Intense banagrams game

The losers eating their bricks out
of frustration

Right so I had planned to go to Ramaran-ji’s tea shop to do a simple blog post upload, have my last Kazaa (a nepali snack, try it!!!) and then say my final goodbyes to them. I turn up at the shop and all the doors are locked. Right. So I decided to camp outside the shop until 12 figuring that they were probably taking an afternoon nap in their house. It’s another super hot day today so I was sweatin’ it out with a random dog keeping me company when I had a stroke of genius; I had Ramsaran-ji’s number!!! I called him, which posed a slight problem, I don’t speak Nepali and he doesn’t speak English, but somehow he understood what I meant because two seconds later he was standing right next to me! Turns out their house is a tiny little room attached to the teashop, they invited me inside. That’s where I am right now, I just finished eating lunch with them and they instructed me to go on my laptop so they could sleep a little longer. I love it when things like this happen. So yes. I’m here in their room/house, I’ll spend a little more time here, drink some juice, have the Kazaa and then hand him and his wife the goodbye letter (let’s hope that we can find someone to translate it for them…) and that will mark the start of all the goodbyes.

Charlotte x

My favorite day

Yep, Saturday was by far my favorite day in Nepal so far. It all started early in the morning at 6:30 am, the other Charlotte had stayed the night at the monastery still busy with her interviews. We made our way down to the dining hall, got our roti’s and went to sit outside by the prayer wheel where we’d promised the two Sonam’s the day before to meet up. Whilst we were eating our roti’s (with a choice of my peanut butter or the monks’ spicy chilli sauce as condiment) a group of younger monks came to find me. “Zizi, picnic today?” UM, YES PLEASE. We had talked about this in class for a bit and decided that if it was good weather Saturday that we would go. The weather was amazing. We all agreed to meet at the prayer wheel in an hour.

An hour later we were all ready to go. I had heard before that they always have picnics at a park so I was all mentally prepared for a simple walk on the road to a grassy field. I WAS WRONG. We ended up hiking up a mountain in the middle of the jungle. It turns out that the monks use this short cut so that they don’t have to pay the entry fee (naughty). The hike was super tough but super beautiful, the sound of waterfalls as a background song to the chirping of birds. However, the mountain was crazy steep and the ground was super slippery; there Charlotte and I were on our flipflops (which we had worn because we were expecting a simple park picnic….) with the young monks, who were carrying pots and pans and wood on their backs and heads, meters ahead of us.

Then horror struck, we discovered there were leeches (I finally got my first leech! Why am I excited about this?) And about 2.3 seconds after that we discovered that Charlotte is deathly afraid of leeches. She had a panic attack right in the middle of the jungle. There Aryan and I were desperately trying to calm her down, trying to find a plastic bag for her to breathe in, trying to find something for her to eat, but there was no one and nothing around us except the green and… more leeches. Eventually Aryan and I managed to calm her down (the group of 7 younger monks were already far and distantly ahead of us) and within a five minute walk we made it to a road. We carried on along the roads from there on forth.

Chopping veggies like the
mom I am...

Leaves as oven mitts! Yes.

The total trek took a good 2 hours and then we arrived at the destination. It was amazing; a quiet, green open space right next to a clean, fresh river… this was not the kind of park I had in mind. All my expectations were blown out of the water (wait, pun intended? What am I doing with my life). I think the super tough trek up the steep mountain to the picnic spot actually made us that much more grateful for the amazing place we had ended up in. And because Aryan, Charlotte and I had arrived later we could hear all the monks playing in the river already, I was beyond excited. The two older guys (Aryan and Jimpa) started making a fire whilst the rest of the young monks played in the water with Charlotte and I watching.

That’s how we spent our day, accompanied by eating mangos, pomegranates and ramen noodles; which were impressively good considering it was cooked by one of my young students. Because of the walk Charlotte and I were all gross and sweaty and were dying for a swim, but we hadn’t brought anything to swim in (expecting a western style picnic in a flat, grassy park) so we had to do with just paddling our feet in the freezing water. Then, as if it was a gift from the river Gods, we found four one-use packets of shampoo lying on a rock!!! What!!! We decided it was a divine sign that we should just go in the damn river and wash our hair. It. Was. Amazing. I never want to use a bathroom again… okay that may be an exaggeration. Either way it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Look at this view!!!

Now that the no-swimming-for-us rule had been broken and we let go, we played and played and played with the monks for the next half an hour before our feet got so cold that they could’ve fallen off. We went back to the grass spot and quickly dried up thanks to the burning hot afternoon sun. After some more talking, card games and a butterfly landing on my face (!!!) we decided it was time to go back. The younger monks all left on the forest short cut whilst Aryan, Charlotte and I took the civilized path down the sand roads. We arrived back at the monastery an hour after the rest of the younger monks, exhausted and high on life because of the awesome experience we’d just had. Ahhh, I really can’t put how amazing that morning/afternoon was into words, this will have to do.

So after a quick breathing break Charlotte was ready to go off to Boudha where she was planning to spend the next few days. After a quick debate in my head I decided to go with her, Boudha really is one of my favorite places here. Of course we went to the Spanish restaurant again, it helps that the owners are so awesome… and I had churros for the first time and died a brief death of joy. Then the rain started. First slowly and then all at once, and didn’t end for an entire hour. We were stuck at the restaurant drinking fruity cocktails… poor us. Then we looked outside. BOUDHA WAS FLOODED. There was half a meter of water around the stupa! Bikes were half drowned and people were up to their knees in water! It was almost 6:00 pm, time for me to take the bus home, but then I looked outside again and realized that the sandy roads of Sundarijal were probably a disaster by now. After a quick call with my monastery supervisor I decided to stay at a guesthouse in Boudha, where I slept like a baby on the softest mattress I’d laid on in weeks. The perfect end to a perfect day.

Now I’m back at the monastery again, it’s officially my last couple of days here, I’m going to miss it so much but at the same time I’m feeling strangely okay with leaving. I thought that I would be a wreck and half-devastated but I’ve come to accept that this too has to end… plus, having the thought of seeing my baby Maks (he’s a dog, not an actual baby, don’t worry) and my family in a week is definitely making it easier too!

Charlotte x

Cel rotis, stolen money and bananagrams with Monks

Have I been slacking again? Yep. I’ve been slacking again. I haven’t written for almost five days.

Right, it all started on Wednesday. I woke up all ready for my fifth last class only to discover a new text from Ngodup “no class today. Puja.” Okay. So I guess I had ONE MORE free day, that was five in total now. After a quick debate with myself and the realization that there was STILL no water at the monastery (I hadn’t showered in so long AND all my clothes were dirty since I hadn’t been able to wash my clothes either, it was a nightmare) I decided to go to the VIN office where they had a shower, good wifi so I could do some NYUAD stuff and probably a place where I could exchange 200 dollars into rupees (I was out of rupees). I called George to ask whether it was okay for me to come over and he said it was perfectly fine. Within 30 minutes I was on the bus to Kathmandu.

When I arrived at the Balaju Ring Road I went for a money exchange search but found nothing, using my last 1000 rupees (which is about 40 dhs) I bought some clean clothes and then I was off to the VIN office. I arrived and ran straight for the shower. When I was done I went back downstairs and caught up with Bhupi and the rest of the staff. Then I went to the kitchen to say hi to Isuda, she greeted me in the typical huge hug and “I missed you” fashion. She is the sweetest. I told her about all my free days and she immediately offered to let me stay at her house to learn how to make cel roti that night. I was so excited and agreed immediately, I just had to find a way to get my money exchanged.

I ended up asking Bhupi whether he could give me change for the money but he only had enough change for 100 dollars. I ended up staying at the office for the rest of the afternoon because tons of new volunteers had arrived! People from France (including yet another girl named Charlotte, how? I don’t know.), the US and the UK. Then when it was about 5:00 pm I went off on the bus to Ratnapark where Isuda and I had decided to meet up. After a super long while of walking and calling we finally found each other and took a tuktuk (it’s a three wheeled, super sketchy vehicle which I’d been dying to go on since I’d gotten to Nepal) to her area.

Before we went to her house we quickly popped by her sister’s house again to say hi and goodbye for the final time, next time I see her (by that I mean the next time I travel to Nepal and visit them) she’ll have a baby! After that we went and walked to Isuda’s house. Now, Isuda’s sisters house was already a bit of a shock, one room which acted as a kitchen, dining room, living room and bedroom, but Isuda’s own house was even more shocking. Because she is paying for her brother’s schooling she has little money left to spend on herself and as a result she lives in a tiny, dark room with barely any walking space at all. There are two beds in the room because she has family and friends over who spend the night all the time. That night I’d sleep there, she’d sleep there, her brother would sleep there and so would her uncle, that all in the 4m by 5m space.

We got settled in and started making the cel roti batter; rice flour, a bit of normal flour, water and sugar… that’s all! Half way through the process the power went off so we carried on by the candle light. Her host family’s (the family who owns the house that she rents the room from) son who is disabled came by to show me his crafts, he goes to a special school for the disabled where he makes little carpets and necklaces and I ended up buying some of his creations; he was thrilled. The power came back on after an hour and I was so so so thankful that the little fan was working again. We started heating the oil on Isuda’s tiny stove. When the oil is boiling hot you have to grab some of the super runny batter and make a circle, it looks easy but it’s super super tough; I failed miserably. Her neighbor from across the hall and her brother joined to watch me mess it up, laughing but telling me I was doing so great for the first time…

A comparison. Yes, the pale fugly one
on the left is mine... 

After that her neighbor made fried potato curry and we used the cucumber pickle we had collected whilst at her sister’s house to make a nice meal; cel roti, pickle and potato, it was delicious. After that we all talked some more and at around 9:30 pm we went to bed; me on the small bed, Isuda on blankets on the floor and her brother on the bigger bed leaving a space next to him for Isuda’s uncle who was coming home later. I actually slept really deeply and woke up at 7:00 am feeling super good. We had left over cel roti for breakfast and after I did Isuda’s hair (trying to fester all the girlyness I possibly could I remembered how to do a fishtail braid) and then we left to catch the bus back to the office.

Once at the office I met a whole bunch of new volunteers again, this time the majority of the people were from Spain! We talked for a long while and then it was time for me to find George; he had agreed to help me buy a football, my secret present for the monks (I needed a man’s help with this because I have 0.00% knowledge about football). So off we went in a microbus to one of the few shopping malls in Kathmandu. I ended up buying a bright orange Puma ball (partly because of my Dutch pride partly because it’d match their robes) and then we had a nice conversation and nice food at a coffee café. Afterwards I left for Sundarijal and he left back to the office.

I then realized I had a very obvious Puma bag, which very obviously contained a football… I didn’t know how on Earth I was going to hide the ball in order for it to still be a surprise. So once I got off the bus I sat at a tea shop and did some thinking. In the end I emptied my entire bag (towel, clothes, toiletries) right there in the tea shop, like the classy person I am, and stuffed the ball at the bottom of the bag trying to make the sphere look more like a rectangle by shoving clothes in there too… two old Nepali ladies were observing me the whole time, looking at me like I was a mad man. I left the Puma bag at the tea shop and carried my toiletries in a plastic bag. I entered the monastery only to discover that it was Pooja, all the monks were in the Pooja room and none them would’ve even ended up seeing me with the Puma bag……….

I relaxed in my room until the monks were done and then went downstairs to ask what the plans were, since they had just finished the final Pooja of the day and their holiday had officially begun. I don’t even know why I asked because of course the answer was football… I was about to go watch the game again when I got a text from Charlotte that she was on her way to Boudha. She was going to stay there for the next few days to do more work for her thesis. I asked whether any of the monks wanted to go to Boudha with me and two monks, both called Sonam, agreed (I call them Aryen and Smiley though) we had planned to go there in an hour. I went back to my room to relax for a bit when I realized that I still had the 100 dollars in my purse (which Bhupi couldn’t exchange) and that I should probably leave it in my room instead of taking that much money around with me. I went to grab my purse and to my horror the 100 dollar note (which I’d stored in the zipper pouch of my purse) WAS GONE. After a mad search around the room I realized that yep. It had been stolen. I was slightly devastated.

I traced back the happenings since the last time I saw it (which was when I was exchanging the other 100 dollar note with Bhupi) and then realized it probably got stolen whilst I was at Isuda’s. I am 100% sure that it was not Isuda, she is the nicest, sincerest and most giving person, if you met her you’d understand that she’d never even be able to do that. I was thinking back; whilst I was at her house/room there were people walking in and out constantly. Then I realized SHIT I was so comfortable that I just took out my purse in front of everyone when I paid for the crafts that the disabled son had made. The big money was hidden in the zipper but they surely saw some 500 rupee notes, and more importantly, saw where I kept my purse! How could I have been so naïve? These people live in terrible conditions; seeing the purse must’ve triggered the idea of stealing. So probably whilst I was having one of the best sleeps during my whole time in Nepal either the uncle, the brother, the neighbor, the host mother or the disabled son must’ve gone into my purse and found the glorious 100 dollar note. I really hope they spend the money on something nice…

Either way I’m not going to make a big fuss about it, I don’t want to do that to Isuda, she has been nothing but good to me and telling her this would make her feel guilty for the rest of her life. Plus, it’s highly unlikely that anyone in the building is going to ‘fess up to stealing the money, so it’s better that I just let it go, accept my loss and live very VERY cheaply for my last few days in Nepal; which probably means more nights at the couch in the VIN office, but that’s all right.

So with that shock still fresh in my mind I left to Boudha where I exchanged my final 100 dollar bill, the one I had saved for emergencies. We had a drink at a restaurant and made a list of things to get at Boudha, I was planning to do my souvenir and book shopping then so that I wouldn’t have to worry about saving money for that anymore. I bought a little gift for dad, a ton of incense which I’ll also be giving as gifts, in the shop I had no clue how many to buy “how many friends do I have again?”… I’m a terrible person. So guiltily I ended up buying a whole bunch. We went on a hunt to find a pill crusher so I could continue to take the Tibetan medicine for my foot back in Abu Dhabi. Then we bought a ton of candy for the goodbye party and finally we went to Smiley’s favorite Tibetan book shop. There I bought 5 books for about 3000 rupees… even here I’m spending most of my money on books… The books will be how I continue learning about Buddhism whilst I’m back in Abu Dhabi, Tulku Jigme has given me his email address so I can ask him questions any time.

The books include; “Words of my perfect teacher” by Patrul Rinpoche, which is actually the book that Tulku Jigme is going through with me right now, but we won’t have time to finish it so I bought a copy for myself. “The Tibetan book of living and dying” by Sogyal Rinpoche, which I’m also reading right now, but I’m borrowing the copy from Tenzin and will have to return it; hence why I bought my own. “The Tibetan book of the dead” when I showed this one to Tenzin he said “DON’T READ THIS YET” apparently it’s very heavy and advanced, oops. “Sutra of the wise and the foolish” which basically consists of a ton of bible-esque metaphorical stories which are meant to teach you something. And finally the Daily Prayer Book which Aryen recommended, it has the prayers in Tibetan, then the English pronunciation of the Tibetan words (so I can say them out loud, get ready Dominique (my NYUAD roommate)) and then the meanings of the prayers. So I guess there are prayers in Buddhism, they’re just not to a God…

About that, the more I learn about Buddhism as a religion the more I realize how it has slowly but surely started to take on the characteristics of any other religion. I mean at one moment I was talking about reincarnation with one of the monks and he said “this life doesn’t matter, all that matters is what you do in this life so you can have a good next life”… which suddenly sounded a lot like the idea of heaven; if you’re good in this life you’ll have it better once this life is over. Hmm. I know that the Buddha did not want Buddhism to become a religion, all he hoped for was for it to be a philosophy, a way of life, and that is exactly how I plan to go about it. Yes I’ll read the prayers, but in the hopes of learning from them, not saying them to anyone. Yes I’ll have a shrine, but only so that every morning when I burn incense or fill the bowl with an offering I will be forced to remember to live compassionately and as mindful as possible. Yes I have taken refuge but I have done it in order to create diligence within myself to continue to learn about Buddhism when I return to Abu Dhabi.

It’s interesting, the more I learn about the slightly twisted version of Buddhism as a religion the more I see how Hinduism has slowly mixed into it. Which is only natural since the communities are living so close to each other. I mean I learnt about Hindu Gods during one of my lessons, which I don’t mind at all but which I don’t think is what the Buddha intended. I think the religious rituals are good in the way in which they instill diligence and mindfulness and help to remind you to live according to the Dharma. But I think at the same time it distracts from the original message of the Buddha, which was simple; be compassionate.

Woah, that got serious real fast. Right. I don’t know how to gently change the tone back to the story of what happened two days ago so you’ll just have to do with this abrupt tone change, I apologize… Okay soo after buying the books we went to the Spanish Restaurant (which by the way is called La Casita de Boudhanath, if you’re ever at Boudha you have to go!) where I (maybe stupidly, given my new money situation) treated the monks to dinner. We all had spaghetti and they were super excited for the days to come about “trying Spanish food for the first time”, when I heard them excitedly say it for the first time I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t bring myself to tell them that spaghetti is Italian…

Once done we got a text from Charlotte that the bus had stopped in a traffic jam and that she would be late... Smiley was devastated, he admitted to Aryen and I that he has a secret crush on Charlotte. When I asked him why he said that her voice is “soooo tasty”, I asked him whether he meant her accent was sexy (she is from the UK but is living in Ireland so her accent is a mix of both accents) and he replied “no. Tasty”… I died. Aryen and I spent the next few minutes making fun of him whilst he tried to find her on facebook. Anyway, so we had another hour to kill, we played bananagrams (one of my favorite games, look it up!) at the restaurant and the monks were surprisingly good!!!

After a while we got bored of bananagrams so we went back to talking and somehow we got to talking about puppies. Then Aryen revealed that he knew a place where they had a puppy! He offered to take me there, I was beyond excited. We walked for about 15 minutes and then there it was, a tiny little German shepherd mix puppy. I cuddled it for way past what is an acceptable amount of cuddle time and was in a state of bliss for the rest of the day. Then we went back to the Spanish restaurant to meet up with Charlotte. Once all together we chatted for a bit and then the monks invited Charlotte to come back to the monastery, we organized that she would stay in my room and maybe even try to get another interview for her thesis the next day. Within 15 minutes we were all in a cab (the monks said the busses were far too crowded and offered to pay for a cab) on our way back to Sundarijal.

Once there Charlotte and I got chowmein and then went to bed. I was sleeping on the yoga mat (granted it was covered by pillows) and had the worst sleep of my life. We had kept the door open since the room smelled funky and as a result there were 101 mosquitoes buzzing around. I was right in front of the door and unwantingly ended up acting as a buffer; I am currently covered in mosquito bites whilst Charlotte is completely clean. I wouldn’t have wanted it the other way around though, I’m glad that I didn’t put her through a terrible night! I would’ve never been able to forgive myself...

So those were the happenings of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but that is not all that has happened, I haven’t written about my best day in Nepal so far (yesterday) but the post is already almost 3000 words long, so I’m stopping here and saving yesterday’s account for tomorrow (that sounded less complicated in my head).

Charlotte x

Good-byes and my Nepali adoption

As of today I have ten days left at the monastery. Ten days. Ten. Days. It’s ridiculous how fast time is flying by.

The next few days will consist of little teaching and lots of holidays. Tomorrow I have a class but after that I have four days off. Thursday is another big Pooja, and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday are a long holiday for the monks. Why? Because all of them are taking a retreat for the next six weeks. That means six weeks where they will not leave the monastery. Or as my students say “six weeks no football!” After the holiday there will be four days of classes and then the 26^th will arrive… the day I leave the monastery. The monks are planning a goodbye party, and I’m making sure to write a letter for each class and for some of the monks and yogis, as well as buying lots of candies and a new, expensive football (which is my top top secret gift). I’m sure it’ll be a day filled with tears, of course.

So yes, that’s what’s going to happen the next few days, but here’s what happened the past few days… The week had been full of teaching again, the biographies are going great; I bought lots of paper and had been slaving away cutting them all into pieces and stapling them into little books so that the monks would feel as if they wrote an actual book, an actual biography. They have tomorrow to finish the biographies so I’m sure there’ll be pictures of that in the next blog post! For the other two classes I started a new project; “my roommate” where they write a little 4 page book about their roommate. It is pretty similar to the biography project but just a lotttt simpler. As an example I made one of the person who was my roommate the first few days in Nepal; the other Charlotte. And guess who visited my monastery a few days later? Charlotte. The monks were super excited to see Zizi’s famous roommate in real life…

I really have to think back far here to remember how the past 5 days went. It all started Friday afternoon, I was going to go to Thamel because half of people from my induction group were leaving (Taylor, Pat, Rachel and Spyro) and I thought it’d be the last time that I would get to hang out with them. So after I’d finished class I left on the bus to Thamel. Charlotte and I had been planning for her to come to the monastery the next day to do interviews for her university project so we planned to share a hotel room. I arrived at the hotel, had a fiddle with getting a good priced room and then had a little nap (I live on naps… Naps and pokoda.) Then Taylor arrived and we hung out in the hotel room for a bit. Slowly the rest of the people started arriving and in the end it was Spyro, Taylor, Charlotte and I at the hotel room, we then went to go meet up with the others. We found Stephanie and Liesbeth (two of the newer volunteers) and went to have dinner; I HAD FALAFEL and was on cloud 9 (I had a brief falafel addiction in Abu Dhabi… ask anyone in my old chemistry class). We spent the evening at Woodstock Bar where George (!), Bhupi (!!) and Akkal (!!!!!) joined us!!! Then Pat, Rach and Laura, who had been at Boudha all day, arrived.

Spyro and Taylor ended up in our hotel room too, on the floor and on the chair. We went to sleep super late, which was a problem because the next day would be a 5:00 am wake up. I don’t know how we did it but Charlotte and I managed to get up and get on the bus and arrive at the monastery before 8:00 am, so I still got to go to my class with Tulku Jigme! This time there was no surprise Pooja so I taught all the classes whilst Charlotte was taking a looong nap. At 12:00 pm we had lunch, then we went for tea and then it was time for her to do her interviews. While she was doing that it was my turn to take a nap. At 3:00 pm she was done interviewing the two yogis and one monk and off we were back to Kathmandu because, you guessed it, we found out that everyone would be there again that night…

The night was just as fun as the one before and we ended up in the same room again. Literally right before I was trying to close the hotel room door Rachel stopped it and came in… I have no clue how she found us, she wasn’t even hanging out with us that night! Turns out her room was across the hall! So Charlotte, Rachel and I spent the rest of the early morning talking, knowing that the next morning we could have a proper, full on lie in. We woke up late (for my Nepal standards) at 9:30 am and went to have breakfast at Roadhouse Restaurant and I swear to lil baby Jesus I have never had such a good breakfast… I had a vegan breakfast burrito and almost shed a single tear because of how good it was; I could’ve had five more if I had the money. After breakfast we met up with Laura and Pat and went off to Boudha. There we stayed at a super nice Spanish restaurant called La Casita (with a view of the Boudha stupa in the background) for the next few hours, having lots of tapas, homemade mocktails and cocktails and sangria! When evening started coming we went back to Thamel, I had decided to stay yet another night, one more early 5:00 am wake up wouldn’t make a difference at this point, plus it was the last time I’d see Pat and Laura, for real this time.

Once in Thamel we went to the rooftop of the hotel and one of Laura’s university friends, who was also visiting Nepal (a very Paulin-esque situation), arrived and joined us. Charlotte and I were super hungry still so we went off to the Organic Café and oh my God the food was amazing. We had such good conversations even after 3 days of continuously seeing each other’s faces, I am so proud that we didn’t get sick of each other after all that time! The next morning because she was coming to the monastery to do interviews again! Later that night all six of us went to a café called Electric Bogoda where I found kittens… I may or may not have ended up spending half the night with the kittens instead of the people. And I may have almost taken one back to the monastery with me. Then we all walked back to our hotels, we had a semi-dramatic goodbye with Laura and Pat, then Rachel, Charlotte and I were off to our hotel room.

5:00 am the next morning the alarm went off again… Rachel woke up too since she was leaving to go to Pokora (not PokoDa the food, PokoRa the place) where she’d meet up again with Colten. Charlotte and I went on a hunt to find a bus. This time we weren’t as lucky; 3 and a half hours later we arrived at the monastery, I’d missed the class with Tulku Jigme (don’t worry, I’d called Ngodup ahead of time to let him know). Charlotte slept again as I taught and then at lunch time we went to find her interviewees… we discovered something terrible; both of them were busy that afternoon and couldn’t do it. Damn. So we went and had lunch at Ramsaran-ji’s place. He is officially the sweetest person, whilst we were having food he would constantly come over with more free food for us, apples, more apples, homegrown cucumbers, extra tea ect…

Then, horror struck. The heel of my left foot started having this really strong throbbing pain. This had happened before; a week earlier at the hotel room with Lex and Paulin the same exact thing happened. I thought maybe I’d just walked too much that day but now it was back in the same exact spot, the same exact pain, I was worried. Charlotte was about to leave on the bus to Boudha and I decided to go with so that I could go visit the Tibetan doctor again. We got there and she came with to the doctor. I got herbal tea and the bitter herbal medicine again; tons of it to last a whole month… and it only cost 40 dirhams! I spontaneously told Charlotte to get a checkup too; she’s been having terrible nightmares for the past few years, the doctor gave her some tips and some tea, I really, really hope it’ll help her.

We then went to Chechen monastery (the one from the “Pooja on steroids” post) and had some food at the vegetarian restaurant… I HAD A VEGAN PIZZA. IT WAS AMAZING. I found out that they have a guest house at the monastery so I might go and stay there sometime after the 26^th. After the food it was time to say bye because Charlotte had to go make the three and a half hour trip back to her monastery. After a 30 minute wait a Sundarijal bus finally showed up; it was packed full! I literally was half hanging out the door until a really nice man offered me a seat, he was about to get off the bus anyway he said. So I sat down and a couple of minutes later the smell of alcohol hit me. Someone who had a few too many had entered the bus. And, just my luck, he decided to choose me to hover right over. He started a conversation, his alcohol breath invading my personal bubble. I know how to handle myself in these situations; don’t make eye contact while replying, answer with short sentences, and do not, do NOT giggle or show any signs which might be taken as flirtation. When he started asking me whether I was alone I really started to feel uncomfortable. Thankfully a whole bunch of new people entered the bus separating the man away from me.

I was sitting alone again feeling highly uncomfortable about the whole situation that had just occured and then a super sweet old lady and her grandson came to sit next to me and asked me whether I was alright. This simple question was the beginning to a crazy new adventure. We ended up having a conversation the entire bus ride, the grandson being the translator between the grandmother and I. Then it was almost my time to get off the bus, I stood up and was ready to say my goodbyes, then when I turned around they were standing up too! They were from Sundarijal! We paid the bus fair and got off the bus, I pointed out my monastery to them and it turns out their house is actually really close to the monastery! They invited me over for tea, promising it was only a 5 minute walk. My foot was still in eternal pain but I knew that this was a once in a lifetime thing so I said yes and decided that I could limp my way there, I mean, it was only a 5 minute walk right? IT WASN’T. It took over 30 minutes. Whenever the grandson saw me struggling he said “don’t worry, only 5 more minutes”, he said this so many times that I lost count, and it has now become an inside joke between us… Of course, in typical Charlotte fashion, the grandmother was miles ahead of me walking like she was a 20 year old woman… whilst I was huffing and puffing in the background...

We went deep into the country side and in the end arrived at one of the most expensive looking houses in the village; it was beautiful! Their cows were in the garden and their own paddy fields surrounded the house as well as corn plants, cucumber plants and fruit trees… Was this real life? This was surely a dream. I was greeted by excited screams of children on one of the balconies of the house. It turns out that the grandmother, her husband and two of her children and their families live in the house. They then informed me the house next to the house they pointed out was also their family’s house and that collectively they lived together in both houses. I entered the house greeted by Namaste’s and was guided towards the rooftop. There I found a bunch of kids, 7 or 8 of them, all doing their homework together. I went and sat with them and was questioned thoroughly; they go to a school where some of the lessons are taught in English so we could actually have conversations! 

I was brought tea, donuts and Jolapi (the super sweet thing I described last blog post) and a continuous conversation ensued, with a proud grandmother looking over us. Soon a friendship was formed between me and the baby of the family, a 5 year old girl who is super cute and super sassy. Every time I spoke she would say in Nepali “what does that mean?!” and for the rest of the evening she hung around me picking up English. “yes yes” “no no” “fatherrrrr” with a rolling ‘R’… too cute! The family invited me for dinner and I told them that if I stayed it would be too late for me to go back to the monastery that night, I didn’t want to go back in the dark, so I declined. After a quick Nepali discussion they told me that I should spend the night in the house. I am a very cautious person but it all just felt so comfortable and safe, and the grandmother was just the sweetest lady ever, so I said yes. I called the monastery and let them know that I would be back the next morning at 7:00 am; the oldest grandson had offered to drop me off by bike in the morning. So there I was, practically adopted by a Nepali farming family.

The oldest daughter brought me to her room which was where I would stay the night and gave me pajamas to wear. I put all my things down, changed into the pajamas and went back outside, I was greeted by cheers… and comments that the girl and I were now officially twins (we even had similar glasses). With the pajamas it felt like I was really part of the family and soon we left to the kitchen in the house next door for dinner. I was served first, rice, curry, really delicious fried potato and to my horror; milk. The family explained that they have 3 cows and they were super proud of the milk that they produced, proudly exclaiming in a Ramsaran-ji fashion “no chemical, pure, no water”. They boil the milk. All their eyes were on me, they were so excited to see my reaction to their milk so out of courtesy I tried some of it and it was the creamiest damn milk I’ve ever tasted… I haven’t drank milk in so long that I was afraid that I would get sick if I had it all. So with a massive smile I told them is was “mitho cha!!!!” which means delicious in Nepali and then explained to the grandson that I was afraid that I would get sick if I had all of it since I hadn’t had milk in so long, he explained it to his family and they were all okay with it.

We spent the night chatting away, the 5 year old girl, my new best friend, sitting on my lap imitating the English words and playing with my hair. I was really tired from the 5:00 am wakeup and my lack of a nap so I told them I’d go to bed soon. A whole bunch of them followed me to the bedroom; the aunt and three of the girls and there we talked some more. They got out typical Nepali clothes hoping for me to try some on, but my shoulders were too broad to fit through the 16 year old’s dress… so tragic! So we just ended up doing each other’s hair and eating mangos instead. At around 9:30 pm mom called and as I was speaking to her the women left and said goodnight. I was left alone with the eldest daughter and the youngest son. They usually sleep in the bedroom on the double bed but they insisted that I’d take the bed, and at this point I was so tired that I didn’t even have the energy to protest. Like a princess they fixed the pink mosquito net for me and brought extra mattresses to the room for them to sleep on. Although the bed and pillow were hard as brick and the room super hot, I slept like a baby all through the night until I was woken up by my alarm at 5:30 am.

I spent a few minutes outside in the garden with the sound of the birds and the cows in the background, the view was incredible and the air was so fresh, I could’ve stayed there for the rest of my life. I had breakfast with the family members that were already awake and was starting to say goodbyes, ready to leave the beautiful, kind family behind. I was interrupted by the grandmother who was ranting in Nepali, her rant was translated to me; she wanted me to stay another day and night! I told her that I really couldn’t because I had to teach the monks in a few hours. This was followed by the family telling me that I am welcome to their house any time and that I have to have to have to come back to visit. So during the motor bike ride back to the monastery I was working super hard trying to memorize the way, I think I will go during one of my free days, definitely. The family was just so kind and welcoming, and the kids had such a good sense of humor… I can’t wait to go back again.

So those were the happenings of the past few days. Now I have a bunch of free time again and then the last classes! It’s crazy how fast time is going, but at the same time I am super excited to go back home to see my own family again!

Charlotte x

IB results, poster madness and a frenchman

I am completely in the routine of teaching. Teaching really feels like a job now. I love it. The last week has had only one interruption (which is a teeny tiny small amount compared to the past few weeks) meaning that I have been teaching a full week!

Hold up. I just realized I haven’t actually given a detailed account at all about what has been happening the past few days, and by past few days I mean the past week. I apologize. It all started on the 6^th; the day that the IB results came out. The IB (international baccalaureate) is an international 2 year high school program, and it’s super tough. The 6^th was coincidentally also the Dalai Lama’s birthday; so we had another day off. There is usually some big celebration in one of the cities, with dancing and music, but because of the problems between Tibet and China, and the close connection between the Nepali and Chinese government there were cops on the streets all day, preventing all monks from going anywhere (sending them to jail if they did try to take the bus! Ridiculous). This happens every year. So the monks had been planning a picnic for the last few days and that was supposed to be the celebration of the day. BUT the morning of, the monsoon decided to show itself (it had been pretty nice weather the day before) and huge rain drops were falling from the sky; we called off the picnic.

Chulten covered completely
in mud... what a winner

I spent the day with one of the older monks, Tsering, going from tea shop to tea shop in the village and reading, waiting for the 6:00 pm mark on my watch; the time when the IB results would go live. Because I hadn’t gone to Kathmandu this weekend I really got to see how the young monks spend their days off. Answer: playing football. They constantly played football all day, and at around 4:30 pm after they’d had their tea break at the monastery they invited me to go with then. It was so crazy watching them shed their robes to reveal the football uniforms underneath. And for a couple of hours in the heat of the sun they weren’t Buddhist monks, they were just normal teenage boys; shouting and playing and getting covered in mud (which the morning rain had created).

Then it was 5:30 pm and it was time for me to make my way to the sketchy tea shop that has wifi. The monastery has wifi, but it’s barely there and only works on my iPod, not on my laptop. So I still have to go to the tea place to upload blog posts or send important emails OR check the results of my finals. So I walked the 10 minute walk all nervous. Got to the shop, and surprisingly the internet Gods were kind to me; I miraculously had 5 bars of connection in the tiny shop in the Nepali mountains. Had a little fiddle with the code (thanks for the help mom!) and then boom, there they were; my results. 39 glorious points. I was a happy camper and may or may not have cried in the middle of the tea shop with Ramsaran-ji looked worriedly at me, desperately offering me “Tea?” “Donut?” “Juice?” trying to console me (he knows me so well; food makes everything better). I later got one of the monks to explain to him what was going on, he looked relieved…

I phoned the parents (mom in Abu Dhabi, dad in Saudi) and informed them of the good news and they were both over the moon. They had a bet; mom had predicted 36-38 points and dad had predicted 40 points… with the 39 neither of them won; that’s what you get for betting on your daughter’s exam grades mom and dad!!! Only joking (or as my monks always say “joking-REH”). I was feeling a bit down about the English grade (a 5/7, when I’d been predicted a 6/7) and the TOK grade (a B when I had always had a predicted A) but really, those were only minor details. I should probably let you know that this post will consist of a lot of thoughts about my results; they were a big part of my week! Apologies that it is completely unrelated to the monastery experience!

The next day was Sunday, the day that Paulin (my classmate that I randomly and totally coincidentally met at a road side restaurant on the way to Chitwan) and I had decided to meet up. We had it all planned out; he would get dropped off by the Chitwan bus to Kathmandu at around 2:00 pm, he’d then take the bus to Boudha (following careful instructions from me on how the Nepali bus system works) and meet me at Boudha. At 1:30 pm I was ready to start making my way to Boudha and as I walked out of the monastery I bumped into a group of my students (of course dressed in their football uniforms) and they all informed me that the picnic was starting in an hour! THE PICNIC?! No one had told me that the picnic was back on and now all of a sudden I was expected to go? I asked them what time it finished; “5:00 pm”. I then asked them whether one of them could walk me down to the bus at around 2:30 pm; “Zizi are you crazy?! The picnic is up up in the mountains”. My heart shattered into a million pieces; I was going to miss out on the picnic up in the beautiful green mountains… but I’d made a promise to Paulin and he was super excited. So I had to tell the monks the disappointing news and they were outraged… literally, it was actually pretty comical, Sunny was shouting at me “Zizi, you crazy!!!!!”, but I had to tell them over and over again that I really couldn’t go. I felt so bad.

I tried to shake it off and went on with my journey. Off to Boudha. At the same time I was glad to have an hour to myself to read. I arrived at Boudha and went to my favorite restaurant, Paradise Rooftop Restaurant, and the staff all greeted me “Welcome back!!!”, yep I may come here too often… they have really good Pokoda… As I sat down I got a text from Paulin: his bus was stuck in a traffic jam right up in the mountains and he was most likely going to be two hours late… Two hours late? 3 + 2 = 5, 5:00 pm… the picnic ended at 5:00 pm… I COULD HAVE GONE. Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. So I sat and read and then I remembered that Lex, one of the new volunteers, is at a monastery really close to Boudha. I messaged her and she said that she was super sick, all by herself in a hotel room in Thamel. I thought for about 0.46 seconds and then decided to take the bus there.

Cute hotel hang out...

I did a bit of snack shopping for Lex; cookies, bananas, Jolapi (YOU HAVE TO TRY IT, it is so so so sweet but so so so good… on second thought, you probably won’t like it, I only like it because I inherited the Dutch sweet tooth, it’s deadly sweet) and donuts! I arrived at the hotel room and we had a snack/wifi party and a really good conversation. I knew that Paulin would get dropped off the Chitwan bus in Kathmandu; I would find him. At around 5:30 pm Paulin called and informed me that he was almost there. So off I went on my man hunt (please realize Kathmandu is massive and I am crazy). I decided to try to find the place where I got dropped off from Chitwan, found it and hovered around for a bit, hoping we used the same bus company. Paulin called to tell me he had arrived and there was no bus in sight, I told him to stay put and I started wandering. I swear this is just an example of how much the past weeks have changed me, nowadays I am so casual about situations I’d otherwise totally have stressed out about. Now I just have faith that it will all turn out fine, and it usually does. And it did again! I found him within 10 minutes!!! “CHARLOTTE YOU ARE MY HERO” I guided him through Thamel to the hotel Lex was staying at, introduced them and then ditched them to have a shower (the water at the monastery stopped working again and I was dying) so I left 

them awkwardly in the room to bond, it was fine, they totally clicked.

We talked non-stop that evening and realized that if we wanted to go back to the monastery that night we’d have to leave right then (the busses stop at around 7:00 pm). We spent a moment thinking and then decided we were too lazy and too comfortable and we stayed at the hotel with Lex, she was starting to feel better and better (it was clearly my TLC). We had some good food, some good conversations and Paulin and I went out for a quick souvenir shopping spree; I bought yet another pair of trousers. When we got back I checked my email and found out some horrific news (nerd problems); the reason I got a 5/7 in English was solely because of my World Literature essay (one of the 5 components of the English literature course) in which I scored a 2/7!!! The essay is written in class over a period of a couple of months, I had been working my ass off on the essay for weeks, had it looked over by my English teacher thousands of times and in the end she predicted a 6/7! But somehow the IB gave me a 2… this was the start of some stressful organizing; I had to get remarks done. Half an hour later I realized that I had scored a D for my TOK essay (instead of the predicted A), yep, I’d have to get that one remarked too. A few days later my parents came to my rescue and offered to help, they got the remarking all sorted out now, so I’ll know whether my teachers were crazy or whether the examiner was crazy in a month!

Right after the ridiculous napping
fest

Okay, so we spent the night in Lex’s hotel room, Paulin sleeping on the floor (what a champ) and we woke up super super early at 5:00 am; I had to teach. So with our sleepy heads we caught the bus to Sundarijal. It’s so funny to see how cautious they both still are (they are relatively new to Nepal) and how freaking used to it I am. Then I realized they are the exact image of me when I just arrived… hilarious. We arrived at Sundarijal at 7:45 am, and I realized that I probably wouldn’t make it to my class with Tulku Jigme that day (DAMN I hate missing his classes), so I called Ngodup to call it off and went to grab breakfast with Paulin and Lex. We got to the monastery an hour later, ready to start classes at 9:00 am only to discover that it was a big Pooja that day; meaning no classes, no nothing. Yep. We had went to bed super late. We had woken up at 5:00 am so we could make it to the classes. And now we discovered they were called off. What did we proceed to do? We napped in my room until noon. Lex in my bed, me on the yoga mat and Paulin on a pillow… damn Paulin always gets the short end of the stick muahahaha.

Throwing my hair in the
river! (If you have no
clue what I'm on about
go two posts back!)

At noon we had lunch (showed them the skills of the monastery cook, seriously, he makes amazing food, he even makes Dal Bhat taste good day after day after day of it), I introduced them to all the monks, taught Lex how to wash clothes (she’d have to start washing her own clothes soon) and then we all went to a tea house up in the Sundarijal mountains. They loved it. We had some tea and conversations and then a couple of hours later we went to Boudha together (Paulin still hadn’t been there), Boudha is the big Buddhist temple with the famous Buddha eyes on it. We had dinner together there (guess where? Yep. Paradise Rooftop Restaurant) and then said our goodbyes… had a proud mom moment when Paulin left by himself on the bus (I’d taught him how the whole Nepali process works).

Since then the days have been work, work, work and I love it. Yesterday my students in class 1 and 3 finished their posters, they were so proud of their work, it was so great to see! I took individual pictures of each of them with their posters and some of the students went all model on me, posing in all the poses... I'll post the pictures of one of my students, Nemar, working the camera... Too cute! So yes, the class room actually looks like a class room now with all the posters on the walls!

Class 1 showing off their posters!

Class 3 and their posters + me in the middle
of an ocean of monks.

Look how classroom-y it looks, so proud

So, that’s all that’s been going on! Tomorrow afternoon I am off to Thamel to hang out with the other volunteers (haven’t seen any of them, except Lex, in two weeks) then I’ll wake up super early again Saturday and leave back to the Monastery to teach (this time I’ll check whether there is a surprise Pooja beforehand…). The other Charlotte is coming with me to the monastery and we’re having a cute sleep over here because she’s interviewing Tibetan monks (they are all refugees) for her big university essay (I think it’s called a Thesis, oops, don’t tell NYU)

Charlotte x