we watch the sky, confusing stars for satellites

So the past two days have been slow - they're the peak of the festival weeks, so everything in the city shuts down as people go back to villages, and spend time with families. It's the equivalent of the the Thanksgiving-Christmas period for us. As a result it makes it difficult to get places or do things though. We were invited to a student's house for lunch yesterday, and we made it there, but it took us a good 15 minutes to catch a timpo, when it normally would've taken two. Lunch was delicious and well worth the difficulty of finding a ride though.

Everyone here is so hospitable. At lunch at Amar's (the student), his family is clearly not incredibly well off - it is him and his mother, who is a widow, and they live in a modest -but well-kept and clean- one room apartment. They are also a lower caste, which I will get into later. In spite of this though, she was incredibly hospitable and generous and insisted upon feeding us a very large lunch, when she could have just as easily given us a snack of tea and biscuits. What someone said in Tanzania rings true here also - those with the least to give are the most generous. Everyone here is so kind and welcoming. After lunch Amar showed us his kite flying skills, which were quite impressive. The minute I touched the kite string (he insisted we try flying it), it dropped a good 30 ft almost instantaneously, but he was immediately able to fix whatever error I had made. Kite flying is huge here during festival, and dozens of kites dot the sky. While we watched he engaged in battle with another kite, which culminated in his successfully cutting the line of the other kite and setting it loose. This is a common goal among the kids of the city, and you will occasionally see groups of kids running down stray kites that have been cut out of the sky.

For the evening we went out to dinner in Thamel with the other volunteers, as it is the only place in the city still open, being the tourist district. It's a weird place, filled with knock-off hiking gear and street vendors who offer, "hashish? magic mushroom?", and more white people than you will see anywhere else in the city. It's odd in a way to see so many white people in one place, since you rarely see them in such large numbers in other parts of the city. It's quite disconcerting. We found a nice rooftop restaurant to have dinner at though, where we were serenaded by Reggae from a club on one side, and a terrible rock cover band on the other. They served the most Western style food I've seen yet, which included such things as garlic bread. This turned out to be bread with butter and crushed (uncooked) garlic on top. Tongue tingling. After dinner we indulged in dessert at a nearby bakery, and then stopped at a pub for cocktails for those who desired more alcohol, before turning in. The taxi ride home was a cozy six people in a compact car. At least if we crashed there was no way anyone was getting flung out of the car.

This morning started off lazily again, being festival, but Lucy and John (two of the other volunteers) decided to make banana pancakes as a treat for everyone. Maple syrup is not available here, but Nutella and honey are great substitutes. The rest of the day was spent talking and eating, and various other lazy activities, and then of course, receiving blessings.

The big thing for today's festival I guess is blessings. You are given blessing by your elders. This is particularly enjoyed by the kids, as blessings from your elders are accompanied by small monetary gifts. We were all blessed by Mr. Patel's mother, who gave us tikka's, and sprinkled us with marigold petals and holy grass (grass grown on specially designated holy plots) as blessing. We also received blessing from Mr. Patel and Sudha, as they are both our elder's technically (Sudha is 24, and thus not really older than some of the volunteers, but being volunteers , she is our elder). My hands and jeans are now coated in a fine red powder, from when my tikka came off, but it will come out, and besides, it is bad luck to refuse blessing (unless you are in Thamel, then it's just a scam). We still have a large dinner to look forward to tonight, and probably blessings tomorrow.

Oh, and then caste system. This and women's role in society here was a big conversation topic at yesterday's dinner, and is something that is currently somewhat prominent in politics here. Tyler, who studied abroad for 4 months here, and is now back again on a grant, knows a fair bit about the issues, so we were asking about it. What I have come to understand, is that there is a very defined caste system here. Westerner's rarely see it because Nepali's can know what caste someone is by what their name is, so unless you know how to interpret the names of people, it is invisible to you. Mr. Patel wants to be addressed as that because it conceals what his caste is. Him and Sudha are different castes (he was of a lower caste) and her parents still do not give their blessing to the marriage, and so she visits her family alone, because they do not approve of him. Caste is becoming less of an issue in Kathmandu - you will see Brahmins in poverty and dahls (untouchables) who have risen out of it, but it is a big political issue here, because dahls have virtually no representation, and it is still very existent in rural areas from what I understand.

Womens role has also been changing - until fairly recently a womens role was only in the house, and for many women it is still that way. Again, in Kathmandu that is slowly beginning to change - some women hold jobs, and are well educated. Although as Sudha pointed out, the oldest class at the school is all male - they have a very high drop out rate for girls. And for instance, Mr. Patel will sometimes cook dinner, and that is considered a very big step because that is typically considered a female domain. However, as evidenced today, there are still steps to be taken - when Nils tried to wash the dishes today, he was strongly opposed by Sudha. He persisted but she was very unwilling to let him do so, and Mr. Patel never washes dishes. And again, the most liberal practices and ideas are found in Kathmandu - rural villages are less so. Both of these are things that are not very evident unless you know what you're looking for, or until you hear stories or it is pointed out by other people.

Anyway. Now that I have given you an overly lengthy post, I will go entertain myself with some reading until dinner.
Have a Happy Dasain!