February 15, 2012

I was able to enjoy the luxury of ordering a small pot of masala tea to be brought up to my room as soon as the kitchen was open at 6:30am. This was something I always treated myself to when the Peace Corps brought us into the city for conferences and professional development sessions.

The buffet-style breakfast, included in the price of the room, offered a wide selection of dishes and I sat with other ELFs while eating some more curry vegetables, puri bread and baked tomatoes. Our first session started at 9:00am and consisted of a very confusing warm-up during which we passed different pieces of potatoes around and said everybody’s name. Not one to be added to my repertoire. There were the usual technical glitches and then we went on to review the results of an online survey Georgetown had conducted to see how we were faring at our respective posts. After that, we gathered in groups of three and contributed what we thought had been a successful activity. I talked about my grammar games session at the American Corner, we looked for commonalities and then wrote those on a flip chart to share with the others.

Subsequently, three other ELFs shared what had been their challenges and successes and the RELO asked for input as to what other solutions could be found for those problems that remained unresolved. Lunch was at the hotel as we didn’t have enough time to venture out. Corrie, Caroline and David opted for eating fruit they had purchased the night before and skipped lunch altogether. The afternoon session dragged on as other ELFs presented their problems and successes including the last guy, a very old man who had not even been able to put together a PowerPoint presentation and who started his session by saying he was the right person to be assigned to Turkmenistan because he was male, agile and patient. He regaled us with stories about his posts, but never got around to what problems or success he might be facing there. The RELO called the remaining ELFs who have not presented yet and asked us to make sure we stick to the script and observe the time constraint tomorrow.

Most of us agreed to go for walk to the Patan Square area at the end of the session and have dinner nearby. As it is usually the case, we stood around for about half hour, while daylight faded away, waiting for this person or another. I really dislike going anywhere with a crowd and it was a mistake to agree to this arrangement. There were about 12 of us and given the lack of sidewalks, we practically had to walk single file while fending off bicycles, cars and motorcycles, the occasional dog and people bearing loads. The honking of horns got on my nerves the minute I started walking and when we got the square, we were surrounded by vendors bearing the typical souvenirs: embroidered bags, flags, necklaces, amulets and so on. I know that if I had been by myself, I could have gone undetected. William and David did offer to buy some of the stuff and that only got the attention of other vendors who quickly swarmed around us touching me on my arms and back to get my attention. I felt as if I was back in Agra, at the Taj Mahal, fending off touts of every kind so I could enjoy a quiet view of the monument.

Eventually, we made our way to a restaurant where all the staff is deaf-mute and you order your meal using sign language. I wasn’t particularly hungry and neither was Tara, so we decided to share an order of momos and another lassi for me. The momos, a steamed kind of pot stickers, were bland and only lukewarm. I felt the beginning of a cold as I could barely swallowed my food and was about to drop from exhaustion. We walked back to the hotel aided by the flashlight William had been cautious enough to pack as there was no power then.

I found a book on the coffee table of the hotel, “Elephant Polo”, which deals with the construction of a hotel by a group of Dutch trekkers and started reading it.