Sibling Worship and Maoist Strikes

I just ate dinner with people from Holland- a mother and a daughter. The daughter works in Nepal 5 to 7 out of 12 months. She is a designer and works for/ with a textile factory here. She has been staying in my hotel because her mother is visiting and her apartment is "bad, not like the luxury hotel here." I feel terribly snobby talking about the hotel, but I don't know... it's very Nepalese? I guess?? Anyways, she also stays here because she is friends with the manager/ owner who is from Belgium, but went to school here from 12-16 years old. They are both around Talbot's age, maybe a bit younger, but nice as hell. The Belguim guy, Felippe, also runs a paper company in Kathmandu. Apparently, and I thought this really interesting, he co-owns both businesses with a very nice nepalese man, Najendra- who set up my internet- because Nepal doesn't allow anyone who is not Nepalese to own land. This keeps multi-national corporations from taking hold in Nepal.. Very interesting and cool in light of rampant globalization.

Also, this is an aside, but have to mention it, Nepal is a Hindu country. Unlike us with Christianity, they endorse the Hindu religion, and I think around 80+% of people are Hindu. Rupa told me that they celebrate a festival in October that siblings celebrate each other. So, the brothers worship their sisters, and the sisters worship their brothers... (Talbot.. loving it yet??) From what she said the girls do all these crazy things with cracking walnuts, they practice for hours until they do it right, in honor of their brothers. And the brothers give them cash.

Anyways, I might not be able to go to work tomorrow either. The congress has to approve their constitution- for Nepal this is their Thomas Jefferson times- and this could take days. Until it is approved the Maoists are holding the country on strike - the Nepalese news is predicting 3 or so days. So, today was apparently a modest-strike day where traffic was alowed on the streets, but still with some bombs around convention centers. Tomorrow could be a full strike day called "banda" in Nepali, which means: shut down.

I'm going to try to go to work tomorrow at 9. This should be safe because none of the action is in my district, and the BNMT is very close by. Rajendra- man from treking company suggested by Jason Jones, is meeting me here at the hotel tomorrow at 8 am so I have to go to bed. Also, Najendra and Felippe both assured me that they could get the desk boys to escort me to the BNMT if there was a problem.