Some stuff

One place our Durbar Square guides took us to was the home of Kumari, the "living godess" of Nepal. She is supposedly inhabited by the spirit of a Hindu godess. The current one is new, just three years old, and she will serve until she hits puberty then become a nun. The godess goes on to inhabit a new girl, who will be from Lumbini, have certain physical characteristics, and not flinch in the presence of poisonous snakes. She used to be supported by the government but now lives on donations. So the guides gathered a group of tourists, the three year old girl peered at us from a second story window for a few moments, then disappeared from sight. More info here: http://www.visitnepal.com/nepal_information/kumari.php

One of my first impressions is how difficult life is here. There are daily power outages of 10 hours per day, and some places also suffer from water shortages. Everyone we talk to complains about the lack of jobs and rising cost of living. Pollution in the valley is pretty extreme. Prime Minister Prachandra was recently quoted as saying that it was much easier running a revolutionary movement than running the country. Indeed.