Some "Facts" about Nepali Culture

1. Men hold hands here. Walking down the streets, openly, interlocking fingers, in half-embraces. They aren't gay, it's just acceptable for them to do it here. But apparently they are homophobic as well. Sometimes I wish American men wouldn't be so reserved and would just show affection like that towards one another. Who cares, ya know?

2. Everyone here rides motorbikes. If there is a person riding behind the driver, they NEVER have a helmet on. I found out recently it is a Nepali law that the "pillow" (backseat) rider CAN'T wear helmets. This is because, in the past, there were lots of drive-by shootings where the person on the back would shoot people as they drove by, and when they were wearing a helmet, the police were not able to identify them. Well, shit.

3. Another crazy law here, that was only changed 4 years ago or so, was when a woman was widowed by her husband, she was considered to not be able to live without him, and was killed. Just like that. Good incentive to keep your husband healthy and kicking. But, like I said, that's changed now.

4. Leisure is not something many Nepalis seem to understand, at least not like we do in America. Everything they do is just practical. I asked this nurse that I work with what she did for fun when she wasn't working and she looked confused. Maybe it was the language barrier, but then I offered the word cook, and she smiled and said, "yes, yes, just cook." Women don't seem to play sports here very often, and I am trying to figure out what it is they do, besides cook, in their free time.

5. White people are like celebrities here. Especially out in Banepa, where there aren't as many tourists. When we go on walks through the back streets, there are kids playing all around their houses, in the gardens and the fields. They always yell at us from down the street, "Hi!" or "Hello!" When they get a response from us, they immediately giggle, and then try it again and again. The kids follow us and smile and adults break from their work and smile and say "Namaste" with their hands in the prayer position. I honestly don't think I've ever felt so popular in my life. It's going to be hard coming home and walking down the street and have people ignore you and bump into you like you don't even exist.

6. Nepalis strike about a lot of things. Right now, there is a huge strike going on. There is this political group called the Maoists who used to be in power, but apparently aren't really anymore. A constitution has been worked on for the past two years, and is supposed to be signed the month of May. The Maoists are wreaking all sorts of havoc now as this is going on. Yesterday, we were riding into Bhaktapur from Banepa for work, and we got stopped by a road block. An officer came on board and was searching the bus, for weapons we assumed. Later, we found out that grenades had been found on local buses coming into Kathmandu. We are going to leave the city this morning to go back to Banepa where we should be safer, but for now, we are staying away from large crowds. Luckily, Westerners are NOT at all the target. In fact, they don't want to hurt us because we bring money into their economy with tourism and they really don't want to piss off our governments by killing their citizens. We are just hoping a civil war doesn't break out and we all have to leave before our placements are over.

7. Men can't cut women's hair and women can't cut men's hair. The only day that men really touch women in public, at least that us volunteers have seen, is on the New Year, which just happened 15 days ago or so (Nepal has an entirely different calendar than us, in fact, it is currently the year 2067 here, I believe. You can imagine my surprise when I passed a school that said "Established 2058.").

8. When a Nepali is agreeing with you or saying "OK," they do what we call the Nepali "wobble head" where they bob their head back and forth like one of those wobble or bobble-head dolls that we have. We have kind of found ourselves doing it after a while.

9. Nepalis are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. But have you ever been invited over for tea and potatoes? Just boiled potatoes, peel the skin, dip it in some chile and you've got a replacement for biscuits with your Nepali tea.