Crazy night in Delhi

Okay so, for my going away party in Nepal I had one hour of sleep prior to my departure to India. It was a great night, good times. Oh yeah...Delhi. I got in around 11ish am and took a taxi to Connaught Place. Good thing the taxi driver took me to a tourist agency without telling me, cause there I met Ranbir the boss, that made my first impression of Delhi 'not so bad.'

I wanted to get out of Delhi fast and get to Northern India and find volunteer work. Found out that it would take 4 days to travel by bus to Leh (Ladakh region). Fuck that, I was hungover and had one hour of sleep the night before and I wanted something quick. So he recommended me to take a flight to Srinagar and take a bus from there to Leh, which is cheaper and shorter. I took it.

That night I couldn't sleep, it was so fucking hot. HOT I tell you, I probably had 3 hours of sleep that night. Next morning I went on a day trip to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. Got there, took my tourist picture, and then left back to Delhi. Now...I know you're waiting for me to talk about it...here's where the craziness starts...

I'm in my room watching the Discovery Channel (in Hindi) and the assistant from the tour agency knocks on my door to tell me that Ranbir wants to see me. (the agency is across from the guesthouse) I walked inside and Ranbir goes "Hiiiii, how was your trip to Agra?! Good yeah?" Let me tell you that Ranbir is about 5"5, mid-30's (but looks older), nice belly, really long chest hair, and has a big smile.
"Yeah it was nice, it looked like a postcard."
"Good Good, want a beer? I work late and I don't like work."
"Um nah, I'm really tired."
"Okay, juice!" he tells the boy to get juice from the market. Ranbir gets on his computer and he turns the monitor to face me, I see a list of women's names and age and what they look for in a man. He tells me, "I'm on Yahoo Personals, I have many girls, see? 30 matches out of 50, very good."
"You're on Yahoo Personals?!! Have you met any of these girls yet?"
"Only on the phone, but one time, I called and her mother says hello, then she ask who I am, what job, this, that. Then I say 'oh okay thank you' and I hang up, just like that! Ha!" We get our juice and I gulp it down immediately because I'm not sure how long I wanted to stay at the office.
"Have you seen this Arch yet?" Pointing to one of the over-size posters on the wall, was an arch with the word INDIA etched on the front.
"No, I haven't seen it, only the fort."
"Let's go! Around this time, what time now?" he looks at his watch, "9 o'clock is now, is when couples, families, and friends go to this arch to drink, eat, and just have fun. I'm alone here and I don't want to work, why work? Let's go, for one hour yeah?" After a long thought, I said "Sure, why not?" His assistant had already started Ranbir's car to get the AC goin. We got in and went to a liquor store to buy a couple of beers. We started drinking and he showed me around Delhi, I saw the largest temples, and the business sections.

During our ride, he plays around with his stereo, Hindi was mostly played. Then he was looking through his CD collection and told me he had a very good English CD with great songs. He found it and put it in. First song, was "Singh is King," a Hindi rap song featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg. No joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dpQJPvplTk

I knew this song when I was in Nepal, they would play this video all the time on tv. Just to make Ranbir feel more comfortable, I sang with him, and did the Arsenio whoop whoop arm movement. The next song I knew right away just from the first 3 seconds. I laughed so hard. The Macarena. The CD kept skipping and Ranbir was tapping on his stereo with his fingers to make it work, as if he was punishing a toy poodle on the head when it peed on his Kashmir carpet.

Second round of beers, we go to another liquor store, and this time he got peanuts! We drank while driving, and every now and then he would grab my beer and hide it whenever he would cross a toll or if he saw a police car. He got phone calls coming from the agency saying that there were people at the office wanting to do business, so we had to go back. At the agency, the assistant told him that he took care of everything and his customers left. Ranbir said,"OK, everything is fine, we can still party yeah? He then reaches in his pocket and takes out a baggie. I asked what it was, and he said it was charras, natural hash leaves.

"Ooh, I want to try it!"
"Yeah, okay then!" He calls his assistant to make us one out of a cigarette. The assistant came back with the cig and we smoke it. We talked for almost an hour about NOTHING, I can't remember what we talked about. The only thing I remember was telling him that I couldn't feel anything from the charra, but then 20 minutes later, I told him that my face started to tickle. Then he started talking about nothing and mid-way, he said his face was tickling and we started laughing hysterically.
"Want to go see tree?"
"What?"
"Tree, of what we smoke now." I look at the clock and it's about 1am, and next to it shows the temperature. 39C (102 F). "It will only be 15 minutes, we go get, and come back."
"Sure, why not?" We drive about 15 minutes to a deserted area, he finds the plants and grabs them, all of a sudden it was raining hard. He opens my side of the door and screams, "It's raining! MONSOOOON! Come out! Much cooler!"
"No!"
"Why?"
"Mosquitos!!"
"Aiiiyah, mosquitos everywhere!" He closes my door and comes back to the driver seat, he puts the plants in the back seat, and the aroma of charras bloomed.


that's his hand playing with the stereo.

He said he lived near by and asked if I wanted to check out his house, I say 'sure, why not?' Another couple of minutes and we approach a driveway, I see this old man laying down on a cot inside the opened gate garage.
"Opp, that my father." Ranbir says, he immediately goes into reverse very quickly, "I am drinking and smoking, can't let my father see me, nope nope nope. Let's go eat, I hungry now. I know a good Indian restaurant."
"Okay yeah, let's go." We went to the liquor store again to get more beers, and listen to more cheesy music. This time we bumped Venga Boys We like to Party. The CD was skipping again and he says "play play play play play play, pleeeeease play play play, ha...he's sleeping...come on..come on...play play play, play baby." The song resumes and we continue to sing and dance to the restaurant.

When we got there, I was wasted. We eat and went back to the guesthouse and I look at the temperature, and it was 34 (93 F) at 3AM!!! I spent 6 HOURS with this man. 6 hours. We said goodnight and I went to sleep. Results the next morning: hung over and sick, I am not smoking dried leaf hash again.

Namaste Nepal Namaste

I can't believe it...I still can't believe it. I'm leaving tomorrow. It feels so weird. The past 4 months flew by like it was nothing. I'm very proud of myself of what I've done here. I can say though, that I am ready to leave Nepal. I did everything I wanted to do. I taught monks, helped out keeping street kids in school, and shared my life with orphans.

Last weekend I went rafting with a few volunteers, that was the last touristy thing I am going to do. Great fun! Then, I had a momo (nepali dumplings) party with my boys at the house. I was really surprised how all the boys participated. I bought all the ingredients to make the dough and the meat, they mix it up at the butcher shop, and then we started folding the momos. We made small momos, big momos, chinese momos, nepali momos, and different shaped momos. I was really impressed how they came out, I think it's the best momos I tasted here.



I love what I'm doing now. I waited for so long for this trip to start and now I'm going to my 2nd destination. This is why I like traveling; staying in one country for months, learning the language, building friendships; with the bakery shop owner, the restaurant busboys, the bar keeper, the cooks and didi's at all the houses, and my neighbors. What I will miss the MOST, are my boys, my monks, Daryan (kaaraazzzyy bitch), Caroline (miss you!), Conor (you're such a DICK), Indu Didi, and the rain in the late afternoon.

I'm going to miss Nepal. The only thing special about Nepal that will make me want to come back is the people. I will miss my boys and will be hard to say goodbye to them tonight. But we all know that there has to be an end. It was hard to say goodbye to my monks, but I know I will visit them in India the next few months. India is very close to Nepal, I can't see why I couldn't visit, even as a holiday. I'm making a promise to myself that I will come back.

This is only the beginning. It really is...my first stop and the beginning of something extravagant. I feel like something is waiting for me in India, something big. How long will I stay in India? The answer is I Don't Know (sorry dad). I am absolutely free.

By the way, Namaste is a respectful way of saying Hi, Hello, and sometimes...as a goodbye.

Good times with my monks

Last thursday was my last day of teaching the Tibetan monks. They went back to India yesterday. I have been teaching them for 7 weeks. I will miss them.

It took me by surprise when they told me the last day of teaching would be a week earlier. I only had 2 nights to prepare for their exams. On the day of the exam, it was hot, muggy, and tense. The kids were really nervous taking the exams. I saw some of them PRAYING before class started. They did very well on their exams and I was extremely proud of them. During lunch, I walked around the school and one child came up to me, and handed me a folded piece of paper. I opened it and it was a letter, thanking me. So CUTE! Then more kids ran in and gave me their letters, it was so great to read, I will save these letters forever.



After the exams it was playtime. Yay! No more class! Few of them were playing football (soccer) and most of us talked on the porch. The younger boys sang and danced for me. For dinner, we had Thukpa, which is a thick flat noodle soup with vegetables. After dinner, all the kids gathered in the big classroom. Tashi, the owner of the school, told me the kids had something to say in English, they all said "Thank you Miss for teaching us!" Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Then, Tashi gave a speech, appreciating me for volunteering and going through the awful transportation to teach his monks. He pulled out a Mala sash and put it over my neck. Then presented a Buddha statue as a gift (definitely sending it home cause I cannot travel that heavy thing in my backpack), a gray pashmina (to wear when I visit northern India), a DVD about Limi (a town where the monks are from), and a thank you letter with all the monks signatures and a photo of all them. I wasn't emotional, there were smiles everywhere. As I was leaving on a motorbike back to home, all the kids were screaming on the top of their little lungs "GOODBYE MISS!!!! GOODBYEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Mala Ceremony, any type of thank you gift always includes a sash (called a mala).

Sunday morning, Tashi called me and invited me to a pilgrimage. They picked me up at my bus stop and traveled for 40 minutes up north into the mountains. We went to a monastery that once belonged to Pema Simbawa, from the 7th century. In history, it was said that Simbawa was an Indian monk that brought Buddhism into Tibet. We walked up a long flight of stairs and reached to the top of the hill. All the monks gathered in a circle and started chanting.



Myself and a few others went further up the hill to hang prayer flags. After an hour we had a picnic and did more rituals. One of the rituals, each of us grabbed a finger-full of flour, lined up in a circle, and looked at each other. Tashi raised his arm slowly and said "ohhhh," then everyone else copied, after 3 more times all the older monks released their flour and went "Aiiiiiiiiii!" and then the rest of us screamed "Aiiiiiiiii!" and released the flour, the flour was blown away onto the people facing east and was covered with flour. Everyone was laughing hysterically, I will not forget that moment.

monsoontoenailsfallingoff4monthslovingit

I finished the book "Everything is Illuminated," by Jonathan Safran Foer, I deeply enjoyed it and was fond of his eccentric writing style. The title of this post is inspired by him. Anyways...

So yeah the monsoon is here, it's no longer friggin hot, humid, muggy, sticky, annoying, sweaty, polluted, and dusty. It is now overcast, rainy, muddy, cloudy, sticky, humid, muggy, annoying, polluted, but cooler. I don't know which I would rather deal with. Either way I am dirty and have to take a shower in the late afternoon. Okay wait...I made up my mind, I prefer the hot days, the reason for this sudden decision is because I take an hour bus ride at least 8 times a week to teach in Bouddha, the rain slows down the roads, which makes my ride sometimes almost 2 hours. 2 hours in a microbus (minivan) filled with 15-20 people (sometimes people sitting on your lap, or the other way around), hot, sticky, damp, stuffy, annoying, cramped, and sweaty. But hey, I'm paying 20 cents for this bus ride.

Teaching is great, the monks are actually learning from me! But they're learning so well that it is hard for me to prepare each day for a new lesson. The past month I was working on a major photo album that took a lot of my time, I had to have EVERY child in this album (325 kids). However, it was a fun project to do because I was able to take artsy photographs and the chance to meet every single child of Umbrella for them to sign their name in it. So it was quite difficult to balance teaching and my work here at Umbrella organization. But I finished the album! I was proud of myself, I even finished it right when Jacky (creator of Umbrella) of the organization said 'goodbye' to everyone. I couldn't have finished it without some help from other volunteers, but still...I was so relieved. When I handed the album to him he said he would look at it when he gets home, him and his wife (both created Umbrella) have been very emotional the past week. I left shortly after to have dinner with my boys and found out that night that Jacky called a few minutes after I left to say 'thank you from the bottom of his heart,' and he was emotional on the phone. Exactly what I was aiming for.

3 of my toenails are dead and I ripped them off. This is what trekking in rented shoes will do to your toe nails. I painted over the healthy ones and left the others un-painted...primarily to disgust people when they look at them because it somewhat pleases me when they are disgusted, and besides it's their fault for looking at them in the first place.

I extended my visa for one more month and currently looking for flights to China. I have nothing to go home for...I can stay anywhere as long as I want. There is a high possibility, which I am positive, that I will come home a lot later than I said I would. Who knows...I may come home in a year, 2 years, fuck...5 years, I may even be a volunteer for life, we will see. I am not ready to leave in a few days (my original plan), it would be too weird. Plain and simple: I am not ready. I just began teaching and it would be too short of an experience, and I also feel like my boys at Umbrella really like me now.

The past few weeks has been the most busiest. Past couple of days I needed a retreat to the mountains. I went to Nagarkot with a couple of other volunteers, Daryan (American) and Doc (Irish), a few hours above Kathmandu, it was rainy and cloudy, but I didn't care, I just had to get out of the city. I spent the whole day napping, listening to music, played Irish Monopoly, didn't even finish Monopoly, reading, sitting outside of the balcony watching the clouds hover the mountains as if I was living in slow-motion, smoking (sorry people...everyone here smokes, can't help it) talking about nonsense, talking to the dog, played home-made Scategories, sipping milk coffee, and looking through photos in our cameras. Now I am back in the city, writing this late blog, and I'm about to see my boys and have dinner with them. Cheerio.

I got another piercing

My nose. It's a Nepali thing, almost every little girl or woman has one. Divya took me to get it done. $3 fools.





Sorry Dad.

Hello Miss!

I have been teaching young Tibetan monks English for over a week in a district called Bouddha. I was really nervous on my first day. To get there, I take an hour bus ride, then a 20-minute walk. By the time I get there I'm either sweating when the sun is out or wet from the rain. But the frustration is immediately gone when I see the young monks greeting me "Hello Miss!" The monks are extremely respectful, obedient, and shy.



I had a chance to meet the owner of the organization, Tashi. He called me the day he arrived in Kathmandu, we arranged a meeting to plan my opportunities on teaching 20 newly arrived young monks from India. So here's how it is; all of the new monks are Tibetan but live in India. There are 17 monks that live at the Lama Center permanently, from Nepal. I teach 37 young monks from age 5-18, and 5 older monks from age 19-30ish.

I met up with Tashi at the orphanage and we walk to the Lama Center, 12 minutes away. His English is very good and he seemed glad that I wanted to volunteer to teach his monks that are visiting for 6 weeks. We talk about America, Tibet, India, the monks, and my time table. We agreed on this respective schedule: come to the center 4 times a week, 4 classes a day, 45 minutes - 1 hour each class. Afterwards I ride back home to see my boys for Tiffon (tea & bread). I stay at the boy's house for a few hours and come back home to work on a photo project for the organization. The owner of Umbrella Foundation is leaving Nepal back to Ireland, so I am creating the photo album and getting all the children and volunteers involved. Basically I work 8:30 am-7:00 pm, 2 different locations, sometimes 3.

The monks are so cute! Sometimes you can't take it on how stupidly cute children are and you want to hug them, hold them, or pinch their cheeks. But with monks...they're not allowed to be touched by females. Okay that's fine, I gush and make funny faces at them to get a laugh.



Bad news on my third day of class, I found out that the secretary of the organization, Pachung, mother passed away. When there is no power, there will be no gas to cook. Pachung's mother used Petrol to light a fire and continue cooking. They decided to get a lot of Petrol just in case and put it in a bucket. There was an accident and an explosion occurred. Fire burned bottom half of her body, but then a random woman that was around the area grabbed the bucket of Petrol, when she thought it was WATER, poured it over her. Her body was completely burned and was taken to the hospital. Bad luck. Two days later she died. Hospitals in Nepal are not great and they think she would've been alive if she had proper care. Half of the monks are gone because they are mourning, praying, and chanting at Pachung's house. During lunch I spoke with one of the teachers. His name is Kunchok Mingyur, we were talking about death. He believes that if you do bad in your life, then you will go to hell, if you do good, you go to heaven. He isn't Christian, but this way of thinking is similar to Buddhism.

"Everyone dies at some point! This was her destiny, so sad...everyone was crying. I am not going to worry about death because I have done good in my life, I am not afraid to die," He says.

"Me too." I responded.

God isn't in me today

I was in Kalimati (the slums) to help out at another orphanage and found out that the neighbor was a fortune teller. One of the teachers (Divya) from the orphanage said she'll take me that day and was curious what her fortune was too. When she asked the Spirit Lady if we can see her that day, the Spirit Lady responded "No, God isn't in me today."

Since the Annapurna trek I was able to finish my website and logo designs for the organization. So I've been filling my time at another orphanage that's about 15 minutes from where I live. I get there by tuk tuk and most of the kids have already gotten dressed and waiting to walk to school. I see the other volunteers and we talk about work that needs to be done that day. Around 9:30 we start walking, holding hands, dodging cars through traffic. I drop off the kids and see Divya so we can get our fortunes told.

Before visiting the Spirit Lady we had to buy a bag of dried rice, when we do, we put any amount of money in it to pay the lady. I put in 25 rupees, 25 cents, Divya says that is enough. We walk into her home and there is a woman inside getting her fortune told. We were allowed to come in and sit next to them on a mat. Spirit Lady's room was very interesting. It was hot, dark, and tons of ants. One side of the room is trash; empty water bottles, rags, and plastic bags. On the other side were 2 mats (for her and her client), candles, incense, rice, and goblets. I realized that the 3 volunteers and I were sitting on her bed. Sorry for no photos, I wasn't allowed to take any.

First off, I'm not sure if I believe in this stuff, and I never visited a fortune teller, but this lady was creepy and for real, we were freaked out. We were watching her as she was doing the woman ahead of us. She had her eyes closed and was jerking her body around like she had Tourettes. She opened her eyes wide and told her to turn around. The woman turned around and the Spirit Lady grabbed a huge bundle of weeds like a brush, sprinkled rice on it, and mixed it with smoke of incense. She then dabbed the woman with the bundle and mumbled words that Divya couldn't understand. The woman turned back around the other direction and I was able to see her face, she looked sad and sick. Spirit Lady grabbed a few incense, lit it, and gave it to the woman to hold awhile. They pray together and Spirit Lady tells her that she had evil spirits in her, after this meeting, she should pray all the time. 1 volunteer (Sushil) went first, she closes her eyes for a calm 15 seconds and started telling him who he was in the past, who he is now, and what he wants in the future. Sushil kept nodding his head in agreement and kept looking at us like "oh shit." To me, Sushil seemed like he wouldn't believe in this stuff and was only doing it because of us. Afterwards his opinion was completely different.

My turn, I was kind of skeptic but we'll see yeah? I sat down, gave her my bag of rice, and told her my first name. While she was preparing, pouring rice around us and into a plate, lighting new candles, collecting her money and putting it away. I was thinking that she wouldn't be able to read me, I'm a private person, and I think it's difficult for people to know what's going on in my head. She fills my rice into the palm of her hand, webs incense into her fingers, and closes her eyes trying to read me. It took her 2 minutes, lots of jerking and heavy breathing. I sat so close to her face to face that I thought she was going to slap me and shout "There are EVIL spirits in you, get OUT of her body!" in Nepali. Instead, she calmed down, opened her eyes and started speaking. Divya translated for me and said that I have been having lower back aches for a very long time (since I was 14). I've been thinking a lot of things lately and unable to sleep (yes, true). I have so many things to do, I have to do work at this place, work at another place, work here, work there (so true). Another 15 seconds, she looks into my eyes and says that I'm a good person, my reason to come to Nepal is good. What I chose as my career back at home is the right path and I will stay along that path for the rest of my life, and be successful. I have no major obstacles and will be happy, and said that I had no bad energy in the future. She asked if I had any questions, I went ahead and asked it...what about my love life? (you would ask the same question too, so shut up) IMMEDIATELY she responded "I can't tell you anything about your love life, because you had never fallen in love." Whoaaaaaaaaaa...haha...heavy shit.

She then takes another half a minute to read me and asks if I was a Christian. I said no and she looked confused, she asked if maybe a Buddhist, I said no. She tells Divya that she feels there is something about me that is religious, she sees a pastor, priest, or some sort in my life. I tell her that I don't see either of those kind of people. Then she asked "Are you sure there is no one in your life that is like a priest? Ancestors?" Then I told her "Wait yeah, my grandmother is a main nun in South of China, she has her own temple." Spirit Lady said that I was thinking of visiting her since I'm so close to her, and that I should. She said to follow my grandmother, anything my grandmother says, I should listen, visit her and take her advice with me when I continue traveling. I won't know what it's about until I get there.

There are more things she said that I will not mention, things are just meant to stay quiet. At the end she tears a piece of newspaper, puts a dab of rice inside, and wraps it into a square. She wraps it again with a torn piece of black plastic, and wraps that again with a string. It looked like a piece of crack. She tells me to carry it with me all the time and I will get good karma, and if I change as a person, it will change for the better. After the fortune reading, I felt refreshed. To have someone you JUST MET tell you everything about you and your past is trippy. I'll admit that while she was telling me who I was as a person now, almost made me cry. Everything she told me was what I needed to hear, to help me stay motivated with this volunteer trip. That I had a reason to be here in this world and this is what I am suppose to do in my life. I pretended the incense was burning my eyes.