Namaste!!

We apologize for not writing for a few days (aka a week) but we've been busy teaching and traveling. We finished our program in Madurai and traveled to Manipal where we met our old friend Ishita. She and her partner in crime, Tushar, run their own surf school called the Shaka Surf Club. They were nice (and patient enough) to teach us how to surf! After getting beat up by the waves, we spent some time teaching at the Manipal Institute of Communication. We will start our journey back to the states early Thursday morning. Wish us luck. Twenty eight hours of straight travel is nothing to look forward to, but we are excited to share all our experiences with our friends and family back home. Thanks for all the support and until next time!

Jenna, Nicole, Kelsey, Ishita, and Tushar

Another success :)

We have had a great time here in Madurai! Sunday we saw a beautiful temple, Monday we taught first aid and swimming stroke development, Today (Tuesday) we taught CPR, stroke development and were the center of a press frenzy! We will be picking up the newspapers tomorrow! After our regularly scheduled classes we went to the Madurai Police Training Center and taught a combination of first aid and our water safety education program. It was so much fun, and they had very good questions! Afterwords we were driven back to our lodging in the Police bus. Tomorrow after class they will take us sight seeing! Oh, almost forgot. This morning we visited an all boys school and was honored during their opening assembly with shawls and beautiful flower necklaces! Take a look at our pictures! We hope you enjoy! :)
Love
Nicole, Jenna, Kelsey, and Olivia

First Day of Teaching

Today we met our students for the week here in Maduari. We will be teaching a week long course and today we started with first aid and swim lessons. It was a great class and everyone learned so much. It was nice to see the local temple here, but we were excited to finally start teaching!! Tomorrow we start CPR and will continue stroke development. Wish us luck! Now we are going to put our tired and sunburned bodies to bed! Until next time!
Nicole, Kelsey, Jenna, and Olivia

Off to a good start

Hey all!!! We made it! Our January 2012 trip to South India is off to a great start! We have arrived in Bangalore with all our baggage and with a great attitude. This trip to South India we will be teaching in Madurai and Manipal. Our team members are Jenna Curtis, Nicole Manuel, and Kelsey Diddier, and our fourth member is Olivia who is joining our program from France. We will be meeting up with her soon and we are so eager to finally meet her! We will be taking the overnight train and then start teaching bright and early Monday morning! Until then, Happy New Year!!
Team Awesome!
Nicole, Jenna, and Kelsey

Update from Nepal

Hello all,

Well, I nearly made it all the way to Everest Base Camp--got as far as Pheriche before winter weather and extreme cold made it nearly impossible to continue. Well, not impossible, just very unwise. I took advice from locals/sherpas along the way, and they advised all trekkers to turn back at Pheriche and Lobuche. I did not argue! I have never felt as cold in my life as when I had my overnight stay in a "lodge" in Pheriche. -20 F outdoors, and easily zero indoors. Actually, the only thing separating me, outside from inside, was a thin plywood wall and a plastic tarp for a door--very primitive from Tengboche on, and certainly not for the weak-at-heart at even lower elevations like Namche Bazar. But what a trek while it lasted! I saw some of the most beautiful geography ever, and had a good time, although freezing cold for most of it. From Lukla to Namche, the weather was sunny and warm, and I hiked in a t-shirt for this distance. Then like a light switch, the weather turned nasty and cold. Trekking upward from Namche to Pheriche was literally in the fog, and the entire trek back down to Lukla was foggy, windy, light snow, and COLD. Once back in Lukla, I found the accomodations all over town to be staggering. In the middle of winter, there is no running water--it's all frozen, and nobody wants to waste their firewood for warmth, only to cook with. The best place to hang out for the night, I found, was in the kitchen of the Shangri-La Lodge, with the locals. I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but it was warmer than in the lodge itself! I just smiled a great deal, and responded, "USA"!!! With a backup of airline flights, I had to battle it out with frantic foreign trekkers for a flight down to Kathmandu--this proved to be quite an adventure. Some of these trekkers had been stuck in Lukla for up to seven days already. A very temporary break in the clouds yesterday morning meant that three airplanes had time, and visibility, to land and take back off. A "bribe" on my part of $120 US to the right airport worker (with the help of a sherpa, Goatham), assured me a seat on Agni Airlines back to Kathmandu--really. Otherwise, I think I might still be sitting in the freezing wasteland of Lukla.

Anyway, now I am back in the relative warmth of Kathmandu, at the Hotel Everest Mount Holiday, enjoying my last 48 hours before flying back to the United States. Helena's Rooftop Cafe is every bit as good as I read about and was advised--a long walk upstairs (well worth it) puts you eight stories above Thamel on a sunny, warm, scenic rooftop overlooking the entire city. The breakfast at this location has been the absolute best! See you all in a few short days,

Paul Bosseler

Mountain Bike Race

Today we worked a downhill monutain bike race here in the foothills of Kathmandu. We taught first aid, trauma management, and CPR to race volunteers, and we even got a chance to utilize some of our skills, as there were many crashes, and a few cuts and scrapes that were tended to. The bikers are crazy! This hill is steep, fast, rocky, and bumpy--pictures can do no justice when shooting a 45 degree angle.

Farewell from Kathmandu. The other four volunteers leave for home tomorrow, and I am pressing on to trek to Everest Base Camp for the next two weeks. Will have no on-line contact during this time period, but will get everyone caught up with some great photos in two weeks.

Paul Bosseler

Namaste Nepal

I feel so blessed to have been able to make three trips with Project Swim International, and this last one here in Nepal has been great! The people have been so wonderful and welcoming here. I loved having the chance to teach such a variety of students not only our water safety education program, but to also conduct a CPR class for lifeguards and a First Aid class for a group of Mountain Bikers. The experiences I have had are once in a lifetime, and I am so glad that I have had so much support from family and friends to get here, and continued support from the locals of Nepal, and the wonderful volunteers with PSI.

I want to say a big thank you to our executive director, Benjamin Schaub and all the hard work and HEART he puts into each of these trips. Thank you for all you do!! I want to thank our wonderful and very supportive local contact Yubraj with Nepal Swimming Association and our friend Deepak for their help on this trip. Finally, a huge thank you to the members of my group I was able to lead this year. They are an amazing group of volunteers who have struggled through sickness and hard situations, and everyday awoke with smiles and taught so many people here. Thank you Paul (co-leader), Amanda, Jacque, and Nick for a wonderful trip to Nepal, you guys were so great and thank you for putting up with me for 3 weeks! ;)

It is a bitter sweet goodbye as I leave for home tomorrow and return to school and work! Thank you to everyone who has been involved with PSI, especially the other groups in India! See you soon!

Namaste!

Nicole