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| Beauty, makai and mud |
Greetings! I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my month of family stay. Boak lagyo (are you hungry)? This was the first phrase I learnt here and it was never true! We eat daal bhat tarkari for breakfast and evening meal – lentils, cooked rice and vegetable curry. Before this there’s a cup of tea, bread or toast or porridge and maybe a boiled egg (i.e. continental breakfast followed by a full meal!). In the afternoon we eat a snack (khaja) like noodles and then in the evening again another meal. Every week we’ve eaten out at least twice (once at a church housegroup and then by invitation from friends of family members) where we're presented with a huge plate of food – massive portion of rice and also chicken as well as the other items. It’s yummy, I just eat it slowly and quickly learnt to say “pugyo” so that I don’t get given any more! It does mean that most mornings I wake up still full though!
Often in Nepal, several families live together in the same house, which is part of the fun of a family stay. Here my host family is at the top, their parents on the ground floor and the younger brother with his two children and 5 girls are living in the middle (they are here to study at school since they’ve lost one parent and in the village they would have to do housework rather than study). I’m really happy to have children to hang out with for the first time in Nepal. They think it’s a fun game to help me learn and are super encouraging when I get it right or manage to read something from their school books. I soon discovered they had a big problem with “jumra” (Headlice). I managed to find some headlice shampoo with a comb. They didn’t know about it as it’s probably new in Nepal - and then they were fighting over who went first to use it and then everyone crowded round trying to find the lice!! On a couple of younger girls we got at least 30 each the first time… I think they slept much better that night! (See attached a photo of one of the girls - she loves wearing heels even for bumpy roads and mud!)
This area is quieter and more rural than the city – we can quickly walk to some paddy fields and there are also mushroom farms (covered huts) and one time I went with my host to the river to get water from the tap when our drinking water ran out. But there is rapid urbanisation here, and with development comes noise. The local road is under construction. They’re looking forward to less dust (which turns to mud in monsoon) but it’ll also bring more traffic. The other day there was a total racket from a truck with a heavy load of stones. Just an engine revving, no movement and lots of people watching, then more trucks came. This accompanied the regular pashmina factory noise which is next door. The first day it woke me up at 6am (in fact it starts at 5:30). The problem is more trying to study language in the heat of the day with a soporiphic regular noise going on, as you need to keep the windows open because of the heat! Also at 6am or before there’s a daily badminton session. My host plays and sometimes wins boiled eggs and mango juice to bring back for breakfast! Here's a morning video from my room, including a well, a cow, a lady watching hens and people on a roof. Enjoy!
https://tinyurl.com/8am-harisiddhi-dailylife
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