Been a wonderful weekend and first part of the week. I played cricket on Saturday afternoon (spent the morning not feeling so well). The process of bowling is not at all like pitching in baseball, your arm does not bend at the elbow, however, I did manage 6 wickets (hitting the "pins" behind the batter). It was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday, I had a leisurely Sunday morning, did some laundry, took a wash [water. comes from a tap, but you DON"T drink it. You don't even think about it. At home I would wash my mouth out in the morning with water, not here. I drink boiled, filtered water or bottled. And they put two handles in the showers and taps. What a tease. It's all cold. COLD. Unless you shower in the afternoon, in which case the tank has had a chance to warm up a bit.] I headed off to Bodnath, but never made it. I ended up runnng in a student from the school, then went to check with Nima about plans for this coming Saturday. We're still on. He invited me back to his house. We rode there in about 15mins. It's a few "blocks" from the school. I met his wife, two children, brother, his kids, sister in law, her two kids, and four of his other brothers kids. They all live in his house. I asked him how many people lived there, first it was 12, then 15, and, no, it was 20. Or so. This week. Communal living is standard for a Nepali family. It's nice to see a family that close. They were all very nice. Apparently the goal is the education of the children. All the kids are in school. The father of the four children and his wife still live in a rural area, but their children need to attend school. It seems they sacrifice so much just for the betterment of a future generation.
Other notes [religious symbols-this is mostly for sketch, but interesting in and of it's self. Two common symbols in the Buddist religion play totally different roles in the western world. One looks exactly like the Star of David. The other, like a swatiska. Both mean the same thing to a Buddist. Om. It's the begining of their chants, I forget exactly what it means, but I think its something along the lines of "longlife", I'll look into it. I was getting a bit worried when I kept seeing these symbols all over the place, like this would become the next Israel/Palestine battle ground. But no so.]