IST

Intermediate Service Training?  Intensive Seated Tedium?  Interesting Scholastic Teaching?  Peace Corps, like any good governmental organization, really likes its acronyms.  I admit it was a little confusing at first to be a PCT sitting in PST discussing the COAT with our LCFs, trying to figure out when we were going to meet with the PCMO...  You get used to it after a while, even if you never do figure out what all the acronyms actually mean.  Whatever IST really means, it's the first big training meeting all the volunteers have together after moving to their permanent sites.  It was a long, exhausting, informative week.

We built improved cook stoves (aka played in the mud).

Learned about nursery seed planting.

Built a plastic house (actually, I just watched-- It was really hot that day and I like to encourage men to work as much as possible).

Met a buffalo with really long toe nails.

Planted a field of tomatoes while learning about drip irrigation.

Built a solar food dryer.

It was an exhausting week.

Weddings and Funerals

I don't know what it is, but those two seem to go together somehow.

The day after arriving in Aarupata I attended a wedding.  I was able to identify the bride and groom because she was crying hysterically and he looked enormously uncomfortable.  "Love matches" are becoming more and more common, but many marriages are still arranged here.  I'm not sure which type this particular marriage was, but I'm happy to report that I've seen the couple since and they look wonderfully happy together.  It seems it is traditional for the bride to cry because it is hard for her to leave her family (after marriage the bride typically leaves her home town and moves in with her in-laws and becomes part of their family).

I've been to several weddings since then, some huge and fancy, most small and cozy.

They're nothing like American weddings.  Friends and family members give a white tika to the bride and groom and their attendants as a way to give their blessing on the union.  There's often feasting and dancing and they always end far too late at night.  I get really grouchy when I'm tired, so I'm afraid that has rather tainted my opinion of weddings. 

Funerals are a little more interesting.  Each cast and ethnic group has different death rituals.  Gurungs, with whom I live, bury their dead while most other groups use cremation.  Not long ago my host dad's elderly aunt died of cancer.  The experience was something you would expect to see in a National Geographic and I can't possibly describe it adequately, but I'll try.  Throughout the day people gathered at the diseased home to very loudly mourn her passing.  As evening started to approach, garlands of money were sewn together and other colorful decorations were procured.  The body was wrapped in cloth then festooned with these decorations.  Religious ceremonies and dancing were preformed, then around midnight the men carried the body up to the cemetery for burial.  For several days afterwards all the gathered family spent most of our time hanging out together and planning the big death party that was to take place 15 days later. 

"Death party" probably isn't the appropriate term for what happened, but It's the best way I know of to describe it.  Far more happened than I am aware of or understood or that I can describe.  This is a brief summary only.  The four day gathering celebrated six different diseased ancestors.  Family from far and near gathered to join in.  The school was turned into a temporary camp ground where people would hangout throughout the day just chatting or creating money and flower garlands that were used later.

Then manikins representing the diseased were carried into the village and placed on a platform in a tent constructed for the event.

The manikins were then dressed up and decorated.

A group of young men played drums and danced around the figures for hours and hours.  Their endurance was impressive.

Other religious ceremonies were also performed.

One night there was a special dance depicting the fight between good and evil.  A group of priests (representing good) and a group of "son-in-laws" (any male relative really, representing evil) chased each other back and forth across a field, but in the end good always won.

Unfortunately, that same night a man in the next village down who had had a bit too much to drink fell to his death.

 The party was a huge event.  Whether you were related or not, everyone in the area came to watch.

The main thing I learned was that death is expensive everywhere, even if you don't have to buy a fancy box or cemetery plot.

Christmas '12

For our first Christmas away from home, all of us volunteers gathered together in the city of Pokhara for a few days to celebrate.

We visited the World Peace Pagoda

Went on walks around the lake

And I even bought myself a new computer.

It was a pleasant escape from trying to learn Nepali and figuring out what I was supposed to be doing, but it was nice to head back home again afterwards.

Pus 15 (Gurung New Years)

Nepal doesn't use the Western calendar.  There are still 12 months in a year, just offset by 14 or 15 days, and the year starts in mid April.  Many ethnic groups, however, start the year on other days.  For Gurungs, the New Year starts on Pus 15 (December 30^th this year).  My village hosted quite a party.

A few days beforehand there was a clean-up day at the cemetery.

The next day everyone gathered to present food offerings to their deceased ancestors.  Apparently dead people particularly like cigarettes, alcohol, fruit, and fried snacks.

Then we got to eat the leftovers.

I jokingly refer to the day as "going to feed dead people," but I think it was my favorite holiday here so far.  It’s nice that people set aside at least one day each year to get together and think of those that have gone before them.

The next day the real celebration began.  Gurungs from all over the area came dressed in traditional clothing.  First we ate lots of food (the most important part of any celebration…)

And then there was singing and dancing (especially by those who had a bit too much to drink beforehand)

Sacred threads (a component of Hinduism that I don't know much about) were handed out and speeches made.

And then the real dancing began.  My villagers practiced this one for weeks beforehand.

I'm not sure what happened after that… My feet were frozen so I snuck home and went to bed.

Tihaar, Farewells, and my New Home

Tihaar is the second biggest festival in Nepal and lasts five days.  People often go door to door singing and dancing to raise money.

I went with my little nieces and nephews one night—it's a lot like trick-or-treating;  you go from one house to another singing a certain song and collecting money.  The song they sing is actually pronouncing a blessing on the house, but to someone who doesn't know what they're saying it mostly sounds like we're just being obnoxious until they give us money.

During this festival the goddess of power and wealth is worshiped.

There's lots of feasting

On the last day brothers are worshiped.

It sounds a little unfair (this is after all a male dominated culture) until you realize that brothers aren't supposed to receive anything from their sisters for free.  Sisters present a small gift, usually of food, and receive a much larger gift, usually money, from their brothers, who usually end up sharing all the food their given anyway.

Once Tihaar was over all the visiting family members went back to their homes and we had to get back to work.  To help prepare us for the work we will eventually be doing in our permanent sites, we were required to find out about our community then plan and carryout a project that would meet their needs.  The majority of adult women in our community are illiterate, so we decided to organize an activity where we taught the youth how to be teachers.  It was a good idea but horribly planned.

Miraculously, it ended up going really well.  The kids were so excited just to be given a small book, notebook, and pen all of their own that nothing else really mattered.  I doubt any of our original objectives in the activity were obtained, but we all had fun.

Soon after our project was complete it was time to pack up and say goodbye to our families.

We received a ritual farewell (which included a lot of hardboiled eggs—not a good idea before a windy car ride) at one house after another.

And then we were gone.  I really hope I will get to go back some day.

Our final week of training was spent in Kathmandu. 

I still think it's a big ugly dirty city, but it started to grow on me a bit once I started to learn my way around.

After a week of unbearably long meetings, the big day finally came.  We graduated.

I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now.  Lots of very important people were there and they gave lots of speeches and there was a giant cake, but really it was a bit anticlimactical.  I'm just glad it's over.  I hear the entire program was posted on the American Embassy's web page if you really want to know more.

Early the next morning the 20 of us said our goodbyes to each other and climbed into different busses to head to our new homes.

 I am now living in Aarupata, Jagatebhanjyan, Syangja District.  It reminds me of San Luis a lot at times, but we have slightly more impressive views here.

My "work" for my first three months here is simply to learn the language (my villagers are primarily of the Gurung ethnic group and don't always speak Nepali, so this is a bit harder than hoped) and to learn about my community.  My villagers tell me I should write on my reports that we don't do any work here—just sing, dance, and eat.

That's not far from the truth (this is good news for me—it seems being willing to dance just about anywhere any time goes a long way towards making up for not talking much).  Until just a few years ago, Aarupata survived on subsistence agriculture.  Everything changed after installing a solar powered water pump that allows the farmers to irrigate some fields.  They now produce and sell tomatoes year round and are embracing just about every development idea that comes their way.  They are proud of what they have done and have become a destination for agro-tourism so they can share their accomplishments with others.  Several times a month groups will come from all over Nepal (foreigners are welcome too if you wanted to stop by and visit).  The visitors are warmly welcomed, well fed, get to go on the official tour, and enjoy a dance party. 

People have been asking for months what I will be doing here.  I still can't give a complete answer, but I can finally give a fairly good idea.  Helping to develop agro-tourism in the area will be one of my top priorities.  I may also give technical advice on tomato, orange, and coffee production as well as bee keeping.  I will work with mothers groups to help improve maternal and infant nutrition and try to help raise standards of sanitation.  The possibilities are limitless really.