Back to Nepal!

Although I enjoyed my time in Japan and other parts of the Far East,  it feels great to be back in Nepal.  Despite the fact that there is often times a shortage of water and my showers aren't always ideal, the power gets cuts a few times daily by the government which means there isn't always internet or light, I have to be extremely careful with the food I eat, the dirt from the dusty roads is starting to take up residence inside my lungs, Oh and did I mention the nationwide fuel shortage?  Very long story short, there is a MASSIVE fuel shortage.  People are parked in GINORMOUS lines at the gas stations, and by ginormous lines i mean that there are cars parked for miles and miles without anybody even in them just queued up IN CASE the gas station opens.  There were a few days that private vehicles were actually banned from purchasing fuel in order to save it for the emergency vehicles here.  Needless to say, people aren't going very far...and if they are, they are either walking, or riding on top of one of the FEW public buses that somehow still have fuel.  Many people (including us) are now cooking over open fires, restaurants have shut down bcuz they have no fuel to cook with....BUT.... despite all of these wonderful things, it is still great to be back here. :)

The line of cars goes MUCH longer than this picture shows...

Absolutely not

Now cooking over fire :)

Bikes lined up for gas, nobody even near them.

It's great being back because the kids here at Maitidevi school are nothing short of amazing.  Their hearts are 100 times bigger than their tiny little bodies.....which means love is literally BURSTING out of them.  :)

Celebrating Dashain!

They are always bringing me tiny little pieces of candy everyday.  I still have yet to eat a bunch of them because I can't keep up.  One of my favorite little girls named Pinkey (yes as in the color.... I know) one day gave me a package of cookies.  I'm pretty sure this wasn't her original intention when she left her house that morning.  She saw another student give me a bag of cheese balls and I think because she saw how excited I got ( I LOVE cheese balls what can I say) she then proceeded to give me her cookies.  I tried to not accept them, I really did, but there was no way I could.  Her feelings would have been hurt...and let's be honest...should she really be eating a package of cookies for lunch?  I think not.  :)

Pinkey getting tika :)

My first few days back, the kids overwhelmed me with their welcome back celebrations they planned and all of their wonderful little gifts.  Three of the classes decorated their rooms by coloring paper stars and hanging them from the ceiling.  They drew me a picture of fish and the solar system (not sure why but I'll take it :)  and gave me a cute little rose thing which I'm really not sure what I'll do with...but was told it will look beautiful in my house. :)

Class 5 :)

Best Wishes :)

fish pic :)

After exams one day, my Class 4 came prepared to make me a Nepali snack.  They all started pouring things into a plastic bag...which who the hek knows if the bag was clean or not...and began to make this lovely little snack.  They all brought in a different ingredient including, tomatoes, onions, oil, puffed rice thing, and some kids even brought in spices wrapped in newspaper...they were very creative I do have to say.  They all mixed it together at once with their (clean?) hands, I still ate it and I do have to say it was REALLY good.  They then proceeded to make it two times after that because I liked it so much.  I'm sure their parents were thrilled to keep spending money on these ingredients.  :)

The first few weeks back in Nepal, although there was a little adjustment phase I went through probably due to the fact that I was pretty much living in a palace in Japan, have been very relaxing to say the least. :)

Oh and random but important side note, a little old Nepali lady looked at me while in line at the local grocery store one night and asked "Korean?"
Apparently I've been living in Asia long enough that I now look Korean. 
The young boy working laughed and said "American."  :)