School Anniversary, Sirubari, Lamjung

Today was the big celebration at the school, celebrating the anniversary. The field was decorated with flowers and banners and looked quite nice. We showed up around 10am and I helped one of the teachers with editing some certificates that would be used later on in the celebrations.

Around noon people started to arrive. From neighbouring schools and he community, looked like there were close to 400 people at one point? Maybe more, I'm not great at judging numbers. Even Satya and Grandma made their way down! It was quite the event. There were even people who had to travel by bus for an hour then hike 2 hours that made it. I found more people to talk with today as more people from cities made their way up and wanted to practice their English.

The celebrations started with introductions of all the teachers that had made it from other communities. Then the remaining "guests" were invited up to the stage area to watch the festivities. I was included in that and was given a badge noting my guest status and a garland of flowers.

The first activity was the pole climbing again! Except this time far more people participated, from the very young to the older gentlemen. I'm not sure who won the contest, I couldn't quite follow but I gather that's what drew a lot of the people from further away.

Next, was dancing. I thought that yesterday's dancing was great, but today's was the real deal! Two girls danced, 4 girls sang, and one boy played a drum. That was what they had been practicing all week and they nailed it. Afterwards was a trivia game played by the women of the community, apparently relating to history, religion, etc. Clearly I couldn't follow but it seemed challenging. There were lots of uncertain responses and wrong answers it seemed. After the trivia was another dance performance this time with a boy and girl dancing in traditional dress. In both dances the audience members came and placed money in their hair while they continued to dance!

I left before the festivities completely ended as it was more that I couldn't understand. I really wish I had a better aptitude for learning languages, would come in handy about now. I brought some biscuits back for Satya and grandma and made them tea. We found a "Intro to Nepali" book that I've been trying to study in the evenings.. But not working so well it's sounds are so different to anything I know. Dinner was good as usual and afterwards we sat and watched some tv for a while. Something about the history of the Hindu religion that I couldn't follow of course. Maybe soon!

Tomorrow is a "holiday" equivalent to our weekend, though I think they may only have one day off. Satya leaves for Chitwan tomorrow which is actually quite sad, I enjoy her company! I had hoped to walk with them to Bhotewodar, the town at the base of the hill where she'll catch a bus, but my knees are giving me problems... Both are now painful while walking instead of just the one. I've been trying to take it easy and I really haven't been doing much but it doesn't seem to help. Wondering if part of it is all the sitting cross legged and squatting/crouching to sit and wash dishes etc I've been doing? In any case this is the worst possible place that it could happen. Not that I'm going to let it ruin my trip :)Read more