It was the best of trips. It was the worst of trips.
These are the times that try parents' souls.
OK. Enough of that. The point is that we recently returned from a fantastic week in Nepal. The wonderful parts: reconnecting with good friends, exploring the fascinating culture and sites of Kathmandu, mountain air, Mount Everest, pinching myself and repeating over and over that I couldn't believe I was in NEPAL. The horrible parts: Samuel's overnight stay in a clinic (and the IV), Samuel being traumatized by the experience and refusing to sleep for the rest of the trip, Evie's fever, people on airplanes who see us coming and can't be bothered to hide their opinion that children should not be on airplanes, Evie spilling a bottle of water into the lap of one such person. On second thought, that last one might be a highlight. No! Not really!
One of the great things about being in the foreign service is that we know really cool people in really cool places. We met the Patch family at FSI, and they generously allowed us to stay with them in Kathmandu. They also let us use their car and driver (wonderful!) and spent some time showing us around and sharing their insights into Nepali culture and religion. In return, we gave Gretel and Christopher an Indian tablecloth and their kids whatever dread disease my kids brought with them. So now you know the benefits and risks of hosting our family.
As we flew into Kathmandu, the view out our airplane windows was just spectacular. Snowcapped mountains, green valleys, little dots of settlement. It was beautiful! Johnny kept asking me why I was crying. I couldn't help it! I never thought I'd see the Himalayas.
Getting out of the airport took forever -- it may rank as the most annoying airport I've ever been through, and that's saying something -- and then we spent the ride to the house comparing Kathmandu with our experience in India. Kathmandu was much drier and much cooler (thank goodness), and with almost no level ground. Chennai is sprawling and flat. Kathmandu is smashed into a valley, where there's nowhere to build but up. Kathmandu's streets are narrower and in worse shape. Its people seem similarly friendly. We saw much more Western wear in the clothing, though we spotted some saris, quite a few salwar kameez, and lots of Nepal's signature woolen shawls.
We spent our first evening in Kathmandu relaxing with our friends and letting the kids get reacquainted, and the next day we went to Swayambhunath, or the Monkey Temple, which I've wanted to see ever since I learned of its existence (admittedly not long ago).
This is why it's called the Monkey Temple.
There are monkeys everywhere. They're fun to watch, but they can be bold and pretty aggressive. Luckily, my kids are pretty well versed in monkey etiquette. Johnny kept reminding us not to look them in the eye, and for heaven's sake don't show your teeth or get out any food or you're asking for trouble.
Swayambhunath is at the top of a hill that overlooks the Kathmandu valley. According to myth, the entire valley was once a lake, and this hill rose up out of the water. People have been worshipping here for centuries, both Buddhists and Hindus. Here's a view of the city from the top of the hill.
A fascinating thing about Swayambhunath is its combination of Buddhist and Hindu imagery. Nepal is strongly influenced by Tibet to the north and India to the south, and that influence is very apparent in spirituality. Nepali Buddhists and Hindus often worship at the same sites, and there's a mingling of thought and tradition. In this picture you can see Hindu dieties carved into the wooden roof supports in the foreground, and the Buddhist stupa with the eyes of the Buddha in the rear.
We saw strings of prayer flags everywhere we went in Nepal. The idea is that the wind catches the prayer (written on the flag) and carries its good will toward heaven. Prayer wheels serve a similar function, and we saw them at the base of nearly every temple or stupa. The mantra "om mani padme hum" is written on the wheel, and worshippers walk around the stupa in a clockwise direction, turning the prayer wheels as they go. Here's Johnny turning wheels at the base of one of the shrines.
Here we are in front of the main stupa. At the top of the stupa are the eyes of the Buddha, the third eye (which represents insight), and a Nepali symbol that means unity. The 13 tiers at the top represent the journey to nirvana. Just so you know, we have not acquired a fourth child. The cute blonde (the one that isn't our cute blonde) is Addie Patch.
Pilgrims who come to worship at the stupa come up these centuries-old stone stairs. We took a short cut.
These chaityas are in a courtyard behind the main stupa and show a strong Hindu influence. Evie and Addie had a good time exploring this area.
This one is called the black chaitya, and is famous for combining Hindu and Buddhist symbols.
Evie and Addie had plenty of time to explore the shrines, because John and Johnny were in search of the perfect singing bowl. That's a percussion instrument shaped like a bowl (obviously) that is played by striking it with a mallet and then dragging the mallet around the rim of the bowl. If you know John at all, you'll understand why this took ages. In the end, they found two bowls that sound great on their own and also happen to be a good match. Here's an example of the wares for sale. Lots of metalwork.
We saw this statue of the Buddha on our way down the hill. (There are a couple of monkeys on the bamboo scaffolding.) It was kind of disappointing to see that they had to post a sign reminding people that it's disrespectful to take a photo of yourself sitting in the Buddha's lap.
On the way out of Swayambhunath we stopped and let the kids get bracelets with their name on them. We were mobbed by families of monkeys and, strangely, a huge group of tourists from Argentina.
I thought this monkey looked like it was worshipping at a small stupa near the base of the hill.
You'll notice in this photo that Samuel's not looking too well. He spent most of our time at the Monkey Temple on my shoulder or John's, and he only occasionally raised his head to say something like, "That monkey's eating a banana."
He seemed to get worse as the day went on, so after lunch at the American Club (I'm totally jealous that they have an American Club. There is no such place in Chennai.), we decided to take him to a clinic to see if he had an ear infection or something. Samuel had been sick before we left Chennai, but we thought he was pretty much over his bug. He wouldn't eat or drink on our travel day, though, and he just got more and more listless as time went on. We thought we'd be at the clinic for half an hour or so and that some antibiotics would pep him up. Not so, as evidenced by this photo.
Poor Samuel! He was really dehydrated, and the doctor thought there were also signs of infection in his stool (sorry if that's too much information). So, feeling like the worst mother in the universe, I stayed with Samuel in the clinic overnight. It took until 5 a.m. to get a sufficiently wet diaper to lose the IV, and then we had to give him antibiotics for the next few days.
The next day we had planned to go to church with the Patches, which I really wanted to do because the area president was in town. Plus, I was interested to see their branch. Instead, Johnny and Evie went to church with them (and got to sing with the Primary in Sacrament meeting!) while John and I got Samuel checked out of the clinic and then tried to recover from the sleepless night. The good news is that Samuel is fully recovered. The bad news is that the night with the IV so traumatized him that he would not sleep for the rest of our trip unless he was in my lap. This meant almost no sleep for me, so we had to scale down some of our plans to let me catch an hour or two of sleep during the day. It was exhausting.
What a way to end a post! Don't worry. More good stuff to come.
These are the times that try parents' souls.
OK. Enough of that. The point is that we recently returned from a fantastic week in Nepal. The wonderful parts: reconnecting with good friends, exploring the fascinating culture and sites of Kathmandu, mountain air, Mount Everest, pinching myself and repeating over and over that I couldn't believe I was in NEPAL. The horrible parts: Samuel's overnight stay in a clinic (and the IV), Samuel being traumatized by the experience and refusing to sleep for the rest of the trip, Evie's fever, people on airplanes who see us coming and can't be bothered to hide their opinion that children should not be on airplanes, Evie spilling a bottle of water into the lap of one such person. On second thought, that last one might be a highlight. No! Not really!
One of the great things about being in the foreign service is that we know really cool people in really cool places. We met the Patch family at FSI, and they generously allowed us to stay with them in Kathmandu. They also let us use their car and driver (wonderful!) and spent some time showing us around and sharing their insights into Nepali culture and religion. In return, we gave Gretel and Christopher an Indian tablecloth and their kids whatever dread disease my kids brought with them. So now you know the benefits and risks of hosting our family.
As we flew into Kathmandu, the view out our airplane windows was just spectacular. Snowcapped mountains, green valleys, little dots of settlement. It was beautiful! Johnny kept asking me why I was crying. I couldn't help it! I never thought I'd see the Himalayas.
Getting out of the airport took forever -- it may rank as the most annoying airport I've ever been through, and that's saying something -- and then we spent the ride to the house comparing Kathmandu with our experience in India. Kathmandu was much drier and much cooler (thank goodness), and with almost no level ground. Chennai is sprawling and flat. Kathmandu is smashed into a valley, where there's nowhere to build but up. Kathmandu's streets are narrower and in worse shape. Its people seem similarly friendly. We saw much more Western wear in the clothing, though we spotted some saris, quite a few salwar kameez, and lots of Nepal's signature woolen shawls.
We spent our first evening in Kathmandu relaxing with our friends and letting the kids get reacquainted, and the next day we went to Swayambhunath, or the Monkey Temple, which I've wanted to see ever since I learned of its existence (admittedly not long ago).
This is why it's called the Monkey Temple.
There are monkeys everywhere. They're fun to watch, but they can be bold and pretty aggressive. Luckily, my kids are pretty well versed in monkey etiquette. Johnny kept reminding us not to look them in the eye, and for heaven's sake don't show your teeth or get out any food or you're asking for trouble.
Swayambhunath is at the top of a hill that overlooks the Kathmandu valley. According to myth, the entire valley was once a lake, and this hill rose up out of the water. People have been worshipping here for centuries, both Buddhists and Hindus. Here's a view of the city from the top of the hill.
A fascinating thing about Swayambhunath is its combination of Buddhist and Hindu imagery. Nepal is strongly influenced by Tibet to the north and India to the south, and that influence is very apparent in spirituality. Nepali Buddhists and Hindus often worship at the same sites, and there's a mingling of thought and tradition. In this picture you can see Hindu dieties carved into the wooden roof supports in the foreground, and the Buddhist stupa with the eyes of the Buddha in the rear.
We saw strings of prayer flags everywhere we went in Nepal. The idea is that the wind catches the prayer (written on the flag) and carries its good will toward heaven. Prayer wheels serve a similar function, and we saw them at the base of nearly every temple or stupa. The mantra "om mani padme hum" is written on the wheel, and worshippers walk around the stupa in a clockwise direction, turning the prayer wheels as they go. Here's Johnny turning wheels at the base of one of the shrines.
Here we are in front of the main stupa. At the top of the stupa are the eyes of the Buddha, the third eye (which represents insight), and a Nepali symbol that means unity. The 13 tiers at the top represent the journey to nirvana. Just so you know, we have not acquired a fourth child. The cute blonde (the one that isn't our cute blonde) is Addie Patch.
Pilgrims who come to worship at the stupa come up these centuries-old stone stairs. We took a short cut.
 |
| View of the main stupa from the top of the pilgrim stairs. |
 |
| Prayer wheels and butter lamps around the base of the main stupa. |
This one is called the black chaitya, and is famous for combining Hindu and Buddhist symbols.
Evie and Addie had plenty of time to explore the shrines, because John and Johnny were in search of the perfect singing bowl. That's a percussion instrument shaped like a bowl (obviously) that is played by striking it with a mallet and then dragging the mallet around the rim of the bowl. If you know John at all, you'll understand why this took ages. In the end, they found two bowls that sound great on their own and also happen to be a good match. Here's an example of the wares for sale. Lots of metalwork.
We saw this statue of the Buddha on our way down the hill. (There are a couple of monkeys on the bamboo scaffolding.) It was kind of disappointing to see that they had to post a sign reminding people that it's disrespectful to take a photo of yourself sitting in the Buddha's lap.
On the way out of Swayambhunath we stopped and let the kids get bracelets with their name on them. We were mobbed by families of monkeys and, strangely, a huge group of tourists from Argentina.
I thought this monkey looked like it was worshipping at a small stupa near the base of the hill.
You'll notice in this photo that Samuel's not looking too well. He spent most of our time at the Monkey Temple on my shoulder or John's, and he only occasionally raised his head to say something like, "That monkey's eating a banana."
He seemed to get worse as the day went on, so after lunch at the American Club (I'm totally jealous that they have an American Club. There is no such place in Chennai.), we decided to take him to a clinic to see if he had an ear infection or something. Samuel had been sick before we left Chennai, but we thought he was pretty much over his bug. He wouldn't eat or drink on our travel day, though, and he just got more and more listless as time went on. We thought we'd be at the clinic for half an hour or so and that some antibiotics would pep him up. Not so, as evidenced by this photo.
Poor Samuel! He was really dehydrated, and the doctor thought there were also signs of infection in his stool (sorry if that's too much information). So, feeling like the worst mother in the universe, I stayed with Samuel in the clinic overnight. It took until 5 a.m. to get a sufficiently wet diaper to lose the IV, and then we had to give him antibiotics for the next few days.
The next day we had planned to go to church with the Patches, which I really wanted to do because the area president was in town. Plus, I was interested to see their branch. Instead, Johnny and Evie went to church with them (and got to sing with the Primary in Sacrament meeting!) while John and I got Samuel checked out of the clinic and then tried to recover from the sleepless night. The good news is that Samuel is fully recovered. The bad news is that the night with the IV so traumatized him that he would not sleep for the rest of our trip unless he was in my lap. This meant almost no sleep for me, so we had to scale down some of our plans to let me catch an hour or two of sleep during the day. It was exhausting.
What a way to end a post! Don't worry. More good stuff to come.
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