Here we go again

Today there is a general bandh called by the college students' unions, again in protest for the increased fuel costs. They've been demanding that the government lower the costs, and (go figure, since the price they are charging for fuel is STILL less than what they are paying India to get the fuel) the government isn't lowering the costs. So today everything (all vehicular movement, and all schools, shops, banks, businesses, etc) is shut down. The language teachers haven't shown up yet, and likely most of them won't, though I suspect that the guy I'm supposed to have this afternoon will still come, so I likely will still have one class. But we'll see.

Monday there was another transportation bandh along the main road, again called by the students for the same reason. It was like the one last week where I got stuck in a traffic jam on a back road while walking. That was the 3rd day in a row that I'd walked to class and gotten stuck. I was pretty grumpy by the time I got to class. Thankfully yesterday there was no problem. And today there won't be a problem, because there won't be vehicles, even on the back roads.

I'm not sure where this will end up. Will the students keep protesting indefinitely? Or will the government back down, lower the fuel prices, and go more into debt, so that the fuel crisis becomes even more of a problem? Or will everyone eventually realize that this is inevitable, and just accept it? Imagine if people back home went on strike every time the price of fuel increased! But this is Nepal, and so I'm not sure what will happen. Nobody is. They're all shaking their heads about the strikes, shaking their heads about the increasing fuel costs, shaking their heads about the fuel shortage, and also shaking their heads about the fact that the government can't pay India for fuel. And so, on we go. The kids get a day off school (kind of like a snow day back home), and they'll likely think it's great. At least someone will be happy about it!

Update: Yes, my afternoon teacher showed up, so I did have one class. I took this photo on the way to class. This is the main road that I usually try to avoid, because of the noise and heavy traffic. No vehicles today (except Ambulances, UN vehicles, press vehicles, and other emergency vehicles). And the pedestrians (including me) took advantage of the lack of traffic and walked right down the middle of the road. Very satisfying!

Want to Play a Game??

Monica, I hope you're reading this. That title was for you! (Sorry...inside family joke there)

I thought of a really fun game this morning. It's called "Nepali Winter Challenge," and it will really only work in climates where the temperature gets down to 5 degrees celcius (41 farenheit) or lower. If you're familiar with the "30-hour-famine," you MIGHT be able to guess what's coming. I think this could really catch on. I'll collect my royalties from World Vision later...

The game (or you could make it a fundraiser or an educational event) is that for a fixed period of time (36 hours maybe) you don't let it get any warmer than 5 degrees celcius in your house. The easiest way to do that would be to pick a day when it is 5 degrees and just turn the heat off. I'm not sure whether or not it's possible to set a thermostat to only heat a home to 5 degrees, but if it is, then you could do it when it's colder, too, and just set the thermostat really low. The point of the game? To experience what winter is like in Nepal (and in a lot of other places in the world)...and to maybe come to understand why I, as a self-respecting Canadian who is used to much lower temperatures than we have here, am still struggling with temperatures that don't even go below freezing (though there is frost some mornings).

I'll first tell you the rules of the game, and then I'll give you some strategies for success.

Rules:

1. Temperature: You must not let the house get warmer than 5 degrees (41 F) for the duration of the game. Ideally, this would also happen in whatever other buildings you go to during that time: school, church, work, shops, etc. But that might be impossible, unless you could get the entire city on board. I'm being generous with the temperature, by the way...I'd say most of the time in my flat these days it's more like 2 or 3 degrees.

2. Electricity: You can use electrical space heaters, hair dryers, microwave ovens, etc...but only for part of the time. These days Kathmandu is without electricity roughly 11 hours a day. Each zone has a specific schedule for each day of the week. You can abide by my Monday schedule. So between the hours of 9 am and 3 pm, and then from 7 pm till midnight, you may not use any electrical appliance that produces heat. Lights are okay, and computers are okay (I have a back-up system that powers these even when there is no real electricity), but you can't use the other things. The only exception I'll give you is the stove, since most people here use gas stoves (and just be glad that I'm not telling you that because of the fuel shortage you don't have gas for your stove at the moment. At the children's home they are currently cooking their meals over open fires outside because they can't get enough gas). Oh, and don't use the space heaters at night. Even if there is power, you might start a fire because of unpredictable voltage and electrical wiring.

3. Water: You can take a hot shower (I have a gas heater for my shower water). Otherwise, unless you heat the water yourself on the stove, you may only use cold water for everything else...hand washing, cleaning, washing dishes, etc. If you have one of those taps where depending on how far to the right or left it goes you have more or less hot water, it must sit at the coldest possible setting...not even a HINT of hot water is allowed. Oh, and don't shower for too long, because there is also a water shortage. And if you use the gas heater too much, you may run out of gas, and then it might take you 3 weeks before you can get more.

Those are the rules. Now for some suggested strategies:

1. Layers, layers, layers! A thermal layer is essential. I wear one almost 24-7 (basically not when I'm showering or changing my clothes, but otherwise, I have them on). I should also mention that you need not feel that you have to maintain the same standards of hygiene that you usually would. I've discovered that the thermal layer that you've been wearing all day (or all night) is much warmer than the one that has been sitting in the closet that whole time. Draw your own conclusions! Around my apartment, these days, on the bottom I have my thermals (longjohns), then legwarmers, 2 very thick pairs of socks, pants, a wool shawl wrapped around my waist like a skirt, and these fake down booties that go up above my ankles. On top I have a thermal undershirt, usually 2 long-sleeved tops overtop, then either a heavy sweater or my down jacket, and often I also wrap a wool shawl around my shoulders. I probably wouldn't win any beauty contests, but at least I'm warmish.

2. Your mother was right. A HAT will make a huge difference. I wear mine almost always when I'm at home, and sometimes also when I'm out. Keeping your head warm really does help to keep the heat in. So does wearing a scarf so that you don't lose heat from your neck. It may feel weird to be wearing a hat and scarf inside, but trust me...it's worth it! Wearing a hat at night while you're sleeping also really helps. I do it every night these days.

3. Here are some items that I have found very useful:

Sometimes my hands and feet are so cold they go numb (it happens almost daily with my hands, and sometimes also with my feet, though they're usually more protected), and then you need something hot to warm them up (just putting on extra socks or mittens doesn't usually do the trick). The brown round thing in the middle is something from China that you can buy here. It contains water (I think) and you plug it in and it heats up. It stays warm for several hours. Works great...but requires electricity. When I have it heated up, I sometimes put it under my shirt, and then I walk around looking like I have a pregnant belly! The gel packs are great - you flick the little silver disc, and the gel turns into a salt, and in the process an exothermic (for all you science nerds) reaction happens, and the pack turns warm. The beauty of it is that once it cools down, you put it in boiling water for 20 minutes, and the salt turns back to gel. Fresh out of boiling water, it's hot for awhile. And then once it's cold, you flick the disc again, and the whole process starts again. I especially like the little ones - I use them when my hands go numb.

4. Hot water bottles. These are so great that they get their own point. I use them every night. I fill them both with boiling water, wrap a towel or something around them, and put one at the foot of the bed (under the covers), and the other at my side. They actually help to keep the bed warm all night. Then in the morning, the water is still usually warmish, so I pour it into a bucket or container and use it to wash my face, etc, in the morning. A good alternative to freezing cold water.

5. Showers. Hot showers are wonderful. But I suggest not taking a shower if there is no electricity. Why? Because you will stay warm exactly as long as the hot water is running. And as soon as you turn it off, you will get cold. And especially if you're a girl with longish hair, you really want to be able to blow-dry it right away. Otherwise, it might freeze! Okay, it won't freeze at 5 degrees (and mine has never frozen), but it will make you SO much colder to walk around with wet hair. I have a little electric space heater that doesn't work very well. The only time I really use it is right after I've gotten out of the shower. I stand directly in front of it to dry off and get dressed, and then I immediately dry my hair. That way, I get clean, and stay reasonably warm...though it still can be a bit miserable.

6. Hot beverages. They really help warm you up on the inside. Even if you don't feel like drinking tea or coffee or hot chocolate, hot water is something you can pretty quickly get used to drinking.

7. Go outside in the sun during the middle of the day. Okay, I'll acknowledge that in this one aspect, Nepal is more pleasant than Canada right now, and you might not be able to use this strategy for the game. In the middle of the day, if the sun is shining (which it is about 75% of days), and if you sit or stand in direct sunlight, you will warm up. The temperatures get to the mid-teens (maybe 60 F) during the day (in direct sunlight only...not so much in the shade), so if you're outside you get a bit of a break from the cold. The inside of buildings does NOT warm up, however, so you put your coat back on to go inside. Walking outside during the day can also warm you up. In fact, I often break into a sweat walking to and from my Nepali class. That might have something to do with all the layers I'm wearing in order to stay warm inside. My typical pattern is that I'm freezing when I leave my home, so I'm all bundled up, zipped up, and usually have my mittens on. About 5 minutes into the walk, the mittens come off. Then maybe 15 minutes in, I unzip my down jacket. 20-25 minutes in, I sometimes unravel my scarf. Then 30 minutes in, I arrive. I'm all sweaty. Sometimes I take the jacket off and sit down in my cold classroom. The sweat dries, and now I have COLD sweat between the thermal layer and my body. And the jacket goes back on within about 5 minutes (often less). Same thing happens when I walk home.

There...doesn't that sound like a fun game? I really think someone should start running these events. People could take pledges in support of their "heat famine" and then give the money to buy blankets for the poor or something. The one thing I remind myself sometimes is that it's all very well for me to complain. I at least have hot water bottles, gel packs, many warm clothes, a down jacket, gas cylinders and a gas heater for my shower, etc, etc. But many people in Nepal can't afford any (or most) of that. Some people I know don't even own a jacket! And in some parts of Nepal (higher altitudes) it's much colder, and you add snow to the mix. They are much worse off than I am. And I guess Jesus suffered a lot of discomfort and inconvenience on earth compared to His home in heaven for our sakes...so maybe I can put up with a little cold for His sake, and for the sake of the people in this country, whom He loves.

But it does wear on you after awhile. You use up a lot of energy, both physical and mental, just trying to stay warm. I'm told that rice consumption in Nepal increases considerably (like, doubles, or something) in the winter, because people burn so much energy trying to keep warm. And if you're tired of hearing about the cold here, just realize that I'm even more tired of having something to say about it. I'll sure be glad when things start to warm up here, which I'm told will be relatively soon (a few more weeks maybe). Then in not too much time, I'll start complaining about the heat :) My language teacher told me that there are 5 seasons in Nepal: the cold season, the colder season, the hot season, the hot and rainy season, and the pleasant season (or something like that). The pleasant season lasts for about a month (or maybe a little more) and occurs in October/early November. Otherwise, people don't come to Nepal for its climate!

This being the "colder season," I don't even bother putting things in the fridge half the time - my kitchen counter seems to keep things even colder than the fridge does! And sometimes I can see my breath inside...which makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. The best analogy I've come up with for life here in winter is that you are living inside a good quality refrigerator (i.e. a cold one...not like the one I have here!). It's not a freezer (thank God for that!), and there aren't the same bitterly cold winds, etc, that you get during Canadian winters, but when you're constantly living and trying to do your daily activities with fridge temperatures, and you don't have anywhere to go to get warm (except maybe outside in the middle of the day) it's not easy.

If you decide to take up the challenge, let me know. If not, well, I don't blame you. I probably wouldn't! But just know that whatever the weatherman tells you about the temperature in Kathmandu, the numbers don't tell even half the story. And pray for me (and for the people of Nepal) as we live out the last few weeks (hopefully) of winter for this year.

Stuck in a traffic jam...on foot!

As I mentioned quite awhile ago, I no longer walk along the main road to get to my language class. There is a back way that someone showed me which is much more pleasant. Less traffic, less dusty, less dirty, less smelly. Usually...

Well, yesterday and today there was so much traffic that I got stuck, even though I was walking. I have no idea why it happened today, but I do know that yesterday there was a transportation bandh along the main road, which meant that no vehicles could travel on it, and so they all took the smaller back roads. I have never seen anything other than a few motorbikes and the occasional car on those back roads, but yesterday and today there were also buses, taxis, and autorickshaws. The bandh yesterday was called by a bunch of college students to protest the increasing fuel costs. I think I have already mentioned the fuel shortage here. That continues, and the other day the government announced that they would be hiking fuel costs. Which they really need to do. Apparently, they have been selling the fuel for LESS than what they have paid to buy it from India. And then they wonder why they can't pay India for the fuel. And THEN they wonder why India stops sending them fuel and we have a shortage here!

So in protest for the (necessary, in my opinion) increase in fuel prices, the students have called a strike. Which means that the anything or anyone who relies on transportation to get to work is stuck, and thus, the economy is injured again. Pretty typical of the way things run around here...lots of very short-term solutions that only make things worse in the long run!

Anyways, as I was saying, all the vehicles decided to take the back road. The road is very narrow...not wide enough in most places for 2 vehicles to be side-by-side. But they still tried! And of course, in the midst of that, the motorbikes were still trying to squeeze through the little space they had. Everyone was honking at everyone else, thinking that it would help (or maybe just to vent their frustration). In places where there was more space but things were at a standstill, some people had actually gotten out of their cars and were just standing outside, since they couldn't move anywhere. It was quite a sight! Yesterday I was already running late for class. And at a certain point, I came upon a crowd of pedestrians, all stuck behind this traffic jam. There wasn't even enough space to walk past it! (Did I mention there are no sidewalks?) So we stood there for awhile, wondering what to do. Then I looked and thought that maybe, just maybe, if I took my backpack off and sucked in my stomach, I could squeeze between the car and the stone wall...and just hope that the car didn't move and roll over my toes in the process. So off I went, and I did succeed. A few steps later there was another car to squeeze past. I continued in this way for awhile, and eventually there was more space for me to walk. I made it to class only 10 minutes late.

I took this photo after I had arrived at my language class, from the balcony. This is not the road I got stuck on, but it looks very similar...narrow, with walls on either side. Picture this photo, but with the row of cars closer to the wall, and with an extra "lane" of cars trying to go in the other direction (and keep the motorbikes in the picture, and add a bunch of pedestrians and some bikes...and hey, while you're at it, a few cows here and there), and maybe you'll understand why it doesn't work very well!

Wedding

Yesterday I went to a wedding. It was my house-helper's husband's older sister's daughter's wedding. I have never met her! Well, I met her briefly yesterday but until then hadn't met her. In Nepal knowing someone isn't necessarily a prerequisite for attending their wedding, it seems. As long as you know someone who knows someone who knows someone...

It was a church wedding (i.e. not a Hindu wedding), and it really wasn't that different from weddings I have been to back home. It started an hour late. The bride wore a white dress and veil and carried flowers, and the groom had a black suit on. Each had 1 attendant. They exchanged rings and vows (though they stood up one at a time to say their vows, and faced the audience, while the other continued to sit). The format of the service/ceremony was definitely recognizable to me. It was a bit longer than other weddings I've been to (about 2 hours), but otherwise was pretty similar. There was even a cake at the end, which they cut at the front of the church and fed each other a piece of. I haven't yet been to a Hindu wedding here (though they are much more common), but I know that the brides wear red, and the "ceremony" is very different than what I'm used to. There are no rings exchanged. The symbol of marriage is a red powder that is smeared on the forehead and along the area at the front of the hair where it parts. Married women also wear special beaded necklaces and longer kurta tops with their outfits than unmarried women. More on Hindu weddings whenever I end up going to one!

Most marriages in Nepal are arranged marriages. Traditionally, the bride would get married off quite young (as a teenager, or sometimes even younger in the villages), and would not have met the groom before the wedding day. I'm told that at most weddings the bride is far from the happy, radiant bride that we're used to seeing in the west. Usually she is crying, her head is bowed, and she is clinging to her mother, because she really doesn't want to go with her husband. These days it's more common for the bride and groom to have met and interacted a bit in public before their wedding day, so at least they are not complete strangers. But still most of the "getting to know each other" happens after the knot has been tied.

Usually the couple moves into the husband's parents' home after they are married. Which is partly why the bride is so sad...she is leaving her mother's home and going to his mother's home. Traditionally, especially in the villages, the daughter-in-law would become not much more than a servant in the mother-in-law's home, and if she had still been in school at the time, that would be the end of her education. Again, things are changing, especially in the city. I'm not sure what the plan is for this couple.

There are both arranged marriages and "love marriages" in Nepal these days, though arranged marriages are much more common. As far as I can tell, most people's perspective is that the arranged marriages are better...they last longer, and ultimately people are happier, even though it's hard at first. Maybe that's because the concept of "love marriage" has come from Western TV and movies for the most part, and the picture they paint is of a marriage that is full of passion, and once the passion is gone, the marriage ends. The divorce rate is starting to increase in Nepal, and people attribute that to the increasing number of love marriages. I believe this was an arranged marriage, and that the bride and groom had met (albeit briefly) before the wedding. She looked reasonably happy...certainly not glowing with happiness, and her head was bowed for almost the entire ceremony (not sure if that's what she's supposed to do, or if that's because of how she was feeling), but she wasn't crying, and there were a few smiles towards the end.

In the Nepali language, there are different forms and verb conjugations you use to address someone, depending on their status related to you. It's kind of like in French where you say "vous" instead of "tu" to a person whom you respect. In Nepali it's "Tapaai" for the respectful form and "timi" for the more familiar/lower form. I had asked my language teacher about what form husbands and wives use with each other, so I already knew that the husband says "timi" to his wife, while the wife says "tapaai" to her husband. They did this in the vows, which was the first time I had really heard or noticed it. Nobody thinks anything of it...it's just the way they do it.

I took a bunch of photos, but most of them really just look like random wedding photos. Here are a few that I like, though. The church was decorated for the occasion. This was at the front (the Nepali writing means "Holy Wedding"):

The bride's father walked her down the aisle. I took this one because I wanted you to note the winter coat and hat, which are much more necessary inside than outside at that time of day! The bride must have been freezing in there in only her dress. I had about 4 layers on, top and bottom, plus 2 pairs of socks and slippers (you ALWAYS take your shoes off in Nepali church), and I was just barely warm enough.

This little guy must have been somehow related to one of the people getting married. I'm guessing it's the groom, because everyone in the groom's family seemed to have these scarves around their necks (the groom had his on for the whole ceremony), and it was only afterwards that the bride also had one on (maybe symbolizing that she is now part of his family, but I'm not sure). I liked that he had on a suit, running shoes, and a pink flowery hat!

Finally, I have no idea who this man is, but I took the photo to show the traditional hat, or topi, that men wear in Nepal.

After the ceremony there was a big dal bhaat meal. Since I have a white face, I was escorted into a back room where the "important" people were served their meal. The others had to stand in line for a long time for theirs. I was thankful that one other bideshi was also there. She had come because her house helper is the bride's mother. A bit more of a direct connection than I had! It was great that we were both there, because then we could look lost together, and talk together during the time we were waiting for the ceremony to start (and wonder whether it would be one hour late, 2 hours late, or more), and speculate together about what was going on. It made it more fun, because once the others at the wedding got us settled where we were supposed to sit, they largely ignored us. Not because they were being mean or rude...just because it's pretty normal for that to happen. So it was nice that we were there together and that we could experience it together.

2 months!

Having settled into a routine here, I don't seem to have as much to blog about as I did at first. My weeks are pretty predictable. Monday to Friday I have 3 hours of Nepali lessons, usually in the afternoons. I spend my mornings playing the piano, praying, studying Nepali, and chatting with my didi when she arrives. I am at the point where we can communicate reasonably well. She does a good job of speaking slowly, using simple language, and it also helps that our subject matter is usually fairly limited ("How is your family? Please cook daal bhaat today. And can you wash these clothes?"). But it's encouraging to have her around, because it gives me a chance to practice, and also lets me see that I am making progress. I really wish that I could snap my fingers and be instantly fluent, but I haven't yet figured out that trick, so it's "slow and steady wins the race" instead. But it is coming along, for sure, and I'm still enjoying it. Once I get home, I practice the guitar (my new hobby) for awhile, shower (if there's electricity so that I can dry my hair afterwards...otherwise it's WAY too cold...and I've decided that daily showers are WAY overrated!), eat, and study Nepali. There's the odd Skype call with friends or family back home in the evenings, and occasionally I'm out for dinner with someone, but otherwise it's a pretty consistent routine, and I'm pretty happy with it.

And then most weekends I go to the children's home Saturday morning and come back Sunday. I eat with them, play with them, talk with them, practice Nepali with them, sing with them, laugh with them, pray with them, etc. I still love it there!

Routine is good...I do well with it. But as things here become more familiar I notice fewer "interesting" things. They have become normal sights for me. So now I see the stray dogs, the piles of garbage mixed with mud (and a few dead rats), the women (and some men) carrying huge loads in baskets on their backs via some sort of strap on their forehead, the children playing badminton or soccer, the schoolchildren in their very western style school uniforms, 2 men or 2 women walking holding hands in friendship (while you almost NEVER see a man and a woman holding hands or showing any affection in public), the cars and other vehicles trying to make their way through streets that are too narrow for two to be side-by-side at any one time (but they still try...with lots of honking), the cows walking along the road, the guys on their bikes selling (or collecting) who-knows-what, people warming themselves by little fires outside, women sitting outside in patches of sunlight picking lice out of each other's hair, and all kinds of other things, and instead of thinking, "I should blog about that," I just walk on by. So you get the fly-by version instead. As a white women, I get lots of people staring at me, and often people will say, "Hello...hello...hello!" to me. Usually I ignore them, but if they are small children, then I play along. And sometimes I stop to kick a soccerball with them once or twice before I go on my way. They get a big kick (pardon the pun) out of that. Oh, and of course, there are always the interesting signs, some of which I've shared already. Here is the one I'd seen before but forgotten where it was...

And two little boys walking home from school together...

Today was some sort of Hindu festival, so schools were closed, and people were eating yams (which aren't the same as North American yams...they're white, starchy, and not very sweet), and molasses taffy (which as far as I could tell was just pure molasses, and wasn't my favourite thing in the world to eat). Don't know any more about it than that, except that a lot of people were going to and from their villages to visit family, and so there were many more buses than usual. So it was no problem getting home from the children's home today on the bus.

Here are a few more photos of the lovely children's home kids...

Tomorrow is January 16, which means that I have now been in Nepal 2 months. When I think of it in those terms, I don't feel so bad about not being fluent yet :)

Randomness

I don't really have anything to say that is exciting enough to warrant an entire blog post, but I do have a few random things to share...

Random thing #1 - I am proud to report that by the end of this week I'll be able to count up to 100 in Nepali. This is no easy thing to learn, because there is very little pattern to the numbers, and so it's not like once you count to 10 you can count to 100. You pretty much have to learn every number individually. There is SOME pattern, but as soon as you think you've got it figured out it's different for the next grouping. So getting to 100 is very exciting for me!

Random thing #2 - I finally, after 3 weeks of waiting, got a cylinder of gas delivered to my apartment. I had paid to get the spare one filled up, but there is a fuel shortage across the country, so it took 3 weeks for me to get it. I'm glad it was just the spare and that the other 2 didn't run out in the meantime! It's a big problem. You should see the vehicle line-ups at the gas stations. I stopped counting at 75 motorbikes the other day, and that was just the motorbike line. There was an equally long line-up for cars. The bus/truck fuel station is somewhere else. Apparently for bus-drivers, they spend an entire day in line for fuel, and then only get maybe half a tank's worth, which is enough for one day of bus-driving, and then the next day they're back in the fuel line again, likely ALL day. It's becoming a big traffic flow issue, too, because the line-up extends well onto the main road. Nepal gets its fuel from India, and apparently they've not been paying what they owe, so India has stopped sending fuel. I'm told that Nepal owes India something in the realm of 21 billion rupees (about $250 million Canadian) for fuel, and they're not doing such a good job paying for it. Hence the fuel shortage! Apparently it happens every year...Nepal stops paying India for fuel, and then is surprised when there is a shortage :)

Random thing #3 - It's COLD! I know I've said before that it's cold, but I'd been warned about the after-Christmas rains, and they're here. It's not actually raining that much, but even when it's not raining it's grey outside. We're not seeing much of the sun, and when we do see it, it's not very warm. So I'm bundling up even more.

Random thing #4 - A few weeks ago, I saw an entire lineup of people (many more than in the photo...but this was the best I could do with my phone camera) standing looking over the side of the bridge. I, of course, stopped to try to figure out what they were looking at. But I couldn't see anything. I had a few theories. Were they playing "Pooh-sticks"? (For those of you not familiar with that amazing game, it's a game invented by Winnie-the-Pooh where you stand on a bridge, throw sticks in the water, and see whose stick gets to the other side first). That was (I'm not kidding!) my first thought. But they were standing on the wrong side of the bridge for that. Were they looking for floating body parts? I know that sounds morbid, but it's actually possible...the main cremation site is upstream from that bridge and sometimes cremations are...um...incomplete. So maybe that was it. Or perhaps some people just decided to play a game where they stared over the edge pretending to look at something, just to see how many people would follow them. If so, I fell for it! I guess I'll never know the answer to my question, because after a day or two, the bridge line-up was gone.

Random thing #5 - Other things you see on the streets: Well, as in any predominantly Hindu country, you see cows. Again, apologies for the not-so-good photo(s). My phone camera isn't the best. There are often many more cows than that, and often much more traffic than that, too. This is a back road. But here are some cows. And then that other photo may just look like a guy walking his bike, but he's actually up to something. I haven't quite figured out what yet, but he has these empty sacs hanging from the back of his bike, and is saying/chanting something very loudly and repeatedly as he walks up and down the streets. I have no idea what he's saying, and I haven't seen anyone actually stop him. I'm guessing he's collecting empty sacs for some purpose or other, but I'm not entirely sure. There are other guys out with their bikes selling things - often oranges, bananas, or tomatoes at this time of year. But this guy seems to be collecting something. I asked one of the language teachers about it today, and she said that yes, some people sell things, and others collect things. But even the Nepalis don't always know what they're saying or what's going on, she said. That made me feel better :)

Random thing #6 - There is another nationwide bandh (strike) that has been called for tomorrow. This one was called by the "Central Struggle Committee of the disqualified combatants of the Maoist party" in the hopes that the government will meet its demands (not quite sure what those are). If the bandh materializes, some of my language classes may be cancelled if the teachers can't get there, and my didi (house-helper) may not come in. We'll see what happens...

I think that's about it for randomness today. Signing off from chilly Kathmandu...