Singing, Drumming, Chanting and Bleating

Dasain Festival seems to be in full swing now.  Everyone has gone to spend the next 10 days with their families, shops are closed and Nepalis are out and about in their finery with their little worship plates of tika, flowers and rice, making their way in a clockwise motion around the Goddess Temples of Bhaktapur.   It's beautiful at night, with candles lighting up the temples and statues.

Today Pukar and I were out walking around and the whole Square where Joy and I first stayed here is now filled with goats, chickens and ducks.  I am not sure of the significance of the ducks and chickens, perhaps to eat, but perhaps to sacrifice and then eat.  However, I do know about the goats, and they are lining the streets of Kathmandu, being parading through the Square, and in makeshift pens along the side of every road.  Everyone is buying a goat it seems, and the neighborhood is full of these sad, and painful bleats.  I guess the goats know what's up.  Now at night I get to listen to not only dogs, but goats.  They still have a few pitiful days ahead of them before they will be slain for one of the Goddesses.  Wow.  My mornings are filled with drumming, and chanting, and the singing pretty much is on and off all day long. 

Pukar is doing so much better now that we are just 'home'.  I think the familiarity thing is huge.  He slept good last night, though I still have to figure out how I get a good night's sleep as he's such a little wiggler and he wants to be right next to me, kicking and smacking me all night long.  We've had very few tears so far, and I've got my fingers crossed.  He is also super happy... and we've been able to have a lot of fun together just hanging out.  I think it's good for us to have some quality time with just he and I.  Yesterday I took him to a pool with some other moms and he just didn't adjust, was sullen and teary all day.   He also was strangely attached to the taxi driver and the whole scene was just really hard.  But once we arrived back at my place, he got excited, jumped out and started playing with the kids in the street (I thankfully live on a dead end), and was happy for the rest of the night with no problems sleeping.  Whew.  That lifted my spirits. 

I'm getting a little bit of an idea of a routine in my head, and it's not the same as the orphanage, cause honestly, it seems like he wants it to be different.  He doesn't want the cereal that he ate there, nor does he have any desire for dahl bhat, the staple food.  So I keep trying different things and he's eating.  Hooray. 

There has been little movement on any front in terms of when anyone of us who are stuck in Nepal or stuck at home waiting to come to Nepal.  There has been no word from New Delhi USCIS on the cases that have been sent there, no one has been approved from the US Embassy in Nepal, and our 'conference call' last week told us little to nothing.  Blah blah.  Meanwhile, Joy's efforts to get the word out in our community and State seem to be working.  I should have some news stories later this week. 

Everyone is getting their own press, and one of the moms here just had a story aired:  click here to watch  Cherie's News Tape.  I think we all resorted to using the media because something has to give.  From Congress to the layman, we are trying everything in our power to get home with our kids.