The Festival Draws To An End

Phew! Today was a long day. Early in the morning, Nani and I went out to the market to get some fruit and vegetables to prepare for dinner. The market was packed with people from all over Kathmandu coming to get last minute preparations for their festival meals. Later, Muni and I went out to get some sweets as is tradition during Dashain.

I’ve also noticed that the number of people in Kathmandu has significantly decreased since I got here: the festival is drawing to a close, and families are returning home. It’s always interesting to see a family of four with two suitcases leaving Kathmandu on a motorcycle.

Then around six, we had a feast because it was the last night of the festival. The food was excellent, as it has been since I got here. We had mutton, potatoes, rice, various soups and noodles, cucumber, stews, sweets, and local Nepalese fruits. Muni invited a Finnish family he has known for a while.

One interesting development that came out of this was that one of the sons of the Finnish Missionary is a lead programmer working on SQL Server. We had a long discussion about Microsoft, which included everything from Steve Ballmer’s antics and what employees think of him, to the failure of the Seinfeld / Gates ads (which I thought were hilarious…he said I was the first person who he met that thought they were funny), to the viral video of the man going off a slide into the kiddie pool (his friend created it, I had no idea it was an ad). We then got talking about securing some Windows Starter licenses for these computers: short of piracy, it is the cheapest way to use Windows on the computers; and with the exception of a three-application limit (there can only be three applications at once: iTunes, Firefox and MSWord for instance), it is just like any other copy of Windows…only it costs around $10 USD per license. The reason I am interested in Windows Starter edition is that Ubuntu has been having a number of problems: WiFi now doesn’t work at all, the webcam has no dedicated drivers so output is very slow, every few days video output to the monitor stops working. Windows Starter edition would take a huge load of work off my plate, so I’m really glad that I met the programmer — and got his card. I’m sure he’ll be a contact that will prove useful throughout the life of this project.

After the guests left, and I was getting ready for bed, the phone rang. There were four UFO’s in the sky, and Muni wanted me to use the 50-500mm lens to see what they were. I could only see one from where I was, but I was interested none the less: sure enough, there was an orange object floating above Kathmandu, high in the sky. At first, I thought it was the star Betelgeuse, because of its color. Then I noticed that it was dancing around the sky, so it couldn’t have been a star. Looking through the lens, I saw the dim flicker of a candle, and it became clear what it was: a home made firework of sorts. The candle heated air inside a large black garbage bag, so that it became less dense and therefore lighter than air. It was interesting to see the festival still living on, with people celebrating in a number of ways; from slaughtering goats, to large family feasts, to homemade fireworks, it was an excellent experience to be in Kathmandu during such a jubilant week.

That’s all for now.
Charles