Cremation rites and village life...

Whew, it's good to be back at a computer, to tell you all about the last few days. Since I last wrote, some pretty cool stuff has happened. STarting off, we had church on saturday, and in the afternoon, a borther and sister from the church, named Lidya and Lobkus aka "Peter", took us to the Basthipati, or 'Monkey Temple'. It's a hindu holy site situated on a small river. Now the interesting thing about this river is, it is considered holy and this is where many of the devout hindu worshipers cremate their deceased relatives, and dump the ashes in the river. We got to watch a cremation cermony on the banks of the 'ghat' (cremation site on the river), as they prepared the body by wrapping it in white cloth and washing the feet in the holy water to prepare the deceased for the afterlife. Then they set the body on the funeral pyre, and begin the cremation process. Several fires were buring while we were there, and it was a very interesting experiences to say in the least. Other sites on the campus of the temple included a deer park, like a bajillion shrines and idols to Shiva, and of course, monkeys everywhere.
Later on, Peter took us to his village, Khokana, to spend the night. We had a really good time with him and his family. He lives in a small mud house next to the hindu temple for the village (his older brother is the priest there). He took us up to a hill near by that overlooked the entire kathmandu valley. It's really pretty, but as you can kinda see from the video, it's covered in smog. We worked on the church while we were there, and we got one wall up. It was a good thing that we stayed in Khokana at the time though because the Maoist party here decided it was a good day to have a city-wide protest: burning cars, shutting down business, closing off traffic, beating up civilians and officials...you know, normal civil disobedience (note the sarcasm in my typing, the Maoists are not my favorite people here...). The stay is Khokana was nice. It's not what the average person from a developed country would call 'comfortable', but I thought it was comfortable and simple enough. You really realize that all the luxuries and comforts we have are not necessities at all, and that there is really a beauty to the simple life many people lead across the globe.
Well, I think that's all for now, but I'll be posting soon!
matthew ;^)