The Blithe Traveler: Hope's Bansuri

This is a total bragging on my Special Snowflake kind of post, so feel to ignore it if kids are not your gig.

Hope has been playing the flute for about a year. She also dabbles in piano, and plans to add the saxophone to her repertoire once we are back in the US (mostly because, I have one and she really, really wants to learn to play the thing). She's no protegee, but she has genuinely enjoys music; it's easy to indulge her, without putting too much pressure on her to perform. She'll join the elementary school band next year, and she can decide at that point if she really needs to up her game, or if she can continue playing just for fun.

There were vendors all over Durbar Square in Kathmandu selling wooden flutes, ostensibly called "Bansuri ." They are maybe Nepalese, maybe Indian? But they are cheap, and she was delighted to get her little hands on one.

The vendor we bought it from was absolutely stunned when the child put the thing to her lips and started to play. This guy decided to give her a lesson, and we ended up hiring him to give us a tour of the Square. Fair trade, I thought.

This might be my favorite photo from the entire trip. The domestic Kathmandu airport was dodgy at best, but Hope fit right in. Our astonishing ability to be all matchy matchy blue has nothing to do with actually attempting to all wear the same color clothing, but everything to do with the fact that I like blue, and I buy most of the clothing.

The best part of this post, for those of you who suffer through it, is that you are getting glimpses of our trek. Life is a bit of a rush right now, and I don't feel as though this trip is getting the attention it deserves. It ranks right up there in the Best of the Best All Time (with Tanzania and Mongolia to name some old fan favorites), so I need to come up with something more interesting than what I've managed so far.

So, the basuri does not work exactly like a flute, and there aren't easily accessible sharps and flats. But the kid was determined. She didn't have any actual music, but she worked out a few songs based on what she thought they should sound like. At the point of this photo, which was Day 2 trekking, she had managed a pretty decent rendition of Amazing Grace. Right about here, a gaggle of Taiwanese tourists came upon her and burst into song. Have you ever heard Amazing Grace in Chinese? I certainly hadn't, and I lived in China for three years.