Monkey Business

Yesterday was another laundry day, and interestingly enough, as I was bringing in some clothes off the clothesline (there were too many to hang inside the house), I walked back through the door to the roof (that's where the clothesline is) and sitting on the ledge was a monkey!

Of course, my mind immediately flashed to the vision I have of monkeys coming to steal our clothes from the clothesline… and since I had a bunch of our clothes draped over the clothesline, maybe 2 feet away from him, it seemed my vision might be about to come true right in front of my eyes!

Side note: during our 3 week training before coming here, we learned about the dangers of preconceived ideas and how we should suspend judgment for as long as possible since things are not always as we perceive them; however, it never occurred to me that I would need to apply those lessons to interactions with monkeys! On a similar note, I must confess that I am also making the assumption that the monkey was a male, but I don’t actually know for sure.

The actual door, window and ledge where the monkey standoff occurred.

I told him, "Go away monkey!" and shooed at him with my hands- the universal sign for “Go away monkey!” in case he didn’t know English, and because I wasn’t sure how to say that in Nepali… although it is now on my list of phrases to learn in the very near future!

He just looked at me blankly and then showed me his teeth. I am fairly sure he was warning me not to mess with him, although maybe he was simply amused with me and grinning at my silly attempt to scare him off.

Somewhat scared, and completely unsure of what to do, I grabbed a pair of pants and tried to shoo him with those. In hind sight, this was probably not a smart idea, for the fact that he had already shown me his teeth to warn me that I should not shoo him and also because I was actually giving him a chance to grab the pants, almost as if inviting him to live out my vision and creating a self-fulfilling “prophecy”.

Instead, he again starred at me blankly, completely uninterested in the pants, and showed me his teeth. Now that I think back on it, he seemed almost bored with me, and let’s face it, he was probably thinking, “Go away, lady! I don’t want your clothes. They aren’t stylish or even my size. I came up here to rest and to enjoy the cool breeze and the view and you are ruining that for me.” but at the time, I was sure he was issuing a direct threat, and although he was maybe 1/5 of my size (if that), it seemed time for me to take 2 steps back inside, quickly close (and lock) the door and try to figure out what to do next.

My mind was racing. Where was Sam? Didn’t he even notice how long I had been gone? Didn’t it occur to him to come check on me? Monkeys could be carrying me off to the temple at this very moment, and he was probably sitting on the bed reading or something, completely oblivious to the fact that my life, or at the very least, our clothes, were in jeopardy! Okay, so maybe I was getting a little worked up.

I decided to peek out the window to see if the monkey was running off with my clothes or simply sitting there basking in the glory of victory, but he was nowhere in sight… probably waiting on the other side of the door, ready to attack with his new sense of confidence. Slowly I unlocked the door, opening it just enough to peek out, but ready to retreat again at the slightest appearance of the monkey. Still no monkey, so I timidly took a step out and looked around a little more. He seemed to be gone and none of our clothes appeared to be missing.

Not the actual monkey involved, although he looks similar. 

Obviously he was simply petrified earlier, unable to move until I had gone inside, at which time he was finally able to flee “safely”... looks like I have the glory of victory after all! That’s right, monkey, who’s the last one standing on the roof with all of the clothes?! It was a grand moment for me, although in the back of my mind I considered the possibility that he had actually gone to get friends (reinforcements) and could be back at any moment, so I quickly grabbed our clothes, went back inside, locked the door and hurried down to our flat.

As I walked in a bit breathless and fumbled to lock our door (in case the monkey somehow figured out how to get through the locked door to the roof), Sam looked up at me, “Hi babe, need some help?”

Need some help? I just fought off a “vicious gorilla” from stealing our clothes... I’m good! 

A view from our room on a monkey-free day!

Another view from our roof.

View from our roof of Swayambhu (aka The Monkey Temple)

Getting Settled

We have a motorcycle! After spending a great deal of time researching, Sam found and bought a great pre-owned bike with only 8,000 km on it. This is the type of bike used most often to tour the entire country as it does extremely well in all conditions, which makes me feel much safer. This will be our main mode of transportation for day to day driving in Kathmandu and also many of the solo trips Sam takes out to the villages. After being here and riding on these roads, I have learned a VERY important phrase, “Malai hidnu manparchha” Translation: I like to walk! Actually Sam is doing a great job driving on the “roads” but I have to give him a hard time.

We have spent a great deal of time looking at housing options and this has come with some real challenges. In the U.S. we simply go to the apartment office and ask to see a 2 bedroom apartment. In Nepal, you tell your friends what you are looking for, they tell their friends, who tell their friends and often you are shown a house that is totally different than what your requirements looked like to begin with- or at least this has been the case for us.

We have been shown houses ranging from 3 to 6 bedrooms and often double our price range. For a short time we thought we found a house that would work for us. It was near friends and the right price, even though it was bigger than what we wanted; however, the place the current tenants were going to move to fell though and so our options were to wait until they found another place or let them continue to live on one of the floors.  Needless to say, we kept looking.

On our flight from Singapore to Kathmandu, sitting next to us was a wonderful Nepali man who we had great conversation with. We talked about Nepal and about faith, as well as the part of town he was living in and that he was moving from a great flat (apartment) in about 2 weeks. At first we were not interested because it was further north in Kathmandu than we wanted to live, but we kept in contact with him just in case. Well, after looking at over 15 houses and not finding what we wanted, we decided to go and look at his place.

The 2 bedroom flat had most of the things on our list of necessities. It was within our budget, had “Western toilets”, lots of windows (important when there is no electricity) and it is a safe place for me when Sam is out traveling around Nepal. Also it is at a higher elevation, so it has lower air pollution than most of the valley, which was a big health concern for us.

Despite all of the perks of the flat, moving here was really hard on me. I knew it was the right place for us as soon as I saw it, but needed to mourn being further from our friends than I had planned. It’s only about a 15 minute drive from our friends, which doesn't sound far, but in Nepal a 15 minute drive could be an adventure or at times impossible. Luckily Sam was patient with me and allowed me my day of mourning… and since we moved the next day, I didn't have time to stay in a state of mourning for more than a day!

Sam will tell more about our moving adventure in another blog, but I get to tell you about our beautiful new home! In many regards it is my dream home- only 5 rooms total: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a combined open living/ kitchen area.

As we began shopping for furniture, we realized it is more expensive here than it is in the U.S., which we had not anticipated or budgeted for. Thank you, God, for saving us from needing to furnish that 5 bedroom house we looked at!

God has taken great care of us in getting settled, too. The previous tenant (our friend from the plane), offered to sell us a few of his things: 2 very nice wardrobes (they don’t have closets here, so we needed those to store all of our clothes and toiletries), a wooden coffee table that is doubling as our dining table, a shelving unit in the kitchen (there was minimal cabinet space, so this has been very useful) and a few small shelving units that we are using in the living room right now. Not only did he offer us a fair price for the items, but we didn't have to move them! 

Looking from our kitchen into our living room

The flat didn't come with a stove, oven or refrigerator, so we bought a 4-burner gas stove top (no oven) and a red refrigerator with flowers imprinted on it- yes this was the best choice! And for our bedroom, we got a reasonably priced (and pretty comfortable) king size mattress, because as Sam and I like to joke, we do not have queen size love! Since then we have bought dishes, bowls, cookware and a few other small household items, but we are still waiting to get a couch, desk and office items.

Battery backup is a wonderful thing when there in no electric!

From our apartment we have wonderful views of mountains, as well as Swoyambhu, one of the most sacred Buddha Stupas in Nepal. Swoyambhu is also known as “The Monkey Temple” because of all of the monkeys that inhabit the area. The monkeys can be quite entertaining to watch, but also quite troublesome as they are known to break windows and grab stuff from people walking by, as well as laundry hanging on the clothes lines!

So far I have been hanging our clothes inside to dry, as I keep envisioning some monkey running off with our underwear on his head, but I don’t have a good spot to hang things like sheets, so I guess we’ll have to take our chances that the monkeys don’t need bedding!

Speaking of laundry- that is a whole other story in itself. In the U.S. you put your laundry in the washing machine, push a button, wait 45-60 minutes, move the laundry into the dryer, wait another 45-60 minutes and then hang up and/or fold the dried items. Not the most fun task, but oh what I wouldn't give for that option now!

Laundry here is an event. I take a big plastic wash tub and a bar of laundry soap (yes you read that right, it’s a bar of soap) into our master bathroom and using the spout beneath the shower. There is no tub just a spout and the floor, which used to seem silly to me, but now makes perfect sense. I fill the tub half way with water, letting it run over the bar of soap to create some suds. Then I add a few items to wash tub. If there is a stain, I rub the bar of soap on the stain and then scrub with my hands. Next I use my hands and/or feet to wash the clothes- I AM the washing machine!

Once I think the clothes are probably clean (I am new at this, so it’s just an uneducated guess!) I rinse the items one by one in the rinse bucket (a bucket that I put under the same spout I used to fill the wash tub, but fill with clean water to rinse the clothes. As the water in the bucket gets soapy, I pour that out, refill the bucket and continue.

As each item as rinsed, I place it on a hanger and hang it in our other bathroom where I have a small fan directed at the items- our dryer! Drying typically takes many hours, possibly overnight, depending on the item, but my alternative is to put everything up on the clothesline up on the roof and hope the monkeys don’t decide they need something… or that it doesn't rain, as monsoon season seems to be starting early this year!

I did a small load of laundry yesterday and there are parts of my body aching today that I didn't know existed, so at least I’m not only doing laundry, but also getting a workout! Think of me next time you’re doing a load of laundry… or on the treadmill! 

Arrival in Kathmandu

Wendy & Sam at Lazarus' church.

After a year of planning, selling all of our things and saying goodbye to family and friends we finally flew into Kathmandu, Nepal just over a week ago.

The last month in the States was especially hard, having to say goodbye to family, friends, co workers, and Lifebridge Church. As our son, Simon, drove away for the last time the day of our departure this all became so real. There is both grief and excitement as one chapter in our lives closes and another begins.

Looking back over the past year and how God has guided our steps we also realize how blessed we have been to have had the most amazing friends and family giving us help and encouragement every step of the way. Who knew what lay ahead for us as Lifebridge Church introduced us to Nepal January 2012? We didn't even know where Nepal was back then!

For the first few months our main priorities are to begin to learn the language and culture and begin to cultivate relationships, spending time with friends and Servlife leadership on the ground in Kathmandu. We are also spending a great deal of time trying to figure out where we will live and what we will be driving. This sometimes looks very different than it does in the West.

Nepal: This country is so full of beauty of both the country itself and more so of its' people. In Nepal the culture is based much more around relationships rather than individualism and individualistic accomplishment. Time moves much more slowly here which is sometimes difficult for me (Sam) as I like to push forward and get things accomplished. It took a few days for me to slow down and wait on God to lead us, giving me many 'opportunities' to learn patience (I'm still learning)!

We are learning many lessons and making many mistakes but God's grace and great friends are helping us navigate through them all. We plan to blog more soon, so stay tuned!