Another Funeral

Weddings and funerals really do go together somehow.  A few days before my brother's wedding a near neighbor (an old man who had been ill for many years) died.  If it weren't for the fact that someone was dead and lots of people were sad, I'd have to say I prefer funerals over weddings.

 In Gurung culture there is lots of weeping and wailing by family members and close friends to show their grief at a loved ones passing during the first day following death.  The body is wrapped in cloth and decorated with garlands of money, flowers, cigarets, cookies and other assorted junk foods.

There is an hour or two of religious ceremony as holy men walk around the body and house chanting and playing drums.  I'm always morbidly fascinated by the guy carrying the freshly severed goat's head in his mouth.  It's not a job I'd want.

 Crowds of people hang out at the deceased person's house all day long.  Most are family and friends offering support.  Others, particularly members of different ethnic groups, I think come more for the entertainment value.

 Once the appropriate ceremonies have been performed, the body is carried up to the cemetery and buried.

The next day the funeral continues with a big feast.  It's like a potluck where everyone knows exactly what to bring (there isn't a lot of variety is the typical Nepali diet).  There's fruit and cookies and cell roti (ring shaped deep fried sweetened rice bread) and potato salad and prawn chips and other fried crispy snacks.  These offerings are divided up and served to everyone as a snack before the real meal of rice and lentils.  It's delicious.

Another wedding

I'm usually the last to know about things.  Either that or I just don't understand people when they tell me what's happening.  So I was really excited when my Nepali mom told me my little brother was getting married shortly after she found out, which turned out to be a full week before the wedding.  Of course, I thought the event she was telling me about was just my brother bringing his fiancee to meet the family and didn't find out it was the actual wedding until the day before.

The wedding was a fairly small event.  The ceremony took place in the early afternoon, which I am now convinced is the perfect time for a wedding-- you have all morning to get ready and then by the time you're exhausted and just want to have the house to yourself again people are going home.

I don't understand everything that went on, but I'll do the best I can to describe a typical Gurung wedding.  First, dung is smeared in front of the door.  There are two sacred water pots and a fire.  Then a chicken is sacrificed and the blood sprinkled on the stoop.

The bride and groom then approach the house, are greeted at the door and invited in.

Family and friends then take turns giving the bride and groom a white tika, pronouncing a blessing on them.

You don't typically see a lot of smiles during the ceremony, but I promise that they really are happy together.

And then we eat.  A wedding just wouldn't be a wedding if there wasn't food involved.

 

As soon as the ceremony was finished, the bride put on her working clothes and helped the other women with the feast and clean-up.

People and Parties

People  often want to know what I'm doing every day.  It's a hard question to answer because mostly I'm just hanging out with my villagers and attending community gatherings.  Here's a quick glimpse of some of our happenings.

 

This was at a meeting celebrating the donation of some chairs by the Magar group to the community.  Dancing is a very common fundraiser-- that's why there's money in her hair.

These are three of my little pals just being silly.

One day a bunch of us went to a big Gurung meeting of some kind.  We all got dressed up in traditional dress, marched around in the street a bit, then listened to speeches.  I have no idea what it was all about really.  I often don't.

My village is an hours drive from the nearest sizable town, so it was a pretty big deal when the ice cream man showed up on his bike one day.  A large group of us were gathered at the community building to build that fence you can see in the background and thoroughly enjoyed the snack break.

Groups often come to my village to check out all the agriculture development projects that have been done here.  In preparation for their arrival, long hours are spent in the kitchen preparing a feast for them.  They even let me help work sometimes now instead of just watch.

This is one of my favorite old women.  She's got a lot of spunk-- she's giving someone a piece of her mind in this photo while a group is hanging around waiting for some meeting or another.  She's also a cat lady, which is not normal for this culture.  Maybe it's a universal trait that comes with age.

I call this photo "Self Control."  That's fresh meat being divied up right infront of that dog and he didn't even try to steal any of it.

These kids were pretending to plow a field, taking turns being the cows and the herder.  The cows had a lot of fun being stubborn and having to be pushed forward, while the herder had a lot of fun hitting the cows with a stick and pushing them around.

Roads

I live at the top of a long windy dirt road.

 The roads are often in less than amazing condition.

Recently we got the funding to bring in a tractor to improve the road.  Several men and boys would spend all day just sitting at the side of the road watching.

It was really exciting for a while, but then monsoon started and all that nice, freshly dug dirt turned into nice sticky mud.  Our local jeep still makes it up and down most days, only making people get out and walk or push occasionally, but I still try to travel as little as possible.

Hanging with my bro

By crazy coincidence, my brother got to spend a month or so in Nepal on  business.  We got together for a weekend in Pokhara.  Although I love my host family and community members and fellow volunteers, it was wonderfully refreshing to spend time with someone that I really know and who really knows me.

We really wanted to go sailing.  I've never been sailing before, but he did get the sailing merit badge 15 years ago, so it sounded like a great plan.  Maybe it was a good thing no one would rent us a sail boat.   We decided to go out in a row boat instead, hoping our boat was in better condition than some of the ones we saw...

Good news-- we didn't sink.

You didn't know Walmart had a trekking store in Pokhara, did you.  They probably don't know either.

My new neice!

I can't claim to be the most observant person in the world.  In a matter of fact, sometimes I'm down right clueless.  For example, I didn't realize my Nepali sister-in-law (who lives with me) was pregnant until a month or two before her due date.  In my defence, she really didn't show that much and how often do you really go around telling people "by the way, I'm pregnant"?

Considering my cluelessness, it was a bit of a surprise when my host dad told me early on morning that my new niece had been borne the night before.  She was borne within 20 feet of me and I slept peacefully through it.

It's been a mixture of a fun, frustrating, and very informative experience having an infant living with us.  Who doesn't love occasionally snuggling with a little baby?  Who doesn't hate having an 11 year old treat you like an imbecile because she's pretty sure she knows how to take care of a baby better than you do?

Here she is!

First bath with grandma

 

Taking a nap in the sun

Sitting with her very proud big sister