Sara Gonzalez
MEXICO
June, 2013
“Greetings from 2070! I am back to the “wired” world with many more stories after another wonderful sharing time in the middle of the Nepalese mountains. This time only took us an unforgettable 24 hours ride from Kathmandu, 12 hrs jeep-truck ride and 4 relaxed hours up hill walking to arrive. Not to forget the 423 hindi-nepali love songs along . Arc. Magar, a nepali-english dictionary and I arrived safely to the village.
My adoptive Nepali family remembered me and I was truly happy to see them too. My three nieces/guides are growing fast and learning absolutely everything about the village activities, taking care of cattle, chickens, farming, cooking, picking fruits, dancing and singing of course. 
My “new” Nepali nephew (he was in the belly last time) was more into the last two activities plus eating. Parents, uncles, aunties looked the same; strong, healthy and happy. But there were some members of the family missing. They are now working and living outside Nepal. When I came here for the first time three years ago, it surprised me the large number of Nepali citizens that go abroad to work to the Golf countries, well the story hasn’t changed since then. Now the popular countries attracting workers are Malaysia and South Korea (or maybe I didn’t know before).
The true is that Mexico is not far from this migration story and the pattern keeps happening in so many places. The need, the separation, the hope for a better future, the lack of local job opportunities, immense love and the empathy is there again .
Skies were clear and next day we were all set to go to the school village, my new workplace for the next couple of weeks. Thirty of forty uphill minutes, we were there! Smiling and curious faces welcomed us. For the next three weeks, I got to know all those faces and we had so much fun. Sara Kumari (my new adorable Nepali title) was walking up hill every morning together with my little guides and students, teaching English with funny questions, reading story books, playing games, absorbing all the Nepali language, being eaten by the local tinny fauna, learning the names of the surroundings and admiring the mountains.
Almost at the end of the school day it was snack time, Haluwa time! Surprise, surprise! This not very good looking dish is being distributed in some rural schools all around the country. The big sack has huge USA letters and flag printed on it but the people from the village told me it is being distributed with the help of the Germans. Anyway, Haluwa is super popular even the parents of the children liked it. Which reminds me of a small detail, remember last time I told you about the parents at the school in China, here absolutely no parent was around. Every single child was going to the school alone or with friends or siblings, they were free (free from the city dangers as well), they know the mountains; they are confident souls at a very young age.
The language adventure was fun as usual, as a huge fan of languages I have a list of favourite words: Dhukur, Kukur, Khukuri, Kukhura, Kakra, Kamila, Kancha and Taliiiii meaning dove, dog, knife, chicken, cucumber, ant, loved one or smallest son and applausss. Extremely useful words
! My dictionary and I spent some good times, I can almost read all the Sanskrit alphabet, now it has to make sense ha! So Indian restaurants without English menus, we’ll meet again!
It is rainy season there and my inner “comfortable” part of the mind was a bit sad. Luckily the other “reasonable” part of the mind understood that if it wasn’t because of the massive amounts of water, the fields wouldn’t be that green, the crops wouldn’t grow, the animals wouldn’t have enough food and I wouldn’t have eaten the sweetest plums from the family tree that were perfectly ripe after one rainy week.
Time passed and I had to prepare to leave. I knew that there was no vehicle waiting for me at the doorstep so I decided to start the way back with one of the cousins that was travelling too. We left the village a sunny morning, walked for around two hours downhill first then another three uphill and we reached the place where the jeep was running! . we just had ahead six more hours plus a couple of buses the next days. another goodbye full of new memories, new friends, lots of “Feri Aunus” (come back again) and a very happy heart.
Thanks Jhumlawang. Gracias Jhumlawang people. Dhanyebad Universe!”
The source of the article at my blog.
