Yikes, so much to catch up on... Well to start, I just returned from a two week stay in Tukuche, a village in the Annapurna region of Nepal. Tukuche is famous for it’s apples, apple brandy, and walnuts. Needless to say it was a delightful place, with some of the most welcoming people I’ve ever met. Upon arriving in my new home stay house, I felt like I was in a luxury hotel. That’s a bit of an overstatement when you see what my house actually looked like but we had been told we would be living in the “gaau,” which translates to village, implying super rural—think squatting in the dark, no running water type deal. So when I saw that my family’s home was comparable in size to my Kathmandu home, complete with a rooftop view of the Himalayas, I was stunned.
Unfortunately I was very ill for the majority of our village stay. Most of my days were spent in bed when I would periodically come out of my room to eat daalbhaat only to take more medicine and fall back asleep. My aamaa was crazy worried about me and insisted I go to the Jomson hospital, the district hospital about 40 minutes away. Since the busses don’t run on any sort of schedule, you have to take any ride you can get. Sometimes that means helping men load boxes in their Tata truck (the biggest truck company in Nepal) and then hopping in their cab for a ride. Myself, the SIT director, and another SIT staff member stuffed ourselves in the front of a Tata cab along with four other Nepalis and a large container of gasoline. The ride was no less scary than being on a rollercoaster without being strapped in. I was airborne for at least half the ride, lofted on an unsecured bench with only the people squished around me to hold me in place. The truck driver, fortunately, needed to stop for his morning chiyaa (tea) and during his break there happened to be a bus passing through. The rest of the ride to the hospital on the bus was a little more tame, which suited me fine in my fragile state.
The hospital in a word was sketch—deserted, super run down buildings, paint chipping, curtains for doors, and a quote written on the wall that read “in every parting there is an image of death.” No joke. I was supposed to let these people draw my blood. The only reason I went through with the test was because I saw the needle come out of the sterilized package. Fortunately, nothing was seriously wrong with me. No typhoid, no giardia, and most importantly, they informed me that my fever and diarrhea weren’t caused by pregnancy. Phew. So I spend my next few days again on bed rest taking medicine, drinking chiyaa and eating daalbhaat.
Aside from my illness there were a few highlights that made the whole trip worth it. Seeing the himals was enough to get me out of bed everyday and the apple juice was so fresh that it was still foamy from just being pressed. We also discovered a Dutch bakery that served apple crumble and swiss roesties. Such a treat and SUCH a nice break from daalbhaat. Our stay also happened to coincide with a village wide festival during which monks dressed up in masks and costumes, performing many dances and interpretive skits. To be truthful, we had no idea what was going on but it was still fun to watch. During our concluding ceremony of our village stay, one of our host parents addressed us with some parting words. In short, he said that while in Tukuche, we all ate daalbhaat. Some of us ate good daalbhaat, and some of us ate bad daalbhaat. But in the end it all balanced out because we ate daalbhaat. So appropriate and so Nepali.
Before venturing out to the Himalayas, we had a 4 day holiday for Dashian, the biggest holiday in Nepal. It’s like Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving all wrapped into one. My four days were spent with family doing puja (worship), playing cards, flying kites, pinging (swinging) and watching animals get slaughtered. One of the more shocking images I saw was a decapitated goat’s head getting torched in front of its brother goats waiting in line to get slaughtered. The streets were literally running with blood. My Dashian break was filled with adventures, most notably my first motorcycle ride and mountain biking experience. Both were extremely fun and totally unexpected. Sadly though, my aamaa thinks I got sick from mountain biking (oh nepali aamaas..) and has prohibited me from going again… but we’ll see.
This week will be filled with final tests before my month long ISP (independent study project) begins. One of my tests is in my Nepali proficiency, during which I will talk with someone for half and hour about my experience thus far in Nepal...yikes. After my finals I’ll get to celebrate with another Nepali holiday, Tihar.
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