A woman’s work is never done…

Heating oil over the fan-assisted fire. Roti bowl in front.

January 2020

At the start of 2020 we finally did a village stay, in Bajhang in the Far West of Nepal. I had a room to myself in a concrete house with a comfortable bed and warm blankets. But the toilet was still outside, with no light and a low ceiling. The kitchen was in an old clay and wood building, upstairs, above the cow shed. There were two small windows, usually shut to keep it warm. I went there in the evenings to spend time with the wife of the family, learn how to cook and to stay warm! I enjoyed millet roti with nettle sauce! Very healthy apparently.  But my colleague couldn't cope to stay in there because of the smoke burning her eyes. There is no chimney, but everything is cooked on a wood fire. To bring gas for three hours along a bumpy road would be very expensive so it was rare. Cooking on a fire is perhaps more tasty (city people sometimes choose to do it occasionally) but takes twice as long - at least two hours often, because there is only one hob to cook rice then vegetables then daal, or vegetables and then roti breads. It requires fetching firewood, blowing the fire, smoke everywhere. The warmth was good in winter but wouldn't be so fun in summer. Our hostess laughed at first when we couldn't cope with the smoke. But after a few days she admitted she doesn't like it either, but what can she do, she has to cook! Morning and evening. 

When not cooking, there are always other jobs. Washing dishes, washing clothes, cutting and carrying firewood, cutting grass for the cows. Collecting firewood is a woman's job. Out of around 100 people we saw collecting firewood, only two were men. Some women get up at 4am to climb steep hills to get wood, returning at around noon and then selling a huge heavy basketload for less than £4. Sometimes they have to climb trees to cut it. Our hostess couldn't carry heavy loads after a difficult pregnancy and operations. She would collect a few bits locally and buy the rest.  Luckily her husband has a job so they had some money. She did have to cut grass though. In the dry season it took about an hour of scrambling up hills and past prickly bushes, cutting whatever grass or shrubs looked edible. I joined her one day and suddenly a patch of dry grass seemed a valuable item. The two young cows didn't even produce milk yet, only manure! And you can't eat cow meat here. 

What if our hostess was sick or had to go away to hospital, several days' travel away? Who would do all the work? Now she only has her husband and a son to care for. But in some families the wife had to work and cater for more than ten people including in-laws and everyone's negative comments. She can't afford to be ill. They can't afford to loose her. So her health may be sacrificed. And I haven't even mentioned work in the fields. In village Nepal, a woman's work is never done.