Dhulikhel – The last Week

This week beganwith Christmas Eve and I spent the morning at work helping Sumana, Krishna and Pushpangali to prepare for the first Pulmonary Rehab session at the hospital.  Sumana announced it in Morning Conference and received many questions from Dr Ram who is the senior doctor at the hospital and new Vice-chair of Kathmandu University which is a prime-minister appointed post and extremely prestigious.  The news was taken very positively which was excellent.

Lunch was Dal Bhaat as normal and then I headed back to the Guesthouse to start getting ready for Christmas.  The plan was to have a European Christmas dinner and to invite all the people who were special to us in Dhulikhel, 28 people in all.  Lisa Charlotte and I packed up the Christmas decorations and the tree at the guest house and headed over to Dhulikhel Lodge Resort which is the only hotel in Dhulikhel, and the one we had persuaded to cook our dinner for us.

 

In DLR kitchen

Lisa and Gill

We were having dinner in the downstairs cosy café as this was a private dining room with a lovely open fire.  We arranged the room and put up all the decoration we had bought.  The hotel staff were extremely accommodating and interested in what we were up to there was a small audience the whole time!  Lisa and I went into the hotel kitchen and prepared mulled wine, bread sauce and stuffing balls (Paxo all the way from England!).  The chefs in the kitchen thought this was highly entertaining, but they enjoyed the tasting, particularly of the mulled wine!

Isabel and her friend

Geyatri

Gill and Charlotte continued to decorate the room and Gill and Michel had bought masala boxes for everyone as a stocking.  These are small boxes with sweets, fruit and nuts that are given here at festival times.  Charlotte had also made biscuits in the shape of everyone’s initials that we were going to use as place settings.  The Christmas music was attached to the speakers, the lights and fire were lit and we were ready to go.

Alon

Me and Sumana

Apple pie and bright yellow custard

Our guests were the physio department, some of the nurses, min and his brother, and friends we have met during our stay.  We had purposely mixed everyone up with the seating and everyone settled and got talking.  The dinner came minus the stuffing balls as the chefs didn’t realise it was to be served with the meat! Eventually everything was present and we tucked in.  it was SO good to have roast chicken and roast potatoes with all the trimmings.  Pudding was apple pie with the most luminous yellow custard I have ever seen, but it was all delicious.

Krishna, Vijay (the DJ) and me

The atmosphere was festive and everyone got into the spirit.  For some it was their first ever Christmas celebration and it was great to have our new friends there.

Nishchal, Lisa and Sophie

Charlotte and Pushpangali

After most people had headed home the foreigners, min and Sam sat around the fire for a last drink and it was the end to a perfect evening.  We packed up the decorations and headed back to the guest house where we put the decorations back up before heading to bed.

Vijay, Min and Sam

Christmas day Lisa, Charlotte, Alon and I were invited to Vijay (the DJ)’s church in Bhaktapur for their Christmas day service.  Lisa and Charlotte took the bus and I went on the back of Alon’s bike which was great fun apart from the small near miss altercation with a bus!  We met Vijay and headed to the church which was a building on 2 floors in its own gate enclosure.  We met Bimala, Vijay’s sister and their family and friends.  They were so welcoming and really took great care of us.  WE arrived at about 10am and the service started soon after.

In the church everyone sat on the floor as we expected.  The programme was made up of singing, dancing both spontaneous and dancing demonstrations, plays and dramas, games, gift giving, prayers and very short sermons.  It was all in Nepali and we didn’t understand the majority but with Alon’s translation and with the atmosphere we certainly got the themes of the day and the atmosphere was special.  The service finished at 5pm and even though we had been there for 6 hours we had thoroughly enjoyed the whole day and it had not felt too long at all.

After the programme we had delicious food prepared by the church caterers, and The king of Curds, “Bhaktapur curd” was served for dessert (5 times to Lisa!).  Lisa and I said our goodbyes and took the bus back to Dhulikhel arriving at about 6.30pm.

Christmas Day dinner was vegetable Thukpa which is a noodle soup and a real favourite of ours.  Min joined us for dinner.  After dinner we gave out our presents and stuck to the tradition of the youngest gives the presents out!  Min received a blanket, a jumper and some aftershave.  Lisa received, a snow dome, a Nepal bag and some jewellery.  Charlotte received a purse, a Nepal bag and a toy smurfette.  I received a scarf, a notebook and a photo frame, All really lovely presents.  Min was so proud to have his first Christmas in the guest house.

Dr Koju (Santa)

Chicken Kiev nepali style

Wednesday or Boxing Day (why is it called boxing day?) I was back at work.  The Christmas feel was still in the air as we had planned secret Santa today.  The morning was spent fishing off reports and finalising a few fine details.  The whole physio department was then collected in a hospital vehicle to go for lunch with Dr Koju who is 2^nd in command of the hospital as his way of saying goodbye to Michel who is also leaving this week and has been here for 10 months.  At the Himalayan Horizon hotel we did Secret Santa and Dr Koju played the part of Santa although we did not sit on his knee!  I ordered the best looking Chicken Kiev I have ever had and spent the rest of the afternoon stinking of garlic!

Back at the hospital I took part in Pulmonary Rehab, and it was brilliant to see the programme coming together.  There are many teething problems, but the team are gradually working them out and I think the project will be a big success.

Wednesday and Thursday evenings were spent packing and trying to work out how to get everything back to the UK.  5 bags later………

Friday morning I finished up at the hospital, having final meetings with Sumana and Ranjeeta.  The physio team held a farewell party and had bought food, cake and drink as a treat.  Sumana and her mother had made sweet and savoury Yomari as today was a festival day in the Newari calendar called Yomari Punhi. These were delicious.

At 2.30pm Bimika and I were collected by a hospital jeep to go to the guest house to pick up my bags and Lisa and them Michel en route, before taking us into Kathmandu the Kathmandu guest house.  It was not nice to leave the Hospital or the guesthouse, even though I know I will visit soon with my sister, I felt very emotional.

Bimika

Gill, Bimika and me

On arriving at KGH I checked into a plusher room than normal, using Elizabeth’s arrival as the excuse!  Gill joined us and Bimika then spent the next 2 hours getting me and Gill ready in our saris for Sachit’s wedding reception.  Bimika did the complete make-over on us, helping with make-up, hair and dressing.  
 It was such a tricky job that she even called her sister-in-law for back up!  Eventually we were pinned and secure and ready to head off.

Sachit and his new wife

Physio girls, Michel behind the lens

Walking in a sari is different, but I felt very elegant and glamorous and 2 westerners in saris certainly got heads turning.  As short cab ride and we made our grand if not slightly late entrance.

Sachit looked very debonair in his outfit and Harsimran looked beautiful, dressed head to foot in red and covered in sparkly beads and jewellery.  At a Nepali wedding reception they spend most of the time sitting up on a stage meeting their guests, and we had lots of photos with them there.  I am pleased that they were able to come down from the stage and have a good dance with us for some of the time.  The evening was spent chatting, eating, drinking and dancing and it was a lovely event that I was so pleased to have been invited to.  It was an opportunity for the physio team to get all dressed up (and they certainly know how to do that!) and also to meet Sachit’s family and new wife.  I hope to see Sachit again before I leave but I am not sure I will so saying goodbye was sad.

Thanks to Bimika’s hard work the saris stayed intact all night.  I absolutely loved wearing it and skyped my parents, my aunt and uncle, my sister and Ian before taking it off!

Saturday I had a lovely lay in.  My room is heated and I have electricity all the time this is sheer luxury!  I met with Noga and her parents briefly before they departed for Israel, for some tea.  Noga and I then headed off to new road to find material and a tailor to make Noga a Chinese dress.  Unfortunately Noga wasn’t feeling too well, so we headed back to KGH for her to relax and me to tackle packing bags again!

Today I am sat in Pumpernickel my favourite place to have breakfast and it is now 1.15pm.  Elizabeth arrives in 5 hours and we then head to Pokhara tomorrow to celebrate New Year.  It all feels like it moving very fast towards the end now and although I am looking forward to going home I am not ready to leave.

Happy New Year to you all and I will see you in 2013 x