Kali not Cali yo

On Saturday three of us - Janice, Lydia and I - went for a hike with this guide Raj who has glued himself to us for two weeks in a row. I must remember to post some of his (often sent) emails. We asked Raj for a 3-4 hour hike outside of the 'Du, and he delivered, on his own accord and without our prior consent, a 6 hour tour + hike. But that's Nepal for you. First we went to a place called Dakchhinkali where Hindus make sacrifices to the goddess Kali. She's the slayer of duality (which is the belief that we exist independently apart from the rest of the universe) as well as a protector amongst other things. And she's associated with blood offerings. So thousands of people were lined up with offerings such as flowers, incense and food as well as animals such as chickens and goats to sacrifice. Such cute little goats. There were priests who cut the animals throats for the blood offering and then afterwards people could take the animals to a different station to be butchered so that they could eat them. It was CRAZY and bloody and overwhelming but really, is it better to have one's food animals killed in a factory so that we can pretend that they weren't really cute and alive? (Or make some Christian blood rituals more cerebral than literal but blood rituals all-the-same?) On one level it almost seems better that the food/life was mindfully dedicated to something but on the other hand let's just say that it was really nice to leave Dakchhinkali. Practically speaking, it is easier to have things be conceptual. So now that I've probably offended Hindus and Christians..... Then we went to some Buddhist places, the best of which was (for you Buddhists out there) Guru Rimpoche's meditation cave. He was the guy who brought Buddhism from India to Nepal & Tibet in something like 400 AD. So the general timeline is that the guy who achieved enlightenment and then taught for 40 years, the "historical buddha" or the one who people generally picture, was born about 600 BC. Buddhists believe that he was just one of countless Buddhas or enlightened beings but he was an especially good teacher. People who followed his teachings mostly lived in India until Muslims pushed them out and Buddhism spread throughout SE Asia. Hinduism is so old that it's impossible to say when it started...thousands of years BC. Which is why Hinduism doesn't seem to have a problem incorporating anything or anyone newer, the Buddha, Jesus, whoever, into their system. Just not Islam but that's just a whole thing that I don't understand yet. In the end it's all just one big universal system to the Hindus. That part I like but prefer the Buddhist adaptation that removes stuff like caste and sacrifices. But Tibetan Buddhists do have blood imagery and symbolic severed head necklaces on angry deities and such and so what's up with all the blood everywhere? It makes the Jains with their facemasks so they don't even risk breathing in insects seem like the nice guys, (there's a kooky Jain billboard on my way home from work showing these two guys with facemasks but smiling eyes.) Anyhoo.....after that all of that we went for a 2 hour hike through some villages. Janice is going to post some pictures. But all of that stimulus is overwhelming and today is a down day to catch up on some work. Work is, of course, also crazy and by Friday I feel totally overwhelmed. They are so good at what they do - opening and running rural clinics - but just try and do something new and it's total chaos. Laura and I hooked up to get the program $30,000 USD for some HIV/AIDs booths at the India border and you'd think that we were trying to launch our own space shuttle. WHAT? We need to design a booth AND a brochure! Let's discuss it for months on end, then. Nevermind that we can open a clinic is a Maoist warzone overnight...this booth thing is WAY outside of our capabilities. And so of course I want to push everyone out of the way and do it myself, which is also impossible. And so I sit through hours of meetings in which everyone argues in Nepali simply to conclude how to price the condoms (Wow! The same price that we sell them for to the general market! I'm so glad we discussed it for 2 hours!). But we're getting close to launch, knock on wood. Then there's the initiative to totally restructure their inept sales department.......just imagine trying to do that. Alright, onto lunch... xoxoc