the wonders of technology.

dear you,
i got to skype my parents AND my love!
even though i'm in an amazing country, that's still one of the highlights of my time here.
whoever said 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' was brilliant beyond measure.
anyways, my yesterday went something like this:
lila was so kind and offered to drive me the hour and a half to banepa to scheer memorial hospital so i could attend church.
it was cool to see more of the nepali culture on the way.

water buffalo

wheat and barley fields

tallest statue of lord shiva, a hindu god

the church service was a mix of nepali and english so i could understand a bit of it.
they made me say my name and where i'm from, and then continued to laud the fact that 'makada from canada' had come to visit! :)
there were some finnish people as well that they oohed and aahed over.
the traditional nepali tunes that they sang were awesome!
they had a small jembe-like drum that kept the rhythm and they sang their hearts out.
the english songs like 'how great thou art' didn't have as much enthusiasm.
i don't blame them.
their songs are way cooler.
a white guy with big teeth gave the sermon in good american english about the parable of the ten virgins.
you would think his name would be some typical white name like travis or david.
but no.
his name was aroon.
i wonder where he was from, because he sounded like a normal american.
after church, we drove back and went to ramchandra's apartment for lunch.
his kids are sooo cute!

bishal, elina, and genesia

the one on the right isn't his, but they were all playing in the hallway with a bunch of other kids.
there were kids everywhere yesterday because saturday is their only free day from school.
these poor children have school sunday-friday.
i would die.
his wife gave us a great meal of cauliflower and potato curry.
ramchandra showed me all the newpapers from around the world that he's been published in.
it's actually a lot, which is really cool, and you can tell that he's very proud.
i would be too; he's a really nice guy who isn't a cheating salesman like a lot of the tourist guides.
back at home, lila's older daugher, suda, came to visit me with her friends susmita (girl) and sumit (boy)
i was kinda surprised when i asked how old she was because she looks very young.
she's 20, and happily living with her husband 5 min from here.
i can't even imagine being married by that age.
speaking of marriage, i'm going to a bhandari family wedding today!
suda is lending me an outfit to wear, which is pretty exciting.
i should probably start getting ready for that because i think it's in an hour.
but first, a cool fact about nepal:
i've always thought nepal was a country filled with mountains and rocks and stuff.
which it is.
it has like 1,600 mountains over 6,000 meters tall.
where i'm living is at an elevation that would be like living at the top of mount baker!
but nepal is actually basically it's own ecosystem.
within 1000km, you would find mountains, plains, desert, jungle, etc.
they have 3,600 square meters of jungle with rhinos and elephants!
lila said maybe i can go bathing with some elephants sometime, which is probably the coolest thing anyone has ever said to me :)
so there you go.
now you know more about nepal.
gotta go get ready for my first nepali wedding!
love,
me