Buddha fest, Amazing Race, and Holi War

Buddha Fest
Yet another festival took place recently. No, it's not actually called Buddha fest, but I forget the actual name. We all (including the 3 new volunteers: Amy, Lauren and Paige) went with Rajiv to Patan to watch this festival, wherein people craft and decorate giant buddha puppets and then wear them around Durbar square. It's a competition between neighbourhoods to see who has the best Buddha. It was pretty crazy, but very beautiful.

There's a dude under there, struggling to keep upright under

all the weight.

Amazing Race: Kathmandu

This is an activity that normally closes orientation week for the new volunteers. Essentially it's a scavenger hunt around Kathmandu where you practice your Nepali and test your knowledge of the city and culture. However, the arrival of the 3 aforementioned volunteers meant that there were enough volunteers to do it for the first time since we got here. And it was hard! Even for me, a seasoned veteran. Fun though, except for the part where I was force-fed daal bhaat and almost choked.

That's me, wearing a doko basket as part of the race. You

wouldn't believe how blatantly people laughed at the silly foreigner.

Holi

I've been looking forward to Holi (the colour festival) since I first started researching Nepal for this placement. Essentially it's a festival, where people douse each other in coloured water and powder. What no one told me was that for a whole week leading up to Holi, little boys throw water balloons at girls and women. And sure, it's funny at first. And then you're on your way to your volunteer placement first thing in the morning and a balloon smacks you in the side of the face rather hard. Or hits you in the boob as you're headed out to dinner. I swear I developed mini Gulf War syndrome, scanning the balconies wherever I went and ducking when birds flew overhead!

But the festival day itself was super fun. We were in a rooftop water balloon war with at least 5 other buildings, and got slammed by people on the street with coloured paste. It was the craziest thing I've seen since I've been here, and that's saying something.

Me, battling the neighbours

Then, Neer (of course) had the hookup for this great outdoor Holi party in town, where we danced and people sprayed water and colour over everyone and it was sweet glorious chaos!

Holi par-tay!


And by the end of the day, we all looked like this.
That's me with Ronnie and Amy, btw.