Days 14-15

Days 14-15 (March 14-15)

Day 14 was a rest day and a work day. Aparna needed some chores done around the house and I was elected but Aparna and Ute helped. Without their help, the chores could not have been done. There were five plumbing projects. When we here last, I had looked at the issues but not closely enough. I had made a list of the PVC sections we needed but this list was made using my Western mindset where everything is disposable. When I actually began the work, I realized that none of the joints were glued. Aparna had a leaking joint coming out of a shower and I assumed that the joint was bad and that it would have to be replaced. However, when I started tearing down the joint, I realized that none of the PVC pieces were glued. Rather each joint had a section that had an O ring inserted in it that was used as a seal. This meant that fixing the leak was a simple as replacing the O ring. In America, I would have had to cut the bad joints out and replace them with new joints. This is the difference between our opulence and their poverty.

There were two more PVC projects on the other side of her home where there were holes in a 4 inch PVC 90 degree joint and in a long 4-inch pipe. Apparently rocks had fallen on these pieces during the earthquake. Now that I understood the system, repairing these was just like replacing tinker toys. The only difference was that the O ring was more difficult to penetrate with a 4-inch pipe. This problem was solved with a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap that we had brought. It turned out to be the perfect lubricant. Aparna said that plumbers here are very expensive and that she would have had to hire one from Kathmandu to come out to do the repairs. The last time she said she spent over $100. This amount would support a family for a month here.

The next plumbing project involved fixing a faucet that didn’t work. I know nothing about faucets but after taking the sink off the wall and disconnecting the faucet, I was able to force a wire into the water intake and then blow through the hole. Miraculously, it began working. Another successful venture by one who is completely unskilled at plumbing.

The final venture involved getting the hot water heater to work. Here I had a vested interest in solving this problem. It turned out to be nothing more than bad batteries. Once installed, the hot water heater worked perfectly. I immediately took advantage of this opportunity and had the first warm water shower since we have been here. What a luxury!

Later on in the afternoon, several villagers came over and we prayed with them. You always get more than you give in these encounters.

In the late afternoon, a weather front came in with thunder, lightning, and rain, which meant the temperatures dropped quickly. In search of entertainment, the boy and girl of the caretaker family came to our room to make music with us. It was wonderful even though the guitar was terribly out of tune. The drums were beaten with gusto but not necessarily with rhythm. I (Ute) taught them an African children’s song. The girl went to get her notebook and wrote down the words with Nepali letters. In the middle of the musical interlude, a mother and her child came and asked if we could pray with her. We are so amazed how open people here are to spiritual energy. They feel the flow and allow it to enter. We had learned a way to pray with people by offering our bodies to be used by divine energy. Standing before and behind a person, first we pray that everything that is not of love or light be taken out and then we pray for the person to be filled with love and light. Very simple and not connected with any nuanced theology. We have been taught this universal, non-religious method and love to share it with others. Interestingly, we never expected to be doing this kind of work here – but, hey, we gotta go with the flow.

Day 15 started out much colder than yesterday but offered a beautiful blue sky. The rain had washed away the smog and so we were finally able to see the Himalayan snow mountain range. Unbelievably spectacular. This is the first time we have been able to see these mountains all week. It was not long, though, before the sun started to warm us up. The caretakers asked us if we felt the 4.5 earthquake at about 3:15 AM. They said everybody got up and ran out – except us and Aparna. The house we were staying in was build against the hill – and we didn’t feel a thing. As far as we know there were no damages.

Suresh, our driver, came to pick us up to drive to Bhaktapur where Aparna had made an appointment for us to talk to a class of Homeopathy students and teach them the Healing Prayer method. This was a first for us and we didn’t know how it would go, but we accepted the challenge. Interestingly enough, the class was more head than heart. When it came to joining in spirit, meditate, and creating a sacred space, they got nervous, giggled, and were a little afraid. Feeling is so personal that, if fear is present, nothing is felt. Free will dictates the results. So, here the energy could not flow the way we had experienced before.

From the Homeopathic Medicine College, we drove up a mountain and stopped at a hotel that was nestled in the mountain with a variety of different cottages where people could stay. It was founded by a German couple. From the parking lot, we climbed the hill to their restaurant and ate a fabulous Nepali meal. You could definitely see the German influence. No trash lying around and everything was clean and immaculate. Quite a difference from the typical restaurant experience here.

After lunch we continued our drive to the Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Tibetan Temple that had been built on top of the mountain. We had expected a strong spiritual feeling but were disappointed. The energy felt almost sterile. Aparna spoke to a few young monks who had been taken from their Nepali parents in order to enter monkhood. It is hard to determine whether the boys being here was forced or not but they get fed and educated for free. We asked if they were happy here, but, even though they pretended to be, it was obvious that was not quite the truth.

This is what drying incense looks like

After this stop we drove down and made our way back to Kathmandu. The road conditions in the mountains are atrocious to say the least. Thanks to Suresh’s driving talents, we made it home safely. It is always a hard transition to come from the mountain area back to the smog-filled, traffic-jammed, noisy and busy city. On the way back, though, we saw two traffic lights in Bhaktapur – surprised, we asked Aparna about them and she said that this road was built by the Japanese and was like an Interstate in the US. Somehow the Japanese got it to work. Even though we are calling it an Interstate, the speed limit is 60 kilometers per hour which is 36 mph. So it is only an Interstate when compared to the other roads.

Nepali tractor