Rice Pudding

Whenever I try something new in the kitchen I always end up respecting my mother a whole bunch more.

This evening's attempt was rice pudding.
The proper nice kind of rice pudding my mum made when we were little - with rose water in it.

Rose water is readily available here in Nepal, and I bought rice the first week I was here thinking "that's a sensible staple food to purchase" and hadn't actually used any...
It was an obvious thing to attempt to make.

I emailed my ma asking her for the recipe.
She gave me 2 different ones with various different forms of measurement.
This did cause much of the confusion and google searches for "how many ounces in a cup" and "how many cups in a pint"
But sense and measurement and reason are always trumped in the kitchen by rash decisions to just add a wee bit more, anyway...

Disaster number one was boiling the milk over the edge of the pan in a somewhat dramatic fashion.
(You need to boil milk in Nepal...or buy UHT...or get ill)
Disaster number two was the electricity going off just before it was time to put it in the oven.
It's an electric oven.

But disasters were dealt with and cleaned up.

And so we had rice pudding after our Bible study this evening.
(Good stuff, by the way - learning new things from Bible stories you've heard so many times before is always an eye-opener and a reminder of the good things God wants to teach us!)

It wasn't quite like how mum's used to be, but it was tasty!

Kitchen success.

Things which have more legs than me. Part 3.

AKA: A Trip to the Zoo

(in which all the animals apart from the snakes and fish and birds had more legs than me)

Before I came to Nepal, there was one day when I was realising it was actually happening.
I'd never been out of Europe before, and my only trip abroad was to Germany last summer.
I was starting to get a little nervous.

I looked up where KISC is on google maps, and when doing so, I saw that really close to the school is a zoo.

I LOVE the zoo.
I still get excited like a little kid about animals. Any animals. All animals.
Zoos are awesome.

And so thinking about getting to visit a zoo out here calmed me down and made me excited instead of scared.

And today I did it.
I went to the zoo in Kathmandu.

It was a LOT of fun.
And not as run-down as some websites had made out it would be.

They had loads of animals: a tiger, leopards, rhinos, various kinds of deer, various kinds of colourful birds, AN ELEPHANT WHICH I RODE ON, guinea pigs, bears, a python, turtles, fish, a big old tortoise...
A really good variety.

The big cats were in fairly small enclosures, though, which was really sad.
And the elephant we rode on is surely fed up of giving rides to people all day long...

But it was a good trip.
We had lots of fun talking to the animals, much to the amusement of the Nepali people (who, due to their education system, are unlikely to really have the imagination to do things like that - to make up stories about animals just for the fun of it...)

And we played the pretending-you-can-see-something-in-an-empty-enclosure game. Tricked a group of guys to look where we were looking.

Good times all round.

Plus, I've now ridden on an elephant.

Scottish Accents

Or more specifically: my accent.

I get mocked a fair bit by my friends (this is at home, so I can't really blame this on the Scottish accent) for the way I say some of my suffixes.
'ed' or 'es' on the end of a word the way I say it sounds more like there's an 'ies' or 'ied'

Example:
(Scene: at beach mission, at the end of a session)
Me to my group of girls: "can I have all your badges in, please?"
Girls: "What's a badgie?"

So when teaching year 5 about rounds and asking them to count the number of voices (sounds: voicies), there was a fair amoung of giggling.
Which I would understand, but their class teacher has a strong Northern Irish accent!
Surely they're used to people talking funny by now!

But teaching years 1 and 2 made it all okay again.
I taught them the Loch Ness Monster Song.
Cutest. Thing. Ever.
They all sang with little copied Scottish accents.
And I made them practise their 'ccchhh' at the end of loch so it sounded authentic.

Hopefully I will capture this magnificent display on video at some point, because the actions are also awesome.

Going up and down and up and down and up and down some more...

Nepali Scouts

Most of you will know that I do Guides at home.
This has been a long time thing for me - right from going to Rainbows in my local primary school aged 5 through to leading a unit of my own in Glasgow for the past 2 years.
Shameless plug: this has been one of the most worthwhile things I've done in life, not just as a CV-filler, but I genuinely love it. Go find your local unit and volunteer!

On/around the 22nd February every year we celebrate Scouts and Guides as a global organisation.
I love "thinking day" (as it's known) because I get to whap out my Guiding history knowledge and impress my Guides and teach them interesting facts about how it all began and how it's now in 145 different countries.
(I told you, I like explaining stuff to people)

I've known all this time in theory that Scouts/Guides is worldwide, but today I actually got to see how this is true.

Before I came to Nepal I got in touch with Nepali Scouts and told them I was coming and would be interested in meeting them, somehow.
(Scouts in Nepal is Guides and Scouts combined as one organisation)
The man I was in touch with sent me this:

"On Sunday 21st of August we have one of great festivals of Hindus in town at Patan Durbar square (Krishna Temple). Lalitpur scouts conducting a service camp at there. If you interested you can join us. Our service camp will start by morning 6 to eveinig 6."

So I took my friend Whitney along with me (See, mum? I'm being safe.) today and we went along to this.
Patan Durbar Square is very near us.

It was very busy, because of this festival - there were crowds and crowds of people, and lots of stalls, and people worshipping and burning incense all over the place.

We found some Scouts, and they showed us to the man I had been in touch with by email.
We spent a little while chatting away to some Scout leaders, drank some tea, vaguely half-learned a Nepali Scout song (when I told them I'm a music teacher they were like "sing! sing to us!" - I imagine most of you will be able to guess my reaction to that...) and I was invited to go and visit some Scout units whilst I am here.


I love that it's so worldwide, that they're so willing to accept a complete stranger from the other side of the world purely on the grounds of having this shared Guiding/Scouting experience.

Things which have more legs than me. Part 2.

There are dogs everywhere in Kathmandu.
(Ironic that it's pronounced Cat-man-do...)

They are on every street, on every corner, down every lane...

No wonder the nurse and doctor at Patan clinic were so keen for me to get rabies vaccinations (of which I still have to get the third...they did not mention that it required 3 separate shots during the persuasion process).

The dogs don't seem particularly aggressive.
In fact, many of them are fairly scared of people.
And lots of them look so scruffy and mangey...
It's sad.

Daniel, one of the teachers living in the Guest House (our token male housemate), who is here from the USA with his wife, Sara, has started naming the dogs we see around here regularly.
Sara is ensuring he doesn't start feeding them and bringing them home with him...

This is the ugliest/illest dog we've come across so far.

Among all the dogs, however, I have now seen my first cat.
A couple of days ago a very thin/fairly hairless cat came into the school.

This cat, unlike the dogs, is not scared of people.
When I tried to chase it away, it tried to get further into the school.
I ended up having to actually, physically pick up the cat and remove it from the school building.

Julian is a much more manageable pet...

When you Need Somebody

Sometimes days contain too much whelm.

Now don't get me wrong, I am still full out loving it here, but yesterday I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

A combination of teaching a not-so-great lesson (I'm not dwelling on it, Auntie Beth, I'm just mentioning it, s'all....), a plethora of potentially broken keyboards but too many dodgey plug sockets to be able to really work out if they're broken or not, a desk piled high with work and the feeling of sheer exhaustion that a week of full-time teaching brings.

I was on my way to do some photocopying when someone reminded me about part of LOP (the language and orientation programme) that I was supposed to be going to from 3-4pm, adding to my list of things to do.

In the photocopying room the principal (/head of arts faculty) tried to talk to me about the keyboard situation, but soon realised I was in no fit state to hold a conversation.

Then Whitney arrived.

Whitney is from the USA and is here to teach ESL in the Primary for the year. She arrived in Kathmandu about a week before me, and lives in the other Guest House, which is just round the corner from the one I'm living in.
You can read more about her experiences of Kathmandu here: http://whitney-leigh.blogspot.com/
She is super friendly.

She apologised lots for hassling me, and offered to do what she could to help me, brought me some chiya (Nepali tea), wrote out my photocopying request for me while I continued to wrestle with the photocopier and came back up to my room with me to keep me company while I finished off my last few jobs of the day (this is extra impressive since my classroom is on the 4th floor...!).
She was fab.

Sometimes, when you don't even realise you need someone, God sends someone just in time.

Imminent flake-out averted.

Nepali Clothes

Recently a whole bunch of us went "kurta shopping".

Kurtas are one of the most common types of clothes Nepali women wear.
They are made up of a matching set of trousers (or "pants"...hehehe...living with Americans...), a long top and a scarf.
They are often very loud colours and unusual mixtures of colours, too, but they are very beautiful.

So off we went, led by Stephanie (who works with a linguistic organisation out here) who is the queen of kurtas, and is good at Nepali, so a very useful person to take kurta shopping!

Firstly, we went to a material shop.
There were so many beautiful materials, so many colours, so many patterns...it was very overwhelming!
We all chose some, and paid - it cost about £2 for enough material to make a kurta top.

Next stop: the tailor.
We chose what sort of design we wanted - the lengths of sleeves, the shape of the neckline - just by describing it (often through Stephanie's translation) to the lady in the tailor shop, and left our newly purchased material in her hands. She told us they would be ready by the following Wednesday
(That was 10 days from dropping them in. There were 6 of us each getting 2-3 tops made. Impressed?)

Then we waited.
(Well, actually, we got on with life. 10 days of just waiting would have been a bit silly, particularly with term starting, and classes needing taught...)

On Wednesday we went to pick them up.
Very exciting.
Also very cheap tailoring - about £1 per top.

When we got home SarahNewYork (She's called Sarah; she's from New York) and I had some fun being girly and trying them on and showing each other and discussing potentially getting pants (of the trouser variety) and scarves to match our tops so we can wear full kurta outfits.
(Some of the female Nepali staff were telling me just yesterday that unless you wear all 3 parts, it doesn't count as a kurta.)

The next day at school we all had one of our new kurta tops on - wearing them proudly!

Safety and Security

Yesterday afternoon we had a staff safety and security training.
We learned how to, in the event of an earthquake, do light rescue, set up a camp and entertain up to 150 distraught children.

An earthquake happening out here is a reality.
On average they get a major one every 75 years.
The last one was in 1934.

 As scary as the odds seem.
(And if you google it, there are people who have worked out some pretty terrifying odds...)
I feel safe.

KISC has got an excellent security plan, well-trained staff, and above and beyond that, a great big massive God who has been faithful over the years.

If something happens, the KISC community knows what to do.
There are plans in place.

So an impending earthquake might seem like a scary thing.
But I'm not scared.
I feel wholly completely totally looked-after and cared-for here.

Plus, I'm now trained in light rescue, having helped extract a fake-body from a set-up pile of rubble on the roof of the school yesterday...!

Teaching

Today is day two of teaching at KISC.

It's official.
I love it.

What more could you ask for in a job, than hanging out with young people and making music?
(With the odd bit of theoretical teaching, too, but I also love explaining stuff, so it's all good.)

I've met most of the kids I'll be teaching, now, and I've not been put off which is a good sign!
No, but really, they're lovely.

With one of my classes I'm doing some 1950s Rock'n'Roll music - it's good fun!
After showing them a video of Elvis one pupil's comment was: "That's weird. Almost as weird as Lady Gaga"!

The best part in all of this is that I'm getting to meet my classes as my classes.
Not coming in as a student teaching someone else's classes, but getting to do the welcome-to-music beginning bit with a class and really having time to build relationships with these kids.

My older classes are tiny.
Just 3 pupils in Year 10 and 2 in Year 11.
I made them all answer the question "if you could be a combination of any 3 animals what would you be and why?" as a bit of an icebreaker.
After the initial "you actually want us to answer this question?!" I got some properly deep answers from them!
One said "an eagle because it's proud, a lion because it's strong and brave and a bear" (I have forgotten the reason for the bear, but it was deep, too)

Anyway.
Teaching = Good times, I love it.

The People of Nepal

I feel that 11 days in the country may seem a little premature for a post such as this, but I have researched extensively and base today's conclusions on a wide sample of people.
Namely 32 or 33 (we lost count...several came in late) primary school teachers from English-medium schools in Kathmandu Valley.
And here are my conclusions:

Nepali people are lovely.
Fact.

They were all so friendly and smiley and lovely!

I had a fascinating day getting to see Christine run a training for Nepali teachers.
They made cats masks out of paper plates, and played pin-the-tail-on-the-horse and learned how to teach English to very small children.

They also humoured my very basic attempts at Nepali!

And 2 ladies assured me that I MUST go and see Pokhara while I am here.
I told them I would be teaching from next week, so I won't have time, because I leave straight after term finishes.
Their reply?
"You're a volunteer. Just tell the school you're going to take a week off to go to Pokhara. Give them advance warning, you know, a couple of weeks."
Ha.
I told them I'll just have to come back for longer next time...

Oh, and further evidence of the loveliness of Nepali people was getting to meet Christine's publishers.
The man was very kind, gave me yummy mango juice (because I still don't drink tea or coffee...) and arranged a taxi to take us back to school so we'd get it cheaper (because a Nepali arranging it will be charged less than a Bideshi (foreigner))

So there you have it.
Some proper generalising of a nation.
Good times.

Stories

There are some people in this world who were born to tell stories.

The lady I had dinner with last night (who is also the reason I'm here in Nepal) is one of these people.

The best part is that all the stories she tells are about her own life.
She has such an incredible background, and she tells it with such intricate detail.
When she talks about the places she’s been, and the people she’s known and the things she’s done, you really feel the emotions she felt.

She never just refers to someone in passing, but names each one. She remembers the names of the people she went to school with fifty-odd years ago!
And when she talks about the places where things happened, she can tell you the layout of the room – from when she was 5 years old!

The capacity of her mind amazes me.

I am pretty much all-out inspired by this lady. Even just spending a little while talking to her in passing I come away inspired to work harder.

And just to look at her, you would never guess what lies behind.


On Sunday, at church, the preacher was speaking about judging other people.
Or more to the point, not judging them.

Everyone has stories to tell.
Some people might not captivate an audience, or be willing to share what has happened in their past, but they’ll have experienced things we don’t know about.

This fascinates me about all the people of Nepal.

They’ve grown up and learned to live in a culture so completely unknown to me.
One of my Nepali language teachers told us she was married by arrangement.
That’s the type of thing we only ever read about at home!
 
Stories...people...
Aren’t they fascinating…?

Things which have more legs than me.

Last night there was a huuuge spider in my room.
When I say huuuge, it was pretty much the same huuuge-ness you could expect in Scotland.
But here's the difference.
I'm not in Scotland.
Do spiders in Nepal EAT PEOPLE ALIVE?
Who knows.

Anyway, I was generally okay with it.
I don't mind spiders.
At Guide Camps we always teach the kids to yell my name really loudly if they're freaked out by spiders/other things with lots of legs, and I'll come deal with it for them.

And I didn't really mind this spider either.
Apart from the fact that it was right above where my head would be going when I went to bed.
So I swapped the end my pillows were at and slept the other way round.
I don't mind so much if a crazy Nepali spider eats my feet.
I mean, I like my feet, I find them useful, but losing them would be preferable to it LANDING IN MY MOUTH.

So, I swapped ends.
I made peace with the spider.
I named him Julian.
And I decided that maybe it was to my benefit to have a spider in my room.
Maybe he'll join my team and fight the mosquitos!
Spiders surely eat mosquitos.
I saw a spider in my room in Glasgow eat a blue bottle that was bigger than it.
(I kid you not. Epic spider vs blue bottle fight. It was like a nature programme in my own room!)

But this morning, I couldn't see him anymore.
Making peace with a spider you can see and keep tabs on is very different to having a spider SOMEWHERE in your room.
And I can't figure out where he got in or out...

Hmmm...

Well, if Julian eats me, it was good knowing you all.

When Prayers are Answered

Sometimes it's hard to trust God.
Hard to really believe He'll answer prayer.
Harder still to believe He'll answer specific prayers.
But sometimes God blows any doubt out of the water.
Sometimes He does this with some stories from other people - like at Music Camp, hearing some incredible stories of God's faithfulness.
And other times He does this by answering your prayers in totally awesome excessive goodness - more than we could have dared to hope for.

I sent out my first "prayer email" a few days ago* and one of my prayer requests was:

"I still have basically no idea of what will be expected of me here teaching-wise....
Next Thursday (4th Aug) I'll have a meeting about my job description, although this leaves me with very little planning-for-teaching time. (Term starts 8th)
So please pray that I would be calm about this..."

Well.
Hello answered prayer.

The Secondary Principal (who is also a music teacher and head of arts faculty) returned to school yesterday, and I had a quick chat with her then, and even after this I was feeling better about what I'll be teaching.

Then today I spent 2 hours with her up in the music room going over exactly what each class needs to cover in Term 1.
Slightly more than I might have bargained for in terms of information-overload...

BUT
Here's the cool bit.
Not only do I feel better about what I'll be teaching.
Not only do I feel like I can do this.
But I also am excited!
I get to properly teach music here!

I won't have tutors or other teachers looking over my shoulder.
I won't be in the Academy for some days, and Uni some days, and School others.
I won't have a teaching file to keep up to date.
I won't be teaching someone else's classes.
I won't be teaching in someone else's classroom.
I get to organise things howsoever I wish.

Granted, I will have a lot of paperwork to track and assess all my pupils, and this will be like a teaching file, but for real, but, like, I'm actually looking forward to this.
I have a teacher planner and everything!

This is it.
My first taste of full-time, proper, real, actual teaching.
And I'm not scared.
And I'm not just calm.
I'm excited.

"please pray that I would be calm about this..."
Answered. In overflow.
God is good.


*if you've missed this, then it may well just be that I couldn't find your email address...give me a shout and I'll add you onto the list to get the updates!

Body Clock

Bodies are clever.

Even though this is the third night I have been telling my body GO TO SLEEEEEP when it becomes night time here, it knows.

It knows that I'm now 4 hours and 45 minutes ahead of what it's used to.
It knows, even though it's reeeeally dark outside and has been for several hours.
Even though I am lying in a dark room in a bed trying to think sleepy thoughts.
Even though I've been awake all day doing lots of things and using my brain lots.
It knows.

And that's pretty cool, in a aren't-our-bodies-amazing-and-clever way.
Less cool in a I'm-super-tired-and-just-want-to-sleep way.

In 2 mornings time (Friday morning) I am being picked up at 5.30am to go with Christine on a 5 hour drive to get to a training she's going to be doing with some lower secondary Nepali teachers over Friday and Saturday.
This is super exciting because it means:
1. I'll be 5 hours out of Kathmandu - properly into the countryside of Nepal.
2. I'll be with Christine, who tells me she's going to point out various things to me on the way, like a tree near the village she first lived in when she came out here 30 years ago.
3. I get to see Christine do some teacher training, and it'll be in English so I'll actually understand it!

This does, however, mean that my body needs to stop trying to be so clever and GO TO SLEEP WHEN I TELL IT TO!

Where is the Rain?

My First 12 Hours in Nepal

The greenness.
The heat.
The roads.

These are the things that hit me first.
In that order.

From the plane, the whole place just looked so lush and green.
Which is understandable. It is the monsoon after all.
But here's the thing - my entire first day here there was no rain!
Apparently there was a MASSIVE burst of rain a few days ago, and since then it had been dry.
Which was what caused the heat to be so intense.

I was met at the airport and driven to the KISC Guest House.
The roads are fully mental.
Imagine how you expect crazy roads to be in a foreign country.
Then try to imagine being there.
Then think crazier.
Then times that by YOU CAN'T ACTUALLY IMAGINE!!

But the cool part is that I was actually quite calm.
I thought I'd be scared, but I wasn't.
I was mostly just amused.
The motorcyclists are the craziest. Christine reckons at any one time there is at least 60-70% of the motorcyclists on the WRONG side of the road.

Anyway.
(Penniway...hehehe)
There you have my first impressions.
I have been told many other things, and shown lots of things, and have an induction schedule, and met lots of people (there are sooo many Sarahs; it's like Music Camp 2004 all over again...) and been generally overloaded with other information.
It's crazy.