"The Bridge is Damaged..."

So I went white water rafting down the Trisuli River this weekend! It was really fun. Two days of rafting with a night of camping in between. The rapids were HUGE and several people fell in, but not me, luckily.

Everytime I go rafting, my mom always says it makes her nervous because it's so dangerous. However, after having been rafting in Nepal, I can happily assure her that rafting is the least of her worries. You know the title of this post? Yeah, that was a road sign. The complete sign said "The Bridge is Damaged, Drive Slowly, One Vehicle at a Time." This is not a good sign to see when you are in a gigantic archaic bus whose breaks squeal like nails on a chalkboard everytime the driver tries (and kind of fails) to slow down... So yes, rafting is quite safe compared to riding busses. But don't worry, I'm sure I'll make it home in one piece... hopefully...

There are a bunch of new volunteers from Projects Abroad and they all came rafting. It was nice to meet people, but by the end it felt a little like a high school field trip. Cliques are already starting to form and they're all planning to do absolutely everything together. As you can tell by the "they," I do not plan to join them. I may sound a little like a reality tv show star when I say this, but I didn't come here to make friends. I've already made a few, and that's really fantastic, but I'm totally good going it alone, thank you very much. Unfortunately, one of my least favorite of the volunteers has decided to come to MSPN because she doesn't like her placement. And while I feel like I got really lucky with the girls I was working with for the first 3 weeks I've been here, I still don't want to come to work everyday with two girls I can't stand. (I don't know if I mentioned Maya, who got here on Thursday, but as of today we've been having issues getting along). But, oh well. I was thinking of asking to do half my placement somewhere else, for the experience, and maybe I will. Or maybe it won't be as bad as I think. Either way, I got closer with the manager here, Shanika, so I feel confident I could switch easily.

But back to rafting. At the end of this trip, I ended up meeting this really sweet Spanish couple. They looked to be about late 20s and were the only non-volunteers on our rafting trip. I started talking to them because, funnily enough, the woman looks a lot like my sister, Toni, and her boyfriend looks like my sister's husband, Stu. I spoke to them about all my plans and everything, and they invited me to stay with them in Spain sometime!! They live near Bilbao, Spain, where the new Gugenheim is. They told me about how to get to Spain or around Europe from Italy really cheaply. I'm definitely going to try to take them up on it.

After rafting, we left for Kathmandu at around 3pm on Sunday. This should have put us in Kathmandu by 7pm. Unfortunately, there was a major strike/protest and the roads were closed. We didn't find this out until we were 20k from Kathmandu and it was nearly dark. The new Maoist president (elected in August) just made a law that all bars and other establishments must be closed by 10.30. Being as the after 10.30 time is when most bars make their money, this has created conflict. Most places have been staying open illegally. If they get raided by the police, everyone inside gets slapped or beaten, including tourists. That's how Nepal works. If you can't pay bus fare, they beat you up. If you are out past curfew, they beat you up. Etc. (I'm careful not to break laws as I would rather keep my face intact...) I heard this might have been what caused the protests.... It also may have been that one of the castes was striking. Anyway, we managed to get back into the city unharmed, but I stayed in a hotel rather than risking the trip back to my host family's house in the dark.

Today, MSPN didn't go so well. Maya, the new volunteer, and I didn't really get along. Maya has a degree in teaching children or something like that and had all these new ideas, which was great. But some of them I didn't think would work, and I told her so. She tried them anyway, and when they didn't work, she got frustrated. When I suggested doing what we'd been doing, she seemed to get irritated saying that it didn't work to try to teach english while the kids were coloring or doing other things. Unfortunately, the kids are always coloring and as they are all different ages, it works best to do things with a few at a time. She and I spent about 20 minutes arguing in which she told me several times that she had more experience and that I wouldn't let her do anything she wanted to do. It was really frustrating. And now that her bestest new friend, and my least favorite person here, Princess Christie, is coming to join us, I don't know how well it will go. But I'm going to try to be more mellow, less controlling, and listen to what they say (knowing that every person is equally valid and has something to offer) and hopefully things will improve. And if not, I'll go somewhere else and be totally happy flying solo. Whatever, c'est la vie, I don't really care. I'm in Nepal for goodness sakes, and I'm going to have an awesome time regardless.

Okay that's it for me. I'm looking forward to going to Happy House this afternoon and playing with the girls.