Tourist of the Year

What a day. I started out as a normal California woman going to work in Nepal and ended up the OFFICIAL tourist of the year for Lalitpur. Lalitpur is one of the major districts around Kathmandu. I am sure you are waiting to hear the story on this.

Tomorrow is Holy Holy… a big day for the Hindus and not so great for the tourists (remember the water and colored powder). Well, Holy Holy is celebrated for three days.

Today in the village where Tewa resides there was a big festival; the first they have ever had and a major event for the village. The Chief District Officer (the governor in US terms) came to the city to cut the ribbon and participate in a parade. There were many types of dancers, Nepali bands, a devil doing a dance, a big Yak, etc as part of a parade. There were booths with locals selling food, handicrafts and such. I helped set up Tewa’s booth for the festival.

The office manager of Tewa is very involved in the village and gave me tour of the village in the morning. We meet the head of the village and saw the government offices and so on and so on. I thought she was really being nice introducing me to all the officials and they were so happy to see me. I thought it was my winning personality.

So.. let me get to the point.. The Chief of Police and Chief of District have beautiful orange flowers put around their neck by the village officials. I am trying to take pictures, when Shree (office manager) says come on Paula. I just look at her. She says you are getting flowers put around your neck by the Chief of the District and are part of the parade… your are "Tourist of 2011 or Lalitpur".. In Nepal this is “The Year of Tourism 2011”; you see banners all over.

I had to walk in the front line with all the government officials around the whole village. I felt like Princess Di doing Namaste to all the villagers as I walked around. I bet you are glad you know such a famous person.

Namaste