October 4

7:13 AM

Last night was not as good of sleep as the night before. It gets so cold here at night! I got up twice to put on more clothes and still thought once or twice about crawling into bed with Chanel for some warmth. Here, there are no heaters. What we have is what we have. And now, my cough is back! Woo! Not surprising, I guess. I was sick before we left. The plane's dry air. The city's smog. And now the kids. Even some of the sisters were sick. One yesterday couldn't get out of bed, poor darling. Everyday one or two of the kids have been staying home from school and going to "hospital". Really a doctor in Lubhu.

Most of the younger ones all have coughs and mucus running down their noses. It seems the older children's immune systems are a bit more developed. Hamish said it all started after the monsoon season stopped. Right before we got here. Apparently, change in climate brings about a lot of sickness here. So, I'm fitting right in :)

Yesterday was a nice day. We woke up and had tea, which appears will be my morning ritual. I really like their tea. I also dump a little of my instant coffee into it. Very good. "Mitcho chha". Tasty. 

During tea we sit on the roof/balcony and enjoy the view, question if we're really here and write, as I am doing now. After 7:30, we go up to the orphanage to help the kids with their morning reading, then it is breakfast (Dhal baat). And then the kids get dressed into their uniforms, gel their cute little heads, and we're off to school. It's a beautiful walk. One I am happy to take every morning. (The kids are usually a little more rambunctious in the afternoons.) Yesterday, there was a dead crow on the ground outside of school. You wouldn't believe the chaos that ensued.

After we brought them to school, we came back "home" and wrote some more. Sat on the roof, talked, made some plans for our free time here and I did some water coloring.

We then returned to our rooms. I read a bit of my book. Sister Sushila made us noodles for lunch, sort of like Ramen with curry, onions, and garlic.  Very good, but it made me very sleepy.

At 3:15, Chanel and I walked to school to pick up the kids. They were quite distracted. Little Sushila gave us any flower she came across on the walk home. We returned and as I walked down onto the porch area, Chanel was directing me her way. She said, "You are going to be very happy!" For afternoon snack, the kids had POPCORN!! It did make me very, very happy. I loved it so much. Sister Sushila made it outside on the wood fire, adding only a touch of salt.

We then helped with homework until about 6:30 PM. Dinner. Dhal baat. With the most bitter of all side vegetables known to man. We couldn't figure out what it was. So bad I thought dear god, what have I just ingested and will it injure me? We all made the walk of shame for that one.

The walk of shame is reserved for those who do not finish the food they were given. The walk is half way to the gate of the property to drop the remaining food into a blue bucket on the ground. All would rather leave the table overfilled than be seen making the walk of shame, I think.

And the kids don't help you much there at all. They eat SO much food. All of them and at every meal. I look at what I have and know that I will be more than full and they have three to four times what I have. Plus, they take seconds of the same amount. If I have a mound of rice for my dhal (lentil soupish liquid) that is the size of, or lets say the equivalent volume, of a baseball or a peach, they are eating a small cantaloupe at each serving. And they are so tiny! Most of the toddler-sized clothes we left behind probably could have worked for these kids! So petite. Even the oldest, Saroj, is a foot or two shorter than I at 16 years old.

After dinner, which our group Sargamatha cleaned up after, Mother (host mother) told us to go to bed, to rest but we went up to the orphanage to check if any of the kids needed homework help. After an hour or so, the project coordinator, Sagar, came up to the study room with some henna. All the volunteer girls (us two and Miriam) got henna on the palm of our left hands.

After that we came back to the main house, stayed on the roof for a few, and then went to sleep.

I forgot to say, after snack time we did field work! Legitimate field work. Mother spread seeds in a field earlier in the day, then us and all the older orphans went with tools and dug up, reaped, I'm not sure what to call it, that field all up and down and all over.

Each day holds such new experiences. There hasn't been a mundane moment yet. You may think being secluded, in a small village, in rural Nepal, you would very quickly grow bored. But it is so pleasant. So beautiful. The boring is not. It is relaxing. Maybe we've finally found ourselves on "Nepal time" as they say here.