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- Close of service (4)
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- Pre-service (4)
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Category Archives: Places
Last words from Birganj
It's early still, but the warmth of my bedroom wakes me not long after the sun has risen. I roll out of bed, walk over to the kitchen, and begin making coffee. I turn on my shortwave to the BBC and listen as I pour my coffee, stopping to rub the sleep out of my eyes. As I sip, I look through my window to the wreckage of the abandoned dry port of Nepal. I can hear someone singing in a temple through a loudspeaker. The sites and the sounds make this place beautiful.
Also posted in Birganj, Close of service, Service Tagged Ghantaghar, Himanchal Cabin, Jitpur, Maisthan, Murli Gardens, Parwanipur, Ranighat, Simra, The Himalayan Times, The Kathmandu Post, VSO Comments closed
Peace Corps volunteer safety and security
The last thing that I wrote about safety and security got my Web site shut down by the Peace Corps Washington, DC, office. Perhaps it's just a coincident that my predictions (or rather, intelligence collected) about the security situation in the Rautahaut, Bara, and Parsa districts have come true, much to the frustration of the Peace Corps Kathmandu office. Not that it matters. The fact is that we PCVs are ourselves responsible for our safety. How can someone expect someone else to take care of them?
Also posted in Nepal, Peace Corps culture, Service Tagged bandhas, Birganj, Hetauda, Kalaiya, Kamal Thapa, Maoists, RNA, safety and security, Simra, Terai life Comments closed
What I did
Somehow we came up with idea over dinner. I had just arrived in Birtamod, Jhapa, to visit Andrew one last time before our lives as PCVs. I was going to stay for a night, maybe two, before heading back to Birganj. Anyhow, we were having dinner, and Andrew was talking about the school visits he would be making the next day: a short in-and-out trip to invite two English teachers to an upcoming training.
Also posted in Peace Corps culture, Teacher training, Terai Tagged Birtamod, dental health, massu, NGOs, Peace Corps, Rasuwa, SUVs, Terai life, thulo manches Comments closed
Finishing touches
During training, one of the hardest and seemingly most necessary things I wanted to communicate to my host family was that I missed home. I missed home. I missed my friends. I missed pizza and beer as dark as the nights in my new, lightless neighborhood. But the best that I could do, after two months of Peace Corps' astounding language training, was to tell them, Ma yad garchhu, I remember.
Also posted in Birganj, Close of service, Peace Corps culture, Teacher training, Terai Tagged ANNISU, Birganj, Birtamod, East-West Highway, Fewa Lake, Himanchal Cabin, Itahari, Jhapa, Peace Corps experience, Rajbiraj, Terai life Comments closed
Peace Corps/Nepal suspended