9 December 2008
So yesterday morning, I went to Jibjibe, and in particular to the taylor in order to pick up my blouse and my “tsiolo”. The former is allright, although much shorter (4 cm) than what I had asked, but the latter is far too small (it’s a kind of little jacket that I can’t close, and that is again at least 7-8 cm too short)! But what could I do? For the “tsiolo”, it was 60 cents for the tailoring and 3 euros for the fabric. There was no way I could ask the tailor to redo it: I can’t ask him to pay himself for a new fabric (and considering the way he works, I don’t really want to pay myself for a new fabric and ask him to do it again!). And for 60 cents, I didn’t feel like telling him that I don’t pay him because the job is too badly done. For him, it’s a lot, for me it’s absolutely nothing, even if I haven’t been paid for three months! So I tried to let him know that I was really unhappy, then paid and left, after he had repaired one place which was not properly sewed. And today, I’ve realised that there is a hole inside the lining, and that the stiches at the back of the collar are not in the middle! Oh well...
On top of that, a dozen of villagers came again to watch me trying the clothes,
and some women were touching me, asking me quite aggressively how much I had
paid for my jewellery, pulling on my necklaces, ... Very unpleasant! And then
I needed to buy some sugar and I didn’t expect it to be such a challenge!
I thought that we were in wartime. Impossible to find any sugar! And do you
think that somebody would help me? No, they just answered “chini chaina”
(no sugar here) but they had no idea (or didn’t want to tell me) in which
shop I could find some. So I ended up asking all the shops of the village for
sugar, with 10 people following me, but not helping at all! I finally managed
to buy one kilo in the last shop!
So it was a rather unpleasant morning. Luckily, the day finished in a much nicer
way. I was indeed invited at Gagan’s house for dinner and they had prepared
some bred! ? It was delicious and made me realise how much I miss French bred!!!
I ate that with a vegie curry and then was served a very nice rice pudding with
many spices and big pieces of coconut. I’m lucky: each time I’ve
been invited, I got something very different from what I eat everyday. It’s
nice to taste other traditional dishes and overall, it’s nice to have
some change! This teacher is 33 (although he looks a bit older), so is his wife,
and they have 5 children, the first one being 16 years old! They got indeed
married when they were 14! That’s very common here. Hari got married at
the same age, while his wife was only 12! But it’s progressively changing,
and the average number of children per family is decreasing in the same time.
For instance, Gagan and his wife only wanted 3 children and they relied on family
planning. But unfortunately for them, it didn’t work and they got twins
after the first three!!! As they say, it must be a gift from God! ;-) The five
of them have almost the same name: Pratij followed by one syllable (for exemple
“na” for one of the girl) so it’s completely crazy! Imagine
a family where the children would be called Pierre, Pierrot, Pierrette, Pierrick!
Insane! But it seems quite common here: in Jibjibe, there is a family in which
the children are called Sabin, Sabina, Bobin and Bobina!
And finally, Gagan explained me what I couldn’t understand in my family. Although my Nepali is getting better (well, I understand basic questions and I can answer by using extensively my dictionnary! Indeed, as I learnt the grammar, I can make simple sentences, in the present tense, by checking some vocabulary in my phrasebook.), I cannot understand most things. Last night, I asked why Januka was sleeping in the kitchen. After some really funny miming (I let you imagine what ...) from Ahmah, I managed to understand that it was because she had her period! But I didn’t manage to understand why she has to sleep in the kitchen when she has her period. So Gagan told me that it is part of the Nepalese culture: women when they have their period are impure and so they can’t sleep in their bed, they can’t touch any adult man, they can’t touch anything in the kitchen (except from their own plate), and that for three days. So for instance, while Januka usually washes the floor of the kitchen every morning, Ahmah did it for three days. Januka didn’t cook either, she was not allowed at the high table after the meal, while everybody gathers around the fire, and at some point she even asked me to move a kitchen pot which was on her way as she was not allowed to touch it! Furthermore, when some guys came one evening, Januka let them know by a sign with her hand that they couldn’t sit next to her on the straw mat! Crazy! It was as if she was suffering from plague!
As there is a lot of text tonight without photos, let's finish with two nice pictures of Januka (carrying a load of 50 kg!) and Manes.
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Well, enough! I’m going to bed!
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