Every day I wake up in the middle of Nepal and there are things I wish everyone back home knew about this place. It's hard to even experience it all when you come and visit for just a few days.
I absolutely love this place. I feel like I have a purpose. Each day I have something special to do and be. I am here and love that I have a mission, something beyond waking up, eating, cleaning, playing with the kids, eating, cleaning, family time, eating, and sleeping! I get to be part of something bigger and it really fulfills me as the person God has created me to be!
So Nepal--
1. I love the food. We eat dhal bhat at least 6 days a week for lunch. I love it. It is rice, lentil soup, and vegetables. It doesn't get old. It is delicious, and I happily eat it every day and look forward to it. We took a week off and had a "staycation". I told the kids if they helped me around the house so I wouldn't have so much work to do I wouldn't make any dhal bhat for a whole week. They were ecstatic about that and gladly helped every day, but I missed the dhal bhat! It makes me hungry just thinking about it.
2. I love how friendly everyone is. Some people get annoyed by people constantly looking at you and staring. But I personally love striking up conversations with people and talking about the surroundings and getting to practice the language I am learning. People absolutely love it when you take time to talk with them. I love seeing the people smile as they watch us and hear us talk to our children. It is just nice to be around people that enjoy being around you, even if it is just to laugh at the crazy American.
3. I love being close enough to everything to walk everywhere. We are in the midst of a huge gas shortage and most of our friends have no petrol for their vehicles and are forced to walk everywhere or be stranded, but we are used to it. I can walk 5 minutes and buy everything I need for day-to-day needs. I love walking too because it helps me get to know even more people and get a chance to talk with them.
4. I love how everyone loves my husband. My husband is naturally goofy. He says goofy things just to make people laugh. I love how he walks down the road and can easily joke with the taxi drivers about taking us across town for $1 and they agree to it, already knowing that he is joking. It makes me feel safe that the people around us like us and know us.
5. I love how cheap fresh vegetables are here. We can buy a pound of tomatoes for 25 cents, sometimes even less. We can buy pretty much every vegetable that we were used to eating in the States here for a fraction of the price. Potatoes 30 cents a pound, broccoli mid-season 50 cents a pound, onions 30 cents a pound, and the list goes on. We eat roughly 15 pounds of fresh veggies every single week. It makes me feel good to be able to fix healthy things for my family!
6. Rice cookers! How did I ever live without one? During this gas shortage I have been learning new ways to conserve gas as much as possible. I have learned that our rice cooker can be used just like a pot on the stove. I have learned how to cook basically everything in it. Tonight I made shepherd's pie for dinner and I did it all in the rice cooker! It takes a little forethought to make sure you have enough electricity (today our's turns off at 6pm), and you have to plan it out just like cooking on the stove with only one pot, but everything is doable and totally takes off the stress for
when we do run out of gas!
7. I don't like coffee, but my husband wants everyone to know that we have the most amazing coffee in the whole world located here in Nepal.
8. Riding in a vehicle can be crazy at times. In America you only take as many people as you have seats for. Here you stuff as many people in as possible. Especially nowadays with only a few vehicles on the road. We road in a vehicle that normally seats 12. We crammed 19 people in there and adults sitting on each other's laps. And the funny thing is no one here cares much about personal space. If there is an inch of room they gladly scoot over so that other people can ride as well.
9. Here in Nepal a guy can get a haircut and a massage for about $2. My husband loves going to get his haircut and enjoys the back/head massage the barber gives. They even massage your eyelids! Now that is a little weird!
10. I love that even though we are in a 3rd world country, we can still get some good American food here once in a while. We have a good Woodfire Pizza Cafe, a place to get a beef burger, and a KFC that has good soft serve ice cream. It sure does help to have something taste like America every now and then.
This is part of a Baptist Missionary Woman's Blog Hop. Around the world other missionary ladies have also written "10 Things I Wish You Knew About..." Please click here to continue reading!!
