Friday, September 28, 2018

Umanga Babu, My Little Bestie from the Himalayas

Umanga and me holding the Philippine Flag in the Himalayas of Nepal
I am locked inside the comfort room! Umanga babu, locked it from outside so that his Ammi baba (good father), cannot go far from away from him. He was told and knew that   I am going home and leaving Nepal soon, he do not want me to go away.
Not every placement is heaven, and the people you expect highly to support you are the same people who will disappoint you and worse make your life miserable so that you cannot integrate in the community and makes  it difficult adjusting to a new environment. This was my situation in Besishahar, Lamjung, Nepal in 2015 when I was there for  the post recovery effort project and the height of the economic blockage. Frustrated, feeling hopeless and ready to give up my placement and go back to  my home country.
My foster hajur bhaa (father)  Raghunath and Umanga babu 
On that same day, the Ghimire family, a very kind Brahmin family which is very usual for these priestly caste to invite a bedhesi (foreigner) brought me to their humble and modest home where I meet an angel that inspires me to stay and never lost hope to be in Nepal. 
Umanga was excited to go the Lamjung Mela (festival)

I was introduced to a sleeping cute baby in a traditional bamboo hammock who opened his twinkling eyes and smiled mischievously back at me, the newly awake baby that I meet for the first time seems he knows me very well that he embrace me tightly and played with me when I hold him.   From that day onwards, the family always brings me to their home, so that Umanga babu and I can play. Almost every weekend, he sits on my shoulders and his father Binod or any family members walked around the family farm, enjoying the scenery of the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas and overlooking the green fields and pristine Marshyandi River. As we walked along, Umanga who was learning how to speak, teaches me the local language too by pointing the things around us. My first Nepali word I learned from him was putali which means butterfly. Like a butterfly our fondness to each other metamorphosis every day. I was there for his father during his hair cutting ceremony, celebrate Christmas, and he had his first Christmas tree and enjoyed his first Santa sock filled with sweets and apples,   we cry together when his cute little fingers accidentally burned when he played with the match sticks, I had my first dashai, tihar, pooja and attended all the family celebrations.  He loves to visit me too in my house and always wanted his house “tent” that I have to set up for him.  When he with his father Binod and mother Shova go home, they always stop on the top of the hill terraces under the banyan tree to wave goodbye as I wave back down in the village.
Enjoying our dashai holidays in the terraces

Then, I did not  realized that I already extended my one year contract for almost two years, fully immersed in my project and now well integrated in the community, and often mistaken as a local, a  Bhahun with a Gurung nose!  I proudly wear my Nepali topi ,  nepali clothes gifted by my Nepali family and the identical “bond” bracelet that Umanga and I had as a gift from the family.
Goofing around at home with hajur Amaa


Tears shed from eyes, and as I travel back to Kathmandu on a VSO car for my flight home, forever grateful I met Umanga, my little Himalayan bestie and his family, they are the ones who help and inspires me to do my best in my placement, helping the under privilege girls of Nepal and together with the Ghimires, we help in our own little ways the less fortunate in the community,  especially the dalits. As the snow-capped mountains starts to fade from the distance as the car snakes  to the Kathmandu valley, I prayed to Bhagwan, thank you and promise that I will be back in my life time in a place I called home in Nepal and uttered, mero Lamjung ma ra mero Ghimire phariwarma, dherai malai man parcha. (My Lamjung and my Ghimire family, I love you very much).
Umanga and his parents Binod and Shova