What You Learn From Being Sick in Nepal

I've been in Nepal for about two weeks now, and I haven't felt very well for most of it.

To start with, there was some sort of big disagreement between the spicy food and my stomach. There was an open battle and then the silent treatment. They refused to be anywhere near each other. If they did come into contact it was like two toddlers unleashed at each other in all their tiny fury. There were also some nasty side effects. Mostly diarrhea. I also didn't know you could have constipated diarrhea. That's really a thing?

Then today when I got home from shopping I suddenly started feeling like I was going to puke everything up out of my body. I hate throwing up more than almost anything. So I ended up clenching my teeth and laying on my bed for quite a while. I never did throw up, but I do have a bad fever. I'm writing this while I'm still feeling a little loopy.

Different country. Different foods. Different lots of things.

It's honestly amazing how much a person can take for granted. I started a list in my journal last week of everything I've been taking for granted my entire life.

Warm showers was first on the list. Although I have gotten good at taking incredibly fast showers now.
Washing machine and dryer were next. Although you would be really surprised how therapeutic washing your own clothes can be. It's the waiting three days for them to dry that can be hard. #reallyhumidclimatehere
What about air conditioning? Or not always being slightly damp? Or paved roads everywhere?

I've already filled three columns on one page of things I've been taking for granted. Definitely somewhere on the list was having food that my body is used to.

What's all on your list? Or what should be on your list?

Nepal is a wonderful place. You learn a lot from the people here. They are so kind and so helpful.
We've been teaching English in the schools to the children.
We helped paint some classrooms in other school.
We've also helped with some demolition work on a house ruined by an earthquake.
We've worked with Days for Girls.
We've marched in a protest against human trafficking.

There is so much that can be done here and so many different projects we can work on.

There are some big differences between this beautiful, but developing country and the developed country that I am from.

Big, big differences!!!
Like, in Nepal people seem to have a lot bigger emphasis on relationships. There are good and bad people everywhere. You'll find the same thing in Nepal. However, in Nepal it doesn't seem that schoolmates are strangers to each other. Neither are neighbors unknown to you. We say good morning and Namaste to everyone and they always reply.

Even strangers aren't strangers! We went to the Teej festival a while ago and there were big groups of women all dancing together in different roped off areas. I remember watching as everyone danced with everyone! They would grab hands and dance and ask each others' names as they spun around and moved their arms in typical Nepali dancing. The younger girls taught me lots of their dance moves too. In return, they learned my silly, dancing weirdness.
                ***Somewhere out there are some girls that think they are dancing so American, when really.... I'm not sure what I was doing...

They are always willing to help however they can. I am pretty sure I have asked directions to different places from about a million people in this city. And if they can help at all they always will. I never feel brushed off or like I am a pest in the slightest.

And they aren't always sucked into their social media. They don't hide behind walls of glowing computer and phone screens. The kids in high school that we teach give us 100% of their time. Perhaps it would be easier to teach if they were a little less talkative every single minute of the time there. But I sure prefer that than trying to bring them back out of the internet world and into the real world all the time.

Yep! There are a lot of differences between this developing country and my developed country that I am from.

But maybe we could use some development of our own. Maybe in some ways we've gone forward. Maybe in other ways we've gone backward.

And maybe we could use some Nepali help in some of our own developmental needs. Things that they already seem to have figured out.

Like about the importance of people. And relationships.

And life.