Call me Sunny

Namaste!

Everyone told me my time in Nepal would fly by but so far it’s been the opposite. I’ve already learned a lot, seen a ton, been stared at so much, been to a Nepali wedding and made memories that will last a lifetime…how can it be that I was 8000 miles away in Virginia less than two weeks ago? I have so many things to share and questions to answer, I really don’t even know where to start but I’ll give it a shot.

So I wake up around 7:30 every morning to the sound of a bell chiming and children screaming on their way to breakfast.  The volunteers eat about 30 minutes after the kids and breakfast is usually dry oatmeal, really buttery hamburger buns, or fruit and peanut butter if you’re lucky. During this time, the kids are busy cleaning and sweeping until they make the 90-second hike over to school around 9am. I usually have some down time after breakfast to lesson plan or read on the roof before going to teach English to one 2^nd and two 3^rd grade classes. I love my 3^rd graders but the 2^nd graders are, well, a nightmare. First of all, there are 30 of them in the class and there should never be 30 8-year olds in the same room at the same time. Ever. The class is only 20 minutes long – seriously do not ask me why – and getting through role call takes up the majority of the class time as it is! They’ve also had about 3 different teachers this year, which has truly hindered their learning and made behavioral standards non-existent. And what especially makes my job as their new English teacher especially hard is the fact that half of them hardly speak English. I discovered this problem when I told them to write 5 sentences using the words teacher, girl, soccer, clock, and goat and numerous students turned in papers that had “I am girl” written 5 times L The only good thing that has come from the students’ inability to speak English is a new nickname for me. The sh- sound doesn’t exist in Nepali (the name Shanti is pronounced Santi) and the suffix –annon is just weird, so I have become Sunny. It’s funny because I used to tell people that was my middle name when I was younger, now I just have to get used to responding to it!

The difference between the 2^nd and 3^rd grade classes is unbelievable! My 3^rd graders are excited about learning, have their ADHD slightly more under control, and their English is 100x better. It’s still difficult to get through the 50 minute class without losing my sanity or dropkicking a sassy child out the door, but I’ve really enjoyed teaching them so far and I’m learning a lot every single day.

In addition to teaching, I am helping rebuild the English curriculum for the entire school. We currently have almost 350 students in nursery through 9^th grade, but are in the process of building a completely new and awesome and sustainable and beautiful and modernized school just up the road. If we want to continue to expand and give these students a comprehensive education we really need to get rid of the kinks and disconnects between grades (ahemmm 2^nd to 3^rd grade), and I’m hoping to help with that. So if anyone knows anything about creating curriculums, I could use a lot of help!

When I’m not at school six (yes 6) days a week, you can find me at home with our 44 kids. They range from age 4 to 16 and I’m very proud to say I knew all their names within a week of arriving here. That may not sound all that noteworthy but I was not learning the names Sam and Matt and Erin, try Birendra, Sanju, Hansharaj, Bishal, Swastika, and 39 more Nepali names, plus all the kids at school and our aunties and uncles around the house! At home with the kids, I play lots of games, walk our two humongous German shepherd pups, lead yoga on the roof at sunset, braid hair, get my hair braided, clean cuts and infections, make sure the kids’ clothes are somewhat clean, run around the neighborhood, and play soccer. There is always so much going on and something to get done, never a dull moment here! The best part of the day comes after dinner when all the kids and volunteers gather for satsung. We sit in a circle and sing so many songs and dance (these kids are unbelievably talented) and congratulate others for doing something good and talk about house announcements or celebrate birthdays. It’s the only time of day where everyone is guaranteed to be all-together, as a family, and it is truly special. 

I hope this give you a little idea of what I’m doing over here! There are so many things to share and funny stories to tell, but as my dad says, “French food”… a little at a time.

Ma timilai maaya garchu,

Sunny 

 all the fellows dressed up for a wedding

 roof view

 kalpana & goma

 sunset never gets old

hello! 

Big Girls Do Cry

After 8.5 hours in the Istanbul airport, and 6 more hours on the plane, I was really looking forward to breezing through security with my visa from DC and enjoying my day in Kathmandu. At the desk, the security officer (side note: there is no way to tell who is a security officer and who is just a regular old Nepali man, as the officers seem to where whatever they want to work) asked me when my visa was issued and I was so confused why he was asking, as the issue date was listed right there on my passport. Can't this dude read? Well, it turns out that the security officer can, in fact, read and the reason he was asking was because the Nepal Embassy of DC wrote September 23rd as the issue date but forgot to write a year. I insisted that my visa was issued this past September and the Embassy probably didn't write the year because...well, isn't it obvious that it was 2013?! To make a long story short, I waited almost 2 hours trying to get the issue resolved, even tears didn't help. I was told I would have to go to the Immigration office Sunday morning at 11am to retrieve my passport, which was quite unfortunate because I was supposed to catch a 9am flight to Surkhet the next day... welcome to Nepal! 

Even though I was 7 hours late, Rijen (the travel agent for Kopila Valley fellows) was waiting for me outside the airport. He drove me to the Buddha Garden Hostel and said he would help me figure out the visa junk in the morning. I was feeling super frustrated and sad and scared and already missing home and I almost resolved to going to bed at 5pm. But thanks to a little note Erin stuffed into my backpack before I left, I mustered up the energy to shower and venture out onto the streets of Kathmandu. I walked around for a while, exchanged my dollars for rupees, and even had dinner with an ex-Kopila Valley fellow who happened to be in the city for the night. Talking to someone else besides myself and getting some physical activity after sitting for 30 hours straight really helped my mood, thanks for rallying me from afar, Bear! 

The next morning, Rijen's dad took me to the Immigration Office at precisely 11am to retrieve my passport. To get a sense of what an immigration office in Nepal looks like in Nepal, picture a 3 story cement building built in the 70s that hasn't been cleaned, vacuumed, sanitized, or organized since it was built, and there ya have it. I was shuffled around from one story to another, one office to another, and told to "wait just 10 minutes" every 30 minutes or so. One officer would read the report that explained the situation at hand was that the year wasn't written on my visa, then he would pass the report to another officer who would read it and tell me the issue at hand was that the year was not written on my visa, then send me to another room to pass the report to another officer who would read it and tell me the issue at hand was that the year was not written on my visa then send me to another room to meet another officer who would read the report and tell me the issue at hand was that the year was not written on my visa.  This went on for TWO AND A HALF HOURS until some officer read the report, wrote 2013 under the issue date, and I was on my way. Welcome to Nepal!

I got a quick tour of the Thamel district, Durbar Square, and a Buddhist stupa, before heading back to the airport for one more flight. The max weight limit for luggage was hefty 20 kg and with precisely 57 kg, I was told I would have to pay 4000 rupees. This time the tears helped and somehow I convinced Buddha Air to let me bring three times the weight limit for less than $20! My flight was delayed 2.5 hours of course, but my kindle and some Nepali food that resembled Vietnamese pho helped me keep my sanity. 

I landed in Nepalgunj at 7:30pm, and was greeted by Prakash who would drive me all the way to Kopila Valley. He and I passed the time talking about anything and everything, our conversation went like this: Prakash would yell (literally, yell) some Nepali phrase at me, then I would either laugh, say I don't know or count to 3 in Nepali, for which, Prakash would respond by laughing, yelling another Nepali phrase at me, or practicing the 4 words of English he knew. The best exchange was when he said, "I make one and one baby, a ladies and a gents!" - another way of telling me he has two kids, one girl and one boy. We stopped at a couple security checkpoints along the way and on the side of the road of some village for Prakash to grab some dinner. While he shoveled some undistinguishable yellow goo and rice into his mouth, I asked to use the bathroom. I have seen some rough looking squatters in my life (remember India?), but this one, this was the sultan of swat, the king of crash, the colossus of clout of the most disgusting squatters. I have never had such a horrid and overpowering stench infiltrate my nose like the smell that escaped from this bathroom. It was so bad I could not even get without 10 feet of it; instead, I wrapped my scarf tightly around my face three times and popped a squat behind the "bathroom." Once Prakash finished eating, we were on our way, and I fell asleep to the soothing sound of Nepali electronic music blasting in my ear. Two hours later, I arrived at Kopila Valley Children's Home and School! It was 10:45 so the kids and Maggie were already asleep, but I was graciously greeted by a couple of fellows who made the 63 hours of travel seem insignificant. 

I cannot believe I'm actually here and I cannot wait to share more about KV, stay tuned!

xoxo, shannon

 buddhist stupa 

art class outside of the stupa

Next Chapter

And I'm back! For those of you who kept up with my blog during study abroad in Ecuador and the hardest 6 weeks of my life in India, thanks for returning. And for those of you who are new to the dreadhead diary, welcome! 
I wanted to write the cliche "night before I leave" blog entry the night before I left, but instead I was making CVS runs, hanging with friends and family, and putting off packing as long as I could. So, greetings from the Istanbul Airport! I am only 1/3 of the way to my final destination, but I'm pretty surprised I made it this far...
First, it was the fact that I was still packing 5 minutes prior to our scheduled departure to the airport. Second, it was the uncontrollable sobbing in my mom and dad and sister's arms that almost caused me to crumple up my boarding pass and cancel this trip. Third, it was my "50 lb" bag that actually weighed 100 lbs. See, the Kopila Valley team had asked me to bring just a few supplies - you know, 30 pounds of screws and nails, 15 books, 2 dog leashes, 200 pages of construction paper, children's scissors, some dog toys, a couple of boxes of reduced fat CheezIts, coffee, sriracha, the usual. All those things + my year supply of shampoo (jokes), really put my bag over the allotted weight. Luckily, dad anticipated this as he almost threw his back out loading my bag into the car and gave me an empty suitcase just in case. I tried convincing the Turkish Airlines desk clerk that all my time on the phone with the airline's customer service reps this week had actually been worth while and I was allowed to bring up to infinity pounds worth of luggage, but that didn't work as my bag was still over the TSA maximum by 15 kilos. He told me my bag wasn't going to go to Kathmandu, and therefore, neither was I. Matt and I quickly rearranged, transferred the tools and books and dog leashes to the extra bag (thanks Dad!) and told the clerk my three bags were light enough. Perfect! Now all I had to do was shell out $220 to check a third baggage. Just like magic, I burst into tears again when I heard this news (at least I already had mascara running down my cheeks from emotional goodbyes) and somehow convinced the clerk to check all three of my bags, for free, "just this once." Voila! 
So one more tearful goodbye, 15 hours, 2 sleeping pills, one coffee, and 5214 miles later, I've made it to Turkey. Unfortunately, my flight to Kathmandu has been delayed; what was supposed to be a quick 3 hour layover has turned into 8 :( I'm making good use of this 1euro wifi though, and if I don't die of boredom, I should be in Kathmandu in a short 13 hours, and in Surkhet 35 hours after that! 

So, what the hell am I doing in Istanbul? Where in the world is Kathmandu? Why am I even heading to Nepal? I'll make it short and sweet: Kopila Valley Children's Home & School was started by Maggie Doyne (modern day Mother Theresa as my mom calls her) in 2008. My sister told me to start following Maggie's blog back then. Seeing Maggie on the back of a Doritos Bag really sealed the deal and I've been a fan ever since. Came to my senses and realized a fellowship at KV was a way better opportunity than joining the circus in Italy. I hope to be in Surkhet for about 10 months to a year, although that time could change upon arrival. I'll be teaching English at first, then maybe coaching, helping with the curriculum, and doing whatever is needed around the home and school. I'm extremely blessed and excited about this next chapter in my life. It should be filled with many trials and tribulations, but I know I will learn so much, see a beautiful part of the world, make unforgettable friends and memories, and hopefully be a great big sister to the children at KV! 

I hope you keep up with this blog and please check out Kopila Valley and Maggie's journal at http://blinknow.org/about-kopila-valley/

I can't believe all the support and love and well wishes sent my way, thank you all so much!

For now, xoxo, shannon

DC - ISTANBUL - KATHMANDU - SURKHET