Village life

16 July 2010 6:26pm Chitwan

...When we got very close to the village, we had to get out and walk. There was still a small landslide area that hadn't been cleared yet. The walk wasn't too bad, although it was hot. When we got into the vilalge, we were greeted by a nice welcoming ceremony. Everyone got tika and a flower wreath (I can't think what else to call it) around their neck. They also prepared lunch for us in one of the houses along the street. After we ate, as it was Suniti's birthday, we had a nice surprise for her- chocolate crumb cake brought from Pokhara. Although it wasn't that special. I think the students ate more of the cake than she did.

After lunch, we hiked up to this observation tower that is in the process of being built. It's named after a British actress named Joanna Lumley, who was a big advocate of the rights of Gurkha soldiers, granting them resettlement, pensions, etc. As just about everyone in the village is a former Gurkha or has a father that was, they really love her there (well, all over Nepal, really). The tower is meant to be a tourist attraction to get them to come to Maitikhan, and the whole village raised money to build it. However, the rest of the money came from the government, and the project has been put on hold for now. It does offer a great view, though.

Once we got back from that venture, we were shown to our host families to get settled in. We were paired up according to our mini-project in the village, so I roomed with Keesler. Our host family was really nice, and we learned a lot during the family genealogy we did. One thing we learned was that GUrungs are really into cross-cousin marriage, so you're supposed to marry your father's sister's kids. Of course, marrying your father's brother's kids is completely out of the question (well, it's ok if the father doesn't have a sister or if she doesn't have kids to marry off). I know that this still occurred in some Southeast Asian tribal groups that are kind of remote, but I was surprised that this was still occurring in a fairly modern country. Our host father actually married a Rai from Darjeeling (he didn't tell his family until 3 years later when his first son was born), but planned to marry his son to his sister's daughter, who lives in the UK. The family is also Christian. We found this out after asking about a huge picture of Jesus hanging in the room (I did notice it was a strange thing to see there). Apparently they're only 80% Christian- the missing 20% is because of the cross-cousin marriages.

After doing the genealogy and eating dinner, Ashok (who had come to translate) and Lucia (who came with him) left and Keesler and I got ready for bed. It definitely wasn't the best night's sleep- it was very hot and the bed was too short for me to sleep on.

We got up fairly early in the morning to eat breakfast and then met up for some millet planting. I think the hardest part for me in planting millet was the crouching down to plant. I had to take a break every so often, because my knees and legs hurt. It's times like this that I really hate my old lady joints. A lot of people quit halfway through, but some of us stuck through the whole thing. We were quite muddy afterward; luckily there was a place nearby to wash. It was naturally flowing water, but they channeled it into a spout and pool. That was cool to see how they channeled and used their naturally occurring resources.

Once everyone was all cleaned up, we went back to the center of the village to re-group and prepare for our mini projects. While we were doing that we had some snacks, as most everyone was hungry after all that planting. In our downtime a few people started kicking a soccer ball around with some of the village children, which was fairly amusing to watch.

After that I left with Keesler, Ashok and Lucia to investigate Keesler's and my project on health and sanitation. Unfortunately, the health clinic was closed so we set off to find the head of the water committee, who was somewhere by one of the water tanks grazing his buffalo. We wandered across (and up) the whole village, looking for the tank and this guy. Eventually we found him and had a nice talk with him about the water system in the village, briefly interrupted by me finding a leech on myself. He was kind enough to get it off me and kill it. I appreciated it. After, he took us to the top of the hill to see the radio station that was built a few years back.

We took a different way back, seeing different parts of the village. When we got back we met up with the rest of the group and then headed out to play volleyball. Now, that was fun. We ended up playing two games, one to 50 and one to about 20 or 25 or so. I really think that it was the most fun I've ever had playing volleyball. Plus, Dambar and Ashok- surprising on the volleyball court. Unfortunately, we eventually had to end our games to go home, eat dinner, and clean up before the cultural program.

The cultural program was over at Dee and Eugenia's house, where Dee ended up dressed as a Gurung for the dancing. Once we all got there Aya ended up getting roped in, too. It started off with some Brahmin dance and music, which started off good but quickly became boring as all of the songs were exactly the same. Once the Gurungs finally started dancing it became a little more fun (they had a boom box). I was so tired by the end, so I was very glad to go to bed.

The following morning we got up early, packed, and got ready to head out back towards Pokhara. We loaded up the jeep with our stuff, said good bye to those driving back, and set off on our hike back to Pokhara. I was hardcore, hiking in sandals and a dress. On our way out of the village, we met our goodbye committee who tika'd and wreathed us. As soon as we got to the top of the hill we left our flowers at the temple (those things are so itchy!), and as soon as we found some water we washed the tika off.

The hike was mostly the same, although there were a few highlights. Various shortcuts down crazy paths. Ashe singing children's songs and listening to Aya's commentary on the songs. Watching Dambar step in a giant mud pile and hearing him yell 'fuck'. I also got to talk to Ashok about my project, which made me feel more comfortable with it.