As I was preparing for this trip to Nepal my wife, Janelle, who traveled to Nepal in 2008, let me know that among items the people of this country enjoy receiving from the western world is baseball hats. Through the years I have been known to collect, buy, and, acquire tons of baseball hats. Before leaving Chicago, I opened my closet door, where my collection is stowed (some not worn in a long long time) and filled a suitcase half full with all of my hats. When I arrived to Jitpur Phede I stacked my hats on a table in my room and gave the request to the the Dahal family to give the hats to all of the villagers. As they see fit they should grab hats from the table and spread them among the land as if they were the holy word. One by one like rats sneaking cheese I noticed the stack of hats decrease and as I would walk to and from school and to and from the field on each of my work days I would see more and more of the hats on the heads of the villagers. There was even one afternoon I was on a microbus into Thamel, a microbus packed with people on top of peole, baskets of turnips, and a live goat and a propane tank under a seat, and two rows ahead of me was portly gentleman with polished shoes, slacks, a great looking sweater, and, within and through the quagmire of humanity and cargo I caught a glimpse of my ole New York Mets hat on top of his bald head. He looked great! In the photos below there it had been raining at the end of the day as we all gathered back at the house and Bijaya and Ranju and I created a contest of how many of my hats we could balance on our head. Take a good look and see if you can recognize any of the hats.
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