It’s unbelieveable how fast my time in Nepal pass away. I remember not so long time ago counting the days at home how many days do I have before leaving to Nepal. And already I have to count my days how many I still have left here… 5… And it’s gonna fly away I know.

It will be great to see my family and friends. I do miss them by now. But I don’t want to say goodbye to this special place, this life and all these people who got really close to me. I cannot think about this as a goodbye forever.

/with the children in Terai, on my last day - Csoportkép a gyerekekkel az utolsó napomon/

I’m in a goodbye mood, because I already had to leave the Terai ashram where I spent most of my time. So how did I spend my last 2,5 weeks in Terai?

After the trekking I spent a few days in Kathmandu. I wanted to be back in the ashram in time to help in the preparation and to see the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the ashram. It was a very nice program, though I preferred the Terai program in February. Maybe because I was more involved, or because it was not inside or I don’t know. But this was also very-very nice, with songs, dances, yoga demonstration and some speeches.

/yoga demonstration on the program - jóga bemutató a programon/

 I’m trying to learn one dance coreography now, but it’s more difficult then it seems, so I’m not sure if I succeed or not. Besides the performances there was a 24 hours recitation of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri. I joined the reading for one hour. It was a great experience, though I can not say I totally understood what I was reading but at least some parts. 

 /reciting the Savitri - felolvasás a Savitriből/

 After the program next day I could witness an interesting ceremony. The boys who undergo the ritual get a thread around their upper body which is made from 6 threads that  ”contain” mantras and they will wear it for the rest of their life, once a year they change it. It gives protection and it also helps you to lead a better life, there are some rules you have to follow like not telling lies, and telling mantras every day if you wear the thread. I’m not sure if really all the people who undergo this ceremony will actually wear the threads every day and live up to it. But it’s a nice thought, and if it helps to make a right choice even in a few situations it worth it. I’m sure it’s a more complex thing, but this is what I remember. J It was a nice ceremony with chanting mantras, giving offerings to gods, and receiving the threads.

 

/special ceremony - egy különleges szertartás/

By the time I arrived back from my trekking, there was a girl from Belgium, Flore in the ashram. Most of the tourists here are not in my age, so I was happy to see a young girl like me. We talked, worked and spent a lot of time together, I enjoyed discussing ashram experiences and any other thoughts on the world or on anything. We had some deep discussions about life and some light talks about everyday things too. She became my roommate and my really good friend in these 2,5 weeks. It’s great that I could have both some alone time and some 24 hours socially active time during my stay here. 

/with Flore in Terai - Flore-rel Terain/ 

(as you can see she is also tall so we were the "giants" toghether from this time)

 So Flore also came to Terai. We went with the bus of the ashram together with the students of class 3 who are now the students of class 4. (As I wrote before class 4-5-6 are studying in Terai, so one-one class is changing every year.) We had to bring back to Terai lots of matrasses and blankets, because there were 200 visitors in Kathmandu ashram, so they had to bring the things from Terai too to be able to give accomodation for them. Our bus looked like a giand bed in the inside. At the beginning of the ride I was sitting, but after a few hours I joined the children up on the pile of matrasses and blankents, where we spent the journey half-asleep and later playing.

/feeling comfortable on the busbed - előnye is van ha matracokat kell szállítani a buszon/ 

As we got to Terai I understood why everyone says „It’s really hot there”. When we arrived it was already evening, but I could just sit not doing anything and the water was pouring through my skin. Before I have never sweat like in this 2,5 weeks. Sometimes I looked if I just came out of a swimmingpool, but not. Well surely its a good cleaning system for the body. Fortunately not all the days were like that. When there were no electricity and we were without a fan, well than it was quite difficult I wished to wear only a bikini. But would have been only possible behind my closed doors. My body is used to weatherchanges now it’s crazy that this extreme hot weather and  the windy-snowy mountains are only a hundred kilometers away.

So we arrived to Terai with 14 „new” children and the next day class 6, ready to be class 7 left to go to Kathmandu. It was strange to be in Terai without them. Different people were milking the cows, making chapatti, seperating cream, etc. But after a few days I started to get used to it. What was confusing though was that there are some clothes that changed owners. So the football jersey’s what the boys are wearing were mixed up. So when I saw someone from behind and they turned I was expecting someone else in the shirt, but I guess if I spent more time with them I would have got used to the new owners of the jerseys.

/boys and their valued jerseys - fiúk és a megbecsült focimezek/

I was amazed that after a hard working day how can the boys run to play football when they finish with their evening duties. Even in this hot season. But two times I joined them with Flore, we weren’t too active, but a few times I could kick the ball and other times confuse the attackers. J The second match ended with a little accident so I might have a nice little scar line above my right eye as a memory to not to forget my time here. But I’ve seen a little boy stepping in a nail causing a bad injury and he was running the next day on his bandaged feet, the other little boy cut his shin so badly it needed several big stitches but a few hours later he was proudly showing his stitches to the others. So I cannot say anythig. These accidents with the littleones happened in Kathmandu. In Terai the hospital had to deal with fingercuts as the new children were getting to learn now to use a sickle. And some skinproblems. Because of the insectbites and the sweating sometimes your skin itch, but if your nails are not clean and you scratch and sweat, it gets really ugly… But these children here are very tough, I gave up making comparisons to children in their age in my country, they are just too spoilt compared to these nepalease kids.

 /last day's football match - foci az utolsó napomon/

The new schoolyear started. I continued to teach English in all 3 classes, and we had a Maths course together with Flore in class 6, that was challenging. And an art class as an extra class for class 4 and 5. We made more bracelets, and Flore was teaching them to draw, we were singing or just playing.

We organized a treasurehunt for them too. There were 4 groups and each group had to find 14 cards hidden all around the ashram there were cards hidden between the brick of the house, sticked to the number of the cows in their ears, up on trees, in the ground. The game didn’t have a happy ending though, because the group who got to the treasure first didn’t find all the 14 cards… But later I went to the market in the village and got some sweets for everyone to sweeten the bitter taste of dissapointment. We went to the market where apparently almost everyone else from the nearby villages went. It’s the Friday program. On the way we saw women dressed in same saris, I’ve learned that women form social groups to help each other when it’s needed, because there is no real governmental social aid and that day was a meeting they and from the same group they wear the same saris. And these groups of women meet every month to decide on their charity activity. Each member can turn to the group with their individual problems too, and they try to help each other. I’m amazed that it’s a working self-organized system. I mean if it’s really working. The idea is really great.

Another day we all went to swim in a small river nearby, called Ultikhola. It was really small and quite muddy. But I kept my promise to teach a bit of swimming, we had a lot’s of fun. J Almost all the children came though not everyone felt the urge to dive in the water despite the hot weather. But with some children we were having a bath together with the oxes nearby. J And about teaching swiming I think in the future I will stick with the swimmingpools, rivers are not easy environment.

/having fun in Ulti khola - pancsolás az Ulti khola folyóban/

Teaching, hunting for treasure, swimming, these were the afternoon or during the day program sin the mernings and evenings we worked on the field or int he gardern usually. We were planting tormarick? roots what looks similar to ginger and they make spices from it. We planted to the same field where on my first day I planted the potatoes as my first experience with karmayoga. So my first and almost last work took place on the same field. Unfortunately I was not here when they collected the potatoes… We also planted many-many bananas. Every 4 year they have to change the ground, the soil of the banana trees if you want to have nice bananas. So now we re-planted a whole new bananaforest, with couple of hundred banana trees. And at wintertime there will already be bananas on them. The bananatrees are surprisingly light. It doesn’t have a hard trunk and it contains a lot’s of juice, which by the way doesn’t come out of your clothes. We carried a lot’s of fertilizer, for the bananas and on other fields also. And 5 months ago I would not have thought that there will be a moment in my life when I will fight over cowdung, but well you never know what brings the future. J As we carried the valuable fertilizer on the field we were having a playful competition who can carry more sacks. So when a sack was ready to carry we had to fight for it otherwise we had to wait for the next one. J A month ago I was thinking that I did all kinds of works here except which involves touching a lot of cowdung, but now I had a chance get this experience  too. I don’t say that this is the work I’d like to do from now on, but I had no problem with it.

/carrying fertilizer - trágyázás közben/

(the boys enjoy the truckride a looot, I've tried it a few times, but it's too bumpy for me)

Many mornings I spent between the vegetables picking out the bad weeds. Though it’s not always obvious which is the bad one since they/we eat here a lot’s of green things what we don’t eat in Europe, or at least in my home. When I was helping out in the kitchen one day I had to cut a green hill of plants what I considered as „bad plant” in the previous 2 days so I’d learned that’s eatable, and quite tasty.

/making "parotha" for breakfast - "parotha" készítés reggelire/

I’ve learned to cook some easy things, so I hope I can prepare it in Hungary too. I’ll take some special spices what I’m not sure that can easily be found in my country.

In the evenings I either helped to cut the grass for the cows or to make chapatti, sometimes both. The grasscutting machine is also a place to compete, who can cut how many sacks of grass without stopping, and there is the hard grass and the soft one. J So we always had fun while working. We mix the dry grass with the fresh one before giving it to the cows. At the end I was not afraid from them anymore. And one day I could almost milk one cow on my own! J There are some boys who milk 8-9 so I still have to improve a lot if I want to impress them, but for me it was already an achievement. J

/Mixing the grass for the cows - fű keverése a teheneknek/

 I’ve learnt the chapatti making. I know all the steps, and they even told me now I’m a champion in flatting the balls into a perfect round shape. It made me feel good. Well I had a lot’s of great teachers, who taught me not only how to make chapatti but some nepali songs at the same time too. My nepali knowledge is still very week. I know more and more words, so I can guess the topic of the conversations, but I cannot make sentences… Next time I plan to learn more.

 /saying goodbyes with a little surprise - búcsúzás kis meglepetéssel/

 I prepared some surprises for all the children, and on my last day in school at the end of the assambley I gave it to them after a short speech. It was really short because I became too emotional after the first sentence and I didn’t want to cry so I cut it short. It turned out to be great, most of them were happy with their small gifts. To see all the smiling faces made me happy too and sad at the same time that I have to leave them. They also prepared nice things for me, I was really touched I did’nt expected it. Class six made something for me together, they were really sweet. J

/reading the letter from class six - a hatodikosok ajándéka/

I said my goodbye to the place, but it didn’t feel as a real goodbye. My journey, adventure is not over yet, I still have some time in the Kathmandu ashram. So from the people it was a goodbye and I know it would have been a lot more difficult to leave if the children werw not sleeping (because I left at 3 am in the morning).

So now I’m enjoying my last week here. I plan to write 2 more times. One about my last two weeks in Kathmandu and one about my trekking, because I only posted photos.  I will try to update the blog once more in the next 4 days but the „trekking special” I think I will only write on the airport (in New Delhi I have 15 hours between my flights), so I will upload it if I have internet there. In the meanwhile this is the blog of a boy from Pokhara who helped me with my trekking so you can check it out http://nepalpokhara8848.blogspot.com/.

See you soon! I mean those ones who are waiting for me at home. I can see that I have some readers from all around the world. I hope you like to read it, because I love to live it! J

Namaste from Nepal!