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...