It’s different here…

The immersive nature of our experiences so far have given us insight into the many ways that “this is not Canada”. Here are some of the most interesting differences we’ve found in Nepal:

• Mostly everyone wears flip-flops - even construction workers! Shoes are not worn inside - except when going to the bathroom.  There are flip-flops to wear at every bathroom door - even in the hotels!
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• Speaking of bathrooms, showers are not separated from the rest of the bathroom - in any way. Toilet paper is not normally used and squat toilets are found regularly. Western toilets have a low and high volume flush option. 
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• Lawns are mostly nonexistent. Every bit of space is used for gardens or crops. In the countryside, fences are rare - animals are generally tethered.
• Cooking on a wood fire is common. Propane is used, but is very expensive compared to gathering firewood. 
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• It’s quite normal for food preparation and eating to be done while seated on the floor. (And dishes too!)
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• As for meals, breakfast and supper consist of dal (lentil soup), bhat (rice) and cabbage curry everyday. We've been fed a more Western diet of toast and egg for breakfast, Mr. noodles for lunch, and the traditional dal bhat & curry for supper. There is little variety from day to day.
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• Manual labour is required for many things that are done by machines in Canada. As I am writing this a tractor pulling a trailer full of gravel (probably 6 cu. yards) drove by. It was loaded and will be unloaded by hand. We’ve seen road base construction which means placing rocks individually by hand after breaking them with a sledgehammer.
• Motorbikes and scooters outnumber cars by a lot and the narrow roads are shared by all vehicles, pedestrians and animals.
• Bricks, grass, sticks, propane tanks, virtually everything is carried in large “backpack” baskets that are strapped to the carrier’s forehead. Everyday we see many people returning from the mountains with baskets loaded. 
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• Power outages are common, expected and accepted.

School is different too! This has been a holiday time (two weeks) for the younger students and they’ll return this Sunday. They only have Saturday off each week. Tuesday was a big day here because the students (all elementary) got their exam results. Everyone writes exams an each student’s score is listed and ranked on website for everyone to see. Our home stay “kids”, Anush (G7) and Anusha (G3), were both top in their respective classes!  Last Sunday, when we were in Pokhara, school bus loads of older students could be heard singing and cheering. (We are sure that one song was a Christmas song!) Turns out it was their last day before a three month break and they were very happy!

What’s noticeably not different? Easy - The friendly and welcoming nature of the people of Nepal. Everyone greets us. “Namaste”. Often we are asked where we are from, what are names are and curiously, where are we going. (Admittedly we do stand out a little, so a lot of people want to make sure we are not lost as we walk up some random road in rural Nepal!)