less than one month in nepal: reflection on dudh chiya, language learning, and the dalai lama(??)
Namaste Whitman! I’m currently writing this less than 20 minutes after I got back from our class excursion to India! Specifically, post 12-hour bus ride and 2-hour flight from Dharamsala to Kathmandu. Hitting the month mark feels unreal in some ways; I feel so new to this country yet like I’ve been here with my homestay and with my classmates for so long! In these past 3+ weeks, we’ve all become pros in navigating to and from class, crossing the hectic streets, and expressing that we feel waakwaak (nauseous) to our host families…
(above + right) Orientation week hike to Namo Buddha!
Week one primarily consisted of orientation and easing us into a new country. We also started our language classes. After taking French for seven years during middle and high school, the structure and immersion of this language felt very smooth in comparison at first! I feel like I’ve already learned so much in such a short time. But, the first thing we learned? “Dudh chiya, dinus na”, meaning “Please give me milk tea!” is a phrase that proved to be vastly important and most used especially at cafes and on excursions. I’ve always had a love for tea, but always took it black. However, I cannot express how genuinely life-changing Nepali dudh chiya has been among my study abroad group. We all consume at least 3 cups a day minimum at this point, with probably a 5 cup/day average. When I arrived at my homestay and drank some afternoon dudh chiya my didi (host older sister) advised me to limit my intake for the sake of my stomach. This is advice I didn’t think I would’ve ever needed to take, but I do think it may have started to catch up to me now (two cups a day is enough!).
Kathmandu!
Besides being an expert in asking for dudh chiya, for have been learning Nepali for less than a month, I honestly think I’m at an okay place in my language understanding…Until it comes to actually using it. When in Kathmandu, I’m staying with a family of 3, in which only my didi (host older sister) speaks English, and my aamaa and baa (host mom and dad) speak very little. I think this is definitely helping with my language ability in comparison to my classmates whose families speak more English. My aamaa and I have created a little routine though! When I come down for breakfast I (try and often fail) to ask her what she’s doing during the day, tell her what I’m doing after class, and do homework in the kitchen with her once I get home in the evening. My Nepali is also most used during our many shopping trips in the tourist district. Greeting store owners with, “Namaste, kasto chha?” (hi, how are you?) will either produce a response in English and laugh at us or a long reaction in Nepali that none of us can understand. Slowly, I’m getting the hang of it. Next update I can assure you I’ll actually be able to successfully bargain in Nepali…
The past week we’ve been staying at the campus of an India-based women’s org called Jagori. We sat in on meetings with people in the villages of Himachal Pradesh, and while we couldn’t understand Hindi the meetings were conducted in, observing gender dynamics as well as debriefing with translated explanations afterward has been vastly interesting. At least speaking for myself, I’ve felt very hopeful and excited about the work the people at the organization have been doing for intersectionality within feminism; integrating class dynamics within villages, environmentalism, and providing actually applicable and attainable modes of “empowerment” (a word we discussed as needing lots of nuance) for Himalayan women (such as low cost-high yield mushroom farming).
(above left) Snowy mountains glowing at night behind friends, (above right) view from Jagori!
Last update in recent adventures…Yesterday (February 24th) morning we left bright and early (actually it was completely dark out) at 5:30am from Jagori’s campus to head into Dharamshala proper. When arriving it was a rush of looking through our bags, emptying phones, pocket knives, or anything we might not be able to bring into the temple…Before we head in to see the Dalai Lama speak that morning. Entering was just like a high-security concert: bag checks, metal detectors, pat downs, and no phones! We went in among the many many people eager to see H.H. and rushing to get a good view of his entrance and seat. While waiting, a friend and I made conversation with the women in front of us who were also tourists and were traveling in India for 3 months and met at a hostel there. One who was from Wisconsin, and we had some good international Midwest bonding! I honestly still cannot process this quite yet as it happened just over 24 hours ago, but being in a space filled with such emotion and among an individual with such importance in many ways has felt so amazing and surreal. I’ve yet to listen to the translated speech on YouTube because of all the travel in the past few days, but the experience, even without understanding Tibetan was just so amazing words cannot fully describe it.
We also had some really good rice with nuts and raisins served by the monks while we waited for H.H. to speak. Food at Namgyal Monastery 10/10 would recommend.
We’ll now be in Kathmandu for our regular class schedule for the next two weeks! See ya soon!