Moving to Pokhara

What is moving like in Nepal? For us it was another adventure.

We were well prepared with things carefully packed, had LOTS of help, including an American friend of ours, Ambika, all ofher girls, one of Ambika's nephews, Ambika's brother-in-law, Pastor Lazarus, his assistant Ramhari and Ramhari's uncle (who was also the driver of our moving truck), as well as me and Sam, so you would think it would have been pretty easy... or at least WE thought it would be pretty easy.

The truck arrived at about 7am, and as I already mentioned, we had packed carefully, knowing that the road to Pokhara is winding and not always paved. There are no Uhauls in Nepal, so our moving truck was a 10 wheel vehicle that looked something like this...

Along with all of our stuff, we loaded our scooter and motorcycle on the truck. Then Ambika, her nephew, her brother-in-law, Sam and I all rode to Pokhara in our Tata Safari, while Ramhari's uncle drove the moving truck. It was a teary good-bye, as everyone else stayed in Kathmandu. Although the truck left about an hour and a half before us, we got to Pokhara about 2 hours before the truck showed up at the house. By the time it arrived, it was dark, the wind was picking up and we could hear thunder and see lightning off in the distance heading our way.

Dirt path from our house to the road..

If that wasn't enough stress, the truck was too big to make it down the dirt road to our house, so we had to carry everything down the dirt road- not super far, but with it being dark and a storm approaching, and lots of stuff to carry in, that didn't make things any easier!

We also discovered that the motorcycle had fallen over in transit and gasoline had spilled on some of our stuff, the motorcycle was scratched and the kick-stand was severely bent. The scooter also had some damage and just about every piece of furniture we own was damaged in some way or another, mostly scratches and cosmetic damages, but a few things were completely broken/ ruined... thankfully nothing irreplaceable like keepsakes, pictures, etc.

The really cool thing was that quite a few of our neighbors (who live along the dirt road) came out to see the bisheshis (foreigners) moving in, and they all immediately started helping us unload the truck. It was pretty amazing to have all of these strangers helping us like that, and not only did we get everything moved into the house before the rain arrived, we even had some neighbors ask if they could bring us tea or make us dinner! We very graciously declined their offers, being more in need of showers and sleep than food, but Sam and I have already discussed inviting them all over in a few weeks for tea and food.

View of Mount Machhapuchhre from our roof.

Each day since the move has continued to be an adventure in both the good and bad sense of the word. We have the most amazing view of Mount Machhapuchhre from 2 of our bedroom windows and our roof (the roofs here are flat and used like balconies, not like most roofs in the States).

But, we've also had to have the electrician and plumber here for the past 2 days (and the plumber will be back tomorrow) getting us set up and fixing things. Some of that we expected, like having the electrician setting up our inverter for our back-up batteries during loadshedding (when there's no electric) Luckily, we're down to only 10 hours of loadshedding per day right now!

Squatty potty downstairs

Western toilet upstairs

And some of it was a surprise, like the western style toilet that is in our upstairs bathroom (as opposed to the Nepali style "squatty potty" we have downstairs) needed to be completely replaced. Our first night here we noticed there was a crack in the tank and the base, so it was constantly leaking, and by the next morning it was getting worse (actually gushing water), but when we called the landlady she said it was not like that before and we must have broken it.

Even after the plumber said that it was an old toilet and that the cracks had been there a while and there was no way we could have caused the damage, our landlady would not replace it. And while I'm glad to have my very own "squatty potty" downstairs for practice for when Western style toilets are not available, I was not ready for it to be my only option (let's just say I have personal experience with "pee sprinkles" on my pants legs- sorry, that was probably too much information!), so now we have a new toilet for about $70 USD... I can think of a lot more fun ways to spend $70 although not having to use the squatty potty all the time is actually beyond priceless! Oh how the things I have come to appreciate have changed! lol!

Happy Mother's Day!

April 28th was one of the best days of my life. April 28 was Aamaa's 89th birthday (Aamaa is Ambika's mom) and April 29th is Mother's Day in Nepal. And unlike in America where celebrating these events is fairly common, it's not as common in Nepal, at least not with the families we know.

Aamaa had NEVER had a birthday party in her entire life, nor had anyone ever celebrated Mother's Day honoring Aamaa, Ambika or either of Ambika's two sisters. That all changed on April 28th, as we all gathered together to celebrate both occassions.

The best part is that this was all a surprise for Aamaa! She had no idea that we were having a party for her, since Ambika's sisters often come by to visit and everyone else stayed hidden or showed up at the last minute.

When it was time for the festivities to begin, Ambika had Aamaa go up to the roof where we often eat dinner when the weather is nice, and when Aaama was sitting at the table, all of us came out and surrounded her. Sam was carrying her birthday cake and we "crowned" her with a "birthday topee" (birthday hat). As soon as she realized what was happening, she almost cried!

Then, as is the tradition here, she feeds someone a piece of birthday cake and they feed her a piece of birthday cake before everyone else gets a slice. Well, Aamaa chose Sam AND one of her sons-in-law, and as you can see she had LOTS of fun with this!

After the cake, we gave Aamaa her birthday card and a few small gifts... Snickers bars (she LOVES these) and some peanuts. You would have thought we had given her diamonds... and little did she know, there were more surprises to come.

I had talked with Anipa (Ambika's daughter) and arranged for one of Aamaa's grandsons to bring flowers for Aamaa, Ambika and her two sisters for Mother's Day. What I didn't know is that when Anipa called him, she also told him to bring flowers for me. As they started passing out the Mother's Day bouquets, I'm not sure who was more surprised, me, Aamaa or Ambika's middle sister, who kept turning away, completely unprepared for such a gift.

I had also bought a bunch of plastic tiaras, so that each mom could feel like a queen. I will never be able to put into words what I experienced watching these grown women, including 89-year-old Aamaa, being honored as mothers with flowers and plastic tiaras.

Afterwards, everyone enjoyed a meal of fried chicken, paneer (a kind of fried cheese that I am fairly certain is what the Bible calls manna, because it is nothing short of a gift from God!), some vegetables and rice that Ambika and her sisters had made (they thought this was just Aamaa's birthday celebration). As Sam and I left to go downstairs to our flat to go to sleep, I wished each of the moms a "Happy Mother's Day". Ambika told me, "Never in all of our lives have we done anything like this. This is a great day. "

Still, there was one more surprise awaiting Aamaa that only Sam, the girls and I knew about. The girls had blown up about a BUNCH of balloons and filled Aamaa's bedroom with them, along with a "Happy Birthday" sign hanging on her wall, so as she went into her room that night, she was again reminded that she is loved and her birthday is very much worth celebrating.

The next morning when I went upstairs to say "Hello" to everyone, Aamaa was all smiles. Apparently, after Sam and I went to sleep, everyone else kept partying. They strung the balloons together that were in Aamaa's room and hung them throughout the living room... and they are still hanging up 2 weeks later! Ambika's oldest sister and her husband, who normally leave somewhat early to get home to her husband's mom who lives with them, stayed until midnight and then had to stay the night because there were no buses to take them home at that hour!

It was truly a magical evening, and beyond just "our family" we were able to bring joy to several others. When I went to buy the plastic tiaras, the balloons and the candle for the birthday cake, there were some women in the shop. They asked me what I was buying all of this for. When I told them we were celebrating Mother's Day and Aamaa's birthday, they looked like little girls hearing the most wonderful secret they had ever heard. They laughed and smiled and were so excited at simply the thought of grown women celebrating in such a way.

Happy Mother's Day from Nepal!