Handbags, Hens and a worrying week for goats

As it says in this informative site  Oh yeah baby, Dashain is BIG!  It is a huge festival in Nepal celebrated for days with lovely things like the erection of giant bamboo swings and sharing of gifts; and less lovely things like the massacre of thousands of goats.  Hens, sheep and buffalo also quake in their boots as well but it's the goats who really need to worry.  Many Nepalis are now questioning this practice and certainly in Kathmandu each year there is annual discussion in the papers about whether the mass slaughters at city temples should continue. But it does.For many, Dashain is the celebration of the goddess Durga's slaying of evil forces.  Unfortunately she missed the evil forces behind over-amplified loudspeakers and to the untrained eye, Dashain may appear to be the celebration of the loudspeaker.  At little crossroads in even the tiniest villages, brilliantly coloured tents decorated with flashing lights and bejewelled icons house two enormous speakers each set to 11.  On the nearest pole, trumpet-like loudspeakers send the music across the fields.  But given the volume it is played at, the intent is obviously to send it across the universe.  I kid you not, it is at the level of pain.(Durga also missed out of slaying the demons of lousy internet and phone connection as it turns out but it's a good chance to practise patience.  Some may call these bourgeois sufferings...but practise with the small so you can be patient in the big. That's what I tell myself!)On my walk (I was going to put this morning but it is now inaccurate and temporal concepts can be misleading over here), I passed several of these village crossroads and I was prompted to think of one of my mindfulness tasks which was to notice what I didn't notice (or words to that effect).  I did not notice silence.  And even when I moved away from one cross road into that glorious nanosecond where the sounds from one loudspeaker faded and the sound of the next had not quite become perceptible, I noticed ringing in my ears.  Near our house, the chanting starts at 3.30 - 4.00 am.  I am learning to detect the subtle nuances of change in the music and may well pick up an entire religious musical vocabulary by the time Dashain is over.At Samunnat, we are working through some of the decreed holidays to make the most of time together.  But we will celebrate and are planning what seems to be the Nepali equivalent of a progressive dinner.  I suspect there may be bit of goat served.  The ladies' excitement has been palpable.  From my arrival at the airport at Bhadrapur, you could sense the buzz.  For Rita, one of the welcoming committee, it was the first time she had seen a plane and her smile was radiant.  Her smile IS radiant but was particularly radiant having seen this wonder.  And the radiant excited smiles continued when we returned to the office to look at all they'd done in the months since I'd last been there.  So much joy, enthusiasm and generosity.  I confess to wild bias but I do think that comes through in their work.  It certainly does in the way they talk about their art.In a one woman campaign to inform the wider world about the seemingly endless varieties of dal bhat prepared here, I will post photos of breakfast every now and then.  This is the morning meal, eaten at approximately 9, just before I walk to the office where we start work near ten.  Kopila follows on her scooter later.  It is misleading to think Nepalis eat the same thing every day. While most eat dal bhat every day, there is variety on the theme.  Like us with salads, or pasta.  The dal (the lentil soup) can be red, brown, black or green lentils; or chickpeas, or red beans.  The vegetable accompaniments are fantastic-eggplant, saag (that spicy distinctively Nepali spinach type veggie) potato, niguro (no idea what the western equivalent is) jackfruit, mushrooms, pumpkin shoots, all simply wonderful. Gundruk (fermented saag) is occasionally wonderful.   And then there is the achar (pickle) which you eat to add more spiciness should you choose.  This is so much better than the bland bottles of chutney sometimes sold at home (and there are good ones too!). In Nepal, achar is usually fresh and made just for the current meal.  Yup, so it is a chore, getting through all this magnificent food.  And tough that I don't get to cook, but someone's got to do it.