New House Kathmandu-Nepal

Written 23rd October

Early morning of a week day, six a.m. The light comes at five; life begins with the first ray of sun.

The new house is bordered by a deposit of ferrous materials, shouts and metallic sounds awake us like an alarm clock. Here there are not streets vendors shouting, but the prayer's bells start playing at five thirty in the morning, as everywhere in Kathmandu...I suppose.

On the other hand at five thirty in the afternoon it is dark and life slows down, increase traffic for an hour and then everything calms.

If I go out on the balcony, I can see the spectacle of morning ablutions of the workers, some of them live in shacks of the deposit.

The house is smaller than the previous 

one, but more modern and easier to clean. I'm proud of the solution I've found to get a room for the girl in the living room: using half sofa as bed and a curtain as wall.

Now she has a cozy bed room and a small private bathroom, and we have a normal living room.

We are still on holiday (I'm obliged, my school is working but I should follow her), every morning we fight for homework...I get the advantage of the holiday to get on the Italian school: multiplications table, reading, History, Geography...

During breaks she escapes in the garden: the guardian has a puppy, a hen and four chicks. We have the pleasure of animals without having to treat and care.

We had to make a wardrobe of clothes on purpose to play in the garden. It is composed by holed clothes and irreparably stained, by the battles with the dog and the chicks sleeping under the t shirts. I invented funny patches to cover spots and holes; the whole sight is not bad at all.

But, with her uncombed hair, clothes patched, and animals in harms...she is definitely wild!

The season has changed no more rains, crystal clear sky, and beautiful views of the hills surrounding the city.

Cold in the morning, 17-18 degrees, hot around noon and in the early afternoon and windy afternoons and evenings, the sky is full of kites. This is the kite season! Children can play games with kites: they "cut the rope" and earn points from each other, must be fun.

They build big swings for children and adults, you go high in the sky to ask the gods to stop the rains, now no longer needed, the ground is wet enough

This holiday, dashain holiday has these rituals with kites and huge swings to ask the sky for quitting rains. This culture is so different from what we (Westerners) know .

Cardio experience - Kathmandu Nepal

Written 3rd November

Now that we moved, the gym is a little bit far away from the new house... So going to Pulchow is an exercise itself.

On wednesday morning, after leaving Elena at school, I walked to the gym, it took nearly half a hour. Once there, I started with step machine since there wasn't electricity to use the treadmill.

When I was near the end of my workout time electricity's arrived and I couldn't leave the gym without at least twenty minutes running, so I ran.

I started to be pretty good tired when a funny little man came to call me telling that I could join the cardio fitness (box?) class. 

The temptation to run away was strong, but the curiosity was stronger; so I joined them.

At the very beginning I felt like a giant in an ants room.

Then I started to feel like a goofy giant in a busy ants room!

Being a woman of normal heigt in Nepal  means to be as high as my daughter  probably will be next year: very short for European canons.

That was the first uncomfy sensation, but it is not everything.. Two chubby women an a plump man were sweating profusely following the strong elf who called me before. He was helped by a gracious pixie with the size of a doll;then he introduced her to me as his wife.

After all that walking and running I have done, I was confident to be warmed up enough to follow them doing a sort of aerobic warming up, and that was almost true. But when they have started to move as fast as lightening following a thumping music, I felt lost. Too proud to give up, I got strenght and I kept going on...

I did feel judge. May be I was being a bit paranoid, may be not, but those people weren't shy about having a look. Althought it was a welcoming group I felt observed: too large to pass unnoticed, to slow to not be ridiculous! Really quite embarassing. And normally people when they are imbarassed, they are not loose and agile, so I was even more rigid than usual. At a time when others where doing two movements, I completed one, legs and arms too long to be so fast!

The situation was so weird that I couldn't stop smiling at me (lots of mirrors in that room!), and everyone thought I was insane, but it was worth continuing despite that.

When the teacher-elf asked me to complete three series of fifteen push ups each, I answerd that I've never done fifteen push ups in all my life long... So I took my time to watch at the pushing up group: everyone was making an effort to meet the demand, I couldn't be the only who quitted!

All the class was quite brutal but I came out floating, I really floated out.

And now, days after, I can felt muscles I did not know I have; breathe deeply give me a painful feeling: too many pushups!

Magic Bangkok - Bangkok, Thailand

Written Oct.14th 2016

We like Nepal, that's true!

But, after those stressful visa days, after the relocation, everyone needs holidays. My husband needs to relax after so much lack of sleep; the baby needs to stop studying after such intense school days; and I need to stop supporting them. So we went to Bangkok!

In Italy the common idea is that Thailand is a destination for adults. The most typical stereotypes about Thailand: busy, crowded, street food, amazing massages, weird sex tourism, lady boys, full moon beach parties, buckets full cocktails, kickboxing, temples, westerners being locked up in prison for drug possession, scooters, golden Buddha statues, amazingly friendly and smiling people and the film “The Beach”  with Leonardo DiCaprio. I can confirm that concerns the city, except of the weird tourism; we have not seen anything suspect, maybe a western paunchy-middle-age-man accompanied by an oriental pretty lady, but it cannot be an indicator. Some of the hotel waiters were quite ambiguous: they could be both handsome men and pretty girls, the hairdressers were a little bit weird, but is not unusual even in Italy, so nothing strange or noteworthy.

The idea is to came back again, to visit some islands, so we can confirm o disconfirm the others cliché about the beaches and the sea side life.

Thai people are very nice and kind, they teach you how to behave: in the archeological sites there are signs that teach good manners. 

The hotel was amazing, not the best in town but one of the best where we have been to. Fifteen floors of order, cleanliness, silence...And it was surrounded by higher palaces, hotels mostly but even offices and flats. Friendly people, excellent food, nice massage area, lovely outdoor pool, everything was a sort of dream.

First day: shopping! Must did, so many malls! The biggest shopping center, even the most luxurious, holds the aquarium.

The aquarium is interesting, we have seen bigger and may be more original, but our daughter was amazed by the water tunnel, the amounts of sharks, and the dimension of a giant spider crab. She was so excited! We spent at least two hours inside...and the rest of the day around the shopping center!
I've never seen something so big, huge, enormous...

 But we couldn't find a simple pair of sleepers that the kid needed. Well, it was full of shoe shop, but too expensive. 

We only bought some t shirts in the Chinese "HeM", medium quality stuff, very good prices. That's all.

A relaxing evening in the hotel pool, looking around for massages, a nice place for dinner, try to go to bed early to rest before a sightseeing day.

Thai people are Buddhist, they love their king and queen, you can guess it by the amount of Buddha statues (literally everywhere) and king's and queen's pictures (again: everywhere).

 Near our hotel there was a nice small open air temple with musicians and dancers.

They pray with flowers, incense and candle... They were praying for the health of the sovereigns, both octogenarians and hospitalized. This information was even in the newspaper. Our guide, a friendly lady in love with Elena showed us the Grand Palace, the amazing temple with the emerald Buddha inside. Everywhere was colorful, mostly shining gold and red, but crowded and very hot. Too hot! Sweating is a must in Bangkok!

Our daughter's hair and colors (and beauty), are always an attraction for Asiatic people, obviously she did not like being the center, to be the subjects of many pictures... The guide did not understand why the girl was so grumpy.

But she felt fortunate she could take some pictures with her smiling.

We visited also the summer residence, lovely indeed, but the kid was interested only in animals outside: enormous fish, some turtles and a lazy caiman. She was running and jumping all around; all tourists were looking at her helping me to find her every time I couldn't see where she was.

Nice experience. It looks she is disappointed because she did not see the interior of the apartments; probably she remembered our trip to Vienna, where we visited so many interiors!

After the palace, other temples, very old 

and ruined but full of charm.

 Too much culture, we needed another shopping immersion... we went to another big mall, little bit of the lower level to the other, less luxuries, more crowded and even more interesting.

We did find the fake cheap sleepers for the child, many easy going massage centers, a very cheap hairdresser, many interesting restaurants...

We decided to spend all evening there. 

We had to wait half an hour for the massage, so we went 

around without a destination and we crashed into a weird man: protruding ears, orange haired, effeminate attitude... a hairdresser!

Perfect. We had our hair cut; my husband had a pretty girl, I a strange blonde Asian. Very silently, quick and professional, in ten minute we were done, and happy. He tried the massage but he did not enjoy very much, mine the previous day, in another center, was better, I believe.

 Original Thai massage, strong an effective.

Our last amazing dinner, original Thai, easy to eat: on the menu (with images) there were symbols for spicy food, vegetarian; food contains nuts, really "idiot proof".

Once at home we decided to understand why you cannot eat a

Thai fruit called DURIAN in the hotel room. No smoking signal was accompanied by a "forbidden fruit" signal,

strange indeed. But the durian, even called "the king of fruit" for its amazing taste and the nutritional properties, has a horrible smell that that seems unbearable and impossible to remove from indoors, that's why!

But our experience, overall, was very pleasant and positive, we must come back again, even to taste finally the legendary fruit.

Visa for foreigners - Kathmandu, Nepal

Written Sept.23rd 2016

If there is something I hate, it’s bureaucracy. Going around offices without understand anything, wasting time waiting for someone that can help you; such a nightmare! It is no the language or the time spent, I have the same problem also in Italy: it’s bureaucracy itself. I cannot understand the meaning of stamps, little notes, employee's signature, and queuing long time in the wrong line; nowadays these things should be different. Internet age!!

But as foreign here, I must have a valid visa (the legal mostly used way for poor countries to get money from visitors) and I used all amount of "touristic days" I could pay for... no more touristic visa. So, what can I do now? Mine and my daughter's stay is joint to my husband's working contract, and he is supposed to be employed till July,  she should attend year three at the British school, I ought to volunteer at two different schools... 
This morning I went to the 206 mythical office at the immigration department . It’s a dirty room, with three desks and four people, all employed were nicely chatting, no one heard me knocking at the open door, and no one looked at me when I loudly said “Hello”!
That's the worst part: being ignored.

But I got closer the first man, starting explain my situation...He promptly stopped me pointing at a lady who seems to be very busy. The lady was nice but her English not so clear; she told me what documents I should bring, and how much I should pay to stay in Nepal for a longer time.
Longer than it needs to hiking or trekking around these mountains (that I haven t never seen!).
By the way, I did quit.

 I was so tired! Plus there is the fact that you have to remove your shoes to enter most public offices. Really annoying!

Hoping the UN office will try to figure out what we need to do to stay here as long as we had planned....
We spent an entire Sunday, turning office with our passports in hand, with the child who was just tired of waiting. We have concluded virtually nothing until the following Monday. The latest news that we had been suggested my repatriation until next year, with the child in Nepal with her father. Fortunately the situation was resolved, I think it was about some Hindu gods with animal heads.

Working with S -Kathmandu, Nepal

Written  Sept. 15th 

Today was my second day at S' School (An Anglican School), working one to one with S. Hard job I must say. She is attending year six's lessons, even if she is a bit older than her classmates.

She is so happy being at school, her mum seems to be little more relaxed... always staying in the school library, that's not a good sign indeed.
S. is a mystery to me. Really I cannot say how much she understands the teacher's and the classmates' speech; for sure she doesn't understand me. I think she finds my accent very funny: she laughed at me today. 
Sometimes she wants to communicate; she is willing to explain to others... she has a podd box that she loves. An old, used untidy self-made pictures book that is useful to help her to structure the sentences.
She cannot use language but, answering precise yes/no questions, you can help her to say something (everything she has got in mind, in her parents' opinion). In the pod book there are all subjects she should talk about.

The most challenging thing to do is understand when she wants to say "yes" and when it's "no".
Looking up means affirmative, down supposed to be negative. But she often moves her eyes crazily  around, she tight her arms making fist... how do I should read this behavior? 
I got a lot of doubts. 
For this first month my goal is to make her comfortable in her classroom, make her schoolmates being confident with her, and maybe able to use the podd book. But first... I should learn how to use it!

First day - Kathmandu Nepal

Scritto il 7 settembre 2016

If I should live in English. .. better start to think in English! 

First days in Nepal again, my daughter did her assessment test today and I had an appointment at "my" school.

How nice is to listen to people speak a proper language! Nicer than American but still too quick and too difficult to understand to me.
This job (as volunteer in a confessional Anglican Church School) seems to look very challenging. The girl I ought to help is in year 6, she is totally "locked in ", she probably can understand the language and she could have some cognitive abilities, but she cannot communicate except through moving her eyes. A sight up means "yes" a sight down is "no".
It means I got to go in a "yes or no" world. Only in English!  Can you Image?  I cannot...
After a meeting with my substitute and the head of learning support teachers, talking a lot of the new challenging experience, the kid and I went to "The British School", her new school.
A boy with a big smile asks her if she would be E... (changing a little bit her name), because they have been waiting her for a month.  A very nice kid, without a doubt.

But she was too shocked to enjoy the situation... We were put in a mixer full of people, mostly teachers and assistants, a very kind environment but full of information and choices to make. We choose to post pone every decision after a chat with my husband this evening. 
While  she was busy with the test I stayed  out, in the courtyard (the "quad " for the American school), sitting from my place I could observe teachers going out after a school day, looking at the starting weekend : how small is the world! 

Here in Nepal, in an international school you can see the same faces, the same exhausted sights as in my little hometown!

The only difference is the teachers' outfit ... 

But I’ll describe it next   time!

Christmas bazar- Kathmandu Nepal

Scritto il 26 novembre 2016

German people always export their traditions. I remember in Sudan, very hot weather... In the German embassy Christmas market!!!

Totally strange and out of season, but we had fun. 

There, where everyone is Muslim, and here, where everyone is Hindi there are stalls selling sausages and potatoes, Christmas 

decorations, local products, ginger biscuits and art crafts.

A lot of people strolling here and there, mostly of them very "light" only a bunch of Nepalese people.
They do not worship Christmas, of course, so this event was much for expats. The market was publicized in international schools, there were ads everywhere. We met practically all the teachers of the English school, and someone from the Anglican one.

 But in the embassy garden it was full of blond German, sitting on the grass, in the (hot) sun drinking mulled wine and hot apple juice, like in the middle of a beer garden fighting with the snow…

The situation was so funny.

 But we bought some nice 

Christmas presents for our 

relatives, as tradition.

The tipical "take away" dish made of leaves, was so strange with the German mug. 

And we had the occasion 

 to explore some hidden

part of the city, we would never 

have seen.

 There are some beautiful, traditional 

houses, near huge 

endless building, 

next to the very old 

house survived miraculously 

the earthquake.

The green caravan is the mobile toilet 
for outdoor events.
The house behind it, stays thanks to 
the electric cables.

All photos were taken today.