Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Still alive etc.

I'm absolutely loving Kathmandu, the people are so wonderful. On Tuesday I spent a couple hours in the city centre alone while Adam was in Nepali class and I felt totally safe. There was strike on yesterday, this is enforced and you aren't allowed to open your shop or ride motorbikes, there are varying degrees of a strike and some are stricter than others. The main intersections are blocked off by who ever suggested the strike but often is isn't clear who was striking about what. We walked from the village into the city centre which was just over an hour and the tourist area was open.
Ring Road, this is the main road in Kathmandu and circles the city centre.
usually it's crazy busy, but due to the strike it was eerily empty!

 Surprisingly I'm really enjoying the Nepali food, I don't love goat but there are so many excellent vegetables that it's great! The vege markets are massive and you buy in 5 or 10kg lots. It's about $2 for 10kg of cabbage. There are two main meals of rice, dahl and curry a day, one around 9.30am and then another in the evening. I start the day at about 5 or 6 so we have donuts and coffee on the roof as the sun rises, it's a pretty sweet start to the day. Then the children do their homework before breakfast and are off to school at 10am. Today's a major strike so even the school in this village is effected, we had a morning of drawing to send pictures to those that donate to the Children's Home. Homework happens again in the evening until the power goes out, there a scheduled blackouts for each village through out the day and the night. Gas is used for cooking and a solar panel lights the kitchen and dining room where there isn't electricity. There isn't hot water, and the government didn't actually plan the water system very well. Water does not reach this part of the village, where the Children Home rent. Fortunately enough money was raised so that a nearby plot of land could be purchase to build a larger house in the future, a well was dug on the land and water is pumped from the well down the road to this house. A filter means that you can drink the water although it definitely tastes different to New Zealands!



Hopefully next week I'll head to Chitwan National Park for a couple of nights to see get out of the city and see some of the more rural areas. Not much else to say, oh! we're going to attempt to make a hangi in the back yard... any tips will be greatly received!

Walking through the city centre yesterday during the strike.



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