Nepal
First, I have the answer to the question you've all been asking me, I come home on Nov. 26 th/27th and once I get there I have no damn idea what I'm going to do so stop asking! My new plan is to write my memoirs of Nepal, entitled "The Dhaal Butt Diaries" which will make millions of dollars and then I'll travel the world for the rest of my life.
Sorry this is going to be a long-ass e-mail because so much has happened and I haven't written in my journal in a while so it's all coming out here, Plus I enjoy typing~ Here goes:
Wednesday Wound Management:
· I got back from rafting/kayaking alive and went back to my orphanage to find one of my boys, Anil, has one of the most disgusting wounds I've ever seen, a really deep gash on his elbow had become infected with a green/yellowish puss that would ooze out of it with blood. So, I thought if I clean it, then it'll heal. Bad Idea. Very Bad Idea. Anil is cool at first but as soon as I touch the wound he yelps in pain and his elbow shakes/moves. Holy Shit, I think to myself, this is much deeper than it looked once some of the puss started coming out. So, I did my best to hold the little guy down and got the dirt out of the wound.
(i don't know what happened to the font, it got bigger and won't go back to normal after this point:)
· Day Two of the Wound: I took him to the Sechen Clinic and the doctor there recognized me from the amount of times I've brought the boys in, good times. So, he looks at the elbow and as the nurse clean out the wound and wraps it~ I don't feel as bad about hurting Anil yesterday while cleaning it because this nurse is harsh. She didn't care that he was flinching and his arm shaking. The doctor said either the wound is right by a nerve ending or his bone is infected. So I have to take him to get an X-Ray to check on the bone. I walk down the street with this crying child looking for the X-Ray Place, which should be really close to the clinic according to the Doc. It's pretty close, but the confusing part of this X-Ray Place is that it's actually a Dental Office, if the Doc. had told me that it would have saved me 20 minutes of using my broken Nepali to ask people where I could get an X-Ray taken. Then at the X-Ray place they tell me to come back in 4 hours. Good lord 4 hours! Anil is done for the day, he's not happy, still sniffling/crying and in pain, so I take him back to GPPM (one hour ½ on the bus) then I go back by myself (another 1hour and a ½ by bus) and get the X-Ray and Thank God the infection had not spread to his bone! So, then I take the bus back to GPPM once again...
· Cart Building: No big things new at the orphanage, only same old boys getting into trouble. They took the ends of the spool from a kite, attached it to a piece of wood they found, and attached rope (I have no idea where they found tools but suddenly we have this piece of wood with wheels and a rope on it) So the boys took turns pulling each other around as fast as they could, one boy pulling and one holding on for dear life as he was pulled on the cart. This resulted in every boy getting bruised and cut as they flew off the moving cart/wood piece laughing. I thought to myself, "this is probably dangerous, I should probably make them stop," but then realized this is best they've ever worked together to make something, plus they were taking turns and not fighting. And when they all like getting hurt, so as long as they were laughing I figured it was a fine activity for them to do. Anyway, I realized I was starving because I hadn't eaten since my morning dhal butt, so I went to get something to eat and come back (sometimes I just need to take a short break and get away from the kids)
· Cart Burning: I come back from having a whole bag of cookies and a tea to find that the boys have now started a fire and are burning the wood they used for their cart. That is not all they are burning, they found some old shoes (I have no idea where they found them) and are burning the shoes, which are plastic. So they have sticks with shoes attached and the shoes are melting into the fire. I think they found the shoes on the way to school, there are only two shoes so the boys are fighting over who gets to melt the shoes. This is when the two youngest boys start pulling burning sticks out of the fire and hitting them on the ground as hard they can, "Miss, Miss, my sparks, look, my fire!" It was insane, these kids are crazy! "Stop, put it in the fire, that's dangerous" "Miss, Miss, my sparks, look look deri deri sparks" Then the Didi (the Nepali woman who cooks and somewhat looks after the kids) came out and yelled at the kids in Nepali (translated to me by an older boy) "Do not scare volunteer by making the sticks spark near her" Good times…
· Also, during the crazy cart times two boys split their pants open, and one came to me, our conversation went as follows:
Pratab: "miss, you sew"
Me: "ok"
Pratab: "miss you sew now, see hole" (the hole is in his crotch of his pants and like all Nepali kids he doesn't wear underwear and his pants smell like pee)
Me: "yes, I see hole, can you take them off?"
Pratab: "you sew now" (he holes the ends of seams together)
Me: "I can't while your wearing them"
Pratab: "Yes, sew now"
Me: "Pratab, that's a bad idea"
Pratab: "please miss, My no pants, please sew now"
** I pull my confidence together, I worked at the Costume Shop, I can sew, and his pants are pretty baggy……. This is the moment when I felt like the best volunteer ever, I succeeded in sewing his crotch back together without hurting him! **
Family Time: I don't know if I told you all this, but during a holiday my Nepali Family bought a microwave for the sole purpose of making pizza,- yes they are dumb. Also, they only eat on metal plates and put a metal plate into the microwave the first day they had it ~~Yes, Gun-Gun, I remember that I too once made that mistake while heating up a delicious bosco stick at your apartment and thinking of that still makes me laugh,~~ anyway I informed my family that they couldn't put metal plates in the microwave and couldn't make a pizza in it. They said that was just because I was a bad cook (which is true) and they would find out from their next volunteer how to make pizza in their microwave- hahaha- I feel sorry for the next volunteer!
~ Yes, on Friday after having that crazy of a Thursday of course I went in, got dinner with other vollies and watched Snakes on a Plane, nothing like that movie to make me laugh!
Sat-Sun-Mon-tues: too much happens to go into detail and at the same time, nothign to exciting happening ~ a few boys got splinters, one has an infected blister on his lip, had to physically hold him down to clean that too- sometimes i feel like i torture my kids, it's getting cooler here, and the boys are crazy as always- yesterady one of them took me down at the knees while playing some game that i don't understand any of the rules of except that boys run into each other screaming "attack attack!"
At charity school the kids got a puppy, here is the conversation i had about the dogs name:
Kid: "Sister, sister look puppy"
Me "ah, cute, what's his name?"
Kids: "Loobely"
Me: "oh, Loobely"
Kid: "no,no, looo- "b" ely" you say wrong, say "looo - "b" ely"
Me: "Loobely?"
Kid: "No, no, "b" "b" (begins making a gesture like the letter "v" i have the "aha moment)
Me: "Oh, Lovely, your dogs name is Lovely" )
Kid: "Yes, Loobely Loobely Lobely"
My Thought to Myself "these damn kids have named their dog something they will never be able to pronouce!" Crazy kids.
Lastly, I would just like to point out that perhaps I'm not the only one here who does stupid shit, one of my fellow, more responsible volunteers forgot to renew his visa and because of that couldn't catch his flight home (can't fly out with an outdated visa), which made me feel slightly better about my lack of responsiblity in general, at least I've got my visa, and my flight figured out (i think- mom e-mail me back about where i pick up these non-existant tickets!) and so what if i may have locked myself of my room again, my family has an extra key and they like giving my lectures on responsiblity in nepali.
Oh, also I got a new vollie at my place, a really nice, guy from New Jersey, it's weird to think he'll be there when I leave… Sad that I'm leaving my boys in about 2 weeks but all I can do is enjoy all my time at the orphanage and working at Charity school.
Ok, my long-ass e-mail is done, just had to keep you updated on some fun stories which I hope you enjoy, and I'll see you all soon, love you and miss you all!
Sorry this is going to be a long-ass e-mail because so much has happened and I haven't written in my journal in a while so it's all coming out here, Plus I enjoy typing~ Here goes:
Wednesday Wound Management:
· I got back from rafting/kayaking alive and went back to my orphanage to find one of my boys, Anil, has one of the most disgusting wounds I've ever seen, a really deep gash on his elbow had become infected with a green/yellowish puss that would ooze out of it with blood. So, I thought if I clean it, then it'll heal. Bad Idea. Very Bad Idea. Anil is cool at first but as soon as I touch the wound he yelps in pain and his elbow shakes/moves. Holy Shit, I think to myself, this is much deeper than it looked once some of the puss started coming out. So, I did my best to hold the little guy down and got the dirt out of the wound.
(i don't know what happened to the font, it got bigger and won't go back to normal after this point:)
· Day Two of the Wound: I took him to the Sechen Clinic and the doctor there recognized me from the amount of times I've brought the boys in, good times. So, he looks at the elbow and as the nurse clean out the wound and wraps it~ I don't feel as bad about hurting Anil yesterday while cleaning it because this nurse is harsh. She didn't care that he was flinching and his arm shaking. The doctor said either the wound is right by a nerve ending or his bone is infected. So I have to take him to get an X-Ray to check on the bone. I walk down the street with this crying child looking for the X-Ray Place, which should be really close to the clinic according to the Doc. It's pretty close, but the confusing part of this X-Ray Place is that it's actually a Dental Office, if the Doc. had told me that it would have saved me 20 minutes of using my broken Nepali to ask people where I could get an X-Ray taken. Then at the X-Ray place they tell me to come back in 4 hours. Good lord 4 hours! Anil is done for the day, he's not happy, still sniffling/crying and in pain, so I take him back to GPPM (one hour ½ on the bus) then I go back by myself (another 1hour and a ½ by bus) and get the X-Ray and Thank God the infection had not spread to his bone! So, then I take the bus back to GPPM once again...
· Cart Building: No big things new at the orphanage, only same old boys getting into trouble. They took the ends of the spool from a kite, attached it to a piece of wood they found, and attached rope (I have no idea where they found tools but suddenly we have this piece of wood with wheels and a rope on it) So the boys took turns pulling each other around as fast as they could, one boy pulling and one holding on for dear life as he was pulled on the cart. This resulted in every boy getting bruised and cut as they flew off the moving cart/wood piece laughing. I thought to myself, "this is probably dangerous, I should probably make them stop," but then realized this is best they've ever worked together to make something, plus they were taking turns and not fighting. And when they all like getting hurt, so as long as they were laughing I figured it was a fine activity for them to do. Anyway, I realized I was starving because I hadn't eaten since my morning dhal butt, so I went to get something to eat and come back (sometimes I just need to take a short break and get away from the kids)
· Cart Burning: I come back from having a whole bag of cookies and a tea to find that the boys have now started a fire and are burning the wood they used for their cart. That is not all they are burning, they found some old shoes (I have no idea where they found them) and are burning the shoes, which are plastic. So they have sticks with shoes attached and the shoes are melting into the fire. I think they found the shoes on the way to school, there are only two shoes so the boys are fighting over who gets to melt the shoes. This is when the two youngest boys start pulling burning sticks out of the fire and hitting them on the ground as hard they can, "Miss, Miss, my sparks, look, my fire!" It was insane, these kids are crazy! "Stop, put it in the fire, that's dangerous" "Miss, Miss, my sparks, look look deri deri sparks" Then the Didi (the Nepali woman who cooks and somewhat looks after the kids) came out and yelled at the kids in Nepali (translated to me by an older boy) "Do not scare volunteer by making the sticks spark near her" Good times…
· Also, during the crazy cart times two boys split their pants open, and one came to me, our conversation went as follows:
Pratab: "miss, you sew"
Me: "ok"
Pratab: "miss you sew now, see hole" (the hole is in his crotch of his pants and like all Nepali kids he doesn't wear underwear and his pants smell like pee)
Me: "yes, I see hole, can you take them off?"
Pratab: "you sew now" (he holes the ends of seams together)
Me: "I can't while your wearing them"
Pratab: "Yes, sew now"
Me: "Pratab, that's a bad idea"
Pratab: "please miss, My no pants, please sew now"
** I pull my confidence together, I worked at the Costume Shop, I can sew, and his pants are pretty baggy……. This is the moment when I felt like the best volunteer ever, I succeeded in sewing his crotch back together without hurting him! **
Family Time: I don't know if I told you all this, but during a holiday my Nepali Family bought a microwave for the sole purpose of making pizza,- yes they are dumb. Also, they only eat on metal plates and put a metal plate into the microwave the first day they had it ~~Yes, Gun-Gun, I remember that I too once made that mistake while heating up a delicious bosco stick at your apartment and thinking of that still makes me laugh,~~ anyway I informed my family that they couldn't put metal plates in the microwave and couldn't make a pizza in it. They said that was just because I was a bad cook (which is true) and they would find out from their next volunteer how to make pizza in their microwave- hahaha- I feel sorry for the next volunteer!
~ Yes, on Friday after having that crazy of a Thursday of course I went in, got dinner with other vollies and watched Snakes on a Plane, nothing like that movie to make me laugh!
Sat-Sun-Mon-tues: too much happens to go into detail and at the same time, nothign to exciting happening ~ a few boys got splinters, one has an infected blister on his lip, had to physically hold him down to clean that too- sometimes i feel like i torture my kids, it's getting cooler here, and the boys are crazy as always- yesterady one of them took me down at the knees while playing some game that i don't understand any of the rules of except that boys run into each other screaming "attack attack!"
At charity school the kids got a puppy, here is the conversation i had about the dogs name:
Kid: "Sister, sister look puppy"
Me "ah, cute, what's his name?"
Kids: "Loobely"
Me: "oh, Loobely"
Kid: "no,no, looo- "b" ely" you say wrong, say "looo - "b" ely"
Me: "Loobely?"
Kid: "No, no, "b" "b" (begins making a gesture like the letter "v" i have the "aha moment)
Me: "Oh, Lovely, your dogs name is Lovely" )
Kid: "Yes, Loobely Loobely Lobely"
My Thought to Myself "these damn kids have named their dog something they will never be able to pronouce!" Crazy kids.
Lastly, I would just like to point out that perhaps I'm not the only one here who does stupid shit, one of my fellow, more responsible volunteers forgot to renew his visa and because of that couldn't catch his flight home (can't fly out with an outdated visa), which made me feel slightly better about my lack of responsiblity in general, at least I've got my visa, and my flight figured out (i think- mom e-mail me back about where i pick up these non-existant tickets!) and so what if i may have locked myself of my room again, my family has an extra key and they like giving my lectures on responsiblity in nepali.
Oh, also I got a new vollie at my place, a really nice, guy from New Jersey, it's weird to think he'll be there when I leave… Sad that I'm leaving my boys in about 2 weeks but all I can do is enjoy all my time at the orphanage and working at Charity school.
Ok, my long-ass e-mail is done, just had to keep you updated on some fun stories which I hope you enjoy, and I'll see you all soon, love you and miss you all!