What I know so far

Day 1: I have fallen in love with Nepal. I don't know what I expected before I came, but it wasn't this. Although the ride from the airport to Little Angels College was short I swear my mouth was wide open for the entire time. The thing that struck me most were the colors, everywhere you look you can see vibrantly colored buildings and clothing. But while the colors are amazing the way our driver weaves the van in and out of the crowded, narrow roads is mind boggling. For my fellow Harry Potter fans I keep saying that I feel as though we're on the Knight Bus, and it's shrinking to fit through impossibly spaces. My amazement continued yesterday when we came to our “farm house” which is nothing like my American perception of a farm house. Surrounded by gorgeous flowers and trees our temporary home is a relaxing getaway from the city’s craziness.

Day 2: Today our introduction to Nepali life continued as we passed through a local village on our hike to see Shanti ban (Peace Jungle) a GIANT BUDDHA STATUE, hooray! But first about the village, each day I feel as though I’ve entered into a different world as life here seems so peaceful. On our hike we learned, or attempted to learn, to say how to say “Can I take your picture?” so that we could take pictures of families, kids on their way to school, and local carpet weavers. Luckily, even with the language barrier everyone is incredibly friendly. This includes the man that came and unlocked the gate in order for us to go see the Buddha statue an hour before it opened. For those of you who know me you can only imagine how much I’m loving the Buddha statues both big and small, I haven’t added a new one to my collection yet but I will before the trip is through.

My adoration for Nepal and its people only grew more this afternoon when we went and volunteered for a short time at a local public school. We played mostly with the younger kids who were shy at first but opened up quickly when they realized we had candy and cameras. These adorable kids kept me grinning from ear to ear for our entire time as they eagerly grabbed my hands to lead me wherever we were heading to next. Outside they became even more eager when they learned that Jill and I could pick them up and swing them around. We lost out to the boys though who were able to pick up multiple kids at one time. We also got to sing and play games and one young girl attempted to teach me the Nepali alphabet which was informative for me and hilarious to her as I struggled through the new sounds. My favorite part though was taking pictures of the kids and showing it to them it kept us all endlessly amused. I feel like we’ve already done and seen so much in the short time that we’ve been here and I cannot wait to see what else Nepal has to show us. :) Namaste!