Last Sunday (28th Feb) was Holi festival which is a Hindu festival during which young people run around chasing after each other with water balloons and bright coloured paint. We saw several mobs of teenagers chasing each other on motorbikes with pillion passengers throwing water and paint at each other. The festival is in celebration of the end of winter, amongst other things, and is held on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna. We were warned that foreigners are fair game and are often picked on so if you venture outside be prepared to come back a different colour. Being adventurous kiwi's we decided to venture down to lake side which is one of the hot spots where the locals go to pick on the tourists. Unfortunately due to the water problems mentioned below we didn't manage to get to lake side until nearly 4 pm, by which time most of the fun was over. We did find several rather odd looking tourists though.
Even the cows are fair game
The streets covered in paint
Tourists caught in the tourist trap
Some of the local kids around our house
Water Issues Again!!!
We ran out of water again last weekend and had to get the water truck in to fill up our ground tank.
The water tanker delivering water
Upcoming Midwest Trip
We're off on our Midwest trip this coming Friday; we travel to Ghorahi to look at the INF projects operating in the region. We then get back in the jeep and head down to Nepalgunj for three days and then off to Surket for three days. Both of us are really looking forward to the chance to escape the class room and also to visit Ghorahi. Ghorahi is where we were originally going to be located. I suspect that we will breathe a sigh of relief that we are now able to enjoy the comforts of Pokhara where you can buy toilet paper and western toilets are common.
Mid West Trip
Housing
Although we are enjoying the comforts of the INF guest house at the moment we have started to think about setting up our own house. The expat team coordinator in Pokhara has a couple of house coming available in the next month or two so we've been house inspecting over the last couple of weeks. One of the houses is almost next door to where we are now and is a lovely house but unfortunately is right on a rather busy and noisy road and the rooms are small so it would be tight when all our friends come to visit!!!! The other house, known as church flat, is slightly older but is set well back from the road with quite a bit of open space around so should be nice and quiet. It also has great views of the mountains from our private deck. At this stage our choice is the church flat, we're not sure exactly when we will be moving in but will keep you posted.
We couldn't understand why the Nepalis lived on the bottom floor and rented out the top floor of houses as in the west the top floor is more desirable. We have found out that with the concrete roofes on the houses they get very hot and make sleeping at night in the hotter weather unpleasant. Having a room above can drop the temperature by 5degrees which makes a significant difference when it is 35deg outside. Nepalis also like to be close to the vege gardens that they have.
The church flat has no-one living upstairs but has a room above what will be our bedroom. It is for puja (making offerings to the Gods) which isn't ideal but better than no room at all.
Dinner with Pushpa, Menuk and Jonathon
Last weekend we were invited around to dinner with Pushpa, Menuka and their energetic son Jonathan. Pushpa works at INF in Green Pastures Hospital in the financial department and they worship at Ram Ghat church. Pushpa and Menuka are good friends with one of the INF New Zealand board members so they are quite familiar with New Zealanders, Pushpa was even wearing a Kathmandu jersey which was a slightly strange sight. After playing soccer, badminton and cricket with their budding sports star Jonathan we sat down for Dahl Baht for dinner. Pushpa came searching for us at the office on Monday to check up that they hadn't made us sick. Nepalis have stronger stomachs than foreigners do and as a result are not quite as careful with boiling water and things like that. Fortunately both of our stomachs seemed to come out unscathed.
Jonathan playing badminton
It is traditional for the women who do the cooking to serve the men and the guests the food. Only when they have finished will the women eat and they do so in the kitchen which is out of bounds for visitors. When everyone is eating no-one talks - the conversation is held afterwards but not for long as most Nepalis will leave soon after having been fed.
Jo was very priveledged to be allowed in the kitchen to learn how to cook dahl bhaat. Menuka did eat in the same room but only after everyone else had eaten. We did stay and played rummikub for a few hours afterwards!
Weather
It has got a lot warmer this week. We have taken a blanket of the bed and the mosquite net has gone up as they are coming out!! According to the paper we are getting close to 30deg during the day but it is nice and dry so loving it!!!
The thunderstorms are starting. We had a very dramatic one last Friday night - went for about 2 hours and some the claps of thunder were really really loud. Nepalis call thunder gadang gadung which translates as the sky is shouting - how great is that!!!!
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