A week ago today we were on our way to meet our family. We were meeting up to ride the bus together to the Halloween party at Loyola. We arrived at the apartment to find only two people there. Jasoda let us in and as we walked into the apartment we passed by Bakhti sleeping through the afternoon. Our original plans were to get the entire family together and then go to the party. Clearly things were not about to go according to plan. We asked Jasoda where everyone was and she told us they were with friends. As such we decided to have some tea and then get on our way. Jasoda, Ieva and I took the bus to the party and got there quite simply. Once there we found a table that had enough empty seats for the three of us and sat down. Next, I took a look around the party. Suddenly familiar faces shone through the crowd. Krishna, our family’s father was sitting at the adjacent table. Tek, Krishna’s brother, was wandering nearby. Then in strolls Dik, Jasoda’s aunt, with the rest of her family. So it turns out that the only person who was missing at the party was Bakhti, who was home ill and sleeping. Next we moved to a new table that could accommodate our now larger group and tried to convince everyone to go and get something to eat. However, no one was willing to bravely try a little Halloween candy, chocolate chip cookies, or even an apple. This was only a small problem though because our Nepali family had already taught us how to get people to eat food: just put a full plate in front of them and tell them to eat. Ieva and I filled some plates with food and brought them to our family. The food went over alright with the Nepali community, but they were still all just sitting at their tables talking with each other. No one was getting up and participating in any of the activities that had been planned. Luckily, some of the volunteers were able to persuade some of the Nepalese to start dressing up and taking pictures. The photo booth became a sudden phenomenon, with all of the Nepali folks lining up to get their pictures taken. Then the kids were all together making masks and bags on the other side of the room, but our family was still sitting at the table silently waiting for who knows what. Luckily, we had caught on to the power of positive peer pressure and so Ieva took Jasoda to make masks and bags. Before we even knew it Jasoda had made bags for her entire family and some of their friends. It wasn’t easy to break the ice with the Nepalese at the party but once one person had finally had the courage to try something new it seemed like everyone jumped right on the band wagon, and even though very little went according to plan it all seemed to work out in the end. Just another usual day with out Nepali family.