The Nepali village life

Namaste!

As announced in my previous story last Monday morning I left Kathmandu. We exchanged the big city for a small village. The way over there was an experience itself. We took two local busses before lunch. After lunch we transfered to a jeep. We sat in the back, together with the cement, bags and food. We drove southeast, through the beautiful landscape of Nepal. After the police post, we took a quick stop and Neil and I got up on the roof. From there the view was even better and we could see the Himalayas for a large part of the trip. The last two or three hours were off road. We drove through a valley, upriver. The last part was up to the mountain village.

We stayed with the mother of the local coordinator. We called her Aamaa, which means mother in Nepali. Every morning we would wake up quite early, around 6. Breakfast was served between 7 and 8.30. Whenever you liked. At 9 am we left for the construction sight, which was in the next village. It was about a 25 minute walk, first down and then back up again. We assisted the local builders who were reconstructing a primary school that had collapsed as a result of the earthquakes. We would get lunch at the sight, bath dhal every day, after which we would relax and take a nap in the sun. The afternoon was again for making cement, passing cement, digging up rocks, throwing rocks and moving sand. Around 3 pm our day was finished and we walked back to Mate. Since we were really dirty every day, we took a daily wash in the river between the villages. Back at Aamaa's place we got tea (with a lot of sugar) and a warm snack. After that we mostly chilled, read book, wrote stories and talked together until dinner was served between 7 and 8 pm. After that we'd be exhausted and it wouldn't take long for everyone to drop out to go to bed.

Aamaa's house excited of 3 stories. On the ground floor there was a fire above which the food and tea was prepared, and, if you asked for it, even a bucket of hot to take a 'shower'. In the opposite corner the goats had their living space. I got quite quickly used to having animals around inside. Goats, dogs and chickens just walked around and I might even miss them, especially Goaty, the baby goat. :)

On Friday we even went to a Nepali wedding!! This was a unique experience. The bride and groom sat on the ground for nine hours and all the guests gave them money and put rice on their heads.

Summarized: it was an amazing, unique experience! Communication was a bit of a challenge, but we got there using "enough", "a little bit" and "thank you". :)