Hindu Wedding

Its  wasn't a good day to leave the house without a camera I was thinking whilst I watched an immaculately dressed bride pour water from a brass tea pot circling 3 times around the groom in the blood stained courtyard of the Hindi temple. Not a good day at all ,but as we left the house this morning to fetch Boise milk we wernt expecting for Sorgorm to be off school in his best clothes. So exciting for the kids as trips with Sorgorm invariably result in four-seat-wooden Ferris wheels,  dipping in and out of peoples houses tasting roasted soy beans, guavas, oranges and on one especially exciting trip- two sticks of sugar cane. :-).

"Aza zani beebar. " he announced. Today we go wedding.  . "Right oh" I said, hoping that cultural differences would forgive my lack of shower for 5 days and the fact that In was now clutching a  pot of buffalo milk and a hat that I had just used to wipe the wee wees out of Luke's shoes. I suspected not.

Nevertheless moments later we were in the bridegroom's courtyard surrounded by snazzily dressed men and beautiful red sparkely saris. Tara's eyes were popping out of her head and Lukey was beating the top of a  pot of Freshly slaughtered buffalo curry with a dirty stick and getting dirtier looks from the bridegrooms family. I made my excuses and claiming that I needed to stash my pot somewhere we escaped the courtyard and made for home.

But today the kids were on the go slow. Lukey wet his crock in a puddle and after getting no sympathy from me turned to his Tara mummy who went through a extraordinarily intricate and complicated method of drying his shoe by stuffing both crocks with ferns and emptying them again only to fill them both again, delighting Lukey.

We were still on the path 15 minutes later when the grooms procession  found us and Sorgorm jumped out of the wedding train to collect us. Both kids holding his hands we  gained  ground on the bridegroom and followed him and the best man who was holding a parasol over his head into the temple.

We paused for a family photos, Tara and I ducking behind the crowd and Lukey and Sorgorm standing boldly on the front row, paused again to place tika and flowers and money at the temples back door, and then processed into the temple courtyard.

The temple looked very different to the last time I had glimpsed it in the dark, filled with people and beasts waiting for the ritual slaughter that heralds the start of Dashain festival. I sat in the same spot that I had that night when I had stroked the soft nose of a Buffalo calf contemplating his tika. Wondering was it really possible to ritually slaughter so many animals in one night....

The bright red saris and sparkling  jewelry of the brides family in the sunshine was a stark contrast. Luke and Sorgorm disappeared, whilst Tara and I held  on for another glimpse of the bride. We caught up with them eventually,raiding the  refuse behind the temple for ends of sugacane and later made a smart exit after
Lukey was thrown out of the Hindu temple twice ( for not being Hindu) but not before I was able to glimpse the ritualbathingf the couples feet by the sadu and family.

We were still welcome for lunch  and I munched happily on meat and curry while Luke pored is water into his rice and back again, eventually feeding it to the dog.

:-)

Day trip to town

Lukey tripped while running, fell over and landed on a rock on the way down, blood spread everywhere, some quick first aid from Rissa with a small cloth and pressure for 30 seconds saw a stop to the blood.

We were given plenty of advice by passerby's about rushing to a Dr including a much needed plaster of some kind.

Luke seemed jolly and didn't lose consciousness so we continued on to town. Luke spent the rest of the walk in the backpack reasonably quiet.

On our way home  Tara for some reason really wanted to take the pink bus up to the village. Rissa hated the idea so it was a Tara and daddy trip. Then Luke felt left out so it became a race. 

Rissa on foot with Luke in the Ergo backpack with Tara and Boyd riding in the bus.

I had a much needed snickers bar and 10 Somoza's with some oranges for Tara for the ride.

Rissa had a good swig of water. We loaded up, 42 heads I counted, 10 sacks of rice in the isle in the 20 seater 4x4 bus. We were crammed in nicely. The bus started and we were off, Risa darting across the road to the stairs down to cross the river.

We however drove through traffic only to stop to fill up on diesel at the only petrol station in town.

After what felt like ages (this was a race) we started the crawl up the hill. The bus driver looked at least 18 and very experienced.

Images of an episode of Topgear flowed through my mind as we came to the first  crossing of the two paths. The walking track essentially goes strait up where the 4x4 track weaves back and forth the hill side crossing the walking track a number of times.

I looked out of our little window listening to Hindi music with Tara on my knee wanting another orange from out of the bag wedged between our feet. Dam there was rissa ahead by 100 m helping Lukey do what looked like poos on the side of the track.

The bus lurched on banging our heads on the window as it wobbled and crawled along the bumpy track. Each hairpin was a 2 point turn.

I rode this track on a mountain bike before and was too bumpy and rocky to get any speed on the way down. For the next hour we rode and each passing of the walking track we spotted  Rissa. The other passengers figuring out our little game were helping me find her by pointing  and yelling in Nepaly. Sometimes I would need to fend off branches coming through the window as we drove close to the bank.  My bum was numb, my legs ached when we arrived. We climbed out to see Rissa 100m below us. 

We won but only just. 

Work is in Progress for the New School

Timber Yard

5 Trees were felled in the jungle and bought down to the house whist we were away. The guys mark the logs with string loaded with carbon from an old disused battery. Then they cut them square with an Axe so...,.

Once square they saw them into narrower 

Lengths like so.

Quarry site.

Is a steep bank, so steep that crops are not grown here but there is a section of sandstone exposed. 2 Nepalis work full time breaking the rocks from the quarry and stacking them ready for volunteers to carry away.....
the drop off disappears to oblivion below....

....  to a site close to the school site. The millet is still growing at the school so for now we stack up the rocks nearby.

The rocks are carted like this and its actually really comfortably;e way to carry heavy loads

.... And this.....,

.....and this...

It takes a big team to carry every day :-)