Our October and November Holidays

Hello everyone,
My computer has been experiencing technical difficulties lately. It won’t allow me to open certain documents now, including the last ongoing letter to y’all. So, I’ll condense as best as I can and perhaps at some point I’ll be able to retrieve and send it.
Everyday here still brings new and exciting adventures, hell, going to the market at the end of our alley can prove to be an adventure. We’ve been to the jungle twice now, we’ve gone trekking in the Khumbu Valley towards Everest and we are exploring the internals of Kathmandu itself.
I think Shannon sent a letter out about our first trip to The Royal Chitwan National Park with a group of 9th graders working with bio-gas, the cow dung type. We both really enjoyed the humanitarian aspect of helping the villagers develop their own fuel for cooking , for their health, and for the environment. It was so interesting to me that I’ve contacted the national bio-gas director and will be meeting with him this week hopefully. I’m not sure where that will lead, but after reading Three Cups Of Tea, I’m inspired. After spending some more time in Chitwan on our second trip it was even more obvious to me how much bio-gas can positively affect these villages. The main problem, as you can probably imagine, is funding. It takes at least a year’s wage of an average family to build one of these plants, therefore making it inaccessible to the majority of these folks. The wood source is becoming scarcer and there are increasing numbers of smoke related health issues. I’m looking forward to meeting with Mr.Chetri from the gas company. I’ve volunteered to work with him next spring if possible.
Our second trip there was over the Tihar (also called Deepawali) festival, it is the most important Hindu festival in India, and here it ranks second only to Dishain (I’ll get to that). Tihar is 5 days long, yeeeaaa Shannon got a school break! The festival honors certain animals, starting with offerings of rice to the crows which are sent by Yama, ‘the god of death’, as his messengers of death. There were banana leaves full of rice all over the streets and walkways and crows flying everywhere. It was a little spooky, especially considering Shannon had a dream the night before of crows. I think it was because we had been talking about her dog Anna that night. On the second day, dogs are honored with tikas (the dot of red & yellow on the forehead) and garlands of flowers. It is believed that in the after world it’s dogs who guide departed souls across the river of the dead. This is a little surprising after seeing the way dogs are treated here. It seemed the dogs realized this was “their” day, they all seemed to be wearing big ‘ol smiles. On the way to school that morning there were offerings of the mornings meals on banana leaves with candles lining the walkways to Lincoln School and packs of dogs wearing tikas and flowers around their necks. I thought about all of my dog loving friends that day with special reverence. Our cook, Shiva, brought garlands and tika to our house and we made a little shrine for Anna (her picture) and I put a tika on her. I felt a little odd placing red rice on a picture, but hey, when in Rome. Shannon was at school so I got the honor. Then Shiva and I decorated the house with garlands of flowers and butter lamps.