13 December 2008
Ahmah and Goma came back last night, and it’s a tradition to bring to the whole family gifts which were blessed by the gods during the “pujah”, so all the family members will get luck and happiness from the gods too. Ahmah thus offered me a necklace in string (pink and gold), 2 oranges and some sweets. Goma offered me a necklace too (red and gold) and an apple.
Januka offered me last night to go with her to a “pujah” this morning, in the nearby village of Kalikasthan (where the bus from KTM stops, 30 min walk away) but I misunderstood the time, and so she left without me. I was indeed not feeling well this morning (I don’t understand, I can’t get rid of this bloody cold, even with the antibiotics, and since last night, I have a headache) so when she came in my room, I told her that I wanted to sleep more. It was indeed 6 o’clock and she had told me we would leave by 7am. But when I got up at 6.50am, she had already left ? What a pity!
For breakfast, I was invited by my student Laxmi. She has already invited me a few times for tea. She seems to be proud to take me to her home, and her family always seems very honored by my visit! But her English is very poor (she’s lovely but not a good student) and so unfortunately, we can never talk much!
This afternoon, I tried to carry on my head, with a “namlo”, a load of branches which is food for buffaloes ... I was surprised to realise that it was much easier to carry on my head than what I had thought. But of course, it was a lighter (probably half maybe even less!) load than the one people usually carry here!
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I tried as well to beat the millet with a huge stick ... Bloody hard and tiring! After 2 minutes, my hands were really painful and my arms sore! And they do that for hours! To get millet flour from the millet flowers is actually a long and tedious process. After having beaten the flowers for hours with a huge stick, they do a first separation by shaking a huge flat basket. Then they do a second filtering with a sieve. And when you have kilos and kilos to filter, I can tell you (because I did it for 30 min), you get really sore! At this stage, you get grains, but they still have a husk, which needs to be removed in a special machine. And finally, the grains will go to the water mill!
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And then I tried to use their sickle which they use for everything: as a kitchen knife (in that case, they hold it with their left foot as you can see in the pics below) for cutting the vegies, as an axe for cutting wood in the forest, as a sickle for cutting the grass in the fields or removing the spikes from the branches which are served as food to the buffaloes, ... Well, let’s say that I need some practice! ;-)
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As a conclusion, I’m not really helpful here: I don’t know how to cook on a fireplace (except for a BBQ, but there is no meat here!), I don’t know how to wash the dishes with ashes, I can’t beat the millet, I can’t efficiently use their sickle, I can’t carry heavy loads... I can only peel the corn, get water from the tap, go to Jibjibe to buy sugar and soap, and look after the children! So it’s a bit annoying, as I would love to help more as a compensation for the free food and the free accommodation, but unfortunately I can’t. Therefore I make sure to bring little presents each time I go to Jibjibe ;-)
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