Lora Nafziger
We are in our second year here in Nepal and now doing things for a second time. That means we are also thinking of what new things we would like to do for the first time. Auggie really wanted me to start a book club. I wanted to do some volunteering somewhere that wasn’t at work. One day when I was trying to buy a set of shelves for the kitchen pantry, I found out about a makerspace that was being set up at an arts collective and I became intrigued and went to visit.
That visit led to me offering to help think about some children’s programming for them and then volunteering to lead a book club that incorporated some crafts/activities. So now we have completed three of four weeks of our book club with felting. We are reading the graphic novel version of The Hobbit, and each week (as you can see below) we do some drawing (maps and characters), play some games, do some exploration of the book (acting, guessing what will come next and making a timeline of this story), eat a snack and then work on our wet felted scenes from the book (or our imagination). It’s pretty fun, and it is really special that I get to lead it. We have 11 kids ages 8-12 (plus one little sister age 6, and one big sister age 17!) I am so appreciative to my UMN colleague and friend Rima for being the helping assistant in the group. She is amazing!
On the work front, I have recently gotten together a group of people doing member care (mental and spiritual health care) for their organizations. In two weeks I will attend a conference for others working in this area that includes a three-day contemplative art retreat that I am really looking forward to. Right now, I have been creating and sending out weekly Lent devotionals in addition to the monthly emails that I usually send to my (UMN) expats. We will have another visit to the Tansen (western) UMN hospital that will include our whole family the week after Easter.
Since our last post, the celebration of Holi, the Festival of Colors, happened in the valley. Holi is the Hindu spring celebration of love, rebirth, and rejuvenation. There is a story of a demon being defeated, but the connection to colour is very tangential. It is a festival that is easy for many people to join (rather than just observe, like most Hindu festivals) as it has been commercialised and largely disconnected from its religious meaning. Currently, in Nepal, it is a huge tourist draw and many hotels and community groups offer “family-friendly” or organised events that include music and food. Some of our Christian colleagues (Nepali and Expat) do not participate in the celebrations because it is a Hindu festival. For us, it was a fun time to connect with children in our community, to share this festival with MCC staff that were here visiting and to laugh together.
We joined a party at a local youth hostel that was made up of mostly non-Nepali young people. The hostel was a 30-minute walk from our house, and part of the fun was engaging with people along the way –strangers who shared and invited us to the collective day of play.
On the same day as Holi, our backyard neighbours invited us along with the whole neighbourhood to a housewarming blessing. It was an all-day affair which began with Hindu Priests reading and chanting around 6:30 am. We were invited to come around 3:00 for the meal and finale. We enjoyed meeting people from around our neighbourhood and the food was great. The finale was a “waterfall” of blessings that poured from the roof. It began with a red cloth, then coins, and small bills followed by fruit and then water! The party then continued with more blessings, dancing and singing which was still going when we went to bed that night.
