Happy Dashain!

Greetings from Nepal! Right now, we're in the middle of a 15 day festival called Dashain. Almost everything is closed, no one works, schools are on break, and hundreds of animals are sacrificed! Woo hoo!

Most of the other volunteers took off work all week (or their placements were closed) and either traveled or hung about in Thamel. I decided to stay with my host family and continue going to work. Where I work, the children live there, so even though the manager and most of the staff were gone, I could still be useful. Actually, even more useful than usual. I've been going to both Happy House (the orphanage) and MSPN (The HIV center), but on a more free schedule than usual.

Yesterday, my family had it's Tikka ceremony and invited me to join in. In this ceremony, the Patriarch of the household gives tikka to everyone. Tikka is this mixture of rice, yogurt, banana, and red dye that is put on your forehead as a blessing. They blessed us with good luck and gave us a few rupees, as tradition states. It was really nice because I was treated like a daughter. I felt a bit awkward about taking money from them, but realized that it was the tradition and now I feel fine about it. My host mom also gave me some beautiful beaded bangles. I wore my new Kurta Shulwar, traditional Nepali clothes, for the occasion.

Later, I stopped by MSPN. The children and moms had all recieved Tikka too. I had a nice conversation with the moms (the nurse helped to translate as she spoke some English). They asked me if I was married. I've been asked this a bunch in Nepal. I'm way past marrying age, I think. I realized the other day that most of the moms at MSPN aren't much older than me, despite the fact that they have six year old children. I've become friends with them, as well as the nurses and cooks. It's so nice to have Nepali friends!

I'm sorry not to have been posting much! The internet cafes have been closed mostly. Now I'm in Thamel, the land of the tourists, and of course, nothing is closed. It is a bit quiet, but barely noticable.

I only have one more week of volunteering!!! OH MY GOODNESS! I suddenly turned around and realized I'm leaving Nepal in about 3 weeks! Where did the time all go?????? Crazy.