The morning after our three person party with Nabin we set off again in the direction of Kathmandu. There is construction on the highway between Kurin Ghat and Kathmandu so we anticipated a slow trip...we got it. I felt really bad for Kristen during the trip which is not what I expected. You see, I can read on the road, and in fact I must in order to maintain my sanity, whereas Kristen would join the Nepali women in their vomiting if she tried it, although I dare say not as discretely. We would stop for a while and Kristen would eventually get out her book to read and without fail we would begin moving again and Kristen would put her book away. It worked like a charm. She seemed to think the trip was terribly long, but my journey could be described by saying "120 pages of George Orwell and we were there."
We stayed one night in Thamel (the tourist district) where we indulged in food that has not been heard of in Lamjung province (of which Besisahar is the Capitol). We also did a little shopping and I managed to find "How the West Was Won" by Louis L'amour, which I promptly purchased in preparation for the next day's holiday. In the afternoon we headed to Jharuwarasi to celebrate Tij, the Nepali women's holiday.
This holiday, although claimed to be in honor of husbands or future husbands, is really all about the women. The idea is that you eat a large feast the night before to prepare the women for fasting the next day "for their husband or future husband." On the day of Tij the women fast, (although there are myriad excuses not to), go to temples to dance and gossip (no one tries to get out of this), and go to the river to cleanse themselves of their impurities with sticks (no idea what the sticks have to do with bathing). I will keep my commentary brief but I do have some perspectives I would like to share:
1. The fasting is what is supposed to honor the men, but only 1 or 2 of the women in the house actually completed the fast all with different excuses, but it would be inexcusable if the jewelry and fancy clothes, bought and made by the husbands and potential husbands for the occasion, were to be skimped on.
2. I along with the other men were very bored and a bit hungry. I did get through half of my book, but this was because I was all but deserted for the day.
3. Most importantly Kristen gets grumpy when she gets hungry so I would prefer if she never fasted.
The other interesting thing that happened there was the baby naming ceremony. Nepalis do not give baby's their name until they are 12 days old. Then, they have a ceremony to give them a name that is secret, because if someone were to know that name they would have some sort of power over them or be able to cast a spell on them. I still don't think the kid has a name that people can call him. I don't understand, but its not the only thing I don't get over here. The really exciting thing is the secret name giving ceremony itself. Here is what I saw: An old man who is a Hindu priest came in and built a small campfire in the middle of the master bedroom. He sat there with the child's grandfather doing some chanting and placing leaves and water in various places in and around the fire. After a little while the mother came in with the baby and sat down. With more low chanting, the priest handed the mother some oil with which she repeatedly doused the baby. If I didn't know better I would have thought they were about to barbecue the poor little guy. After he was good and oiled up they took him outside and lit a candle in the middle of some fresh cow dung that magically appeared in front of the front door. Someone that night stepped in it by accident, as was evidenced by the big brown streak down the porch in the morning.
That was the end of the excitement in Jharuwarsi.
Stay tuned for another night in Thamel, elephants, rhinos, and air conditioned rooms!
