Monday, June 10, 2013

I've gotta new apartment baby...

So settling back into Kathmandu has been a long and windy, yet exciting road.

Enter:  My lovely new pioneer partner for 2013, Hisako aka 'Na-risako' ('Hisako' rhythms perfectly in Nepali with 'don't get angry')

We decided that coming back together was a good opportunity to start over, fresh.  New town, new cong.  The possibilities were endless.  Because the possibilities were endless, however, at decision point our mutually agreeable responses: 'I don't mind; wherever; I'm happy with anything; you choose,' didn't resolve much.  Thus after a couple of weeks of continued deliberation we decided to get mature.  We made it a matter of prayer and purposefully set out to visit some of the prospective congs.

There are now over 17 congs in KTM, but beyond the valley ring-road is still largely untouched.  So where possible pioneers are now being encouraged to move outside of 'the ring-road.'* We were given a choice of 5 congs.  The congs on the Eastern side of KTM have only in recent years been formed, so decided we would choose from among these.



One of the congs we visited had a ratio of about 22 pubs to about 300,000 population, not counting the villages on its fringes.  It also boasts amazing dahi^, and lovely views of the Himalaya.

However, the day we set out to visit Jorpati, things clicked.

We arrived early and helped ourselves to chiya while we waited for the morning group for service to arrive.  The group consisted of some of the most beautiful Japanaese and Nepali sisters I'd ever met, so my immediate impression was: 'no, I don't think this is the right place for me.' A few minutes later, the thought dissipated as I trailed behind a shy Nepali brother with smiley eyes named 'Tenzing'.  I suppose I was overly excited, but he was the first Tenzing I'd ever met so, yes, I might have brought up the other 'Tenzing' and how mum had met Sir Edmund Hillary when she was young - such a Sherpa groupie!

Tenzing is from the Lama caste of the Tamang people.  His grandfather is an important Buddhist Lama at Boudha, and Tenzing himself was skilled as a Thangka** artist.  I asked him what it was that drew him to the Bible and he said: 'peace.'  It's amazing, life continues to be difficult for ones like Tenzing, yet especially at the meetings and in service you can see the peace radiating from within.

That morning we met more Buddhists than I'd encountered in the entire year I'd lived in Baneshwor.  I felt out of my depth, not knowing what to say, but excited at the same time.  I wanted to go home and do some research: 'what to say to a Buddhist?'

After witno Hisako and I were invited back to a Witness family's room for chiya.  The brother who invited us, Bijaya, lives next door.  He and the father both learnt the truth in Malaysia, so he is now like an adopted uncle/big/younger brother.  The mother had just started studying, and the two sons, Sudeep and Sushil (about 16 and 14 respectively) were both recently baptised.   Chiya turned into lunch, and lunch turned into photos and stories and goals and more stories.

We decided to walk off the lunch induced fatigue before the meeting, and headed upstream along the river.  Ok, it's no Milford Sound, Stanely River, but in comparison to what you awaits you at Pashupatinath,^^ this bend in the Bagmati River is a welcome sight.  Kids bathing, women washing, cows grazing...all very serene.  We met a local brother selling papaya and I'm not sure but it may have been at this point that I thought: 'yep, I'm home.'


Bagmati River

'can't buy me love!'

foreground: Hisako, mummy, Sushil and Sudeep
background:  Jorpati KH

The meeting that night was lovely and intimate.  I noticed a couple of characters too.  One Japanese brother suppressing a giggle commented in the Bible highlights about Luke 2:19: 'Mary was a very deep thinker.  Women think deeply about things.  I too want to think deeply from now on'...(albeit a rough translation, but he had me at 'deep')

After the meeting, Sudeep and Sushil and their bestie, Sujan,  ('the 3 amigos') assumed their roles as our teenage bodyguards, and walked Hisako and I safely to the bus.  Chivalry isn't a daily part of life in Nepal.  But so when you get a 3-teared escort, you know Jah's got your back.

And so we decided.  This the place for us.

House-hunting wasn't so easy.

Our lovely bros and sisters had scouted out a few places but no joy.

In Australia when you are looking for a place we leisurely browse the classifies on the internet, save searches matching our criteria:
  1. 2 bedrooms;
  2. big kitchen;
  3. clean bathroom;
  4. sunny,
and come Saturday morning, ride around in our air conditioned cars, hoping to beat the crowds.

In Nepal it's a little more casual...

We would start out each morning with high hopes and freshly injected caffeine filled veins, and after choosing an area, would then wander around following no particular route, asking:  'khaali kota chha?' ('is there an empty room?')  This starts off amusing but for our not-quite-Nepali intonation it's quite hard to get your tongue around, so often requires several attempts.  By the seventh attempt, we have been successfully understood, but are unsuccessful in finding one or all of the following:
  1. 2 bedrooms;
  2. separate kitchen;
  3. western toilet;
  4. sunny.
Along the way, we would often make new acquaintances, who would save us some energy/frustration and enquire for us.  In one town we managed to pick up a posse for the afternoon of kids and a couple of ladies who decided they felt sorry for us and would definitely find us a place.  They were gorgeous.  They were no doubt married with children, but walked leisurely around, arm in arm, like teenage girls without a responsibility in the world.     

After 5 days following the same routine, our legs were looking good, but the morale was getting low.

Finally, with the help of some street kids: 'khaali kota payau!'  ('we found an empty room!')

our neighbourhood 'real estate agents'

Sure, it needed a serious scrub, but it had everything, and I was on the verge of developing varicose veins.

We could see the valley foothills to the north; over the river to the 'jungle' to the east; and ladies making paper by hand in the fields below!




SOLD.

We moved in two days later.


1st night = mattresses and baby-wipes


The first week was a little traumatic, I mean, dramatic.  Let's just say Japanese standards of cleanliness and Nepali standards of cleanliness are 'different'.  But with the help of a not-so-high-pressure hose, gloves, bleach, steel wool and some serious determination, our place received a much needed make over.

WARNING:  in the following photos I appear to have a Japanese slave.  I assure the readers I was at her side, I just haven't perfected the art of scrubbing a looking good at the same time.





she sat like that most of the day!
laying the 'floorboards'

can't beat their squat precision...

A couple of weeks later we were up and running.  Those same beautiful Japanese sisters also double as skilled 'carpet'/vinyl layers, so within minutes they transformed our living room from shabby cement to chic floorboard.

first sleep-over

Moonlight

Morning light

After unsuccessfully scouting every furniture shop and timber yard in our radius for cheap beds, we chanced upon a couple of second hand ones.  The price did double when we let it slip that we had a washing machine, but we were still happy.

The 3 amigos lended their sanding services and we soon had the beds in working order.




And so after a month camped out in the living room I said my goodbyes and moved into my bedroom.  The bed is a little short, but I can stick my feet in between the bars at the end so I'm sleeping well.

Tour d'salon:









* 'the ring-road' - the road enveloping central KTM
^ 'dahi' - yoghurt or 'curd' as they like to call it in these parts (onomatopoeia 'ew')
** 'Thangka' - an art form based on Tibetan Buddhism
^^ 'Pashupathinath' - the largest and most important Hindu temple in KTM.  Its ghats run into Bagmati River.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Seven weeks in Little Tibet

I realise that this blog can no longer be chronological.  It's been over 3 months now since I arrived in Nepal again and so many things have transpired that I figured it would be impossible.

I do still, however, have a few things to share, so to get my writing rhythm on again here's a highlight.

A pretty amazing thing happened when we moved to our new digs near Boudha.

This part of town is typically Buddhist, so there are lots from the Tamang and Sherpa ethnic groups, together with a huge amount of Tibetan.  Though still in Nepal, it feels like its own little world apart.  The streets and markets are much cleaner, there's less noise and even the homes are immaculate.  We've been told it's because they will earn good karma.  Whatever the reason, it's very pleasing on the eye.













One day Hisako and I saw a moving sale advertised at Boudha.  The advertisement was mostly written in Tibetan with a couple of English words such as: 'fridge', 'couch', 'carpet', so we decided to check it out.  After several broken conversations in Nepali we managed finally to find it.  It was next door to a monastery and the inhabitants were Tibetan Lamas* who spoke only a small amount of Nepali and no English.  We didn't find anything, but they still insisted on giving us tea, and shortly after two other men arrived.  The younger of the two spoke some English and asked us what we were doing in Nepal.  I was for a moment intimidated by the abundance of saffron and maroon and other Buddhist paraphernalia dazzling every glance, but finally gulped it down and replied slowly, 'we are Bible students, we teach the Bible.'

 I don't know what I was expecting exactly, perhaps to be politely told: 'you have no business,' or worse yet, to be unceremoniously kicked-out.  To my surprise however, he replied: 'actually, I want to learn Bible.  There are 10 things in Bible, right.'  It took a few seconds to get passed the shock and grasp what he was talking about: the 10 commandments.

He asked for my number, so we exchanged, and yet all the while the sceptic in me doubted his sincerity.

A problem we face at times in Nepal is the 'bideshi^ novelty factor', ie. white-skin also arouses interest (I know, right, the entire Western world wants a tan, and these guys are using moisturises like 'Fair & Lovely' to get exactly the skin tone I've rebelled against my entire life).  So not everyone is interested in our message so much as they are in us.    

The next day, however, my doubts were quelled somewhat when he messaged: 'Do you remember me, I am Lobsang, I want to learn the Bible with you.'  Pause.  'Ahhh ok. I guess I could help you out with that...'

I wasn't sure if our initial study would just be a comparative religious session but I was again surprised to find that he only brought up Buddhism if I asked him directly about it.

At the beginning of the BT book it talks about why it good to ask questions. One of the reasons being, it helps to satisfy our curiosity.  As Lobsang's English isn't 100%, we often need the ever-so-useful, intercessor: English>Tibetan>Chinese dictionary.  The moment, however,  he found 'curiosity' in the dictionary was very touching. He was very excited at the revelation and pointed eagerly at the word in the BT book saying: 'yes! I'm this, I'm very curious about Bible.'  It is now his favourite word, and has consequently become a favourite of mine.

Cut forward a few weeks and he is showing us some photos of his hometown in Tibet.  I notice in one photo that he addressing a small crowd of people sitting crossed-legged apart from him on the ground.  When I asked him what was happening, he scratched his head, smiled and said, 'actually they believe I am incarnation...'  He then went onto explain that he is the youngest of 10 children, and when he was 5 years old, lamas came to his family home and recognised him as a reincarnation of an important lama.  His parents then sent him to a monastery to become a lama.

Yep, very 'Kundun'** right?  I thought I was watching a documentary for a second.  Especially when he said: 'they believe I am lama, but I have no memory of passed life...'  When he was 15 he decided he didn't want to live as a lama anymore and to his parents grief left the monastery.

In Buddhism, though they have a plethora of gods, they technically do not have a sense of a personal creator.  So from the outset I explained that when we speak of God in our study we are referring to the Creator.  He was very honest and said that he was undecided about the existence of a creator but still wanted to learn.

Just the other day he asked for a sister visiting to take some things back to Australia for him.  I jokingly said: 'as long as it's not illegal...'  He didn't get the joke, instead he protested that it wasn't anything illegal and then (icing on the cake) said: 'I wouldn't do that, because I believe in Jehovah!'  Maybe I'm reading into it, but I feel like that's progress.

At the end of our study this week I asked him if there was anything which he'd like me to pray for, he said: 'pray that Jehovah brings the new world soon'.  Amen to that brother.


* Lama - Buddhist guru
Bideshi - foreigner
** Kundun - film about the life of the 14th Dalai Lama

Thursday, May 3, 2012

the detour - part 2 (Copenhagen -> Berlin)

And then it was Tuesday...And then I was in a plane, again.  And then I was fast asleep, again...And then the plane was delayed, again...

Curiously there was a guy next to me reading a Bible...'angelic direction' crossed my mind, but I struggled to find any words. Thoughts such as: getting out my Bible and starting to read 'in an undertone'; asking: 'what cha readin?'; 'nice Bible', crossed my mind.  Eventually, I got myself together and:

Me:  'Excuse me is that the Bible you are reading?'
SBR*:  'Yes.'
Me:  'Ahhh I thought so. (Silence) You don't see many people reading the Bible these days.'
SBR: 'No, you don't.' (Silence)
Me:   'So are you a Christian?'
SBR:  'Yes.  Are you?'
Me:  'Yes I'm one of JWs.' (Silence)
Internal Monologue:  'What now?!...Sleep: zzzzzzzzzzzz'

My first impressions of Denmark:  'What a chic airport; I wish I had brought another scarf; wow I feel short'

And there was my Sandra...

This girl is my inspiration.  She's fluent in English, Parsi and Danish (and probably secretly another language like Spanish or French...these Scandinavians: there's always another language!).  She pioneers, rides a bicycle, bakes cookies, is doing a degree in Persian culture and is a guide in the Museum of Islamic Art in Copenhagen.  Did I mention she's also an incredible vintage dresser and knows how to 'shake it like a polaroid picture' on the dance floor.


Sandra's door


preaching-> nice berets!
Annaliese, meiner cousine (also an inspiration: how to keep laughing in spite of the obstacles, and enjoy a song on repeat for days) joined us and we spent the night remembering why Scandinavian musicians are awesome. (Insert Little Dragon's Machine Dreams here)

The next couple of days included: bike rides, a 1-hour party, hip-hop classes, private DJ sessions, foreign language witnessing (English!), a marathon (I was a spectator), fireworks, Kebabistan, a smorroebrod ...and Danish (as in the pastry)!


'salt n pepper'














Norrebro




Persian field service group -
'hoodly'* (no idea how to spell it)


not a chance I can remember what they're called
but they're good...


informal witnessing...




lego viking!


Nyhavns


Anis + Malene at Ana-Mia's 
early morning marathon?!















Danish Smörgåsbord aka 'Smørrebrød'


travelling in 'the silent car'


meditating to give
an answer?
Mie and Sara's first daal-bhat

Sandra and Anna
farewell 'glooog'

I should probably write a paragraph for each amazing Dane I met, alas this post is already out of control.  You know who you are:  thanks for being cool, stylish and Danish (apparently those words are all synonymous).  Most importantly thank you for your time.  There's always half a sofa-bed for you at my crib in Sydney-town!



Berlin Berlin

Once upon a time in Deutschland.  First impressions:  'wow that's a cheap Danish! Ich lieber Berline!'

True to our upbringing, Annaliese lavished me with hospitality, force feeding me buns and other pastry related items with the key ingredient ('speck^').  Finally I rolled off the lounge and we made our way to the Hackeschen Hofe...(I love trying to saying this - 'huk-e-shen ha-fe') where 100s of East German Berliners, once lived and worked in the same building.  There's a cool cafe (Cinema) with loads of ambiance and a waiter with even more attitude.  The alley adjacent had some wicked Berliner street art.


We made our way to either Kroetzburg or Alexandarplatz or Rosen-something that night...wherever we went they made some seriously good Mexican...I asked the waiter where he was from thinking he didn't look the most of Germanic of Germans and he replied 'Australia'... Tobias, thankfully was German so the atmosphere wasn't completely lost.





Day 2: Berlin by foot...


Branderburg Gate -
I blame the terrible photography
on a dying battery
After rendezvousing with Alana (sporting, in true communist character, some kind Berliner's khaki jacket) and Dani (a former Livingstone*** girl) we set out to the Brandenburg gate and waited for our tour to begin...Hilarious moment as a rebel 'guide' put on an award winning performance trying to 'poach' his former tour company's tourists.  We were almost swayed to follow him based on his persistence and whit!...But we stayed on the straight and not so narrow with our Australian guide...(seriously - where do all these Aussies come from???!!!!).


I'm not going to recount the entire tour but here are the highlights:
  • climbing the 'wall' in a not so communist royal blue coat
  • wall escape stories - google it! There are some amazing ones...one 'amor'-based account left us thinking 'how romantic!' and 'what a jerk' in the same moment...
  • Museum island - pink sky at sunset contrasted against the gorgeous buildings...beautiful!
  • Holocaust memorial - the architect never shared his meaning.  What do you think it means???
  • Gendarme Platz - apparently the French have been here too
  • Stories about Ludwig the Great...he sounded pretty great...

Holocaust Memorial


climbing the fence which protects the wall...ironic?


Museum Island





pork knuckle and a proposal...


Day 3:  Annaliese and I went Turkish/Deutsch witnessing...She did well but then it was cold so we went for spaetzle (German noodles - interesting that I knew for some reason this is also a term of endearment...)...It was lekkar (hey I know that word too - hoch fünf!).  Later that afternoon we went to the Bauhaus Museum. Contrary to the advertising, no Kandinsky, but some interesting architectural pieces...and did you know this ugly piece of innovation was born in the Bauhaus movement???


bring back the discomfort!





Later that evening we attempted to do the Berliner thing and see some jazz...the house was packed so ended up at a nearby swing establishment, the Ballhaus ($50 if you can guess what that word is in English???)...A fellow jazz enthusiast was disappointed by the replacement of a live band for a dj and so departed, but if it wasn't for the fact we were of course 4 gals and no guys we would have stayed all night...I'm loving electro swing at the moment (and thanks Oliver for introducing me to Parov Stelar)...


cousy bros

Alana and Dani opted on beauty sleep, so Annaliese and I made our way to the infamous 'Green Door' solas...At this point I'm going to say, no, it wasn't a highlight.  But laughing with Anna in the rain with kepaps was (I miss you Anna!). 

Day 4:  Pergamon Museum 

A Hawaiian-born sister who lived much of her life in Ireland before marrying a German (yes her accent is a cocktail of sounds) gave us a Bible tour and it was amazing...


Anna our tour-guide


Highlights:
  • Reliefs of the 'Dagon' priest (fish worshippers) in Babylon clearly showing where the Pope stole his hat design from
  • Reliefs of 'guardian angels' - so birthdays are religious!
  • A tablet showing King Hezekiah showing Merodak Maladan (the Babylonian) his treasure - big mistake!
  • The Ishtar Gate -> Can't wait to meet Daniel and his three amigos in the New System!

'Dani and her three companions' -
cheesy I know but it had to be done


going for 'American' after the Deutsch meeting


What did we do Day 5???

Ahh how could I forget?! 'Vintage Berlin' - Kroetsburg???

I bought a mustard beret (I'm as equally obsessed with the colour mustard as I am convinced that it doesn't suit me...), Tobias took us for the best Kepap**** in Berlin and I had my first Western hair cut (in East Germany?!) in close to a year!  Woohoo!


best kepap in Berlin


Then to experience the Germany I'd been waiting for, we went to the infamous 'Hofbrauhaus' for some good Bavarian times!  Our distinctly non-Bavarian group played along well, singing and swaying to the folk music, Tobias even showing what he was made of on the 'Oom pah pah' dance floor.  There was beer, lederhosens, sausage, meatballs, sauerkraut, speck, speck and more speck.  Who needs Oktoberfest?!


lots of speck!


And then it was Saturday...and I had to part from meiner cousine:(  Happily we were heading to warmer territory...

Enter:  Espana


* Scandinavian Bible Reader
^ 'Hoodly' - 'cosy' in Danish
** 'Oool' - 'beer' in Danish
^^ 'speck' - 'lard' in German - 'something beautiful which makes you smile'
*** 'Livingstone girl' - a member of the Livingstone Rd residence alumni
^^^ 'cousy-bros' - New Zealander for 'cousins'
**** 'Kepap' - kebab