A Saree Day

Today we wore our sarees ALL day. It was baptism by fire for my mom. It isn't easy for us Westerners to manage in a saree. But, mom did great. She also bought her saree in India when we went there on vacation. At the time, I am certain she didn't think she would ever wear it. However, today was the day! We had a wedding to attend and then we were off to a Woman's Conference at the branch. It was a long day, but loads of fun.

Getting a tika before the groom went to the wedding ceremony

The groom before he left to meet the bride

The ring ceremony

Washing of the bride's feet

The end of Women's Conference with all the women in their sarees

I'm too tired to mention all the other things we did today. Wearing a saree is hard work.

Our FHE Project

Ever since I have been working with a humanitarian organization I have come to realize how much help is needed here. Whenever I walked through the streets of Thamel, I would encounter a great number of homeless kids, sniffing glue and looking for some cash. I would go through waves of feeling disgusted to feeling complete despair. I also couldn't justify to my kids why I couldn't give them something. Heavah would say, 'But why mom? They are hungry.' Big question for a little girl. The answer seemed so simple to her. Ugh, what to do?

A few weeks ago I awoke from a dream and it was like a lightbulb turned on. Ah, ha!

I got cookies, juice boxes, rice, dal, candy, and noodles and for Family Home Evening and we assembled food packs. All the kids got involved and we watched one of those 'Living Scriptures' videos, which are fab for a six and five year old. We packed all the food in the coveted paper bag (cause I knew my parents would bring me more from Canada) and we put several packs in the car to be handed out.

Now, whenever we are out and about, I have something to give. We even pass a 'begging section' on the way to church every Saturday and the kids pass the packs out the window. It is awesome and the kids LOVE doing it.

Assembling the packs

Heavah on rice and dal duty

Sedona and Asa being no help at all. They just tried to consume ALL of the candy while the rest of us were preoccupied.

Xavier on noodle duty

The finished product

Getting ready to hand the bags out

Although it is small, we are making a dent.

Pashupati

What to do with guests the first day they arrive? Take them to go watch bodies burn. Yeah, baby.

In fact, Pashupati is considered one of the holiest spots in Nepal. It serves many purposes:

1. You can sell goods to tourists as they visit.

2. Watch bodies burn. This is where they cremate all Hindus. In fact, we went to a 'funeral' of a friend's brother a couple of months ago. We went into the 'Hindus Only' section and stayed from the torching to the sweeping of the ashes. It was a little difficult to express my sorrow for their loss as the smoky ashes were blowing in my face. As bad as these pictures look, the smell was much worse. When you first arrive you wonder if you were invited to a pork roast. It is a little scarring.

The Baghmati River where the ashes are swept into. Children are always jumping and playing in this water. Every Hindu's ashes must be put in a body of water that ends up in the Ganges. Many people also wash themselves with this water deeming it to be sacred.

This burning site was prepared for a famous sitar player.

3. Meet strange holy men who love to pose for photos.

4. Observe beautiful stone work on the many temples there.

5. Watch the nasty monkeys being fed.

Also Note:

*If you are Hindu, you must go to Pashupati if you know you are going to die in the near future. You can stay in a home there, wash in the water, and touch cows. All of these things will make you more holy and ensure you will not come back as a worm.

*If you have a relative who has died, you must stay at a hotel in Pashupati for 13 days to grieve. Many of these people simply spend their time watching other bodies burn.

*If someone has died in Kathmandu, the bodies are typically taken to be cremated within 2 to 3 hours from the time of death.

*Burning flesh stinks. And toes bloat up before they burn off.

*All of these photos were taken by my husband and we really were there, even though there isn't one photo of us.

Guess Who's Here?

Dad

Mom

The blogs might be few and far between for the next month or so. However, considering my mom and dad are my most devoted readers anyways, it is all good.

Star Gazing

This is Axel again. I heard at work that Monday night was going to be an unique event. Apparently Jupiter, Venus and the moon were going to semi align to make some pretty cool night time viewing.

I got home and looked up and saw this:

Well, kind of. This was my first picture and I jiggled it a bit.

I invited the maids out to see it and Kopila started doing the head and heart head and heart thing that looks way too catholic. She said 'maybe it is Shiva'! Well, maybe or maybe not. But it was cool. I tried using it without a flash. The exposure was really long so you could see more of the moon in this picture than with the naked eye.

Then I used the telephoto lense and got this one:

Just looking at it with the naked eye it really did look like a smiley face.

I tried to tell Heavah and Xavier it was Heavenly Father looking down to make sure they were being good to which Xay said 'no dad, it is just the moon and venus and 'pter. My teacher told me about them'. What is next, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Jabberwocky in the closet?? They grow up too fast.

But you know,with those clouds it looks more like Mr. Bill to me. But then that was way before their time.

And probably yours too. That's how old I am...

Oh no....

Goodbye, Remi

Remi left a week or so ago and we were sad to see her leave. It looks like I am a little behind on blogging, but I wanted to send Remi a proper goodbye from all of us in Nepal.

Here are some things we learned about Remi:

1. She is willing to eat some interesting things even if she knows she will have to pay for it later.

2. She can read all of my books on my bookshelf within 4 weeks.

3. She can learn the bus system in Kathmandu within a day and not feel strange being the only white person on there.

4. She is not afraid to hit a groper.

5. She is okay with paying a few extra Rupees just to avoid the haggle. But, she will let you know if she thinks you are trying to screw her for 3 (5 cents) Rupees on the bus.

6. She plays a great monster.

7. She has no problems getting tika'ed every other day.

8. She easily gets songs stuck in her head, and then she will infect you with the bug.

9. She can fall asleep while watching a movie--fast.

10. Not much bothers her when it comes to blood and gore. BUT, when you put a stomach problem and a hysterectomy together, she may be a little queasy.

Can't wait for your next visit, Remi. Thanks for coming to see us!

'Nepali' Carpets

Axel's wearing his 'Free Tibet' shirt, which automatically cut the price by 5%

This is Axel.

As you can see from this post and this post, we are in love with buying carpets. I never really cared about buying things before, and Terah has never really been a big shopper either. But when it comes to carpets, Dubai infected us with the bug.

The carpets here in Nepal are all from somewhere else. There is no 'Nepali' carpet. But then again it was in Dubai that we fell in love with carpets, and the Emiratis have never made a carpet in their life. Everything we bought there was from Iran or Kashmir.

Here they also have Kashmiri ones, but they also have a lot of Afghani as well. But the most they have are Tibetan.

There is a refugee camp near Axel's work. You can watch these women weave carpets all day. You can also have a carpet custom made by choosing the color, size, and design. However, you must be patient as most of these carpets take months to finish. These are just a couple of random photos we took.

If you want to meet Tibetans, you can either go to northern India or Nepal. There are lots of Tibetan 'refugee' areas here. I use that term loosely because they are pretty much in society to stay. Even our landlord is Tibetan. They stick together and most are rich. They do beautiful furniture and after you get used to them, the carpets are pretty cool too.

They main themes with the Tibetan carpets are the dragon and the phoenix. The dragon is supposed to symbolize the male power that brings good luck, and the phoenix symbolizes the female . So most of the carpets have something to do with them.

We decided to get some and went to the Tibetan carpet street. After going to about five stores and figuring out the price (they are not as good at haggling here, they go right to the price and then go down only a bit).

We decided on getting a pair of these kind. We really liked the black and the dragons have five claws which is supposed to represent the emperor. Pre 1920s no one could have a five clawed dragon in their house except the emperor. Now everyone has them. I like the phoenix on this one.

Then I also fell in love with this red one too. I like it because this one can be hung on the wall. I also like the contrast of the blue and reds. The Phoenix is cool too.

But lately Terah is really falling in love with Afghanis. Our Dubai friends (the Allens) had a lot of these in their house and we really were impressed by how the colors and patterns grew on you the longer you looked at them. Also they really look almost native American.

When we saw the black one we said our secret word (I hate that one!) to each other. Then Terah was looking at some red Kashmiris but when she saw this one:

She just about died. I could see on her face she wanted it in the worst way. Kashmiris are everywhere, so we decided to go with the red Afghani one too.

All in all five carpets. And I can't wait to buy more.