First impressions

I decided to write my blog in German AND English, so first I'll write in German and as soon as time allows I'll translate for all my English speaking friends, okay everyone?!



Tuesday, 16th July 2013



How long I have waited for this adventure to begin. I have waited for such a long time that now that it's acctually beginning it feels weird. With a lot of good wishes I'm getting on the plane to start this experience that will no doubt change me in some way that I don't know yet...I'm eager to find out!



It's about time to write down my first impressions (before I start I should tell you that I'm not a very gifted writer, so I won't take any responsibility!;)) It's my second day. The children are still on vacation, but tomorrow school will start up again. There is a total of 46 children with me and one other intern who are in charge of the study time and the free time. Even though the children are very independent it still gets kind of stressful because the children want your attention if they can get it and I just can't be at volleyball and drawing and reading at the same time. I'll have to find a way to distribute my time equally. We'll see how it goes when school starts again.



Here the children call me aunty or sister. For them that's way easy, me on the other hand, I have to learn 46 foreign names at once.  Birsana, big Pasang and little Pasang, Sujal (say Susal, j is s), Alisha, Himal (the mountain), Kamal (blossom of a lotus flower) and Nisja I know so far. 38 to go! 

For the main part the children seem happy and full of life...just the way children should be! I hope that they were able to leave the traumatising experiences of their previous lives behind. I don't yet feel comfortable enough to ask about that (and might never!).



The food is very nice and eating with my hands is a lot of fun! For breakfast and supper we get bat (rice) and dhal (lentilsoup), which together is very simply called dhalbat. With that comes a different vegetable for every meal. Not much variety, though! Yesterday we even got chapati (bread) and today we got meat...chicken still with the bones! Which you have to get used to, but it sounds more disgusting than it acctually is! 

Something I will not get used to is wipping my behind with my bare hands after having gone to the bathroom! Fortunately they're used to complicated foreigners and that's why there is toilet paper for us...what a relief!



Wednesday, 17th July 2013



At the moment I'm sitting in Thamel (the tourist area of Katmandu) in a restaurant. Here you sit on big cushions on the floor, but besides that this restaurant could be anywhere in Europe because the guests are exclusivly westerners. We are "off duty" because the kids are in school and I'm shown around by my intern collegue Max and get introduced to all the Katmandu secrets. After an adventurous drive in a so-called microbus (an 8 seat Toyota with about 20 passengers) for 15 Nepali rupies (15 cents) we went for a walk in Thamel, looked at all the nice pashminas, bracelets etc., enjoyed the photo books of the Himalaya in the Pilgrims bookstore and are now relaxing from the Crazy Traffic on Nepali roads.

This morning I had my first English lesson at the orphanage with 5 very lively 1st graders. For the sitting still and concentrating is a foreign concept! Very demanding job! My respect for primary school teachers increased tremendously! I have to think of some way and get to know the Nepalese education system better, to make it work! 

Okay, these are my first impressions! Take care, my friends! Namaste!