Christmas Nepali style!
It has been a while since our last email, between the winter power cuts which now last for 7 hours a day usually in the morning and always between 5 and 9 at night and 9 of using the orphanage computer it is hard to find time to sit down.
We have really gotten into the Nepali routine now, catching buses, eating all kinds of food etc...
Since we have been here we have had about 7 or 8 days of strike, which means nothing is open at all and the only way to get anywhere is by bicycle which luckily we have had. We now know our local area very well, after climbing through the hills and wading in the river on warmer days, it has been fun.
Christmas eve here was a bit of something to remember. Here the people think Christmas eve is a night to go out into town, drink, dance and stay up really late. Maybe it is for some of you, but we usually go to bed at a regular time and then spend the day with family and friends, feasting and having fun. Though I must say the Nepalese really know how to play the air guitar. Parents and Grandparents close you ears, we went on the back of our friends motor bikes, in the rain, without a helmet.
Christmas day was a bit different too. We woke early and got to the orphanage early to talk to the family, HI EVERYONE!! It was great to hear from you. We spent the day leading to christmas shopping and preparing a mini feast for the children, which included chicken and stuffing momos, mashed potato and vegetables (without curry!!). Our friend Harvey is a chef, so he headed up the kitchen and we all learnt the traditional way of making momos, but really I think the nepalis in the orphage just thought what the heck are these foreign people doing!! Our host took us shopping on Christmas day in the market place and managed to get us a few good bargains, but we can't mention what we got, its a suprise!! Helen and Annalee (our German friend) baked cakes and cookies in a local wood oven too. We took the kids to the park for a few hours and when we got home they put on a little cultural dance concert for all of us volunteers, it was awesome. One of the highlights of the day was the white elephant gifts we exchanged, each person bought something, wrapped it, and then one at a time we got to either open a gift or swap with another person who had already opened one. I scored an awesome tintin picture and some candy. Dinner went down well, but right after we took it out the children started piling mashed potato in the middle of the table, we thought it was a disaster, but fortunately we had just served too much and to make up for it, the cakes and biscuits disappeared in seconds!! Yes, sounds busy but much of the day was spent sitting in the common room talking about what we would be doing if we were home!!
I was also lucky enough to experience a bout of food poisoning a little while ago, a communal squat toilet just doesn't have the same comfort as home, but its all part of the experience. On the opposite side of things, with one of the other volunteers being a chef we have been able to have some tasty treats, for example yesterday we made and ate a Banoffee pie. We have also become well acquainted with the German bakery down the street.
We gave our host family a very large box of cadbury favourites the other day, the following afternoon they were entirely demolished, apparently the chocolate is better!! Vegemite was another story, they spat it out and said they were going to puke in front of us, heaven help us though if we did that to their food!!
We have also planned to cook for them one night this week. Spaghetti bol and stewed apple and custard I think is all we will manage on the stove top.
The last week has been spent teaching Maths, english and social to the children every morning and our afternoon have been filled with shopping and fun at the Pokhara street festival which began on the 28th and goes till the first. The roads have been cut off from traffic and there are hundreds of restaurants and clothes stalls all over the road, as well as street dancing, and cultural displays. For New Years tonight we are hitting the street to find something that looks slightly edible and then we will sit back and admire the blue moon, yes that's right a blue moon and a lunar eclipse taking place at 11pm here tonight!!
On Saturday we have booked a rafting trip on the Trishuli river, $27 for the day, including meals and a 3 hr bus ride each way!! Don't know how it will be but it will be an adventure none the less.
No comments:
Post a Comment