At the Crown of the World

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I’ve been in Nepal for just a little over two months now, and I’ve realized that I have become an old soul. Sometimes I sit on the porch of my guest house for hours and just look out over the valley, or watch a herd of goats grazing down the hill. I haven’t seen a car for an entire month. I read and journal and never watch tv. I don’t think that I will be able to go back to a city after this. It’s very tranquil here.

I’m living at the Heaven View Guest House in Chhomrong, Nepal with my wonderful host family: Vishnu, Krishna, Bimala and Promila. They are hilarious people. There is always so much laughter when we’re all eating dinner in the kitchen. And speaking of dinner, dalbhat dalbhat dalbhat. So much dalbhat. It’s the traditional dish of Nepal and is eaten for lunch and dinner everyday. But I love it so much that I will never get tired of it. Plus I’ve learned how to eat Nepali style (with your hands), so eating meals is always super fun.

Though Chhomrong is pretty rural and there are no roads, there is loads of tourism because it is on the route of the Annapurna Base Camp trek (hence why I’m living in a guest house). I’ve been meeting plenty of other travelers from all over the world. Most of my conversations start with being asked, “Where are you headed to?” “Oh no I’m not trekking, I live here.” “Really, you live here?” “Yes, I’m an English teacher.” I always have plenty to talk about. And I can show off my eating-with-hands skills and throw out some of my extremely limited Nepali vocabulary. “Malai alikati bhat dinus” (I’d like a bit more rice). I’m not learning as much Nepali as I’d like because I’m speaking English so often, but I’ve picked up some essential words and phrases.

In Chomrong I’m volunteering as an English teacher in the primary school. I’ve never taught English before (or anything for that matter), and I have barely every worked with kids. I’m learning just as much as they are. On the first day I walked over to the school, a bit nervous but relieved to finally start my FVP. They showed me my classroom, and that was that, right into the deep end. I didn’t get any help or instruction the first day, just, “Here’s you class, good luck!” I started off trying to teach addition and subtraction, and the first graders just stared at me blankly. Then we did drawing and we were all on the same page. As I go along I have to figure out what works and what doesn’t day by day. I try to put myself in their shoes and think about what I would respond to if were learning English. It gets easier everyday, as I become more confident as a teacher.

So far in Nepal I have trekked to Everest Base Camp, Annapurna Base Camp, been sightseeing all around Kathmandu, eaten the best momos in Kathmandu at a secret kitchen in an alleyway, played lots of badminton, taken some intense cold showers, slept through bone-rattling thunder-storms, climbed up the same gigantic flight of stairs every day, gotten really good at washing my laundry by hand, and have gotten comfortable standing in front of a group of kids and teaching them a foreign language. I have about another month and a half to go, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to leave.

-Daniel