Weddings

We have found out more about arranged marriages this week. Our high cast Hindu teacher was spending the weekend arranging the marriage of a friend. Basically in the towns nowadays the arrangement occurs when they are old enough to be married. The male is shown photos of prospective women. If he likes then they meet for ½ hour. If they agree the family then has to approve. If they do then the marriage is on the next auspicious day based on the moon, stars and all sorts of other things!!! Our teacher’s friend had met someone on the Friday when we saw him. He wasn’t interested so met another girl that was related to our teachers mother on the Sunday. The groom travelled ½ hour south to meet and the bride went ¾ of an hour north. They approved, the family also approved and as that was the next auspicious day the bride went to a shop, got a dress and went home to the family who cooked a feast and the couple were married a few hours after they met!!! My mother would freak at that idea!!! It is tradition that you invite everyone and anyone that you remotely know therefore by doing it on the day it is a lot cheaper.

The male was also in a hurry as he is leaving in two weeks to work overseas. He will leave the bride behind but she now moves into the house of the groom and is basically a servant, but fortunately the pressure to produce a son reduces. It is important for a son to be born so that the son can light his fathers cremation fire.

Football in Nepal

We went to a soccer game last weekend. It was the final of a series of weekend competitions that are held annually. We went to the final which was the army verses the police. It was a terrible game and I think Mark could’ve shot goals better than they did. The best part of the game was when a microlight flew over the field and threw out the Nepali version of confetti – toilet paper and glitter!!!! It flew over a few times and got the crowd more excited than the game did!!!

Friday was the celebration of the Hindu god Shiva – or Shivarati. Everyone lights bonfires in the street and burns sugarcane which once heated makes a huge bang and sends sparks flying when hit on the ground. There are kids running around all over the place eating the burnt sugarcane. We went for a walk around the block and witnessed about 10 fires all with lots of enthusiastic boys and men vying to make the loudest bang! Its also the one night of the year that it is legal to smoke dope.

We took our bikes out last weekend. On Saturday after church we rode for about 1.5 hours up the Pokhara valley. We left the town behind quickly and were biking through rice paddies and villages. There were a lot of dry river beds which in the monsoon will turn into flooded valleys.

On Sunday we rode half way and then biked the rest of the way up to a lookout above Pokhara. We climbed the height of Taranaki to get there only to realise we were on a tiny foothill looking towards the very steep and high Himalaya’s. They really are big!!!

Language is getting a lot harder now. We are learning the complexities of verbs in the present tense and it really is confusing. Please pray that this will get easier!!

Our big news is that we know what work we will be doing when we finish language. We will be staying here in Pokhara (contrary to what we understood when we left NZ) which is great as it is a city with a higher standard of living than we were expecting (It even has toilet paper!!) though there are still many needy people here! Pokhara is more or less the hub for INF’s work in Nepal.

Mark will be doing project management of a large grant that the organisation has been given by the Finish government. This involves managing the building of an outpatient clinic at green pastures hospital, scholarships for staff and renewal of old equipment at the hospital which is adjacent to where we are currently studying our language.

Jo will initially be working part time (with the aim of hopefully increasing her hours) in the government run hospital helping in the outpatient dept and the orthopaedic ward. There is a very poor work ethic in government institutions as well as a very poor respect for human life. Therefore, I will be attempting to demonstrate through my actions what it means to respect others and work effectively in the time you are paid to be there. As we are in Pokhara we can continue to learn the language. We can start to make Nepali friends like the dear man at the shop next door as well as start to get involved in church life and find a house that we can live in rather than stay in the INF guest house. All very exciting!!

Church

There are a few things about church that are different to home! For a start you sit on the floor for the two hour service, men on one side and women on the other. If you haven’t been to the church before you have to stand up in front of everyone and introduce yourself. Last Saturday (church is on a Saturday morning) this was the only time English was spoken in the whole service, it was obvious that we were new and so the pastor wanted us to stand up!

For communion they use ribena as the Nepali church has taken a stand against alcohol, alcoholism is a big problem here and no-one drinks socially, (if you drink it is to get drunk). Communion is given out of a small watering can which one holds towards their mouth and pours a small bit down your throat without touching the spout and pouring it down your chest! The lady offering it to the ladies (and man to the men) then wipes the bottom of the spout to catch any drip but not around the spout as it never touches someone’s mouth (so they think!!).

When the border to Nepal opened up to foreigners in 1951 there were some women sitting on the border waiting to serve the Lord in Nepal. They walked for seven days to Pokhara and started a hospital using an aluminium kitset from India. They were given some land for their hospital that was near a hindu cremation site therefore considered unholy and haunted. The buildings were so bright when the sun shone on them that it was called the shining hospital. The area isn’t used now as people are arguing over the lands ownership but the buildings are still there so we visited it – inside the buildings must’ve been sooo hot in the summer.