17 May… It’s a Holiday

I wonder some times while I am walking around the city if I am dreaming or awake. Kathmandu is so wonderful and strange it really is difficult to distinguish reality. One such moment was today. The dream (or reality) is like this: Sudip, Anne Lise, Amanda and I are walking in a parade that is led by a marching band that is playing a rather Nepali version of “When the Saints go Marching in.” Most of the crowd is waving Norwegian flags (sideways blue cross outlined in white on a red background). Everyone is shouting, “hip hip hoorah.”

Ja, according to my witnesses, today we celebrated the signing of Norway’s constitution. In Norway it’s the major national holiday of the year, like America’s Independence Day. So all thirty Norwegians that live in Kathmandu and a few of their guests formed a parade from the Norwegian House (a guest house for Norwegians located in southern Patan) to the Norwegian Embassy about a mile north. For the Nepalis that saw us, it must have felt like a dream to have a marching band and a bunch of strange looking people waving strange flags. Then again, they may be used to it.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Anne Lise is Norwegian. Ever since we arrived, she has been talking about this event telling us how excited she was that it was coming. I must admit it was fun. At the Embassy, the Ambassador spoke then everyone ate clean salad, mashed potatoes, and the traditional hotdog (wrapped in a potato tortilla) followed by relay races and games for the kids.