Life

Every day we do quite a bit of work, but everything just takes so much longer! We got a cell phone over a week ago because we thought it would help us get in touch with Rita, Ratna and other individuals that we want to meet up with. What a joke! Just trying to figure out what numbers to push before the actual phone number begins was a challenge. Every time we tried to make a call the network was busy and the phone wouldn't ring. I asked Ratna about it, his reply was the network! This continued for two days then Stacey said, oh, you have to dial a 0 first when calling a mobile phone. Thanks to Martha Denny and the Office of International Programs for making us conduct a logistical review, without it we would still be making invalid phone calls. Even with the 0, it is practically impossible to call from mobile to mobile, the network is always busy. Now we know why people play around so much with their phones, its because they can't make a call with it so they might as well use it for something else, like music. For example, the couple sitting at the table behind us yesterday started playing techno in the middle of the restaurant.
We have been very lucky with the power cuts, always somewhere that has a generator or outside and unaffected. Last night the power went out,so dinner was by candle light and so was the rest of the night. Luckily it was cool enough from the rain so we didn't need the fans.

We live on the third floor of the house and I have had no complaints, until last night. The landlord decided to use a generator that is conveniently located right outside our front door. It is horribly loud and the room was practically vibrating along with it. Now, this wouldn't have been so bad if we could get light or hot water for it, but that is not the case. Instead, we had candle lit cold showers to the vibrating of the generator! I am used to the cold showers now, usually they feel quite refreshing, but last night it seemed extra cold probably because of the weather.

For about the last week the trash has been piling up on the streets. It is pretty disturbing to see the volume of trash that is created each day. The village where the landfills are wants money for two of its schools. They are blocking the garbage trucks from dumping, which means the trucks can't pick any more up. I haven't been able to find any news about this in the Kathmandu Post, but some kind of deal was made because the piles are slowly disappearing, taking with them the horrid odor of rotting everything.

We are also experiencing the start of the monsoon. It has been raining for the last 24hours, which is probably nothing compared what we will experience and some of the pictures I have seen. We went out yesterday for some site seeing and when it started to rain the streets cleared, making it much easier to get to where we were going. I initially thought the rain would clear the streets of mud and grime, but really it makes it worse. Ah the things you learn.

Despite all the situations I have written about, life for us is great here. The people are wonderful, the food is great and we have our health. It just helps remind me how much I take for granted. We have a lot to be thankful for and are both, again, very happy to be here.