Aside No. 3:

Right hand Left hand.

OK.  Confession time.  I have managed to offend some people pretty badly in the few short days I’ve been living here, albeit in a innocently enough way on my part.  How have I done this?  By handing over money and other items in shops or cafes with my left hand.  There is a tradition here in Nepal, as I understand there is in India, about not using your left hand to eat, to hand over money or touch people.  This is because your left hand is unclean, or ‘juttho‘, having been used for cleaning yourself after going to the loo.

And I forgot this simple rule.  A rule which in a hot country makes a great deal of sense if you think about it, (though you might not want to think about it for too long, mind!).

So even though I have been very careful about washing and cleansing my hands to keep me safe and healthy, looking back there has been a string of people hiding their disgust and hurt behind a smile as I have used my left hand to pay them or take things from them.  The simple truth is that even though I am right-handed I never reailsed until now how much I use my left hand!  To open locks and doors, pour kettles or saucepans, to eat (when nibbling crisps or biscuits for example), and evidently to rummage through my wallet to find and hand over payment in a currency that’s new to me.  I have SO much to learn!

At least in the past two days I have sometimes remembered and swapped my wallet into my left hand to take the money out with my right.  From now on I will continue to try to do so.  It feels strange and awkward but is definitely worth it.  Most of the Nepali and Tibetan people I have met so far are lovely, and anyway, everyone fully deserves my respect through the efforts I make.  Mindfulness in action I suppose.  I’ll let you know how it goes.
Namaste .

Aside No. 4:

A word to the wise – always check the size of the portions here before you order!

I ordered a really nice meal at the Sechen Guest House Cafe this afternoon, a place that I tried out for the first time today. It is a lovely Cafe, perhaps a bit scary to get to as it is along some winding pathways but it has a very pretty garden, and the food is excellent. Thing was, I ordered Japanese-style vegetables and then some rice to go with the main dish. When the two plates came, each was as big as the other and big at that. I didn’t want to offend the people there by not eating everything, (wasting food is offensive to most cultures outside the west I would imagine and is definitely mentioned in the guidebooks for Nepal), but it was a bit of a Mr Creosote moment (for the Monty Python fans out there). Still, I survived. And it was very pleasant to sit there and daydream and study a little bit. I’ll just ask for a smaller plate next time, the lady said that was fine!

Namaste .

Aside No. 5:

I saw two butterflies the size of small birds today.  One was all black and looked verty bat-like but fluttered beautifully, the other was black and white. My new Guest House also seems to have a tiny resident squirrel-creature, about the size of a mouse and as quick but with a stripey bushy tail.  Had no time to look up the Flaura and Fauna yet, so will see if I can find out what these are another time…  Luckily there are far fewer insects than I feared, which is good! 

Namaste .