[ A Love of Dragonflies ]

For anyone interested in my shower dilemma, I now regularly have hot water. :) I'm pretty sure I had just left it on the cold side the first two days...Oops...

This morning I caught up with Sonika on how the party went last night; apparently, there wasn't any dancing even after I left! I also had to catch up with Rashmi, as she took a half day on Thursday to be with her husband and son for the former's birthday. It was so great having light and casual conversation as if we had been friends for months now. The awkward phase of forced "Where do you come from?"s are (hopefully) gone for the time being, and I am able to interact with coworkers like everyday friends. I also talked briefly with Aditi in the morning--nothing work related, but the comfortable/casual sort. It is really wonderful. :) We decided to meet up for a bit at 4 pm to discuss my progress and she also invited me to her house for dinner with some friends (to my great, great honor and amazement and surprise and excitement! However, this ended up changing as some of her friends cancelled. The plan is still to have lunch on Saturday).
After all of this, I buckled down on my work, determined to make significant strides before 4 pm. At about 11:30, Aditi came up to my desk to tell me that her friends had cancelled, but also that a woman named Karen (who loved dragonflies) was going to show me around another ICIMOD centre. I told her that that was the raddest thing I had ever heard, and that I was super stoked (just in other words, of course).
Rashmi and I headed to lunch a bit early so I would be done when Karen came at 1. The canteen was serving spaghetti--YUM! Aditi joined us, and we had this great conversation on marriage and caste. They had talked about how they met their husbands (I'm a sucker for stuff like that) and what, if any, stigma or family crisis surrounded it.
I left to sit under the rubber tree out front and had a quaint conversation with a group of men (40+ y.o.) until I spotted Karen.
She drove us up to a demi (goddess) temple, where there was a huge swimming pool, 9 water spouts, and a place for sacrifice (we didn't go in, as there was blood on the floor...).

That is Karen in the red skirt!

This pool has a drain that other residents use as a water source. After people have swum in it.

These nine spouts are another source of water...when they are running!

It was incredibly neat--I just wish I understood Hinduism a little better so that I might have an idea of what the shrines meant and what this plae meant in the scope of daily life for a Nepali.

We departed from this holy site and drove to the ICIMOD Godavari centre. It was beautiful. Magical. The centre itself is often used for meetings and is more of an educational centre than full of offices. 

Oh my. Such beauty.

The land surrounding it is amazing. It is full of all these models on techniques mountain farmers can use. Wow wow wow. We hiked around the batto (trail) for over an hour.

Kiwi trees!

These cicadas were everywhere. There wasn't a silent moment!

This stream came from a water catchment pond up-mountain.

A woman was sweeping leaves off the grass in preparation of the Norwegian donors' arrival.

There were also orchids hung up along most of the trail!

The black material in the center is charcoal, which the demonstration showed could be made from several plants.

Just another day on the treadle pump. It works like an elliptical/stair climber to move water.

Their peaches and plums are so tiny yet delicious!

These solar cooking units are often used to make alcohol, I'm told!

This was the most magical place. There was a wetland set back behind the trees where many varieties of dragonflies could be observed. Karen was so passionate about it--it was great to see!

This trail reminded me of Ricketts Glenn in Pennsylvania. Shout out to Envirothon 2012!

Even half way across the world, I still got to enjoy petting rabbits! :)

Farmers can bring their female goats here to mingle with these fine lookin' fellows for free!

These are pieces of honeycomb. That you eat. You plop the whole of it into your mouth and suck the honey out (then spit out the wax after). It was the most unique (in form) and sweetest food I have tasted yet!

After that, Karen showed me her house and garden, which they live almost entirely off of!

The mountains behind her house were beautiful!

This is just part of the garden. It contains almost everything! Much of it I recognized as being grown in Iowa, too.

I had never seen the flower of the garlic plant before!

She took me back to the office at 4:30, but by then Aditi was in another meeting (she is a busy busy woman!) and so I spent a bit talking with Rashmi. Soon enough, we headed down to catch the buses and I was done with another--if abnormal--day of work.

When I arrived @Home, no one was arround, so I headed back out and around the corner to get my haircut.  As soon as I stepped out of the gate, however, I heard my name being called! It turned out that across the street, Lettie (whose full name is spelled Laetitia) and Barbara were eating at the cafe. I stopped by quick, then promised to return after the haircut.

The haircut itself was, really, rather awesome. The guy amost started cutting without any directions! And maybe I should have let him, because he did a fabulous job without any communication on length, style, etc. There was also a complimentary shampoo, and the whole thing added up to 200 rupees (~2 dollars). I should get my haircut in Kathmandu all the time.

I returned to the cafe and enjoyed a delicious mango shake with the women as they recalled their harrowing dating experiences. Some dating wisdom was imparted on me, to the laughs of all. Ashok served bacon pasta tonight and it was tremendous!!!! He is such an excellent cook; I am so spoiled here. Afterwards, we all sat around talking until bedtime.

Another incredible day! I asked Sascha (as I found out his name is spelled) to teach me Nepali--he has been training with the German company, and Barbara said he is an excellent teacher! Tomorrow I shall start on the basics, then lunch with Aditi, then shopping and sightseeing in Thamel (a district of Kathmandu known for shopping!). I can't wait. :)


Peace and love,

Abby