First Week in Nepal

Becca, my roommate, leaves early Monday morning. I breakfast with Laurel, an avant guard artist from California, Alex from Spain, and Annesofie, who I realize much later is not from the states, but rather from Denmark. I get a call from Keshav that class will start at 1 pm, so join these three on a shopping excursion in Thamel. Thamel is the touristy area an hour’s walk away, but only half that if we take the bus. The bus is a smallish van in which 15 people are squished. The driver’s son shouts out our destination, so we make our way the four feet to the back of the bus and feel the stares of the other passengers. Fifteen bumpy minutes later, the son takes our 10 rupees (about $.15) for the ride. We steer through the local market, stepping on piles of garbage, accosted by a child that walks on stumps where his knees should be, step around mangy sleepy dogs in the middle of the busy sidewalks, and avoid tripping in the absences of the sidewalk. Dust is everywhere and some people wear masks or hold a kerchief over their mouth and nose. I wonder why I haven’t bought one.

The shops are dark and cramped, at most seven square feet. Merchandise is stacked from floor to ceiling and hangs from shutters outside collecting dust. On the street in front are vendors with their wares on short tables or whatever they can find for display. These vendors carry their goods to the market in huge wicker baskets strapped around their foreheads. This is also how huge pieces of furniture are conveyed. Needless to say, the strength of their necks is incredible.

The girls shop while Alex and I people watch and chat. I learn he didn’t speak any English when arriving a month ago, and now we carry on a long conversation in English in which he is very much at ease. How envious I am that he picked it up so quickly. My attempts to learn Spanish serve me well this week in learning some Nepalese. Maybe it’s because I’m being taught in English, rather than the TEFL approach, which means teaching in the foreign language. The sentence structure is easy to learn—Subject + Object + Verb. Sentences and questions are in the same order. To answer a question, you simply replace the question word with the answer.
E.g. Ko naam ke ho?
Mero naam Vicki ho.

Many people in Thamel do speak English, but I have practiced some of my learning—
Namaste means hello and goodbye
Dhanybad means thank you
Chaahidaina means no thank you/I don’t need it
Swaagat chha means you’re welcome
Shuva Bihani means good morning
Shuva Raatri means good night
Hawasta means see you later
Thik chaa means okay
Raamro means good

We didn’t get into verb conjugation as in Spanish, but I think that present and future tense are the same.

I spend three hours in class my first few days in Nepal, but my course is cut short because of the upcoming Dashain festival. Knowing this is coming, I explore when not in class. One morning before dawn, another volunteer and I awaken to go to yoga. What a spiritual sight to see the Kalanki Temple at the top of our street bright with candles, the ritual of the daily worship here. A mere five minutes later the mood is dispelled completely with the raising of a sickle high above an unsuspecting goat. How quickly I turn my head when not wanting to see the inevitable. As the week progresses, we see more and more livestock in Kathmandu.

The Dashain festival is the biggest festival of the year, rather like our Christmas. And rather like our Easter, the date changes every year, occurring sometime in October or November. The festival is in honor of Durga, the Hindu goddess of power, who wards off evil. Hundreds of thousands of goats, cows, chickens, and ducks are brought to Kathmandu for sacrifice, or slaughter, depending upon your viewpoint. Durbar Square in Kathmandu is slaughter-central, though butcher shops around the city are active in the process as well. Goats’ heads are prominently displayed. The bodies of goats are boiled, then the hair is pulled off in clumps. All this is done on the city streets. Much of the slaughter is for the military personnel in Kathmandu and for their families throughout the region. Animal activists are voicing their anger at this mass killing:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/features/article_1591651.php/Nepal-prepares-for-annual-mass-animal-sacrifice-Feature

There is a noticeable decrease in traffic as many people go home to celebrate with their families. Shops in touristy Thamel have remained open today, as would those in the States on Christmas Eve. One shopkeeper said he couldn’t partake in the festivities because his grandmother died this year. Hindu’s have to wait a full year after the death of a loved one to participate in this celebration. I wonder if this means they are more susceptible to evil or accidents if they don’t make a sacrifice to Durga. This is an apt question to ask our hotel manager, who is taking us out to dinner tonight and also unable to partake in the festivities due to a death in the family.

We arrive at our volunteer project in Jampaling, west of Pokhara the main day of Dashain. The people in the Lodrik Settlement have many things planned for our next two weeks. We think we’ll be doing some type of construction project, tomorrow we find out!

Shula Raatri