Living in a foreign country can at times be challenging. After three weeks here in Nepal, we've come to the following conclusions about how to survive.
Be Comfortable With...
1) Being A Little Dirty (not that kind of “dirty”): We've spent most of our volunteer days working in gardens or fields. This has resulted in dirt, and alot of it. On our legs, under our nails, in our shirts, and worst of all up our noses. We've definitely embraced the dirt, and even wear dirty clothes for 3 or 4 days in a row. In case you've not done it, washing clothes by hand is a lot of work!
2) Cold Showers: You know that at the end of a hard day's work there is nothing like a good hot shower. Let's just say there is nothing like a good cold shower too! And I mean nothing.
3) Eating the Same Thing Every Day: We've learned that the Nepali people are creatures of habit when it comes to food, and that food is dal bhat, baby. They love it so much that they eat it twice a day. A typical dal bhat consists of lentil soup, rice, and usually a curry, made of whatever vegetables are in the garden. Thank gosh we still like it, and it would make meal planning easier. Funny though, just yesterday we were given candies and were told they were chocolates. Excitedly we tore open the wrapper, popped them into our mouthes. Within seconds the flavours of dal diffused into our taste buds. Disappointing to say the least.
4) Hazy Days: Quite literally today is the first day in twelve that we've seen blue sky, stars at night and mountain views. We've been living in a valley that fills up with smog, mainly from cooking fires, grass fires, garbage fires, and vehicles. Most homes keep a fire burning throughout the day to heat water and make ghee. The smell and sight of the smog has been hard to get used to, especially since the air in Canada is so clean.
4) Not Knowing What Is Being Said: Stepping into homestays has been such a rich experience. We see what is happening, but very rarely understand what is being said. I wouldn't say we've become experts a reading body language and interpreting tone, but boy we've made up some creative stories.
5) Saying The Same Three Words A Lot: We've quickly learned that when you don't know a language, you need a few key words in your pocket to enhance the flashy smiles and precision head nods. We've certainly been relying on the following. Namaste (hello), said with hands in a prayer position, comes in very handy to greet strangers on the street, say good morning, or when we're introduced to new people. Dhan'yavÄda (thank you). Nuff said. Mitu (yummy). We find ourselves saying this to show our appreciation for all of the delicious, and maybe less than delicious, food were are served.
6) Resting: As you may know, we like to be busy (understatement perhaps?). So the concept of "take rest" has taken a lot to wrap our heads around. For example, we arrived at the orphanage farm yesterday at about 12:45, gung-ho to get to work, and Lila greeted us by pointing to the chairs, saying "rest - tea time". We laughed and said "But we haven't done anything yet". We finished tea at 1:30, put in a solid 30 minutes of planting a mystery root vegetable, and Lila then said "work done". We shared some laughs over Facebook posts, and then trundled home to do what, rest.
