Tihar and Remi

Axel's cousin, Remi has come to visit us. We are excited to have her here. She is doing a Physician's Assistant rotation in Kathmandu and we are thrilled to have her stay for almost a month. Remi's mom (Kris) is the next youngest sister of Wendy (Axel's mom).

Remi showed up during the most colourful and animated time in Kathmandu. The weather is fantastic and Hinduism is here in all its glory.

In fact, every day since Remi showed up we have had a puja. She has been a champ in spite of the unnerving conditions, new country and jetlag. Here is a rundown of the three days of Tihar.

Day/Puja #1 - Lakshmi Puja

This is one of the uses for the colours they sell on the road

Remi arrived the day of the biggest puja for Tihar--the Lakshmi puja. What is fun about this one is the fact that it is for girls only. I gave money to my maids and they did all the rest. It was really fun to have the little shrine in my house for my maids and they were sooooo happy that they could worship here. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and this puja is to get her to come to your house and bless you with wealth for the next year. Judging by they current state of the world, she might be on vacation. Actually, judging by the wealth of Nepal, I think if she were an American goddess she might have been 'downsized' a long time ago. I can see The Donald giving her the 'Your Fired' finger. Who knows, maybe this year will be different.

Remi fresh off the plane

The first of many tikas

Then the next day I had some extra powder left over from the night before so I decided to do my own puja writing. And got a lucky kiss out of the deal (from Axel, of course).

Day/Puja #2 - Cow Puja

One of our maids, Sarita invited us over to celebrate this puja with her and her family. We understood that this process would only take an hour and a half. We got there at about 6:30 and by 8 it became apparent the party was only getting started. We walked up 3 flights to the 'puja room' and they had decorated the mud floors with the colorful dies. We then lit some candles and placed them on top of a geranium. This was Xavier's favourite part. Getting to play with fire and then making things burn. How much funner could it get?

Asa trying to make his escape

After this we sat on the mud floor for another hour ceremony of throwing flowers, rice and getting tika'ed while the whole family stared at us talking about only Lakshmi knows what... Remi sat there like a pro. I was impressed with her openness and willingness to participate.

FINALLY the tika ceremony was over and they gave us a basket of sweets, as that is what Lakshmi likes. It is hard for any culture or country to give Americans 'sweet' food and not disappoint them. I mean, if there is one thing we Americans do well it is deserts and candies. Nepal has a ways to go...

When the food came out we all looked at each other. Really? A boiled/fried egg? Something that resembled a doughnut but evidently wasn't (again, after Tim Hortons, everything else is just a let down), yogurt (I think), and some fish taken from a local lake that looked like this:

We all ate it and Remi and Xavier shared one fish. Thinking this was finally the end, I started to gather the kids only to hear that dinner hadn't even served yet! By this time it was 9:30pm (which is the Nepali equivalent to midnight in the US) and the kids were done. But, we smiled as they dished us a ginormous daal bhat.

Xavier doing what he does best

While eating I innocently asked what one item was only to receive the reply, 'fried goat lung'. I learned my lesson very quickly and didn't question what any of the other items were. Honestly it wasn't that bad. I was looking around for Indiana Jones and Short Round. No Snake Surprise either thank goodness.

But the experience was amazing and the people were gracious and very nice to invite us into their home. By 10:30pm we were all dead. If we weren't persistent, we would have been there all night. The night ended with fireworks and a Nepali band that started playing at 1AM just down the road. You know, when you hear a local band start singing 'Born To Be Wild' at 2PM loud enough to wake the dead, you just have to look at your spouse and laugh. This is some good overseas livin'.

Day/Puja #3 - Bull Puja

The following afternoon we went to our other maid's house; Kopila's and her family for their brother/sister puja. It was quite similar except this one we all got colourful tikas. The sisters are supposed to give tikas to their brothers and the brothers to their sisters. I must say, I wish we had something similar in our culture because it was so fun to see the siblings show honour and respect as they tika'ed each other. Heavah gave one to Xay and Xay gave one to Dona and Heavah.

Asa showing how he feels about getting tika'ed--again

Still ticked off & Xavier cross-eyed--again!

Even more pissed

Fine!

A little calmer about the tika

BUT still making sure no one tikas him again

The puja was followed up with, what else, another plate of sweets and another plate of daal bhat. Xavier opted out of the meal and subsequently ran outside and puked. The whole scene was soon followed up with Remi bowing out of the conversation with a..."I hate to say it, but I think if I don't leave soon, I will also be puking outside too". No more was said and we were out the door. On the way home we realized it was probably the fish they shared the night before. That was all they both could think about. Isn't it strange you can eat 10 different things and when you puke somehow you think of only one. Usually the culprit.

Both Xavier and Remi didn't have such a fun night.

We are really glad to have Remi here. She is great with the kids and so easy to have around. All house guests should be as easy as she is.

Welcome to Nepal Remi!