Week Seven in Nepal

Good Morning!

I have reached the turning point in my time here…and am entering the phase of I only have ‘insert number here’ many days left/visits left/time to do this left. The stomach churning when I first got here about not bringing enough money to do all of the work I need to do is changing into unease about not having enough time left to do all that I need to do.


My weekly routine has fallen into place. On Sundays, I spend the day with Lobsang at her small shop. There are four Tibetan Refugee camps in the Pokhara area…and she lives in the Tashiling camp, which is next to Bel’s home. I met her on my first trip to Nepal…and have continued each year to visit her weekly. Her shop is really quite small and contains bits and pieces of things that are hard to imagine anyone would ever want to buy. To help her in her business, I bring back 20 of her Tibetan prayer beads (mallas) and try to sell them on her behalf. For lunch, we go to her home and her husband cooks for us. I always request an onion omelet on Tibetan flat bread. She uses fresh laid local eggs and the omelet is a bright yellow color. Yum!


Tuesdays and Wednesday are spent visiting Pau Rhichoe and Pau Nyima. My driver picks me up at Bel’s home and we swing by Lakeside to pick up Migmar. The morning is then spent with one of the Paus…chatting, continuing my research on their shamanic practices and drinking Tibetan butter tea…another yum. This week I was able to see the progress of Rhichoe’s toilet. They had increased the buildings height, put on a new roof, plastered the inside, changed the floor to accommodate the ‘pot’ and were in the process of laying tiles. The ‘pot’ was in the home. I looked at it longingly and even sat on it. Once in place, it will be the only toilet in my life here where I get to sit down. Sigh! At Nyima’s, we received the great news that his brother’s stitches had been removed from his stump. This means that instead of having to travel to the hospital every other day, they will only have to make that trip every couple of weeks. I now have three options of where to get an artificial leg…and the prices to expect. It’s been recommended that I not personally make contact with the three places, because they will increase the price. Instead, Migmar and Tashi will venture there alone and Indigenous Lenses will pay for the leg.


Mondays are kind of free days to do different things at the camp. Once a month the day is used to deliver stipends to the old ones Indigenous Lenses is supporting with food and shelter. Some Mondays are used to visit Wangchuk’s son Trinley and Norzin…the woman who weaves me the Tibetan incenses bags. This past Monday, we did just that. We spent the morning on a foam mat on Trinley’s floor, playing with his one year old son. Trinley’s shop is almost ready to open for business. It is very exciting. From there we headed to Norzin’s where her daughter Karma made me a pizza. Karma’s son is three months old and has started to coo and smile. Tomorrow Migmar and I are using the day to travel up to the monastery on the road that leads to Sarankot to visit her nephew Chuing. He is a monk…and all the monks who are at that monastery are in the middle of a cycle of meditation that will last three years, three months and three days. He is half way through. Once a day, between 11 and 1:00, you can go to say hello. You are not allowed to see each other, so you sit on either side of a cloth door hanging and watch each other’s hands as you speak. I did this a year ago, and expressed interest in doing it again this year. My timing is great, because he just came out of a six month period during which no outside contact was allowed what so ever. We will take juice and snacks to give him…enough for him to share with the others he is in seclusion with.


Migmar and I have been trying to find a new room for the two old Tibetan women we support. The place where they are staying is owned by a landlord who is asking twice as much for rent as you would find elsewhere in the camp…and he won’t allow them a water hook-up. They even pay more in rent then you can find Lakeside. We found one possibility for them, that would have a private compound, its own toilet and a source of water for half what they are paying now for rent. Dechen, the older of the two went with us to look at it. She expressed concern that it is too far away from the monastery…and she wouldn’t know the neighbors…and the person who used to live there died…etc, etc. The home is next door to Nyima’s home and is quite nice…but I think the thought of having to shift is more than they were comfortable with. She was worried that I would be upset after going to so much trouble, but I assured them that that wasn’t the case and it is totally up to them. Maybe they can negotiate a better rate with their current landlord.


Thursdays and Saturdays are free days, and Friday is Bel’s day off from working as a cook…so that day is ours to go and explore. Some Fridays we go to the market, some Fridays we visit his guru’s home…one of these Fridays we are going to take a bus to the top of the ridge behind his home to a new ‘view point’ where you can see the entire Pokhara valley. These bus trips are a bit of a nail biter…as the buses are old and rusty and the road will be unpaved and rutted. This coming Friday, Bel and I are going back to his village. We’ll leave Friday morning and return Sunday afternoon. The village had sent word that it is expecting me to return again….so we are heading up. This past Friday, Kalu (Bel’s nephew) arrived from the village with his wife, 8 month old son and Bikesh’s sister to see what arrangements needed to be put in place for my arrival. The main need will be a place to go to the bathroom. I’ll take my own drinking water and food. When I went there last year with my friend Shelly, we were the first foreigners to ever visit. They created a special arbor for us to walk under as we entered the village and we signed a special book they made to record this historical event. The oldest woman in the village had expressed the hope that we would return at some point within her lifetime. So, here I go! A year ago we ‘sat gufa’. This year Bel and I will return to the gufa site and do a small ceremony to honor the work we had done a year ago. I’ve been given video of our four day gufa experience that a boy shot. It really is quite remarkable.


Throughout the week, I hand wash my shirts and underwear in the small sink in my bathroom and line dry them in the sun. Once or twice a week, the daughters head to the river to bath and wash their clothes. They always ask if I have something that needs washing, and I give them the bigger items like skirts, sheets and towels. This week, Anil’s goat Nakali, got a new home…and she moved into it for the first night on Friday. Bel said there is a special star that sometimes is in the east, sometimes in the south, sometimes in the west and sometimes in the north. When Nakali’s house was built, it was in the east, so it faced Nakali’s new door. They had to wait until the star shifted, because if Nakali moved in when was facing her, she would become sick. On Thursday, Grandmother’s cow died. She was quite old, but her death came as a shock. They buried her below the house in a clearing. Everyone, especially Grandmother, was quite sad. Bel said that at the time of the cow’s passing, the buffalo that shared her space had a tear running down her face.


This past Friday was the visit to Bel’s guru’s home day. His place was full of sick patients who had come to him for treatment. His is also a Nepali shaman and is quite well known for his ability to heal people. Every morning his place is packed...and in the evenings he does special ceremonies. Whenever you listen to the radio, there are public service announcements telling people to stop using shamans when they are ill…and instead go to a medical clinic. But these clinics are few and far between…expensive…and compared to what we have in our country, about 50 years behind the times in terms of equipment and services. I notice that the younger generation gravitates more to the Western options, but the older people have faith in their healers. After watching him work for a couple of hours, we shared a meal of shell roti and fried duck eggs. He has guided Bel in his healing work since Bel was a young boy…and he was with us last year when we ‘sat gufa’. Bel and I hope he can go with us to the village on Friday, but he has a new student and he is not sure if he will be available. He is going to do a big puja when it is time for me to return home to protect me from the swine flu. He is very worried about my getting sick upon my return to the States.


A week ago, Anil went on a picnic with ‘the boys’. They used the money they earned playing bhailo to buy food to cook for themselves. The picnic was down by the river. One of the boys brought his dog…which then bit Anil on the knee. That evening, Bel and I took Anil to a clinic on the main road for a shot. Because of his aversion to doctors and clinics, we got him to go because we told him they would put a ‘tape’ (band aide) on his wound. When we got there, the doctor did all he could to hide the needle, but as soon as Anil saw the shot, it became a wrestling match with Bel, a Tibetan woman and I trying to hold Anil still so the doctor could administer the shot. The doctor was finally able to get him in the behind and then waved us on our way. I told him he had to put a tape on Anil’s wound…that that was the only reason he was willing to come and to not put a band aide was just not right…so the doctor put some antiseptic on the wound and a ‘tape’. Anil returned home with us quite happy…although he kept rubbing his butt.


Yesterday, Sangita, Kalu, his wife, son, Bikesh’s sister and I traveled to Babita’s new place. She was renting a room close to where her husband is stationed with the Nepali army…but she was lonely there…so her Aunt Tara offered her a room in her new home. It is close to the Pokhara airport…so is not that far from Bel’s home. Babita is now about three months pregnant…which, after her knowing that I knew, she finally, shyly told me. I had promised to take pictures of Kalu and his son when I was in the village….then they surprised us with the visit, so we all headed over so Babita could also see the baby and I could see her new room. We traveled by local bus then walked quite a ways. The place is lovely…and Babita has a bed, table and small kitchen set up. We all enjoyed a delicious meal before Kalu and his crew headed back to the village and we returned to Bel’s home.


Next week’s message will be late…I won’t be back at Bel’s until Sunday afternoon…and will a day or so to compose my thoughts about being back in the village.



Love,

Sarah