Sensory OVERLOAD

Hello everyone!
I have so much in my head I have no idea where to begin. I guess ill start where I left off. . . After I got to the orphanage my eyes were opened up to my new way of life here, which is so different that I will be able to describe you just have to come to see yourself. The orphanage is in a quiet village like “suburb” right next to the busy part of the city. The orphanage itself pretty much has four rooms for ten people: Kitchen(no refrigerator, one table not big enough to fit all the ppl in the house, gas powered stove that uses red gas tanks, sink), Boys room (5 boys one room bunk beds, multiple kids sleeping in each bed), Girls room (same thing, 5 girls), Play room (one TV, one table, shelves with books), I will get pictures up soon.
Dinner was served the night I got here, Dhal Bhat (curried vegetables, rice, and lentil soup), and will be the SAME MEAL TWICE A DAY FOR TWO MONTHS. The only thing that changes are the vegetables. In true Nepali style we ate with our hands. This made eating Ethiopian food look clean, since there was no bread to grab things with. Yes, this means you swirl the rice and veggies around with your hands and use a scooping technique to get it into your mouth. It’s freaking awesome. After dinner there are some angry games of rock paper scissors and eating competitions to see who will be doing the dishes. The bathroom/shower are outside and are used by everyone in the building, including the families upstairs from the orphanage. My room is in the “building” right next to the orphanage, and is basically the equivalent to a freshman single dorm but there are two people in it. There are two beds, one coat rack, and a desk.
Garbage lines the streets, and the stenches change every ten feet when we walk the kids to school. There is an extremely dangerous mix of people, bicycles, motor bikes, and cars even in the quiet neighborhood that I am in. Somehow though, no one really gets hurt and the constant honking, bumping, and shuffling just magically works. The chaos is indescribable. On my first full day we walked the kids to school, headed to Rajendra’s (owner of orphanage) tourist office, and played some cards while drinking tea. We essentially played old maid except you have three jacks in the deck and the last person to get the jack loses. I couldn’t believe how much fun such a simple game was providing us. We then went to take care of a few errands, fixing up my phone, exchanging money, and buying awesome wool knitted socks, before heading to lunch OUTSIDE of Thamel (the crowded overpriced tourist district.) A few minute’s walk away I paid the equivalent of one dollar and was served an extremely delicious meal of curry, chick peas, and some potato pie, as well as desserts. Let me repeat, ONE DOLLAR, I like Nepal . We then headed into the main local market of Kathmandu (as if there is anything BUT a local market), which was even more chaotic than Thamel. Old appliances, used clothing, sprawled out dead chickens, live chickens, anything you can imagine was clucking, mooing, or ready to be sold. Yes cows really do roam the streets here, along with monkeys, goats, dogs, chickens, and other things.
Dinner tonight was MORE curried vegetables and rice. . . I’m lucky that I happen to love curry otherwise I don’t think it’s possible to survive here. After dinner I was handed a small glob of white paste from Diwaki (house mom) and told to try it. Thinking it was something that involved sugar, because t came out of a honey bottle, I popped it into my mouth and encountered what only could be described as . . . lard. Yes ladies and gentlemen I have eaten my first wad of Yak fat. I don’t know why they gave it to me to try, as it’s used like butter and really isn’t supposed to be eaten plain, but oh well it wasn’t terribly aweful. This week will be filled with tourist adventures, as Rajendra has waited until all of the volunteers were here (aka until I arrived) to take us around to the places here. Pictures to come soon!
OH WAIT, the busses! I took my first bus ride today which was the most awkward, friendly, and intimate experience I have had here. The “busses” are not busses, but larve vans that people PACK into. There were at least 15 people in the small van that took us to Thamel this morning. Strangers sit on each other’s laps, people hang off the sides of the van, it is absolutely CRAZY but for them just a fact of life that they think nothing of. I will try to post a video I made riding on the bus on facebook soon.