Dashain was fun. Lots of family members showing up at houses for celebration, lots of masoo (meat - of which my family has been having goat), and vacation all of which lasts 10 days. I think the United States should adopt at least Tikka Day. It's essentially the equivalence of Halloween only involving dressy clothes instead of costumes and fruit, money, and tikka passed out instead candy. Not really loving the reason behind Dashain (celebrating the victory of the Hindu goddess Durga over a demon), but prior to this celebration - another Christian and I talked about making sure we kept God in the centre of our hearts throughout this as it is a huge part of Nepali culture.
Since the celebration, I have actually been practicing much more Nepali as my neighbours interact more with me after I showed up at their houses with my Ama for tikka. I do not understand the dynamics of my extended family. During this celebration, I have discovered I somehow have 4 father-in-laws. I also have 6 brother-in-laws - one of which is across the street from me where one of my cluster mates is so that makes us "cousins".
I finally found the other 2 pounds of coffee I packed. Until last week, all I could find is my 3 pounds that I didn't want to bust out until permanent site. That will be announced next Thursday! Next week will also be when language class is supposed to be only written in Nepali script. I am not good at reading that at the moment, so I definitely need to step up the alphabet learning! Our LCF said he'd still help us out though, so I'm not too concerned.
I ate street food for the first time yesterday and it was not very good. I think it was supposed to be frozen coconut, but it tasted like smoke. Probably not something I'm supposed to be eating just like duoy, which essentially is boiled milk left to sit overnight and be served the next day cold. I think it is how they "make" yogurt and it's actually quite tasty with chini (sugar). One of my cluster mates does not like it at all. Nothing has happened yet (knock on wood) so I am saying this is going to help me when I go to permanent site and is building up my immune system to be able to handle Nepali food, culture, and etc.
I attempted to tell my Ama she never is lazy one day after we learned those terms, but I didn't find out until later that she thought I was saying she WAS lazy. :/ It's straightened out now, but has made me hesitant to speak in Nepali to her. These next couple days we're working on making presentations for different topics - mine being on optimal nutrition for sick and malnourished children. I HATE presenting so I'm going to be attempting to present without actually presenting - if that makes any sense.
By the way, if I call you and abruptly say I need to go and bye - it's because I'm running out of credits on my phone. Depending on where I am, I may be able to buy them right away and call you right back. However, more than likely I won't be so I say bye quickly so people don't get freaked out when we're suddenly disconnected - which is what happens when I run out. I'll continue posting as I can! When I'm not able to, I'll use Facebook to post random statuses on my life in Nepal. Love and miss y'all!!!