Happy Halloween!
After a month of celebrating the largest and most important Nepali holidays
with our students and friends, it was nice to bring a good ol’ American tradition
into our house. We were supposed to have a Halloween party, but it just sort
of fell through. After school a few groups of our students stopped by for some
candy, and we taught them the oh so wonderful “Trick or Treat” song. After
they left we all went up to change into our costumes…Liz dressed up like a
Nepali house 
wife, Geraldine was a ghost, Monica and her sister Jennifer both
dressed in traditional Korean costumes, Colleen dressed up like a Nepali man,
and I dressed up like Dal Bhot. (pronounced DOLL BOUGHT) Dal Bhot is the national
meal here, and is eaten at almost every meal. Dal is a lentil gravy, and bhot
is rice. So how did I pull this off? Well, I dressed up like a doll, and put
a sold sign on my chest. Ha ha. I was a doll that was bought! Get it!? It was
actually 
pretty scary, I looked like a possessed toy. After dinner we walked
around to some our friends houses to show them what we looked like, and they
all got a kick out of it. It was a pretty interesting night to say the least,
and being the only people in the village dressed up definitely made us feel
like we weren’t from around here.
We finally started school again on Thursday. I loved having a break, but it’s nice to be back too. We’ll teach for another two months before the long winter break. I decided to let all my hair grow over the break, and everyone was pretty surprised when we got back to school. Most Nepali men can’t grow facial hair very well and always keep their hair short, so seeing me was definitely new for them. Most of the guy teachers told me they liked the beard, but most of the women teachers told me they hated it and asked me every day when I was planning on cutting it. The look of disgust on their face was pretty funny.
Oh, before I forget. A lot of people emailed me and told me 
they were surprised
at how nice our school was, and had questions about the type of students we
were teaching. Yes, our school is definitely very nice, and the simple fact
that we have grounds, and fields, and not just some run down three story building
(like many of the schools here) definitely makes our school stand out. So here’s
how our school came to be…
A week after my village stay we went to Pokhora, a large tourist town used
mostly as the starting point for many treks. Spent about 
two days there. We
climbed to the top of Sarangkot early one morning to watch the sun rise over
the Himals and the low clouds burn away over the valley floor. Very impressive.
Took a boat 
ride
across the lake, went to a waterfall, ate, relaxed, and ate some more. I actually
ended up driving a taxi…two drivers drove us to the waterfalls,
then asked us if we wanted them to wait for us. We said sure, and when we were
finished walking around the falls we came back out and there they were. I walked
up to one of the cars, and jokingly motioned to the driver that I would be
getting behind the wheel. He laughed and said no, we both laughed, and then
I went to the second driver. To my total surprise, he handed the keys right
over and got in on the passengers side. I didn’t 
know what to do because I
really didn’t expect him to say yes, I was just sort of doing it to be funny.
So I got in and drove us home, my first experience driving in the wrong side
of the car on the wrong side of the road. It wasn’t too far, but I made sure
to honk almost the entire way back, just like all Nepali drivers. Fun fun fun.
I had felt myself getting sick during the entire Pokhora trip, and the day after we got back my immune system finally failed. Oh man I thought I was going to die. Here in Nepal, I’ve come to find out, you don’t get a little sick. You’re either fine, or your stuck in bed for at least two days, unable to move and do anything other than sleep. Had this nasty cough which felt like knives cutting my esophagus along with a 103 degree fever, but the doctor knew his stuff and the pills he gave me fixed me right up in three days.
And just in time for the second round or holidays…The first Dashian, happened
at the beginning of October, and the second, Tihar, came right at the end.
This holiday is 5 days long, and each day was a little different. Every day
had the worshiping of some animal, like the dog, ox
, crow, cow…you’d see these
animals walking around with Thika on their forehead. On two of the days, kids
would come around to the houses and dance and sing for money and blessings.
We had many visitors at our house, and joined a group of our students one night
and walked around the village with them, dancing and singing. Tihar is known
as the festival of lights, and everyone would decorate their house with stringed
lights and candles, and every house had a painted path in the front leading
inside, for the Goddess of wealth to follow and bring good fortune to the family.
The last night of Tihar was the Newari New Year, and we were invited to Ama
Ghar to celebrate. On all the other nights, you worshipped a different animal,
but on this night, you worshipped yourself by giving yourself Thika. It was
called Ma (I) Puja (Blessing), and the whole ceremony was pretty cool. We started
by making about 50 Mandalas on the floor, patterns made by different colored
sand. This would serve as everyone’s place setting. Then after the mandalas
were 
made, all these different fruits were placed around, and other special
and important foods or flowers were set in front of each person, and step by
step everyone would complete an action of some significance. Most of the time
I didn’t know why I was doing what I was doing, but hey, when in Nepal….Some
of these steps included putting curd on your temples, lighting a wick over
a walnut, eating a hard boiled egg and a cooked fish, giving yourself Thika,
having someone throw flowers all over you, throwing flowers over the fruit
in front of you. After everything was completed we had a big meal and that
was pretty much it. It was really fun actually, and definitely interesting
to participate in such an important “ritual.”
Well, I think that’s about all for now. Hope everyone had a great Halloween…take care, talk to ya soon.
Kevin