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December 06, 2004

Sofia

Let me go backwards. Today was great - sitting in my room at Dawa’s, I completely archived all my old e-mail that was saved in plain text files. They’re now beautifully archived and indexed in Mail, next to all my other e-mail for easy searching. I was a bit hungry, having skipped lunch but I’m trying to save money. The way I calculate it I have about 80 rupees left for each meal not including if I need laundry done or want to get any other presents. I e-mailed Abigail to get some seeds from the Bodhi tree if possible to give to Mrs. Morrish. I want to give her something she couldn’t get anywhere but here. If not, maybe my prayer beads. And of course a kata.

So last week I was visiting the Bon monastery here in Kathmandu, Tritsen Norbutse; hanging out and taking notes, trying to schedule interviews. The head teacher fortuitously returned from Canada just as I arrived (sunday) and was here for 5 days last week before leaving for Thailand to give a series of lectures - most of these are an effort to raise funds for the monastery. I got an audience with him, but he referred me to the Abbott, who travels as his assistant to talk to. SO that was a bummer that I didn’t get to interview him, since he probably is THE Bon lama. I talked to the Abbott which was good - probably the best interview I’ve had, just because he understood my english so well and could adeptly answer the questions. I had another interview several days later with the help of a translator - but the monk had only been in the West, not taught there. Nevertheless, those 3 are the only ones there that have been in the west at this monastery. A bunch of enlightened potatoes. I say again.

So Sunday, during Lopon Tenzin Namdak’s return party, amid much fanfare, two girls came to watch who were out on a walk. They followed him (and me) up to the temple. Afterwards I went up and talked to them, as they seemed to be painfully awkward in their surrounding. Sofia, from Portugal, and the other from Holland (I feel bad but forgot her name) They are both here volunteering at an orphanage near the monastery. So my segue/pick up line was that I had a lot of pencils that I needed to get rid of and did any of the children need any? Well of course they did, so they invited to meet me again at the monastery 2 days later. So I met them and we had a slow walk back to the orphanage. All the kids were really fun to be around. They all called me “Peter, sir” and gave me a Nepali name - Krishna- which I wasn’t really attracted to since it’s a hindu god (though apparently he was an incarnation of Shakyamuni Buddha according to some) Anyway afterwards, Sofia walked me out and invited me out to dinner in another couple days with her and some friends. I accepted and 2 days later met her at her hotel in Thamel. We walked over to the pumpernickel to kill some time before dinner. As we sat over our milk tea, I learned that her dad was Spanish, hence she knows spanish and many other languages, including nepali. She’s 23 but already graduated from law school in Portugal in Int’l law, tried cases and done her doctorate work on afghani women refugees in the Netherlands. She’s mediterranean-looking, with beautiful tan skin, long tightly curled black hair, deep eyes and a really sexy accent. She loves to travel anywhere that interests her, like Hungary, where she stayed for 3 months on a whim and all over Europe, Pakistan (!) India, Nepal, Australia I think, and others. She’s so practical, like me, and was complaining that her past boyfriend (who I saw at the orphanage) acted more like the girl in the relationship than she did, always begging for attention - jealous both of the orphans and me, just visiting - on the one hand, she’s amazing to me, on the other, completely undateable. She’s so energetic I’m not sure it could work, and it seems much better just to be her good long-distance friend, maybe potential contact to stay with if ever I’m in the neighborhood. So we agreed to meet again this wednesday for lunch and to show her around Kimdol and Dawa’s.

Posted by Peter on December 6, 2004 09:59 PM
Category: Nepal - Kathmandu
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