New Year's in Nepal

VSN Volunteers unite!

Once again the motley crew assembled in Thamel to celebrate the coming of the New Year. This time round no one was sick, we had lost a couple to onward travels, but the food was good and the atmosphere chipper.

My recollection of the evening is hazy, but, I know that there were bars and dancing galore. Not necessarily graceful dancing but dancing nevertheless. One new volunteer lasted til the wee hours of the morning, completely forgetting that he had to be up and at training by 9am that day. Ah bless!

The general mood in Thamel was happy before the midnight countdown. After however, as the morning wore on, the locals began to get restless and more than once a fight broke out. It was amusing I must say- Nepali people are not that big, and seeing them having a scrap for me was like watching over grown children at play. It seems when fueled by alcohol, the normally friendly, smiling Nepali male, needs no excuse to start throwing his weight around. All of the scraps I saw (at least six, on the road and in the club we ended up in) were between Nepali, no foreigners involved. Apparently when Nepali men scrap its because of a woman (as told to me by a Nepali man). Of course the alcohol and the excess of testosterone would have absolutely nothing to do with it.

We volunteers stayed out of the way and out of trouble. We had a good time, welcomed the New Year in style, and hoped that the various illnesses would keep away at least for the first month of the year.

Onwards and Upwards!