inside words

Sometimes I have days when I feel like there are 20 different things that happened throughout the day I could tell you about. As they happen, sometimes I write blogs to myself in my head, imagining how I could describe to you all that I am experiencing. Today I was writing to you about spending the whole day in the biggest market for tourists and foreigners, trying to find whatever dance clubs or bars that would lead us to Nepali women who are working there. I was writing to you about the hopelessness that seems to pervade this place full of street kids high on glue, beggars without limbs, and shop keepers trying their best to lure in foreigners to buy enough to keep their business and lives afloat. I was describing how sad it is to see grungy, dread-lock bearing foreigners walking around with red marks on their foreheads, buying spiritual charms and prayer cylinders, hoping here in Nepal they will find some mystical oneness with the world and the god inside themselves. I saw this one guy walking around without shoes, just like the Hindu gurus do—was he thinking about the fact that the street is filled with urine and trash? I mentioned to a friend it is just like the enemy to make it seem so “natural” and “peaceful-like” to become as dirty and complacent as possible just to find some hope and purpose in the world.

I have just finished reading an amazing book called “Death of a Guru.” It is the testimony of Rabindranath Maharaj who was from a long line of Brahmin priests and was trained as a Yogi. He used to spend hours each day in meditation, often experiencing psychic phenomena. Yet as a young powerful leader, he was radically saved and God used him to reach hundreds of drug-users and peace-seekers throughout Europe and into the East. He talks about how similar drug trips are to his experiences during meditation and how the ideas of the drug movement are essentially Hindu ideas. His testimony is encouraging, informative, and challenging. I recommend anyone read it if you want to understand Hinduism better. Anyway, I was thinking of his experience a lot as I walked around today.

Then I wanted to write about how we found the jackpot of dance clubs—an entire building dedicated to club after club. We wanted a place near-by to pray. God gave us a coffee shop across the street…had amazing iced coffee too.

Wanted to write about the huge “park” we always ride by on our way home from this market. Usually the Nepali military are practicing something there—marching, formation stuff, horse back riding. I wonder in my head what in the world the cavalry is going to do in Nepal. They are the only horses I ever see here…and then I am amused by the hundreds of Nepali people watch them practice through a big iron fence, most of whom are men who do nothing but sit around all day while the women work.

But most of the time, when I arrive home on such days, the power is out and I can’t sit down and really put it all into words. Thankfully today is Wed, which is our district’s day to have power all day which means you get to benefit. I suppose you might have been hoping for trekking pics…tomorrow. For now, there is a glimpse into my day and my head.

The end.