Again, I must start this post with sincere apologies for the long silence!
Much has happened: trekking, high holidays, a trip to Pokhara, and much language learning. Instead of a long monologue that most of you will skip over anyway, let's just get straight to the pictures...
me and my new boyfriend, he's my rock
(Dubar Square in Baktipur)
For those of you (gege) that love my scared faces: this is a moment after I got my nose pierced. No worries to you worry-warts, I saw the shop owner sterilize the tools with a flame-torch. Yes, it seems odd to me too that a flame thrower is a staple at most shops...
Musicians of the "musician caste" demonstrating traditional Nepali instruments for us in a small village near Pokhara. A few minutes after this was taken it turned into a full blown dance party.
Now, for a few shots from Dashain. Dashain is the biggest Hindu festival of the year, celebrating (to make a very long complicated story short) the mother nature goddesses triumph over evil. Now this is a holiday I can get behind! One of the main traditions is for each family to slaughter a goat on the 8th day. A few days beforehand, I went with my baa and uncles to the "goat bazaar" where there were literally thousands of goats tied up. In a morbidly similar situation to picking out the Christmas tree we chose a small tan and white fellow. He hung out in our backyard for a few days before being ceremoniously "cut." As far as I can tell this goat enjoyed a happy life (with my little brother playing with him up until the very end) and a very swift, painless death. I figured, if I can't stomach eating this goat then I should become a vegetarian. To my great surprise, I rather enjoyed the whole endeavor, and thus, will continue to eat responsibly raised meat.
Here is my action shot of the goat being killed... sorry it's a bit graphic. This guy makes his living killing goats, and he seriously knew what he was doing.
While the goat was being killed, my little sister shields by little brother's eyes.
A few hours latter, my Grandfather quite skillfully disemboweling the goat. We cut and ate every part of the goat, some of the more interesting pieces included: blood pudding, lung with onions, stomach, sucking out marrow, and the brains (which luckily for me only go to the eldest male)Another important, less gruesome, part of Dashain is the Tika ceremony. Every one in the family gives everyone younger tika (or a large slab of red vermilion power mixed with rice on the forehead.)
This hasn't much to do with Dashain, but I thought this photo was quite adorable. This is my little spider monkey of a brother who seems to have permanently attached himself to my hip.
After the Dashain celebrations were over, we had a week off to travel as we wanted. I and fellow student and backpacking enthusiast, Phil, decided to trek for a week in the Langtang region of the Himalayas about a stone's throw from Tibet. We were led my Dogelji, the son of one of the men who work for the program. Dogelji, at 21, just spent 8 years as a Buddhist monk. He's full of philosophy and enthusiasm for the world, and made struggling through existentialism in Nepali quite worth it.
The three of us started our journey with my second near death experience here in Nepal (the first being the earthquake that, quite literally, rocked my world.) The 10 hour bus ride up to Langtang was on the worst road I have ever seen in my life. Every 10 minutes we would have to get out and walk and watch the bus pass through spots not more than an inch wider than the tires. This was made all the better by the 50 extra people on the bus. People were shoved like sardines into the aisles rocking back and forth with the rocky road. As I was saying my last prayers there was a woman's butt in my face and two crying babies in my lap... By some miracle we made it to Sebrubessi and started the trek in the morning.
This was one point where the bus stopped for a half hour while we watched the road being built in front of us. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
Philji and Dogalji take a minute next to a tea shop after a 3 hour climb up a steep cliff on the first day.
The unique architecture of Gatlang (a small village a few days walk from a road) No cement was used to hold up the rocks used to build the houses. This night we payed the equivalent of 40 cents per person for a room and witnessed traditional singing the night before a young girls marriage (one of the many perks of being able to speak Nepali- the lodge owners would invite us in the kitchen and take us around town)
A bit of a red faced photo but captures the glory of the moment! Also, if any of you ladies are still hiking in pants I highly suggest you switch to the windy team.
A gorgeous view from Tatopaani (translating to hot water and named for the hot springs we soaked in that night)
Let's play guess the 1960's musical??
The three stooges at the top
One of the best rooms we had, three sided view of the Himalayas from bed.
Hope all is well in the home front! As always, I'd love to hear from you all and about you're own adventures, so drop a line if you get a chance. I have a week and a half more in Kathmandu and then I head to the village. For 2 weeks I'll be with the group and then I head up to remote Shimigaun (meaning Bean-town!!) to study globalization's effect of traditional agriculture. It sounds quite professional, but I am beyond excited to go get my hands dirty!
Sending lots of love!!
