I hope everyong gets the Sound of Music reference there... cuz the hills are certainly alive here in Nepal (I should just stop now). I know this is uncharacteristically frequent of me to be blogging again, but it's been an eventful monsoon season, so I thought I'd shoot out a quick hello. We just finished our big English Elocution contest at school. It's more exciting than it sounds. My Class 5 kids busted out some Tolkein and Class 6 did dramatic renditions of the Prologue and Epilogue from Romeo and Juliet. I had every intention of video-taping for posterity but I was just too nervous. The Nepali version of a Spelling Bee starts on Monday... should be interesting.
The bottom photo is Sushma and her little brother Suraj; I spend most of my free time over at their house. Sushma studies at St. Xavier's, not in any of my classes, but will be on my basketball team if we ever actually start practices. I've gotten to be really close with her family, including all the cousins, aunts, uncles, babies, chickens, etc. They live just down the road in Godavari, so it has really helped me to feel like I have some roots here, a second home even. This was taken on a random Saturday of trying to bake cookies on a stove-top. And yes, Suraj is wearing a t-shirt with Kurt Cobain on it.
The top picture is of me and Jonu (see last blog) on one of those rare sunny monsoon days. About a week after this picture was taken, Jonu (finally) had her baby--a little boy. She was home within a few days, but there were some complications that had me pretty worried for a quick minute there. They're both home now, safe and sound, along with half of their extended family to help take care of the baby. Nepalis don't name their newborns until 11 days after they're born. I was pushing for "Sarah" but last weekend they went with "Nishan" at the Nwaran--Hindi name-giving ceremony. Another teacher from school served as the Brahmin priest and performed all the rituals out on the back porch while I "helped" all the gals in the kitchen. It was an all-day event and probably one of the coolest things I've gotten to see since I got here.
So that's my story for now: It's still raining every day... We built a new path over the lake that is our front yard... School is hectic as ever... I'm over 6 months into this roller-coaster ride... We've perfected Nepali tea... Everyone is well... And baby makes 10. Love you guys. All for now
