Never. Ending. Peace. And. Love.

..its been a long time since i have blogged on this. its something that is of a rare opportunity to actually get on this without power cuts, internet failing and just general speed of the net here.
Its been probably about 3 weeks since ive written in this blog and so much has happened.

the last few weeks have been hard. the work has increased to picking up boulders and putting them in wheel barrows to the site. Its amazing how we don't actually have permission to get the rocks off right at the work site. This is due to the stubbornness of the village people. What amazes me is that when i told someone at work before i came on platform2. That im doing volunteering work. The first thing he said to me was "why help people if they cant help themselves". At the time i thought that this was just ignorance whilst containing some element of truth. The fact that we work hard from 9 till 4 and people still dont understand or want to acknowledge the work we are doing. To them they think that we have cursed the village with our values and morals, this is true to a certain extent on all the volunteers parts, as we are stepping into a realm of which we are not familiar with. Some volunteers think that everyone is ungrateful. Some have even forgotten why they are here and just want to go get burgers and yam on diarymilk's all day in kathmandu. lol its tough.

We celebrated a festival which is a womens festival, they send praises to there husband to give them a healthy life. This was interesting and really opened my mind to the way nepali people live. Its amazing how so little each person in this village has. yet still has hapiness. There souls have peace within them and you can clearly see this when you meet a villager lol. On this day i went to the festival but left early to go up to the mountains near my house, one of my host brothers is really spiritual so he took me up there, i reaally wanted to go and did it! I met this monk there and he sat with me for a good half an hour talking about life. Whilst having such an amazing view of the whole of the village lol. He spoke limited english about wisdom and love also on the theory of love and peace. It is the most amazing conversation ive ever had in my life! will never forget that day! the only probelm was my camera battery ran out!!!!!!!!. we exchanged our beliefs and values to one another. he spoke of buddha and one qoute that will always stick with me is this one (which i had to find on the net :P) it goes like this..

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And Habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its way with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings...
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become." —Buddha

its so simple yet it is so complex in many ways. the ways in which we dont recognise our thoughts. we dont actually think about the simplest of things. we jump straight into the deep end without realising where we have started. Next thing you know this has defined our character.

Other than these two huge events and the hardwork which we came here for. Everything is really slow paced. and you always seem to learn somthing everyday if you choose to. Somtimes you think today was full of nothing. lol but when i lay in bed, which is probably why i cant sleep. I just think of everything that has happened. and analyse things. I think that my perceptions have changed on how i see things because of Nepal. which is a beautiful thing lol. but yeah.

Ive decided not to fast. because when i tried i got a serious fever. you have to eat somthing out here. and in a way what we collectivly have come to do is a sadaq initself.. I'll try and blog whenever i have the chance too. right now it seems that i can do this every few weeks. so thats sweeeet!

the high Buddah

its Saturday and i thought id keep it short since nothing intensly interesting is happening..last night after i wrote my blog i got back to the hotel to meet up with the most safest guy in the group. His names leon, from liverpool. hardcore scouse accent. speaking of scouse he told me of how it originally came together and why the called them scousers. its basically back in WW2 when there was not that much food and it was rations. the liverpool dudes would make a soup and it was called scouse. and they were the only people to make this spesific soup. lol.

So anyway i was chillin with leon and we decided since it was a day off and we only have one day off. to get some weed. the weed here is so cheap and of such good quality. and its tolerated in Nepal. which i think is a beautiful thing. so we bought a whole load of it. i dont know exactly how much but it made 9 joints and we still have alot! put it that way. the weed here is so much more refreshing.. its like inhaling fresh mountain love lol. i was thinking that i wouldnt do it here in Nepal. but the freedom ive just given into. so me and leon smoked nine joints and we still felt good. just really mellowed out... thats all that happens on weekends now. hopefully when things get more interesting ill inform you guys.. peace

in the city of Nepal

when i landed in nepal everything was like a whole new landscape. literally everything about the place is different. whilst still having that Indian classic feel. i know so many people that who would travel there. who want to just live there for the rest of there life. and there soul will always be satisfied, thats a fact!

so the first 4 days where spent in the Tibetan hotel in a street called thamel. it has a beautiful view that looks over the central tourist district of Kathmandu. Streets are busy and pact, always merchants trying to sell small hand made violins and tabla drums, trying desperately to make a living. your heart falls for them but you have to remain strong. (i want to apologize for the late blog entry, this place has barely any connection so the internet is mega slow, sorry about this. You don't realize how lucky you are!). I shared a room with a guy called Micheal. at first i wasn't to keen on him as all he would do would talk about how much he misses his drinks and what not. but as the few days progressed, we really got on despite the differences, We went site seeing, took millions of photos and witness the beauty of the monkey temple, This a temple that the Buddhist's go to to attain spiritual cleanliness, i bought a tabla drum from there to remind me of the beauty, so every time i play it, it will always remind me of such a place and time. Like taking a musical photograph of the environment i was in lol . So all is good right now but none of the spirit of Nepal was captured until we reached our project site Sirutar. We were both allocated with a host family who would technically be our parents for the short stay. So we stayed in the main central Kathmandu for 4 days to get us used to the ethics of Nepal.

In Sirutar it's just a different ball game all together. everywhere you look its foresty and green. wild dogs and birds both linger together in harmony. something that Kathmandu doesn't capture is the pure hardworking Nepalese nature, and feelings of tranquility and peace. Our platform2 group are set out to construct the foundations of a local school within Sirutar. This consisted of heavy digging and shifting pieces of mud to fill and level the rough battered land. Now working from 9 till 5 in such intense labour, including the burning heat that just pierces through your head. makes you sweat like you've had a shower. Somthing no one can experience in England.
the feelings of fatigue just surge through you. and its only 20 mins in. lol. very hardcore man..
Back at the host family, me and Micheal have been given Nepali names, this is something of the norm in Nepali culture. I was named by my host sister "Ram" which is a Hindi god, i don't know much about the story of Ram. Or what Micheal's Nepali name is. but will make an effort to find out lol!

I guess that's all for now Ive only spent a week in Nepal altogether! will definitely keep you guys informed. whenever i get the chance.