Miscommunication.

I’m sure you all can imagine the difficulty in communicating with non-native English speakers. Regardless of how well a person can speak English, there will always be forms of miscommunication. In my current living situation I am the only native English speaker. I live with a group of people who collectively speak over 6 languages, and while this is impressive, it can also get quite confusing.

In addition to my living situation, I also work with a Nepali Man, Mahendra Paswan, aka another non-navite English speaker..  While we have a great time working together, and while is english is quite impressive, we have had our moments  when communicating has proven to be very difficult. This week for example, we had a very funny situation happen with one of our youth groups.

One of the things we have been assigned to do this year is to initiate our youth groups to put on a social theater performance. This will involved our youth groups to come together, pick a topic that is important to them, write a script, and perform in front of the community. The youth in our villages have zero experience in performing arts, so, like everything else in the village, it is a slow process.

This month we began introducing the idea of theater and constructed some activities around getting the youth comfortable with drama and performance. The first activity we chose to do was a simple activity we had taken from our youth-group guidebook. In a previous activity we had asked them to create a list of the issues within their community that they feel affect them. We divided them into small groups and had them pick from a handful of papers that had these issues written on them. They were then asked to create a skit on the topic they had chosen. I told Mahendra that I thought it would be a good idea to tell the groups that they could not speak to each other, i.e. share their topic, and then at the end of each skit we would ask the audience to tell us what they had perceived the issue to be from the performance.

I sat to the side as Mahendra explained the activity, had the children chose their topic, and disperse to create their skits. We told them they had 25 minutes and then the rest of the time would be dedicated to performing. Mahendra and I walked around, stopping at each group to see how they were doing. However lets remember that while I can observe the situation, without language it is really hard to know what is going on,. From this angle everything looked great! However, after 15 minutes Mahendra came over to me,

Mahendra: “Cara all the kids are finding this activity really hard.”

Cara: “I can imagine. This is the first time they have been asked to do something like this before.”

Mahendra: “Yes, but also they don’t understand how they can do this without speaking?”

Cara: “what do you mean, without speaking?”

Mahendra: “You said to have them not speak…”

Cara (Confused as usual): “What do you mean by ‘not speak’? I told you that they couldn’t speak to each other about their topics. Meaning to keep their topic a secret from the other groups so that at the end the audience will guess what issue the performance was referring too.”

Mahendra: “Oh shit.”

All of a sudden Mahendra ran off to each group to tell them that they could in fact speak in their performance.  He then ran back over to me.

            Cara: “Mahendra?”

            Mahdenra: “Ok, ok, ok. Miscommunication. All is fixed.”

The Things I Miss the Most

The Things I Miss the Most

I’m realizing that the things I miss the most are 1^st world creations that save time. For example

1. Dish Washer 
2. Laundry Machine
3. Running Water

The main source of food in Nepal is rice. What I didn’t know before coming here is how many forms of rice there are: puffed rice, beaten rice, regular rice. All of these forms of rice allow one to eat rice for three meals a day with the illusion that you are eating a variety. I eat so much rice, I am in fact becoming rice.  So if you hadn’t picked up on the point of this little tangent, the second thing I miss most is food. I miss food so much I dream of it. Food I most often crave is:

1. Fresh Fruit
2. Fresh RAW vegetables.  (everything we eat is cooked. All I want is a large chopped salad!)
3. Cheese
4. Bread
5. Cheese with bread
6. Brownies
7. Cookies
8. Chocolate of any kind
9. Fresh Juice
10. Any kind of premade snacks

And lastly I miss things of comfort and convenience

1. Drinkable Filtered Water
2. A bed with a mattress
3. Hot shower with water pressure
4. Grocery store
5. Target (aka one place where you can buy everything you need)
6. Movie Theaters
7. Reliable and fast running internet

But then I remember that I’m living on top of a mountain in the middle of Nepal, surrounded by picturesque scenery playing with kids a few hours a day.  And I remind myself that in only a few short months I will be back in the world of restaurants and movie theaters and this experience will be gone, like a dream that you try to remember when you wake up. 

Don’t get me wrong, as soon as I get to Kathmandu I immediately start bingeing on pizza and brownies and I’m begging my parents and friends to send care-packages full of dried fruit and chocolate (wink wink). But I think one of the best things this experience has given me is the awareness that I don’t need any of it. That while I enjoy the comforts and conveniences, that’s all they are! They are not necessities and I can live with out them.

There is No Waste in Nature.

Since I have arrived in Nepal there has been an ongoing theme, garbage! Garbage is everywhere and there are no solutions except to stop creating it! One thing that has become clear is that garbage is human creation. There is no garbage in Nature; there is no waste. Waste in nature simply becomes something else. For instance, when the leaves fall of the trees, they simply decompose and become the earth. It is a cycle that supports itself. While in humanity, we turn materials in substances that cannot change its form, materials that damage nature, in other words humans create trash. 

            As mentioned in an earlier post, it has become clear to me that while living in the developed world it is easy to ignore the issue of garbage because there is an established infrastructure that deals with it for us. And by “deals with it”, I mean takes it out of sight which creates the illusion that it is gone. However here in the small village of Dahu this infrastructure does not exist. Therefore the only existing solution that has been established is to either throw it on the ground or to burn it.  Since being here I have done a lot of research on garbage and have learned that burning it is also just another illusion. That while the people believe they are getting rid of the garbage polluting their land, they are in fact creating a different kind of garbage which is polluting their air. In fact this is a very dangerous pollution that can cause serious harm.   

            Since coming to the village I have been trying to come up with creative ways to use Garbage. The first thing I learned how to do was to crochet with plastic.  I used this new skill to get to know many of the youth in the community and try and pass on a new skill. However this didn’t feel like enough. It has become clear to me that there is no sustainable and permanent way to deal with the garbage without an institution being put in place, however what I could do is provide examples of ways to use garbage in a creative way.

           

The compost hole we dug with the students of Dahu School

In collaboration with the education team we decided to do a village wide garbage campaign  We began our campaign in the schools. The first thing we did was establish a garbage station at the school. We organized the youth to dig a hole for the compost and then did a school wide clean up of all the plastic. The following week we began the education portion of the campaign. We met with each grade before school and provided basic information about garbage. This information included a timetable of decomposition, the effects of garbage on the earth, and then at the end we showed some examples of ways to reuse this garbage. We then announced that these examples would then be taught in this weeks youth group meetings.  For one of the sessions I taught them how to make wallets out of cookie wrappers. These are wrappers that are found all over the village and can simply be picked up off the side of the road and turned into something awesome!

          

Stuffing the garbage into the tires

 

The completed Benches

            All of this led to our big project, building a garbage bench! If you are wondering what this is, it is exactly what it sounds like, a bench made from garbage. We used old busted up tires, which were then stuffed with garbage and covered in cement. It turned out to be a really cool event! The kids got really involved and were able to clean up the garbage from the entire school. My hope is to make small benches all over the village.

While these small projects have proved to be successful, it is not sustainable. While the current garbage has been taken care of there will be new garbage tomorrow. The best I can hope for is that the youth can begin to see the garbage differently. This can mean that instead of seeing a plastic bag they see the potential for an art project, or they learn to not take the plastic bag at all and put whatever they just bought in their backpack.

Small changes can make a big difference.

See the Change You Want to be

Change is a funny thing, A thing that most people are afraid of. Even when change is a good thing, we fear it, because it is the unknown. Sometimes we may even choose to stay in an unhappy situation because it’s familiar and known to us. Even when we know change might bring happiness it can be hard to take the steps towards it because the unknown is even scarier then the continued unhappiness. I know for me, no matter how many times I get a new job, move to a new place, end a relationship, the transition from the old life to the new is always uncomfortable and scary.

            I think about how many times I have changed my life in the last three years. The first big change was graduating college. My whole life I had been within the education system and never had to figure out my next step, because it had already been chosen for me: First grade then second grade then third grade, and so on. While I knew I had always wanted to go to the Peace Corps after college the transition period was hard and leaving the comfort and cushiony life style I had become accustomed to was scary, however, when college ended, the next adventure began, and it’s been adventure after adventure ever since. While I would like to say I embraced each adventure with open arms, that would be a lie, I kicked and screamed through every change life threw at me. It is only now, looking back and following the person I was, to person I have become, that I see each struggle and hardship as the necessary evil, which led me here. “Here” being  Nepal, where I finally feel like I am in the right place at the right time heading in the right direction.

After graduation I moved to Israel, from Israel I moved to Grenada, from Grenada to China, China to New York, and finally from New York to Nepal. Each time I moved it meant a change in culture, food, language, landscape, friends, and an overall change in lifestyle.  However it is easy to point out these changes because you can name them, but more importantly these experiences have changed me.

While living in New York last year I was reintroduced to the typical everyday life, a life that involved schedules and mundane routines. Each day I would wake up to go to work. On a lucky day, I would meet a friend after work for dinner, however more commonly I would head home to go to the gym, followed by dinner, followed by sleep, to only wake up and do the whole thing over again. This life involved the distractions of shopping, eating, socializing, dating, and your typical everyday drama’s. However now, living in Nepal, in a small rural village on top of a mountain, these distractions are no longer available. Without these distractions I am forced to be with myself, know myself, and love myself, in a way I have never been asked to do before. In a way that I would never have done unless I was forced to, like am forced to right now.  

During this time I am continuously reflecting on these last three years of experiences and changes I see from the “Cara” I was in then to the “Cara” I am now. I see changes in the way I carry myself and the way I relate to others. I think of who I was in college and no longer recognize that version of myself. The other night I was on the phone with my Dad for one of our weekly chats, and I was telling him a story about my current living situation, which let me tell you has not been easy, and when I was done speaking my dad responded by saying, “Cara, you have changed. You sound like a wise, mature, adult. I know that this year will be one of the best things that ever happened for you.” I don’t know when it happened or what caused it, but along the way I have found a new me. A happier, more content me, that is no longer scared of every transition or change, but understand these changes to be the things that have shaped, me and will continue to shape me.

Yesterday a friend and I were discussing our futures, when he told me about a study that had been done. He said that there had been a survey given to people who were about to die asking them what they regretted, the things they had done or the things they had not done. The answer: The thing’s they had not.

Whenever I am home I always encounter adults who want to hear my stories. Almost always the conversation ends with them saying “I wish I had done something like that.” Or  “Maybe one day I’ll have the courage to do something similar!” And it always makes me sad. This is it! Our life is right now!  I am constantly confronted with the issue of time, and how there will never be enough of it.  It has become clear to me how easy it is to get stuck in a life that involves schedules and mundane routine. So easy in fact that we push the things we want to do to tomorrow. However when does tomorrow become today!!!

We all have dreams for ourselves, about the person we want to be. But we can all be those people! Someone who inspires me to do this is my friend Katie. When she decides she wants something for herself so goes out and gets it. For instance she had always wanted to learn how to snowboard and this winter she committed to learning. This would mean significant changes in her weekly routine and her weekend social life however she was willing to makes these changes and commit to going to the slope every weekend so she could learn. I found this really inspiring. I then thought of the things that I’ve always wanted to do but pushed off to a later day, specifically learn to play the guitar. I don’t want to be one of those people who say “I always wish I had done that” or “I always wanted to learn but never found the time”. It’s time for me to make the time!

And while this might sound silly it’s true. Whenever I see friends of mine play I always think “I wish I knew how”, however I never made it priority and took the steps to making it a reality. I’m realizing that this is on me. I’m not a child anymore when my mom would sign me up for classes. That if this is something I really want for myself that I have to make it happen, and I can easily do it! And I’m sure that is the case for most of our wishes. There will always be excuses, “now is not the right time”, “I’m to busy now”, but it’s time let go of these excuses and fulfill our potential.

So to end this post, I want to give you all a challenge. I challenge you to think of something you’ve always wanted to do, whether it’s snowboarding, guitar, a city you want to live in, or a trip you’ve always wanted to take. I challenge you to make it happen.  Be the change you want to be, and make you’re life your own, so that when you come to the end, and the end will come, and you ask yourself if there is anything you regret, your answer will be nothing.