Tag Archives: preparation

Unsettled…

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I have always loved the feelings of home – home is comfort, happiness, warmth, safety, and familiarity.  But now, home is where exactly?  It was here, held in between windows and walls and filled with smells and sounds and feelings.  But now it is empty, full of echos.  I dearly hope that amidst the clamour and vibrancy of Kathmandu I will discover a new home, that is equally filled with smells, sounds and feelings – different, new and extraordinary yes, but still home.  For now, comfort gathers around this, my home”page”.

To much stuff

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…ziploc bags full of medicines…hiking boots…small compact photo albums…USB keys full of files…gortex…fleece…jackets for the rainy season, the dry season, the heat, the cold, the dust, the altitude…compact versions of everything possible…UK pounds and US dollars…camera…airplane snacks…toothbrush…passport…

Travel should be simpler.  It will be a cruel irony when we get there and discover that everything is on our doorstep in Nepal.  The curse of the traveller truly is believing that everything one has in their current life is both necessary and only readily available here…my excuse…moving is a different story.

Sanskrit

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I am learning Nepali.  It is hard.  Very hard.  It is a Sanskrit-based language with very curly script characters and a very lilting quality to the sound.  But this beauty doesn’t change the fact that it is hard.  As I struggle to make my basic sounds (we will have language training when we get there but we need to have a basic understanding before we arrive) I need to remain positive.  One of my good friends shared with me a lovely Sanskrit prayer that deserves to be shared…

Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu or ???? ?????? ?????? ?????

It translates to “may all beings be happy and free”…I think this will be my new language learning mantra…

Finding home…

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So, I crave information about where we will live when we get to Nepal – I just really want to know what our new home will look like!  For about the first 6 weeks Rex and I will be in training with the VSO Nepal office and what I do know is that we will be staying in the Pacific Guest House.  It looks just lovely 🙂  So, for now, this will have to be enough (and at least I have some pictures that will last until we arrive).

I need rabies

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I feel like a human pin cushion.  It is rather strange to imagine that floating through my blood stream right now are the following diseases:  Japanese Encephalitis, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Meningitis, Measles, Mumps, and Rubella. Amazing that the human body can fight all these diseases at once!

Now what I find totally amazing is that the rabies vaccination is currently almost impossible to find.  I did some quick research and discovered that the lack of supply is based on two things.  One, the manufacturer of pre-exposure vaccine is renovating.  Two, the supplier of post-exposure vaccine doesn’t produce the pre-exposure vaccine.  Amazing to think that there is one company that has the corner on the entire rabies market…

seeking inspiration in words…

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“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe” – Anatole France

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

Found in a BraveNewTraveller article written by Lola Akinmade.