"Malwadi herne", my 3 year old niece cried impatiently, running to the window. She's still small and she's used to getting what she wants when she wants it. What makes this request interesting is that "Malwadi herne" means "I want to see the Maoists."

The Maoists she was referring to were the 500-600 people who had gathered on the street outside our house. Through the day the crowd had ebbed and flowed, sometimes quietly resting, other times blaring Nepali songs and dancing. By evening, they'd started lighting small fires, most of which were only for fun, but a few of which featured a scarecrow effigy of the Prime Minister at the center.

I'm sure from the sound of it, you may be able to imagine quite a frightening picture, but after 6 days of continuous strikes, it's just become daily life. All the same, it's a rather interesting life.

In short, the situation is this: The Maoists have demanded the current Prime Minister resign. Until he does so, Kathmandu is under siege. And in order to make their siege as effective as possible, they have bused in thousands of villagers; sheltering them in private schools, party halls, and homes which they have commandeered. Ironically, many of the "protesters" were brought here by force and many of them have already started walking home.

In some senses, it's as if the whole country is in an unbreakable deadlock. The protesters no longer want to protest, but they are forced on by their party leaders. Meanwhile the rest of the nation sits at home, only venturing out between the hours of 6pm-8pm, the 2 hours which the Maoists allow shops to open in order to supply food both to their cadres and the rest of us.

Until yesterday, things had remained peaceful, but the protesters have now endured 6 days of hot sun, and 6 mosquito filled nights. What's more, hundreds of protesters lie in the hospital suffering from diarrhea after drinking contaminated water.

At this point, what happens next is very uncertain. My office has already announced we will remain closed until at least Monday. Each day the leaders sit in talks from 11am until 3pm, but so far not a single consensus point has been made.

The only things that are certain is that we are safe here in our home, and that the strike will continue for some time yet. Hopefully that time will be short.

All the same, no need to worry. We are wanting for nothing, but a little exercise. I'm sure we'll all have a few bandh pounds to shed when this is all finished.

As always, missing you all dearly!!! Read more on " "!

Holi Easter, Batman!

Last weekend, I decided to introduce my new family to yet another of our crazy American traditions, the wonder that is Easter Eggs. Since we’ve got three little ones in the family, I thought some easter egg dying was in order. Afterall, that’s what you’re supposed to do on Easter, right? But this presented a unique problem. How could we color easter eggs without commercially available dying kits, complete with egg drying racks and bunny stickers? At first, I thought I’d try to make homemade egg dyes. But once I’d done an internet search and found some recipes, I realized that would be totally impossible. For one thing, all of the dyes required that the eggs soak for at least 12 hours, which with three year olds, is an impossibility. Second of all, they all required ingredients which would have taken some hunting to find in the US, let alone here in Nepal. And finally, I have been trying to dedicate more and more time to writing up a few articles. And so my Easter Extravaganza was defeated, or so I thought.



The Thursday before Easter I mentioned my crushed plan to one of the other teachers at school. She immedieatly came up with a remarkably novel solution. “Why don’t you use those colored powders that everyone throws at everyone else during Holi? The color won’t come out of my clothes, so I’m sure it could stick to an egg.” I wasn’t sure it would work, but it was worth a try. So I sent Buffalo to Pashpatinath, the biggest Hindu temple in the country, in search of colors for my easter eggs.
When he returned home, he tossed me a small bag filled with little envelopes made of newspaper. Each one contained a teaspoon full of colored powder. There was powder in bright pink, a deep turquoise, purple, two shades of green, a bright yellow, and a beautiful saffron orange. I dissolved a pinch of each powder in cold water, and in seconds had a table full of easter egg dyes. And the dyes not only managed to stain our easter eggs, the two kids and I (one wee one wasn’t able to come over to play) pretty easter hands for the whole day. I think the powder even worked better than the stuff we used to use at home, because the color stuck to the eggs almost immediately. Of course, as this was our first easter, and I’d only boiled about a dozen eggs, the kids decided to re-dye each egg several times, and we ended up with a batch of brown/black eggs anyway. But at least the eggs looked the way I hoped they would for a little while.

So in addition to perfectly blending two often very different cultures, I think I’ve managed to discover a new dye for the silk yarn I’ve slowly been spinning.
And yes, I know what you’re all thinking. “If you didn’t spend so much time playing with little ones and yarn, you’d probably have a lot more articles written, and maybe even a few more blog posts.” But I’m going to have to quote my mentor on this one. Whenever anyone asks how his dissertation is going, he proudly points to his little girl and says, “There’s my dissertation.” All the same, I do hope to have some articles finished very soon. Especially considering that now I have to tell you all the very sad news, that none of the graduate schools I had picked, picked me back. Which means that Buffalo and I have to postpone our homecoming to November, and that I have to work, work, work, and re-apply next year. But not to fret, back up plans are in the works, and I’m sure by next year, grad schools will be begging me to join their departments.

And in the meantime, I’m going to go start dying that yarn!

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After oh so long

Dear all,
Surprise! I’m still alive! Honestly, I can’t believe it’s been four months since my last blog post. I don’t know where the time went. Anyway, the important thing is that I’m here now, and I’m going to try to get you caught up.

So what have I been doing for four long months? Well, mostly I’ve been getting adjusted to being married, I suppose. I moved into my husband’s family home just a few days after the last blog post. With the addition of me and my cat, the family member total here now comes to 9! Sometimes I’m surprised I can even remember all the names. Not only are there are a lot of us, but we’re all very different too! We range in age from 3 years (both the cat and my nephew) to 83 and just as you’d expect, we can never all agree on a Tv channel. Sometimes living with such a big family has all the makings of those 1980 sitcoms, but most of the time, it’s a real blessing.

On top of all the hustle and bustle of such a big family, the first floor of our house is dedicated to the family furniture business, making our home very busy indeed. Right now, it can get to be a bit of a hassle as I work from home a lot, but the good news is I’ve recently gotten a new job. Even more exciting, is that the new job comes with a new office to work in. So hopefully by next month, home time will really be home time, and I’ll have a peaceful office to work in during the day.

And of course you’re wondering, “What’s this new job?” And the answer is the best part; I’ve been hired as a lecturer at a new college! For now, I’m teaching academic English, but there are already rumors that I may be asked to teach the anthropology masters students in the future. Even now it’s hard to contain my excitement. I really love the school, the staff, and my current class, and I really hope there’s a place for me in the future as well.

Additionally, I should be hearing very very soon from graduate programs. Hopefully, I’ll be posting some very good news shortly about PhD programs, and homecoming plans. In the meantime, feel free to join me in anxiously waiting. If you’re really sympathetic, you can check this blog about every half an hour to see if I’ve posted anything, just like I keep checking my email. Of course, the funny part of that is, most of you are in the US, so when you are checking the blog, I’ll be sleeping not writing. But the sad part of that is, the same is true of the admissions department when I’m checking my email. Sigh. Oh well.

Anyway, Buffalo is hungry, and we’re going out for dinner tonight, so I’ve got to run. Love you all
this (------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------) much!

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