Welcome to Mahjgaun

Time seems to be speeding up as our Language Proficiency Interview, Swearing In, Counterpart Conference, and relocation near. As Pre-Service Training comes to a close, it’s high time I give some love to my cluster—so bear with me through this long post.

To be honest, when we first learned of our PST site assignments, I was none too thrilled with my assignment. I hadn’t made a strong connection with any of the four people I was grouped with; in fact, one of them often got on my nerves. To the one with whom I felt closest at the time, I expressed my disappointment; she responded that she had thought we had the best cluster, and that I should give it a chance. Was she ever right. Let me introduce you to them now.

Who We Are

Elizabeth is a middle-aged woman from Florida, where she most recently worked in the Department of Labor. Nearly ten years ago she served in the Peace Corps in Thailand doing community development work. When her two years were up she considered her Peace Corps time finished, but her group in Thailand voted her most likely to serve again, and here she is. Many of us view her as a big sister, always offering support. She is a bit of a shopaholic, often holding our group up when we go to the market. She is also very kind, always giving stickers to the local children and sharing her food with the rest of us. She loves yoga, which goes hand-in-hand with her calm, soothing demeanor. Our foremost documenter, many of the photos on this blog are to her credit.

Steve, our most senior group member, is originally from New Hampshire, where he used to work in the logging industry. He has spent the past ten years in and out of the Peace Corps, serving extended terms in the Gambia, Vanuatu, and Morocco. His extensive technical knowledge and experience have been extremely valuable. Once a Catholic schoolboy, he converted to Islam while living in Morocco (though he seems to be Muslim only on paper). His mind is constantly wandering, and when his attention does turn back to the current conversation, he’s frequently disoriented and bewildered. He is very independent, sometimes to the point of being aloof, but is extremely dedicated to his work and learning the language. Despite his callous façade, he is very big-hearted, spending more money on his friends and family than on himself. He has a great but often inappropriate sense of humor. Not really the staying-in-touch-type, his phone is usually off.

Priya is from all over the world. Twenty-four years old, she is originally from Syracuse, NY but has lived in New Hampshire, Italy, Germany, Morocco, Egypt, Japan, India, and now Nepal. Before Peace Corps, she did nutrition work through AmeriCorps in New York City. She is extremely flexible and has a great attitude, having endured a family member’s death, bad-mannered host brothers, and several host family dramas since our arrival. Very mindful of her surroundings and how she’s perceived in the local context, she makes a concerted effort to make Nepali friends and practice the language. She loves babies (both human and animal) and tries to hold them every chance she gets. Usually very easygoing, she also has a firm professional side. She also hates when I beat her at anything. Like me, she is thinking of going to medical school after returning home. She’s become my closest friend here.

Sarswati, our Language and Cultural Facilitator, is a young Nepali woman from the western part of Nepal. After studying English literature at one of the top universities in Nepal, she taught English in a Nepali high school. Married just a few months prior to our PST to a man she’d met only a few of times, she has a very interesting perspective on Nepali culture. She is profoundly interested in religions, despite being the only atheist Nepali I’ve met so far. She is very considerate and dedicated, working very hard to ensure that her teaching style and lesson plans accommodate our various needs and preferences, and always offering help outside of class. She too is very generous, often making us tea and giving us snacks. I consider her much more than a teacher, and she’s become my best Nepali friend.

Despite this outwardly strange mélange of people, over the past few months we’ve gotten along well and have grown quite close. In the face of stress, illness, and loss, our cluster has experienced zero tension or conflict (we're also convinced that everyone is secretly jealous of us). Between class and trainings we spend an inordinate amount of time together, but many of us find ourselves wanting more. We occasionally go for a snack or meal at one another’s homes, or venture to the teashop for donuts and tea. We’ve spent hours playing cards, teaching American games (BS was a big hit with our LCF) and learning Nepali ones (which all seem to be based on dumb luck). One evening, we cooked a pasta dinner together, complete with garlic bread and Mountain Dew.

We also look out for each another, making an effort to walk the hour to and from Chautara as a group, or at least with another clustermate. One day we received a call that a 7.0 earthquake had struck nearby and that we were required to consolidate at the training center in Chautara. Even though we knew it was a drill, we waited until everyone had arrived before departing, and when one of us was having trouble breathing on the walk, the others provided patient support.

Perhaps our greatest instance of cluster unity was our LCF’s birthday. Though our only day off, we decided to go with her to an old folks home near Chautara, bringing them apples, bananas, biscuits, and juice. It was very humbling to see how grateful they were; one blind man spent several minutes muttering thanks to various gods and praising us for visiting. We listened as they sang a few Nepali songs, and we even sang an American song of our own (“Piano Man” by Billy Joel). After that we surprised our LCF with small party at a hotel, where she was greeted with friends, cake, and gifts.

What We’ve Been Doing

We work well together on projects too. In addition to our normal language classes, we’ve had a wide array of other activities keeping us busy. A number of the current Peace Corps Volunteers have come to teach us various technical skills. We’ve discussed hand washing and tooth brushing training techniques; practiced three different methods of composting; learned how to preserve vegetables and make a nutritious “super” flour; and built a permagarden, nursery, and improved cookstove. Aside from some disastrous results (our preserved vegetables turned rancid; our superflour concoctions tasted like mustard (never use mustard oil to bake); and we ran out of water during the very demanding permagardening training), all in all they were a success.

Fruit and vegetable preservation

Superflour

Several methods for making compost

Building a permagarden

Nursery Development

Building improved cookstoves

We’ve also received a number of assessments to prepare us for work at site. First, we were tasked with giving training on a topic related to food security, to be shared with another cluster group. We chose beekeeping, in large part because of Steve’s enthusiasm and experience on the subject. Together, we designed and built a topbar beehive from an old basket, mud, and bits of bamboo. Our training included information on the benefits of beekeeping, how to catch bees, how to make a hive, how to harvest honey, and what to do with the products. I learned a lot, and we were very happy with how things went.

Next came our mock Language Proficiency Interview, a practice version of the thirty-minute Nepali language assessment that all trainees must pass to be sworn in as volunteers. Our cluster got by far the worst tester, who used unfamiliar vocabulary, spoke quickly and unclearly, and asked questions atypical of the exam. Many of us left feeling deflated, but took comfort in the fact that we all shared in the unfortunate experience. Since then, we’ve been supporting one another in our language practice, doing flashcards during walks to Chautara and giving verbal aid and encouragement.

After that came our practicum, in which we were required to use a framework called Participatory Analysis for Community Assessment (PACA) to develop and hold a training session with the community. PACA consists of a number of tools designed for communicating information, identifying community needs, and laying the groundwork for community action. After working with community members on a community map, daily activity schedule, seasonal calendar, needs assessment, and priority ranking, we determined nutrition and sanitation to be our community's two most pressing needs. After several days of planning, we held a hand washing, healthy eating, and tooth brushing training for over a hundred children at a nearby school. The training included a hand washing demonstration by student volunteers, a nutrition game, and a tooth brushing activity in which we gave every child a toothbrush. In addition, we painted a mural on the wall as a colorful reminder of these basic steps for healthy living. Drippy paint aside, it was a great success.

A few days after the practicum, we began preparing for a Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) camp. GLOW is a youth leadership model aimed at empowering girls. Working with the neighboring cluster, we planned an education and career opportunities program for the twenty tenth grade girls at the local school. Activities will include a video and discussion about female education, a career panel of Nepali women, craftmaking, an exercise in which the girls will write letters to themselves about their goals, and a line dance. The camp is scheduled for after Swearing-In, when we will return to our clusters for a few days before leaving for our permanent sites.

Assuming all goes well with the language test, the next time I post I’ll be a Peace Corps Volunteer!