Happy Birthday, Happy, Happy Birthday! Apsara!

Trying to calm down with Nancy Drew, while waiting for her party.

Apsara has been hanging out for her birthday ever since I arrived. Last night was her party at the house and today, she had a restaurant lunch with Kabita and two friends.

She couldn't stop bouncing before the party, and kept singing "Happy, happy, happy, happy birthday" to herself. She finally calmed herself down by flicking through the pages of the Nancy Drew book I had just given her and Kabita.

Admiring her birthday cake.

This birthday was particularly special for me. I was given the duty to walk the birthday girl into the room, where all her sisters were waiting, and I got the first bite of the first piece of cake, plus I got to hand Apsara her gifts.

This is something Kabita and Apsara have been doing for each other since they arrived at Papa's House, but Kabita pointed out yesterday that it is the mother's duty, and since I was here, and their mother, it was now my task to perform. It truly meant the world to me.

At La Dolce Vita. From left: Apsara. Cila, Kabita, Sita.

Today was Bhai Tikka. A special day where younger brothers are honoured here in Nepal. After the ceremony at the boys' house, Apsara, Kabita, Cila, Sita and I travelled to Thamel for pizza.

The hope was to have lunch at Fire and Ice but that was closed, as was the Roadhouse. We wandered over to La Dolce Vita and was treated to a wonderful lunch of pizzas, soup, garlic bread and spaghetti.

The waiters were attentive and very kind to all of us, chatting with the girls and I. I think this is definitely going to be a new favourite haunt!

Getting a taxi home was slightly tricky, since they were explaining to me that it was a festival, so they had a right to charge 3 times the normal rate. We managed to find a taxi for a reasonable price and headed home happily.

Kabita & Apsara

Sending a ton of love, as always,

Fi

A Day At Fatima's Healing Centre

Kabita looking very thoughtful at what she was experiencing.

Today started off slow. I am feeling overwhelmed by the pollution and have a wicked cough and funky sinus.

Luckily I remembered, our new friend Susan Stenson had pointed out a healing centre a few days ago, and I decided to take the girls for the foot bath. It is called Fatima's Healing Centre. While we didn't have the opportunity to meet Fatima this trip, we had a wonderful relaxing time. Fatima is Chinese-Muslim and all her treatments are based on Chinese medicine.

Apsara, the more adventurous of the two, looking very happy.

On arrival, we were ushered into a room that just oozed relaxation. Our wooden buckets were filled with hot water and a little packet of Chinese medicine opened and poured in. The medicine bubbled and became a vat of jelly. Kabita was cautious, Apsara was thrilled.

This was followed by foot reflexology, leg, arm, face, head, back massage. How much better could it get??? We have been wanting to expose the girls to different experiences, and I think this definitely counts! Apsara kept asking her therapist "What are you doing to me??" but she had a wonderful time.

We all floated out of there, very pleased at the expenditure of 1500 rps (US$20) and stopped for some ice cream at the shopping centre next door (where we made some new friends) before heading back home to Dhapasi.

One more sleep to Apsara's birthday!

Lots of love,

Fi

P.S. And if you are wondering why there are suddenly so many entries, it is because it is Tihar and we have electricity!!! I guess you can't really have the Festival of Lights without lights!!

Puja at Pashuphatinath

Having fun at Pashuphatinath

Clockwise: Kabita, Kabita, Apsara, Puja, Yasoda

A very happy Tihar to you all. Life is very noisy here in Nepal, with firecrackers and fireworks and prayers.

It is the celebration of lights and Laxmi, the god of wealth, watches over all the celebrations.

Our Kabita had been wanting to go to puja (worship) this week, so I decided to go big and take the girls to Pashuphatinath.

It was wonderful to have Kabita Karki as a guide, since she her family lives in Pashuphatinath.

Getting a blessing from the Monkey god, at the "Entrance For The Hindus Only" sign

Only Hindus are allowed into temples, but ever since arriving in Nepal, I've been constantly mistaken for Nepali (from the Rai ethnic group), so I decided to test it and walk into the holiest of temples with 5 kids in tow. The girls were midly apprehensive, and the whole area was teaming with police for crowd control purposes and to make sure tourists don't sneak by. But policeman after policeman just kept waving us through. We paid a lady to look after our shoes, and climbed the steps into the Temple of Lord Vishnu.

No photos are allowed in the temple, so these photos were taken outside.

We rang bells, and threw rice and tikka powder and flowers and rupees at shrines and lesser temples. We waved incense sticks and made wishes. As I was warning the girls on the danger of randomly throwing rupees, I was hit in the face by a random rupee, which I think, reinforced the point I was trying to make!

Making a wish. I hope we were all wishing for the same thing.

I think the funniest moment for me at Pashupathinath today, was when I noticed tourists taking pictures of the girls and I as we went about making puja; the crazy Nepali woman and her 5 kids. It took all my strength not to break out in a grin.

Another wonderful day here in Nepal.

Sending love,

Fi

Happy, happy birthday Maila (Sudeep), Ashok & Roshan

From left: Hikmat, Ashok, Chham, Maila (Sudeep) & Roshan.

Birthdays are always special here at Papa's House, even though there is at least one birthday every week.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to take Maila, Roshan and Ashok for their birthday pizza at the Roadhouse, with Hikmat and Chham coming along for crowd control purposes.

We demolished 6 pizzas, 5 milkshakes and 1 fresh lemon soda. It is always such a fun experience watching the boys demolish their pizzas!

This birthday was particularly special since this is Roshan's & Ashok's first birthday.

After the lunch feast, Raja Wani, a wonderful friend here in Nepal, took all of us to his uncle's leather factory to see how the beautiful handmade bags are made. The boys got the feel various types of hide and ask questions about the process.

Ashok who has a wonderful enquiring mind was particularly fascinated by everything.

Being Tihar, it was a little difficult finding a vacant taxi to pile into to get back home to Dhapasi.

Much fun was had by all.

Sending lots of love as always,

Fi