The main day of Dashian has arrived. 
So Thursday was the main day of Dashian. We were lucky enough to be invited to Dhanni’s village for the celebrations and blessings with lots of Tikka. There was a couple from Belgium staying at Horizon at the same time so Dhanni also invited them for the day trip. We left early morning and after about an hour in the jeep arrived at the village, after quite a pleasant journey- even though the jeep was packed with people all squeezed in and many people on the top of the jeep also.

We went to visit Dhanni’s old house that he used to live in, which is beautiful, however there is a little damage from the earthquakes earlier in the year. After the young children Barbra, the guests from Belgium and I were asked up to be blessed one by one by Danni’s mother and older brother and were given a blessing. The whole experience was very touching and I did feel very honoured to be part of such a special day. After some food we spent hours waiting for Dhanni’s sister to arrive. We could not leave until Dhanni had blessed her sister. I think Barbara and I worked out that there was over six hours of Tikka-ing. A very long and special day. Finally we all piled back into the jeep and headed back to Tansen.

Now the journey home was something else. First, we came head to head with a crowded bus on a part of the road that was wet and extremely muddy, shortly after we drove round a corner only to be met by two huge monkeys. And our driver, it seemed, was racing the light and was very heavy footed. But despite all the drama of people jumping on and off the roof, we made it safely back to our homestay.

We spent Friday the 23^rd working on more resources and laminating many sheets. Again, quite a slow day with the lack of open shops due to Dashian.

Saturday Barbara and I were invited to Bimala’s house for lunch, which was really lovely. I’m sure that I will never go hungry whilst in Nepal. Everyone is so kind and lovely and especially hospitable. It must be said that Barbara and I thought that the rice pudding Bimala cooked was the best rice pudding that either of us have ever tasted. Sunday evening a German couple arrived at Horizon who were travelling in Nepal for one month and both were really lovely.

Our plan for Sunday and Monday was to visit Bagnas School as it is only about an hour’s walk from Tansen- we had heard through other teachers that there was a local holiday then so the school would not be open. Barbara and I thought that it would be a good idea to walk into the village anyway just to see it so I could familiarise myself with the village. I also invited the German couple to come with us to Bagnas to visit the village. As soon as we arrived we were surrounded by children and were asked to join a member of the village’s management committee for some water at his house. Word soon spread that we had arrived and we were surrounded asking Barbra to sing and play and they were all very keen to drag all of us by the hand up to Devi temple. Luckily we didn’t see any sacrifices taking place, but we definitely saw the pools of blood from the previous ones.

After seeing the temple and laying offerings we made our way back down the hill to have a quick cup of chia before our hike back to Tansen. It was long and very hot but we made it and treated ourselves with some momo’s (steamed or fried, veg filled dumplings) and a banana lassi. We slowly then trudged back up the homestay over full and crashed for the rest of the afternoon.

We have lots planned for the next few days as Dashian is over so stay tuned :)