October 8th, 2013 mangalbaar

The night I fell in love with Nepal

Today was a very long day and I could spend a long time talking about the series of events, but I'd rather describe in detail about how I fell in love with Nepal.

The past couple of nights my bahinis (my four little sisters) have been coming home super late. I found out it was because they have been at dance practice from about 6-9pm to prepare for a performance on one of the days of Dashain (sort of like Nepali Christmas). Tonight the five trainees (including me) of Chhaap decided to check out what all the fuss was about.

When we first showed up we messed around with the kids that were there. We had wheel barrel races and I gave out a bunch of American names to the kids haha. They loved it but kept forgetting what their names were (except for John, he got his down). Later I was sitting on the floor with a bunch of kids on/around me. They were playing a game that looked like it could be called, "slap that kid", and I joined in. I started slapping kids around and we all had a good laugh. They were all such good sports.

The party really kicked off with us Americans as the opening act. Our homie Kumar Bhaai had a little set up with a laptop and played Gasolina for us. Sudeep, Dikshya, and I were showing off our more modest dances moves and the crowd loved it. I was loving it too. It was seriously HELLA fun (I miss saying hella) and we even started an, "Aye! Aye! Aye!" chant with the crowd. When we were done messing around the mahila manche aka women of Chhaap dropped it like it was hot. If I knew Nepalis got down like that I would've jumped into the dancing scene way earlier. My bahinis were all a part of a dance as well, separated into their respective age groups.  Plug to KP, it was like PCC practice all over again! The rehearsal went til about 9:05pm and then the electricity in the village went out, as it does on a somewhat regular basis.  Everyone left to go home and I walked home in the dark with my little sisters and my Didi. 

I really can't describe the experience into words. It was one of those nights that you "just had to be there".  And I wish you all could've been there.

These young, fun, awesome villagers of Nepal showed me a great time. And so that is how tonight I fell in love with Nepal.

Nepaali nachna sikkaidinus na.

Love,

Bora