Day 2 continued: An Afternoon of Sightseeing

IBefore moving on to the rest of our day yesterday, I wanted to share something that made me really proud to be a part of the Hobsons family. Lindsay, our PLAN representative on the trip made a point to tell us and the PLAN Nepal staff how special Hobsons is as a PLAN sponsor, specifically because how all of our donations (both time and monetary) as well as our site selections are completely employee driven.  Many of the PLAN partners are larger corporations (I.e. Microsoft) with large foundations funding and organizing the projects.  We are individually and collectively truly making a difference in the lives of all of the kids/countries we help.

The team touring Nepal

Now on to the rest of the day.  We did have the opportunity to experience our first pre-monsoon rains which, thankfully, cleared up before our sightseeing.

We started off the day visiting two medieval farming villages, populated by the Newari people: Bungamati and Khokana.  There were animals throughout the streets in both towns, so you have to watch where you step to avoid the "natural land mines."

Bungamati villagers are skilled woodworkers and it was amazing to watch them carve intricate designs and statues out of wood in their houses.  Khokana is famous for mustard oil which is used in cooking and to massage new mothers and newborn babies as a tradition.  In both cities, most of those working appeared to be women whether through carrying materials, spinning yarn, washing clothes, and staffing stores.  The one exception is the woodworking.  The men for the most part would congregate outside of houses looking in.  Some of the guys on our trip were a little jealous of the lifestyle.

Jordana and Kyle purchased some woodcarvings!

After our visits to the towns, we decided to make an unscheduled stop at a Tibetan Bhuddisht stupa that is on the UNESCO list as a world heritage site and is one of the most holy sites for Buddhists.  According to our guide, Prabin, Tibetan lamas (monks) tell disciples that anyone who is able to get there once in their life is lucky.  The site was spectacular and we got there at a time that was filled with people circumambulating the structure, praying, spinning prayer wheels and chanting mantras, and visiting the surrounding monasteries.  We had the opportunity to meet with a former lama who owns an art audio to train students in the art of the thanka - Buddhist paintings.   He showed us the difference in quality of these paintings, showed us the intricacies that cause even small paintings to take upwards of a couple of months to complete and the main stories behind the three most popular thematic paintings.  

Favorite images of the day:

- Monkeys!

- two kids playing ping ping on a makeshift table (a concrete slab with a "net" made of bricks) on the side of the road.

- the soda wars.  There are advertisements everywhere for Coke and Pepsi with an image that Kyle has affectionately dubbed the "power chug."  We are convinced that the models in the pictures are tortuously being forces to down entire bottles of soda in single sips for hours on end

- the woman in Bungamati who was throwing bricks (at least 20) into the basket on her back, as a group of men in the town looked on.

- street vendors carrying bags of cotton candy for sale

- The street animals of Nepal: dogs, ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, and cows

A couple of interesting facts about Nepal

- there are about 27 different ethnic groups in Nepal, and over 100 languages are spoken.

- Nepal sits between two economic powerhouses (China and India), but the economic fortune has not spilled over and the country is quite poor

-There are mandated rolling 4 hour blackouts in the city every morning and every evening

- it is illegal to kill a cow in Nepal.  If you purposefully kill a cow, you will be punished as if you killed a human - 25 years in jail.  If you accidentally hit a cow with a car, you will also receive jail time.

- Men in the villages who reach 77 years old receive a huge ceremony and get their ears pierced.  At 83, they get a second ceremony and piercing and at 90 a third.  The elderly are taken care of by the villagers and spend much of the day together sitting outside in "rest houses" chatting.

Now a trivia question to see who is reading the blog.  First person with the correct answer will get a Nepalese flag!

What makes the flag of Nepal unique?