Pictures & People~

I've met and developed relationships with many people in the time that I have been working in Bandipur. The village people, who I see and greet daily; the staff at Gaun Ghar, who have become my good friends; my students, who have become my friends as well; and the scholarship girls, who are "our" girls. I have been able to learn a great deal about the culture of different groups, what the daily lives are like for different people, and to understand more fully what it feels like to be an "immigrant" (even though it's only for 8 weeks....) I met an Italian lady who actually has been living in Nepal for 17 years and I asked her how it was for her to be an immigrant here...she said, "They perfectly tolerate you, but never fully accept you." (That made me laugh so hard! I think she is a smart lady!)

Ranjana is from Gorkha. She works in the hotel in housekeeping and any other job they need her to do! The staff all work together throughout the day on little and big jobs...they laugh when I join in and help around the hotel too...I tell them that is part of "my culture" to work and help... "Americans are like that...." ~ Ranjana is just about the sweetest person I've met and when I first came to know her she always looked so sad. She has been smiling lately and we even make private jokes together..it's fun and hilarious. She often watches me and laughs as I give the male hotel workers and Digumber a hard time...my outspoken ways and expression of my opinions are not customary in Nepali culture for women...the women staff members see me as something out of the ordinary...but I can see the twinkle in their eyes as I wink at them and "call people" on their "stuff"!!!! :)

Sujan & Heather on Thani Mai (a local area to climb UP, UP, UP and the view is AMAZING!!!!)~ Sujan works in Kathmandu at one of the other hotels/restaurants that Digumber and his partner own. He came to Bandipur to participate in the English training for the staff. He is a great person! I've so enjoyed getting to know Sujan.... he is the eldest child in his family and he helps send his siblings to school as well as to provide for his parents who live in a reomote area of Nepal and are farmers. Sujan has the best attitude of anyone I've ever met and he is always asking me questions.... oh...and he loves Michael Jackson... he listens to my Ipod while he prepares food in the kitchen...one day I could hear the "Thriller" song loudly coming from the kitchen .... I knew it wouldn't be long before Pradeep (the manager) put that to an end...but it was funny! I imagined him down their doing the Thriller Dance.... (Sujan is the one who helps me read with the kids in the evenings...he wants to be a teacher....)

This little girl was doing a dance for me before teaching the ladies group one day...she was so beautiful as she did her Nepali dance with the older girls...isn't she adorable?

Three Taps is on the edge of Bandipur and this where the villagers and those who live in the surrounding areas come to bathe, wash clothes, and gather water in their water jugs for their homes....(we had to use these taps during the water shortage in Bandipur as well....) This little girl lives across the way from the hotel. Her grandfather is raising her as her parents have abandoned her. She is so cute and each day she is in the group of children who waits for me to read them a story! This day she walked with us to Three Taps to watch the start of the Krishna parade.

Children wait for the parade to begin and then they are able to act out their favorite religious and cultural stories of Krishna and Radha. It is fun to see the excitement and realize how these activities and festivials are part of their lives, their memories, and how they will carry on these traditions with their own children.

This is a picture of a village woman and her bull....it was taken on the way to the village where the Christian church was....this bull did not recognize us and he became agitated and acted as if he would charge us...it was very scary for a moment!!!! The lady beat the tar out of the bull and took him away from us....OMG....she is one tough little lady!!!!