Bhaktapur and Christmas thoughts

Hello Everyone,

Just to prove I'm not dead and that I'm not leaving all the hard work to Jill, here I am again.

I don't actually have a great deal to add to what Jill's posted about anything; the only things I could add are things about my school, but I haven't yet had the opportunity to take photographs of the students so that you can see my classes. I promise I will, and that you'll be able to see the Shree Krishna Higher Secondary School students in more studious mode. In fact, I haven't done as much teaching as usual this week as the Year 12s have exams all week, and so I've been finishing work at 10:15. The school was also closed yesterday as it was yet another festival day, and next week we won't be there much either as we will be mainly in Kathmandu as we have to renew our visa, and also visit the Gurkha learning centre in Lazimpat - should be interesting.

Yesterday we went to Bhaktapur for the day. The bus down was even more crowded than usual, and was making most alarming noises every time it went over a bump. It was really a large minibus, seating about 18 people, but I reckon there were at least 50 people inside it, and probably another 10-20 on top. So it was a little overcrowded. We had a nice time wandering round Bhaktapur and going to the woodwork shops. Bhaktapur is the home of woodcarving in Nepal as the photo on the left will illustrate.

Knowing it was the beginning of November yesterday also brought thoughts of home and Christmas that much nearer, so here's a picture of me sitting in a cafe in Bhaktapur writing my home-coming and Christmas present list - which is very organised for me as I don't usually start thinking about Christmas until the beginning of December. I guess I will have other things on my mind then.

Today we were going to a puja ceremony for a bell that Semanta is donating to a temple in the local community, but the priest has consulted the lunar calendar and it's now going to be tomorrow. I'm sure there will be pictures from that too.

So that's all for today.

Take care of yourselves,

Vivienne