Random Things I’ve learned

Hi all, just thought I would post some quick fun facts I’ve learned in Nepal.

 

1. I am not nimble. In one of the houses I stayed at my  room was right across from the bathroom and one of my sisters could come and go so quietly I never even knew she was there. Her footsteps were so soft they made no sound and she even managed to skillfully close the bathroom foor withough even the slightest creak. I on the other hand was practically clunking across the hall no matter how hard I tried to be quiet.

2. If you hear something that sounds like a child screaming in agony, its probably just a goat.

3. The rings that they hook through yaks noses to lead them are made out of wood from a juniper treeee and they can be as think as your whole hand

4.Local alcohol, raksi, is commenly referred to as English medicine because it brings out all Nepalis english, even if they only know a little, or a “down jacket” because it keeps you warm.

5. 9 out of 10 times a squatting tiolet beats a sitting tiolet. I’ve become completely converted. The few times I’ve walked into a bathroom and there was a western toilet my initial reactionw as dissappointment and I had to stop and laugh at myself. I don’t know what I’m going to do back home.

Which brings me to #6. . . 

6. Nepali’s are way more open about poop than Americans. Several times I was asked if I was going to take a “long toilet” or a “short toilet”. One time I was walking with a local man and he wanted to stop at his office which was two minutes from the house and I said I would meet him at the house because I needed to go to the bathroom. Much to my embarrassment he laughed and asked if it was going to be “a big long tiolet”, (it was not, I just really had to pee)

7. Making the okay sign with your fingers is apparently super offensive in Nepali culture.

8. If you sweat alot in jeans, your skin will turn blue and it kind of looks like someone has abused you. 

Back from SoluKhumbu

So I haven’t posted here for a very long time, but I’ve been away from any kind of internet connection for sometime now. Part of our semester is that we do an independent study project on anything of our choice. I choose to research Sherpa food in Solu Khumbu. Sherpa is an ethnic group Nepal which originated from Tibet and Sherpa people are well known for being porters and mountain guides. And Solu Khumbu is a district of Nepal in the Himalayas where most of the Sherpas live and it is also the home of Mount Everest.

I flew to Solu with three friends but after landing we each went our seperate ways. So I spent three weeks trekking in the mountains alone and staying in different villages, two of which I stayed in for about a week each. I can honestly say I enjoyed myself more than I could have imagined. The independance of being alone was incredible, and being alone you get the opportunity to interact with so many people who you most likely would not intereact with if you were in a group. In my travels I encountered so many interesting people, both foreign and Nepali, and I am so grateful for the hospitality and friendship that they offered me.

Researching food was probably the best choise I could ahve made and I had a great time. Meal time was research time and i spent a lot of time hanging out if different peoples kitchens, which as my Aunt Kim can confirm is something I like to do even at home. Needless to say I ate so many delicious meals and I can’t wait to come home and try to cook them for family and friends. Everyday I would think about how awesome its going to be to be able to share my “research” with everyone at home. Through my “research”, I’ve gained a couple extra pounds but I looking back I wouldn’t give up a single bite of the food I ate. In Sherpa culture, the most common drink is Su-cha which in English is often called either butter or salt tea, because it contains equal quantities of both, and I probably drank 3-4 cups a day which was nothing in comparison to locals 7-10 cups a day. In Solukhumbu its so cold during the mornings and nights, so I came to consider my extra pounds as a necessary layer of warmth, kind of like seal fat lol

Now I am officially back in the city and it feels so strange. I miss the mountains already and its crazy to think that in only two weeks I will be leaving Nepal.

For the next few days I am about the lock myself in isolation so that I can finish my project and prepare for my oral presentation.

So, have to go for now. Love and miss you all.

Tenduk with Tashi

Tenduk with Tashi

Tonight as I sat in my room listening to music and preparing to do my usual nights routine of pulling out work, I was taken back by the sound of music playing somewhere else in the house. Usually there’s just the muffled sound of the tv coming from the living room, but tonight there was clear, loud music playing, and in English. I started to recognize the song ( I wish I could remember what it was, something like 3 doors down) and when I found myself singing along I got up to go find the source. It turned out to be my homestay sister, Tashi, in the kitchen getting ready to cook dinner and listening to music which was playing from her phone. I expressed my surprise that she knew the song and liked in and within seconds we were singing along together. Then we started talking about our tastes in music and it turns out that we like pretty much all the same music. Growing up Tashi listened to bands like backstreet boys and spice girls and now she listens to everything from traditional Tibetan music to American R&B, pop, country, rock, and alternative. She started playing songs on her phone and we bonded over bands like rascal flats, aerosmith, bon jovi, John Denver, and taylor swift. It was so fun to just laugh and sing in the kitchen with her. At one point my homestay brother even got involved , at first confusing the lyrics and then changing them in my honor to “I’m leaving for Solu Khumbu”. At one point we all got so loud that they closed the door in the other room because they couldn’t hear the tv. Then at dinner we got serious but continued having great conversation about the situation in Tibet, politics in the US, food, restaurants, people.
I had such a good time tonight that it makes me really sad that I’m leaving on Sunday. I wish tonight could be the first night of homestay so that I’d still have another month to stay here and hangout with them. I want to try to keep in touch with my family, maybe through facebook, once I return home, but in the back of my mind I know that won’t work out and even if we do facebook it won’t be satisfactory. And I keep wanting to say to Tashi well someday if you’re in the states you should come visit, or we would do this, or you should try this, but I always have to hold myself back because I know that for Tibetans and Nepali citizens getting an American visa is incredibly difficult and a very big deal. Its not something that you can say lightly, but I really do want my host family to come to America, if for no other reason than I would love the opportunity to repay them for their hospitality. What to do- I have no idea.

Tihar Festival

Right now the streets of Nepal are decorated for a huge Hindu festival called Tihar. It’s a festival of lights so there are beautiful lights all around. Businesses and homes have lights strung up in their windows, just like we would for Christmas. There are candles lit all along the road and lining the front steps to almost every building. There are garlands of marigolds hanging from doors and windows. And all around the streets children are setting off fireworks and bands are gathering to play for the public.

During one day of the festival all younger siblings have to seek out their older siblings to receive their blessing.

Tuesday was the celebration of dogs. Dogs are believed to be the messengers of Yama, the god of death. And the dogs guard the gates to hell. So all of the dogs in the city, even the strays, are honored by putting a garland of marigolds around their neck. Our dog at the program house, lucky, looked absolutely adorable with his bright string of orange marigolds against his white fur. And as I walked past the strays on my street in the morning, the strays looked so much more loved with their little necklaces.

Wednesday was the day for prayer to the goddess of wealth and prosperity. So all of the hindu families opened their safes and did puja (prayer or ritual) and they invite prosperity into their homes by leaving an offering at their door step and drawing a path from the offering to the safe to show the goddess the way.

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A huge Tihar offering outside a few local shops

Mustang Photos =]

A little more light hearted. . . .

If you’re interested check out this link. Its a slide show of photos from Mustang (the place we just went on excursion to). The photos are professional photos which were taken for a documentary.

http://english.aljazeera.net/photo_galleries/programmes/2011104134627238852.html?utm_content=automateplus&utm_campaign=Trial6&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_medium=MasterAccount&utm_term=tweets

Tenzing’s story

I know I promised short, but this isn’t it. Sorry =/

When we went on our trip to Mustang, one of our teachers who came along was Tenzing. We only met Tenzing a day before the trip, but even before we were introduced to him we were informed that he escaped from Tibet in the 90’s after spending several years in prison. As we got to know him, we asked about his past. He willingly talked about his escape from Tibet but always omitted his prison sentence.
Today, Tenzing came back to tell us what happened to him.
Tenzing was born in Tibet and attended a Chinese school where he received an education that was saturated with Chinese propaganda and communist theory. When his father saw how this was effecting his son, he sent him to a Tibetan monastery instead. The monastery is where Tenzing said his life changed. He studied under a monk who had spent 20 years in jail as a political prisoner and he learned all about Tibetan culture and Tibet’s history as an independent nation.
On September 27th 1987 monks began protesting in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. In 1988 Tenzing joined in the demonstrations. The protest Tenzing was at broke out in chaos as police began shooting into the crowd. They shot and killed one man whose dead body was then put on display on a nearby table.
Tenzing and a few other monks attempted to rescue several others who were being held at the police station and they soon found themselves being arrested at gunpoint. He and the others were tied up and publicly beaten in the town square. They were kicked, punched, beaten with sticks, and the butts of guns. He was sentenced to three years in prison for “counter revolutionary activism” with no trail or legal representation.
In jail he received “labor education”. His job was to clean the Lhasa public toilets. On these excursions he was able to sneak notes and information about political prisoners to people outside the prison. One of Tenzing’s notes is featured in a Tibetan museum in India.
Police found evidence connecting Tenzing to the protest. Due to an incident where another prisoner was hiding a piece of paper under his bed that contained information about Tenzing, he was put in solitary confinenment for thirty days, his sentence was extended by nine years, and the other man was excecuted.
In 1993 Tenzing’s health became very poor. He experienced fainting spells and became unable to walk. He was sent to a hospital outside of the prison. At the hospital, Tenzing’s failing health got the attention of international amnesty groups who advocated for his and a few other prisoners release.
Tenzing was eventually released on medical parrol, mostly because the Chinese believed he would die soon and didn’t want him to die in prison because that looks bad to the international community. One of the conditions of his release was that his father sign a paper agreeing that if Tenzing left Tibetan or did anything political, his father would finish out Tenzing’s sentence.
Later that year Tenzing’s father passed away, leaving him free to escape without leaving anyone else liable. Tenzing and a group of others, spent close to thirty days walking from Tibet to Nepal. They slept during the day and walked at night, often on dangerous roads or high mountain passes.
Today, you would never know this about Tenzing unless he choose to tell you. As we quickly discovered on the trip, he is personable, hilarious, incredibly helpful and informative and all in all just a fun person to be around.
The reality of the situation is that what happened to Tenzing is not an isolated incident nor is it a thing of the past. I just read a book which showed pictures of some of the people who were arrested during the 2008 protests and are being held as political prisoners. There was also a list of individuals who are still missing. Their families don’t know if they were killed, arrested, or died in prison.
The current political climate in Nepal is that the Chinese are increasing their involvement and level of surveillance. A New Chinese Embassdor to Nepal was recently appointed. His main priority is to prevent “anti-Chinese activities”, which essentially means to persecute Tibetans. No one knows who will be a target and when.
Also, two days ago a nun in Tibet burned herself in protest of Chinese occupation. Monks burning themselves have been in the news for several years, but she just became the first woman to do so.
If you’re interested in learning more about Tibet, you can go to savetibet.org or google The International Campaign for Tibet, or Students for free Tibet.