Dashain last week

Weds, 4 October (i.e last week - apologies for delay in posting)

With government offices closed for 10 days, although BDS was only shut from Friday to Tuesday, many of the volunteers have gone trekking for most of the festival time. For us, a local bus to Dhulikhel out in the KTM valley where we could expect comforts of a hotel with good views and perhaps glimpses of mountains seemed a good and much cheaper option. The 2 hour bus ride was more comfortable than that to Bhaktapur and was not, by Nepali standards, vastly overcrowded. Due to the festival having already started, the roads were very clear and with seats we were able to enjoy the journey. The hotel is built into the hillside and views from almost every room superb. There were even glimpses of snow capped mountains early one morning.






We had the luxury of a TV with clear picture and sound and were able to follow the exciting Chinese Grand Prix. We had been lent a book of walks, published 6 years earlier, many of which seem to be far beyond any stamina we wished to employ so we tailored our own, spending time in the Newari town, venturing down only part way towards the valley. We found some lovely small temples including this Shiva temple at the bottom of a gorge. To quote Lonely Planet "this is a temple with everything, images of Hanuman, Saraswati, Shiva and Pravati, lingams, tridents, snake deities and a fine image of Ganesh".


Dashain is such a happy, family occasion with most peopletravelingg back to their family home to celebrate for 7-10 or more days, often travelling for very long distances on overcrowded buses. During the fifteen days of celebration that together make the originally Hindu festival of Dashain, now celebrated by all religions here in Nepal, even the vehicles are given Puja, decorated with the pieces of the sacred plant, sprinkled and splodged with blood from the sacrificed animals and tied with strips of red cloth. Buses, taxis, tractors, like this one we walked past in the village, and even the VSO jeeps are not neglected in having this blessing for the following year.


As we left Dhulikhel on our decorated bus, almost all the passengers had the traditional red tika, large and prominent on their forehead. Small pieces of barley planted on the first day of the festival and grown through the past week are harvested on the 10th day were tied in hair or tucked behind an ear.

Kite flying is a major part of life at this time of year and the children (almost all boys) are amazing clever at flying them. Everywhere high in the sky there are tiny dots which could be birds but are very basic kites like this flying from the sides of roads, rooftops and every bit of wasteland. As we watched from our room at Dhulikhel we saw kites from the valley, way, way up above the hills sadly far too high to show on any of our pictures.


Having brought it down on the wires by the major road, this boy sat on the pavement to mend and within seconds of using his teeth to repair the string, he had this one flying brilliantly.

Most villages set up a ping (a swing normally made from 4 bamboo poles but if a convenient tree branch is available....). On our venture from the hotel towards the valley we watched the children on this ping, horrific when you could see the height and the sheer drop and the size of some of those queuing.




Surprisingly Roshan declined when all tried to encourage him to try. I suggested he might make comparisons with looking down from the top of a 60 ft mast but was reminded that on a mast one has a harness and halyards for security! As the gradient of the path past the children was mentioned in the guide book as 1 in 1, those who know us well would understand that we realised down would mean clambering up so hence we did not venture that much further.

On our return to KTM, with most shops, cafes etc closed we spent much of the next day in the garden of the Manaslu hotel next door, with me yet again enjoying the pool.

Today Roshan has spent the morning at work whilst I revisited the Bodnath Stupa. Last time I went the sky was grey and all was wet but today was just right for photos.


Hopefully when Josie and Ben come to see us in a few weeks there should be a full moon and we will try and visit as the sunsets and moon rises.

Now back to thinking about ECD core teacher training that I need to plan for work next week and resources like story-sacks and persona dolls that need making if I want to use or hopefully get someone else who speaks Nepali to demonstrate... The trouble is that I still have no translation of the new curriculum document or training manual. As I struggle with spoken Nepali, I know I will never manage to crack the script so I am meant to be meeting with an unemployed MA graduate who might support me, He, yes he as those with ECD degrees are more likely to be male here, is out of KTM for festival and does not seem to be able to access his email....

More re: work later....

Love Sheila