Dasain Festivities Start

We are quickly settling back into life in Nepal following our holiday.  Its good to be back ‘home’ and to see all our friends here again. We’ve had a lot of ideas while on the road, and are looking forward to the chance to put these into practice. 

This coming week is like Christmas in Nepal with the national Dasain festival coming up.  The festival lasts for 15 days and celebrates the victory of the goddess Durga over the forces of evil (represented by the buffalo demon Mahisasura).  Over the next fortnight many goats and buffalo will be sacrificed in Durgas honour.  Dasain is the biggest annual festival in Nepal.  So far we have noticed that the streets are more crowded than normal with people doing their pre-dasain shopping, and the buses are jam-packed with people traveling home to visit their families. 

Similar to NZ it is also a time for parties and celebrations in workplaces and other organizations.  Its also a time for AGM’s.  We have been privy to a few of these over the past few days.  One of these was an end of year work party by the Reiyukai Eike Masunaga Eye Hospital. You may recall our blogs on the eye camps.  Its great to see the people relaxing after the hard work put in over the past year.  Today was the end of year AGM for the Panauti village co-operatives.  Awards were given out to outstanding members of the co-operative for regular saving, and prompt payment of loans. 

Tomorrow we head of to the west of Nepal (to Pokhara, Tansen and Dang).  We will be meeting many Rotary Clubs and small NGO’s in the process learning more about Nepal and their specific needs.  We will also be spending time with Ashok and Kamala’s family to celebrate Dasain. 



Co-operative AGM

Awards for members