Let me be your tour guide as I take you on a walk around the “block” in our small rural community of Ghatichhina. It's about an hour drive (16 km) outside of Pokhara, for those of you interested in visiting us!
1. Home-base, Panchase Community Homestay #1, Hari and Maya's House, where we live, eat dal bhat and weed gardens like machines
2. The neighbours: goats, water buffalo, and the odd cow
3. Town - if you can call it that. Buy all of your needs: flip flops, a collared shirt, cheese balls, beers, and a can of paint, but in different “stores”, if you can call them that.
4. Suspension Bridge: Cross the river - slightly scary alone, even scarier with "friends"
5. Local Gravel Quarry: It’s actually the river bed. Drive your dump truck right in and load 'er up.
6. Volleyball Game: Enjoy some darn good vball, standing room only. Yepper, they are wearing flip flops
7. Road Paving Depot: Watch as asphalt is made by hand, cooked by wood heat, and trucked by tractor. No PPE required.
8. Basket Weaving: Watch as baskets are woven before your very eyes, and have a surprise conversation in English.
9. Snack Shop: Buy a pack of cookies for a dollar, and look really proud of your great find!
10. Tailor: Get a dress made, pants hemmed, or a scarf sown, all with a friendly smile.
NOTE: About 65% of Nepali people make their living by farming, so along the way you'll see many small fields, growing everything from corn, to cucumbers, to potatoes and beans. Things grow year round, so a field of corn today will be a flooded rice paddy in a few months.
By the time you make it home, hopefully you'll be lucky enough to sit down to a yummy meal of dal bhat: lentil soup, rice, and maybe some curry! This is the typical Nepali meal that is normally eaten twice per day.
