Tihar

All of Nepal is currently in festival mode. For the last few days people have been preparing and today is the first official day of the festival called Tihar. During this festival, Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, visits the homes of the Nepalis and blesses them with prosperity. The houses are decorated with marigold garlands and lights to help Laxmi find her way. It looks somewhat like Christmas at home: the houses are strung with coloured lights and the businesses are virtually draped with them. In addition, the walkways and paths to people's homes are lined with small clay oil lamps. It's really quite beautiful. My landlord strung up some marigolds over my doorway, and I'm going to pick up some clay lamps to light tonight. (Hey, we can all use some prosperity, can't we?)

I'm not sure why, but animals are celebrated at this time too. Dogs, crows and cows have particular significance for their duties as guardians, messengers, and just being holy respectively. I haven't checked out the cows next door, but all the dogs in the neighbourhood have tikkas on the their foreheads and are wearing marigold garlands as collars. I've been taking photos and will post them when I have better internet access.

I was invited to go celebrate the puja tonight with the family of my friend and former trekking guide, Bhola. I felt I had to decline as I ate or drank something bad yesterday and spent the night with my head in the toilet. Not knowing what the plumbing arrangements are at their house and knowing that I would be expected to join them in their meal I thought it best to take a raincheck until I'm feeling a bit more robust. I'm going tomorrow night instead and hope that I'm feeling well enough to enjoy it (and also that I didn't mess up their plans too much - I think today is the big day). (Nepalis aren't big planners; when they decide to do something, you get about 30 seconds warning and you better be ready to go. I got a call this afternoon from Bhola's son who didn't introduce himself but just told me he'd pick me up at 7:00.) This family is being so kind and welcoming to me, but I find it a bit awkward with Bhola away trekking. His wife speaks no English and his sons are pretty fluent but I find myself running out of things to talk to them about (they are 15 and 18). Having said that, I'm honoured by their invitation and I think it will be interesting to join the puja (I guess this translate as mass, service or ritual). I'm sure I'll come home decorated with a bright tikka on my forehead.

I am still waiting for internet at home. I have my router all hooked up but don't know how to set all the internet settings. I need a guy from the phone company to come, and of course they're off for the next few days for Tihar. I am also going to change my cable supplier as I'm not happy with my current one. This will also have to wait a few days.

No news on the job front, mostly because I haven't been doing anything. I've been spending my time trying to get myself set up at the apartment. I was going to spend today working on my resume but my digestive system had other plans for me. I met a woman the other day who is doing exactly the kind of work that I want to do here. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by some other people and left the restaurant without exchanging contact info. We have some mutual friends so hopefully I'll be able to track her down as I think she'll be a good resource for me.

That's it for now. Hopefully the next post will be from home. Happy Tihar!