Finding Happiness in the Himalayas

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

LOSAR!!!!!!!

Here are the highlights of my Losar:

1. Woke up and drank from 8am-9pm on day one (Sunday March, 2^nd). Woah!

2. Visited my host families friends houses (aka got to see SO many different Losar decorations and alter preparations)

3. Made and ate SO many momos

4. Tried the traditional Tibetan alcohol, Chang (salty rice millet “beer” served warm). Yuck

5. Learned a new betting card game—I won 2 rupees (aka two cents)

6. Listened to so many Tibetans speak with each other…who knows what they were saying, but it was fun to pretend!

7. Making pizza with/for my family

8. Learning Tibetan traditional dance and song

9. Singing the National Anthem for my family and friends……..

Overall Losar was a blast. This short excerpt does not do it much justice, but I have to catch a 6:00 am flight to Bhutan in the morning and have not yet backed! Oops! I will try to update you more when I have the chance!

I do not know what my Internet situation will be like in Bhutan—but stay tuned!

Tashi Delek!

Capsay--Yummy Tibetan Treat

Each Tibetan family creates a food alter where they put all their food for the next few days. Each families is very different. (this is where all the food from my previous blog went!)

Pala and Amala in their Traditional Tibetan Chupas

Amala, Pala and a friend Semtin (I do not know what Pala is doing with his hand...)

Again...Pala with the hand motion!

Making momos

Veg Momos

Sha (meat) momos

My families alter

Ingredients for making pizza!

First we made a non-sweet pancake. Then we added the toppings and put the top on the frying pan...and 5 mins later we had a pretty decent pancake-pizza!

Smelt so yummy!

And my family added sha (meat) to their pizza. (NOTE: the huge bowl of meat in front of my Amala)

At the Churten (Stupa)

Making offerings

PHOTO SHOOT!

Amala, Pala, and Semtin

yupp..rocking the Chacos....oops!

Note the cute couple in the background

And then we fed the Pigeons

My family was all about it

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Tashidelek Losar!

For the past week and a half my family has been preparing for the Tibetan New Year; Losar (check out the link!) Our apartment only consists of two rooms (my room and the alter room/living room/parents bed room/kitchen) however every day my amala spends the day cleaning and prepping for the holiday. (What she does exactly I do not/will not ever know). But every morning at breakfast my pala will state his count down that he has going on “Ahhh Megan La, 5 days till Losar…3 days till losar” he says.

Now, the night before the day before Losar, the holiday has even begun. I came home last night and was asked to help make the “special tentook”. Basically what we did was hand pull noodles and cook them into the vegetable based broth. Then the coolest part of it all was the fortune telling. My amala wrote down seven different words on different pieces of paper, which she tore into small pieces. Then she took seven pieces of dough and put the fortunes in each ball of dough. The whole soup was cooked, including the dough balls with fortunes inside, and served into our bowls. My amala served us each one dough ball and we proceeded to drink our tentook. (In Nepal/Tibet you drink soup…you do not eat it.) Once we finished our meal we all opened our fortunes. Here is what we got: amala got mandala beads which means that you are committed. Pala got beans, which he could not stop laughing about—it means you are boring and strait edged; he thought this was a really bad one. I got katszapo, which means spicy in Tibetan. My fortune means that I talk a lot? While the fortunes did not really describe us very well they were still very fun!

Today, the day before Losar, my family is still prepping. We went on a HUGE shopping spree at the biggest super market I have ever seen. (Bigger than the Nakumatts in Nairobi). Aaaanyhow, after 2 hours of walking around the supermarket we settled on six 2 liter soda bottles, 12 liter jugs of fruit juice (all different brands), 5 bags of chips, s’more cookies (ALERT: PALM OIL!!!), SO MUCH CHOCOLATE, baked goods and ingredients for pizza (my family wants me to make pizza for Losar). Oh…we also got over $100 USD worth of alcohol. If you can’t tell my family is VERY excited for Losar.

Our...yummy...cart

Going crazy in the candy department

The celebration lasts for 15 days, but I will only be able to celebrate for 4 days because I leave to go to Bhutan on March 5^th. We will be in Bhutan for 3 weeks! I am VERY excited to go. We have been studying a lot about Bhutan and have even been fortunate (?) enough to see some Bhutanese films!

I do not know what my Internet situation will be like in Bhutan. (Fun fact: Bhutan got the first TV in 1999 and internet came shortly after that!). I will keep you updated as much as I can but don’t count on too much contact. Please send emails and such—however my Nepal phone will be out of commission…as I am in Bhutan.

OTHER THINGS I DID THIS PAST WEEK!