And at the End of the Day...

Well the water situation at Kopila has been improved and the tanks are now full (although it's only a matter of time before I turn the faucet and nothing comes out...oh well), however I think the lice is just getting worse. But I've shampooed a few heads with the special lice shampoo and if it turns into a pandemic in the house we may have to cut the girls' hair, which they are all very sad about. Especially since I gave the older girls all of my hair ties and bobby pins and some clips which they LOVED. I've been wearing my hair in french braids because it's cool and easy, but then Maggie goes "Oh that's smart.....it will help keep the lice out!" Bonus!! Haha

So anyway this is our second full day here at Kopila and it is just the greatest place in the world. Everyone is so welcoming and has truly made this home not just for the kids but for Cristina and me too. There are several women who work here and make the house run smoothly and they are so wonderful. They make sure everyone has plenty of food, and don't even get me started on the tea! I have no idea what's actually in it but it is SO GOOD. The kids have a lot of respect for these women and they are amazing people.

Yesterday I woke up to a rooster crowing. Oh and the goats baaaaah-ing and some dogs barking and some kids screaming. There are cattle and goats and chickens all over the place. Roaming around the roads and pretty much just everywhere you turn. And since Nepal is the land of no lanes or street signs, it makes travel quite interesting. And by interesting I mean feeling like you're going to be in some sort of traumatizing accident at any moment. That's more so in Kathmandu though. In Surkhet it is not so bad.

But wow, talk about culture shock. We flew in on what I had begun calling "The Death Plane". It wasn't so bad for a while, and flying over the Himalayas was such a beautiful experience and I felt so blessed. Then we went into a cloud and the shaking began and I felt death upon me. I have always wondered what it must feel like to be in a plane crash (weird, I know) and I think I can safely say that I now know. I mean obviously we didn't crash, but I SWORE we were going to at one point. Each time I would see a cloud coming I would just think, Here we go again, and brace myself for imminent doom. But we kept making it out alright and finally we landed at the Surkhet Airport....aka single building that appears to be falling down. Our flight was a few hours late, but we lucked out, and a girl that was on it is friends with Maggie and she and her brother took us to Kopila. It felt so good to finally be there. We were greeted with all these tiny smiles and instantly I had a girl on either side of me holding my hands and walking me inside. We were home.

The kids here LOVE be near you and sit on you and hold your hand and climb you. And when I say climb you I mean you don't even have to pick them up. They just scale you like a ladder and the next thing you know you're carrying one around. They're seriously the strongest kids I've ever met. They are all so cute and helpful! And if you are ever looking for a good workout, just come to Kopila and put Shanti on your back and Bindu on your front and run up and down the hallway about a hundred times like I did last night. They tired me out! But if you could hear Shanti's little laugh you'd know why I just couldn't stop.

Yesterday we walked the kids to BulBule which is a big park about a mile and a half away with beautiful flowers and fields and also has a large spring. Since basically no one in the area had water, it was full of people bathing and washing clothes. The spring is like a big stone pool that has spouts on the side which you can stand under. All around it is a big stone ledge where you soap up your clothes and then scrub them against the rock to clean them. It was really pretty cool and I liked being a part of it. And the water was so cold and felt amazing considering that there hasn't been a single second that I haven't been sweating since I got here. Anytime I would be home and complain to my Dad how hot the house was he would reply with "I'm just training you for Nepal!" He wasn't kidding! Although no New Jersey heat could have truly prepared me for this haha. I'm getting used to it though. At night it feels so good up on the roof I just want to sleep there. The power is currently out and we are running on solar so no fans :( Oh well.

Today was the first day of school that I was a part of. It's really amazing what Maggie's done here, and seeing all these kids learning is so awesome. It's a lot of work for the two other volunteers Karen and Lisa who are teachers and teacher trainers since the rest of the teachers are from the area and have never had to make lesson plans before now. They're doing such a great job though. I went to the Health classes with Frank and helped out, and I'm going to take over teaching them in Class 1 and 2. The kids in there are so cute but gosh are they a handful! All day it's "Teacher! Teacher! Miss! Teacher! Toilet! Look! Teacher! Miss! Water! Miss! Miss!" So we are working on self control :) Cristina, Hannah (Maggie's friend and another volunteer), and I will also be teaching special classes and we're going to be working toward putting on a show in three weeks that all the classes will be a part of. It's gonna be great!!!

There's so much more to tell, but for now my body is telling me to get under my mosquito net (Thank you Maggie!!!) and go to sleep. Oh and we had a big lizard in our room last night. That was fun too. He was cute and I didn't mind him, but I just kept picturing Matilda and the newt, and then I thought about waking up with a lizard on my face and I just wasn't ok with that. So thank you again Maggie for tapping at it until it exited back out the window.

It's lightening here, so hopefully the rain will come soon. We got a few drops but we need more!!!! Everyone do your rain dances! Have a wonderful beautiful day, and I will try to update again as soon as possible. I SWEAR I'll try to put pictures up tomorrow. There are so many cute ones of some relay races we had tonight. I've never seen anyone who loves to be in and take pictures more than these kids. Who knows what's even on my camera.

OK I'm really going now. Sleep tight!

Kelly