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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