7 December 2008

Last night, after school, I was invited for dinner to Laxman’s, the head of the school. Laxman is quite a strange person, not sure whether I can really trust him. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but I don’t feel completely at ease with him. Plus his English is rather poor (although he teaches English!), so it doesn’t help. I reckon he’s about 40 years old, he is married and has two children, but these three leave in KTM. So he lives with his parents (which is really common here: most people live with their parents or parents in law). He picked me up at school because it’s quite a long way from the school to his place (he lives in Jibjibe, but 15 min below the Internet point, which is 15min below my house, which is 15 min below the school!) and a difficult way at night. At some point, the villagers made regular stairs with stones all along the path but because of the heavy rains during the rainy season, the stairs became progressively damaged and now it’s rather erratic! On the way, we stopped at my family’s place to let them know that I will not eat with them, and then Laxman told them it would be better for me to stay at his as it’s a long way back home. There were really not happy about it, neither was I. I told him I prefered to go back home in the evening rather the next morning as I didn’t feel walking for 45 min at 5 o’clock in the morning to go to school, especially without breakfast! But impossible to make him understand that, so I gave up arguing and decided that I would just leave after dinner, and that’s it! But my family didn’t give up arguing. I don’t really know what was said, but it kept on going for quite a while! Even the neighbour came and took part in the discussion! It was so funny! I had the impression that I was back 15 years ago, when I had to argue with my parents to go out!!! My family here really feels responsible for me, and they are quite unhappy if I go out in the evening. They consider me indeed like their own daughter and are worried as my mother is when I’m at my parent’s place. For instance, Pierrick always calls me 5 min after I finish my evening class as the network is quite good at the school where it’s quite bad at home. So when he calls, I arrive 30 min later than usual. Until now, Hari could tell them so no problem. But yesterday, they didn’t know (although I had asked Hari to tell them that Pierrick always calls Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays .... obviously he had forgotten), and they got really worried ... and Bhah (Hari’s father) went all the way up to the school to check what was happening! So sweet! Now, I have to make sure that this doesn’t happen again as it’s not nice for them. They are already worried anyway because they think I work too late and it’s dangerous for me to go down when it’s so dark (!!!), so no need to make things even worse! ;-)
Well, back to the original story. After a 20 min discussion, we finally left for Laxman’s place, where his mother had prepared an amazing dinner. I was served the usual vegie curry and rice, but on top of that, there was some meat, some pickles and some fresh radish! And I ate at a table, with a spoon! Such a luxuous dinner!!!! And while I’m not sure what to think about Laxman, his mother is absolutely lovely so it was really an enjoyable dinner. Then we went to Laxman’s room, which is quite luxuous for the village, with some chairs and lino on the floor, and many books on shelves (normal, as he’s a teacher afterall). We chatted nicely, while drinking a beer (waoh!) and then, when I felt tired, I told him that I would go home. So he accompanied me for 15 min, and when we arrived at the Internet point, I told him that I was fine, because it’s a way that I know very well. However, I didn’t plan that there would be a scary dog on my way. I’ve never seen that dog during the day ... and suddenly, here it was, 50m above me, barking like hell ... As it was pitch dark, and nobody was around (everybody was already asleep at that time), I really freaked out! I started taking a detour (i.e. went out of the path and started climbing the terraces (used for cultivation)), in order to get closer to trees so I could climb on them in case the dog would attack me, and in order to get closer to some houses as well, and I picked up a big stick. But finally, I decided to shout “Namaste, Help”, and after a few min, some people came out and “neutralised” the dog! Safe! I know, I was completely stupid, but I couldn’t control myself! Well, I can tell you, I was really happy to be in my bed, 15 min later, and so was my family! ?

 

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