After breakfast I sat with the kids for a
while, watched them get ready and leave.
I read a book, listen to my music, fought with the flies. I tried to
organize my stuff. Put my books on the
shelf, put my unnecessary clothes into the backpack and away. I brought towels, bed sheets and pillow
cases, some gift for the children so I had not much in my bag actually.
At 11:00 Asa and Santi came from school,
passed my doors yelling “Manju!” and went to do their homework. The Shreeram and Sarita came and they had
lunch. We worked on Nepali with Shreeram
for a while. He said we could go to the
office in Narayangarth so we did. On his
motorcycle on a very bumpy road this was going to be an adventurous trip. But
after 10 minutes I started enjoying the view.
I did have the fear of getting into an accident, worried how the health
care was around here but then I said whatever….
But the moment we entered the city
everything turned mad! Traffic is moving from the other side! Vehicles
are coming from every direction. Buffaloes
are sitting in the middle of the streets.
As if they are in a filed, very comfortably, thinking what are all these
people doing here? All drivers are honking
the horns like crazy. I had no idea who was honking to whom.
When we finally arrived at the office, I
checked my emails, send a couple. Everybody
was worried. I did not tell them exactly
where I was going, I just told them Nepal, a small country in the east between
India and China. One of my friends asked
me for the exact address so at least one person would know where I was. So I send it to her, wondering how long would
it take them to come and find me if they did not here from me or how long would
they have to not here from me? Well, I sent them anyways.
On the way back I told Shreeram I had to
buy a lungi. Lungi is the piece of
fabric that you wear or just wrap around your body when you are taking a
bath. And since the bath is outside I
really needed one. This was the 3rd
day without a bath or shower so I kind of started to smell like the goat at the
house. So we got a lungi from a store
for 200 rupis. Then we went into the
store across the street and went into a back room and smoked a cigarette. I
asked him can I smoke in the house. He said “Oh sure you can but I can’t.
Sarita wouldn’t let me.” So I smiled, thinking how women eat after the men eat
and sit on the floor but they can forbid cigarettes.
I am not supposed to drink alcohol either,
he said, or eat buffalo meat. It is forbidden in our caste. Their caste is called the Brahmin. Only the lower castes can eat buffalo meat,
because the buffaloes are used in the fields.
Brahmins can eat chicken, goat and fish.
This caste system is very interesting
actually. The castes are not determined
by peoples economic grades of course. They are not really passed on from family
either. There are 3 castes that are the
untouchables. People that work with
iron, carpenters and tailors. People from these castes are not to be touched or
touch upper castes. So a tailor will
measure you and make a dress for you but she/he can’t touch you or be touched
by you. 10 years ago a simple man came
out and told everybody that this was bullshit and they had to change this. This
was a bit of a religious revolution actually because a lot of people came to
agree with him after listening. There
are still people who believe you have to put water on a gold ring in your ear
and splash it to this lower caste person if you ever touch him. But a lot has changed, revolution is like
that. And obviously all people need is a
man who will tell them something true.
The Hindu religion in Nepal is strict in a
way but people themselves are open minded.
They listen and have respect in others’ opinions. So they are open to change. Although the religion itself is very strict,
they find a way to twist rules. It is
the same in all religions. Muslim people don’t drink on a Thursday evening or
in Ramadan because they are sacred times, but you can see the same person drunk
on a Saturday night! So Nepali man go to
little shops which have secret back rooms closed with curtains and eat
buffaloe, with a little raksi. Raksi is
the local drink made from rice. I call
it the buffalo killer. It is very strong!
And since nobody has a refrigerator at home you have to drink it warm,
which makes it even stronger in taste,
and harder to drink but easier to get tipsy! So I mixed a little sprite in it whenever I
had the chance to drink some.
So went home, a little tipsy from the
afternoon raksi, happy to have a lungi, dreaming of a bath… I went into my
room, opened my book and I see this enormous spider walking on the bed. It was
more a tarantula than a spider. So I ran
out and told them there was a huge spider in my room. They came in, checked it out, tried to catch
it with their hands it ran away of course, “Oh they said it is gone.” I
thought to myself, ok it is gone. This
was strange to me. I had to find the
creature I saw before I could even sit down. But then it came to me. If you can’t see it, it is not there. Why worry until the next encounter. I did
accept this though in theory but I couldn’t sit in the room for a while. So I
went out to yard and help clean out beans with the ladies. Later I forgot the spider. It was out of my sight and out of my mind…
We had tea at 16:00, which I was looking
forward this time. I sat in my room
drink my tea with a cigarette. When
Shreeram arrived I asked him where I could throw my trash. He said just collect them we will throw out
later. They don’t have a garbage
system. They just pick the garbage put
it in a bag if they find one, and throw it on the side of the road. So if there
ever comes a garbage truck, it takes some of it. Then people go through the garbage and a
strong wind blows, your garbage comes right back to your yard. Your just pick it up and throw it aside.
They don’t have much of garbage anyways.
Organic goes right back into the nature through the goat or fields. Some burn
their garbage which releases the gas to the atmosphere and melts into the
circle of life….
Everything comes back to you…
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