Meeting Arun
Today I got up at 5:30am and had a Nepali breakfast of fried wheat bread, a potato & pea curry, and fresh fruit. I waited another hour or so for Earle to appear. After hitting the internet cafe, we went back to the guest house to wait for Arun and his mother. Arun is the boy I sponsor through ANSWER. He was a bit shy to meet me and it was a little awkward since his mother doesn’t speak English and I can’t speak Nepali. He seemed to like the soccer ball I brought him. I wasn’t sure if I got them to understand that I made the soap I brought for his mother.
Som hired a taxi and we went to Bhaktapur to the durbar square and museum. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the way Nepalese drive! Everyone is dodging other vehicles and people…plus the occasional dog and cow. Lanes are ignored and there are no stop lights. Three-wheeled buses are over-crowded with small children hanging on the rear. I’m surprised there aren’t more accidents. I noticed that there is really isn’t much driving at night.
At the museum, I first had to pee. The toilet was unisex and men definitely have the advantage since it is little more than a hole in the floor. I was glad wore a skirt, but wish I had foregone underwear. The stench was overwhelming, too.
We ate lunch before going into the museum. I ate chicken mo-mos, which are like pot stickers and some spicy poppadum.
After the museum, we went to the zoo. The conditions at the zoo were the same as the rest of the city. The poor animals were in small, dirty cages or enclosures that looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in months. People were teasing most of them. The zoo was definitely a century behind our zoos in the U.S. – natural habitats are a very distant future.
