Images of Tihar

I did a little extra walking to dinner this evening so I could see some of the lights that people have put out for Tihar. I also wanted to see and hear the small groups of singers that stroll around singing traditional Nepali Hindu songs. I was surprised that all the groups that I saw were little kids. It really did seem like Halloween, but with Christmas lights and without spooky costumes.

I also saw a lot of little displays on the sidewalks and driveways, again many drawn by little kids. Many of them made a path to the doors of the adjacent homes and businesses.

And yes, there are firecrackers. Not Oakland on New Years level but enough to startle the dogs....

The Blessing of a Sister

Today began the 5 day Nepali festival/holiday known as Tihar, the Hindu festival of lights. On the first day crows and ravens are worshiped by placing candies on rooftops. Tomorrow dogs are worshiped by placing garlands around their necks and giving them special treats (this might explain why the dogs outside my house have been very active the last few days). Then Sunday everybody lights up their houses and groups of young men and women go around to these houses singing and dancing, collecting money and treats (kind of like Halloween only without the stupid costumes). Then after a day of worship and more dancing on Monday, the festival ends on Tuesday when families get together and sisters pay tribute to their brothers by placing a tika (the red dot) on their foreheads, giving them flowers, and feeding them with special meals. There is much more to this than what an outsider like me can explain so Google or Wikipedia "Tihar" if you are curious.

Since the Build Change office will be closed Monday and Tuesday for the holiday there was a special Tihar lunch provided by the women of the office today. Many of the women dressed up in special garments, then at lunch applied the tika to the foreheads of all the guys, gave them all gifts (a Nepalese felt hat) and treated us to lunch. After lunch there was much dancing and a cake.

The women in their colorful garments

The men with their felt hats

Yes, even I got the tika and a hat...

I watched all this with the curiosity of the tourist, interested in what was going on but not understanding most of it, somewhat engaged but mostly detached from the proceedings. That is, until afterwards when we had returned to work and one of the women I work with told me that I now had the blessing of a sister.

That's when it hit me...and this is going to make Mom cry, sorry Mom...

As some of you know, my sister Karen passed away 5 years ago from cancer, and while she never came to this part of the world Karen was a huge fan of Bollywood movies. I remember at least twice when I visited her she made me sit in her living room and watch Om Shanti Om and a couple other similar films. Now, here in Nepal there are several channels on the TV that are from India, so there is almost always Bollywood movies on every time I turn on the TV (though I haven't seen Om Shanti Om yet). Because of this there have been little reminders of Karen the entire time I have been here, and now today there was one big reminder of her, which didn't really occur to me until my colleague said what she said.

I didn't have the heart to tell my colleague that I had a sister but that she had died. But then again, perhaps "had" is not the correct word here. My sister continues to be a blessing in my life, every time I think of her or hear her voice in my head, and now when I think of the tika on my forehead or wear the felt hat I will remember the blessing that she was and still is in my life, even though giving a blessing to me and our brother was never one of her things...

Blogs were though. You want to know why I have kept a blog for many of my trips, it's because she asked me to...

First Day on the Job

I imagine after seeing all of these photos some of you might be wondering if I'm actually doing any work here in Nepal, or am I just being another tourist. Well, yes, I am working here, I started officially yesterday morning Nepal time. My primary job is to complete design guidelines for housing using three (and if I have time 4) structural systems: stone masonry, confined concrete block masonry, confined brick masonry, and reinforced concrete block. I've also been assisting the lead engineer here with getting building department approval for one of the prototype designs that her team has already developed, which includes doing a bunch of research on mud mortar with cement mixed into it. I have also been mentoring a couple of the young engineers here, who are working on a design for a school where they are trying to develop a finite element analysis model computer of a masonry building. I've been telling them how daunting a challenge this is (there have been many PhD theses and technical papers written on this very subject describing just how difficult it is) but these kids are go-getters and want to do it anyway. Oh these kids today...

The TV and Internet are finally up and running at the guest house and I have been getting fed lunch every day at the office, so I am starting to settle into something resembling normality. I even responded to a few emails from work back home, even though I technically do not have to until next week. I'm still waking up with the sun though; I haven't quite yet gotten over the jet lag. It does mean though that I get to see some nice sunrises like this one:

Tomorrow I will be spending the day in the field, visiting one of the villages that I went to last year to review some of the work that Build Change has done there. I am not looking forward to the drive on the narrow, bumpy dirt roads again, but I am looking forward to seeing if anything has changed in the village since my last visit in June 2015. Of course there will be pictures, though they'll be more technical in nature than what I have posted so far. Then again, that is why I'm here...

Kathmandu Durbur Square

There are three squares in the Kathmandu area that are the site of castles and large Hindu shrines. Patan Durbur Square is one of them. Kathmandu Durbur Square is another. I didn't get a chance to visit Kathmandu square when I was here last year, but I had heard that there was a lot of earthquake damage. I was able to visit the square and what I heard was true, there was still a lot of damage, and there wasn't as much evidence of progress in reconstruction here as there was at Patan, as little as there was there. There were however a lot of guys pestering me to be a tour guide, for a fee of course. I can understand the need to make money but these guys were very persistent, which to be truthful spoiled the experience somewhat. Still it was an interesting place to visit and would recommend it to anyone traveling to Kathmandu. Just make sure to bring along a tour guide or someone who can act like one...

Patan Palace

I also had the opportunity to go inside the Patan palace museum, which was closed because of earthquake damage when I was here last year. There are a lot of Hindu temples, statues, and artifacts inside:

And now for some photos...

Starting with Patan Durbur Square, one of 3 squares in the Kathmandu area that are the site of many Hindu temples and royal palaces. I visited Patan last year and I wanted to come back and see if any progress has been made on restoring the temples that were heavily damaged by the earthquake. There hasn't been much progress. Construction fencing has gone up and there was some work going on, but there is still much to do. The government and the temple authorities are still struggling with how to restore the historic temples. There are many who want them restored exactly the same as they were before, but if they do that then the temples will probably collapse again in the next earthquake. I heard that base isolation is being considered but there is a high cost for that.

A quick shout out to my friends at F/E: when I heard that base isolation was being considered I tossed your name out there in case you would consider doing work in Nepal...