Tihaar, Farewells, and my New Home

Tihaar is the second biggest festival in Nepal and lasts five days.  People often go door to door singing and dancing to raise money.

I went with my little nieces and nephews one night—it's a lot like trick-or-treating;  you go from one house to another singing a certain song and collecting money.  The song they sing is actually pronouncing a blessing on the house, but to someone who doesn't know what they're saying it mostly sounds like we're just being obnoxious until they give us money.

During this festival the goddess of power and wealth is worshiped.

There's lots of feasting

On the last day brothers are worshiped.

It sounds a little unfair (this is after all a male dominated culture) until you realize that brothers aren't supposed to receive anything from their sisters for free.  Sisters present a small gift, usually of food, and receive a much larger gift, usually money, from their brothers, who usually end up sharing all the food their given anyway.

Once Tihaar was over all the visiting family members went back to their homes and we had to get back to work.  To help prepare us for the work we will eventually be doing in our permanent sites, we were required to find out about our community then plan and carryout a project that would meet their needs.  The majority of adult women in our community are illiterate, so we decided to organize an activity where we taught the youth how to be teachers.  It was a good idea but horribly planned.

Miraculously, it ended up going really well.  The kids were so excited just to be given a small book, notebook, and pen all of their own that nothing else really mattered.  I doubt any of our original objectives in the activity were obtained, but we all had fun.

Soon after our project was complete it was time to pack up and say goodbye to our families.

We received a ritual farewell (which included a lot of hardboiled eggs—not a good idea before a windy car ride) at one house after another.

And then we were gone.  I really hope I will get to go back some day.

Our final week of training was spent in Kathmandu. 

I still think it's a big ugly dirty city, but it started to grow on me a bit once I started to learn my way around.

After a week of unbearably long meetings, the big day finally came.  We graduated.

I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now.  Lots of very important people were there and they gave lots of speeches and there was a giant cake, but really it was a bit anticlimactical.  I'm just glad it's over.  I hear the entire program was posted on the American Embassy's web page if you really want to know more.

Early the next morning the 20 of us said our goodbyes to each other and climbed into different busses to head to our new homes.

 I am now living in Aarupata, Jagatebhanjyan, Syangja District.  It reminds me of San Luis a lot at times, but we have slightly more impressive views here.

My "work" for my first three months here is simply to learn the language (my villagers are primarily of the Gurung ethnic group and don't always speak Nepali, so this is a bit harder than hoped) and to learn about my community.  My villagers tell me I should write on my reports that we don't do any work here—just sing, dance, and eat.

That's not far from the truth (this is good news for me—it seems being willing to dance just about anywhere any time goes a long way towards making up for not talking much).  Until just a few years ago, Aarupata survived on subsistence agriculture.  Everything changed after installing a solar powered water pump that allows the farmers to irrigate some fields.  They now produce and sell tomatoes year round and are embracing just about every development idea that comes their way.  They are proud of what they have done and have become a destination for agro-tourism so they can share their accomplishments with others.  Several times a month groups will come from all over Nepal (foreigners are welcome too if you wanted to stop by and visit).  The visitors are warmly welcomed, well fed, get to go on the official tour, and enjoy a dance party. 

People have been asking for months what I will be doing here.  I still can't give a complete answer, but I can finally give a fairly good idea.  Helping to develop agro-tourism in the area will be one of my top priorities.  I may also give technical advice on tomato, orange, and coffee production as well as bee keeping.  I will work with mothers groups to help improve maternal and infant nutrition and try to help raise standards of sanitation.  The possibilities are limitless really.