Over the weekend we’d been invited to travel back to our first home-stay to visit the family and stay overnight. We made our way there by walking down the mountain to Pokhara and taking the bus. Turns out that the “bus” stories we’ve told you are quite normal - although it hasn’t gotten old yet!
Our plan on Sunday was to do the reverse and head back up to Sarangkot. We enjoyed a little time and some lunch (not dal baht) while in Pokhara and began our trek at about 2:30. As we left, we noticed the sky was getting a little darker - but this has happened many afternoons without any consequence. We arrived at the stairs at 3:15 and began the steady climb - which we expected would take about an hour. The clouds started to rumble. We joked to one another that we had purposely made a decision not to bring rain gear as the weather forecast showed no sign of rain.
Proceeding upward the frequency of lightning flashes increased and when the rain started we sought shelter in between some stands of bamboo. This provided protection from the light rain as the storm moved through.
After about 20 minutes the lightning and thunder had abated so we decided to go ahead. Looking at the map, we could see that there were houses not far, so we could stand under an awning if necessary. As soon as we reached the clearing the wind picked up suddenly and the rain was pelting us hard, so we butted up against one of the houses and covered our eyes to protect from the swirling dust.
An elderly woman came out to check on something and noticed us, and she motioned for us to come in - although her signal was more of a “sit down” than a “come here”. We entered the home, grateful to be out of the weather and feeling anxious because we still had our shoes on. The lady proceeded to lock the doors and motioned for us to come up stairs. At this point we were very uncomfortable. So, we took off our shoes and headed up.
We followed to a room at the front of the house where she cleared a space on a small couch for us that was uncomfortably close to where an elderly man was presumably napping. We realized very quickly that this women spoke little English and communicating would be a problem. We used our favourite 3 Nepali words - Mero Nam insert name Ho - to tell them our names and tried to make the most of Google translate!
To set the scene a little - the two of us are seated on this couch, there is a bed jammed up to it with a man and kind elderly lady named Devi both on the bed. This is a big house and we are all sitting within a 2 m sq. The wind is blowing like crazy and it’s raining a little and Devi offers us tea. We say “no” as resources are limited in most Nepali homes. She insisted, so we accepted. We were grateful for the shelter and the opportunity to meet new people, however, the situation continued to be very awkward due to the language difficulties and some other cultural differences. Here are some of the things that unfolded in the next 20 or so minutes: (the actual order is blurry in our minds)
- Gayle showed a picture of our home stay family to try to make a connection. Immediately, Devi insisted that she and Gayle take a selfie - remember we just met this woman!
- We told the couple we were from Canada and their excited facial expressions and untranslated utterances lead us to believe they thought Canada was just this side of Heaven. We used the translator to ask about that and she said - “I don’t know anything about Canada.” Oops!
- The man lying on the bed offered us cigarettes.
- Devi learned that we were grandparents and pull up a chair right in front of Paul and began rubbing his leg. Soon after she switched and gave Gayle the same attention.
- A 15 year old came home from school and joined the party. She told us that Devi was her mother. (We think probably grandmother. We’ve seen the term “Aama” used interchangeably.) Luckily she spoke some English. She immediately showed us her TikToks and asked for our Facebook and Instagram contacts. Spider senses were tingling and we did not share them.
- And then, the girl, translating for her mother, said to us, “You are staying here for the night.” Notice that there is no question mark. It was beyond kind, however, we took no time to respond with, “No, no. Our home stay is expecting us”.
A quick glance out the window revealed that the rain and wind had subsided enough. We made quick eye contact and Paul said, “Ok, Danyabaad, We should go while it’s clear.” Without a further pause, we hastily made our retreat, unescorted. Almost running out the front door, we paused for a small wave to say thank you and set a faster than normal pace up the hill - speechless.
When you enter a home unexpectedly in a country halfway around the world, you should expect to be uncomfortable. Thankfully, the rest of the walk was way less eventful.