09.04.19
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My group started the day off with heading to the local temple at 6:15 AM (cries). We walked in silence (except when I slipped within the first minute of the walk and yelped), basking our senses in the Dhulikhel neighborhood. The first thing I noticed was the amount of green there was. Despite the temple being built with stone, the area was almost shielded with trees, and every nook and cranny had a burst of foliage. There were three distinct statues of gods, built into and under stone roofs. Furthermore, a flock of pigeons consistently and homogeneously flew to different locations in the temple. Our instructors demonstrated puja, the worshipping of the gods. They placed tikka (red/yellow dots of vermilion paste) on the forehead and hands of the god that represented the release of negative essence; flower petals, a banana, and coins by its feet; incense sticks in the cracks in the wall. While performing this puja, other people were also worshipping the god, primarily by tossing water on its head and touching their own heads to their hands and/or feet. Our instructors gave us the opportunity to receive puja, which consisted of them placing tikka on our foreheads and handing us a banana, 5 rupees, and a string to tie around our wrist or neck as a symbol of purity.
The Nepalese start their day off by going to a temple and praying. This is to relax their mind and free themselves of whatever negativity may be plaguing them. They also keep the tikka on for the whole day to show that they have worshipped. The various parts of the worship that were performed--the tikka, incense burning, water, banana, flowers--stimulated all five of our senses, helping us to be entirely present with the worship.
However, something that surprised me was that many Nepalese women who are menstruating do not receive puja because they are considered impure; women's impurity additionally limits other aspects of Nepalese culture, such as not being allowed in the kitchen. But not all Nepalese families practice this. These household customs differ between every family, which is grouped by caste. The higher castes tend to be more tolerant and less restrictive than the lower castes.
Later on, we all received our Nepalese names! Our instructors picked out our names and tried to keep the first letter the same. Mine is Bhawana, which means positivity and good feelings. (The Nepalese language, Devangari, does not have the letter "v.") We listened to introductions to our coursework, expectations, cultural norms, differences between Nepalese culture and American culture, and the beginning of our language learning. They then introduced us to our first Field Methods and Ethics (FME) experiential learning assignment: go to the village and buy a pair of chappal, indoor sandals. They gave each of us 500 rupees, and we went off into the village to figure out where and how to purchase them.
It was really interesting to see a typical day in Nepalese villages. The people are very friendly--the younger kids, especially, said hi to us, and were willing to initiate dialog (both Nepalese and English) with us. I was also surprised at the amount of stray dogs there were--there is a surplus of stray dogs roaming the streets. However, they are very likely to follow you around.
Unfortunately, I didn't use as much Nepalese as I would have liked. I followed the group and wasn't the first one to initiate the request to buy chupples, and so the shopkeepers already knew what I wanted to buy. Also, since my Nepalese is very limited, I ended up saying words and phrases in English, like "blue," "no," and "I don't like these." One cultural difference that I didn't learn about until later is that Nepalese shopkeepers hand you items that you want to purchase; you don't go and pick out things for yourself. However, at the time, I wasn't aware of that cultural difference. After waiting through their initial offers in handing me chupples to try on, and waiting for them to help the others, I got a bit impatient and picked out ones for myself. At 160 rupees, I got a satisfying pair of black chupples.
I personally didn't have a very difficult tie with this task, but that was partly because the shopkeepers' attentions were split between everyone in the group. Additionally, the shopkeepers spoke enough English to understand me. However, it was still a very interesting experience to see how the others interacted with the locals. And, the shopkeepers made no intention to rip us off.
