more of ama ghar...

ama ghar
and nepal 2002-2003
many many dance partys.. every night a dance party..
so many things about nepal, i don't know how to start.
but the children, the people (ama, bhesh, uma, sharwan, bindu, sarda and especially guatam kumar KC)
taught me so much, gave me so much
i am so grateful and so lucky
i have a thousand stories, and really learned so much about fear, life & death while i was there.
when i was first staying at ama ghar, ama would take me out for errands most days.
at the start of darsain, which is the big festival there, she said that we were going really early to the durga temple which was a few hours away. we got up in the darkness (around 4am) and drove like the crazy maniac drivers they are in kathmandu..
the nepali music blasting from the car... as the sun rose over the himalayas we entered the temple area and ama and i held arms and walked to the temple, people all moved to the side to let us pass, it was so incredible, she was truly treated like a god because she was such the elder.
the temple had a super long line of people waiting to sacrifice their animals that they had brought to durga inside the temple. everyone had taken their shoes off and i did as well out of respect. the floor was covered in blood and i just stood in the blood as well, but it was really kind of amazing and i didn't mind.. there were some musicians playing music, chanting.. ama insisted i wait in line and get in the temple, when i got to the front entrance they would not let me in because i was not a hindu, and ama yelled at them, she tried to push, but out of respect i just waited for them outside the exit of the temple.
i remember having tea afterward with ama and the ladies that had brought us there..i remember the the early morning light and how incredible it was, and the air in nepal is nothing like the air in america, the altitude makes everything pulse..you realize everything is alive.
ama met gandhi, mother teresa & the dali lama... but ama was a living saint as well.
it's hard to explain how being in the presence of someone like that feels..
i am just once again, so blessed and thankful to have the memory of that feeling.