Touch Around The Earth

The adventures of a massage therapist as she explores touch around the earth. From Chicago to Thailand, Nepal, India and Japan, she will be receiving massage, studying massage, studying and practicing yoga and meditation, and learning about how people around the earth stay healthy and happy.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

generosity





The majestic snow-capped Himalayan Mountains have been calling me for a long time. The photos and movies that I have seen of the nature as well as the people that live in the mountains seemed very exotic to this city girl from the great plains. So, I had to pinch myself when I landed in the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. I spent a couple days in the city getting my trek organized and doing a bit of sight-seeing, and of course, getting a massage. The massage I had was not great, though I thought the woman had good intentions, so I asked the other therapist to come in and lay on the table so that I could show her a couple tricks. She was so happy about this that she called me her sister and gave me a hug, and asked me if I liked Nepali food. I told her it was my first day in Nepal, and she promptly invited me to her home for dinner! Luckilly her husband spoke better English than she did, and her son was very pleased with the chocolate that I brought him. Their home was a very simple one-room apartment with a seperate kitchen and bathroom, and they were happy to have me over. They cooked me a dinner of "dal bhat" - lentils, rice, potatoes and some steamed cabbage. This is the standard Nepali meal, which is quite filling, and very healthy. They offered to let me stay in their home, but I politely declined and headed back to my hotel room.

The next day, while touring the beautiful area of Kathmandu called Patan, I met a woman at the Hindu temple who just about wanted to adopt me and bring me to her village. Too bad I already had plans to go to the mountains the next morning, I would have loved to meet her husband who is a musician. But I did enjoy touring the area with her, and she brought us over to her sister-in-law's tiny storefront where she was selling eggs by the dozen. I was getting a bit hungry, so her sister went out of her way to go back to her kitchen and cook up a couple eggs for me! And of course she wouldn't let me pay for the eggs.

So, Nepali people get the prize for being the most generous so far!

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