Random Comments Before Heading off
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2007
1
10
17
Trip End
Jul 31, 2007
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Thursday, May 17, 2007
First off, my teaching time is over. It seems as though it has happened at a good time. Because of pressure from the Maoists to slash tuition fees in half, all schools in Nepal are closed indefinitly. So my last day has turned into a day off, which is nice as it has given me some time to get organized for my trek. So on my last day of classes I had an "incident" with one of my students. The day started off well enough. My class five and six gushed over my leaving, begged me not to go, and one girl stated she wanted to kill "the day off." I had to promise I would visit if ever I returned to Nepal which I assured them I would. The warm glow I felt lasted untill my last class of the day, class 8
Anu, Nimu and Rexy
. Up untill now it really hasn't been a problem, there are only four students in the class, three boys and one poor girl. One of the boys is a real a**hole. Disruptive, annoying, etc. but I really didn't care too much. Normally it was all in good fun, lots of joking around. His best friend told me the name of the girl he had a crush on so I used it for leverage whenever necessary. I would say "Rajesh, if you don't be quiet, I'll tell Jarina you want to kiss her...." So fine. My last day he was especially exuberant, punching and beating the other students. Kids do that a lot here, so it wasn't out of the ordinary. The teachers are allowed to hit the students too, although I refrain. My kids would always ask me "Miss, why don't you beat that naughty boy?" but something about that does seem to go against my moral fabric. So this boy always brags he is in a gang, and he has brought this chain to school before that he wraps around his hand to beat the other kids. I had warned him before not to bring it to school, and I am pretty sure he wouldn't dare bring it out around the other teachers, so I said "that's it!" and took it away. I'm not exactly sure why he let me take it, he is stronger than me and could have stopped me. I like to think it is my scary, authoritative side. In retaliation he stole my text book and refused to give it back. But I was so not backing down. I didn't need the damn book anymore anyways. I told him "you can keep it, but you are not getting back this chain." Then can you believe it, he threatened me
Me with Rexy and Snowball
. With his father. He said "I will tell my father and he will come here." I was like "Good, then I can tell him how you misbehave in class, we can have a niiiice chat." Then he stared ominously into my eyes and said "You don't know who my father is." Can you believe it? But I was so not backing down. I wondered for a moment, had I stumbled into Nepal's inner city? I looked him straight in the eyes and said "Bring it on." My god, I must be the worst teacher in the world. But I couldn't help it! That little bugger, trying to intimidate me? AS IF! So at the end of class I reported the incident to my vice principal. She was like "Who is this? Rajesh? Oh yes he is very naughty boy!" Ha Ha let them deal with Nepal's littlest gang banger!!! And his father too! I'm outta here!So next on my list of things to comment on is some of the nice and not so nice creatures I have encountered on my stay here. Before the whole chain incident I was going to title this entry "Nice Bugs and Nasty bugs." Now, I know what you are thinking, there is no such thing as nice bugs right? But it's true there is. The other nice I was in the school yard with the girls, playing with the puppies. The ugliest stray dog you have ever seen in your life recently gave birth to possibly the cutest puppies ever. There are three of them; Tommy, Rexy and Snowball. And yes, I named them. The girls were afraid to touch them because they are mostly afraid of the strays that roam around but I showed them how to hold them and now all they want to do is "go find Tommy." They especially like Rexy who is known by his other name, "the polite one." Is there anything more adorable then a three year old holding a puppy for the first time? I highly doubt it
My luxury suite at the school
.But I digress.... as we played, the girls were like "Miss, look!" Over by the slide I saw a thousand gold, twinkling lights. Fireflies! I have always wondered if these little guys actually existed. I have read about them in story books, and I even thought I saw one once. It was in Thailand and it landed on my friend's hand. But there was only one of them, it was like four am and we had been indulging in mushroom milkshakes at a rave all night. Needless to say when I woke up the next day I was having a pretty difficult time distinguishing the realities from the delusions of the previous night. But these fireflies were no hallucination, apparently they are pretty comman here. Giggling like a little kid we ran off gleefully to catch them. They are actually pretty easy to catch and not gross at all. These things are so cool.They actually have an electrical charge in their butts! We even put a bunch in a jar. I know I spend most of my time here with kids, but so many things here have the effect of making me feel about seven years old again...
Which brings me to the nasty bug portion of the story. One type in particular (and I personally believe it is the same one every night) has been harassing me. El Senoir Cockroach. I have tangoed with these nasty buggers before, but this one especially horrifies me. He is incredibly bold. The first night I made his acquaintance he was crawling in my sleeping bag
Nimu, Anu and Susu
. Oh, a nightmare come true. I stood outside my door (which is outside) wondering what to do for at least half an hour. Would it be reasonable to wake up the whole house because of a bug in my room? Not really, but still, how could I sleep knowing he was there? Finally an uncle walked by my room, looked at me and said "what are you doing?" I begged "please, there is a cockroach in my room..." He slipped off a shoe and ran into my room, waving it in the air. He finally caught the little beast and threw it outside. He's been back though, last night he landed on my shoulder. I stiffled a shriek. He likes to hang out right outside my room and when I'm at dinner I have no way of tracking his activities. I have a new nightly ritual now. When I go in my room, I pick up a big metal pipe that is meant to be used to prop open a window. Then I meticulously search my entire room, moving every piece of furniture. This is actually not as time consuming as you might think. There is only two pieces of furniture in my room, a bed and a chair. And if I come across him an epic battle of good and evil ensues untill I finally chase him out. Once the room is "clear" my towel is stuffed into every crack in the door and the pipe stays frimly within arm's reach. I still sometimes have trouble sleeping though. Just knowing he's out there... It's really lame I know but these things terrify me. My heart pounds and I break out into a sweat. Nimu asked me "are you afraid of bees too?" "Of course not" I scoffed.
The view from my balcony at school
"But" she replied, "cockroaches are harmless." Ahhh the endless wisdom that comes from a ten year old....Okay that is enough silly, random chit chat for now. Tomorrow morning I am heading off on a seven day village trek with my group, we will be staying in a different tribal village every night. Once home, I have one day to rest, do laundry and renew my tourist visa, and then Amelia and I are going up north to Lantang on a ten day trek through the Himlayaas and to see a glacier. The end of that trip will bring us up to our trip to the Terai region for rafting and safari for three days. SO, I have a lot going on, I am very excited and happy to be on my way. I will miss my girls but as they say here "What to do?" It's time to move on.
