I was out doing the bidding of Peace Corps when I met Alfred. He’s the headsir of St. Xavier’s, a private school next door to Shripur, a government secondary school where I had been doing some scouting for a possible site for a volunteer.
St. Xavier’s facade suggested that it was an upper-tier school. Like its [...]
After two weeks in the Kathmandu Valley, I arrived in Birganj on a foggy, damp Thursday morning. I stepped off a bus that I had taken from Hetauda, about an hour and a half north of Birganj and as far as the Peace Corps jeep had taken me the day before.
I had spent the night [...]
About three weeks ago I left Birganj and headed into the Kathmandu Valley. First, I went in for my education group’s IST. The week after was the yearly Peace Corps Nepal’s All-Vol, something that is talked about from the moment of arrival in country.
I’d been in the Terai, i.e., Birganj, for a couple of months [...]
Let me tell you, some days when I make the first morning appearance in Birganj just outside of my flat the three-year-old kid half-naked, covered in the black muck of Birganj, yells at me, Hello seto! Hello seto, and, finally, Hello whitey!
I think to myself, Gee, was he talking to me? I think I’ve abandoned [...]
We were supposed to have a turkey. By we, I mean everyone congregating in Biratnagar for Thanksgiving. The celebrations had been planned ahead of time and your invitation merely required bringing something Thanksgiving related, where it was food or an accordion-style turkey for décor.
I hadn’t thought of what I was going to bring for Thanksgiving [...]
