On Tuesday we found ourselves unexpectedly relieved from teaching duties and invited to an oratory contest at the local Krishna Mandir. As normal at these occasions we sat through a lot of incomprehensible Nepali but it was rather pleasant to relax in the shade of the temple rather than trying to keep control of overly enthusiastic class 4! One of our students did very well in the contest, coming second overall.
Before the contest was over we were whisked away by taxi to the local under 12s handball competition being held at a school in the centre of Pokhara. We ascended the state and collected our second ceremonial scarves of the day (now feeling rather like living mascots) and listened to yet more Nepali men droning on and on while no one paid them any attention whatsoever. Eventually the handball started, and we were treated to some excellent refreshments as we watched. 
Alastair had never seen a handball game before, and was surprised at what a fast moving game it is. Our school team won their first game with the impressive score of 14 – 3, which so terrified their next opponent that they ran away home and we got a walk over for the second match.
That evening everyone was preparing for the next day’s festival, where sisters give their brothers a sacred thread to protect them and high caste Hindu’s replace the sacred thread they have been wearing looped over one shoulder for the past year. There seem to be a multitude of these festivals where the women folk perform acts of worship of self-sacrifice for the protection of their men: either by giving gifts, preparing special food or fasting. Of course there are no reciprocal acts of sacrifice by the men, but these customs are so engrained that nobody seems to mind, although the unfairness is openly acknowledged.
As we went for our customary evening stroll down the street there were whole teams of men carrying racks coated in colourful thread and jewelry for sale. On the dark street corners (the power was off) there were stalls covered in Indian style sweets of all shapes and sizes. One we tried tasted distinctly of cheese (very odd!) but we bought some others which were almost edible as long as you didn’t think of them as sweets. Along with the festival comes (yet more) holiday – four days off in total.
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