Festivals, parties and ceremonies

I am just back from 6 days trekking with Philipp which explains the long time with no posts! The trekking was beautiful again, we were lucky with some fantastic views and also got the chance to visit a hot springs, which was great for those aching trekking muscles... the only down side was after a whole month feeling very smug at having no illness I came down with food poisoning on the first day trekking - believe me climbing up mountains with food poisoning is not an experience I want to repeat or wish on anyone. I am all better now and looking forward to my last month in Nepal.

Upon arriving back with Philipp we have been invited to 2 ceremonies with friends and family of the school. First we attended a baby feeding ceremony. At 6 months of age the Newari people (traditional residents of the Kathmandu Valley) hold a big party to celebrate feeding a child his/her first solid food (this is usually rice pudding). We walked to a massive party palace on the other side of Patan filled with an amazing collection of colourfully dressed people. There we were treated to a feast of Newari traditional food which included Buffalo meat, various sweet pancakes and some lovely home made yoghurt - as well as teh traditional Dal Baht. The baby girl herself seemed a little bemused with teh whole event and was more interested in chewing the wrapping paper from presents than eating any rice pudding or greeting guests. It was however a great opportunity to meet some very influential people in Nepal, including a business women who organises loans for Nepali men to go work in the Arab Emirates (where they are usually treated appallingly but at least earn enough money to support their family back home) and various doctors who having all trained in Britain were keen to talk about their student days in Edinburgh or London.

The next day after a full days sightseeing we were invited to a ceremony to remember the one year anniversary of the death of the vice principals grandma. The Nepalis believe that one year is the same as one day for a soul, so every year on the death day anniversary they have special food to feed the souls. We all congregated in a marquee type construction in the families courtyard and ate (most gatherings seem to revolve around food). I suspect there is more to this ceremony that we didn't see... the heavens opened half way through with massive thunder storms and hail which made the last part of the event quite interesting (Nepali marquees are not waterproof!)

Oh well back to teaching now, class 7 English is calling - more soon.