Easter

Happy Belated Easter everyone!

I remember celebrating Easter in a variety of ways back in the States: going to SCUM (Santa Clara [Korean] United Methodist) and getting fed a huge, delicious Korean BBQ lunch after service, or going to our cousin's house when we were kids and participating in an extreme egg hunt, or.... actually those are the only two memories I can conjure up at the moment.

I've always been, or at least continue to aspire to be, an activist behind the idea, “never be ashamed of who you are”. Because Hindu is the dominate religion in Nepal, I find joy here in telling others about my Christian background and faith because it empowers me to speak up for myself and my God. Since there is a small majority out here who are Christian, I wonder if they feel marginalized at times in their daily lives because the Hindu religion is so integrated into the culture. I assume so.

Recognizing Easter while I'm living and serving in Nepal was important to me this year because I'm reminded in several different ways the cost of Peace Corps service to me and my life up until now, and how much of what complimented my identity in the USA was left behind in the USA. It's the simple things, such as knowing every Sunday I had the freedom to go to church for a few hours and remind myself of my spirituality if during the week I got a little too caught up with school, work, friends, or other parts of my life. It was a freedom I didn't recognize until it was gone.

And so, how did I celebrate this year? Well, I was nursing an intense diarrhea episode (my life was almost lost to this mess, or so it felt like it, no joke) and thought it best to stay at home (didn't want to get caught open defecating on the road, ya feel) and try my first attempt at baking a cake using a pressure cooker. It took two tries, the first one being the ULTIMATE fail where instead of baking a pretty yellow cake I created a black rock. However on the second try I remembered to check early and check often and taaa-daaaa, gold! I was so excited since I'm no baker- the extent of my baking career back at home was buying those funfetti cake mixes. I had my Nepali host family pose with the cake and I explained to them a little bit about why we celebrate Easter. Then we ate it, after the ants of course.

Anywho, here's my Easter post. Hope everyone in California and elsewhere had a smashing one.

Lava,

Bora

PS- I'll explain the new diarrhea, ant, spider, and mosquito situation in the next post. xoxoyoloxoxo