Garden Days
The Nepali calender is based off of the lunar cycle, and very different than the calender I have grown up using. The Nepali New Year was a few weeks ago which started off wedding season. An extended family member was getting married, so I and my neighboring Peace Corps friends, Heather and Katherine, were invited to the ceremony. At 11 pm my aamaa's sisters dressed us in our borrowed saris, applied tika and lipstick, and finished by adding a few red bangles to our arms. This wedding was Hindu and included several hours of rituals for the bride and groom. They served the typical Nepali cousine of rice, lentils, cooked vegetables, fried breads, kidney beans, and meat. My aama and her sisters accompanied us through the line tyring to pursuade us to take more of everything and were agast when we declined meat. There was no cake for dessert, but rather a sweet yogurt with fruit that I honestly prefer to cake. We left before the dancing started, but a few days later Heather and I happened to walk past another wedding in our neighborhood and were pulled in to dance in front of everyone, so we got to experience Nepali wedding dancing.
Normally, we start our days with Nepali language class, and finish with technical agriculture training. Switching classes is one of favorite parts of the day because it requires a 20 minute walk over a steep hill and then along small paths through potato fields.
It was while walking home from class that I got my first glimpse of the Himalayas. I had heard rumors of people being able to see snowcapped mountains, which sounded exciting, but when I happened to look off into the distance and saw these collasal peaks, I was stopped in my tracks. Heather and I started jumping up and down, holding eachother, and screaming with happiness. Villagers thought we were crazy, but there is no holding back the joy beholding the tallest mountains in the world.
We are required to make a 2X2m garden as a way to practive what we have learned in our agriculture class. My garden is filled with cress, spinach, beans, pumpkin, peppers, and sweet potatoes. I must be in the right program because coming home to check on and water my garden makes me incredibly happy. My family always wanders out while I am watering and comments on the growth of the sprouts and always corrects me on my watering technique. The proper way to water in Nepal is to quickly wave your hand under the stream of water you are pouring from a small jug, and perhaps after two years of practive, I will reach proficiency in the hand-sprinkling technique.
My garden is located next to the main path that leads from the fields into my neighborhood, all the women carrying enormous baskets full of grass on their foreheads pause to catch their breath and ask me what I am doing. As I explain my garden using my basic Nepali, I am rewarded was broad smiles and chuckles.
