Nepal Adventures 2013!: The Countdown Begins

Hello everyone! The past week has gone so fast…it has been so much fun to spend time with the kids on their holiday! We took the girls swimming a while ago on the females-only day at the swimming pool. It was pouring rain and we were the only ones in the pool, but the girls LOVED it. They haven’t been swimming in three years. None of them can swim, so we stayed mostly in the shallow end with them squealing and clinging to us. It was a lot of fun. The next day was pretty rainy and we had nothing planned for the kids, so we decided to make a scavenger hunt. Without telling the kids we created teams and a list of clues and bought candy as prizes. We were a little worried we were more excited about it than the kids would be, but when we told them what we were doing they were thrilled. They looked like racers on the start line. Half an hour later, we awarded a sweaty and grinning winning team with chocolate bars. It was so great to watch them get so excited.

Our next big excursion was to White Kumba Temple. They had been asking to go for a while, so one day we decided to go. It was a two and a half hour walk, and very quickly we regretted taking the little ones, mostly because we had to carry them on our shoulders the whole time. But they barely complained! I was impressed. The temple was very beautiful and we had a fantastic view of the valley, but it was really busy and we were all really stressed out about losing a kid in the bustle. On the way home we stopped at the kids’ karate guru’s house for tea. He is such a lovely man and smiles all the time. The kids adore him. On the walk home a truck swerve to avoid hitting Shiva and me and ended up sinking into the mud and almost tipping into a rice patty. It speaks for the laid-back nature of the Nepalese that all of the people in the truck emerged laughing. Then they just sat down and started chatting until help arrived. By the time we got home it was rice time—a six hour excursion in all! After rice, the volunteers hosted Ramro Sathi’s very own Nepal’s Got Talent! The kids had been practicing their acts for a few days and I had labored over burning CDs for them to use. The girls got all dressed up and the acts were very entertaining. In the end, we had winners in five categories: Overall Winner (Sarita), Funniest (Shiva), Best Dance Moves (Suraj), Best Effort (Bhabishya), and Most Skill (Menuka and Rajju). We even had some guests from outside Ramro Sathi come to watch! Not sure who they were….random people seem to float in and out of the house. Very much an open-door policy here.

The next day was Sunday, which meant we had the day off. Sam, Rosie, Hannah and I decided to visit Pashupati, which is a holy site on the river where they hold cremations. ON the bus I met a very nice man named Anil who told me I was his dream girl and compared me to Kristen Stewart. Hm. He also taught me some Nepali and gave me some insight into the political and economic situation here. I’ve come to realize that most of the men here are harmless—often they tell us we are beautiful, but it’s not creepy. They do seem to have a lot of respect for women here but they express it differently. A few of the volunteer’s I am with totally blow off any Nepali person that speaks to them because they are convinced they only want money or sex. While this is certainly true sometimes, I think as long as you are careful you can learn a lot from the people that reach out to you. Anil then told me he wanted to make our friendship true and asked me to memorize his phone number (which I did) and call him if I ever needed anything. I don’t think I will, but he was fun to talk to on the ride to Pashupati.

After we got off the bus, Hannah, Rosie and I decided to avoid the 1000 Rs entry fee and sneak in, which was really easy to do but gave us some minor trouble later. At first I felt weird about watching someone’s funeral, but after we reached the river I felt fine. On one side of the 20ft-wide river were the family and the body, and on the other side was about 100 people, Nepalese and foreigner, watching the funeral. It was beautiful. We saw one body burn while we were there. First they wash the body in the river (yes you can see it—they don’t have the same fear of death here as we have) and then they pray around it. Next they hoist the body up onto a wooden platform covered in marigolds and cloth (if they’re an important person) and “pass the fire”. For this important part, a family member is designated to hold a burning bundle of paper and walk three times clockwise around the body: once for Brahman for creating, once for Vishnu for sustaining, and once for Shiva for destroying. Then they put the burning bundle in the mouth of the body because this is where the first and last breath is drawn. The marigolds and most of the cloth are then thrown into the river and the fire is lit from underneath the pyre while the body is covered in logs. Then the family sits and waits for 3-4 hours for the body to burn completely. I saw barely any tears. It seemed like such a healthy way to handle death…but I suppose if you believe in reincarnation it really never is death. But it was beautiful and I am so glad I had an opportunity to see it.

The next day was Teacher’s Day. The kids hold celebrations for their teachers and cook food, so we went with them to the school. As I should have expected, it was not what I was expecting. Turns out the only teachers being honored were the Karate teachers (Guru was there!) and it basically turned out to be a huge dance party. Guru blessed us with the tikka and then grinned mischievously and smeared it all over our faces. The audience of kids then asked all the volunteers to dance to Gangham Style before they all joined in. After dancing we ate the meal the kids had prepared and danced some more and talked with Guru. It was a blast. Yesterday I spent the day trying to extend my visa (success!) and today we spent more time with Guru at another school he works at as the PE teacher. We just played with his classes in the courtyard of the school for three hours. The kids were all so lovely and so happy to get to know us. Foreigners really are treated like royalty here, which I think is a mixture of outstanding hospitality and also the belief that we come from a land full of riches. It’s sad sometimes to see how they consider Western life so great when they have so much to offer, although not in material wealth. I have learned a lot from them and I really wish I had more time here. I can’t believe I leave in one week! Tomorrow Arthur and I are going to Pokhara until Monday, then I leave on Wednesday! I’ll probably have one more post before I leave. See you all soon!

Love,

Kate