I had a wonderful, restful time in Thailand. For anyone who is contemplating moving overseas, I would HIGHLY recommend having a transition time somewhere away from home, but not in your new place yet. Especially if you're diving right into things once you arrive in your new home. It makes such a difference to at least be over the jet lag, and to have had a chance for your mind to adjust to the idea of being away from home. At least I found it very helpful.
Met with the person coordinating my language and cultural orientation program yesterday, and then had the first day of orientation today. There are 3 of us who have just arrived and will be doing the full 5 months of study, so it's nice to have some "comrades" in the process. The actual language study is 1-on-1 with a tutor, but we'll be seeing a lot of each other, and there are orientation sessions and activities that we do together. There is a guy from the UK who is a social worker and will be doing peacebuilding work in rural Nepal when his language study is finished. He lived in Sri Lanka for 3 years prior to coming here. And the other person is a woman from the US (though she has spent 10 years in Pakistan, and was just home in the US for a year or two before coming here) who is a family doctor and will also be going to Tansen. Since we're starting language study at the same time, we'll also be arriving in Tansen at roughly the same time. So I will have had 5 months to get to know her before starting there, which is nice. She won't be on the surgical team, but it's still a good thing, I think.
So far we've had lots of introductions, and then today there was a safety and security talk. Apparently earthquakes are something that people worry about around here. They do have them (most not too big, but occasionally they are), though, and so we had some "earthquake training" today. And tomorrow there is a meeting that the Canadian embassy has organized for Canadians in Kathmandu to talk more about earthquake preparedness. So I guess it's something to take seriously. If you're praying for protection, you can add earthquakes to the list.
You can also add protection from road traffic, as it seems like you kind of take your life in your hands when you walk down the street, or especially when you cross the street. I think a lot of developing countries are like that, but it's definitely true here. The trick, where possible, is to find a Nepali person who is crossing and stay close to them. But it's a bit of a "bob and weave" kind of scenario, and it can be a bit alarming. Not to scare anyone...but yeah, prayer for safety is good :)
I'm living in a flat that's nicely equipped (for an apartment in Nepal) and that is starting to feel a bit like my home, now that I've started unpacking my things and settling in. It's in a sort of out-of-the-way place, down this little lane that seems to be leading you to the middle of nowhere. But the flat itself is quite nice. And there is a couple living upstairs who are roughly my age: she's Canadian and he's from New Zealand. They've been great in terms of helping me get oriented. The walk to the language study place is about 40 minutes, and it's along this busy road, where there is lots of honking and other noise. It's quite dirty and polluted, and so far I haven't seen any sign of mountains, though supposedly this is the time of year when you can see them. There is a bridge that you cross over just before turning off the main road to get to the school, and into that river goes everyone's garbage (I saw someone getting off her motorbike and throwing her garbage bag off the bridge into the river). It's kind of gross! Then you turn off that main road and come to the "Mary Poppins school," which is where I know to turn left and get to my school! I love these names!
Anyways, overall all is well, and I'm glad to be here. And the orientation and language study sounds like it will be quite organized and comprehensive, which will give me a good start, I think. I've met some people, and I'm sure there will be some good friendship building over the next number of months, which is great. Now it's the weekend, and I plan to take it fairly easy - the first few days have been good, but tiring, with the newness of it all. And next week will be intense with more orientation and starting language study.
