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Published: September 17th 2006
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Jessica, Goma & Mukti Nepal children Tuesday marked the six week point of my stay at Mukti. I took Jessica to the supermarket/department store for an afternoon outing. Shanti accompanied us & afterwards we ate ice cream & watched all the shoppers, before heading back to Mukti. The two 'shopping' men came this afternoon with the bulk of my purchase for the children, however some of the shoe sizes were incorrect, so we have to re-measure & they will return another day with the correct gear.
There was no school on Wednesday so Pradip, Jessica & I visited the library, stopping by the Ratisson Hotel to get information about the upcoming Australian Film Festival; of which there was none available. I stuck my head in at the Lazimpat Art Gallery, as they screen various movies on Tuesday & Thursday evenings & I wanted to see what was on this week. Turns out nothing good, but I put my name down on their emailing list, so that should keep me updated in the future. Conjunctivitis is still hanging around at Mukti, so I bought some more medicine. I officially became part Nepali today as I am now eating with my hands. It was something I had
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Jessica, Goma & Mukti Nepal children thought about when I first arrived, but had always been given a spoon & didn't want to look silly, but Jessica got stuck right in so I had to give it a go. It isn't as hard as it looks, but you have to wash your hands really well afterwards as the curry stains skin very quickly.
Thursday was spent doing catch up work on my blog & creating a volunteer introduction document for newcomers to Mukti. Essentially it's a list of handy hints that new volunteers will learn in time, but as many placements are only for a few weeks it will give them a head start & enable them to hopefully settle in faster. I made a couple of calls to friends at home to let them know I am still alive & continued with my stair walking; I'm now up to 46 flights - watch out Mount Everest!
Kavita was supposed to visit on Friday, but was unfortunately unwell, so Goma & I finalised our bill with the 'shopping' men. They brought the last of the goods, we reached an agreement on price, paid up & they were on their way. There are
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Jessica, Goma & Mukti Nepal children six new schoolbags, so Shanti helped me to allocate & change them over, so now the kids wont be losing books from bags with no zippers.
I decided that last Friday night's outing was too much fun not to continue, so Jessica & I headed off to Thamel for dinner. I had sent out an email to a few others to join us, but everyone else was busy so it ended up being just Jessica & I. We had dinner at a cute little Nepali restaurant & both decided to try the chicken sizzlers; a good decision, they were fantastic. After dinner, we headed to Jessica's favourite bakery for half price goodies, ordered hot chocolate at the adjoining restaurant & chatted for ages before heading off to Sam's bar for a real drink. At Sam's bar we met up with a group of Israeli travellers, most of whom had only met earlier that day & drank with them until closing time. It was a fun night & quite late also, I think we jumped the fence at Mukti around 2:30am…
After a well deserved sleep in from Friday night's antics, it was time to get dressed up
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Sajana, Mukti Nepal because Saturday was the beginning of the Teej festival. All the older girls at Mukti fasted through the morning, visited Pashupatinath in the rain, then returned to Mukti for some praying. Afterwards we celebrated with a meal of delicious sweet rice & rested for the remainder of the day. The woman's Teej festival is celebrated over three days with various levels of praying & fasting. Women dress in their red wedding Sari's & travel to Pashupatinath to pray to the Hindu Gods. Married women pray for the good health & long life for their husbands, while unmarried women pray to find excellent husbands.
Kavita visited on Sunday & she, Jessica, Goma & I discussed the current situation of an overseas lady who wants to adopt one of the Mukti children. She began the process with Goma's sister Deepa, however Deepa has recently moved to the USA & problems have arisen because of a communication breakdown between her & Goma. She isn't confident of either her or Goma's broken english & has enlisted the help of a local group who are asking for a letter from Mukti, which is compounding the problem. Goma has processed adoptions with this this
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Prashanti, Mukti Nepal country previously, without providing this official letter of adoption & so is distrustful of why this group requires the information before allowing the lady to proceed. She has made contact with me to enlist my help & so I am trying to find out how the adoption process works in Nepal. It's all very complicated & I can see the frustrations from both sides, but I just want to help fix the current misunderstandings without getting too involved.
Monday was the third & final day of Teej & although I did not visit Pashupatinath this time, Goma, Krishna, Shanti & some of the older girls got dressed up & went there to pray. We all fasted again in the morning & finished up praying for good husbands before taking food. I spent the remainder of the day doing work on the computer, updating my journal & reading.
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Samantha
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Love the Dress
Hi Nic, Im really enjoying the great reading when I get a chance to have a look. You look great in the dress. Was wondering if you have learnt much of the local language? Keep up the good work, take care!