A tika for Teacher's Day

Last Friday was Teacher's Day in Nepal--I think a Hindu holiday, but I'm uncertain--and after class (fixing flats and adjusting hubs) finished at 5 the kids asked if I knew (I didn't) and if I wanted to celebrate (why not?).

I followed Shyam--who's 18, just passed his SLC, and whose job it is to translate any of the more difficult explanations into Nepali, and to write Nepali terms on the board--up to the 3rd floor of the hostel building, where we sat in a big empty room with a single bench. There I was dusted with flower petals and had a tika applied to my forehead, and was presented with my ritual gift of a cup of Coca-cola, a couple of bananas, and some of the mildly spicy Nepali snack food that I still don't know the same of.

And then we talked about how to get visas to go to the US, which most of these kids will have extreme difficulty obtaining because there's not a lot to hold them to Nepal...but that's a discussion for another time.