Sweet Memories
I was talking to a friend today about Christmas and got to sharing memories about how we used to celebrate it as children. It was so nice going down memory lane and thinking about Nepal again - hadn't really done that in a while. It's weird, sometimes life in England seems so normal and everyday now that it's like I've been here forever, almost as if Nepal never happened, and then I get into conversations like today when I remember that life used to be so different! It's been almost 14 years since we came back - but when I sit and think about it, the memories are still incredibly fresh.
Anyway, it was nice to share the memories of Christmas with someone's who were completely different (not that her's were typically English, she grew up in Albania), and to remember what used to happen in Nepal - church picnics, games and goat curry in Butwal....fireworks, random short termers and backpackers over for lunch in Kathmandu....sharing the Scandinavian celebrations in Butwal (fighting over who would be Santa Lucia!)....long distance phone calls back to England on Christmas Eve or Day - whenever the connection worked!....Nativity plays in Nepali at our church in Butwal (one in particular stands out where the star moved on a pulley across the ceiling of the church, but got stuck - all the characters were frozen, staring at it for ages before they got it moving again!).......Nepali Christmas carols - one in particular is going round my head at the moment (aha khoti ramilo khoosi kho din ayo.....I used to love that one!).
Ok, so it's quite a random post, but I thought I'd share the memories!!!
Anyway, it was nice to share the memories of Christmas with someone's who were completely different (not that her's were typically English, she grew up in Albania), and to remember what used to happen in Nepal - church picnics, games and goat curry in Butwal....fireworks, random short termers and backpackers over for lunch in Kathmandu....sharing the Scandinavian celebrations in Butwal (fighting over who would be Santa Lucia!)....long distance phone calls back to England on Christmas Eve or Day - whenever the connection worked!....Nativity plays in Nepali at our church in Butwal (one in particular stands out where the star moved on a pulley across the ceiling of the church, but got stuck - all the characters were frozen, staring at it for ages before they got it moving again!).......Nepali Christmas carols - one in particular is going round my head at the moment (aha khoti ramilo khoosi kho din ayo.....I used to love that one!).
Ok, so it's quite a random post, but I thought I'd share the memories!!!
posted by RuthyD at 8:13 pm
2 Comments:
Christmas has never quite felt the same for me since coming back to Australia because it's not cold here! So many of my memories of Christmas in Nepal are tied up with being cold and rugged up, mist coming from our mouths as we sang Christmas carols outside, playing with candles and dripping wax onto the holders made out of old Christmas cards, standing round the kerosene heater in our flannelette nighties....some of that atmosphere is just lacking when it's 35 degrees!!
ah yes, the mist of Kathmandu in the winter! I'd forgotten about that - have a great photo of us waiting for the KISC bus with the mist/fog/smog(?) so thick you can only just make us out! See, you need to move back to the northern hemisphere, then it'll be cold at Christmas again!
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