Another year, another holiday! :)

Dear all,
The Saturday before last saw the end of one of the two most important holidays here in Nepal, Dashain (pronounced Desai). This year, my Dashain was very short (it’s actually over a week long), because I’d only just arrived home from America, and neither of my families were having big celebrations this year, for various reasons. All the same, I did manage to have two wonderful days with both of my wonderful families.

My first day was more of a welcome home celebration than a Dashain celebration per se, but we still managed to give it a little Dashain flavor. I went over to Buffalo’s house to visit the family. I was thrilled to see everyone and everyone was excited to see me. And I felt a little like Santa Claus because I’d come with a big bag of gifts for everyone. I had a ton of fun handing them out, and most everyone seemed to like what I’d gotten them. (I may have been a tad off on one of the gifts, but you can’t please everyone, right?) I had expected we’d spend most of the day simply chatting, but to my delight, a deck of cards appeared and my mother in law handed each of us a stack of crisp five rupee notes to play with. Many Nepalis spend the Dashain holidays gambling at home, and I was glad to finally get a chance to join in. Sadly, it turns out I am really terrible at Nepali gambling games. They taught me three different games, not one of which I know the name of, but they were all much simpler than poker, and much easier to lose. My stack of money dwindled very quickly. For a change, and to try and keep playing once my money was out, I taught the family ERS (Egyptian Rat Screw). It took a second for them to catch on, but after the second pair came up, we were all rushing to pick up the pile. Little sister (Buffalo’s middle sister) was laughing so hard, I thought we were going to have to stop the game. And one of the younger cousins liked the game so much, he kept asking if we could play again. Maybe next time, I’ll have to teach them Euchre.
Shortly after that first wonderful day, Buffalo and I were invited to Didi and Dai’s house for a small Dashain dinner. I arrived extra early to pretend to help Didi by playing with the baby. (Despite my best efforts, I’m still largely useless in a Nepali kitchen, so I’m often relegated to babysitter on holidays.) I had hoped that after a month away, the baby would be thrilled to see her auntie, but I was greeted simply by, “Mero chocolate koi?” (English: Where is my chocolate?) I patiently told my little one I’d brought her a gift instead, and in exchange for a few hugs and kisses, I presented her with a set of baby bottles for her dolls. She was thrilled, and we spent the afternoon feeding the baby dolls and each other.



Didi and bahini had finished all of the preparations by about five o’ clock, and soon after people began arriving. I was particularly excited for this Dashain, because it was the first holiday my American bahini and I would be celebrating together. My American bahini has just arrived in Nepal for a “nursing Trek”. In Nepal, in order to help spur development there are many volunteering/vacation opportunities available to foreigners. My American bahini’s trek is a perfect example. Bahini and the other nurses will be trekking to several remote villages where they will refill the health posts with medicines their trekking fees help pay for and where they will volunteer their expertise along the way. In a lot of ways, despite my stance on development projects, it’s a wonderful idea, but it’s an expensive volunteering opportunity as it often costs as much or more than a pure vacation would. But her reasons for coming aside, it’s wonderful to have her in Nepal again, and it was even more wonderful to spend a holiday with her.

So Buffalo and Didi’s younger brother were kind enough to pick up American bahini and one of her nursing friends, and we all settled in with the rest of the family for a wonderful Dashain dinner. Dai gave each of us tika, the red powder and rice placed on the forehead as a blessing, and a little bit of Dashain money. Many of Dai’s sisters had come to receive blessings from their brother, blessings they will then return in the next big holiday, Tihar. I’m especially looking forward to Tihar this year, as both of the American sisters (me and American bahini) will be here to give Dai our blessings. And then next year, we will all be together again, celebrating Dashain and Tihar in the United States.

While dinner and blessings with the whole family were wonderful, my favorite part of the night was riding in the taxi with American bahini and her friend back to their hotel, while Buffalo went ahead on his bike. It was the first time I’d been able to introduce my Buffalo to someone from back home, and when American bahini spent the entire taxi ride telling me how much she liked him, I ate it up. Of course, she may have been flattering me a tad bit, but I’m still hoping she goes home and gushes to all of you about how fantastic my Buffalo really is. I know you will all see for yourselves soon enough, but hopefully hearing it from someone other than me will hold you over until we get home.

In the meantime, everyone is recovering from Dashain and heading back to work for the week or so that’s left before Tihar begins. It looks like I’ll also be heading back to teaching in a few days, and then perhaps back to the field during the Tihar holiday. But that’s yet to be determined. In the meantime, I’ll do my best to keep in touch, but I don’t have internet in the new flat, or at Buffalo’s house at the moment, so it will be a little touch and go for awhile. So not to worry, I haven’t gotten lost, just disconnected! But my thoughts are with all of you always!

Lots of Love,