Cousin Kirsten Came (August 25 – September 13, 2008)

One of the reasons I hadn’t written for 3 weeks (besides no internet) was that I was actually busy! My cousin Kirsten (my mom and her dad are brother/sister) came to visit. Kirsten grew up in Phoenix and has been living in San Jose, CA the past 6 years. We hardly saw each other growing up (except the pictures her parents sent us) and a few years ago we spent one or two weeks hanging out in Goshen, IN and Grand Marais, MI together. Short version of how she ended up in Nepal: she had 3 weeks of vacation and wanted to go somewhere far. New Zealand didn’t work out so she called me! She arrived just a few weeks after I returned to Nepal and just a few days after we moved into our new house.

Some of the highlights of having cousin Kirsten come:

Gerber’s Freeze Dried Apples
(for Anusha . . . this is what made Kirsten Anusha’s friend. And true to our word, Anusha polished her two bags off just as Kirsten was at the airport ready to go back to CA)

Stories
Kirsten hung out with us most of the time, but took a few day trips. It was fun to hear stories and see video of her taking a bath with an elephant in Chitwan (National Forest and Game Park), watch the “sunrise” and hang out with a holy man in Nagarkot (an hour outside of Katmandu in the peaceful hills with great views of the mountains), and remove leaches from random German and Japanese friends that she met in Pokhara.

Wandering Around Katmandu Together
Kirsten is the reason I can now say that I appreciate this city. Kirsten, Anusha and I spent a considerable amount of time wandering around Katmandu.

Teej: One of the major women’s festival here – all married women (and would be married women) get decked out in red sari’s and have the day off work (their children get the day off school too. And how is that a holiday for the women?? Go figure!) We decided to go to Pashupati Temple – one of the most revered temples in Nepal, not realizing that there would be thousands upon thousands of women standing in line to get into the temple. We spent out time seeing if we could find 2 saris that were exactly alike and sang “Woman in Red.”

Monkey Attacks: We headed to Swayambouh one day – a revered Buddhist temple area. We stopped first at the site of the three golden Bouddha’s where we admired the statues and stupas. While there, we witnessed a monkey “attack” a man – it was a light attack, more like a gentle assault. I actually got it on film (which I didn’t realize until days later). Half and hour later, we were heading through the woods to Swayambouh, eating some some slices of coconut we had just bought, when a monkey jumped out in front of Kirsten. Stunned, we quickly realized it wanted her coconut. “Give him your food!” I hollered. She clipped off a little piece and threw it 10 feet away. A bit perplexed, it pounced off in search of the treat. I hid my coconut in Anusha’s carrier and we kept walking only to have another monkey jump from a tree right in front of Kirsten. She broke another piece off and threw it. “Hide your coconut!” I begged. We booked it, looking back and laughing at our funny fortune and scanning the trees for any other potential coconut stalkers.

Shopping: What more can I say except that we did a lot of it. It’s quite fun to shop with someone who is buying things to take back home and sure beats plain old window shopping. Now I know some good shopping places around the city.

Discoveries: So many little discoveries we made . . .

- “Lazy Gringo – Arizona Style Mexican Food” Restaurant. Anuraj and I went after we dropped off Kirsten at the airport and met an American couple with a girl Anusha’s age.

- The American Embassy is only a 20 minute walk from our house (now if only I could come up with excuses to go sit in their waiting room and use their bathrooms, talk about a trip back to America!) Standard Chartered ATM (Anuraj’s bank) and a little café with a view – across the street from the American Embassy

- Tibetan Refugee “Camp” – where they make the famous and beautiful Tibetan rugs

- Patan Museum & Café -- This is on my list of things to do some week when Anusha and I need to do something. We ate at the café but didn’t have time for the museum but I hear that it is really good.

- Temples : We saw quite a few though we actually went to more Buddhist temples.

- Taking Public Transport : I wouldn’t have had the nerve to try this by myself. But with Kirsten and Anusha, everything became an adventure. Now I feel much more confident finding my way on the buses and vans here.

- Hanging out at the House : When we weren’t wandering around the city, we were hanging out at the house. Kirsten helped me figure out a fabulous arrangement for our furnished pad. She also didn’t mind watching Anusha when I was doing other things or running up to the store with or for me. It was fun to welcome her back from her little jaunts outside of the city and sit on the front porch and here her stories. Anusha was also super excited whenever she would come back and even gave her some great squeals of excitement upon her returns.