Sirubari, Lamjung

Today was a half day at school and I spent the day with the computers. There are two that are stumping me! One runs but the graphics are so ridiculously off that I'm sure there's a hardware issue somewhere. I think that the proper drivers etc are all there... The second computer just sometimes decides not to turn on. But, I'll keep fiddling with them and see if I can't get them to work. But I'm afraid that time is starting to run out! I had a good chat with my teacher friend as we tried to get the computers working together. He's a very intelligent person, self taught and passed his Master's exams as he was working at the school full time and running a household. True dedication. Makes me realize that I can probably do my next level of education and work at the same time if I really want to ;) And I think that I've decided I do! While I've been here I've been missing work go figure... I definitely enjoy what I do and have decided that I do want to go back to school in September. One day get my professional registration. I've also decided I want to get back into teaching/tutoring. Guess that was what I wanted to figure out while I was travelling, if more school is something I want to do. Check one. Also been re-examining my views on religion and spirituality but no update on that topic yet.

After school we returned home and were invited to the neighbour's for lunch. They definitely fed us well! The neighbours are becoming quite familiar to me now. Thier daughter fell and cut her foot quite badly a while ago and I gave her the Polysporin I had. The man is the same one we played cards with once before and walked home from town with. Anyway, when we went over there he gave us tikka and gave me a small amount of money as well.. Apparently you do that for daughters or sisters. Guess I've been accepted! That acceptance makes me want to leave even less. Anyway, we ate and socialized for a while before heading back home.

I decided to take a walk to the market that's about 15 minutes away. It took me almost 3 hours to get there and back! Along the way I was 'accosted' by 3 students and spent some time with them. Their parents were out working the fields, but I did see them briefly. Their mother is a teacher at the school and is always very friendly. The little boy is my BFF at the school as I've been describing him to some friends. He's just so adorable! The cutest 5 year old you've ever seen I swear. I have lots of pictures, he's not camera shy, but for obvious reasons I'm not going to post pictures of other people's children on the internet.. You'll have to ask me to send them haha. Although I just learned I can make semi-private posts on this website so maybe I'll do that.. So there are three children in this family, two older girls and the one young boy. They were very eager to have me visit their home and we're showing off their buffalo and goats and all the fruit trees they have at their home. They invited me to stay for dinner and seemed genuinely disappointed when I told them I couldn't. Maybe another time.. Their mother also told me that when/if I come back my future husband and I are more than welcome to eat and sleep at her house! I was very warmed by her invitation. Funny how it always comes back to finding a husband regardless of who I talk to. I had another teacher ask me if I planned on finding one when I returned to Canada. My response to him was "sure, but I'm not going to be looking very hard" that made him laugh and change the subject. Back to the visit, the children insisted that I eat a papaya with them! And proceeded to knock one out of a tree. Reminded me of Dad telling us stories about throwing rocks at mangoes to get them to fall when he was living in Brazil. It was a pretty good papaya too! Not really ripe yet but delicious. I really do enjoy all this fresh, local food. I think I've been inspired to try and start growing things at home.. Small things though because I have a hard time keeping plants alive ;)

When I finally made it to the market they didn't have what I was looking for so instead I bought some small candies for the three kids I had just left and brought them to them on my way home. They were very appreciative!

When I returned home I learned that we wouldn't be having an official dinner which I was quite okay with. Lunch was so big and so late that I wasn't really hungry anyway! So Bobita made us some small snacks and Beda and I played cards. We were joined by the neighbour at some point and the three of us played. I like the game that we were playing, though as the night wore on I stopped paying as close attention and started to lose :p The game is similar to Rummy I think? Each player is dealt 10 cards and the first person to make either sequences or similar numbers in groups of 4, 3, and 3 won the hand. The game is played using the jokers, and before play starts the deck is cut to reveal what another wild card is. The wild card is one number higher than the card displayed at the cut. At least one of the groups has to be a sequence, and sequences are important to build first. The game is played to 100 and If someone were to get their 3 groups before you built a sequence, you would earn all the points in your entire hand. If you have a sequence when someone goes out then you don't count those cards in your score, or any other pairs or sequences you might have. Kind of fun!

The other thing that I've noticed in addition to a different sense of personal space, is that people here can be very curious. I've now been asked my weight at least 5 times by random people... Good thing that I'm not self concious! Because it's not seen as rude to ask these sorts of questions like it is at home. Part of it probably is because I'm so tall. I've been told by two people that I look slimmer now than when I first arrived and I've also been told that I look very athletic and am very strong. Apparently I look more muscular than most women here? I dunno, but I'm okay with it! In any case, I kind of enjoy how direct people are here as I get used to it. Maybe I'll start asking my own questions that I've been avoiding in case they're considered impolite ;)Read more