Dora being pretty on the top of the hill
I'm writing this now from the top of a hill in Chisopani, close to Niki Miss' house. Dora, Milena and I walked up here to enjoy the sunset and to see Niki Miss's Babu (little one)-who really loves stroopwafels. Around us are houses with buffaloes, chickens, goats and of course also people dressed in colorful Nepali dress.
So much happened again, where to start?
If I had to summarize this week in one word it would have to be 'lice'.
Great topic for a blogpost, isn't it? Does your head start to itch at the idea? Mine does, but I'll just have to deal with it because all the children in the school, including the 15 children who live at Maya, all have lice. And the project for this week-a project with failed rather dramatically-was to destroy the lice and nits of the children to live with us. For a start.
So we gathered the children for a walk to the stream to give them lice shampoo--which they all very excitedly put on their heads because usually they just wash with a bar of soap-and then they had to wait for 4 minutes which was nearly impossible. And useless, it turned out, because the local lice shampoo was about as effective as drinking a cup of chia (tea) in the morning to kill the lice. After the shampoo we intended to comb them all out, but seeing that they all have sooo many lice it takes at least an hour to get all the lice and nits out of one persons hair-so after a week we only managed to comb 5 of the children and 1 adult.
I just think it's so interesting because the way the people look at having lice is so different here. In the Netherlands all the kids would go like ' ewww he has lice' but here we were combing out their hair on the playground during school hours, and all the children stood around us asking ' what are you doing Baika Miss?' and when I explained it they were all falling over each other shouting 'me too me too!' ' I have louse also' ' me miss, me go next!' (their English isn't perfect yet by far), all basically trying to grab the lice comb, ending in one big screamy chaos (why do children always have to talk in such a high pitch?). Anyway, our endeavors weren't very successful yet because they all just have so many lice and they hug and cuddle all the time (also with me, scratch scratch). But I somehow enjoy it so much combing out those lice so I'm having a good time.
I'm having a good time in general, haha, village life might seem boring but it's far from it, I'm surprised at how fast time passes.
I'm writing this now from the top of a hill in Chisopani, close to Niki Miss' house. Dora, Milena and I walked up here to enjoy the sunset and to see Niki Miss's Babu (little one)-who really loves stroopwafels. Around us are houses with buffaloes, chickens, goats and of course also people dressed in colorful Nepali dress.
So much happened again, where to start?
If I had to summarize this week in one word it would have to be 'lice'.
Great topic for a blogpost, isn't it? Does your head start to itch at the idea? Mine does, but I'll just have to deal with it because all the children in the school, including the 15 children who live at Maya, all have lice. And the project for this week-a project with failed rather dramatically-was to destroy the lice and nits of the children to live with us. For a start.
So we gathered the children for a walk to the stream to give them lice shampoo--which they all very excitedly put on their heads because usually they just wash with a bar of soap-and then they had to wait for 4 minutes which was nearly impossible. And useless, it turned out, because the local lice shampoo was about as effective as drinking a cup of chia (tea) in the morning to kill the lice. After the shampoo we intended to comb them all out, but seeing that they all have sooo many lice it takes at least an hour to get all the lice and nits out of one persons hair-so after a week we only managed to comb 5 of the children and 1 adult.
I just think it's so interesting because the way the people look at having lice is so different here. In the Netherlands all the kids would go like ' ewww he has lice' but here we were combing out their hair on the playground during school hours, and all the children stood around us asking ' what are you doing Baika Miss?' and when I explained it they were all falling over each other shouting 'me too me too!' ' I have louse also' ' me miss, me go next!' (their English isn't perfect yet by far), all basically trying to grab the lice comb, ending in one big screamy chaos (why do children always have to talk in such a high pitch?). Anyway, our endeavors weren't very successful yet because they all just have so many lice and they hug and cuddle all the time (also with me, scratch scratch). But I somehow enjoy it so much combing out those lice so I'm having a good time.
I'm having a good time in general, haha, village life might seem boring but it's far from it, I'm surprised at how fast time passes.
Bhuttap playing the flute as beautifully as a lion (we did a play with the kids before)
Last Sunday was the festival of Shivarati, the festival of the Hindu god of destruction, and me, Soubas and some other volunteers (Tim, Bas and George) went down to the temple to celebrate it together with the rest of the village. And we'd driven by that temple before, it's a bunch of white houses with tin roofs gathered together, and during daylight it all looks rather bleak and boring. But this night, it was different. The place almost became magical. Candles everywhere, women in traditional clothing sitting on the floor, surrounded by self made candles made of leaves and lots and lots of food---this was a festival to last all night long. Everybody was smoking weed and making drum music, and doing dance battles and Nepali rap battles (it's a traditional format where you have to make up the most beautiful lyrics on the spot and who wins gets applause). And all the women immediately wanted to dance with me, and everybody was happily watching while those strange white people were trying to get the hang of the Nepali dance routines, haha. Fortunately I was rather good, and Soubas told me the day after that they were all talking about me like 'why can she dance like that, she's no Nepali, where did she learn that?'--but I guess I always dance with my arms and hands and I just had to adjust it to be a bit more traditional. Dancing is a great way of communicating, because I can't speak Nepali yet, but this way i did get to 'talk' a little bit with the villagers which was so much fun.
Last Sunday was the festival of Shivarati, the festival of the Hindu god of destruction, and me, Soubas and some other volunteers (Tim, Bas and George) went down to the temple to celebrate it together with the rest of the village. And we'd driven by that temple before, it's a bunch of white houses with tin roofs gathered together, and during daylight it all looks rather bleak and boring. But this night, it was different. The place almost became magical. Candles everywhere, women in traditional clothing sitting on the floor, surrounded by self made candles made of leaves and lots and lots of food---this was a festival to last all night long. Everybody was smoking weed and making drum music, and doing dance battles and Nepali rap battles (it's a traditional format where you have to make up the most beautiful lyrics on the spot and who wins gets applause). And all the women immediately wanted to dance with me, and everybody was happily watching while those strange white people were trying to get the hang of the Nepali dance routines, haha. Fortunately I was rather good, and Soubas told me the day after that they were all talking about me like 'why can she dance like that, she's no Nepali, where did she learn that?'--but I guess I always dance with my arms and hands and I just had to adjust it to be a bit more traditional. Dancing is a great way of communicating, because I can't speak Nepali yet, but this way i did get to 'talk' a little bit with the villagers which was so much fun.
Walking back from a refreshing afternoon swim in the river
Basically now I'm interning with Manjil -the headmaster- to become a math teacher at the school, I'm helping Milena out with French, and I'm still doing some art classes when I have the time. Busy busy children children and I'm growing to love them so much that it will be very hard to leave when the time comes. We go on walks with the children, and yesterday we tried to teach some how to swim (which was pretty dangerous on our side-imagine 3 nepali children desperately clutching around your neck while you are trying to swim).
Basically now I'm interning with Manjil -the headmaster- to become a math teacher at the school, I'm helping Milena out with French, and I'm still doing some art classes when I have the time. Busy busy children children and I'm growing to love them so much that it will be very hard to leave when the time comes. We go on walks with the children, and yesterday we tried to teach some how to swim (which was pretty dangerous on our side-imagine 3 nepali children desperately clutching around your neck while you are trying to swim).
Dora trying to teach Rashne how to swim
Climbing and swinging the roots with Goma, Parkash, Regina and Upindra
The sun has set now, and the moon is rising (the moon is different here, horizontal instead of vertical), and Niki Miss is inviting us for chia. Time to go. Love, Maya (Nepali word for love), write again next week.
The sun has set now, and the moon is rising (the moon is different here, horizontal instead of vertical), and Niki Miss is inviting us for chia. Time to go. Love, Maya (Nepali word for love), write again next week.