Namaste from Padampokhari

Well, after an early morning departure from Pokhara and a thankfully uneventful bus ride (save for an uncomfotably low ceiling that added new bruises to my head with every bump in the road...again, this country was not made for tall people)...I finally arrived in Chitwan and made it to the small village of Padampokhari. And after only two days I am already feeling quite settled and excited about the months ahead. I am living in 'The Library House', and quite appropriately for me, my actual bedroom is also the library itself...pleanty of fun reading to do. The house is run by the volunteer coordinator for the area and his mother who is an amazing cook and absolutely lovely lady who takes care of us all very well. The "us" I just mentioned is the three other volunteers who are working in the community...a 24 year old guy from Sydney, a 21 year old girl from London, and a 22 year old girl from Germany. The two girls are working in the local orphanage while the guy is the other teaching volunteer. It is quite an enjoyable group of people and we get on quite well, spending much of our free time engrosed in very competitive games of rummy and uno with our host and his friends as well as nightly bonfires made of hay and bamboo. The house we share is in the middle of our tiny little village and the village is in the middle of miles and miles of fields of crops. Mainly lentils, rice, beans, and mustard. We are an hour bus ride from the nearest city, and it definitely feels extremely remote, but it is so peaceful and there is a wonderful community feel within the village. As one of the locals said "We are close, we share everything. Happiness, sadness, we share." I am truly enjoying it here. And, to make the situation even better, the teaching placement I have here is amazing. In the mornings, I ride my wonderful bike "Bessy" (she's just like an old cow, big and clunky, but dependable), along the gravelly dirt roads to another village just 20 minutes away to a man's house. This man has set up a morning English session for some of the less fortunate kids of the local area (by less fortunate, I mean that this is a group of 18 kids who are all of the lowest caste or orphans and therefore cannot afford any other schooling). They range from 5-13 and we meet every morning in the attic space over this man's kitchen. And they are awesome! These kids are all so bright and desperately want to learn everything they can. It is so refreshing to have a group of kids who are all craving that knowledge. We meet for two hours every morning and after just two days I am already feeling like they are really learning and understanding a lot of what I am saying. After class in the morning, I head back home and have the whole midday free to explore the village and meet some of the people, all of whom are just so warm and welcoming. In two weeks time, once another volunteer who lives in another house in the area leaves, I will be taking her teaching position at a local school during the midday, but until then, I get to explore and learn more about my new home :) Then, in the evenings, the other teaching volunteer from Sydney and I run a two hour English tutorial for four little boys in our village (all about 10-12 years old). They are amazingly bright as well and they just pick up everything we teach so quickly. During this time, I have noticed some other children hanging around, trying to see what we are doing, especially some of the village girls. I think one of my first big projects here will be to try and get a group of girls to participate in these evening lessons as well. So that's life at the moment in Chitwan. I will definitely be taking the opportunity at some point while i'm here to visit the jungles and try and see some of the wildlife...but for now I am just loving my village, the people in it and all the wonderful kids that I get to spend time with every day.