Holidays: Part Two (Teej)

Teej (pronounced TEA-juh)

Teej is a festival for women. And it’s a big deal. The holiday itself is on Sunday, but the celebrations span many days on either side. The weekend before, my family went to see relatives in Kalanki (part of Kathmandu) for a pre-Teej meal. On the Friday before, all of the female teachers at my school headed into the city for some kind of program/event/party. I went with Sydney, another ETA in Lalitpur, to the Teej Celebration with the ACCESS students. (ACCESS is a U.S. Embassy program providing extra English classes to academically talented but financially disadvantaged students in Nepal’s government schools.) I don’t know what I was expecting the program to be like, but it was pretty much all dancing. Oh, except the part where Sydney and I were asked to “say a few words” with less than 30 seconds warning. At least we were able to leave before they asked us to dance in front of everyone!

The group photo, sorry for the quality it wasn't my camera.

One of the dances performed by the access students.

During Teej, women fast to improve their chances of getting a good husband and/or to improve their husband’s chances of living a long and prosperous life. Just another example of women doing all the work! Although men may be at the motivation of the holiday, the festival really is for the women. Everyone dresses up and spends the whole day at the temple singing and dancing. How strict you choose to fast is kind of an individual decision, with more and more women becoming pretty relaxed, although some still commit to abstaining from even water between dawn and dusk. Of course, Nepali stomachs are used to giant platters of rice so in preparation for a single day of fasting you eat like there will be an eternal famine. Fortunately, my family is now accustomed to the fact that I am a dinner time annomally, and they just laugh when I thrust my left hand (unclean) over my plate and yell pugyo! as my aama comes toward me with a second person’s worth of rice.

This was my first opportunity to experience many of the festival sweets, including one called barfi which is actually pretty tasty once you can get the unpleasant vomit image out of your mind. 

 lalmon and yogurt: a ball of fried dough soaked overnight in a sugar syrup

 

 barfi and pehda: both are sweets made from concentrated milk

(Milk can be turned into a lot of things here with varying consistencies, I don't ask too many questions.)
 

Japanese Pears and Gudhpak: the second thing is a mix of dried fruits and some other stuff that I'm not certain how to identify. It kind of reminds me of apple crisp topping in terms of sweetness and the combination of sticky/crumbly.


Jeri: fried concentric circles which are also soaked in a sugar syrup.

Because fried foods aren't unhealthy enough!

 



 Here's what the actual day of Teej looked like at my house.

 

1. Had my toes/feet painted red by a woman who travels around stopping at every house to give married women a full pedicure. (Technically, this happened the day before, but close enough.) Having very red feet from a water soluble dye also meant I had to be very careful about wearing shoes anytime I was on the carpet.

Me and my two sisters. I asked for just the tips of my toes, but something got lost in translation.

 

2. Wore my first sari! If you haven't had the opportunity to sport this traditional wraplike outfit here is the gist. First you put on a "blouse" which is a mix between a bra and a very short cut-off tee shirt. If you wore this "blouse" as a regular blouse anywhere in the United States it would be strongly frowned upon. Then there is a petticoat, which is basically just  cotton skirt, in the same color as the sari, with a drawstring waist. The key to the whole outfit is making sure that waist is tied very tight because that is what all the yardage of the sari is supported by. Over the blouse and petticoat goes an long length of colorful fabric, the sari itself. I would try to describe how to wrap the sari, but I know I couldn't do it justice. There is a lot of tucking, pleating, more tucking, and since I'm new to the whole business also some pinning!

Me and my Aama.

 

3. Girls with long hair often put red or black fabric into their braids. The dhago strands also have ornaments at the bottom for extra sparkle. My hair is a little short so I opted out of this aspect.

 

4. Added 12 additional bangles to my existing dozen; red ones this time even though I'm not married. I also wore pote, a beaded necklace, which is normally only for married women. My host family decided I should get the full experience, and this way none of the Nepali men bothered me. In fact, a lot of people who saw me just assumed I was married to a Nepali already.

5. Affixed a bindi and a tika to my forehead. The bindi is the decorative circle between my eyebrows and the tika is the red smudge closer to my hairline.

 

 

After getting dressed, I went to the temple with my two host sisters and my Nepali aama. There was a long line of women, all glowing in vibrant red cloth, waiting to do puja, worship. The scene was visually exciting, but actually quite calm within the temple. I did not partake in the actual worship of the various deities, but I still felt very honored to be welcomed into a sacred space.

 

 

The final event was a dance party. There were lots of these little gatherings going on in the area, and we had passed at least three during the walk to the temple. At first the plan was to return to a celebration closer to the house, but then my host mom spotted a friend under an awning just around the corner from the temple. We joined a group of women chatting and dancing to pass the time during the fast. We were in a large cement pavilion with speakers set-up for music, but I'm not sure who (if anyone) was really hosting the party. It wasn't long before my host sister became the official DJ, playing music off of her phone. I'm not much of a dancer, and even less so when everyone around is taking my picture on their cell phone camera, but I enjoyed the afternoon letting all sorts of women - old and young - try to teach me how to dance.

 

For me, Teej can be summed up in the word saturated. It is a traditional holiday deeply rooted in practices and rituals from an earlier time, and there is a richness that comes with that history. At the same time, the tone of the day is changing as modern western influences seep further into Nepal. I had a long conversation with my host sister about Teej as it relates to gender equality; ultimately she concluded that Teej is about women displaying their bond with their husbands rather than their servitude. I am quite happy to accept her positive perspective.  The colors are bright and the foods are sweet. For me, Teej was lovely (ramilo chha).

 

A proper family photo: me, Rakshya, Baa, Aama, Raman, and Rashmee.

Weekly Recap

Here is what I composed while lying in bed with a fever in a feeble attempt to catch-up after a week of blog delinquency. I really do promise that things will get better soon, or at least I have very strong intentions of that happening.

***

Monday – New Home

Arrive in Godavari and am confronted with my first plate of rice within five minutes of entering my homestay. Imagine a plate (in America you would probably refer to something this size as a platter) at least 12 inches in diameter. Now fill at least half the plate with a mound of rice three inches tall. Add lentils and broth. Eat. Just as you triumphantly glimpse a shimmer that must mean you are nearing the bottom of rice mountain… your host mom kindly spoons “just a little more” in front of you. (And to be clear, what is considered a little more in Nepal is definitely the equivalent of a complete second helping where I live.)

Tuesday – First day at my school!

Turns out to be an exam day so only the upper level students are there and they are literally just taking exams all day. I watched for awhile and then went home.

Wednesday – Raksha Bandhan (no school)

Thursday – Gaijatra (no school)

Friday – Return to school to administer a listening and speaking exam for students in grades 9 and 10. Basically, I sat at a desk in the hallway with 3-4 other teachers, and students were called one at a time to come and answer a series of questions with one of us. Questions ranged from basic introduction to giving directions on a map or telling a story in the past tense. I tried to smile extra nicely at my students who I’m sure were cursing in their minds when they walked out and realized they had to speak with that weird foreign girl with the crazy American accent.

 Saturday – Saturday (no school)

Brave the public bus system to go into Kathmandu with my host sister and another ETA, Sydney, to get blouses ordered for saris. Apparently everyone wears a sari at Tij, an upcoming women’s holiday, so I needed to prepare. My host mom was disappointed that I did not get a shiny/sparkly sari blouse, but I’m very content with the plain red one; I don’t think I need bedazzlements to attract attention to myself. I promise to post a photo when everything comes in from the tailor.

Sunday – school

Yes, that’s right. I might have a million seemingly-random holidays and I don’t have to be at work until 10, but the normal school week is Sunday-Friday so it’s not all unicorns and rainbows. This was my first real day and I was so excited to see the students, meet more of the teachers, observe some classes, and get a regular schedule mapped out; my American upbringing has resulted in a strong craving for routine and punctuality that is difficult to fulfill here. I will write more about the school itself in another post; let’s just say I still have a lot of questions at the end of day one. Perhaps I would know more if I hadn’t missed the next two days of school…home sick.

Monday and Tuesday – bacteria in my belly

Headache + nausea + fever + “southern internal disturbance” = trip to the clinic. Unfortunately, all of my tests came back inconclusive which is good because I probably don’t have typhoid or hepatitis A (seriously though, that is good news), but bad because I don’t know exactly what is causing such unhappiness in my body. Hopefully a few days of cipro and some strict dietary adjustments will get me back on track.

Wednesday – no school

I’m not even sure why tomorrow is a holiday, but it will be nice to have one more day of recovery before I head back to school. (Correction – today was Krisna’s birthday so that’s why we didn’t have school.)

So this week, if you can, enjoy a glass of potable water straight from the tap and think of me J

First Day Jitters

Last week Wednesday was like the final exam for orientation. In three teams, the nine ETAs took over grades 3-5 at a school south of Patan, just outside Kathmandu. It was a time to get our feet wet in a low risk scenario since we’ll never see those kids again (which is actually really unfortunate since they were ADORABLE!)

If you’ve ever met me in person, you can probably guess that I was pretty stoked about the whole thing. My team (Virginia, Kelly, and me) wrote a great two day lesson covering some simple verbs, every day places, and directions. We had visual aids, interactive motions, and several exciting games planned for “no more than 20-25 at the absolute most” class four students.

In case you forgot, this is Nepal.

1.       Upon arriving at the school, we learned that the three groups would not be teaching in grades 4-6 but instead grades 3-5; which how our lesson slid down a grade to class three.

2.       Our classroom had 29 students clamoring for our attention, not counting the crowd that stood by the door until the school assistant shooed them away. Thank goodness I am always over prepared and just happened to have prepped for 30 students.

3.       Due to subtle differences between British English and American English, we were surprised when we asked the students to “skip” and all of them mimed using a jump rope. Fortunately, our lesson was flexible enough to allow for changing the meaning of one of the key verbs.

4.       Towards the end of our first lesson, I announced to all of the students that we would be back tomorrow to teach them again! But was interrupted by several students with confused wrinkles on their faces saying “tomorrow is holiday!” So our two day lesson was abruptly truncated.

Flexibility is an important disposition for any teacher, and a foundational skill for a teacher in Nepal. But even amidst what might sound like, and might have looked like, chaos it was a joy-filled afternoon.

The students were beyond eager; enthusiasm billowed out of them even more tangibly than the exhaust from microbuses in Kathmandu. When we tried to get them to respond silently by pointing at one of the pictures we hung around the room, many had to fight hard not to shout out the name of the place. But they listened to everything we said, picked up on how to play Simon Says and Four Corners really fast, and called out “Miss! Miss!” to show us their paper every time they drew another picture or wrote another word. It was beautiful and I loved it.

If you are reading this post on Tuesday August 20, 2013, know that it is the first official day at my placement school. I'll be meeting the students and teachers I'll be working with until March. I’m not sure exactly what my day will look like but the anticipation is building…just like the pressure between the Earth’s two plates whose fault line Nepal straddles so precariously :)

Americans have fat hands and I must love dogs.



Our language teacher, Prava, writing in Devanagari.

Since returning from Gorkha last week a lot has happened. I am now capable of maintaining a delightful conversation with a taxi driver including who I am, what I’m doing in Nepal, and a brief description of my family back in America. Depending on his ability to throw in a little bit of English occasionally, I can also competently respond to other random queries, no one says questions here, or ask about his life/family. I am slowly mastering the many consonants, half consonants, vowels, and symbolic vowels of Devanagari. Unfortunately I read so slowly that I can only decipher signs when I am stuck in dense traffic; simply called a jam. 

Some of the ETAs during language class in the Fulbright office.

 

My wardrobe has expanded significantly, and I’m growing concerned that I won’t be able to fit everything into my suitcase when I move to my host family’s house (gaur) in ten days. I may have to resort to my airplane strategy of wearing everything I own rather than packing it. Oh well, the kurta suruwals and other items are well worth it.

 

 

My wonderful tailor, Shanti.

Bangles are another customary fashion statement for women in Nepal, especially as we approach the festival of tij at the end of August. Unfortunately, Americans have thulo thulo haat (really really big hands) and getting the tiny plastic bracelets over so many giant knuckles can be a challenge. Some quick tips if you ever encounter this problem:

1.       Whatever you do, do NOT try to use the hand you are putting the bracelets on to help the process. Keep this hand/arm as relaxed as possible.

2.       Consider holding the arm awaiting bangles straight up in the air in order to drain the blood out of it prior to attempting to put them on.

3.       Lotion and/or soap will make the impossible suddenly seem possible.

4.       If all else fails, surrender your arm to two kind and determined saleswomen so that one can use both hands to squish your fingers together while the other expertly guides the bangles over your extraordinarily fat American hands.

In the end the bangles look lovely, and the green and yellow colors are supposed to help me attract a suitable husband and a prosperous life!

 

Sparkly and glamorous.

 

I actually happened upon this particular bangle shop completely by accident. I had started out on a mission to explore the rest of the neighborhood, beyond the road where we turn to reach the apartment. Rumor has it there is a large community forest over there where “everyone” goes to walk in the morning that we had no idea even existed. Upon rounding the corner I did discover an elegant stone stairway leading up to a large gate. I assumed that I would not be able to enter, but had hoped to climb the staircase and find a nice spot near the top to sit, journal, and study Nepali. When I suddenly found myself trapped in a memory from Cameroon… alone, on the street, being aggressively pursued by street dogs.

I clearly just emanate fear of dogs so strongly that they can’t help but come running (although this is the first time I have had any real trouble and there have been LOTS of dogs around.) Anyways, I was standing in the middle of the street trying to shoo them away, yelling no, and using my shopping bag as a kind of shield. The dogs were alarmingly persistent twice they jumped up and snapped at my arms. Fortunately none of these dogs were clever enough to take a hunk out of my leg like their Cameroonian cousin. I stared hopelessly at a nearby group of people, whose eyes seemed to express sympathy, but they took no action. I ended up walking over and positioning myself between two of the men; naturally my canine groupies followed, but now that the dogs had infringed upon their personal space the bystanders were more motivated to get involved. After a good kick, some thrown water, and two guys aggressively running towards the dogs waving their arms like they were going to throw rocks… the dogs slunk away.

I stalled by having a pleasant conversation with the man next to me about the temple at the top of the stairs across the road while I waited to make sure the dogs were really gone. Then I continued walking and hoped that by the time I turned around to go home the dogs would have escaped to India or been sat on by a cow roaming the streets nearby.

Thankfully, I am writing this from the safety of my own dog-free apartment not from an emergency room waiting to explain to the doctors that I have already had the full series of rabies shots in another country. Then again, collecting a scar from a street dog in every country I visit would make for a one-of-a-kind souvenir.

Gorkha

We saw an elephant on the way out of Kathmandu.

One of many breathtaking views on the way.

Lunch at a restaurant about halfway between Kathmandu and Gorkha.

Bettlenuts and fennel, to clean your teeth after a meal. The fennel is great, but the nuts mostly remind me of pebbles. I chewed/sucked on mine for at least 35 minutes, and it still wasn't soft enough to swallow.

A panoramic view from our hotel in Gorkha.

A poster depicting the ethnic diversity across Nepal, found in one of our school visits.

Me and the Nepali flag outside one of the possible school placements.

The view on the way up to the old palace in Gorkha.

The old palace.

Rice fields coming down the other side of the "hill."

Himalayas, no big deal.

Kids waving to us as we visited homestays in Gorkha.

I could get used to this view.

Gorka bazaar, kind of like the city center.

Sunday, Busy Sunday

(From 28 July 2013)

Today was a whirlwind of a day. After a memorable dinner last night at the Pretty Family Restaurant in Patan, the five of us staying in Lazimpat spent the night with the other four ETAs who are living in Dhobighat during our orientation month. A fun, but late, night combined with all of today’s activities has left me totally wiped. Here’s a minute-by-minute replay of my ninth day in Nepal.

5:15am  -- Wake up.

5:30am  -- Leave the house in Dhobighat for a morning hike up  nearby “hill.” The view from the lookout point part way up was spectacular; I could have stayed there all day just staring out and marveling at the sprawl of the Kathmandu Valley gently cloaked in fog.

 

7:00am  -- Arrive at the temple at the top of the hill. More marveling. The stupa mixed both Hindu and Buddhist symbols and traditions. I won’t try to describe anything because I don’t have the words to appropriately convey the experience. (I did get permission from someone at the stupa to take a few pictures, but sometimes they’re crooked because I was mainly shooting from the hip.)

 

 

 

 

 

7:35am  -- Just before leaving the stupa my camera battery died. I do have pictures, thanks to the generosity of other wonderful ETAs who let me mooch off their digital power all day long. Unfortunately, I don't have any of those pictures yet. So....sorry.

8:30am  -- Happen upon a great little café and enjoy some warm banana bread for breakfast.

10:00am  -- Look like fools standing on the side of the road waiting for our tour bus. Look like even bigger fools when attempting to convince the wrong bus driver that he was looking for us, when he was there for another group. We’re not the only tourists in Nepal?!?

10:12am  -- Get picked up by the right van and head to Patan Durbar Square. There are three Durbar (palace) squares in the Kathmandu Valley, one in each of the three original kingdoms: Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapour. I was amazed by all of the intricate carvings on the various palace buildings. Every single window has delicate patterns surrounding it, and the support beams along the roof depict various scenes of gods and goddesses. Thinking about how long it takes me to write a devanagari character with a modern ball point pen…it’s astounding to imagine people etching the same delicate curves into wood or limestone.

11:43am  -- Arrive at the base of Swayambhunath. This large stupa is high up on a hill to the west of Kathmandu. From the top you can look out over the entire city. This location is also known as “monkey temple” because of all the little monkeys that can be seen all around the stupa. I wish I could have adopted a baby monkey, but they are kind of aggressive.

1:35pm  --  After Swayambhu, we drove to the northeast side of Kathmandu to visit Boudannath. If you have been paying attention you might be able to predict that this is a temple dedicated to Buddha. The entire stupa is surrounded by little souvenir shops, clothing stores, art schools where you can purchase mandalas, and restaurants. We had lunch at a rooftop café overlooking Boudannath. My ratatouille was beyond delicious.

2:30pm  -- It’s a Buddhist tradition to circumambulate the stupa, always keeping it to the right side of your body. After lunch we walked around two levels of the stupa. One of my favorite parts of this location was walking beneath a massive canopy of prayer flags. Red, green, yellow, and blue, they were draped all the way to the top of the stupa.

4:45pm  --  After the tour, several of us went into the tourist area of Kathmandu called Thamel (tah-mel). We visited Revolution Café and sat on pillows at a low table on a raised platform. You often see this kind of seating alongside tables and chairs. Rather than dinner we enjoyed dessert; I had a crepe with chocolate ice cream. Well worth it.

5:30pm  -- Post dessert, we headed to Pilgrims Book Store looking for a child’s workbook for devanagari. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful, but I did find some Nepali folktale collections.

8:00pm  -- By evening it was time to go home and pack for Monday’s trip to Gorkha. It was loadshedding until 9:30 so I showered and packed by headlamp.

I went to bed at 9:45pm after drafting the first bit of this entry. Now it’s Monday morning and the bus is coming in a few minutes. More to come later!

Notes from the Sky

5:22pm _ Newark Airport

I am sitting at gate C90. The woman to my right has finally returned to reading her book. She stopped for 10 minutes and amusedly watched me repack my carry-on backpack after some last minute rearranging to get my checked bag back down to 50 pounds. (50.5lbs. if you want to be specific, but the man at the counter let it slide through.) Oh, and by last minute rearranging I mean frantic tearing out of all things. I managed to get one of my hiking boots to stay in the checked suitcase. Unfortunately, my carry-on now weighs a whopping 35lbs so we’ll see if I can sneak it past Swiss Air and their 8kg (18lbs) weight limit when I get to Zurich. I have no intention of paying for extra luggage and several strategies if problems arise: putting on more and more layers of clothing – including the one hiking boot if necessary – going into great detail about how I’m travelling to Nepal, crying, and/or making vague references to the US Consumer Protection Act. Because if you break it down, I’m taking two bags for eight months; do the division and consider whether you could live for a month on just the things in a quarter of one carry-on bag…even if it is a little oversized.

 

5:32pm _ Newark Airport

There is a baby. A screaming baby. At my gate. I am worried.

 

9:01pm (3:00am Zurich) _ 37,012ft Up

Good news. No crying babies, at least not yet. I did spot a young’un a few rows up but she seems very content at this point. Keep your fingers crossed.

I just finished a surprisingly delicious dinner of salad, pasta, and meatballs. I’m sitting in row 38 and the chicken dish was going quickly so I’m glad the pasta was at least on par with Phelps food because I didn’t have much of a choice. But don’t think I’m unhappy a mere three rows from the back. By choosing an aisle seat with no one in the window, I did manage to get a doubly comfortable ride and I don’t feel bad about it because there are 5 people across the aisle sprawled out over three seats. The airline blanket is quite warm and my compression socks mimic the weight of an extra thick comforter so I’m feeling rather cozy.

I’ve already watched a movie, I must have been 45 minutes in before the plane took off, and now that I’ve eaten I think I’ll walk a lap or two around the plane and settle in for a long nap.

 

9:24pm (3:24 Zurich) _ 11,280m Up

Just as I was closing my eyes I realized that I hadn’t read my notes and cards! Forget napping! I jumped up, dug through my back-up and continued to read by the light of my computer since the cabin lights have just dimmed.

The letters are beautiful. Beautiful. They touched my heart, made me laugh, brought tears to my eyes. For everyone who sent a card or a note or a hand colored picture, thank you. There are still MANY cards – in fact I believe the other package weighs at least a pound – to open, some on the plane and others scattered throughout the upcoming weeks and months. I look forward to all the little rays of Bucks County sunshine.

Now, about that nap.

 

3:52am (9:52am Zurich) _ Zurich Airport

I’m off the plane and hallelujah. After 5 ½ hours I was DEFINITELY jealous of the people with three seats instead of two. Two seats is just enough to taunt you with the idea of being able to stretch out, without really being able to do so completely. But I digress, perhaps because I didn’t sleep nearly as much as I might have hoped to on an overnight flight.

I did find success in meeting up with Peter, another Fulbright ETA headed to Nepal. Currently we are camped out at a random gate. Our flight to Delhi doesn’t board until 12:10pm Zurich time, so we’ve got another three hours to kill.

 

6:20pm (3:49am Delhi) _ Delhi Airport

Sorry my writing has kind of dropped off. My sense of day/time/place are faltering. Things are still very surreal. I am living in a weird time warped universe.

I did manage to get in and out of customs in India in hopes of increasing my likelihood of getting another visa to come back at the end of my grant. Getting into India was uneventful, and getting back through customs for the flight to Kathmandu wasn’t too bad. I did have to completely unpack my giant backpack in search of “many metal objects.” Turns out you are not allowed to carry any extra batteries when you are leaving India so my bag of extra double and triple A’s are gone. Oh well. What matters is that I have two lovely stamps in my passport – and more to come very soon!

 

(Sorry, no pictures yet. I promise things will get better!! Still working on the internet situation.)