I've managed to get Google Analytics working on our blog site and so far in the last three weeks we've had visits from eight countries:
New Zealand (46)
Nepal (10) no doubt most of these are us!!!
Russia (2)
UK (1)
Australia (1)
Malaysia (1)
USA (1)
Singapore (1)
Friday, April 30, 2010
Our New House!!!!
We've finally made it into our new house...We've really enjoyed living in the INF guest house and meeting lots of great people but after three months we're well and truely ready for our own little piece of Nepal.
Our flat is on the second story of a three story house. We have three bedrooms a large living area and kitchen. Given that we came to Nepal with 20kg each most of the rooms are pretty empty at the moment we have a shoe room and a room for drying umbrellas. We've rushed around and bought some furniture and kitchen appliances so at least we can laze on the couch after a hard days language lessons. We plan on getting a couple of spare beds at some stage so there will be no excuse for coming to visit us.
Our flat is on the second story of a three story house. We have three bedrooms a large living area and kitchen. Given that we came to Nepal with 20kg each most of the rooms are pretty empty at the moment we have a shoe room and a room for drying umbrellas. We've rushed around and bought some furniture and kitchen appliances so at least we can laze on the couch after a hard days language lessons. We plan on getting a couple of spare beds at some stage so there will be no excuse for coming to visit us.
The living room
Our bedroom
The kitchen
Your bedroom for when you come to stay, we might even get some beds for you...
Our deck with great views of the Annapurnas
Church is all the way over there...
We're on the second floor
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
A few brief happenings....
We're still on our family stay and really enjoying it. Though dahl bhat twice a day is starting to wear thin but its only a couple of days until we can have some bedeshiko khana (foreigners food). The kids are back from Chitwan and still as active as they were when they left. They're back at school this week so fortunately we do get some peace and quiet in the afternoons when we're studying. After that we get to wind them up all evening. Dinesh and Karmala took us along to their house group last night where we met some really lovely Nepalis. Dinesh gave a brief talk and although we didn't understand that much of what was said it was easier to follow than in Church. We are now in a bit of a dilemna as we are finding that we are getting to know more and more Nepalis from Nya Gaun church and we haven't really got to know that many from Ram Ghat church. We are once again praying for guidence as to which church we should be going to as we are starting to feel that maybe God wants us at Nya Gaun.
The digger has been again and more of our road has been dug up. The construction of the road is going to be a slow painful process. Its too hot to wear shoes at the moment so we're living in our Tevas the muddy road means that every evening you need to scrub your feet for a good half hour before crawling into bed.
We're starting to buy a few things for our house, we're now moving in on the 1st of May which is slightly earlier than originally planned. We bought a mattress the other day which got soaked on the top of the taxi on the way home thanks to the untimely arrival of a thunderstorm. Speaking of thunderstorms on Monday night we saw the most impressive thunderstorm that we have ever seen. There was a continuous rummble as the lightening didn't really stop. There were large forks of lightening in all directions. I'll post some footage later.
The digger has been again and more of our road has been dug up. The construction of the road is going to be a slow painful process. Its too hot to wear shoes at the moment so we're living in our Tevas the muddy road means that every evening you need to scrub your feet for a good half hour before crawling into bed.
We're starting to buy a few things for our house, we're now moving in on the 1st of May which is slightly earlier than originally planned. We bought a mattress the other day which got soaked on the top of the taxi on the way home thanks to the untimely arrival of a thunderstorm. Speaking of thunderstorms on Monday night we saw the most impressive thunderstorm that we have ever seen. There was a continuous rummble as the lightening didn't really stop. There were large forks of lightening in all directions. I'll post some footage later.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Living with a Nepali family
On Monday we moved in with a local Nepali family to experience the customs, eat their food their way (using hands), squatty toilets and practise our language.
The family is a mother, father and two of their children 5 and 2 1/2 as well as a early teenaged daughter who is the daughter of the mothers sister. Her father has born 5 girls but really wants a boy (as most families do) and has made life so miserable for the girls they have been sent to live with other families.
The boys have more energy that I could fathom! They are up by six, don't sleep during the day and go to bed about 8.30pm. In the meantime they spend the whole time jumping, running etc. They don't sit still for a story to be read and all games you play with them involve running - in 30+deg!!! The teenage girl does all the cooking and I suspect the washing. The children have all gone to her family for a few days.
The father, Dinesh works in a not for profit group that aims to educate children that are low caste and wouldn't otherwise have education. They have schools all over the country so he is frequently travelling for work. He is also an elder of the local church and very very committed to his faith in Jesus. He is really really lovely and does a lot of cooking (very well I might add) even though this is really against normal customs.
The mother, Kamala is also very very lovely. She has trained as a nurse but can't get a job so is volunteering at the hospital on night shift - 8pm to 9am without a break!! She has applied for a job and has the interviews next week - there are 4 jobs and 1000 applicants for each job!! We are praying that she will get one of the jobs. During the day she works as a didi (home help) for another expat couple to earn some rupees. Yesterday she went to help her brother conduct a funeral and hasn't slept for three days! There is something in the dahl bhaat they eat that gives them a lot of energy that Mark and I feel we are missing out on.
Their hospitality is incredible - they insist we sit on stools while they sit on the floor, I got sternly told off yesterday for doing her washing (handwashed off course) as I wasn't busy and she is!! I have been sick today and so she bought me cornflakes (very expensive) as I need to eat my own countries food when I am sick!!! They have even given up their bedroom for us so the first night we were here there were 5 people sleeping on two single beds!!!
We have had some oppotunities to practise our language and they are incredibly patient with us!! We jsut pray that in some way we can be a blessing to them!
We will post a photo of them later but will wait till later in the week once the kids return.
The family is a mother, father and two of their children 5 and 2 1/2 as well as a early teenaged daughter who is the daughter of the mothers sister. Her father has born 5 girls but really wants a boy (as most families do) and has made life so miserable for the girls they have been sent to live with other families.
The boys have more energy that I could fathom! They are up by six, don't sleep during the day and go to bed about 8.30pm. In the meantime they spend the whole time jumping, running etc. They don't sit still for a story to be read and all games you play with them involve running - in 30+deg!!! The teenage girl does all the cooking and I suspect the washing. The children have all gone to her family for a few days.
The father, Dinesh works in a not for profit group that aims to educate children that are low caste and wouldn't otherwise have education. They have schools all over the country so he is frequently travelling for work. He is also an elder of the local church and very very committed to his faith in Jesus. He is really really lovely and does a lot of cooking (very well I might add) even though this is really against normal customs.
The mother, Kamala is also very very lovely. She has trained as a nurse but can't get a job so is volunteering at the hospital on night shift - 8pm to 9am without a break!! She has applied for a job and has the interviews next week - there are 4 jobs and 1000 applicants for each job!! We are praying that she will get one of the jobs. During the day she works as a didi (home help) for another expat couple to earn some rupees. Yesterday she went to help her brother conduct a funeral and hasn't slept for three days! There is something in the dahl bhaat they eat that gives them a lot of energy that Mark and I feel we are missing out on.
Their hospitality is incredible - they insist we sit on stools while they sit on the floor, I got sternly told off yesterday for doing her washing (handwashed off course) as I wasn't busy and she is!! I have been sick today and so she bought me cornflakes (very expensive) as I need to eat my own countries food when I am sick!!! They have even given up their bedroom for us so the first night we were here there were 5 people sleeping on two single beds!!!
We have had some oppotunities to practise our language and they are incredibly patient with us!! We jsut pray that in some way we can be a blessing to them!
We will post a photo of them later but will wait till later in the week once the kids return.
Random Information
Weather
The info that everyone always asks!!! It is continuing to get hotter and a lot more muggy. It is around 32 during the day dropping to a cool 25 at night!!! The upside is that there has been a lot of snow melt in the mountians and we have been having a few more hours a power a day although this is erratic and officially we are still on 12 hours of load shedding. However, the extra power allows the fan to run which is great!!!
Mark has got giardia again. He has now taken the powerful dose of the drug which has made him feel lousy but the bowels are better. It is very easy to get a far to obsessive attitude to bowel actions in this country!!
House
It's all go - we spent a lot of last weekend looking at prices for furniture and we are moving in three weeks - very excited about that!!
We must be living in the third world - I let Mark cut my hair!!! And it isn't too bad for a first attempt!!
The info that everyone always asks!!! It is continuing to get hotter and a lot more muggy. It is around 32 during the day dropping to a cool 25 at night!!! The upside is that there has been a lot of snow melt in the mountians and we have been having a few more hours a power a day although this is erratic and officially we are still on 12 hours of load shedding. However, the extra power allows the fan to run which is great!!!
Mark has got giardia again. He has now taken the powerful dose of the drug which has made him feel lousy but the bowels are better. It is very easy to get a far to obsessive attitude to bowel actions in this country!!
House
It's all go - we spent a lot of last weekend looking at prices for furniture and we are moving in three weeks - very excited about that!!
We must be living in the third world - I let Mark cut my hair!!! And it isn't too bad for a first attempt!!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Treking (Ghorepani - Ghandruk Circuit)
Three months in Nepal and we have finally managed to sneak away for a weekend of trekking! We spent the four days of the Easter holiday doing the Ghandruk-Ghorepani circuit. This was a very welcome break from our language study. The first day we picked up our guide from lakeside Pokhara and caught a taxi to the start of the trek. We walked for about four hours up to Ulleri which is a nice little town nested on the side of quite a steep hill (see the picture below). Our guide seemed to know all the really nice quest houses and within the Annapurna national park the prices for food and accomodation are all fixed so there is no need to worry about how much it might cost.
The second day saw us walking for about four hours to Ghorepani. We arrived at about lunch time so spent the afternoon exploring the town and wondering on to the next town down the valley. Ghorepani has amazing views of the Annapurna's and the Dhaulagiri mountains. We got up the next morning at 4:45am (or stupid o'clock as we call it) and hiked up Poon Hill (3200m above sea level - just a hill in these parts but it is higher than Mt Ruapehu!!) to watch the sun rise over three of the ten highest mountains in the world (eight of which are in Nepal); Annapurna I, Dhaulagiri I, Manasalu. Even if you tried you couldn't take a bad photo!!
The third day we walked to Ghandruk which is a really nice old Gurung town nestled on the side of a steep hill (similar to Ulleri). The guest house here was very swish. We were thankful for our porter as we never would have found it otherwise. We were wide awake at about 5:30 in the morning so got up to watch the sun rise of the Annapurna's from a different angle. We then climbed down from Ghandruk to the river below and walked out to the trail end. It was very tempting to turn around and head back into the mountains but there is always a next time. Bring on the Annapurna circuit and Annapurna Base Camp!!!
Most of the terrain was steep mountains and there are two ways to get there - up and down stone steps. At one stage the map said that there were 3280 consective stone steps! We were either travelling through barley and rice fields or rhododendren (very tall compared to NZ) and oak forests with the mountains always nearby. There were many waterfalls due to the steep cliffs.
There were many porters and mule trains used to take food, gas and tourists bags to the required location. many of these porters were carrying at least 40-50kg either by a doko (bamboo basket) or with rope, both have a strap that goes around the head - no shoulder and waist bands around here!! The party of porters that we have included in the photo were chatting away while half way up a 1000m step climb!! The fitness of some was incredible.
Fisherman near Nya Pul
Streets in Ulleri
Ulleri
Huge Rhododendren trees
Annapurna I, Annapurna South, HinChuli and Fishtail
Porters (not ours)
A monkey hanging about
Sheep that look like goats but definately sound like sheep
The rather nice guest house we stayed in at Ghandruk
Our porter (Kumar)
Hundreds of people at Poon Hill watching the sun rise over the Annapurnas and Dhaulagiri mountains. Absolutely stunning!!!
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