Born to Run

As some of you know, I ran my first half marathon with Matt a week prior to coming to Nepal. It had been a goal of mine for about 5 months and I’m so glad I accomplished it before leaving the states. In those couple months of training, I really started falling in love with running. Sure, I dreaded waking up and immediately putting on my running shoes,  and I definitely wanted to skip some days, but overall, running is something that makes me feel very happy and healthy - and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get my fix of this happiness and healthiness in Nepal. Outside of the US, running is just kinda a weird thing to do. I remember running along a dirt path down to the beach in Greece when a girl on a moped pulled up beside me and asked who I was running from, if I was okay, and if I needed a ride home. Trying to explain that I was simply running for fun did not compute in her brain, and I was afraid I would encounter a similar situation in Nepal.

On my second day in Surkhet, I was already itching to go for a run so I put on my Nikes, grabbed my ipod, and headed out on a quiet path behind our house. I don’t know if it was my pale skin, weird hairstyle, neon colored shoes, strange device that connected my hand to my ears, or the fact that I was moving my body at a pace faster than a snail’s – or a combination of everything – but you would’ve thought the people of Surkhet were looking at an alien as I ran by them! Wide eyes, open mouths, frozen in place… even the goats seemed confused as to who I was and what I was doing. Honestly, it made me a little uncomfortable so all I could do was wave and say hello or fold my hands in prayer position and yell Namaste as I passed. I enjoyed seeing Surkhet and its beautiful scenery, but I didn’t know if I would be able to handle all those strange looks and stares every time I ran. So, I decided from then on, I would bring some people along as distractions…

Since that second day in Nepal, I have yet to go on a run by myself. Instead, I bring along a couple of our kids as my running partners. The first couple times were disasters. Some kids sprinting as fast as they could, others taking 5 steps then walking, others complaining that their feet hurt or they were thirsty a minute after we left the house; I began to think going solo wasn’t so bad. But we started setting small goals for ourselves. First, we tried to run for 30 seconds and walk for 30 seconds. Then we bumped it up to running for 60 seconds and walking for 30 seconds. Now, our usual route is a nice 2-mile loop, running for 100 seconds at a great pace and walking for only about 20 seconds in between. Today, we PRed by going on an hour-long run through Surkhet and up into the hills where our new school is being built. Of course there was some walking, but the kids were champs and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be sore tomorrow. I’m so impressed by how strong they have gotten and how much their endurance has improved, but what’s even cooler is, simply put, they love to run. I get asked, “We go running today?” every single day and if we skip a day I get the cold shoulder for a few minutes. I’ve been battling a cold this week and haven’t been up for much physical activity, but these kids don’t seem to care about my physical health and just want to run! It’s pretty awesome to see and going on runs with them is definitely one of my favorite things to do here at Kopila Valley.

Just thought I would share! 
~shannon

 my running crew today, we roll deep

 amy, bindu & santosh

 go maya!

30 minutes up the hill & we made it!

You Should Like Girls

 Last Saturday morning, I had three girls – little Goma, Sabita, and Kalpana – hanging out in my room and looking at the pictures on my wall. I was showing them my family and friends… “that’s my mom, that’s my dad, that’s my friend Chelsea, that’s my boyfriend Matt…” YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?! they all shouted. In Nepal, marriages are arranged by the parents of the bride and groom so dating and the idea of boyfriends and girlfriends is somewhat of an anomaly to the kids. Most couples don’t kiss, might not even hold hands, until the day of their marriage. So when I showed the girls a picture of my significant other Matt, this of course prompted many questions. “You like him?” “Do you kiss him?” “How did he become your boyfriend?” Their eyes got wider and wider with each question. Then we continued looking at pictures. “Here is my sister Erin and my oldest sister Caitlin and here is Mary, Caitlin’s girlfriend.” GIRLFRIEND?! THAT GIRL IS GIRLFRIEND OF YOUR SISTER?! If the idea of me having a boyfriend was interesting, this new idea – that both my sisters like girls - absolutely blew their minds. They asked me how two girls could like each other and I tried to explain that sometimes you can’t help who you like, some people are attracted to men and some people are attracted to women. “So you mean a girl can like a boy or a girl can like a girl?” Yes, they liked this idea. They asked me if two girls could get married and I told them in some states yes, and that I hoped someday, two girls could get married anywhere. This also pleased them. “Do you think we could come back to the United States with you so me and Goma can marry each other?” Kalpana asked. This brought a huge smile to my face and some accompanying giggles. They fired off question after question until the lunch bell rang. As we headed downstairs to eat some daal bhat, Sabita said to me, “Matt is a nice boy but you know if things don’t work out, I think you should try liking girls.” And with that, I think the discussion about homosexuality was a great success!  

goma & sabita

kalpana being the best big sister to lil bro namraj

love this picture of me & bindu

This chat with my three little buddies was probably the highlight of my week. They’ve spent all of their lives living in a poor village in a developing country in a patriarchal society and it’s easy to forget how little they know about life outside of Surkhet. I love educating them about the world, hearing their thoughts and what they find intriguing, and challenging their views with new concepts and ideas. They are beautiful and brilliant kids and deserve to know they can be whoever they want to be and do whatever they want to do in life, and I think our conversation helped them realize this a little bit more.  

drink lots of water and eat healthy foods!

Before leaving for Nepal, everyone was concerned with what the food would be like, if I would be getting enough of it, how safe the water would be, etc. I figured I would get sick of the monotony of the type of food after a few months and physically sick from some foodborne illness after a few months, but unfortunately both have struck early. Last Friday, all the volunteers went out for dinner and drinks at Shanhi Village, one of the two “upscale” restaurants we visit on special occasions. We indulged in French fries and spring rolls and Indian food and beers and tequila, a good change from the daal bhat we eat all the time. About 24 hours after our festivities, my body was celebrating those festivities by getting rid of everything inside of me. I couldn’t stomach anything besides a plain roti (Nepalese tortilla) and water for two days, but alas, after lots of rest and letting the bug run its course, I was fine. There are 11 fellows here, and 6 of us have had this nasty bug in the last week, and we’ve been spending our time tracking its pattern and determining its starting point. So, Brendan and Susanne ate lunch at Valley View, our other favorite restaurant laaaast Friday, and by Sunday they were not feeling so good. Caroline ate there on Tuesday, and by Thursday she was spending most of the day and the night in the bathroom. We all ate out Friday and I got sick Saturday. And this morning we woke up to the sounds of Amy and Nate getting sick, just two days after eating lunch out as well. There hasn’t been one single food to cause the sickness but there has been one drink: water. The water in Nepal, like most developing countries, is not safe to drink. At school and the home, we are lucky enough to have purified drinking water taps to fill up our water bottles at any time we want. Other than that, if it’s not sold in a sealed plastic water bottle, it can’t be trusted. Whenever we eat out, we order bottles upon bottles of the perfect and ever-so-thirst-quenching Nepalese water and melt at the sound of the seal being broken, indicating that the water is pure and safe. Or so we thought! After the many bouts of illness we’ve been looking a little closer at these bottles. How come some are filled to the brim while others are only filled to the top of the label? They are sealed shut but what’s that little stuff floating around the bottom? It seems to us that restaurants and shops recycle the bottles, fill them up with water, and use some device to seal the bottles shut, just like they do with glass coke bottles and beer all around the world. It’s a genius mechanism for saving money and a genius way to get all the foreigners sick! For now, it’s safe to say I will be bringing my water bottle filled with purified water from home everywhere I go.

This is a typical meal seen at lunch or dinner in all of Nepal. It’s called daal bhat – rice with some liquid lentil / bean goodness. Always expect potatoes on the side, and maybe some sort of vegetable if you’re lucky. Top with lemons and chilis for a little kick! My theory is, hundreds of years ago some aboriginal Nepali person threw rice and lentils in a pot, it was easy and tasted good and that person thought “okay this is what I and my entire country shall eat at all meals from now on!” and it stuck. It is very delicious and authentic, but it gets very old when you are forced to eat two heaping servings of it every day. I had a steaming plate of daal bhat right before I got the sickness, so I’m taking the week off from rice and potatoes, and eating mostly peanut butter and plain crackers and snickers bars until I can stomach the Nepali cuisine again.